Mark McNiel, MBA
Vice President, Program Operations

Gay Lamey, OT, PMP
Project Manager

Sharon Lux
Project Coordinator

Norma Reyna
Project Analyst

Denise Clyburn, PMP
Project Coordinator

Dan Hunt, MBA, PMP
Project Manager

Debrale Graywolf
Business Operations Analyst

Mark McNiel, MBA – Vice President, Program Operations

Mark McNiel is a founding partner of Edvance Research, Inc. He brings vast program management experience and leadership skills to the company, having led successful initiatives in the energy, technology and education industries, including positions at Fina Oil and Chemical, The Everest Group, Compaq Computer and Harcourt Assessment.  

McNiel has garnered accolades for his expertise in creating project monitoring systems, including relational database structures, query models and innovative report formats, all of which are crucial to effective program management.  He has created numerous project management systems designed to plan, monitor and control the most fundamental and vital aspects of a project, such as time (schedule), cost (budget) and performance (specifications).

McNiel’s solid technical skills, strong problem solving orientation and sound political astuteness have earned him high credibility and an outstanding reputation among internal and external clients.

Starting at Fina Oil and Chemical Company, where he was recruited into a fast-track management training program, McNiel was exposed to multiple aspects of business management, including finance, advertising, market analysis, operations and distribution. He negotiated oil and gas open market trades and managed the conversion of credit card processing from paper to electronic transactions.

At Everest Group, a Dallas-based software venture, McNiel managed consulting projects for high-profile clients such as Texaco, EDS and Shell Oil. Following this success, McNiel became director of marketing and business consulting for Tensor Information Systems, where he grew revenue 60 percent and landed the company on Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing private companies in the United States.

Based on his success at Tensor, McNiel was recruited to join Compaq Computer Corporation, where he held several key positions managing technology sales proposals and winning multi-million dollar contracts for this Fortune 100 company.

McNiel left Compaq to join Harcourt Assessment, where he directed departments responsible for business strategy formulation, tactical planning, contract pricing, proposal development, competitive intelligence and sales force automation.

In his role as Director of REL Program Coordination, McNiel will lead the project management of all laboratory research to ensure that studies are completed in accordance with schedules and within budget. Program Coordination serves as the liaison with all laboratory partners and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). 

McNiel holds a bachelor’s of business administration degree in marketing from Angelo State University at San Angelo, Texas, and an MBA in management from the University of Houston.

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Gay Lamey, OT, PMP - Project Manager

As a project manager, Gay Lamey is responsible for overall project quality and ensures that research projects are completed on schedule and within budget.  Lamey joined Edvance Research from Harcourt Assessment, where she held a number of positions over 10 years, including research director and senior project manager.  At Harcourt, Lamey specialized in the company’s speech-language and occupational therapy assessments and was responsible for developing business plans, acquiring new products, managing projects, and managing research for norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests.  She earned a number of company awards, including two awards for her contributions to company patents.

Prior to joining Harcourt, Lamey was an occupational therapist at HealthSouth in San Antonio, and led the occupational therapist team for hand rehabilitation at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.

Lamey is a licensed occupational therapist, as well as a certified project management professional (PMP).  She is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), and past member of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) and the Texas Occupational Therapy Association, as the American Society for Hand Therapists.  Lamey served on the advisory board for the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and is treasurer of the Alamo Flyers, a national and international champion sports acrobatics team.

Lamey holds a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSC-SA), where she served as president of the Student Occupational Therapy Association and was a representative on the UTHSC-SA Student Council.

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Sharon Lux - Project Coordinator

As a project coordinator, Sharon Lux supports the Program Operations team by creating and maintaining project documentation, such as project schedules, management plans, budgets and status reports for high-profile research and evaluation studies for REL Southwest.  Lux also serves as the team’s liaison for technology development, an activity that is instrumental to the management of all projects.

Prior to joining Edvance Research, Lux was a research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin, where she produced and coordinated data acquisitions and collections for annual projects and maintained customer contact with all 50 state assessment teams.

Lux is working toward certification as a project management professional (PMP) through the Project Management Institute.  As a community volunteer, she encourages special-needs students to participate in the Special Olympics.

