A NOTE FROM THE PROVOST
Dear university community,
As you may know, this is my final letter to you as Provost. It has been an honor to serve you and the Georgia State community through some of the most challenging years any of us has experienced. When I took the position, I could not have imagined that we would face together a seemingly endless global pandemic, a national reckoning over racial injustice, and an incredibly turbulent political era – all at the same time.
People often ask me how it is possible to be the provost and stay positive in such circumstances. The answer is simple — what we do as administrators is a team sport.
To my staff, associate provosts, deans, department chairs and others I have worked with closely — as well as every member of our incredibly talented faculty and staff at Georgia State – know that it was your contributions that made it possible for this university to continue and surpass its challenges during this unprecedented time. Even on the hardest days, working with you was an absolute privilege that made everything seem possible. I will long remember the laughter, can-do spirit, and grit that made it clear that failure simply was not an option. I am deeply grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to serve you and look forward to applauding your many successes in the future.
I wish my successor, Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, the best as she takes over this leadership position as Interim Provost. I have the utmost confidence in her and hope you will lend her your support as Georgia State moves forward with critical initiatives.
As it should be, the work of the university continues, and I have much to share with you.
The recent changes to post-tenure review policies by the University System of Georgia (USG) have been much dissected and discussed. As I have said across campus, I firmly believe that the new policies do not erase or seriously impair protections for academic freedom and tenure. Importantly, our campus now has the opportunity to shape the final policy for Georgia State. We are committed to ensuring that the new policy aligns with our beliefs, values and shared principles, and faculty governance will play a key role at each stage of our deliberations.
On Nov. 2, I hosted a virtual town hall outlining the discretion Georgia State has in enacting these policies and detailing the overall process and timelines for consideration and implementation.
If you missed this event, I invite you to view the recording and download handouts from the presentation by visiting the Faculty Affairs SharePoint portal here. The handouts will be particularly helpful in understanding how these processes will work and the timelines we face.
We must move swiftly in order to meet USG deadlines, but we will do so with full faculty governance and time for deliberation. My office will keep you apprised via the news feed at https://provost.gsu.edu, future editions of this newsletter, and in other campus email communications.
As a faculty member, I know there is nothing more important or satisfying than teaching our students well. Although achieving that is hard in the best of circumstances, it has been made more so because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In case you have wondered whether your students see and are affected by your efforts – they absolutely do and they are.
Our Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning has amassed hundreds of “thank you” messages from students to our faculty. We have included them below, and I hope you take the time to look at them. They confirm that our impact with students can be profound and life changing.
We have also included articles in this edition of the newsletter highlighting just a few of the grants, accolades, accomplishments and awards our faculty, staff and students . External recognition is confirmation of our excellence, and I want to congratulate you all. There are many, many others to share, so make sure to follow provost.gsu.edu, and the e-newsletters and websites of your colleges, schools, and units. My office continues to work on ways to provide more frequent recognition from an institutional level, so stay tuned.
This edition is also packed with information and updates about International Education Awards, our ongoing work in diversity, equity, and inclusion, an important civic innovation and engagement initiative, and research news.
In closing, I would be remiss if I did not thank our former president, Mark Becker, for his incredible support and mentorship throughout my tenure. Continued best wishes as well to our new president, M. Brian Blake, for much success as he moves Georgia State into its next chapter of excellence.
I will repeat once more, thank you to all faculty and staff for what you do for this university. Please take care of yourselves and each other, and enjoy your well-earned rest over the holidays.
Sincerely,
Wendy F. Hensel, J.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEWS
- Nicolle Parsons-Pollard Named Interim Provost; Additional Leadership Appointments Announced
- Post-Tenure Review Town Hall & Information
- Student Thank-Yous from the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Online Education
- Celebrating Faculty Excellence
- Faculty/Staff Town Hall on Student Mental Health – Recording and Resource Handouts
- International Education Awards
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion News – Nov. 16 Diversity Dialogue on Student Leadership
- Perimeter College – Grants for Student Success, Learning Innovation and Underrepresented Students in STEM
- School of Music Faculty, GSU Women’s Chorus, Recognized with National Awards
- Mike Pesko Appointed to Health Canada Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for Vaping Products
- Social Action Alliance Initiative: Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
- Kim Siegenthaler Appointed to Board of University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA)
- Watch the Kreuter Katz Lecture from the School of Public Health
- Georgia State to Establish Center on Brain Development, Structure and Connectivity Using National Science Foundation Grant
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
- A Lens on Belonging: Filmmaker Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz’s Lens on Immigration
- Transformative Technology: Yu-Ping Chen Uses Virtual Reality to Improve the Lives of Children with Cerebral Palsy
NEWS FROM THE NEXT GENERATION PROGRAM/SECOND CENTURY INITIATIVE
READ PREVIOUS ISSUES
NEWS
Nicolle Parsons-Pollard Named Interim Provost Effective Jan. 1, 2022; Additional Leadership Appointments Announced
Georgia State President M. Brian Blake announced on Dec. 1 the appointment of Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, as Interim Provost effective Jan. 1, 2022, along with several other critical leadership appointments. Learn more below.
