About

Teresa Wilke, MBA, BCPA, CHW

Silver Arrow Strategies leverages over 20 years of professional experience working with government, higher education, healthcare and social service sectors to manage complex, collaborative projects and design programs for collective impact and system reform. We have helped clients secure over $140 Million in grant and contract awards.

Teresa Wilke serves as an active grant reviewer for agencies like the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Office of Rural Health Policy and Bureau of Maternal Child Health. Before launching her consulting career, she worked as a federal employee focused on media relations, communication strategies and event logistics in the Clinton Administration, including service in the White House, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She earned an M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, a post-graduate certificate in Program Monitoring and Evaluation from American University (Washington, DC), and certification as a Community Health Worker (CHW) and Board Certified Patient Advocate (BCPA).

Teresa has contributed to a wide range of public content focused on the healthcare policy landscape, measuring grant seeking capacity and fostering consensus for multi-sector initiatives. See Teresa’s publications and presentations below.

"Teresa has worked with us on a wide variety of federal grants, from providing feedback and technical assistance, to serving as the lead author of a multi-million, five-year research initiative. She is extremely diligent and timely in her work, able to both work in close consultation with staff and stakeholders to gather information on project design, and in working on her own to conduct research and complete sections according to our specifications. Teresa also has exceptional communication skills and is able to keep the deliverables of a project organized and on-time. Our organization is dedicated to improving the health and education of men, women, and children living in one of the poorest regions of the United States, and Silver Arrow Strategies has been an important part of our strategy for success."

– Karen Matthews, PhD, President & CEO, Delta Health Alliance and Elizabeth McCullers, MHA, Director of Sponsored Research, Delta Health Alliance

"I would recommend Teresa for collaborative proposals because she did a good job of keeping track of what each partner needed in order to fully engage in the planning process. She was organized and able to meet tight timelines, which was especially important when most of the partners did not have dedicated grant writing staff to contribute to the overall effort. She was also able to blend varying points of view and approaches on the project design into one cohesive strategy. It was actually quite amazing to see the end product that came from stitching so many pieces of seemingly disconnected information together. She was also very good at providing critical feedback and tactical guidance that kept the group focused on the grant requirements. The end result was a compliant and competitive application that blended the best ideas of the group."

- Serena Muhammad, Director of Strategic Initiatives, St. Louis Mental Health Board

"We couldn’t have been happier. Teresa was efficient, insightful, sensitive to group dynamics, thorough, used good judgement regarding when to autonomously move ahead and when to consult with [our leadership team], pragmatic to meet deadlines, and pleasant / good natured.  She’s been a federal grant reviewer, so brings that insight.  We hope to get to work with her a lot more in the future."

- Sally Haywood, Strategic Projects Manager, Behavioral Health Network of Greater St. Louis

"Teresa brought to bear an impressive breadth and depth of skill sets for our project. She not only helped us secure our organization’s first national foundation grant by preparing a stellar collaborative proposal, she also helped us seamlessly move into the implementation of the complex project. Teresa is fast, thorough and nothing falls through the cracks. She is a masterful writer and verbal communicator, able to put complex concepts in clear and concise language. I am grateful for the experience of working with Teresa on project management. She accelerated the implementation of our project and taught us skills that we will use in the future.  Our organization is better for having worked with Teresa."

- Kendra Copanas, Executive Director, Generate Health St. Louis

"The rural grant opportunity that we engaged Teresa to work with us on was a perfect fit for our agency, service area and clients. We felt confident we could administer a program through this opportunity but hadn’t successfully secured federal funding on that level before. We relied on Teresa’s experience, expertise and guidance to do just that. Working with Teresa was a wonderful learning experience for me. I was impressed with her professionalism and organizational skills. I would recommend any agency seeking to secure funding to engage Silver Arrow Strategies for the job."

- Kendra Eads, Executive Director, Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence

"As a rapidly growing behavioral healthcare organization in the Midwest, Great Circle faced exciting challenges through expanded grant opportunities. Rather than patch our efforts, we launched a critical review of our organizational structure to strategically build staff and processes for success. Teresa was instrumental in creating the supportive and knowledgeable framework for that review, identifying where strategic investments could improve efficiency and communications across teams. She creatively helped synthesize and articulate a cohesive distillation of our organization’s culture, values and priorities as they related to grant seeking. We also valued her technical expertise in financial grant compliance, which helped advise decision-making about negotiating an indirect rate and organizing our post-award staffing. The result? Streamlined grant seeking processes with protocols and policies, improved staff expertise, and increased grant revenue in year one. An investment well worth it!"

