Leanne VanDerveer
Director - Strategy, Grants And Compliance
Midlothian
Summary
Leanne VanDerveer is a strategic and relentless public servant with proven proficiency at leading teams and managing grants across a large program portfolio. A consummate people-person, VanDerveer enjoys building trust and fostering long-term relationships with stakeholders. With an interest in innovative planning strategies to maximize equitable training, education and outreach for grant programs, she believes contributions to enhancing local capacity building, while simultaneously utilizing and maximizing grant funding streams, will increase resiliency and sustainability in the Commonwealth.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
7
7
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Director - Strategy, Grants and Compliance
Anser Advisory, Part of Accenture
03.2023 - Current
- Cultivates a positive work environment that fosters employee engagement across the entire Strategy, Grants and Compliance (SGC) team, increasing retention rates and improving overall team morale.
- Manages grant program budgets effectively to ensure optimal use of resources while maintaining financial stability across the SGC team.
- Implements innovative solutions to solve complex grant program management problems, resulting in increased productivity and streamlined grant core team operations.
- Boosts overall compliance by developing comprehensive grant management policies and procedures aligned with industry best practices.
- Collaborates with IT team members to ensure seamless integration of new grant management system components for improved functionality and end-user satisfaction.
- Enhances regulatory adherence by conducting thorough internal audits and risk assessments, trainings and coaching sessions with team leads across the SGC team.
- Contributes to the development of a risk management framework, enabling the organization to better identify, assess, and mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
- Stays abreast of changing federal and state grant management regulations, ensuring team members are informed and understand impacts of regulatory changes.
Recovery Grants Manager (Financial Svcs Mgr I)
Virginia Department Of Emergency Management
11.2016 - 3 2022
- Directed a team of full-time employees and contractors, across 6 Presidentially Declared Major Disasters including pass-through grant funding over $700M in grant funding for more than 300 grant sub-recipients including private-nonprofits, local governments, state agencies, and other eligible applicants under the Public Assistance (PA) grant program.
- Let State grant applications for smaller events that did not qualify for federal assistance programs. Recommended code updates for existing grant application requirements to account for inflation, changes in best practices and allow flexibility in grant funding.
- Worked with public, private, internal and external stakeholders to understand needs and provide excellent customer service, training and guidance, directing each through applicable funding opportunities to bolster whole community recovery.
- Managed promotional initiatives, including conducting outreach to potential grant applicants in public and private sectors to enhance press coverage and boost potential grant recipient knowledge and submission of applications. Managed budgets for staff operations to keep costs low and maximize profits.
- Wrote funding requests and grant applications to obtain additional funds for operating needs.
- Established goals and procedures for solicitation, funds management and disbursement.
- Anticipated and resolved problems, improved operations and provided exceptional service while recommending process improvements to agency leadership by maintaining transparency and regular feedback reporting.
- Maintained and updated budgets for multi-year spend plans, collaborating with Finance and Accounting departments.
Principal Planner
Delaware Emergency Management Agency
03.2022 - 03.2023
- Led inclusive whole community recovery and mitigation to benefit all Delawareans to reduce resounding impact of disasters and increase resiliency through grant application and management.
- Supervised a team of planners and grants analysts for federal pass-through grant funding for more than $500M across multiple programs.
- Cultivated professional relationships with local, state, federal and NGO entities, providing subject matter expertise and training on grants, life-cycle of grant programs, application requirements, regulations and constraints on eligibility, and pre-award to post-awards policy changes applicable to each disaster.
- Established and improved upon Delaware Resilience Fund for unmet needs post-disaster, which can benefit communities and individuals that to do meet eligibility for federal grant programs for recovery. This program was meant to bridge financial and recovery gaps that can potentially assist voluntary organizations and individuals needing repairs to their homes, rental assistance or replacement of personal belongings and cleaning supplies.
- Led audit preparations, taught grants teams how to respond to audit requests and cultivated a low-risk, high-visibility team to coordinate documentation retention and organization wide best practices.
- Reviewed and submitted quarterly and annual reports in a timely fashion. Passed along knowledge to teams on how to reduce time required to prepare reports on an ongoing yearly cycle.
Student Life Supervisor - Upper School
Randolph-Macon Academy
09.2013 - 06.2016
- Managed and delivered on-campus boarding school Residence Life Curriculum that included: 1) Promoting ownership of residence life environment among cadets, staff and community 2) Improving communications that will, in turn, improve social skills, academic performance and self-governance 3) Ensuring residence life environment was extension of classroom and home.