Appointments
Nicolle Parsons-Pollard
Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Ph.D.
Dr. Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Ph.D., will begin her appointment as Interim Provost on Jan. 1, 2022.
Dr. Parsons-Pollard was appointed as Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs in 2020. In her role there, she is responsible for creating, implementing and championing a variety of faculty development programs to support and strengthen faculty in teaching and research, as well as leadership programming for department chairs and other administrators. She is responsible for developing and implementing faculty policies and procedures, managing university awards and recognition for faculty, and assisting with the promotion and tenure process.
Recent accomplishments include:
-Negotiating the acquisition of an enterprise system to track faculty through their career life cycle and manage the workflow for review, promotion and tenure.
-Developing a COVID-19 Impact Statement process for review, promotion and tenure.
-Overseeing the University Mentoring Program Initiative as a result of COACHE Survey feedback.
-Creating a new leadership program for women faculty.
-Reorganizing the Office of Faculty Affairs.
Under President Blake’s visioning process for the next university strategic plan, Dr. Parsons-Pollard has been responsible for one of the key pillars that will form the foundation of the next plan – identity and placemaking.
Additionally, Dr. Parsons-Pollard has served as a key member of a leadership team which has tackled some of the most critical issues in diversity, equity and inclusion, including service on the Task Force for Racial Equality in 2020, as well as a key point person for the university’s action plan to address the task force’s recommendations. (You can read more about the task force at this link, and more about the university’s action plan here.)
She has also provided leadership in Georgia State’s multi-year improvement cycle through the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Satisfaction process, which aims to improve the academic workplace, and increase retention and engagement of university faculty. (Read more about COACHE here.)
Dr. Parsons-Pollard also has oversight of the Implementation Steering Committee of the Next Generation of Faculty initiative, which has also brought truly impactful measures to bear for the diversification of faculty in recruitment, retention and engagement. (Read more about the Next Generation of Faculty initiative here.)
In her previous role as Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs at Monmouth University (New Jersey), she provided leadership to ensure the integrity and quality of academic programs with an emphasis on student success. She also oversaw the university’s promotion, tenure, and continuance process as well as developing university-wide initiatives to attract and retain a highly qualified and diverse faculty. She served as the inaugural chair of the President’s Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion, which paved the way to the construction of a permanent interactive exhibit honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech on campus in October of 1966 and established the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Speaker on Social Justice series.
Dr. Parsons-Pollard has served as Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Operations at Virginia State University and completed the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Program in 2014-2015.
Dr. Parsons-Pollard’s academic field of interest is in criminal justice, and she holds an appointment as Professor of Criminal Justice in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State. Her research and scholarship has focused on program evaluation, juvenile justice, and disproportionate minority contact by the criminal justice system.
She earned her Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in public policy and administration, as well as a master’s degree in criminal justice and a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from VCU.
A national search for the senior vice president for academic affairs and provost will begin this spring. Dr. Corrie Fountain, currently Director of Faculty Development, will serve as Interim Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs starting in January.
Corrie Fountain
Dr. Corrie Fountain, director of Faculty Development, will serve as interim associate provost for faculty affairs. In her current role, Dr. Fountain’s responsibilities include the planning, implementation and evaluation of professional development workshops, seminars and other trainings for faculty, and assisting with faculty recruitment and retention efforts. She has a Ph.D. in educational policy studies with a concentration in research, measurement and statistics from Georgia State.
Nancy Kropf
Dr. Nancy Kropf, Ph.D., current dean of Perimeter College, will begin her new appointment as Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives on Feb. 1, 2022.
In this role, Dr. Kropf will work closely with Interim Provost Nicolle Parsons-Pollard (who begins in this role effective Jan. 1) and President Blake to advance the university as strategic planning begins for another impactful decade.
She has served as dean at Perimeter since 2019, and has led the college to record graduation rates and unprecedented success. She first joined Georgia State in 2006 as a director and professor in the School of Social Work, then became an associate dean in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies in 2013.
In 2015, while serving as Associate Dean for Research and Strategic Initiatives at the Andrew Young School, she was appointed as dean of the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions, working to integrate the nursing programs of Perimeter College and the Lewis College during Perimeter’s 2016 consolidation with the downtown Atlanta institution.
Dr. Kropf holds a Ph.D. in social work and social policy from Virginia Commonwealth University, a master’s of social work from Michigan State University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from Hope (Mich.) College.
Cynthia Lester
Succeeding Dr. Kropf as Perimeter’s interim dean will be Dr. Cynthia Lester, the college’s current Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Perimeter College.
During her tenure in academic affairs, Dr. Lester implemented the first Department Chairs Onboarding Academy and the New Faculty Lunch and Learn Series, led department chair search processes which resulted in the successful hiring of five new department chairs and provided leadership for faculty search processes which yielded the successful hiring of 45 new faculty.
Dr. Lester, a professor of computer science, previously served as associate dean of the Division of Math, Computer Science and Engineering and as associate dean of Georgia State’s Clarkston Campus.
