Strategic Plan

Last April, the University Senate approved our new strategic plan, Blueprint to 2033: Our Place, Our Time. Following approval by the University System of Georgia and with our plan in place, it’s time to turn our vision into reality.

In August, President Blake announced the formation of task forces that will be accountable for the execution of the strategic plan’s pillars. We’ve included further information about the task forces below.

The university will hold activities in mid-September to officially launch the plan; further details from President Blake will be sent to your email soon.

Additionally, we have begun the search for an Assistant Provost for Strategic Initiatives, who will be responsible for the coordination of the strategic plan. More information is available here at the Provost’s Office Academic Leadership Searches page.

One of our key pillars, Beyond College to Careers, calls for Georgia State to work with external partners to meet the needs of their organizations, and a new partnership with Gwinnett County Public Schools in our master’s degree program in STEM education is a shining example of what we want to achieve. You can learn more below.

University Leadership Appointments & Searches

The leadership search processes continue for the positions of Associate Provost for International Initiatives, and the deans of Perimeter College and the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.

It is anticipated that finalists for positions will be announced by mid-semester. As is customary, we will hold on-campus presentations from finalists – announcements will be sent to you via email as the dates approach.

As mentioned in the section above, a search for an Assistant Provost for Strategic Initiatives is also underway. Additionally, we are undertaking a national search for a permanent director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Online Education (CETLOE), and more information is available in the Academic Affairs section below.

If you missed the news from the spring, we also have leaders stepping up to the plate in the College of the Arts as Dean Wade Weast pursues an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship this academic year. Chester Phillips will serve as interim dean for 2023-24, and we’ve included details about him and other new leaders within COTA in the newsletter content below. I thank them all for their willingness to take on the challenge.

Incoming Student Body and Summertime Student Success

Georgia State hangs its hat on student success, and as I mentioned earlier in my note to you, this summer, we held the “Real Talk from a Professor” conversation series at more than 50 different sessions of New Student Orientation.

High school is not like college, and incoming first-year students heard directly from faculty about what it takes to succeed in their first semester – I participated in the series myself in front of an incoming group of students in the humanities. Thank you to all of the faculty who participated! By speaking to first-year students before they step foot in our classroom about the expectations we have, we’ve already given them a head start.

This summer, we also hosted the next generation of our country’s student leaders and innovators – high schoolers from the Veritas School (more details are below), and also served as the venue for middle and high school students from around the country for the Disruptivator Summit of the Usher’s New Look Foundation (we’ve also posted further information and a highlight reel below).

COACHE

As we undertake our second round of the COACHE (Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education) faculty satisfaction improvement process, a delegation from Georgia State visited the Harvard Graduate School of Education this month to receive our results, and we will be updating the COACHE at Georgia State website soon at provost.gsu.edu/coache.

We will also hold town halls this fall to review the results and answer your questions.

Watch your inbox in the coming weeks for details about the updated website, as well as dates, times, event registration, and livestream information.

Economic and Research Impact

Georgia State’s impact is vast – from every single student and their current academic path, their future careers, and to the greater good of our region, state and nation.

That’s not just hype – they’re facts. And that impact keeps growing.

The University System of Georgia found that our university has a nearly $3 billion economic impact in the metro Atlanta area. The study also found that bachelor’s degree holders from the class of 2022 will earn over $1 million more during their lifetimes than they would have without their college degree.

And we continue to set research funding records – $223.76 million in grants during fiscal year 2023, setting a record for a third year in a row.

We’ve included the details below. And as always, make sure to check out highlights from our vast research enterprise through some of the featured articles in the Research section of this newsletter.

International Impact

Georgia State’s international impact and reach is also wide, proven by news from throughout the summer, which we’ve shared below.

Highlights include:

• This summer, a delegation of faculty from the College of Law went to the 7^th global edition of the Slavery Past, Present and Future conference in Accra, Ghana. Dean LaVonda Reed, Associate Dean Courtney Anderson, and Professors Julian Hill, Corneill Stephens and Tanya Washington participated, and I was delighted to hear praise from other institutions about their exceptional contributions. Other institutions were fortunate to have one faculty member alone accepted for the conference – Georgia State Law definitely led at a global level, and I am incredibly proud.
• We have renewed a collaboration with a university in Mongolia to address a global shortage of medical professionals through our pre-med concentration in biology and chemistry, and we also collaborated with the State Department to host educators from Uzbekistan through our Department of Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language (ESL). I thank the Office of International Initiatives for their work in these areas, in addition to collaborators with the departments of Biology, Chemistry and Applied Linguistics/ESL.

Aligning Identity, Placemaking and Belonging: Belonging@GSU

In the first paragraph of our new strategic plan, within the pillar of identity, placemaking, and belonging, we assert that GSU is, and will be, a university for all.

To that end, we have created Belonging@GSU to align our web presence with this essential pillar of our strategic vision. You will find it at https://belonging.gsu.edu, and we have aligned the former diversity, equity, and inclusion section of this newsletter with this pillar. You’ll find highlighted Belonging@GSU news further below.

This is where you will continue to learn more about ongoing activities such as the university’s Signature Heritage Months that honor and celebrate the different cultures and communities that comprise our university.

You’ll also learn more about other activities that advance our efforts to build a place where regardless of background, everyone belongs.

Introducing Emeriti Spotlight

Many faculty reaching emeritus status at GSU continue their involvement with the university after reaching this milestone in their careers, especially members of our Emeriti Association.

To that end, I wish to recognize them, and I am pleased to introduce a new standing section for the Provost’s Newsletter, highlighting members of Georgia State’s emeriti faculty.

There, you’ll learn more about individual emeriti, their passions, and what keeps them engaged with the university. I am grateful for their support, wisdom, engagement and enthusiasm. In this month’s edition, you’ll read more about Bill Feldhaus, Professor Emeritus of of Risk Management and Insurance, who has helped to lead emeriti in providing dean’s discretionary funds that have supported students in academic activities that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to participate in.

Strategic Plan Update: Task Forces and Upcoming Events this September

Georgia State faculty, staff and student representatives have been at work this summer moving forward with the university strategic plan’s path to implementation.

President M. Brian Blake provided an update to the university community this August in a campus-wide email. A synopsis follows:

At a Strategic Plan Implementation Summit in May, representatives from university senate, administration, and the student, faculty and staff bodies gathered to set priorities and articulate actions to move the
university’s great work forward.

With input from the university community, strategic plan implementation teams have been formed, tied to each pillar of the plan. As a reminder, the pillars are:

• Identity, Placemaking & Belonging
• Innovating Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity
• Student Success 2.0
• Beyond College to Career

The teams consist of a cabinet-level convener, and team members of faculty, staff and students. Each pillar annually will designate certain team members to serve as champions to operate like an “executive committee” of their pillar. A cross-cutting team was also formed, focusing on areas that span across all of the pillars.

Cynthia Villaverde, vice president for Financial Planning and Operations, will work alongside a new Assistant Provost for Strategic Initiatives to assist the task force conveners, champions and members with strategic planning and project management processes.

Learn more about team conveners and find links where you can learn more about each task force team:

CROSS-CUTTING
• CONVENERS: Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs; Jared Abramson, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
• https://strategic.gsu.edu/task-forces/#cross

IDENTITY, PLACEMAKING AND BELONGING
• CONVENER: Michael Sanseviro, Vice President for Student Engagement
• https://strategic.gsu.edu/task-forces/#ipb

INNOVATING RESEARCH, SCHOLARSHIP AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY
• CONVENER: Tim Denning, Vice President for Research and Economic Development
• https://strategic.gsu.edu/task-forces/#irsca

STUDENT SUCCESS 2.0
• CONVENER: Allison Calhoun-Brown, Senior Vice President, Student Success
• https://strategic.gsu.edu/task-forces/#success

BEYOND COLLEGE TO CAREER
• CONVENER: Lisa Armistead, Dean, Graduate School
• https://strategic.gsu.edu/task-forces/#career

The university plans to have in person events about the Strategic Plan Sept. 19-20; details are forthcoming from President Blake as the dates approach.

– Summary: Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

Georgia State’s Economic Impact Grows to $2.92 Billion

Georgia State University contributed $2.92 billion to the metro Atlanta economy in fiscal year 2022, according to a new study prepared for the University System of Georgia.

The university’s economic impact was an increase over fiscal 2021’s $2.83 billion. The 26 colleges and universities in the University System of Georgia overall contributed $20.1 billion to the state economy in fiscal 2022, an increase of 4.14 percent over the year before.

A separate study examined the earning potential of college graduates, noting that bachelor’s degree holders from the class of 2022 will earn over $1 million more during their lifetimes than they would have without their college degree.

The studies were prepared for the University System of Georgia by Jeffrey M. Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth in the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. The impact study calculates total initial spending by colleges and universities in the system — on expenses such as wages, operations and spending by students — as well as total economic output, which includes the re-spending generated in the surrounding community by the initial spending.

Georgia State’s $1.87 billion in initial spending in fiscal 2022 led to the output impact of $2.92 billion, according to the study.

“Georgia State continues to play a vital role not just in preparing students for the careers of tomorrow, but as part of the economic fabric of Atlanta,” Georgia State President M. Brian Blake said. “Our workforce spending, our operating expenditures, our research expenditures, and the money our students spend on campus and off help make the regional economy more vibrant and robust. And with the skills and talents our students leave with, their impact will be felt for decades to come.”

The University System of Georgia overall totaled $14.2 billion in initial spending in fiscal 2022, with an output impact of $20.1 billion. The study also shows the roughly 50,000 on-campus jobs in the system resulted in more than 108,000 off-campus jobs that exist due to institution-related spending.

“USG’s 26 public colleges and universities, individually and collectively, make a significant economic impact across the state, helping to put Georgians to work while spending money in local communities and helping their regional economies support Georgia’s growth,” USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. “At the same time, our graduates are the real winners with this million-dollar deal. We’re focused on continuing to help all our students be successful as they use their degrees to prepare themselves for their future prosperity.”

• Read the study here (PDF).
• Read the lifetime earnings report here (PDF).
• Read the USG press release here.

– Andrea Jones, Vice President, Public Relations & Marketing Communications

Placemaking: Georgia State Gets $22.3 Million for New Electric Panther Express Buses

Georgia State University will receive nearly $22.3 million in federal funding to take its Panther Express bus fleet fully electric.

The $22.29 million announced this June is part of a $1.7 billion package of grants awarded to governments and transit agencies across the country for 1,700 new low- and zero-emission buses. The funding, heading to 46 states and territories, comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

Georgia State, one of 130 grant recipients announced this June, will purchase 18 new electric buses and the equipment to charge them, making it the first university in the Southeast and one of the first in the country to operate a fully electric fleet.

“This grant will allow us to transition to an all-electric bus fleet, reducing emissions, protecting the environment and enhancing the health of our students, faculty and staff,” Georgia State President M. Brian Blake said. “It is another way we are prioritizing sustainability here at Georgia State as well as emphasizing a sense of placemaking for our community.”

Panther Express provides last-mile service around Georgia State’s downtown Atlanta Campus, with stops in the Fairlie-Poplar Historic District, the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, the university’s residential corridor and Historic Summerhill, near Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium. Daily routes operate from 7 a.m. to midnight weekdays during the summer.

– Andrea Jones, Vice President, Public Relations and Marketing Communications

Georgia State University Research Funding Sets Record for Third Year in a Row

For the third year in a row Georgia State University’s research community has outperformed previous years with a record-setting $224.72 million in grants earned in fiscal year 2023. The university has now topped $125 million in grants each year for five years running.

A total of 1,351 projects were funded over the course of the year, and 20 investigators earned awards of $1 million or more. Of those 20, more than half of are women.

Multiple colleges within the university also set records for total awards, including the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies with $53.2 million, the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing & Health Professions with $2.5 million, the College of Education & Human Development with $29.8 million, the Institute for Biomedical Sciences with $23 million, Perimeter College with $6.4 million, and the J Mack Robinson College of Business with $3.6 million. The College of Arts and Sciences had its second highest year of grants within the past decade with $39.4 million, as did the School of Public Health with $17.8 million.