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Norma Reyna- Project Analyst

As a project analyst, Norma Reyna assists the project manager by providing support services, including activity scheduling, report formulation and resource coordination.  Reyna has a strong background in project coordination and has created and maintained project documentation, such as project schedules, project management plans and status reports, for high-profile research and evaluation studies for REL Southwest. 

Prior to joining Edvance Research, Reyna was a reporting analyst at Harcourt Assessment, where she worked with relational database systems to create standard and ad-hoc executive-level reports regarding state and district assessment activities throughout the United States.

Reyna holds a bachelor’s degree in organizational development, business, and human resources from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, where she is pursuing a master’s degree in organizational development with a focus on public education.

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Denise Clyburn, PMP - Project Coordinator

Denise Clyburn joins Edvance Research in the role of Project Coordinator. As a Project Coordinator, Clyburn supports the Program Operations team by creating and maintaining project documentation, such as project schedules, management plans, budgets and status reports for Edvance Research clients.

Clyburn has vast experience in analysis and successfully coordinating projects simultaneously.

Prior to joining Edvance Research, Clyburn served in various positions at Harcourt Assessment including Senior Production Associate, Data Supply Chain Analyst and Permissions and Licensing Analyst. Each of these roles required excellent planning and analysis, as well as collaboration with functional teams across the organization. She is known for her collaborative relationships with internal and external teams.

Clyburn holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio.She is a certified project management professional (PMP) and a member of Project Management Institute (PMI).

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Dan Hunt, MBA, PMP - Project Manager

As a Certified Project Manager Professional (PMP), Hunt joins Edvance Research in the role of Project Manager. Hunt will perform project control functions to ensure development of research projects to specifications within budget and schedule. He will assess project risks and develop mitigation plans, as well as facilitate project team communication and brief senior management on project status.

Hunt brings extensive project management experience to Edvance Research, most recently integrating the efforts of physicians, skilled nursing facilities and the insurer in the rollout of a Medicare Advantage health plan. Previously he led a multidisciplinary project team consisting of architect, civil engineer, audiovisual/lighting, voice, data, cabling, fire, and security contractors in the design process of a new facility construction project. Prior to this initiative, Hunt served as a project manager at Harcourt Assessment, managing all phases of the development and production of psychological, speech and language assessments. In addition, Hunt oversaw planning, development, production, administration, auditing, and scoring of custom achievement tests and led multidisciplinary teams in determining development and production schedules to facilitate test administrations within established timelines.

Hunt also brings a broad range of management experience from his service as an Air Force Medical Service Corps officer. He held management positions in Finance, Logistics and Personnel, as well as a Command position, in various Air Force healthcare facilities.

Numerous awards have been bestowed upon Hunt including Air Combat Command Resource Management Director of the Year for 1995; 355th Medical Group Company Grade Officer of the Year for 1993 and 1995; Awarded Letters of Excellence for Academics and Briefing programs, Squadron Officers School, 1994; and USAF Clinic Junior Officer of the Year, McChord AFB, WA, 1988.

Hunt earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Anderson College in Anderson, Indiana and a Master’s of Arts in Health Science and Master’s of Business in Administration from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

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Debrale Graywolf – Business Operations Analyst

Debrale Graywolf joins Edvance Research in the role of Business Operations Analyst and will provide an array of support across the company, including the creation and management of standard and custom reports, as well as business strategy research. She will also provide desktop publishing support for the entire organization.

Graywolf was previously employed by Harcourt Assessment as Senior Proposal Design Coordinator. In this position, she compiled proposal documents employing attractive styles, charts, tables, and exhibits and created graphics to enhance the business message. In addition, Graywolf created and administered SharePoint websites for the management of proposal-related documents, tasks, meetings, and events and monitored site usage, security, and document version control. .

Graywolf holds an Associate of Applied Science degree in Technical Illustration, as well as dual bachelor’s degrees in Marketing and Advertising, from Ferris State University in Michigan. In addition, she has undertaken graduate coursework in Mass Communications from Florida State University.

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