Michael Parkerson
Michael Parkerson has been named by President Blake as permanent Vice President for Government and Community Affairs. Parkerson has served as interim vice president since July. He has been with Georgia State since 2018 and previously served as Associate Vice President for Government Relations at Kennesaw State University. His office serves as the principal liaison between the university and all elected officials and is responsible for overseeing communications and relations between Georgia State and local, state and federal government offices and legislative bodies.
Andrea Jones
Andrea Jones has been named permanent Vice President for Public Relations and Marketing Communications. Jones most recently served as interim vice president and has been with Georgia State for 13 years. During that time, she helped build the public relations and marketing team into an award-winning public relations and marketing operation, expanding its reach and scope. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia.
Post-Tenure Review Town Hall & Information
If you were not able to view it live, a recording and handouts from the November virtual town hall on post tenure review are now available through the Office of Faculty Affairs SharePoint portal. You can access these materials by using your Georgia State campus ID and password at the link in blue button below.
Updates about this process will be posted to the news feed on this website as they become available.
Student Thank-Yous from the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Online Education
During the summer, the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Online Education engaged in a pilot “Thank a Teacher Program. More than 1,400 students took the time to write letters to their professors thanking them for their teaching and mentorship, from across every college, rank and nearly every department.
The Office of the Provost is sharing, with the consent of the students listed below, some of these message excerpts in which students expressed gratitude during a very difficult time.
Click the “+” sign to read more, listed by the name of each instructor and student.
Thank you so much for being so forgiving and understanding even though I sometimes hand in my homework late or do a terrible job on my quizzes. I always struggled with math growing up and all my teachers gave up on me except for you. You were patient and genuinely wanted to help me pass this course and I am forever grateful for that. … I’m glad I chose you as my professor and if I do have to repeat this course or take more math classes in the future I am definitely coming back to you!
Thank you so much for being a great professor!
Dr. Emerson you are the best! I was originally in school to get my education degree for general education, but you have motivated me to think outside the box and seek a career in special education. You were always right there when I had questions and kept me up to date on my progress. I feel like I have known you for years and not just seven short weeks.
You have far exceeded my expectations of a professor. You have become my mentor and role model. I aspire to be like you! Thank you so much for making this semester enjoyable as well as educational and stress free.
I would like to personally and publicly thank and acknowledge Professor Tosha Lamar for being a phenomenal instructor and by far, the best instructor I have ever had in my entire academic matriculation. I am not a “math person”, I have always been extremely intimidated by math, and I waited to take math until it was the last course to fulfill graduation requirements. As a result of the practical structure and extra support/ resources Professor Lamar provided, I passed my most dreaded course with an “A”.
I believe the teaching model Professor Lamar utilizes should be incorporated in all courses to improve student academic success, especially online learning. She provided an abundance of examples, practice work, videos, notes, outside sources, and supplemental information to ensure we were able to get a firm grasp on each lesson/concept … her follow-up and reminder systems she has in place are by far the best answer/ solution to some of the modern day obstacles students may face in today’s academic climate, where we are overwhelmed with outside distractions, problems, worries, (mental and physical) health concerns, stress and anxiety – and it can literally make all the difference in providing that extra encouragement and support we may need. These are the soft/interpersonal skills instructors should be equipped with in addition to subject matter expertise. She really wants her students to succeed and she gives them every tool possible to pass her course.
Thank You Professor Lamar!
Please continue to support your students the way you do. You are exceptional and should be recognized and rewarded for your outstanding methods of teaching. I will never forget you and the positive impact you have had on the way I now approach learning and studying!
Best wishes and good luck to you in all of your future endeavors.
Thank you Dr. Smith for being such an involved professor. I have taken online courses for 95% of my college career and I have never had a professor so readily available and willing to help. Often I do not even know what my professors look like or sound like as all communication is usually through email or posted announcements. That was not the case with your class and it made a world of difference.
Thank you for also being understanding and patient with me when I was panicking about missing assignments to give birth to my new baby. It was your willingness to help make sure I still was able to complete my assignments that kept me going so that I could finish the semester strong. I appreciate that more than you’ll ever know. Taking four classes in the summer semester while everything is already moving fast and then having a baby who required most of my attention almost got the best of me, but your understanding and leniency with the due date for assignments due around my son’s birth is the reason that I will be graduating this semester as intended. I know for a fact that I would have fallen behind if that were not the case. Not just for your class, but my other classes as well because they showed no mercy. I’m forever grateful.
Thank you!
Dear Dr. Susan M. Snyder,
Thank you for all of the support you provided me during my first semester in the Fall of 2020. I had a lot of challenges as a new student and family caregiver. You supported and encouraged me throughout the entire semester and even afterwards.
Your support of my academic success was instrumental in helping me to complete the class project and earn a good grade. I enjoyed taking your class and especially learning so much as I completed the Community Analysis Project.
