Brett Aronson
Alexandria
Summary
With 9 years of experience in the non-profit sector and 1.5 years in for-profit contracting, I have successfully managed and administered US government-funded international economic growth programs. This includes overseeing contracts and cooperative agreements. Additionally, I have spent 8.5 years effectively managing and coordinating various types of grants, such as in-kind, fixed amount award, cost reimbursable, simplified, and standard grants. Throughout my career, I have ensured strict adherence to FAR, AIDAR, and Standard Provisions. My expertise lies in identifying and accelerating grant program operational challenges and collaborating with teams to troubleshoot, design, and implement long-term solutions. This has resulted in financial integrity and program success. Furthermore, I have utilized the Microsoft Office suite for 11 years to efficiently handle program administration, data management, and budgeting tasks.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Program Manager
DT Global
07.2023 - Current
- Manage $83 million portfolio of USAID-funded programs including grants, procurement, finance/budgeting, human resources (HR), communications, donor-relations, and reporting to ensure financial integrity, accountability, and alignment with project, donor, and company mission/objectives
- Took over HQ/corporate management of Somalia economic growth program mid-stream; program had myriad management challenges prior to my start; I managed the headquarters team spearheading program overhaul including accelerating grant programming, replacing ineffective senior leadership in-country, and identifying and addressing operational gaps to streamline workflows
- Coordinate grant lifecycle, advising on negotiations, drafting grant award special conditions, and coordinating grant post-award implementation (including reports and modifications) to ensure grants align with program objectives and adhere to donor and company grant rules and regulations
- Co-drafted and fast-tracked 12 economic growth grant approval request packages, including technical descriptions, budgets, selection justifications, and grant agreements with special provisions; all grants were approved for funding totaling $1.4 million
- Lead grant program budget tracking, ensuring adherence to donor grant budget, mitigating over-spending
- Train 10 Somali operations staff on USG-funded grant, procurement, and HR administration and best practices, ensuring compliance with rules and regulations, enhanced program efficiency, and audit-readiness
- Oversee program document filing, including grant files, to ensure they are complete and audit ready
- Review financial reports for donor, ensuring allowability, allocability, and reasonableness of costs
- Co-led overhaul of program operations, policies, and procedures; as a result, U.S
- Government audit found zero disallowed costs and no grant program-specific observations or findings
- Co-designed and rolled out decision-making tool to identify acquisition (procurement) vs
- Assistance (grant) workstreams to ensure alignment with US government regulations
- Oversee (sub)-contractor/vendor performance (over $16 million); regularly review technical performance, spending patterns/burn rate, and contractual adherence to ensure accountability and effective implementation
- Utilize DT Global’s in-house/tailored project management software (DT Global Online, using Microsoft platform) for managing cooperative agreement, including (sub-)grants, within scope and timeline
Senior Program Officer
CNFA
01.2023 - 07.2023
- Managed program start-up and close-out operations for USG-funded $45 million program portfolio in Africa, including grants, procurement, finance, and reporting, ensuring effective and compliant programming
- Contributed to writing and editing of grants manual to ensure user-friendly and compliant grant processes
- Trained 3 HQ/corporate staff on procurement, HR, and budgeting to ensure robust support for operations
- Reviewed monthly field financial reports for allowability, reasonableness, and allocability of costs for accurate and transparent reporting to US government (donor)
- Liaised with (sub)-contractors/vendors to manage their financial and administrative performances, ensuring adherence to awards and effective implementation of scopes of work with minimal risk to CNFA
Senior Field Program Officer/Senior Field Operations Officer
CNFA
01.2021 - 12.2022
- Coordinated a variety of program operations, compliance, and management functions for $75 million USAID-funded Amalima Loko program, detailed below
- Led procurement lifecycle for $10+ million construction activity fund, drafting solicitations, managing proposals, evaluation process, drafting contracts, negotiations, post-award modifications, filing, and deliverables to ensure compliance and audit-readiness and contractor/construction crew safety
- Co-led procurement of goods and services (~$5 million + in office furniture, supplies insurance, vehicles, event services, security, etc.) to ensure staff comfort and safety and efficient project implementation
- Reviewed, established, and updated operations procedures to streamline workflows and ensure compliance with USAID and CNFA rules and regulations
- Trained 10+ procurement, HR, and finance staff on USG (donor) and company regulations, processes, memo writing, procurement evaluation best practices, and file management to ensure compliance and improve operational efficiency
