BEST Practices of Grant Writing

Guest Speaker
Earnest Clayton, MPH, MHE, CHES, CCRA, an Epidemiologist and Senior Clinical Research Grant Director at Baylor College of Medicine

Date
Thursday, June 11th, 2026

Who
15+ Faculty members and administration across various colleges attended the lecture with insights on developing competitive grant proposals, identifying funding opportunities, and navigating pre- and post-award processes.

Special Recognition
Thank you to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Administration for providing lunch.

About Earnest Clayton, MPH, MHE, CHES, CCRA, is an Epidemiologist and Senior Clinical Research Grant Director at Baylor College of Medicine with more than 20 years of experience in public health, research administration, grants management, program leadership, and workforce development. In his current role, he supports investigators with proposal development, pre-award and post-award grant administration, budget preparation, compliance, and sponsored project management across a diverse portfolio of federally and privately funded research programs.

Clayton holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology, a Master of Public Health, and a Master ofHealth Education. He is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Candidate (ABD) at The University ofTexas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, where his research focuses onmental health among Black and African American men.

Throughout his career, Clayton has led and supported public health initiatives, epidemiologic investigations, research studies, and grant-funded programs in academic, healthcare, government, and community settings. He has managed and supported grants funded by agencies including the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. His professional interests include grant development, research administration, epidemiology, health equity, program evaluation, and community engagement. He is passionate about helping organizations identify funding opportunities, develop competitive proposals, and build sustainable programs that create meaningful impact in the communities they serve.

Highlights from Earnest

The Center for Resiliency in collaboration with Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Administration organized the Grant Writing workshop with Earnest Clayton.

Earnest Clayton explained the Best Practices of Grant Writing to faculty and research staff at Lamar University. Clayton provided criteria to follow when writing funding proposals when applying to federal, state, private, and local research funding. Detailed guidelines on grant submissions, budget planning, and what to avoid when submitting grants were covered to an interdisciplinary team from health, education, business, engineering, and arts and sciences faculty.

"Oil and Energy Markets in the current global landscape, from Venezuela to Iran, and their impact on the SETX region”

Guest Speaker
Jesse Thompson
Federal Reserve of Dallas

Date
Thursday, April 16th, 2026

Who
90+ graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, and administration across various colleges attended the lecture 

 Jesse Thompson - Dallasfed.org 

About Jesse Thompson is a senior business economist at the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Thompson, who joined the Bank in 2010, performs research and analysis on issues affecting the Houston and Gulf Coast economy, particularly the issues surrounding area hydrocarbon industries. Thompson collects information for the Dallas Fed's Beige Book summary of current economic conditions. Thompson is the author of the monthly Energy Indicators and Houston Economic Indicators, and he contributes to the publication of Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Southwest Economy.

"Collecting High-Quality Human Insights in an AI-Powered World"

Guest Speaker
Steven Snell, PhD 
Princeton University
President of Market Research Council, and EVP/Head of Research at Rep Data

Date
Thursday, March 5th, 2026

Who
90+ graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, and administration across various colleges attended the lecture 

LINKEDIN

About Steven Snell, PhD (Princeton University) is Head of Research at Rep Data, focused on research strategy, data quality, and combating online survey fraud. He previously led the Survey Research Center of Excellence at Goldman Sachs and consultancies at Qualtrics and Duke University, advising hundreds of B2B and B2C, academic, nonprofit, and government clients. Steve is president of the Market Research Council, a longtime member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, and represents Rep Data on the advisory board of the University of Georgia Master’s in Marketing Research (MMR) program. 

Highlights from Steven

Want to know what real human think? Don't ask a machine. While the current AI craze heavily promotes synthetic audiences, these tools falter when tracking how real human preferences evolve in response to real-world events. Survey research remains a cornerstone of many industries—giving voice to customers, citizens, and stakeholders. However, survey science is a deceptively complex discipline, and surveys are threatened by respondent inattention, poor questionnaire design, and clumsy interviews. The researcher's ultimate goal is to mitigate these threats and reduce respondent burden by mastering the golden rule of collecting high-quality feedback: "Write the survey you would want to take." When surveys are easy to answer, the resulting data are more valid, and the researcher can be more confident in their accuracy. Furthermore, high-quality data leads to better products, smarter policies, and better services. Valid data also serves as more reliable information to feed developing AI solutions.