Who We Are

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EXPERIENCE MATTERS

Grant Writing Mentors is a diverse and dynamic team of professionals with 200+ years experience as research scientists, academics, successful grantees, reviewers, scientific review officers, program officers, federal policy makers, science writers, and teachers. As a team, GWM offers numerous expert perspectives when working with institutions to develop effective, coordinated strategies that maximize their strengths and capitalize on diverse opportunities. In addition, GWM works with researchers of all career stages, from pre-doctoral students to early career investigators who need detailed information about funding and support, to mid-career and senior investigators who need to stay current on recent changes in research and grant regulations and policies. The experience and expertise of our mentors is a defining feature of GWM and allows us to assist institutions and researchers in developing the necessary strategies and skills to maintain a competitive edge and achieve their research/career objectives.

  • Grantsmanship

  • Career Mentoring

  • Institutional Strategic Planning

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Sherry Mills, M.D., MPH

Physician; Medical Epidemiologist; Served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Deputy Director for Extramural Research, NIH and Director, Office of Extramural Programs, NIH; Responsible for the subject matter review of more than $80 million annually in grants and contracts; Vast experience developing and implementing NIH policies; Served multiple programmatic leadership roles at NIH; Published numerous articles and book chapters; Frequent invited speaker at conferences/symposia. Recipient of numerous awards for outstanding government service.

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Dr. Sherry Mills received her undergraduate degree in human biology from Brown University. She matriculated at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and completed a Preventive Medicine Residency and a Master's degree in Public Health in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health. She completed post graduate training as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There at the Office on Smoking and Health, she began her career as a medical epidemiologist. In 1991, Dr. Mills joined the National Cancer Institute in the now Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences where she held several extramural program leadership roles. In 2000, Dr. Mills left federal service and joined Abt Associates, a Cambridge-based consulting firm, as the Managing Vice President for Public Health Applications and Research. In 2005, Dr. Mills rejoined the NIH in the Office of Extramural Research (OER) as the senior advisor to the Deputy Director of OER.   In 2009 she was named Director, Office of Extramural Programs (OEP) in OER. Dr. Mills also served as the acting director, Division of Loan Prepayment, OER. Dr. Mills has been recognized with many awards both within government and the private sector for her outstanding contributions to public health interventions, public health policy, mentorship and outreach.

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Ann Hardy, Dr.P.H.

Senior health science policy analyst; Captain, US Public Health Service (Retired); Extensive experience in federal clinical research, grants policy development and implementation, research ethics and human subjects compliance; Served as Scientific Review Officer, NIH (Center for Scientific Review); NIH Extramural Human Research Protections Officer and Coordinator (2008-2017); Coordinator, NIH Certificates of Confidentiality; Published numerous peer review articles, book chapters, editorials, and government publications; Recipient of numerous awards for outstanding government service.

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Dr. Ann Hardy received her M.S. degree in microbiology and her Dr.P.H. degree in infectious disease epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh.  She has over 30 years of experience as a federal public health scientist, health science administrator, research policy analyst and expert in human subjects protections.  She has served in leadership positions at the Centers for Disease Control, the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  She started at NIH in 2001 as a Scientific Review Officer in the Center for Scientific Review and then joined the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) as the NIH Extramural Human Research Protections Officer.  In OER, she developed policies and procedures to ensure the regulatory compliance of NIH funded human subjects research and provided related training and resources to NIH staff and the extramural scientific community.  Dr. Hardy also served as the Coordinator of the NIH Certificates of Confidentiality (CoC) program where she established the first NIH-wide electronic application system and helped implement the 2017 NIH policy to automatically issue CoCs for NIH awardees. She is a Certified IRB Professional and is currently serving as a member of the IRB at George Washington University.   She and GWM member, Dr. Sherry Mills have teamed with d’Vinci Interactive in producing the popular interactive, web-based training on human subjects protection, Protecting Human Research Participants (PHRP) Online Training.

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Nancy L Desmond, Ph.D.

Research scientist; Effective mentor to individuals across career stages; Successful grantee (NIH, NSF); Reviewer of grants and journal articles; Served as Associate Director for Research Training and CareerDevelopment and as Chief, Neuroendocrinology and Neuroimmunology Program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH); Recipient of multiple awards for outstanding service to the NIH and the NIMH.