This year’s grant-funded projects will explore such topics as cardiac disease in diabetes, ways to block gonorrhea infection, investigating viruses with pandemic potential, the impact of recovery efforts on K-12 student educational outcomes, studying cognitive impairments in young survivors of brain cancer, addressing the mental health crisis in schools, partnering with local community-based entities on environmental improvement projects, investigating visual processing and how it relates to mental health, bringing cost-effective robot therapy to children with cerebral palsy, exploring e-cigarette policy impact on youth tobacco use, the impact of stress on prison and parole officers and their client relationships, teaching local teachers using hands-on experience with radon testing, and fueling ongoing work at Georgia State’s Center for International Business Education & Research (CIBER).

Georgia State is the largest public research university in Georgia, and one of only four schools in the state with an R1 designation from the Carnegie Foundation, an honor reserved for the nation’s top research institutions. Research expenditures have topped $1 billion in the last five years, and Georgia State is the No. 5 fastest-growing research institution in the U.S. according to the Higher Education Research and Development Survey, 2023.

– Amanda Dobbs, Associate Director of Communications, Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development

Student Success – Graduate Student Support: Department of Africana Studies Creates Fellowship to Support Grad Students, Honor Former Faculty

The Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University is proud to announce the establishment of the Jacqueline Rouse-Doris Derby Africana Studies Fellowship honoring the legacies of two distinguished scholars, Jacqueline A. Rouse and Doris A. Derby.

Rouse earned her B.A. in Afro-American History from Howard University, her master’s degree in African American history from Atlanta University and her Ph.D. in American Studies from the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Emory University. She became most well known for her scholarship on the women leaders of the Black freedom struggle, specifically Margaret Murray Washington, Lugenia Burns Hope, and Septima P. Clark. She served as assistant editor for the Journal of Negro History as well as in several leadership positions of professional organizations. Rouse joined the faculty in the History Department at Georgia State in 1991, and her support and advocacy as faculty made it possible for the student protestors’ demands to create a department devoted to Africana studies to become reality. She retired in 2017, but her legacy on campus and in the fields of Black Women’s History lives on through her work as a scholar, teacher, and mentor.

Derby continued the activist legacy of her family when she joined the Civil Rights Movement as a young woman. She earned her B.A. from Hunter College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology with a specialization in African and African American Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She worked as an educator, photographer and anthropologist, founded the Free Southern Theater, and is distinguished as an activist in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Veteran of the Civil Rights Movement. She came to Georgia State as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology and the Founding Director of Georgia State University’s Office of African American Student Services and Programs (OAASS&P) in 1990. Her impact was especially felt in Black student’s active participation in Student Life and in the Department of Africana Studies. She retired from Georgia State in 2012, but continued actively working in photography, theater, film and organizing.

The fellowship aims to honor the legacies of these scholars whose work has opened and maintained a space for Black student success at Georgia State, especially in the interdisciplinary field of Africana Studies, and how their scholarship, artistry, and activism have contributed to knowledge of Black people well beyond this campus.

The fellowship will support students seeking an M.A. in Africana Studies as they embark on their intellectual journey of recovering and creating the stories that need to be told, into their academic tradition of scholarly rigor, and their human tradition of community care. The first recipients of the fellowship will be named in spring 2024.

“This fellowship is a testament to the invaluable contributions that Dr. Rouse and Dr. Derby have made to the field of Africana Studies, Georgia State University and beyond,” said Department Chair Jonathan Gayles. “Their legacies will continue to inspire generations of scholars, activists, and community members for years to come.”

To contribute to the Jacqueline Rouse-Doris Derby Africana Studies Fellowship click here.

– Anna Varela, Director of Communications, College of Arts & Sciences

Beyond College to Career (Partnerships): Georgia State University Partners with Gwinnett County Public Schools to Expand STEM Teachers’ Knowledge, Skills

Twenty-five Gwinnett County Public Schools teachers pose outside of the school district’s Instructional Support Center with Pounce, Georgia State University’s mascot, during their orientation for the university’s STEM education master’s program.

Georgia State University’s College of Education & Human Development has partnered with Gwinnett County Public Schools to support science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers who want to expand their STEM knowledge and teaching skills.

The partnership will use Associate Professor Natalie King’s Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation and school district funds to cover tuition, fees and books for a diverse pool of 25 middle and high school teachers to earn their Master of Education in STEM Education.

“Grant funding at the federal and local levels is a crucial component of our ability to provide advanced degree opportunities for teachers,” said Paul Alberto, College of Education & Human Development dean.

This STEM education master’s program combines knowledge and skills from various STEM disciplines so that teachers and their students can benefit from a well-rounded and holistic approach to STEM education. This online program allows teachers to further develop their STEM content knowledge and implement standards-based curriculum at the middle and secondary school levels.

Teachers selected to participate will take their classes online beginning this fall and will complete their degrees in fall 2024.

Georgia State’s partnership with Gwinnett County Public Schools demonstrates how universities and school districts can provide pathways for teachers to advance their careers and better support their students’ learning.

“Our strategic vision for Georgia State calls for our institution to build closer ties to organizations throughout our region, advancing opportunities and graduate education that meets the needs of students where they are, and the needs of organizations like the Gwinnett County Public Schools in the professional development of their employees,” said Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Georgia State. “We are excited to work with Gwinnett County Public Schools in this effort and believe that this partnership will benefit both teachers and their students alike.”

– Angela Turk, Director of Communications, College of Education & Human Development

High School Students Solve Real-World University Challenges During Visit to Georgia State

Students of the Veritas School of Social Sciences came together at Georgia State University in June to learn more by tackling challenges that corporate and institutional leaders face — including at the university itself.

The Veritas Corporate Immersion Day brought more than 35 students ages 14 through 17 to Georgia State, where they heard from university leaders and were tasked with forming potential solutions to issues ranging from cybersecurity training, student engagement and operational matters to student involvement, enrollment and course success.

The Veritas School provides access to academic and professional skills training that places students on pathways to excellence at colleges and universities, and toward high-earning careers. The aim is to close academic opportunity and economic inequality gaps for Black and brown students through programs like Veritas Corporate Immersion, a debate institute, a global travel program and programs in career readiness along with K-12 teacher training.

An emphasis of the Veritas School is heuristic learning — a term meaning that someone does not truly understand a concept until it is applied, said Brandon Fleming, founder and CEO of Veritas.

“Academic skills don’t always translate to professional skills, and if the outcome of our teaching and our learning experience is for them to be able to do something with that information, we like to put them in positions where they have to create, where they have to problem-solve, where they have to think critically and where they have to communicate,” Fleming explained.

“We want our students to not only be able to intellectually solve problems, but we also want them to be persuasive in communicating those solutions to the people who need to hear them,” he said.

Beyond problem-solving for an organization, the students — with their sights set on college after graduation from high school — had an opportunity to learn about how colleges and universities work behind the scenes and all the complexity involved.

“The students were able to see the challenges that we as administrators have to be able to navigate to make their college experience as valuable as possible,” said Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Georgia State. “They’re getting to see a broader picture of what it takes to run an entire institution.

“It’s also an opportunity for us to engage with some extremely bright students who are working to figure out what their next steps are,” she continued. “Even if they don’t attend Georgia State, they have had an opportunity to better understand the experience that they’re about to embark upon when they do go to college.”

Yasmin Diallo, 16, found the experience of learning more about Georgia State and being tasked with problem-solving valuable.

“I really like how the situations they’ve given to us are unique,” said Diallo, a student at Roswell High School. “I enjoy the complexities of them because they’re not just simply problems that can be solved — they require critical thinking, and it’s something I really like.”

More about Veritas is available at https://veritasgeorgia.com/about/. More about Georgia State’s offerings in learning by tackling challenges and problem-solving is available at https://myexperience.gsu.edu/.

– Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

Watch a highlight reel from Veritas below.

Can’t see the video here? Click here to go to YouTube in a new window.

Bernard McCrary, Director of Cultures, Communities & Inclusion (left) and Mitchell Harris (right)

Georgia State Awards First John Lewis Scholarship

The first John Lewis Scholarship, which was endowed at Georgia State University in 2022 to honor the legacy of the long-time U.S. Representative and civil rights icon, has been awarded to Mitchell Harris, a Class of 2026 political science undergraduate student.

“It’s an honor to receive this award celebrating John Lewis, and it makes me even more determined to find ways I can stand up and make a difference like he did as a college student and throughout his life,” said Harris. “I have a passion for public service, and receiving this scholarship means that I get the opportunity to continue focusing on community engagement efforts and my academics instead of worrying about how I am going to pay for tuition or certain living expenses. I’m extremely grateful for that.”

Harris, a graduate of Shaw High School in Columbus, Ga., is an Honors College student and a university assistant working in development in the College of Arts & Sciences. Harris is also actively involved in the university’s Student Government Association (SGA). As a first-year student, he was a transition liaison, providing support for students transferring into Georgia State, and he has been selected to serve on the SGA’s executive team in the upcoming 2023-24 school year.

“We knew right away in the interview process that Mitchell, with his academic record, involvement in community service and knowledge of John Lewis, set the bar high and possessed all the qualities we were looking for in a scholar,” said Bernard McCrary, director of Cultures, Communities and Inclusion at Georgia State. “Mitchell is a great student, a leader and, more importantly, just a good person, and his tenacity, heart for service and passion for social justice are all traits that embody the spirit of John Lewis.”

“I don’t think we could have chosen a better person as the inaugural recipient of the John Lewis Scholarship.”

Endowed through donations totaling over $26,000 from more than 70 congregants of Decatur First United Methodist Church, the scholarship was initiated by Georgia State principal senior lecturer and alumnus Michael Paul Black (M.S. ’04, Ph.D. ’05) and conceived to honor Lewis by the church’s leadership council in the summer of 2020. It is awarded annually to a participant in My Brother’s Keeper, Georgia State’s program in the University System of Georgia’s African American Male Initiative, who is in good academic standing and has demonstrated financial need.

To help expand the impact of the John Lewis Scholarship at Georgia State by making a gift, visit impact.gsu.edu/johnlewis. Learn more about My Brother’s Keeper and the ways you can support it at honors.gsu.edu/mbkgsu.

Explore the many ways donor dollars are making a difference in Panthers’ lives at giving.gsu.edu.

— Michael Rohling, Director of Communications, University Advancement

Georgia State Student Develops Decision Support App for People With Disabilities

Father and son team Amit (left) and Angad Sahgal (right) developed the Let Me Do It app to help people with disabilities lead more independent lives.

A new app co-developed by a student in Georgia State University’s IDEAL program aims to empower people with disabilities by offering them personalized decision support.

Let Me Do It, which was developed by Angad Sahgal and his father, Amit, is designed to help people with developmental and intellectual disabilities lead more independent lives. The app uses a customizable decision tree and task management framework to support decision-making in a range of areas, from everyday tasks to larger decisions about finance, education, careers and housing, to name just a few examples.

“As a person with a disability, entrepreneurship has allowed me to pursue my dreams and pave the way for the next generation of disabled entrepreneurs,” Angad Sahgal said. “I know what it means to work with limitations and turn them to opportunities.”

Let Me Do It was one of several companies to recently receive funding through the Main Street Entrepreneurs Seed Fund administered by GSU’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute. Sahgal is a student in GSU’s Inclusive Digital Expression and Literacy (IDEAL) program, which is housed in the Center for Leadership in Disability within the School of Public Health. He credits the program with giving him “the confidence to experiment and learn, a key ingredient in the entrepreneurial journey.”

Several members of the Sahgal family run or are involved in startups, and Angad has served as Georgia’s Youth Ambassador for the Center for Youth Voice, Youth Choice, which is a national resource center on alternatives to guardianship. “We developed this app to empower people to have the capability to make their own decisions,” Angad Sahgal said.

Let Me Do It received its first round of funding from Synergies Work, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that connects entrepreneurs with disabilities with the resources they need to launch, grow and scale their businesses. The funding from the GSU Main Street Entrepreneurs Seed Fund is enabling the Sahgals to further refine and expand the app.

