Alex Kolker
Grants Specialist

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Fundraising Planning & Implementation

• Grant Writing

Alex comes to Wastyn & Associates with more than 15 years of grant writing, research, and management experience.

Many of you Quad Citizens may know Alex from his previous role at United Way where he spent nearly a decade managing their grant process, seeking grants for community priorities, implementing community-wide initiatives to improve third grade reading and school attendance, and creating a shared data hub for local schools. Other duties at United Way included fostering interagency partnerships, writing and reporting on grants, designing and automating United Way’s grant application, and overseeing the entire grant review and awards process. He also represented United Way as a “Loaned Expert” on the Steering Committee for the Q2030 community improvement project.

Prior to that, he wrote grants for Big Brothers Big Sisters and taught English at a number of colleges, locally and around the Midwest.

For several years, Alex worked as a consultant for the National Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, helping several communities – most notably Cedar Rapids and Ames, Iowa – launch data projects of their own. He also facilitated the launch of third grade reading initiatives in Galesburg, Elgin, and Quincy, Illinois.

Alex earned a BA in Writing and an MA in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in English with a specialization in Composition Theory from the University of Kansas. He has taught at colleges in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois, specializing in freshman composition courses, and teaching courses in literature, creative writing, grant writing, speech, logic, and film studies.

In his spare time, Alex studies meditation, writes non-fiction, and designs word puzzles for the National Puzzlers League, serving as one of the editors for the League’s monthly magazine, The Engima, for the past decade. Alex’s dedicates the rest of his time to his family: his wife Amy, his daughter Mase, and his son Michael.