Dr. Snyder, thank you for being there for me when my father passed away earlier this year. It was a difficult time as my family and I could not say our final good-byes due to healthcare restrictions. Your condolence entry in my father’s obituary was heartfelt and appreciated.
I am very grateful to you for writing a letter of recommendation for me as I applied for scholarships. I was awarded a scholarship for the fall semester, 2021. Thank you! I appreciate you Dr. Susan M. Snyder!
Dear Professor Stickney,
I was a student in the courses listed for two semesters while my time at Perimeter. You were also the professor who graciously granted me a recommendation on your behalf for my SMART Scholarship (which I was a semifinalist for, but never made it above that level). I am so happy and excited to announce that I have been accepted into Georgia Tech and my time at Perimeter has come to a close. I wanted to reach out and personally express my gratitude because I am so very thankful I had your support throughout my ambitions and endeavors and you showed your support in me even when I was not enrolled as one of your students anymore. I remember from one of your lines in your email that you stated, “You are very deserving,” and that line is attached to my wall as motivation. You have left a very positive impact on me and I cannot thank you enough. Thank you for being a part of my journey as a college student. Your kind words will never leave me even after I graduate.
Thank you, Dr. Vargis,
For not only being an exceptional professor who always brings the best out of her students, but for also being a wonderful mentor and guide, always willing to help and provide sound counsel, all with a demeanor of patience and grace. I am confident my college experience would have looked very much worse without your kindness and drive to push me to be a good, hardworking student. It was among the best experiences of my education to this point being under your guidance, both in the classroom and out of it. Your wisdom still resonates in how I conduct myself as a student and a person more generally.
Celebrating Faculty Excellence
The Office of the Provost congratulates faculty honorees who were recognized during the recent Celebrating Faculty Excellence event, as well as the students, faculty and staff named as the inaugural recipients of the Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) Award.
Honorees were recognized during the Celebrating Faculty Excellence event on Thursday, Oct. 1, where award recipients from 2020 were also commended for their achievements.
Further details are below.
This honor is bestowed on distinguished faculty whose innovative scholarly achievements are recognized nationally and internationally. This is the highest academic appointment in the University System of Georgia.
2019
Professor Pam Longobardi is a faculty member in the Department of Art and Design. She has shown her artwork in museums and galleries worldwide, including the Goulandris Museum of Natural History in Athens.
Her work has been purchased for major collections such as the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, for which curators traveled across the country to choose 100 works representing the breadth of artistic practice across the United States.
Likewise, Professor Longobardi’s installation “Ghosts of Consumption” has been featured and was reproduced in numerous print media, including the Wall Street Journal. She also was awarded the Hudgens Prize, one of the largest awards given to North American artists.
Her most recent work on the Drifters Project explores the intersection of art, science, and activism in a collaborative and international context has been featured in several films to include National Geographic.
• • •
Dr. Xiaochun He is a faculty member in Physics and Astronomy, and he is considered the world leader in experimental high-energy nuclear physics. He has brought significant recognition to Georgia State through his collaborative work on an international project called the Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction Experiment, also known as the PHENIX project at the Brookhaven National Labs.
The PHENIX project seeks to investigate high energy collisions of heavy ions, which is relevant to the earliest stage of the universe after the Big Bang. Dr. He is a vital member of the PHENIX project and serves as a board member.
He has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and has been highly successful in attracting external grants continuously from 1996 to the present.
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Dr. Mark Keil is the John B. Zellars Professor of Computer Information Systems at Georgia State University. He joined the Department of Computer Information Systems in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University in 1991 and also holds a joint appointment in GSU’s Department of Computer Science.
Keil’s research focuses on IT project management and includes work on preventing IT project escalation, identifying and managing IT project risks, improving IT project status reporting, and IT implementation and use.
He has published more than 80 refereed journal articles in such outlets as the MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Sciences, Strategic Management Journal, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Sloan Management Review, and California Management Review.
Keil is currently a senior editor for Information Systems Research and also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Management Information Systems. He has previously served as a senior editor for the Information Systems Journal, associate editor for both MIS Quarterly and Information Systems Research, co-editor-in-chief of The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, and as an editorial board member for IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.
2020
Dr. Geert de Vries is chair of the Department of Biology and is a member of Georgia State’s Neuroscience Institute.
Ever since discovering major sex differences in the vasopressin innervation of the brain as a graduate student, Dr. De Vries has studied the development and function of sex differences in the brain. This culminated in him proposing the idea that such differences can cause as well as prevent sex differences in physiology and behavior. At GSU, he is taking full advantage of the multidisciplinary and collaborative culture provided by the Petit Science Center and currently studies interactions between the gut microbiota and the brain. His research has been consistently funded by NSF and NIH.
Dr. De Vries joined GSU in 2012, leaving a long-standing position at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass). At UMass, he directed the Center for Neuroendocrine Studies and an NIH-funded Training Program in Neuroendocrinology. He is a founding member and Past President of the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences and Past President of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. He served on several scientific NIH and NSF grant review panels, on editorial boards of Endocrinology and Hormones and Behavior, and on the advisory boards of Canada’s Institute of Gender and Health and NIH’s Office on Women’s Health Research.