Amit Sahgal notes that while the initial version of the app is focused on providing decision support for people with Down syndrome, autism and other developmental and intellectual disabilities, the ultimate goal is to expand to address the full range of disabilities, including visual and physical impairments. Let Me Do It also analyzes data to help businesses better understand and cater to the diverse needs of people with disabilities.

“The idea is not to stop at any disability,” Amit Sahgal said. “There are 61 million people in the U.S. with a disability. If we reach even 3 percent of them, then we have made a meaningful difference in the lives of 1.8 million people.”

To learn more about Let Me Do It, visit https://eni.gsu.edu/mainstreet/let-me-do-it/.

– Sam Fahmy, Director of Communications, School of Public Health

Beckman Scholars Named for Academic Year 2023-24

Undergraduate students Rowan Lawrence, a neuroscience major, and Marvin Center, a dual chemistry and Spanish major, have been named Beckman Scholars for 2023-24.

Lawrence will be working in Interim Nutrition Department Chair Desiree Wanders’ lab, researching the impact of sex on insulin signaling pathways in mice that eat a high-fat diet. Her ultimate career goal is to explore the connection between the brain and the body as she pursues post-graduate degrees in physical therapy and neuroscience.

Lawrence became interested in physical therapy as a student-athlete playing soccer, basketball and softball in high school. She experienced minor injuries that required treatment.

“You make a connection with the provider,” she said. “It’s also a clinical setting where you can always learn new and different things.”

Lawrence presented research at the Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference during the previous academic year.

“I really enjoyed putting all my research together and having a cohesive summary of the work I’ve done,” she said.

She’s planning to do an honors thesis on the research she’ll be doing as part of the Beckman Scholars Program.

Center will be joining Associate Chemistry Chair Maged Henary’s lab, creating fluorophore molecules that can be used for medical imaging and image-guided surgery. He’s excited to work on research that can help people, though he admits the work requires patience.

“These reactions can take 24 hours, and you can mess it up in 2 seconds and have to restart. So, synthesis is very challenging. But when you finally crack that code, it’s so rewarding,” Center said.

Center’s goal is to become an organic chemistry professor. “Ideally I’d like to teach it in both English and Spanish so that I can make the science more available to a wider and more diverse population of future scientists,” he said.

In addition to working in the lab, Center is looking forward to presenting his work at conferences. He’ll be doing an oral presentation at the American Chemical Society’s fall conference in San Francisco.

The Beckman Scholars Program is dedicated to supporting young scientists in paving the way for future discoveries by giving high-performing undergraduate students in the fields of biology, chemistry and neuroscience the opportunity to conduct independent laboratory research under the mentorship of select, expert faculty members. They will also benefit from additional professional development opportunities and will be well-positioned to pursue their graduate educations and careers in science.

Persistence Opens Doors to Dream Career for M.I.S. Graduate in Biomedical Enterprise

Khayla McClinton (M.I.S. ’21)

As a master’s student, Khayla McClinton was laser-focused on fulfilling her dream of becoming a biomedical researcher, diligently seeking out research opportunities in the Atlanta area and across the United States.

Her hard work paid off, and she has landed a job as a clinical trials associate at Seattle-based, Sana Biotechnology, where she supports the research team on an upcoming clinical trial focused on cancer research. She lives in the Atlanta area and travels for work when needed.

To solve the underlying causes of disease, Sana Biotechnology is creating engineered cells to repair and control genes or replace missing or damaged cells.

“I enjoy the difference in perspective surrounding the drug development process and being able to apply what I’ve learned in my past roles to new technologies,” McClinton said. “I also enjoy learning about new therapeutic areas. This is my first time applying my skills to oncology.”

A 2021 graduate of the Biomedical Science and Enterprise master’s program in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences, McClinton is the first in her family to attend college. She’s also the first in her family to pursue a science, medicine or research career.

The master’s program allowed her to tailor her coursework to her research interests so she could gain valuable lab experience. In the Institute for Biomedical Sciences, she worked on research to develop a universal flu vaccine. She also worked on a research study at Emory University School of Medicine to prevent serious falls in elderly adults.

During a prestigious summer research internship at Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco, she assisted with projects related to data science, biomedical research and biomedical engineering.

“Being in all these spaces gave various views of working in research and all the different roles you could work in,” McClinton said. “They also gave me skills that have allowed me to be well rounded and malleable in my roles.”

In the master’s program, she also learned the business behind pharmaceutical development and how the law works in the biotech industry. After graduation, she landed her first research job as a clinical research associate, which offered helpful insight for her current role.

Despite her busy work schedule, McClinton makes time to give back to students through her nonprofit organization, McClinton Scholars, which offers mentorship to underrepresented undergraduate students in the Atlanta area. Most of the students in the last two cohorts have been students from the Institute for Biomedical Sciences. In May, she held a presentation day and end-of-cohort celebration at Georgia State where 13 scholars presented on a wide range of biomedical science research topics and received valuable feedback.

“We’ve been able to have guest speakers, host workshops, have group outing activities and more,” McClinton said. “It’s been really fun working with the students and the mentors and seeing the growth. I can see us making an impact, so I’m hoping to grow and involve more of the community.”

She said the program can now accommodate a cohort of 15 students twice a year.

Her advice to current students and recent graduates is to make sure their professors know them and follow up with anyone who is in a space they want to be in.

“People are willing to help if you reach out and they can see you are truly making the effort,” McClinton said. “I would also suggest finding a community of people who are interested in similar spaces as you. Connections are everything when you’re trying to learn. Also, be adaptable. For instance, you may not want to work in a neurology lab, but if that is all you have, do it and figure out how the skills you’ve learned can be transferable. You can transfer skills and apply knowledge.”

McClinton hopes to continue advancing her career in the biotech industry and potentially become a professor.

— LaTina Emerson, Director of Communications for the Institute for Biomedical Sciences

Originally published at https://news.gsu.edu/2023/05/15/persistence-opens-doors-to-dream-career/.

Main Street Entrepreneurs Seed Fund Announces Fourth Cohort, Main Street Demo Day to be Held in October

Georgia State University’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Institute (ENI) has selected a diverse group of founders and innovative companies for the fourth cohort of its Main Street Entrepreneurs Seed Fund.

These Georgia State entrepreneurs will pitch their businesses to the Atlanta community at the Main Street Demo Day in October 2023.

The innovative program enhances Georgia State’s strategic focus to create an ecosystem that provides opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators to develop new ideas and scale their own businesses. Entrepreneurship has become an integral driver of economic growth and societal progress in today’s rapidly evolving world.

However, many aspiring entrepreneurs face numerous challenges and barriers on their path to success. Recognizing this need, the Main Street Entrepreneurs Seed Fund (MSESF) was created to provide a comprehensive support system tailored to meet the unique needs of emerging entrepreneurs.

With an emphasis on fostering inclusive entrepreneurship, the MSESF is a six-month program created to support Georgia State students, recent alumni and community entrepreneurs with seed funding and mentorship to start and grow new ventures. The Marcus Foundation, Bank of America, Georgia Power and Ahmet Bozer (MBA ‘83), a retired executive vice president at Coca-Cola, have supported the program since its inception in 2019.

Furthermore, the Main Street program facilitates connections with potential investors, industry partners and successful entrepreneurs who can offer invaluable advice and support. These opportunities will enable cohort members to build relationships, secure funding and access the resources needed to take their businesses to new heights.

“The Georgia State entrepreneur community sees unique and abundant opportunities to impact our society and transform lives,” said Jennifer Sherer, director of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Institute and Executive Officer for Entrepreneurship at Georgia State. “Companies in this cohort are addressing everything from empowering persons with disabilities to make informed decisions to tackling severe dry eye disease.”

The selection process included two rounds. In the first round, applications were reviewed by Georgia State faculty and staff. More than 40 companies advanced to the second round where they pitched their businesses to a panel of reviewers consisting of investors, serial entrepreneurs and community partners from across Atlanta.

“We continue to see founders coming through the Main Street program with innovative ideas and concepts from a variety of categories of products and services. These new ideas and ventures made it very challenging to narrow the pool to just 12 companies,” says Musaddeq Khan (MK), the lead entrepreneur-in-residence who will mentor and coach the Main Street entrepreneurs. “This year, we have also brought together more than 30 mentors and coaches from multiple disciplines and industries to guide the founders of this cohort as they execute on their business ideas and plans.”

The companies and entrepreneurs participating in Cohort 4 include:

• Atlanta’s Turnkey Locators – Niketa Misco, Social Entrepreneurship, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
• Culturally Relevant Science, Inc. – Meagan Naraine, Science Education, College of Education & Human Development and Tamir Mickens, Science Education, College of Education & Human Development
• Democratic Systems Inc. – Langston Thomas, Political Science, College of Arts & Sciences
• DuffleBox – Maiya Newton, Computer Information Systems, Robinson College of Business
• Java Cats, LLC – Zoe Hughes-Nelson, Pre-Entrepreneurship, Robinson College of Business and Hadyn Hilton, Film, College of the Arts
• Kythe Inc. – Joe Griswell, J.D. & M.S. in Data Science and Analytics, College of Law & Robinson College of Business, Rebecca Rhym, Law, College of Law, and Kierra Powell, Law, College of Law
• Let Me Do It – Angad Sahgal, Inclusive Digital Expression and Literacy (IDEAL) program, Center for Leadership Development, School of Public Health, and Amit Sahgal, community member
• Mission2Motivate – Nigel Stewart, Sport Administration, College of Education & Human Development
• SkinCentric – Paige Malcolm, Pre-Computer Science, College of Arts & Sciences and Theodora Oatmeyer, community member
• Utility Objects – Aleisha DuChateau, Photography, College of the Arts
• Visionary Muzik Academy – Justin Bartley, Creative & Innovative Education, College of Education & Human Development
• Yanie Eyewear – Tatyana Langford, Entrepreneurship, Robinson College of Business, Te’Andrea Langford, Marketing, Robinson College of Business

The MSESF business accelerator program has received global recognition and is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Specialty Award for Most Innovative Program from the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA), the Excellence in Student Engagement in Entrepreneurship Award from the annual Deshpande Symposium for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education and the Award for Excellence in Specialty Entrepreneurship Education from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC).

– Erica Bracey, Manager, LaunchGSU & Co-Director, Main Street Entrepreneurs Seed Fund
Entrepreneurship & Innovation Institute

Timothy Renick, Executive Director of GSU’s National Institute for Student Success, Delivers Remarks Before Congress

National Institute for Student Success Executive Director Timothy Renick testified in June before a congressional subcommittee examining innovation in American colleges and universities.

Renick was among a panel of four education experts testifying before the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development. He discussed Georgia State’s transformative efforts over the past decade to boost graduation rates, close achievement gaps and ensure success for students from all backgrounds.

Renick, who was senior vice president for Student Success at Georgia State before the establishment of the National Institute for Student Success, also discussed innovations like micro-grants targeted at students in jeopardy of stopping out for financial reasons, and artificial intelligence-enhanced chatbots that allow Georgia State to reach students at scale.

“These data-informed approaches can be self-sustaining, even revenue generating, by helping institutions hold on to millions of dollars in tuition-and-fee revenues that previously were being hemorrhaged,” he told the subcommittee. “But just as importantly, they are helping to transform communities and their economies.”

Asked by U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) about the data colleges need to help students succeed in college and in the workforce, Renick explained the prevailing problem isn’t a lack of data, but an inability to “operationalize” the data. Renick went on to discuss how first-year students at Georgia State get information on the marketplace for their given major so they can make better-informed career decisions earlier in college.

“If they’re majoring in political science, we’re sharing with students what political science graduates of Georgia State are doing: What companies they’re working for, what organizations, what titles, what their salaries are,” Renick said. “And we’re doing that in the first year, so that when they’re making decisions about their majors, they have the kind of information they need to be informed.”

Renick’s testimony begins at the 28:10 mark.