- Phillury Platte, Vice President of Advancement, Great Circle   

"As an independent consultant, I valued the information Teresa provided in her recent healthcare grant funding landscape article. It's invaluable to have access to deep analysis by people who are embedded in the grants field - especially as I prepare to meet with individual faculty members who are doing related research across the U.S. I know from years of working with Teresa that her research is meticulous and her insights are sharp. The article reminded me of a presentation Teresa gave to a national audience a couple of years ago at an AASCU Grants Resource Center audience in Washington, DC. She discussed strategies for leveraging existing grants. Among other positive outcomes, her talk had the audience engaged and laughing for a straight 45 minutes. It takes a gift to use the leg lamp from A Christmas Story as an effective metaphor for a major grant award. That's a perfect example of Teresa's ability to make practical and memorable linkages. I hope to have the opportunity to work - and laugh - with her again in the future."

- Megan Queen Cantwell, Strategic Planning and Proposal Development Consultant

"Teresa is a true professional. Her enthusiasm is always a great motivator for people she works with. Teresa is extremely thorough and is someone who works with you to achieve the desired result. She is always thinking outside of the box on problem solving. Teresa is driven by a strong work ethic. She is definitely someone you want on your team."

- Bill Holland, Vice President for University Advancement and Executive Director of Southeast Missouri State University Foundation

Presentations and Publications

“Fundraising for Impact.” Selected to present as federal grant seeking expert on a mentor roundtable focused on braiding public and private funds for education innovation. SXSW Edu. Austin, TX. March 2023.

“Federal Grant Readiness and Competitiveness.” Developed and delivered 6 hours of skill building workshops for 16 organizations attending the Harvard ReDesign Lab’s Summer Institute, co-sponsored by the William Julius Wilson Institute at Harlem Children’s Zone. Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Cambridge, MA. August 2022.

“Resourcing Neighborhood-Based Cradle-to-Career Strategies.” Panel Moderated by Geoffrey Canada (Founder, Harlem Children’s Zone and William Julius Wilson Institute) with Andrea Levere (President Emerita, Prosperity Now) and Jennifer Klein (Chief Development Officer, Harlem Children’s Zone). Power of Place Gathering of Leaders. Washington, DC. July 2022.

“Place-Based Grant Seeking: Strategies, Updates and Upcoming Priorities.” StriveTogether Policy Convening. New Orleans, LA. June 2022.

“Making Maas/MOD Accessible in 2020 and Beyond.” Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Journal. Equity Issue. Co-authored with Valerie Lefler and Shawn Leight. Vol. 90, No. 2. February 2020.

“Transportation and Health: How Providers and Allies Are Addressing Geographic Isolation and Mobility As Social Determinants of Health in Rural America.” Panel Session. AcademyHealth National Health Policy Conference. Washington, DC. February 10-11, 2020.

“SAMHSA [Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration] Grants: Crowdsourcing Strategies for Success.” Grant Professionals Association Annual Conference. Washington, DC. November 2019.

“Partnering with Transportation Sector Actors and Advocates to Improve Health Outcomes.” Chapter in Practical Playbook II: Building Multisector Partnerships That Work. Co-authored with Shawn Leight. Oxford University Press. April 2019.

“Going Upstream: Engaging Transportation Stakeholders to Promote Infant Vitality.” Better Together: Community Collaboration for Infant Vitality. Cape Girardeau, MO. September 2018.

​“How St. Louis Is Mobilizing Hospitals, Public Health Departments and Residents to Promote a More Trauma-Informed Transportation System and Improve the Health of African American Mothers and Babies.” High Scoring Abstract Award. International Conference on Transport & Health. Mackinac Island, MI. June 2018.

​”Riding the Wave: How to Maximize and Multiply Grant Awards.” Missouri Foundation for Health – Healthy Schools Healthy Communities 2017 Convening. St. Louis, MO. October 2017.

​“Tackling Social Determinants of Health: Guiding Program Design and Building Consensus for Federal Funding Proposals.” American Evaluation Association – Evaluation 2016: Evaluation + Design Conference. Atlanta, GA. October 2016.

​“Catalyzing Innovation with External Grant Funding.” [Storyboard] Institute for Healthcare Improvement National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care. Orlando, FL. December 2015.

​“Practical Tool for Implementing AHRQ Assessment of Organizational Needs and Capabilities for Health Services Research Infrastructure.” [Poster] Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) 2015 Research Conference co-sponsored by AcademyHealth. Washington, DC. October 2015.

​“How to Thrive When Grants Are the ‘Square Peg’ of Fundraising Infrastructure: Integrating Grantseeking and Traditional Fundraising.” [Strategy Paper] Grant Professionals Association. August 2015.

​“5 Steps for Harnessing Philanthropic Dollars to Promote Financial Stability.” [Blog] Becker’s Hospital Review. June 2015.

“Measuring Grant Capacity and Readiness.” [Poster] and “Strategies for Career Advancement.” [Panel Session] Society of Research Administrators International Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA. October 2014.

“Federal Appropriations, FQHCs, and a Potential Funding Cliff.” [Blog] Becker’s Hospital Review. October 2014.

“Providing Proposal and Submission Support to Investigators and Teams.” Society of Research Administrators International Midwest / Northeast Meeting. Minneapolis, MN. April 2014.

​”Leveraging Grant Awards.” American Association of State Colleges and Universities External Funding Conference. Washington, DC. August 2010.

Grant Awards

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