Aaron Whitehead

Background

About Aaron Whitehead

I have seven years’ experience in grants management, working primarily with government grants in the social services sector. Key duties include compliance review, communication of grant requirements and deadlines with stakeholders, planning and budgeting based upon current funding gaps, serving as the key point of contact with funders, as well as other responsibilities. In my current position, I have had to improvise and establish new SOPs in response to heavy turnover among staff, in particular Finance Department staff. This included adopting duties and creating tracking documents that were not previously in the realm of my job requirements. I took the initiative to fill these gaps, which otherwise simply would have been ignored. While I do have grant writing experience, it is not one of the primary responsibilities of my current position. I have written successful grant applications in the past, going back to research grant awards in graduate school. One of my key hobbies, and the primary area of my undergraduate training, is acting for the theatre. While it does not play a direct role in my day-to-day work, there is a significant skills overlap. I am quite comfortable making presentations, leading trainings, and speaking in public. My experience with improvisation has helped me in my professional life far more than I ever could have expected. And theatre instills upon all who participate in it the necessity of true collaboration. While I am not a trained or certified accountant, I have a great facility for math and computation. One example occurred when our team had to find out how to incorporate an indirect cost rate into an established budget. I was able to use algebra to solve the problem. I have led training for new staff members on a number of occasions. After college, I spent some time tutoring many subjects at the community college level, and that greatly enhanced my ability to introduce individuals to new concepts. In addition, my passion for social justice greatly informs my work. It is essential to me to stay involved with the outside world and do what I can to bring about positive change. I previously served on the Social Justice Committee at the YWCA.