2021
Dr. S. Tamer Cavusgil holds the Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chair in the Department of International Business and is Executive Director of the Center for International Business Education and Research.
His work is among the most cited contributions in international business. Google Scholar lists him 1st in the world in export marketing and in-born globals, 2nd in international marketing and emerging markets and 6th in the world in international business. Dr. Cavusgil is the senior author of the leading textbook, International Business and he also founded the leading international marketing journal.
Most recently, the Academy of International Business honored him with the Gold Medal Award for Exceptional Contributions, an honor that has only been bestowed to 16 scholars worldwide.
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Dr. Andrew Gewirtz is a faculty member in Institute for Biomedical Sciences and is a world-renowned leader in the field of microbiome and inflammation.
Dr. Gewirtz has made great strides in advancing his hypothesis associated with chronic low-grade inflammation, which impacts a number of important human diseases.
He has over 200 publications, and recently, he has also been active in COVID-19 research. His work has led to a publication demonstrating the impact of the microbiome on virus infectivity, and his research is playing a key role right here in Atlanta.
Lastly, Dr. Gewirtz has maintained annual external funding of over $1.5M. He is currently Principal Investigator on 3 NIH RO1 awards and Co-Investigator on 2 NIH R01 awards.
• • •
Professor Natsu Saito is a faculty member in the College of Law and a national and international leading scholar. She is known for her groundbreaking incorporation of international law into a vital theoretical framework.
Professor Saito has three books with major academic presses and over 60 articles. Her most recent book Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persists, has received substantial attention for its timely analysis as America confronts the disparate impact of the global pandemic and police shootings on black and brown lives.
Professor Saito was one of the first legal scholars to identify doctrinal parallels in the law governing immigration, federal Indian law, and unincorporated U.S. territories.
Distinguished University Professors are faculty members who have records of exemplary scholarship in their respective fields of study, with research and teaching trajectories that demonstrate a commitment to sustained high levels of academic achievement.
2020
Dr. Sarah Brosnan is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology and the co-director of the internationally renowned Language Research Center at Georgia State. She is a leader in primate cognition and behavior, particularly economic decision-making processes.
Dr. Brosnan has published over 130 refereed journal articles and book chapters, many of them in high-impact journals such as Nature Scientific Reports and Nature Human Behavior. Her published book chapters include contributions in volumes published by major university presses, including Oxford and Harvard. In addition, she has built an impressive record of external funding, having secured $4 million in research funding as PI while also serving as co-PI on numerous collaborative funded projects.
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Dr. Javier Stern is a faculty member in the Neuroscience Institute and a world leader in his field, making profound contributions in the area of neural and neuroendocrine control of cardiovascular function.
He has published 90 refereed publications, many in top-tier publication venues such as Nature Communications, Neuron, and Journal of Physiology. Dr. Stern also has a strong track record of external funding as PI, with awards totaling over 7 million.
He has been recognized with awards such as the Distinguished Research Award of the Georgia Regents Research Institute.
• • •
Dr. Daniel Whitaker is Associate Dean for Research and Director of National SafeCare Training and Research Center in the School of Public Health.
Whitaker received his PhD in 1996 from the University of Georgia and worked as a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 10 years before coming to Georgia State in 2008. His research interests focus on family violence including child maltreatment prevention and intimate partner violence prevention, with an interest in intervention research and implementation science. As Director of NSTRC, he has overseen the dissemination of SafeCare across the U.S. and internationally.
Whitaker’s work has been funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Administration on Children and Families, the Administration on Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Whitaker is current Editor in Chief for Child Maltreatment.
2021
Dr. Deron Boyles is a scholar in the Department of Educational Policy Studies of College of Education & Human Development.
His research interests include school commercialism, epistemology, ethics, and American philosophy—particularly John Dewey and Joseph Kinmont Hart. His work has been published in journals such as Philosophy of Education, Social Epistemology, Journal of Thought, Education & Culture, Philosophical Studies in Education, Dewey Studies, Inter-American Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Curriculum Theory, History of Education Quarterly, Educational Studies and Educational Theory.
He is the recipient of the 2007 Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award, the 2012 Outstanding Service Award, the 2017 Recognition of Faculty Excellence Award and the 2021 Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award from the College of Education & Human Development at Georgia State University.
In 2010, he was presented with the James and Helen Merritt Award for Distinguished Service to Philosophy
• • •
Dr. Timothy Denning is a faculty member in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences and the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. He is a world-renowned researcher in the field of mucosal immunity and inflammatory bowel diseases. He has also served as the Associate Director of IBMS.
Dr. Denning has published in top-tier journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Immunology. His work has accrued nearly 6,000 citations. In addition, he has received external funding totaling over $4.5 million.
Dr. Denning’s impact on the field is also evident from the awards bestowed upon him, including the very prestigious Cotran Early Career Investigator Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology.
• • •
Dr. Glenn Eskew is a faculty member in the History Department. His scholarship focuses on the history of Civil Rights in the South. He has published four books with top university presses and has produced more than thirty-five book chapters and journal articles.
Dr. Eskew’s first book publication, But for Birmingham, was recognized in his field with the prestigious Francis Butler Simkins Award. His second book, Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World, led to the acquisition of Mercer’s extensive archival records by GSU special collections.
Dr. Eskew has been honored by the Georgia Historical Society, the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council, and most prominently, the Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities. The Governor’s Award puts Dr. Eskew in the company of awardees such as First Lady Rosalynn Carter and the great historian and Georgia State professor, the late Clifford Kuhn.
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Dr. Glenn Harrison is the C.V. Starr Chair of Risk Management & Insurance, Distinguished University Professor, and Director of the Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk (CEAR) in the Department of Risk Management & Insurance, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University. He has more than 200 academic publications, and his research interests include the economics of risk preferences, risk perception, and insurance, as well as experimental economics, law and economics, international trade policy and environmental policy.
His research in the economics of risk includes the econometrics of inferring structural risk preferences from laboratory and field experiments. More recently he has developed tools to elicit subjective belief distributions, allowing the evaluation of the bias and confidence of risk perceptions at points in time, as well as their evolution over time. Finally, he has developed methods for the normative analysis of insurance as an ex ante risk management tool.
His research in law and economics has centered on the calculation of compensatory damages in tobacco litigation, including testifying for plaintiffs in the Medicaid litigation that resulted in a settlement worth more than $200 billion.
His research in environmental economics has included modeling the effects of alternative policies to mitigate global warming, critiques of casual applications of the contingent valuation method, and improved methods of damage assessment. Most recently he has focused on the formal characterization of environmental reform as a “policy lottery” that properly reflects uncertainty in predicted effects on households.
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Dr. William Sabol is a faculty member in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. Prior to joining the department in 2017, he was Vice President for Justice and Child Welfare Research at Westat, having served previously as Acting Director of the National Institute of Justice and Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Dr. Sabol has been a prolific and influential research scholar throughout his career. He has published more than 20 refereed articles and book chapters, many in highly prestigious outlets such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Public Health. But this represents just a small portion of Dr. Sabol’s scholarly contributions, as the vast majority of his research was published in government statistical reports. These reports and his other publications have been cited more than 6,000 times.
Since coming to Georgia State, Dr. Sabol has also been extremely successful at securing external funding exceeding $4.8 million.
The inaugural Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Award has been given to the students, faculty and staff of the university’s Task Force for Racial Equality.
This new, annual institution-wide award recognizes those whose work and values reflect their commitment to:
- Justice: creating a campus free from barriers
- Equity: ensuring that all members have access and representation
- Diversity: embracing differences in people and perspectives
- Inclusion: fostering a sense of belonging
About the Task Force
During the national uprisings and reckoning with racial injustice in the summer of 2020, the Task Force for Racial Equality was appointed by former President Mark Becker and Provost Wendy Hensel in June 2020 to address issues of racial injustice and inequality, and to foster the conversations, and identify solutions that the university can place into action for its students, faculty, staff and our society.
The task force recommendations formed the basis of the university’s action plan to address these issues and other issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.
A list of the members of the task force is included below, along with a link to the task force home page and its transformative recommendations and a link to the university’s progress on implementing its recommendations.
Members of the Task Force
- Chair, Jonathan Gayles, Chair and Professor of African-American Studies, College of Arts & Sciences
- Gwendolyn Benson, Associate Dean for School, Community and International Partnerships, College of Education & Human Development
- Curtis Byrd, Special Adviser to the Provost
- Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs
- Cynthia Lester, Associate Dean of the Clarkston Campus and the Division of Math, Computer Science & Engineering, Perimeter College
- Rodney Lyn, Interim Dean of the School of Public Health
- Elizabeth Beck, Professor of Social Work, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
- Jennifer Esposito, Chair of the Department of Educational Policy Studies, College of Education & Human Development
- Collins Airhihenbuwa, Professor of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health
- Elizabeth West, Professor of African-American Studies and English, College of Arts & Sciences
- Natsu Saito, Distinguished University Professor of Law, College of Law
- Jennie Ward-Robinson, Special Assistant to the Dean, College of Arts & Sciences (Center for African Diaspora)
- Anthony Coleman*, Interim Chief of the Police Department
- Donna Frazier, Chair of Staff Council
- Linda Nelson, Associate Vice President for Human Resources and Opportunity Development
- Allison Calhoun-Brown, Vice President for Student Engagement and Programs
- Kaelen Thomas, President of the Student Government Association
- Jessica Siemer, President of the Graduate Alliance
* Replaced former Chief Joe Spillane, who was appointed to the task force at the time of its original founding in summer 2020.
Task Force Information
Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award
The Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award recognizes a tenure-track faculty member who has been at Georgia State for four to 10 years and has made outstanding achievements across the areas of scholarship, teaching and service.
