Office of the Provost

Brennen Dicker, a film and video professional with 20 years of experience, has been named executive director of Georgia State University’s Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII). CMII is a cross-college disciplinary institute, affiliated with the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of the Arts.

Dicker’s appointment as executive director of the CMII is part of Georgia State’s efforts to fulfill its strategic plan, aimed at elevating the university’s reputation for excellence and innovation in research, scholarship and creative endeavors. He joins Georgia State as a strategic hire under the Next Generation Program.

The CMII aligns with a strategic goal to highlight the arts and media, and to use the university’s strengths to create opportunities for exploration of the intersections among creativity, technology and entrepreneurship as metro Atlanta’s media industries in film, television, gaming and more form a vital part of the regional economy.

Reports that use of electronic cigarettes is declining may not have accounted for explosive growth in sales of the JUUL device, a novel product that has benefited from social media marketing campaigns to reach young consumers, according to a study led by researchers at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health.

Existing surveys and other techniques designed to monitor use of traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes don’t ask specific questions that might capture the use of JUUL and other newer devices, the researchers said in an article in the journal Tobacco Control.

Results of the study are published in an article titled “Vaping versus JUULing: how the extraordinary growth and marketing of JUUL transformed the U.S. retail e-cigarette market.” Dr. Jidong Huang, associate professor of health management and policy at Georgia State, is the lead author.