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Dr. Nancy Desmond obtained her PhD in physiological psychology from the University of California, Riverside, and did postdoctoral training in neuroscience at the University of Virginia. Before joining the NIH in 2003, she was an associate professor of neurosurgery and a member of the neuroscience graduate program at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She was the principal investigator on grants from NIMH/NIH and NSF that focused on understanding synaptic modification in the hippocampus.  At the NIMH, Dr. Desmond directed the Office of Research Training and Career Development in the Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science, co-coordinated research training for the NIMH, and was chief of the neuroendocrinology and neuroimmunology program. As an NIMH Program Officer, she fostered the training and career development of new investigators and worked effectively with independent investigator to encourage innovative research grant applications with potential to advance the Institute’s priorities in neuroendocrinology and neuroimmunology. She contributed to multiple NIH-wide efforts on research training and career development, including co-chairing the NIH Training Advisory Committee and participating in NIH Roadmap, NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research and NIH BRAIN training initiatives. Nancy also served as the acting NIH research training officer (2013-2014), where she led the re-issuance of parent NIH training and career development funding announcements and contributed to implementing recommendations from the Biomedical Research Workforce Working Group to the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director. She received awards recognizing outstanding contributions to the NIH Neuroscience Blueprint and the NIH BRAIN Initiative as well as awards recognizing exceptional mentoring from the NIMH Director and the NIH Director. 

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Mary Kay Zuravleff, M.A.

Writer; Editor; Teacher; Author; Published three novels and dozens of short stories and essays; Taught graduate writing courses at Johns Hopkins, George Mason, and American University; Edited a wide range of grant applications, books, journals, and articles plus scores of Smithsonian Institution exhibitions and publications; Received numerous awards, including from the American Association of Arts and Letters and the DC Commission on the Arts.

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Mary Kay Zuravleff is a writing and editing expert at Grant Writing Mentors. Her super power is transforming specialized, jargon-ridden drafts into clear, vivid prose. She has degrees in literature and mathematics, and has written for a wide range of literary, fine art, general interest, technical, and science publications. Known as an enthusiastic editor and coach who gives honest and constructive feedback, she teaches in groups ranging from one to hundreds of students. 

Mary Kay has published three novels, including Man Alive! and The Bowl Is Already Broken. She arrived in DC to be the first Writer in Residence at St. Albans School, on the National Cathedral Grounds. After that fellowship, she wrote for the American Association of Art Museums and then for the Smithsonian Institution; she served as senior editor at the Freer and Sackler Galleries for a decade and was also at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. She was writing and publishing fiction, essays, and reviews during that time as well. In addition to her books, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, American Short Fiction, The LA Review of Books, and Humanities Magazine, along with numerous anthologies

Currently on the faculty at New Directions, at the Washington and Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Mary Kay has taught creative writing and magazine writing at Johns Hopkins, George Mason, and American University. She has lectured, presented, or read at conferences, festivals, and universities nationwide, and she lives in DC. Her professional website is: http://mkzuravleff.com/

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David Armstrong, Ph.D.

Professor; Successful grantee (NIH, private foundations); Frequent review service for grants and journals; Published numerous peer review articles, book chapters, abstracts; Frequent invited lecturer related to peer review and navigating the NIH grant process; Served as Chief of Review, NIH (Center for Scientific Review and National Institute of Mental Health).  Recipient of numerous awards for outstanding government service. Currently, President of Grant Writing Mentors, LLC and co-director of a graduate course in Grant Writing, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. 

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Dr. David Armstrong received his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University following studies at the Ohio State University and Cornell Medical College. Dr. Armstrong was a post-doctoral fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and was thereafter appointed Assistant Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and University of California, San Diego; Associate Professor, Georgetown University Medical College; Professor and Associate Director of the Institute of Aging at the MCP-Hahnemann School of Medicine; and Professor and Deputy Director of the Lankenau Institute of Medical Research, Jefferson Health System. Dr. Armstrong was the principal investigator on multiple grants from the NIH and private foundations to study neuronal vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease and stroke.  He has authored or coauthored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and has served on numerous NIH review panels and maintained positions on the editorial boards of many journals. In 2001 Dr. Armstrong joined the Center for Scientific Review, NIH as Chief of Brain Disorders and Clinical Neurosciences, Integrated Review Group and in 2005 accepted the position as Chief of the Scientific Review Branch, National Institutes of Mental Health, NIH. For his dedication to the NIH and public service, Dr. Armstrong has received numerous NIMH and NIH Director’s Awards. 

Christine Livingston, PhD

Research scientist, academician, scientific administrator; recipient of research grant awards (NIH and private foundations).  Dr. Livingston has presented her research at national and international conferences, and published in prominent peer-reviewed journals.  She has presented NIH application and review processes, policy and procedures at national scientific meetings and to professional organizations. She is the recipient of multiple NIH and Institute Director’s Awards for exceptional work, including the expedited review of COVID-related grant applications.  

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Dr. Livingston received her BA degree in Biology from the University of Missouri, St. Louis, and her doctoral degree in the Neurosciences from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston.  She completed postdoctoral training in the Departments of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington, Seattle, and Physiology at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg.  She returned to UTMB in 1993, serving on the faculties of the School of Allied Health, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and School of Medicine.  During this time she conducted an NIH-supported research program; served as lecturer, lab instructor and course director; and served on multiple academic committees.  Dr. Livingston’s neuroscience background is in ocular-motor control and the special senses (visual, vestibular, auditory and chemosensory).  She joined the NIH in 2003 as a Scientific Review Officer within the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review (2003-2006) and subsequently at the National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders, (2006-2015).  She has administered chartered study sections and special emphasis panels, reviewing applications for multiple types of investigator-initiated (R), mentored (K), and training awards (T), cooperative agreements (U), center grants (P) and contracts.  She has administered reviews of basic, translational and clinical sciences, clinical trials and special initiatives to support faculty appointment and development.  Dr. Livingston has served on trans-NIH committees, and in administrative and programmatic roles in the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) and the Human Tissue Chip Program.  She has presented at national meetings, providing outreach for NIH policies and initiatives, in particular for trainees and new investigators.  

Tim Wendel

Writer; Editor; Teacher; Published 14 books, including novels, memoir and narrative nonfiction; A writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches graduate-level courses in fiction, nonfiction and science-medical writing; His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, Psychology Today, Huffington Post, USA Today, American Scholar, AARP Magazine, Washingtonian, GQ and Esquire; Visiting writer to the University of Michigan, George Mason University and the University of Texas; Writing awards include Notable Book by State of Michigan, CASEY finalist and Latino History Award. 

Pat Trimmer, PhD

Research scientist: Successful grantee (NIH, nonprofit disease-focused agencies, state funds, industry contracts): NIH R01 and SBIR grant review committee member: K-12 brain awareness coordinator and educator: lecturer on the topic of Image and Data Integrity.

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Dr. Pat Trimmer received her PhD in anatomy from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. After postdoctoral training in pharmacology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, she moved to the neurosurgery department at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. She was funded by an R01/NIH as an assistant professor in the department of neuroscience. the University of Virginia.  As an associate professor at the University of Virginia department of neurology, she was program project principal investigator and core lab director for a Udall Parkinson’s Center of Excellence. In 2010 her lab moved to Virginia Commonwealth University where she was a member of the anatomy and neurobiology department and the Parkison’s and Movement Disorders Center. She has been awarded funding from NINDS/NIH, private foundations, a state for Virginia award fund and from industry contracts. She mentored high school, undergraduate, graduate, international and medical students at UVA and VCU. She directed the University of Virginia’s Brain Awareness Program on behalf of the Neuroscience Graduate Program and trained graduate students, postdoc, faculty, and staff volunteers to engage public and private K-12 schools in brain awareness education. She was also a member of the Public Education and Communication Committee of the Society for Neuroscience. She was a committee member of the Neural Oxidative Metabolism, Mitochondria and Cell Death (NOMD) NIH study section (2013-2019), as well as member and chair for ETTN (13) NIH Small Business study section: Neuroscience assays, diagnostics, instrumentation, and interventions. She has also served as a reviewer/awards committee member for the Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases Research Award Foundation, a state of Virginia award fund. At Virginia Commonwealth University she lectured on Image and Data Integrity in the Scientific Writing and Grantsmanship course designed for graduate and medical students.