Aly Sanchez
Director of Strategy & Organizational Learning
Aly Sanchez, Director of Strategy and Organizational Development for The Grant Plant, has more than two decades of grant writing experience including planning, proposal preparation, and reporting for complex private, state, and federal awards. In addition to direct grant development, she specializes in proposal strategy, project design, and staff and organizational development for The Grant Plant. Aly also leads the company’s capacity-building services, in which she develops learning materials, workshops, and trainings. Aly has completed UNM Evaluation Lab’s Evaluation Summer Institute and is trained and experienced in Results Based Accountability (RBA). Aly holds a BA in Psychology and an MBA focused on executive leadership.
Tonia Brown-Kinzel
Grant Compliance Manager
Tonia Brown-Kinzel, GPC, is the Grant Compliance Manager for The Grant Plant, Inc. She is one of 70 people nationwide who is a Grant Professionals Association (GPA) “Approved Trainer” and has extensive public speaking and training experience which spans more than 30 years. She serves on the national GPA Professional Education Committee, is the Board President of the GPA Ohio-Miami Valley Chapter, is a member of the Ohio Chapter of the NGMA, and has repeatedly been selected to present multiple grant-related training sessions at several conferences over the past few years. She has been employed as a grant seeker, grants manager, and a grant maker, as well as having served as a grant reviewer for both Federal and private sector grants – so she has a unique combination of experiences that yield special insights that have earned more than $20 million in funding for nonprofit organizations, Tribal nations, and municipal agencies over the course of her career. She has twice earned the Grant Professional Certified (GPC) certification, was selected as a “40 Under 40” leader by the Greater Fort Wayne Business Journal, and is an alumna of Leadership Fort Wayne.
Monique Schmidt
Resource Development Officer
Monique Schmidt, Master's of Fine Arts in poetry, is a Resource Development Officer at The Grant Plant. With a passion for language and an ear for stories, Monique has worked in the nonprofit world and the field of education throughout her career. She has led many creative writing classes and workshops over the past twenty years. Besides traditional classroom poetry writing classes, she has led poetry writing workshops for inmates in correctional facilities, motivational poetry writing to groups of runners before they hit the marathon course, writing sessions focused on pop culture and rhyme for blossoming teenage hip hop artists, and writing sessions focused on healing for survivors of trauma. Monique has published one book, Last Moon Dancing, and has much gratitude for the joy writing brings into her life.