– Andrea Jones, Vice President for Public Relations and Marketing Communications

Can’t view the video? Click here to watch on YouTube.

Georgia State Hosts 2023 Disruptivator Summit of Usher’s New Look

Georgia State hosted more than 300 students from across the country this summer at the 2023 Disruptivator Summit of Usher’s New Look.

The conference provided provided training, mentorship and practical tools to prepare high school students for future leadership roles.

Usher’s New Look, founded in 1999 by Atlanta musical artist Usher Raymond IV, is a nonprofit philanthropic organization dedicated to uplifting underserved youth through the power of education and pursuit of excellence.

Attendees were welcomed by the organization’s namesake, as well as Provost Parsons-Pollard during the summit’s opening event. Students participated in a career fair and excursions to industry and organizations in Atlanta, mental health and wellness sessions, a financial literacy panel, networking sessions, and a gala.

Watch a recap video from Usher’s New Look below.

Can’t see the video? Click here to watch on YouTube.

Biomedical Sciences Researcher Receives $2.67 Million Grant to Study Cardiac Disease in Diabetes

Dr. Jun Zou, a research assistant professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University, has received a five-year, $2.67 million federal grant to study the link between gut dysbiosis, an imbalance in the microbiota, and cardiac disease in diabetes.

The grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute will be used to explore the role of diabetes-induced alteration of gut microbiota in cardiac disease using a variety of immunological and microbiological techniques.

“One of the major ways that diabetes causes death in those it afflicts is by causing heart disease, but the mechanism by which diabetes drives heart disease remains largely unknown,” Zou said. “Our recent studies suggest a central role for gut microbiota. This project, which will build on this data, seeks to explain how diabetes causes heart disease and develop approaches to prevent it.”

In recent studies, Zou and his colleagues have shown that transplanting microbiotas from diabetic mice to non-diabetic mice didn’t impact glycemic control. However, mice that received the transplanted microbiotas had cardiac dysfunction. The findings provide evidence that diabetic-mediated changes in the intestinal microbiota may impact heart function, regardless of dysglycemia.

The research team theorizes that “diabetes-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis leads to increased gut permeability and translocation of bacteria and their products in a manner that contributes to inflammation and heart dysfunction.”

“Thus, manipulating microbiota may provide a means to prevent cardiac disease in diabetic mellitus,” Zou said.

The project’s main goal is to characterize microbial targets that lead to inflammation and cardiac disease. A second goal is to examine the extent to which diabetes-induced alterations in microbiota result in dissemination of gut bacteria or their products and lead to impaired heart function. The researchers will also explore potential approaches to targeting gut microbiota or gut barrier function therapeutically to lower the risk of cardiac disease with diabetes mellitus, according to the project summary.

“We anticipate the discovery of novel mechanisms by which gut microbiota links diabetes and cardiac disease,” Zou said. “We also expect to develop therapeutic strategies to maintain a healthy intestinal-microbiota relationship that will avoid bacteria translocation and inflammation that leads to impaired heart function in diabetes mellitus.”

– LaTina Emerson, Director of Communications, Institute for Biomedical Sciences

Community Innovation Grant Will Help Address Health Disparities in Underserved DeKalb Communities

Students in Georgia State University Perimeter College’s dental hygiene and nursing programs are joining forces to help underserved community members, thanks to a three-year $150,000 Community Innovation Project (CIP) – Access to Care grant from the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority.

“Perimeter College’s nursing and dental hygiene students will host three unique health service events per year in central locations easily accessible to community members,” said Dr. Charlette DeLoach, co-director of the nursing program.

The community health events will include screening and testing for chronic health conditions and making referrals to partner health providers based on their insurance status and health needs. Students will assist patients with navigating the complex process of intake, financial qualification, appointments and referrals.

Dental hygiene students also will provide screenings and fluoride treatments. “These clinics will give our students additional opportunities to work with a diverse body of patients while breaking down access to care barriers,” said Dr. Risa Handman, director of Perimeter’s dental hygiene program.

“The Connect to Care Initiative will help our healthcare students engage with the community and learn firsthand how the healthcare system operates,” said Dr. Mary Helen O’Connor, project director for the initiative, and director of the Clarkston Center for Community Engagement at Perimeter College.

“Dental health and chronic health conditions continue to be some of the most unaddressed health concerns in the underserved communities of Clarkston and South DeKalb County. By helping community residents get connected to care, our health professions students will be addressing critical health disparities and improving the overall health and wellbeing of the community.”

– Kenya King, Director of Communications for Perimeter College

Georgia Policy Labs Announces Engaged Research Competition Winner

Ras Michael Brown, Associate Professor of History

Georgia State University’s Georgia Policy Labs (GPL) has named historian Ras Michael Brown the winner of its second Engaged Research Competition.

Brown, an associate professor on the tenure track in the Department of History, will receive an award of almost $35,000 to support a research-practice partnership with the Gullah Museum, a nonprofit organization based in Georgetown, S.C., dedicated to the preservation and teaching of Gullah Geechee culture and history. Their work together will focus on developing an ongoing partnership to support the needs of the museum and a research agenda that advances understanding of the Gullah Geechee community and adds vital resources to the museum.

Brown, along with doctoral student Debra Dozier-Coulter — who grew up in Georgetown — will work with the Gullah Museum to produce ongoing research that benefits the community and extends the legacies of the museum’s founders, Vermelle “Bunny” Smith Rodrigues and her husband, Andrew Rodrigues. Their work will show how university-based research can be used to serve the needs of the communities it represents.

“For more than a century, scholars from universities have too often exploited Gullah Geechee people to produce studies that either misrepresented or failed to serve the priorities of Gullah Geechee communities in expressing and projecting their history and culture,” Brown wrote in his project description. “Good-faith academics and their institutions have been attempting to rectify this injustice in recent years. It remains imperative to develop new ways for university-based scholars to respond to the goals of community-focused and public-facing organizations.”

The Engaged Research Competition, funded by the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, the Office of the Provost and the Dan E. Sweat Endowment, promotes partnership-based research by Georgia State’s faculty and researchers by removing the structural barriers that can prevent them from conducting partner-driven research. These barriers may include lengthier time to publication, data-sharing complications and time needed to build trust with a partner.

Professor Janice Fournillier of the College of Education & Human Development, Associate Professor of Economics Jonathan Smith and Tyler Rogers, Associate Director of GPL, judged this year’s competition. It is the second of four Engaged Research Competitions that will be administered by GPL, a research unit in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.

— Tyler Rogers, Associate Director, Georgia Policy Labs

Anonymous Donor Supports the Advancement of Children’s Constitutional Rights with a $2.1 Million Gift

A $2.1 million gift from an anonymous donor will support a new project to advance children’s constitutional rights.

The Advancement of Children’s Constitutional Rights consortium includes three nationally recognized children’s rights legal scholars: Tanya Washington of Georgia State University College of Law, Catherine Smith, of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and Robin Walker Sterling of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

“This generous gift will allow for focused study of a critically important aspect of law relating to the rights of children, and it makes a significant investment in Professor Washington’s research, scholarship, and teaching. As Professor of Children’s Constitutional Rights, Professor Washington will work across the College of Law and the university and with her colleagues at our partner institutions to achieve the goals of the consortium. This gift supports the type of impactful academic research that is integral to the strategic vision of our institution,” said LaVonda Reed, dean of Georgia State University College of Law.

“I am excited about working with my academic partners to develop a unified theory of children’s constitutional rights, with the goal of improving their lived experiences in homes, schools, in foster and institutional care facilities, and in the juvenile legal system,” said Washington, who will work on the project with Professors Smith and Walker Sterling.

The consortium is inspired by the reality that lawyers, judges, and children’s advocates who engage with significant national issues affecting children including gun violence, educational inequalities, climate change, and mass incarceration, often de-emphasize children’s constitutional rights or take legal doctrines developed in adult contexts and reflexively apply them to young people.

The scholars in the consortium are developing a law school casebook titled “Children and the Constitution,” one of the first of its kind. They also are creating a children’s rights course and a series of invitation-only workshops that will convene other children’s rights scholars, advocates, organizers, policymakers, and stakeholders to develop strategies for uplifting children in the four critical areas. The first workshop will be held at Georgia State College of Law in Atlanta in spring 2024.

Jaya Franklin, Director of Communications, College of Law

Georgia State Doctoral Student Wins Prestigious Rosalind Franklin Society Award

Carolin M. Lieber, a doctoral candidate in the Translational Biomedical Sciences graduate program at Georgia State University, was recently honored with an RFS Award in Science from the Rosalind Franklin Society. The Rosalind Franklin Society partners with Mary Ann Liebert Inc. to present this annual award to the best paper by a woman in science or under-represented minority in each of the publisher’s 100 peer-reviewed journals.

Lieber’s award-winning paper, published in DNA and Cell Biology, examines how 4’-Fluoroudine — a broad-spectrum, orally available, first-line antiviral — may improve pandemic preparedness. This research addresses the urgent need for broad-spectrum antivirals to battle respiratory diseases and viruses with pandemic potential.

“It is a great honor to receive this award and to work and learn alongside my mentors and colleagues,” Lieber said. “I am especially honored that this award emphasizes the importance of role models, regardless of background, gender, race or any other factors.”

Since coming to Georgia State in 2019, Lieber has been working in the lab of Richard Plemper, director of the Center for Translational Antiviral Research in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences. His work specializes in the pathogenesis of respiratory RNA viruses and the development of next-generation antiviral therapeutics. In this lab, Lieber works with the influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and explores antivirals for SARS-CoV-2.

“I am proud that my work can contribute to the understanding in this field,” Lieber said. “It is so important to connect the research in the labs to the actual patient beds so it can have real impact.”

The abstract of the winning paper is available online, and the full paper will be included in an anthology of the winners.

To learn more about the Institute for Biomedical Sciences, visit biomedical.gsu.edu. To read more about Georgia State University research and its impact, visit research.gsu.edu.

– LaTina Emerson, Director of Communications, Institute for Biomedical Sciences

Georgia State Announces Grants for Research and Creative Projects in Arts and Humanities

Six Georgia State University faculty members undertaking research, scholarly and creative activity in the arts and humanities have been awarded internal grants to support their work. The Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development announced the new grants for fiscal year 2024 in June.

The goal of the grants is to assist in professional career development and support projects that enhance awardees’ standing in their fields. Each grantee will receive $6,000 to support their research and creative pursuits.

“This is an important initiative to support research, scholarship and creative excellence in all its forms,” said Vice President for Research and Economic Development Tim Denning. “We are excited to see these projects come to fruition and add to the rich tapestry of excellence in the arts and humanities here at Georgia State.”

Awardees are:

Jill Frank, Associate Professor of Art & Design, College of the Arts
Project — SPIRAL: Documenting Place, Transformation and Human Intervention in the Natural Landscape

Spiral is a collaborative multimedia project combining text and image, published work, and public exhibition. This project seeks to further engage with a seminal photographic book by British artist Roger Palmer, made in 2011, specifically Palmer’s responsive technique and its preoccupations with place, transformation and human intervention in the natural landscape. The project asks what it means to reopen conversations on perspective and land art in 2023, when the rapid evaporation of the Great Salt Lake threatens to turn the surrounding landscape into an uninhabitable space as toxic gases are released.

Carrie P. Freeman, Professor of Communication, College of Arts & Sciences
Project — Wildlife Coexistence Narratives at U.S. UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites

To demonstrate the role humanity plays in environmental protection, Freeman will work with non-governmental organizations to identify leaders facilitating successful wildlife coexistence initiatives for species living in and migrating outside of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the U.S.: Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park and Everglades National Park. She will explore the values, policies, advocacy, collaboration and strategic practices that enable them to equitably facilitate wildlife protection.

Marie Sumner Lott, Associate Professor of History, College of the Arts’ School of Music
Project — Post-Romantic Medievalism in Brahms’ “Romanzen for Solo Voice and for Chorus”

For Post-Romantic Medievalism in Brahms’ “Romanzen for Solo Voice and for Chorus,” Lott will work on her second book, “Post-Romantic Medievalism in the Music of Johannes Brahms,” to provide new insights into the musical culture of the late 19th century by examining the works of one of this period’s most beloved and respected composers in the dual contexts of Post-Romanticism and Medievalism, contexts that are currently absent from scholarly studies of Brahms and his music.