Dr. Ning Fang is a researcher in the Department of Chemistry of the College of Arts & Sciences. His research aims to open up new frontiers in chemical and biological discovery through the development and use of novel optical imaging methods, which provide sub-diffraction-limited spatial resolution, high angular resolution, excellent detectability, and nanometer localization precision for single molecules and nanoparticles in biological samples and microfluidic devices.
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Dr. Ashli Owen-Smith is a behavioral scientist with research interests in health disparities, mental health (specifically serious mental illness, trauma and suicide), chronic pain, and complementary and alternative approaches for complex conditions with both mental and physical causes and manifestations.
Dr. Owen-Smith’s research aims to identify questions that are relevant and important to patients, and to prioritize the translation of research findings into clinical practice. Accordingly, she is interested in conducting patient-centered research and utilizing patient-reported outcomes. She works closely with patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other healthcare stakeholders and is interested in employing qualitative and mixed methods.
Alumni Distinguished Professor Award
The Alumni Distinguished Professor Award recognizes a high-achieving senior faculty member who embodies the balance between teacher and scholar.
Dr. Erin Tone is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology and serves as Associate Chair. Dr. Tone’s research utilizes behavioral and neuroimaging approaches to understand the role of anxiety in developing relationships.
She is a prolific and impactful researcher who has published 90 journal articles and 16 book chapters. Many of these publications are in high-impact outlets, and her work has been cited more than 13,000 times. In addition, her research has been supported by multiple grants.
Dr. Tone has also successfully mentored a large number of doctoral students. She has chaired or co-chaired 13 completed dissertations and served on over 60 dissertation and thesis committees.
Exceptional Service Award
The purpose of this award is to recognize a faculty member for exceptional, sustained, and impactful accomplishments in service. This award competition is open to all GSU full-time faculty members who have at least 4 years of faculty employment at GSU.
Dr. Rose Sevcik is a fellow for several professional organizations, including the Associate for Psychological Science. She has also held elected offices in several professional associations, such as the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. In addition, Dr. Sevcik has been the Associate Editor for her field’s top journals, including the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Her contributions to Georgia State also demonstrate a sustained record of significant positive involvement. Dr. Sevcik has served as co-director of the highly successful Center for Research on the Challenges of Acquiring Language and Literacy since 2008. In addition, she is very active in the University Senate, where she has served since 2006. She has chaired the senate Research Committee since 2008, and she also sits on the Senate’s Executive Committee and Budget Committee, to name a few.
Instructional Effectiveness Award
The purpose of the Instructional Effectiveness Award is to recognize an instructor who demonstrates a strong commitment to teaching and student success and to share at the university level outstanding approaches in instruction that are creative and effective in engaging students in the learning process.
Dr. Hongmei Zhang is a faculty member in the Biology Department. He is commended for creating a range of active learning techniques for his courses to include writing-intensive and large enrollment classes.
Instructional Innovation Award
The purpose of the Instructional Innovation Award is to recognize and share at the university level outstanding innovations in teaching that result in improved learning. This award recognizes innovative teaching practices designed to improve student learning in online, blended, or face-to-face courses. Innovations may include any novel teaching strategy or tool designed to enhance student learning.
Joint Award
The recipients of this joint award are commended for their roles in developing a course platform to help students use special collections and primary source materials and expand their critical and interpretive skills.
Colleagues in this joint award:
Professor Jill Anderson, faculty, University Library
Kevin Fleming, Archivist, University Library
Dr. Ewa McGrail, Department of Middle and Secondary Education, College of Education & Human Development
Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award
The Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award recognizes a tenure-track faculty member who has been at Georgia State for four to 10 years and has made outstanding achievements across the areas of scholarship, teaching and service.
Dr. Alessandra Raengo is a faculty member in the School of Film, Media &Theatre. Dr. Raengo’s work innovatively crosses the boundaries between scholarship, teaching, and service, focusing these efforts toward a new understanding of how race operates in America.
Her signature achievement is liquid blackness, which is a theoretical concept, a research strategy, a curatorial effort, an act of community formation/outreach, and a teaching/mentoring practice. Instead of asking what race is, liquid blackness focuses on what race does when invoked in our society.
The liquid blackness website was recently selected by the Library of Congress for the Openly Available Online Serials Web Archive, and the liquid blackness journal was adopted by Duke University Press.
Dr. Raengo has been described as a model interdisciplinary scholar.
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Dr. Deanna Joseph is an Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at the Georgia State University School of Music where she conducts the University Singers and leads the master’s program in choral conducting. In 2015, she was the recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Outstanding Teacher Award at Georgia State, where she was selected out of a pool of over 800 faculty. A recent review of her work states, “[t]he choir sings with great musicality, excellent intonation, clear diction, and a healthy and beautiful pallet of tone colors…” (The Choral Scholar).
In May of 2017, the University Singers under Dr. Joseph’s leadership won first place in the renowned Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition while on a concert tour of Austria and Bavaria. In May of 2013, the University Singers competed in La Florilège Vocal de Tours where the choir placed second overall in the mixed choir category and Dr. Joseph was honored with the Prix du chef de choer (conducting prize).