- Worked with students, helping them develop communication skills and maturity needed to become successful, self-governed young men and women.
- In addition to fostering good-natured competitions and caring, involved atmosphere, I worked with academic faculty to ensure that homework was always being completed and students were prepared for their weekly assignments, included tests.
- Served as conduit between cadets and school, ensuring concerns of parents were understood, and proper and effective communication was constant.
- Implemented safety protocols to minimize workplace accidents and maintain compliance with industry standards.
- Enhanced communication within the team by holding regular meetings and encouraging open dialogue among all members.
- Mentored junior staff members in their career development, sharing knowledge from years of experience in the field.
- Demonstrated commitment to the organization''s core values, leading by example and fostering a culture of excellence.
Education
Master of Arts - Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA 05.2012 - 12.2014
Bachelor of Arts - Political Science
Christopher Newport University
Newport News, VA 08.2006 - 12.2010
Skills
Grants Management 2CFR200
Strategic Planning
Personnel Management
Budget Development
Compliance Management
Policy analysis
Research, Reporting & Analytics
Policy Development
Community Engagement
Training & Public Speaking
EMAC Deployments
- Hawaii, Public Assistance Specialist in support of Recovery from Kilauea's Volcanic Eruption in the Lower-East Rift Zone (4 weeks, June 2018)
- Alaska, Voluntary Agency Liaison (VAL) in support of the Mass Care Section following a Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake (2 weeks, December 2018)
- Florida, SEOC Situation Unit, Planning Section support following Hurricane Ian's Category 4 landfall (2 weeks, October 2022)
Notable Certifications and Training
Emergency Management Institute (EMI) Certifications 2012-Present*
- 0305: Basic Incident Management Team (IMT) Certification
- L962: All-Hazards Position Specific Planning Section Chief
- T-t-T Certification: FEMA Basic Academy
- Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) Certified
- National Emergency Management Basic Academy Certificate
- EMI Professional Development Series (PDS) Certificate
- Radiological Emergency Preparedness (REP) Core Concepts & REP Planning Concepts
- ICS-100.b: Introduction to Incident Command System
- ICS-200.b: ICS for Single Resources & Initial Action
- ICS-300: Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents
- ICS-400: Advanced ICS for Command and General Staff
- IS-240.a: Leadership and Influence
- IS-242.a: Effective Communication
- IS-548: Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program Manager
- IS-700.a: National Incident Management System (NIMS) An Introduction
- IS-800: National Response Framework
- IS-821.a: Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources Support Annex
- IS-860: Introduction to the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP)
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Certifications 2019-Present
- Performance Management Group - Fundamentals for Supervisors (FFS) Program Certificate 2019 - Richmond, VA
- Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute (GEHLI) Women's Higher Ground Program Certificate 2020 - Richmond, VA
Honors
Virginia Department of Emergency Management:
- 2021, Individual Award: Extraordinary Contributor - Annual Performance Evaluation
- 2020, Individual Award: Special Project - Legal Review and Team Contribution of Hurricane Florence Shelter Arbitration, CBCA 6848-FEMA
- 2020, Individual Award: Extraordinary Contributor - Annual Performance Evaluation
- 2017, Region 7 Team Award: Outstanding Team - Emergency Activations Award
- 2017, Region 7 Team Award: Virginia Emergency Support Team (VEST) Support Activation Award - 58th Presidential Inauguration
Affiliations
- International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM): Member, 2022 to Present
- Virginia Emergency Management Association (VEMA) Member, 2017 to 2022
- National Emergency Management Association (NEMA): Member, 2018 to 2022, IA/PA Subcommittee Member 2018 to 2020
- Junior League of Richmond, Member 2018 to 2022
Timeline
Director - Strategy, Grants and Compliance
Anser Advisory, Part of Accenture
03.2023 - Current
Principal Planner
Delaware Emergency Management Agency
03.2022 - 03.2023
Recovery Grants Manager (Financial Svcs Mgr I)
Virginia Department Of Emergency Management
11.2016 - 3 2022
Student Life Supervisor - Upper School
Randolph-Macon Academy
09.2013 - 06.2016
Master of Arts - Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness
Virginia Commonwealth University
05.2012 - 12.2014
Bachelor of Arts - Political Science
Christopher Newport University
08.2006 - 12.2010
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