Tiffany Player, Assistant Professor of History, College of Arts & Sciences
Project — “Black Women and the Ex-Slave Public”

Player will write two chapters of her first book manuscript, tentatively titled “Black Women and the Ex-Slave Public,” during the spring 2024 semester. “Black Women and the Ex-Slave Public” examines how an increasing temporal distance from the institution of slavery profoundly shaped Black women’s discursive strategies, their political choices and their community-building capacities from the 1850s into the 1930s.

Susan G. Reid, Assistant Professor of TV/Film Directing, College of the Arts’ School of Film, Media & Theatre
Project — “Super Power” Short Film FMT Collaboration

Reid will write, shoot, edit and enter a short film into notable film festivals while collaborating with a combination of GSU faculty in the School of Film, Media & Theatre. In the film, “Super Power,” Bertie and Olive are strangers, but by the end of the day, their connection runs deeper than blood as they discover that everyone has a super power. This award will help her improve the quality of the short film in preparation for submission to Academy Award-qualifying festivals.

LeeAnne M. Richardson, Associate Professor of English, College of Arts & Sciences
Project — Michael Field Archival Research

Richardson will conduct archival research essential to the 7,000-word book chapter “‘Let Us Embrace!’: Michael Field’s ‘Stephania’ (1892) and Gustave Flaubert’s ‘The Temptation of Saint Anthony’ (1874),” accepted for publication in a forthcoming book titled “The Verse Dramas of Michael Field.” Field is a poet currently undergoing an exceptional scholarly recovery and this chapter will be part of a book by one of the seminal scholars of Field’s work and art.

The grant awards can be spent over any six-month period between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, and can be used to cover a wide range of pursuits, including projects or collaboration with another faculty member, travel or equipment.

Applications were reviewed and awarded by a select subset of the Internal Grants Peer Review Committee. The Office of Research Development (ORD) is a unit of University Research Services & Administration (URSA) under the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. ORD provides support and resources to faculty in an effort to enhance the research enterprise at Georgia State University.

Georgia State Gets $1.85M to Study Remote Instruction and Recovery Impacts on K-12 Outcomes

The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has awarded Georgia State University’s Georgia Policy Labs (GPL) $1.85 million to study the effects of remote instructional delivery and recovery strategies on student outcomes in grades K–12.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath provide an unprecedented opportunity to study the impact and effects of school closures and remote learning on students,” said Distinguished University Professor Tim Sass, principal investigator for the study. “The combination of family disruptions, closures of schools and rapid transition to remote learning resulting from the pandemic substantially reduced achievement growth for many students, particularly those experiencing vulnerabilities.”

What is not known is why some students fared better than others in remote learning environments and how the various recovery strategies implemented by school districts may have impacted student outcomes. This project will use surveys and rich longitudinal data to examine the factors associated with higher achievement growth in remote instruction and the relationship between specific recovery efforts and multiple student outcomes.

Joining Sass as co-principal investigators are K. Jurée Capers, an associate professor of public management and policy in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies; Jennifer Darling-Aduana, an assistant professor of learning technologies in the Department of Learning Sciences in Georgia State’s College of Education & Human Development; and GPL Director of Research Thomas Goldring. Sass is faculty director of the Metro Atlanta Policy Lab for Education (MAPLE), which partners with Atlanta-area school districts and other stakeholders to evaluate the effectiveness of existing education programs and policies, design and test creative policy solutions, and boost their capacity to interpret the evidence.

The researchers expect their findings will provide short-run benefits to education agencies working to accelerate student learning and important insights to guide future research and practice as remote learning becomes a more important element in the post-pandemic educational landscape.

They will produce policy briefs and rapid-response presentations of their research findings for district and state leaders as well as longer research reports for district research staff, state agencies and nonprofit educational organizations that want a more in-depth analysis. All policy briefs, presentations and reports will be made available to the public.

GPL is conducting the study as a member of the national Research on Education Strategies to Advance Recovery and Turnaround (RESTART) Network, a collection of five research teams that are identifying and disseminating evidence-based strategies aligned with the needs of policymakers, leaders and educators who are serving and supporting accelerated post-pandemic recovery efforts in K–12 education.

This project is supported by an award (R305A230400) totaling $1,849,956.00 through the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

– Maggie Reeves, Senior Director, Georgia Policy Labs, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

Women’s Philanthropy Network Announces 2023 Grant Recipients

The Women’s Philanthropy Network (WPN) at Georgia State University has selected nine college- and unit-level initiatives designed to boost student opportunity and nurture student success as 2023 WPN grant recipients.

The 2023 WPN grants, totaling more than $300,000, advance the organization’s mission of directly and positively benefitting students by strengthening the programs that make a difference in their success at Georgia State and beyond.

“The initiatives selected to receive WPN grants will provide meaningful support to students and help create the opportunities and freedom for them to more fully pursue their academic and professional goals,” said Felicia Mayfield, Women’s Philanthropy Network chair. “WPN is proud to contribute funding to programs that remove financial barriers to achievement, foster community and nurture discovery in ways that help Panthers succeed at Georgia State and in their careers.”

Three 2023 awardees also received WPN grants during the 2022 grant cycle. These initiatives are:

School of Public Health EMPOWER program: The WPN grant will support the EMPOWER (Engaging Multidisciplinary Professional Opportunities for Women in Environmental Research) program, which aims to enhance the diversity of the environmental health workforce by providing women — Atlanta-area high school teachers and students from underrepresented groups — with a four-week summer research experience.

College of Education & Human Development Initial Teacher Preparation Programs: The grant will help sustain and grow the Induction Support Program, which provides mentoring and other supports for GSU teacher education and other school professionals in the first or second year of their careers.

University Library Women’s Collection: The grant will fund a one-year paid internship for a recent GSU graduate considering a career as an archivist to work with the University Library’s Women’s Collection. The internship will provide hands-on experience from which the individual will learn a variety of skills that will make them competitive as they enter the profession.

The first-time recipients of WPN grants this year are:

Honors College Transition Scholarship Program: The WPN grant will help fund 10 scholarships to help Honors College students at Perimeter campuses successfully transition to the downtown campus.

Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing & Health Professions student success program: WPN grant funds will help underwrite the creation of a formal language support program to help the college’s non-native English speakers.

School of Public Health GLOBE program: The GLOBE program is designed to expand participation in experiential learning opportunities, like study abroad, and increase exposure to global health in classrooms for School of Public Health students. The WPN grant will fund study abroad scholarships and provide other program support.

Office of Student Engagement Women’s History Month sponsor: Funds from the WPN grant will enable the Office of Student Engagement to hire a graduate assistant for the 2023-24 academic year who will lead the office’s Women’s History Month activities, with a focus on the Annual Women’s Leadership Experience Retreat.

College of Education & Human Development Child Development Center: WPN funds will create childcare tuition scholarships for multiple Georgia State students with unmet financial need. These scholarships will enable each recipient’s child to attend GSU’s Child Development Program while they continue their education.

College of Law Summer Public Interest Legal Internships: The WPN grant will fund stipends for five Georgia State College of Law students working unpaid summer internships with organizations serving women or working on issues impacting those who identify as women.

Colleges and units from the university’s Atlanta Campus that are interested in applying for a WPN grant will be able to submit funding proposals when the next grant cycle opens in early 2024.

Support the Women’s Philanthropy Network’s mission and learn more about how it is uplifting Georgia State programs and students at giving.gsu.edu/wpn. Explore how donor dollars are making a difference at Georgia State at giving.gsu.edu.

— Michael Rohling, Director, Advancement Communications

Originally published at https://news.gsu.edu/2023/06/26/womens-philanthropy-network-at-georgia-state-university-announces-2023-grant-recipients/

Bystander Leadership Program: Update from ADVANCE-IMPACT

Co-Principal Investigator Jennie Burnet is leading the team from the ADVANCE-IMPACT program at Georgia State that is sponsoring a day-long Bystander Leadership Program retreat this Fall, with an aim to improve the climate and sense of belonging at the institution.

We invite faculty and department chairs from across the university to participate in a full-day retreat on Oct. 12 or 13. This immersive experience will include theater performances with professional actors, intervention strategies, and hands-on practice. Ultimately, BLP is designed to help participants contribute to a more welcoming and collegial university community. Each session is limited to 30 participants, so do not miss out. Register for one of these sessions now by clicking here. The venue will be announced soon and we will notify you via email after you register.

The ADVANCE-IMPACT team is also developing materials that can be shared easily to help faculty with the five-step bystander intervention process, such as a simple paper bookmark.

In partnership with Florida International University and supported by the National Science Foundation, ADVANCE-IMPACT’s goal is to adapt and implement practices at GSU aimed at supporting women faculty, particularly from underrepresented minority backgrounds, who are recruited, promoted, and retained in STEM tenure track positions and in leadership. ADVANCE-IMPACT works to adapt proven programs and procedures to achieve four key objectives (including BLP), and you can learn more about them at https://www.gsu.edu/advance/. You can also email [email protected] for more information.

ADVANCE-IMPACT at Georgia State is supported through a generous grant by the National Science Foundation (Award #2204559). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Join a Faculty Affinity Group

The goals of the groups are to invite faculty to establish networks, mutually beneficial relationships and build communities to enhance not only academic ties, but also build social and cultural associations. Affinity groups help to bring together and build communities of learning, scholarship, and inclusive excellence, especially among underrepresented minority faculty.

Groups of the Diverse Faculty Alliance aim to achieve these goals.

The faculty groups include:

FADA – Faculty of the African Diaspora – https://belonging.gsu.edu/fada/
Asian/Asian American Faculty Identity Group (AAAFIG) – https://belonging.gsu.edu/aaafig/
Women Faculty – https://belonging.gsu.edu/women/
GSU Chairs – https://belonging.gsu.edu/dfa/
Non-Tenure Track Faculty Group – https://belonging.gsu.edu/ntt-faculty/

The Diverse Faculty Alliance affinity groups, at their discretion, can choose to open their membership to both staff as well as faculty.

The following groups are open to staff along with faculty:

• LACCHI (Latina/o/x, Chicana/o/x, Caribbean, Hispanic and Indigenous) – https://belonging.gsu.edu/lacchi/
• PRISM (Pride, Inclusion, Respect, Support and Movement – LGBTQ+) – https://belonging.gsu.edu/prism/
• GSUVETS (Georgia State University Veteran Employees Team Support) – https://belonging.gsu.edu/gsuvets/

Interested? Visit https://belonging.gsu.edu/dfa/ to sign up!

It’s important to note that you can join more than one group if applicable to you.

The groups are an outgrowth of the Next Generation of Faculty’s Implementation Steering Committee recommendations to foster engagement, community-building and advocacy among individuals who share the same identity — helping to build a sense of belonging.

— Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

Liquid Blackness Presents: Music Video as Black Art: Claiming the B-Side

Dates: September 21-23, 2023, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Generously supported by a Terra Foundation of American Art grant, the event explores creative insights that, migrating from music to filmmaking and installation art, from high art to popular culture, from art galleries to digital platforms—and supported by hip-hop’s global reach as both a musical genre and a distinct visual culture—are producing the most consequential and global black visual aesthetics of our times. Music Video as Black Art: Claiming the B-Side understands this output as a contemporary expression of what, reflecting on the relationship between Romare Bearden’s collages and jazz, Toni Morrison described as the “liquidity” of the black arts, that is, conceiving and practicing one artform in terms of another: musical rhythms as visual conceits, photography as improvised music, filmmaking as music-making.

The Symposium will feature award-winning filmmakers, cinematographers, film editors, and colorists— winners of Grammys, Sundance Film Festivals, Creative Capital, Peabody, Cannes Film Festival, NAACP image awards, and many more—who have been the subjects of previous liquid blackness research projects (see https://liquidblackness.com/research-projects ). The artists will be in conversation with prominent scholars and curators of the visual arts of the black diaspora, black music history and sound studies scholars, scholars of black popular culture, performance studies, and black film theory.

