Three College of Education staff members graduate from MSU’s DAWG program

Contact: Bethany Shipp

Three staff members in Mississippi State’s College of Education have graduated from the 2023-2024 DAWG professional development program.

The graduates include Kyle Baggerly, grant and contract specialist, Dean’s Office; Tina Clark, business coordinator, National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision; and Theresa Hall-Brown, business manager I, Department of Counseling, Higher Education Leadership, Educational Psychology, and Foundations.

The Departmental Administrators Working Group (DAWG) program is offered to MSU staff who work with research grants and contracts. Those selected to participate learn the fundamentals of sponsored projects such as reading a Request for Proposals to grant closeouts.

“Having worked under a grant in the past, I thought I was knowledgeable of the grant process at MSU, however I had so much more to learn,” said Hall-Brown. “The DAWG program has increased by knowledge tenfold from the grant proposal to closeout.”

Classes are taught by high-level MSU staff members, with course topics including proposal preparation, budgeting and regulations.

“The DAWG program did a great job of bringing in directors and high-level staff members to present to our group. These individuals shared great information on sponsor specific requirements, best practices in handling restricted funding, and how administrators in our positions can best support our faculty,” said Baggerly.

Clark highly recommends the DAWG program to anyone working on sponsored projects.

“Through participating in this program, I gained a better understanding of the proposal process and the roles and responsibilities of various departments,” said Clark.

MSU's College of Education is home to five academic departments, a division of education, one research unit and numerous service units. Learn more at www.educ.msstate.edu.