I recently sat down with my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Danielle Williams, to glean some of her wisdom about grant projects.

Dr. Williams is an Assistant Professor and Endowed Professor at Grambling State University in addition to the Vice President of the Lincoln Parish School Board.

She is passionate about education and a leader in our community. I continue to learn from her.

Welcome to our conversation.

Can you give me a brief history of your work, especially related to grant projects?

My work has been surrounded in education. I'm very passionate about leveling a playing field for all students, so that's why a lot of my work has been focused on education. 

Ok great. What do you like about working on grant projects? 

It's very rewarding to work on grant projects because it's not just trying to kick the can down the road. It's living in that present moment and then looking at your goals and seeing where you’re trying to head and doing something about it. You tell your story, and grants make it reality.

What is the smallest grant you've been awarded, and can you tell me about it? 

So the smallest grant I've been awarded was $5,000 from the Louisiana education system. Around the time of COVID, I was given the opportunity to lead a team of university faculty in professional development during a summer institute. I've been blessed in different situations I've been in, like working as an adjunct professor at a Texas university globally recognized in online learning. So I was able to use those experiences online to help Louisiana instructors deal with COVID and transition to online teaching. I was selected to lead the team and integrate more technology.

What is the largest grant you've been awarded, and can you tell me about it? 

The largest grant I've been awarded was $25 million through the Texas Education Agency. It was a very innovative “school system within the school system” that we created. And what I really loved about it is we were able to create bylaws. It's like you're building a brand new utopia school of everything that you wanted. And the focus was not on the child that comes to you from the two-parent home and has all the resources. Everything was focused on that student that might be sitting in the back of the classroom who has exceptionalities or disabilities. And you take their situation and you build a school that makes them successful. And so you give them all the different resources. You individualize instruction. 

I mean, it was a great opportunity. And so I think that's what really drives my work. Every time I write a grant in education, I always think about not that child that's coming to us with all the different resources, that child that the society has built, and they're successful. I always look at that student coming in without the parental involvement. They might be a couple of grade levels behind. They might not have a foundation as far as reading and traveling and different things like that. I always think about that student that's in the room. And so that's what a lot of my work is always focused on. 

What has been your favorite grant project, and why? 

So that was probably my favorite grant project. I got the autonomy to be creative. And that's the part that sometimes bothers me in education because now everything has moved to a lot of scripted things. I live, breathe, and think education. Like I'm always looking at stuff globally. I'm always looking at national trends, even state trends. And I always try to make sure that my work is surrounded around making sure our students are globally prepared. Not just national, not just state, but they can go into another country and they'll be at the forefront. And so that education project in Texas probably was my favorite project because it inspired me to really push.

It sounds like you had not only creativity for yourself, but being able to pass that on to the students and give them the freedom to really thrive and be creative themselves. 

Exactly. My parents have this saying that they always talk about as a family. You're just not on earth about yourself. It's not always about you. It's about how you can help the next person and serve. But it's also, what is your legacy that you always want to leave. There will come a day where you leave this earth. You want to leave it better than what was given to you. And so I always think about that - what was given to me, and how can I make this situation better for the next generation? And open up doors for them. Because I've been in situations where people have opened up doors for me, and when I have conversations with them, I always say, I can never repay you. And they're like, how you repay me is that you open up doors for the next person. And so we continue to do that in life. I mean, the world will be a better place. And that's what I always think about. 

What a great attitude and grounding.

Ok so next question, how have you changed as a PI? What is the biggest thing you've learned?

One thing I can say about how I've changed is my mind has shifted, continuing to be very creative in projects, but also I want to get more into the grant managing side of it, like the administration side of it. Because normally what happens is I can bring the funding in, be very creative with some things because I always look at statistics and things going on around the country and knowing the goal. But the management part, that's one of the parts that I really want a dive deep in and just really trying to perfect that part of it. 

And when I say management, like the administration, paperwork, budgets. I always have someone that's helping and they handle that. And because I'm a big picture thinker, I kind of like that. But that's one of the things that I need to work on, one of my opportunities. I think that if you can, be holistically well rounded; and that's why I try to be well rounded in education.

What is your advice for up-and-coming PIs? 

I would say don't try to reinvent the wheel. Use your resources around you, and lean on experts in the field. Networking is really big. I'm grateful for you because that's what you're really big on - scheduling meetings with the right people. We know our mission, our vision, but still seeing how we fit. And I think that's the big thing, being okay with surrounding yourself with people smarter than you. I see a lot of challenges where people are struggling because they get intimidated when someone is smarter than them. You can bring something to the table in your own unique way, but be okay with having people that have strengths in other areas and feeding off of that.

That's so good. Anything else you want to share about? 

I'm just blessed and grateful to work on a team. Every individual has different strengths and all of us bring just very unique talents. One of our team members made a statement - If you feel uncomfortable with something or you have a chip on your shoulder about something, be okay to talk about it and don't hold it in. And that's what I have loved about working on this team is that all of us are very transparent. We live our own lives, and we do our own things. But when we come together, we're very transparent. We're very vulnerable with each other. And I love it. 

It's a safe space for me. It's hard sometimes when you work in environments where people don't have your best interests. My dad tells me all the time, in order for you to grow, you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And so he always tells me if you're comfortable, you're not growing. And I always think about that. And that's when I see I'm growing in different areas because I feel uncomfortable. But then I know that I'm going to get where I want to.

Yeah, I love it. Thank you for sharing all of this today. 

Thank you for this opportunity.