The artists are: Bradford Young, Jenn Nkiru, Elissa Blount Moorhead, Shawn Peters, Stefani Saintonge, Kya Lou, in conversation with curator Ekow Eshun, and scholars Robert O’Meally, Mark Anthony Neal, Kara Keeling and Stefano Harney, as well as members of the Editorial and Advisory Boards of liquid blackness: journal of aesthetics and black studies.

Through screenings, panels and masterclasses, the Symposium will expand liquid blackness research on a lineage of three generations of black filmmakers/installation artists based in Los Angeles, London, Washington, DC and, more recently, Baltimore, who have consistently and collectively experimented with the visualization of black music, deliberately passed on this experimental agenda to later generations, and successfully operated across distinctions between commercial and art spaces.

The event is presented by Liquid Blackness, Limited and the liquid blackness Project (www.liquidblackness.com) with generous support from a Terra Foundation of American Art Convening Grant. The Terra Foundation for American Art, established in 1978 and having offices in Chicago and Paris, supports organizations and individuals locally and globally with the aim of fostering intercultural dialogues and encouraging transformative practices that expand narratives of American art, through the foundation’s grant program, collection, and initiatives.

The event is additionally supported by the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Institute and Global Classroom Initiative; Georgia State University’s College of the Arts, School of Film Media & Theatre, Center for Hellenic Studies, and Creative Media Industry Institute and the Office of the Vice president for Research & Economic Development; the Department of Film and Media at Emory University, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Ranged Touch podcasting network, a host of community supporters from the extended liquid blackness community, and in intellectual partnership with the Academy for Diaspora Literacy, Inc.’s Guardians of Heritage.

For schedule details, participants, and supporters see www.liquidblackness.com.

(Photo Credit: Belly, dir. Hype Williams, 1998, frame grab. Cinematography by Malik Hassan Sayeed, Postcard design by Josh Cleveland)

— Tony Mangle, Director of Communications, College of the Arts

Signature Heritage Months at Georgia State

Visit the Belonging@GSU website later this month as Cultures, Communities & Inclusion leads the observance of the university’s Signature Heritage Months, celebrating and recognizing the cultures and communities that comprise the university’s students, faculty and staff.

Each year, the following heritage months are held, and each has a page at the Belonging@GSU website that is updated annually with events across the institution. You can visit them by clicking each month’s title:

• Sept. 15-Oct. 15: Latinx Heritage Month
• October: LGBTQ+ History Month
• November: Native American Heritage Month
• January: MLK Commemoration Month
• February: Black History Month
• March: Women’s History Month
• April: Asian American/Pacific Islander/Desi American Heritage Month

Additionally, summer semester events, including Juneteenth, Caribbean American Heritage Month and Pride, are featured on a consolidated Summer Heritage Events page.

Each of the pages will be updated with new events as the start of the respective month approaches.

If your department or unit is sponsoring an event related to the topic of the month, you can also submit it at the Belonging@GSU website.

College of Law Delegation Impresses International Colleagues at Accra Conference

In July, College of Law faculty members attended the 7th global edition of the Slavery Past, Present and Future conference in Accra, Ghana, sponsored by Webster University (Ghana Campus and Leiden Campus) and Indiana University Robert McKinney School of Law. Dean LaVonda Reed, Associate Dean Courtney Anderson, and Professors Julian Hill, Corneill Stephens and Tanya Washington all presented at this timely and transformative conference with law faculty, law deans, and faculty from other disciplines from prestigious U.S. and international colleges and universities.

The delegation was recognized by faculty and deans at other institutions, including the dean of the Boston University School of Law, who wrote to Provost Parsons-Pollard and in addition to recognizing GSU’s faculty excellence, noted that many institutions in attendance had only one faculty member who had a presentation/paper accepted, much less the five faculty members from Georgia State Law.

Be on the lookout for more information about this conference through the College of Law’s News Hub in the future at this link.

– Summary by Jeremy Craig, Office of the Provost, with information and photos courtesy of Jaya Franklin, College of Law

Click the photo to enlarge the photo gallery.

2023 International Education Award Winners at Georgia State

The International Education Awards recognize outstanding faculty, staff and students for their commitment to international education. Awards are given at the annual International Honorary Reception during International Education Week in November.

The Office of International Initiatives is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Georgia State International Education Awards.

Award Winners

Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement
Paul Lombardo

Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement
Nara Monkam

Faculty Award for Global Engagement – Teaching, Service & Outreach
Salli Vargis

Faculty Award for Global Engagement – Research & Scholarship
Lucy Popova

Staff Award for Global Engagement
Diana Wrenn Rapp

International Graduate Student of the Year
Felipe Benitez Ulloa

International Undergraduate Student of the Year
Abdul Samad Yousuf

Study Abroad Student of the Year
Niki Nouroullahi

Selection committees composed of individuals from across the university reviewed the nominations and decided award winners.

Each recipient’s record of outstanding international contributions and accomplishments was recognized as worthy of distinction and inspiring to the students, staff and faculty of Georgia State.

Award winners will be honored at the invitation-only International Honorary Reception on Tuesday, November 7th.

– Elaine Guillot, Manager of Marketing & PR, Office of International Initiatives

24th International Education Week Festivities to be Held Nov. 6-10

Georgia State University will celebrate the 24th anniversary of International Education Week (IEW) during the week of Nov. 6-10.

As a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Education, the week celebrates the benefits of international education and exchange. Colleges, universities, high schools, and organizations are encouraged to host virtual or in-person events that celebrate global education and foster cross-cultural understanding.

Keep an eye out for more information about these events and learn more about international initiatives at Georgia State by visiting https://iew.gsu.edu/.

-Elaine Guillot, Manager of Marketing & PR, Office of International Initiatives

Georgia State Team Receives Fulbright-Hays Grant to Support Immersive Seminar Abroad on Afro-Brazilian Culture

Clockwise from upper left: Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey, Kyle Frantz, Elizabeth West, Leslie Marsh

A team from Georgia State University has garnered a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad grant from the U.S. Department of Education for a four-week seminar next summer, where Georgia State will take 16 educators and students in the humanities and social sciences to study Afro-Brazilian culture.

Participants will travel to Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, where they will study Portuguese, and learn about the culture, art, history, politics, and community of Afro-Brazilians. Activities will include lectures, seminars, cultural events, and culturally relevant excursions to become fully immersed in the culture of Salvador da Bahia, located in a country that has the second largest population of Black people outside of the African continent.

Co-Directors for this Global Education Initiative project include:

• Program Director: Dr. Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey, Professor of Africana Studies, Co-Director of the Center for the Advancement of Student and Alumni (CASA)
• Language Director: Dr. Leslie Marsh, Chair of World Languages and Culture
• Co-Director for Diasporic Connections: Dr. Elizabeth West, Professor of English
• Co-Director for Student Engagement and Involvement: Dr. Kyle Frantz, Co-Director of CASA

Among the 16 participants will be 12 humanities and social science educators — six college-level and six elementary/secondary educators — and four advanced undergraduates.

State of Bahia, Brazil (Raphael Lorenzeto de Abreu, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

This Global Education Initiative project (GEI) is led through the CASA, the Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora (CSAD), the Department of Africana Studies, and the Department of World Languages and Cultures.

Through this program, which seeks to remove the boundaries between the experiences of African Americans and the experiences of Black people throughout the African diaspora, the Georgia State team will:

• Enrich collaboration between world languages and other humanities and social science disciplines
• Establish long-term associations with Brazilian educators
• Broaden collaborations between elementary, middle, high school and college educators
• Increase knowledge and understanding of Afro-Brazilian cultures and communities of Bahia among United States educators
• Develop the inclusion of Afro-Brazilian history and culture into international area studies courses
• Introduce Portuguese language study for research abroad
• Encourage and support advanced undergraduates interested in pursuing graduate studies in modern foreign language or area studies

The Fulbright-Hays grant program is supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of International and Foreign Language Education. More information is available at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/iegps/index.html.

– Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

Georgia State Renews International Collaboration to Address Global Shortage of Medical Doctors

A joint high-level delegation of leaders from the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences (MNUMS) and the International Education Exchange Association (IEEA), visited Georgia State University May 10 to renew a collaboration that supports a special pre-med program to address the global shortage of medical doctors.

Khurelbaatar Nyamdavaa, president of MNUMS, headed the Mongolian delegation, while Dr. Jay Jongyul Lee led the IEEA contingent. The visitors met with Georgia State President M. Brian Blake and Provost Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, as well as Carrie Manning, Interim Associate Provost for International Initiatives; Allison Calhoun-Brown, Senior Vice President, Student Success; Michael Sanseviro, Vice President for Student Engagement and Programs; and representatives from the office of admissions and additional members from the Office of International Initiatives.

Established in 2018, the special pre-med program is a collaboration between MNUMS, IEEA and Georgia State. IEEA prepares Korean students for their academic experience at Georgia State where Korean students transfer to obtain biology or chemistry bachelor’s degrees with a concentration in pre-med. The Georgia State graduates then matriculate to MNUMS to study medicine. Two Memoranda of Cooperation, one between Georgia State and MNUMS, and one between Georgia State and IEEA were signed to facilitate further discussion and exploration of other areas of collaboration.

“We are delighted to have had the opportunity to host this distinguished delegation and to renew our partnership with MNUMS and IEEA on this career-oriented pathway program,” Manning said.

The Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences is the only public medical school in Mongolia. While the original goal of the visit was to renew the partnerships in international students’ pre-medical study and training, during the visit the delegation also learned about Georgia State’s Institute for Biomedical Science and the highly ranked Health Law program. President Nyamdavaa, who was the former Health Minister in Mongolia stated that he is looking forward to more areas of collaboration between the institutions in the future.

The high-level visit and renewed Memoranda of Cooperation between MNUMS, IEEA and Georgia State University reaffirms Georgia State’s role in higher education globally.

— Elaine Guillot, Manager of Marketing & PR, Office of International Initiatives

Originally published at https://news.gsu.edu/2023/05/25/georgia-state-renews-international-collaboration-to-address-global-shortage-of-medical-doctors/.

Georgia State and the Department of State Collaborate to Host Uzbekistan Educators

In June 2021, staff from the Office of International Initiatives, International Partnerships and Agreements (IPA) unit led by Kike Ehigiator, explored a partnership with Amity University in India that established a need for English language training in Uzbekistan. Following internal exploration, a Georgia State University alumnus from the Department of Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language (ESL) was identified as a good contact with prior experience in Uzbekistan. Dr. David Chiesa (Ph.D. ’18), now an assistant professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia, worked with the State Department as a doctoral student to lead IPA’s consultations with the U.S. government agency in Tashkent in October of that year.

This relationship led to the submission of a successful grant proposal by Dr. John Bunting, Director of the Georgia State University Intensive English Program (IEP). The $247,000 award is funding on-campus professional training for 16 Uzbekistani teachers at Georgia State this summer.

“The IEP and the Department of Applied Linguistics are delighted to host an amazing group of educators from Uzbekistan this summer, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan,” Bunting said. “They will be at GSU until the end of July, exchanging ideas with IEP teachers and participating in classes, workshops and classroom observations. They are also exploring Georgia’s culture and would love to meet more people from GSU and around Atlanta.”

Chiesa, who helped negotiate this partnership with colleagues in Tashkent, affirmed Georgia State’s Intensive English program.

“There is no greater joy than seeing a productive relationship grow between my academic family at GSU with my international colleagues from Uzbekistan.” Chiesa said. “This collaboration is a testament to the role of Georgia State students’ international experiences and their involvement in facilitating future partnerships and friendships.”

— Elaine Guillot, Manager of Marketing & Public Relations, Office of International Initiatives

Georgia State Accepts the 2023 Simon Award at the NAFSA Conference

Former senior director of the Office of International Initiatives Farrah Bernardino (second from left) is congratulated by NASFA CEO Fanta Aw (left), Martin Simon, son of the late Senator Paul Simon, (second from right) and NASFA President LaNitra Berger (right).

