Founder & Principal Consultant
A grant professional with roughly a decade across the full grant lifecycle — prospect research, competitive proposal writing, multimillion-dollar budget management, post-award compliance, and closeout. Every service Starling sells, she has delivered firsthand.
Career arc
Grants look different from inside a public agency, inside an enterprise, and across a consulting portfolio. Ayla has done the work from all three.
Public sector · In-house
Managed and monitored annual grant budgets of approximately $15–$20 million as a resource development specialist — owning the full arc from pre-award development through drawdowns, amendments, monitoring, and closeout. This is where compliance stops being theory: every reporting deadline, every allowability question, every audit file.
Enterprise · National scale
Enterprise-level grant strategy work — aligning funding pursuits with program delivery across many client districts and states, and seeing how funders evaluate at scale.
Independent · Consulting
As an independent contract grant writer, supported nonprofit and small-business clients within a consulting practice advancing a portfolio exceeding $31 million in grant funds — plus pre-award consulting to public-safety agencies and local governments as a contracted federal grant expert, and delivery of grants-management training in person and online.
2026 · Starling
Bringing all three vantage points to one practice: the compliance discipline of the public sector, the strategic view of enterprise work, and the responsiveness of independent consulting.
Funded work
Author and contributor on funded federal and state competitive and formula proposals — including a publicly awarded federal Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant for a large public school district.
Full-lifecycle expertise
Funding research and prospect identification, needs assessments, goals and objectives, logic models, evaluation plans, and competitive narrative writing.
Project budget design and budget narratives aligned to funder and OMB Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200) requirements.
Compliance calendars, reporting, budget amendments, subrecipient and services-agreement review, monitoring, and grant closeout.
Pre-award consulting to agencies and local governments as a contracted federal grant expert, and grants-management workshops delivered in person and online.
Education & credentials
Master of Nonprofit Management, Regis University. B.A. in Human Communication, University of Central Florida.
APMP Foundation Certification (Association of Proposal Management Professionals). Grant Professional Certified (GPC) credential in progress.
Active member of the Grant Professionals Association (GPA), practicing under its Code of Ethics — including the commitment to never accept contingency fees.
"The core capability this business depends on is already proven. What comes next is infrastructure and pipeline — not learning the craft."
From the Starling business plan
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