Our Mission:

GAKCI is a collaborative partnership to develop grant writing resources and opportunities to generate additional funds for Knox County.

Our Goals:

♦ To create and maintain a resource where grant writers in Knox County can collaborate and share information

♦ To teach grant writers and aspiring grant writers to use the resource

♦ To develop more grant writers for Knox County

GAKCI Membership benefits include mentoring opportunities for new grant writers, collaboration opportunities between local organizations, grant writing trainings and peer reviews for proposals. GAKCI members also have 24/7 access to all GAKCI information resources online.

Started by the United Way of Knox County and a 4 Communities Grant, GAKCI offers comprehensive and timely information as well as education to help Knox County residents write winning funding proposals.

Board Leaders

President

Lisa Handziak

Lisa Handziak has been working in grant writing for nine years. She is currently a member of the WorkOne Southwest Skills Team. In this role, she helps people improve their occupational skills to move up in the workplace. Lisa is also a member of the Knox County Partnership, the workforce development arm of the Knox County Development Corporation.

Outside of work, Lisa writes and manages grants to improve the community through the Intersect Church, where her husband Eliot is the Pastor and she is the Children’s Director. These grants include money for renovations of their old building, the New Moon Theater on Main Street in Vincennes, and funding for their church’s At the Cross Together Serving, ACTS, projects. The ACTS projects include a "Dress Your Kids for Free" day that gives over $20,000 of new clothing to over 150 children. The Intersect Church also raised over $1,000 for Shop with a Cop.

Lisa grew up in Evansville and came to Vincennes with her husband to found the Vincennes Intersect Church congregation.

Vice President

Jennifer Holscher

Jennifer Holscher is the Vincennes YMCA Membership Director and has written successful grants for their programs. She is one of GAKCI’s founding members and currently serves on its Steering Committee. She also serves on the boards of Knox County Parks and Leadership Knox County, and she is a member of Civitan, Vincennes/Knox Preservation Foundation and the SIS Women’s TRYathlon Steering Committee.

Jennifer graduated from Purdue with a M.S. in Electrical Engineering, and then worked in Los Angeles, California for ten years. She has now moved home to Knox County and lives in Edwardsport.

Treasurer

Donna Clinkenbeard

Donna Clinkenbeard serves as Special Assistant to the Vincennes University Foundation President, the Grant Coordinator and Alumni Community Series Coordinator for Vincennes University, a founding member of GAKCI and a current member of its Steering Committee. She is also a member of the Vincennes University Campus Ministries Board and the Freelandville Community Home Board.

In her professional work, Donna’s successful grant proposals include a 1998 Lily Endowment College Preparatory Grant ($1 million), twelve Grants to Southwest Indiana Arts Council, eight Knox County Community Foundation Grants and a Duke Energy Mining Scholarship.

Donna also served as Director of VU Alumni Programs for eight years, as Assistant Director of VU Student Activities for 16 years, and as Coordinator of the VU Career Center and Disability Services for two years. She holds two degrees in Education, from Vincennes University and Indiana State University.

Secretary

Kimela Meeks

Kimela Meeks is a data analyst in Institutional Research at Vincennes University. In addition to her role as GAKCI Secretary, Kimela serves on the GAKCI Education Committee. She is the Finance Campaign Chair for the League of Women Voters of Knox County, a member of the Knox County Junior Achievement Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board member for Busseron Township.

Kimela graduated from Vincennes University and Indiana Wesleyan University with degrees in Business Administration. She resides in northern Knox County.

Board Members

Elizabeth Cutter-McNeece

Elizabeth Cutter-McNeece is very active within the Vincennes community and works to secure grant funding for the historical preservation of Knox county areas. She is currently Chair of the Vincennes Fresh Air Flicks Movie Series, a member of the Knox County League of Women Voters, on the committee for the Antiquarian Society and the marketing committee for the Knox County Convention & Visitor’s Bureau.