Georgia State University recently received the distinguished 2023 Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization, an honor granted to a select number of institutions that demonstrate outstanding innovation and accomplishment in campus internationalization.

Staff from the Office of International Initiatives traveled this month to the 75th NAFSA: Association of International Educators Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. with international educators from more than 100 countries, where NAFSA honored Simon award-winning institutions at an awards luncheon.

Only three other institutions, Northwestern University, the University of Kentucky and East Carolina University, received the award for Comprehensive Internationalization. NAFSA leadership and Martin Simon, son of the late Senator Paul Simon, recognized awardees on stage for their significant accomplishment, and Georgia State President M. Brian Blake shared via video some of the deliberate strides Georgia State has made towards campus internationalization, a goal realized through innovative and accessible programs and supported by hard-working faculty and staff that continues in the 2023 – 2033 strategic plan.

“I want to express my sincere appreciation to our faculty and staff for their commitment to developing global partnerships, programming and curriculum,” Blake said. “This award is a credit to their belief in the importance of global experiences for our students.”

Senator Paul Simon Award winning institutions will be featured in NAFSA’s annual report, “Internationalizing the Campus: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities.”

To view remarks by President Blake, click here to see the original story posting: https://news.gsu.edu/2023/06/20/georgia-state-accepts-the-2023-simon-award-at-the-nafsa-conference/

— Elaine Guillot, Manager, Marketing and Public Relations for the Office of International Initiatives

Fall Semester 2023 Workshops & Events: The Faculty Affairs Events Calendar

The Office of Faculty Affairs events calendar has been revised since last academic year, in a new visual format and refreshed with upcoming events and workshops.

A few upcoming events and workshops of interest include the following. More details are posted at the calendar page, which is linked here and at the blue button below.

• Aug. 17: New Faculty Orientation and New Faculty Reception
• Sept. 28: Celebrating Faculty Excellence
• Aug. 29 & Sept. 6: Best Practices in Faculty Hiring
• Sept. 7: Equity Minded Workload Workshops, Parts 1 & 2
• Oct. 3 & 16: Promotion & Tenure Workshops
• Oct. 5: Path to the Professoriate
• Oct. 19: New Faculty Check-In
• Oct. 20: Professors of Practice, Experts in Residence & Artists in Residence – Building Careers & Communities Workshop Series

OFA will continue to update the events page throughout the academic year, so make sure to check back!

— Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

Cirleen DeBlaere Named Director of Faculty Development

Cirleen DeBlaere

Cirleen DeBlaere was selected as the Director of Faculty Development in the Office of Faculty Affairs, effective July 10.

Her responsibilities in OFA include the development and implementation of faculty programming related to myriad aspects of faculty professional development. Dr. DeBlaere also supports the operations of the Office of Faculty Affairs, including faculty awards, faculty recruitment and hiring, and faculty mentoring initiatives.

Dr. DeBlaere joined the faculty of GSU in 2013 and earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor and Professor at GSU. Prior to being appointed to the Director role, Dr. DeBlaere served in various roles at GSU including Program Coordinator for the Counseling Psychology Ph.D. program, Senior Faculty Associate for Mentoring in the Graduate School, and Faculty Associate for Faculty Development in the Office of Faculty Affairs.

Dr. DeBlaere’s academic areas of interest include the impact of marginalization stressors on mental health and wellness as well as cultural humility in professional practice and leadership, and she holds an academic appointment as Professor of Counseling Psychology in the College of Education and Human Development at GSU. She is a highly productive scholar with more than 90 peer-reviewed publications, two coauthored books, over 100 presentations at national and international conferences, and multiple invited keynote addresses. In addition, she has garnered over $8 million in foundation and federal funding, has held multiple leadership roles in national organizations, and been recognized with multiple national awards for her scholarship and leadership in her areas of expertise (e.g., Emerging Leader for Women in Psychology Award, Committee for Women in Psychology of the American Psychological Association). Dr. DeBlaere is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. DeBlaere earned her doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Florida, her master’s degree in General Psychology from New York University, and bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Boston University.

— Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

New Faculty Mentoring Resources

Georgia State’s Office of Faculty Affairs in collaboration with the communications staff of the Office of the Provost have significantly updated GSU’s faculty mentoring resources page with essential guides, worksheets, videos, articles and suggested books.

The page is available at https://faculty.gsu.edu/faculty-mentoring/.

Comprehensive, widely cited faculty mentoring guides from Columbia University and the University of Michigan are available for download. You can also view video recordings of seminars held by Georgia State about mentoring.

Book listings include links to entries in the University Library catalog for e-book versions that are free to read for Georgia State faculty and staff, wherever a free-to-use e-book version is available. You can use your campus ID and password to access these readings.

You’ll also find a list of GSU Mentor Advocates by college/school/institute at the page.

One of the elements of Georgia State’s COACHE I Action Plan (2019-2022 cycle) was to fulfill a desire from faculty to have additional resources and access to mentoring. This updated mentoring site is but one element of the university’s efforts in this direction; the university has also established a faculty award and taken other actions. (Learn more on the COACHE at Georgia State website at https://provost.gsu.edu/coache/.)

If you have questions or suggestions about the mentoring resources page, please contact Cirleen DeBlaere, Director of Faculty Development, at [email protected].

– Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

2023 Faculty Honorees to be Recognized at Celebrating Faculty Excellence Sept. 28

Georgia State will honor its recent faculty awardees, faculty who have earned Regents’ and Distinguished University Professorships, and who have been promoted and/or tenured during Celebrating Faculty Excellence on Sept. 28. The invitation-only event will be held in the University Club at Center Parc Stadium.

Award winners and newly appointed, reappointed or permanently appointed Regents’ Professors and Distinguished University Professors were announced in late April after the publication of the last issue of the regular newsletter.

They are as follows:

– Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

Coming Soon: Watch Your Email for Faculty Award Deadlines, Nomination Procedures, Criteria, and a New Faculty Awards Page

Watch your email for further information about faculty awards, including deadlines, criteria and procedures for the 2024 awards. Information will be available at this link, in addition to lists of previous award winners.

Additionally, a new faculty award and professorship page, to include recognition of faculty earning GSU faculty awards and professorships, Regents’ Professorships, highly prestigious awards as defined by the National Research Council, and alumni of the Fulbright program will be published soon and announced along with information about the 2024 awards.

– Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

Interim Dean, Additional Leadership Appointments Announced for the College of the Arts

Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Georgia State University, announced the appointment of faculty to three key leadership positions at the university’s College of the Arts, including the college’s interim dean and interim associate dean, and the permanent director of the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design.

Chester Phillips, Director of the School of Music, will serve as interim dean of the college from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024, during the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship of Dean Wade Weast. While serving as interim dean, Phillips will continue in his role as Director of the School of Music, supplementing his leadership team by appointing Stuart Gerber as Interim Assistant Director for Faculty Affairs, assisting with the management of daily operations.

Susan Richmond, Associate Director of the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, will become the Interim Associate Dean for the College of the Arts, effective July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. Welch School of Art & Design Director Michael White will announce his plans for the appointment of Susan’s replacement in the near future.

Michael White has been appointed as permanent director of the Welch School after serving in an interim capacity. He previously directed the school from 2012 to 2018.

“As Georgia State pursues creative excellence in its mission and as a hallmark of its identity as part of Atlanta’s arts and culture, the College of the Arts is critical to achieving our institution’s strategic goals,” Parsons-Pollard said. I am confident that under the leadership of these outstanding faculty members, we will keep our forward momentum.”

Read the Provost’s full announcement to campus at this link.

Read more about Dean Weast’s ACE Fellowship at this link.

-Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

Ashley Holmes Named Interim Director of CETLOE

Ashley Holmes

Ashley Holmes, Associate Professor of English and director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program in the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Online Education (CETLOE), was named as CETLOE’s Interim Director effective Aug. 7.

Dr. Holmes’ appointment follows the departure of Laura Carruth, CETLOE’s former senior director, who became Associate Vice Provost for Transformative Teaching and Learning and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Holmes came to Georgia State as an Assistant Professor of English in 2012, having earned her PhD in Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English at the University of Arizona. She was promoted to her current rank n 2018.

As Director of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), she coordinates and offers pedagogical support for more than 265 WAC-trained faculty; hires, mentors, and trains 100 graduate student WAC consultants each academic year; leads pedagogy workshops for CETLOE; chairs the WAC Advisory Committee; reviews award and grant applications; and conducts research on WAC-related initiatives.

The Office of Academic Affairs under Senior Associate Provost Michael Galchinsky has started a national search for Dr. Carruth’s permanent successor.

Laura Carruth

Dr. Carruth’s contributions to CETLOE are numerous. Named as CETLOE director in 2014, she worked to to incorporate evidence-based pedagogical strategies across the university.

In fall 2022, she convened and led the Math Task Force established by Provost Parsons-Pollard to recommend improvements to the university’s lower division math instruction across all campuses. She developed the webinars and iCollege course on Regular and Substantive Interaction that have been attended by over 1,500 faculty to date. During the pandemic, she worked with others across the institution to ensure as successful a transition for faculty and students as possible into emergency remote learning.

In 2022, she developed and led Georgia State’s first-ever summer teaching institute—Success Through Advancing Teaching Excellence (STATE)—which is now in its second year. Using the Group Instruction Feedback Technique (GIFT), she has provided mid-semester teaching observations and feedback to instructors. For many years, she has presented at the New Faculty Orientation and led Part Time Instructor Orientation.

Additionally, she led the charge in developing the university’s list of student success activities that can be used by faculty to document their teaching effectiveness in annual reviews. She has worked closely with the Office of Faculty Affairs and the College to Career and High Impact Practices Initiatives to provide fellowship and grant opportunities for faculty and students.

– Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

Integration of Online Education Supports

This summer, Provost Nicolle Parsons-Pollard announced a more comprehensive integration of online education support services, including transitioning marketing and related services out of an online-only unit and into Undergraduate Admissions and the Graduate School. The staff from the Georgia State Online unit will be reassigned within the university in support of this strategic shift. The many services of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Online Education, including instructional support, learning innovation and instructional design will continue to serve faculty across all modalities.

The university will maintain the online.gsu.edu website that was designed to attract prospective students seeking a fully online education at Georgia State. Undergraduate Admissions and the Graduate School will work together with the university’s Department of Public Relations and Marketing Communications to maintain this site for marketing purposes. To support Undergraduate Admissions’ expanded responsibilities, Tierra Graves will be their fully dedicated Marketing Admissions Director and LaToya Luther will provide expertise in online prospective student support from the former Georgia State Online team.

The Graduate School has been reorganized to include support of online graduate education with the addition of Nancy Byron who will continue to provide valuable market insights and academic innovations for graduate programs across modalities, direct marketing and communications, and lead strategic partnership growth for the university’s graduate programs. She and her team will support and align our online efforts with the university’s strategic plan.

As stated by Provost Parsons-Pollard:

Online education is not separate from in-person teaching and learning at Georgia State – far from it. Our goal for teaching and learning at Georgia State is quality and excellence regardless of course or program modality. Our new strategic plan emphasizes student success wherever, and however, students learn. By meeting students where they are and integrating online modalities into our strategic vision – “Student Success 2.0” – Georgia State will continue to affirm its place as *the* national model for student success.

Learn more by clicking the link below about the university’s Strategic Online Education Committee, which the Provost has charged to realize Georgia State’s vision for excellence in distance education for students of all backgrounds and levels.

– Synopsis: Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost

GaLEND Audiology Program Addresses Shortage of Pediatric Audiologists in Georgia

The Georgia Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (GaLEND) Audiology program is working to increase the number of pediatric audiologists with clinical skills, leadership skills and expertise in delivering care to deaf or hard of hearing children and children with autism or other developmental disability. The program helps professionals build interdisciplinary skills to better serve children with hearing loss and their families.

