Grant completed a Master of Arts in Biological Anthropology at the State University of New York at Buffalo concentrating on molecular anthropology and comparative anatomy. He completed his dissertation on "The origin of Great Lakes Algonquian and Iroquoian Populations: use of mitochondrial DNA to define Middle Woodland Populations" with graduate advisors Joyce Sirianni, Andrew Merriwether, and Ted Steegmann for which he did his laboratory analysis at the University of Binghamton, New York. He has additional training in laboratory methods in Molecular Biology at University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and laboratory techniques in Ancient Mitochondrial DNA at Lakehead University.