Elizabeth owned and operated a business in downtown Vincennes for 11 years. She was President of the Vincennes Central Business District for eight years. And she helped to attain the downtown music system and wireless internet for the first Vincennes Mardi Gras. Elizabeth holds a degree in culinary arts from Vincennes University. She lives in Vincennes with her husband Marc McNeece.

Cindy Helton

Cindy Helton is Co-President of the Knox County League of Women Voters, Chair of the Advisory Board for Bettye J. McCormick Senior Center, a board member of the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation, the Co-Coordinator of Kids Read / Kids Write with the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), the Recording Secretary for the board of United Way Knox County and a committee member for 4 Community. Cindy is also a church council member and Chair of the Education Ministry Team at First United Methodist Church, and she volunteers for various activities at Vincennes University.

Cindy retired in 2004 from a 30-year career in education as a teacher and guidance counselor. She completed her career as the Noblesville High School Director of Counseling and Guidance. She has a BS in Secondary Education, a MS in Counseling and Guidance and a Certificate of School Administration, Indiana University. Cindy now resides in Vincennes.

Judith Kratzner

Judith Kratzner is Director of the Literacy Program at Knox County Public Library. She is currently the Voter Service Chair for the Knox County League of Women Voters, as well as a former State Voter Service Chair and past Local LWV President.

Judith's grant writing experience includes her work as manager of a Corporation for National and Community Service grant to fund a Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) seven years. As President of the Historic West Eighth Street Association, she obtained grants for brochures, entertainment and a video production from the Indiana Humanities Council. She also secured funds for Saint John's Health System to operate an adult day service for fifteen years from Area Six Agency on Aging.

Judith has a Masters of Science in Administration, University of Notre Dame, a Masters of Education, Ball State University and Grantsmanship Center certification. She moved to Vincennes from Anderson Indiana, where she was most recently the Director of RSVP. She is retired from Saint John's Health System where she held numerous department management positions. She is a past president of the LifeStream Services Board (Area Six Agency on Aging) and past Area Agency on Aging State Association Executive Director.

Sarah Neal-Estes

Sarah Neal-Estes is the Coordinator for the Grant Association of Knox County Indiana, Inc, Newsletter Director for the League of Women Voters Knox County and a Knox County Literacy Council Volunteer Tutor.

Sarah taught journalism at Indiana University, assisted teaching at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was a public radio reporter in Fairbanks, Alaska and freelanced for National Public Radio. Sarah holds both a Masters Degree in Journalism and a Bachelors of Arts in English from the University of California Berkeley.

Sarah was born and raised in Indiana and lives in Vincennes with her husband Brent Estes, where she is much closer to her parents than she was in Fairbanks, AK.

Andrew Shepard-Smith

Andrew Shepard-Smith has written successful grants to numerous federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. A short list of recently funded grants include the Rural Public Television Digital Transition Grant Program ($596,000), Higher Education Disaster Relief Grant ($237,315), Mine Health and Safety Grants ($1,185,600), Gibson County Industry Emulation Initiative ($381,000), Simulation Training Initiative for Surface and Underground Miners ($358,692), the Indiana Drug, Gang, and Violence Law Enforcement Enhancement Initiative ($203,063), and Project Lead the Way initiatives ($344,822).

Andrew Shepard-Smith directs the Grants Office at Vincennes University, where he is responsible for writing strategic institutional proposals and managing/coordinating pre-award grant activities. He concentrates his efforts on federal grant opportunities, including compliance issues, budget development and proposal writing.

In addition to grant writing, Andrew is also a widely recognized classical guitarist, early music scholar, and published author. He holds degrees in both music education and music performance from Vincennes University, the University of Evansville, and the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music. He has taught at the college level for ten years prior to joining VU, and continues to publish and concertize throughout the community.

A native of Knox County and alumnus of Vincennes University, Andrew resides in Vincennes with his wife, Vanessa, and daughter, Emily.