Approximately 1% of Georgia’s children are deaf or hard of hearing. In Georgia, 5.5% of caregivers did not receive needed healthcare, and 13.3% indicated that their DHH child went without hearing services. There is a shortage of trained pediatric audiologists and audiologist assistants in the state to meet the needs of infants and young children with hearing loss.

The GaLEND Audiology Program is housed within the Center for Leadership in Disability in the GSU School of Public Health. It has partnered with the Pediatric Audiology program at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the University of Georgia to recruit graduate-level audiology doctoral candidates as GaLEND pediatric audiology trainees. In addition, it uses resources available through the American Academy of Audiology, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders to recruit potential applicants from underrepresented racial and ethnic communities. GaLEND recruits and trains two pediatric audiology trainees each year.

The audiology lead faculty member is Dr. Akilah Heggs Lee, clinical assistant professor in the GSU Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. “Audiologists and audiology students in their final year of training get specialized content around pediatric audiology and learn about the system of care, particularly in Georgia, to support infants and young children with hearing loss and their families. The GaLEND Audiology program also allows them to interact with other disciplines to enhance their ability to respond to this population’s needs,” said Dr. Heggs Lee. “The goal is that you know these pediatric audiology trainees participating in the program will stay in Georgia and become qualified professionals here. The long-term outcome is increasing access to competent and culturally appropriate audiology services for children with hearing loss.”

Children’s and UGA are currently approved as Doctor of Audiology externship sites, where students complete full-time clinical externships and receive most of their clinical experience. GaLEND incorporates interdisciplinary clinical opportunities at Children’s in the neurodevelopmental clinics and through the District Early Hearing Detection and Intervention hearing clinics in Fulton and conduct outreach activities at the GSU Speech and Hearing Clinic’s Clarkston site.

The family engagement experience is an essential part of the training process. Audiology trainees are assigned to work with a family member of DHH children and adults during their training. In addition, trainees work with organizational partners in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community to learn from families about their lived experiences navigating the EHDI system. These experiences promote an understanding of family and community issues.

“As we begin our third-year training audiology students in LEND with the support of the audiology supplement through the Maternal Child Health Bureau, we are pleased to be able to engage emerging-leader audiologists who are better equipped to hear and respond to the unique needs of children and families who live with hearing loss and autism,” said Mark Crenshaw, GaLEND’s Director of Interdisciplinary Training. “We are also thrilled with the range of opportunities this funding creates to support practicing audiologists better to meet the needs of this population of patients.”

GaLEND provides targeted continuing education and professional development activities contributing to improved systems of care for underserved communities, with a focus on improving services and supports for children with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families. In addition to learning how to improve their clinical practice, trainees will understand systems of care and social determinants of health for children who are DHH.

In addition to its partnerships with Children’s and UGA, the GaLEND Audiology Program collaborates with the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the Emory University Center of Excellence in MCH Education.

— Gail Rodriguez, Communications Manager for the Center for Leadership in Disability, School of Public Health

Originally published at https://news.gsu.edu/2023/06/20/galend-audiology-program-addresses-shortage-of-pediatric-audiologists-in-georgia/.

The digATL Portal – Linking Campus to Community Through Digital Content

Inspired by Georgia State’s new strategic focus on “Identity, Placemaking, and Belonging” and in order to promote research and learning about our city and region, the University Library has launched digATL: The Digital Atlanta Portal to provide a single online destination to showcase and share the many projects, collections, and data about the metro area produced by GSU students, faculty, and staff working with and within their local communities.

That’s digATL (pronounced didge’-A-T-L).

Check it out at digatl.library.gsu.edu

The site’s objectives:

• Contribute to research, scholarship, and creative activity focused on the city of Atlanta and our metro region.
• Support student success by providing convenient and open (free) access to primary and secondary sources for learning about our city and region across multiple disciplines.
• Foster place-based identity and belonging by linking GSU learners and researchers with resources produced and pertaining to “where they are.”

The University Library invites you to explore the 50+ projects and resources currently available through the digATL Portal.

Also note the handy link to the most recent Atlanta research happening at GSU – doctoral dissertations, master’s theses, journal article manuscripts, etc. – located in upper right-hand corner:

Everything here is free and open to our local communities and beyond.

Information from the University Library blog at https://blog.library.gsu.edu/2023/05/08/new-the-digatl-portal-linking-campus-to-community-through-digital-content/, by Brian Sinclair, University Library

Georgia State University College of Law Class of ’23 Endows Scholarship to Honor the Memory of Classmate Alex Patafio

Alexandra “Alex” Patafio (J.D. ’23)

Alexandra “Alex” Patafio (J.D. ’23) was passionate in her studies and selfless in service. She helped classmates secure scholarships for professional conferences and volunteered tirelessly with Georgia State University College of Law’s pro bono efforts and Health Law Partnership Clinic. She advocated for those facing eviction and wrongful conviction and fought for the rights of women, minorities, the LGBTQIA+ community and other underserved groups.

“Alex was a shining light, a friend to everyone she met and was passionate and courageous in fighting for the rights of others,” said Kierra Powell (J.D. ’23), president of the Georgia State College of Law Student Bar Association and Patafio’s classmate. “She represents the best of us.”

The College of Law Class of 2023 chose to honor Patafio after her untimely death in October 2022 by dedicating its class gift to establish the Class of 2023 Alex Patafio Scholarship.

At the College of Law’s May 12 Commencement & Hooding Ceremony, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Courtney Anderson announced that the scholarship was fully endowed and will be awarded annually to select College of Law students interested in pursuing careers in public interest law, just like Patafio. Her parents, Chris and Michele Patafio, were in attendance at the ceremony and accepted on her behalf a posthumous Juris Doctor degree conferred by the college.

“Alex – with her fearless fortitude – leaves an indelible impression on the College of Law, where she quickly emerged as a true leader and confidant,” said Anderson. “Alex was once quoted in an article saying, ‘it is so important to exercise your privilege in a way that is benefitting to the community,’ and the College of Law Class of 2023 truly embraced this directive in establishing the Alex Patafio Public Interest Law Scholarship.”

Since its February 15, 2023 launch, the Class of 2023 class gift has raised more than $50,000 and is the largest class gift by a Georgia State College of Law cohort.

More than 220 individuals have donated to the cause, including Patafio’s parents and sister Michaela Patafio. Additionally, 130 of Patafio’s classmates in the College of Law donated to the scholarship, along with 36 College of Law alumni. The project ranks as the most successful student-led crowdfunding campaign undertaken at Georgia State.

The Class of 2023 Alex Patafio Scholarship crowdfunding project is still open and accepting donations. Learn more about Patafio’s remarkable legacy and how to honor her memory by contributing to the College of Law Class of 2023 class gift at impact.gsu.edu.

Explore how donor dollars make a difference every day at Georgia State at giving.gsu.edu.

— Michael Rohling, Director, Advancement Communications

Originally published at https://news.gsu.edu/2023/05/30/georgia-state-university-college-of-law-class-of-23-endows-scholarship-to-honor-the-memory-of-classmate-alex-patafio/.

Artificial Intelligence Syllabus Statement

While the capacities of generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT are constantly evolving, the Center for Excellence in Teaching Learning and Online Education (CETLOE) recognizes that instructors need guidance now for how to frame expectations around approved or prohibited usage of generative AI in your courses.

To that end, we have developed the following recommended syllabus statement on the use of AI tools based on current understanding of best practice. Importantly, instructors should clearly describe within the bracketed portion of the syllabus statement their expectations around AI usage that apply within their specific course sections.

CETLOE has provided an example list of guidelines that instructors can tailor to fit with their expectations; this list of examples is not exhaustive. Please stay tuned for upcoming announcements about CETLOE workshops and webinars related to AI in the classroom.

Syllabus Statement

Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are designed to assist in creating and analyzing text, code, video, audio, and other multimedia. Use of these resources in your coursework comes with benefits and risks. In this course, the rules for AI usage are as follows: {visit site for example statements with guidance on tailoring the statement }. Any unapproved use within the course might be considered a breach of academic honesty. While exercising responsible and ethical engagement with AI is a skill you may hone over time, your unique human insights, critical thinking, and creative contributions remain pivotal to your learning experiences and success.

Instructor Guidance for Tailoring the Statement

Below are examples of phrasing for AI usage guidelines that instructors can tailor to fit with their specific course expectations and include within the brackets in the above statement; this list of examples is not exhaustive. Since opinions vary widely regarding the appropriate use of such technologies, instructors should clearly state their specific generative AI guidelines in their syllabi and assignment descriptions and should provide timely reminders regarding appropriate use throughout the semester.

These usage examples are based on current understanding of best practice and may be updated as more data becomes available. It is each instructor’s responsibility to be specific and clear with their expectations around the topic of AI usage with the students in their courses.

1. An Example Statement that Prohibits AI Usage in the Course:

You are not allowed to use generative AI tools like ChatGPT for any work in this course, including both graded and ungraded work. Prohibited AI usage includes idea or text generation, writing or revising your work, development of media assets, or data analysis and presentation.

2. Example Statements that Allow for Limited AI Usage in the Course:

• • •

In Specific Assignments:

You may use a generative AI tool like ChatGPT only when it is specifically permitted as part of an assignment.

• • •

For Early Idea or Draft Development:

You are free to use generative AI to help you develop ideas or a first draft of your paper. You will be required to turn in the prompt(s) you used, the AI’s response(s), and all subsequent drafts so I can see your work.

• • •

Only with AI Attribution or Citation:

You are allowed to use generative AI tools to help with assignments for this course but only with attribution. All use of AI tools (such as ChatGPT and others) must be explicitly cited using MLA, APA, or Chicago style footnotes with an explanation of how the AI tool was used and which prompts were given.

• • •

Only with AI Contributions Identified:

During this course, you will be asked in some activities to use AI tools. Any work you submit that has incorporated AI-generated content should indicate which parts of the work are yours and which parts were generated or informed by AI.

• • •

Only with Advanced Instructor Permission:

Please contact me in advance for permission to interact with generative AI tools at any stage of your work in this course, from early idea generation to putting the finishing touches on drafts and projects. Use of AI without instructor permission is not allowed.

Instructors can contact staff in CETLOE for support with AI in the classroom. Check for updates to the CETLOE website and events calendar soon that will announce workshops and webinars related to AI in the classroom.

For Bill Feldhaus, a relationship with GSU that started as a doctoral student in 1972 continues as he works alongside faculty of the Emeriti Association to support students in pursuing activities beyond the classroom – extending the educational experience and opening opportunity.

A Professor Emeritus of Risk Management and Insurance, the former president of the association and now association treasurer has helped with an association program which supports the dean of the Honors College.

The discretionary fund assists students who want to extend and enhance their education beyond the classroom – such as engaging in academic meetings and conferences, research, and other experiences, something some students might never have envisioned themselves pursuing.

“I’ve had a variety of students in the programs I’ve taught, and we have a very strong cadre of very bright students who are doing great things,” he said. “They have great potential, personality and maturity, and it’s very compelling for an academic to be associated with very bright students such as ours.”

“It’s amazing to hear some of the history of what some of those students have experienced, and for them to have created scholarly output,” Feldhaus continued.

As the university has proven with grants of many types across the board, even a comparatively small amount of funding goes a long way.

“We get feedback from students who receive support [from the discretionary fund] and it’s inspiring to hear what those grants, even though small, have meant to enhance their overall education at Georgia State,” Feldhaus said.

“With Georgia State students, you have by and large a group of students who are dedicated to preparing for their careers,” he continued. “They’re hardworking, industrious, and a joy to work with. And to help enhance their education, it’s a really worthwhile experience as a faculty member.”

Feldhaus said that the association is looking at what other things with which emeriti faculty may wish to assist.

“We have experiences, skills and relationships developed over the years – a mix between what our membership can do, and what the university needs, from assistance to academic units to special projects and activities where there may not be enough full-time faculty to handle demand,” he said. “Academic units, deans and department chairs can consider the needs that are not currently being met and look to us as another source of talent for assistance in research, student support, and other activities.”

To learn more about the Emeriti Association, click here or the blue button below.

– Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost