William Kay is a Managing Director of Grants and Federal Affairs in the Higher Education Practice at McAllister & Quinn. In this role, Will plans and manages the delivery of grantseeking services to a portfolio of college and university clients. Services range from project development through proposal production, focusing on acquiring funding from private and public sources for institutional priorities and faculty-initiated research. Will works collaboratively with clients to identify and prioritize institutional needs, align priorities with external funding opportunities, develop opportunity appropriate project or program plans, and facilitate the grant writing process to ensure competitive submissions.
Will possesses broad knowledge of the higher education sector and is well acquainted with the grant seeking enterprise, inclusive of the institutional planning, sponsored research administration and advancement operations. Prior to joining McAllister & Quinn, Will served as the Proposal Manager and Writer for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SUNY Stony Brook University (2017-2020), Content Director at Hanover Research (2014-2016) and Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations at Ithaca College (2006-2012). In these roles, he honed the strategic planning, project development and management, and grant seeking expertise and has been responsible for efforts resulting in more than $50M in grant awards. Significant wins include US Department of Education Title 3 and Title 5, NSF EPSCOR, CAREER and MRI awards totaling more than $30M. Additionally, building on extensive work with faculty and grant administrators, Will has developed and delivered a successful program for building faculty grant seeking capacity.
Prior to entering the higher education sector, Will held positions as a social science researcher, and has extensive experience employing qualitative and quantitative research methods to evaluate and assess the impacts of Federal policies and funding program.
Membership Affiliations
- National Organization of Research Development Professionals
- National Council of University Research Administrators
Publications and Presentations
- Liminal Space in Enterprise Systems Implementation, Journal of Information Technology, 2012