Program Officer
CNFA
07.2018 - 12.2020
- Joined HQ/corporate management team to overhaul USG-funded economic development program in Egypt; collaborated to accelerate grant programming and improve the performance measurement system; program improved and achieved majority of objectives; I assumed leadership towards end (see above experience)
- Led HQ support to accelerate grants; co-drafted 12 approval request packages for donor approval, including technical descriptions, budgets, and selection justifications – 11/12 grants approved (over $1 million)
- Trained 3 Egyptian grant staff on grant writing and compliance best practices
- Led design and drafting of all grant data collection/analytics plan, including workflows and measurement indicators, to ensure program could effectively monitor and measure grant performance
- Led grant program budget tracking, ensuring adherence to donor grant budget, mitigating over-spending
- Supported design/roll-out of tailored performance measurement cloud-based database (using Knack platform) to more efficiently monitor and measure performance for informed, near real-time decision-making
- Reviewed monthly field financial reports for allowability, reasonableness, and allocability of costs for accurate and transparent reporting to US government (donor)
- Oversaw (sub)-contractor/vendor performance (over $2 million); reviewed technical inputs, spending patterns/burn rate, and contractual adherence to ensure accountability and effective implementation
Chief of Party
CNFA
09.2020 - 11.2020
- Oversaw 20+ staff/consultants; led grants, technical, HR, procurement, finance, communications, donor and Egyptian government relations, and reporting to ensure a compliant and efficient close-out process; closed project with successful audit (less than 1k in disallowed costs); all grants closed; all vendors paid; all data collected, and final reports submitted on time; final spending just under budget
Senior Project Coordinator
ACDI/VOCA
05.2014 - 07.2018
- Managed and backstopped portfolio of over $100 million in USAID, USDA, and World Bank overseas development programs to ensure effective implementation and compliance with donor regulations
- Contributed to HQ/corporate management efforts to overhaul operations, including grants, for struggling project in Kenya; USAID lauded turnaround and awarded $50 million in new funding for a follow-on award
- Coordinated livestock entrepreneur grant process including coaching on grant proposal writing and processing HQ and donor grant approval request packages for 10 Kenya program grants ($1.5 million)
- Trained 5 staff on procurement and grant policies and procedures to ensure compliance with donor rules and regulations and efficient project implementation in accordance with work plans
- Reviewed monthly field financial reports for allowability, reasonableness, and allocability of costs, ensuring accurate and compliant spending of donor funds
- Managed (sub)-contractor/vendor financial and administrative performance to ensure compliance and effective implementation of scopes of work
Education
M.A. - Sustainable International Development
Heller School of Social Policy and Management -Brandeis University
Waltham, MA05.2013
B.A. - History; concentration in European History (with Honors)
University of California-Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA12.2005
B.A. - History of Art and Visual Culture
University of California-Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA12.2005
Skills
- Scope management
- Problem-solving skills
- Strategic planning
- Project leadership
- Complex Problem-solving
- Training and mentoring
- Strong analytical skills
- Risk management
- Personnel management
- Relationship management
- Project cost management
- Best practices implementation
- Implementation planning
- Client interfacing
- Progress monitoring
- Policy writing
- Staff leadership
- Policy interpretation
- Analytical skills
- Cross-functional team leadership
- Team leadership
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Process improvement
- Decision-making
- Employee coaching and mentoring
- Work Planning and Prioritization
- Project planning
- Budget management
- Onboarding and orientation
- Hiring and training
Certificates Skills Trainings
- Manager Foundations (DT Global internal), 10/01/24
- Grants Management – Principles and Practice (CNFA internal), 01/01/19
Professional Summary
9, 11, Managing and administering US government-funded international economic growth programs, Full lifecycle management of various grant types, Identifying and solving operational challenges, Proficient in Microsoft Office suite
Languages
English
Native or Bilingual
French
Limited Working
Timeline
Senior Program Manager
DT Global
07.2023 - Current
Senior Program Officer
CNFA
01.2023 - 07.2023
Senior Field Program Officer/Senior Field Operations Officer
CNFA
01.2021 - 12.2022
Chief of Party
CNFA
09.2020 - 11.2020
Program Officer
CNFA
07.2018 - 12.2020
Senior Project Coordinator
ACDI/VOCA
05.2014 - 07.2018
B.A. - History; concentration in European History (with Honors)
University of California-Santa Cruz
B.A. - History of Art and Visual Culture
University of California-Santa Cruz
M.A. - Sustainable International Development
Heller School of Social Policy and Management -Brandeis University
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