Dr. Joseph’s research in the area of 19th-century choral-orchestral performance-practice has led to invited presentations on the topic at several division conferences of the American Choral Director’s Association and at the national convention for the National Collegiate Choral Organization.
Alumni Distinguished Professor Award
Dr. Joyce King is a faculty member in the Educational Policy Studies Department and the Benjamin E. Mays Endowed Chair of Urban Teaching, Learning, and Leadership.
As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. King is internationally known and has made her mark on a variety of disciplines, including the fields of Education, Sociology, African American/African Diaspora Studies, Gender Studies, and History, to name a few.
Dr. King has authored five books and served as editor of three. She has countless refereed journal articles and book chapters. Her article on dysconscious racism and the miseducation of teachers has been reprinted five times. Most notable and relevant for this award, Dr. King also has numerous publications with doctoral students.
• • •
Dr. Todd Henry is a Distinguished University Professor of Physics & Astronomy in the College of Arts & Sciences. His research includes nearby stars, stellar masses and life in the universe, among an array of interests.
Dr. Henry is the director of RECONS (REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars), a project to understand the nature of the Sun’s nearest stellar neighbors, both individually and as a population. He and his team have been pulling together a three-dimensional map of all the stars which are located relatively near our Sun, focusing on roughly 6,000 stellar systems. By understanding nearby stars, astronomers can better understand our Sun in context.
Before his arrival at Georgia State in 2000, Dr. Henry served as a project scientist for NASA’s Nearby Stars Project, a research astronomer for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a Hubble Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute, and a post-doctoral fellow with SETI’s Project Phoenix.
He was named as a Legacy Fellow in an inaugural class with the American Astronomical Society in 2020, and has won multiple awards for his outstanding teaching, mentorship and scholarship during his distinguished career. Dr. Henry holds a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Arizona, and a bachelor’s degree in physics and planetary sciences from Cornell University, where one of his undergraduate advisors was the late astronomer Carl Sagan.
Exceptional Service Award
The purpose of this award is to recognize a faculty member for exceptional, sustained, and impactful accomplishments in service. This award competition is open to all GSU full-time faculty members who have at least 4 years of faculty employment at GSU.
Dr. Anne Murphy is a faculty member in the Neuroscience Institute. She has served as the founding Associate Director of the Neuroscience Institute and held that post for over eight years. In addition, she ran the Brains & Behavior Distinguished Lecturer series for ten years and currently serves as the Chair of the Neuroscience Institute Seminar. Dr. Murphy has been elected to the Neuroscience Institute’s Executive Committee each year from 2011-2019; she has chaired several faculty search committees and is the faculty advisor of the very active Graduate Student Association.
She has served on Faculty Senate since 2016 and has just been elected to her second term as Vice-Chair of the Faculty for the College of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Murphy also Chairs the University Student Academic Disciplinary Committee and numerous other groups and committees that are necessary to complete the work of the college and the university.
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Dr. Kim Ramsey-White is a faculty member in the Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences Department and the inaugural Director of the School of Public Health’s Bachelor of Science program. Dr. Ramsey-White led the efforts to build the curriculum, hire new faculty, and ensure program compliance with the accrediting agency.
She also oversees the signature experience and capstone initiatives, offering study abroad, student clubs and organizations, and a 4+1 program. In addition, Dr. Ramsey-White leads a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create dual in-person and online public health museum exhibits.
Dr. Ramsey-White’s dedication has continued through the pandemic and issues of racial unrest. She established a student-focused public health campaign to share information about COVID-19, and she serves in the newly created role as the Special Advisor to the Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
• • •
Dr. Brian Thoms is a faculty member in the Physics and Astronomy Department, and he serves as the undergraduate director and associate chair.
Dr. Thoms has sustained long-term efforts to the development and modernizing undergraduate physics instruction at Georgia State. Most notably, he has provided leadership in expanding the size and diversity of our Physics program. As a result, GSU graduates six times as many students in Physics. In addition, the undergraduate program is one of the nation’s highest producers of African American physics bachelor’s recipients.
He has also led other projects, including the high school science teacher certification, student career preparation, outreach efforts through the science olympiads, and many others. But particularly during the pandemic, Dr. Thoms played an essential role in moving our physics classes online, created “teaching teams,” and served as a mentor to faculty unfamiliar with online teaching methods.
Instructional Effectiveness Award
The purpose of the Instructional Effectiveness Award is to recognize an instructor who demonstrates a strong commitment to teaching and student success and to share at the university level outstanding approaches in instruction that are creative and effective in engaging students in the learning process.
Kelly Cranford is a faculty member in the Business Department at Perimeter College. She is recognized for her dedication to student learning and her ability to motivate students to learn what some see as challenging. Cranford has made the principles of accounting both practical and fun for her students.
Instructional Innovation Award
The purpose of the Instructional Innovation Award is to recognize and share at the university level outstanding innovations in teaching that result in improved learning. This award recognizes innovative teaching practices designed to improve student learning in online, blended, or face-to-face courses. Innovations may include any novel teaching strategy or tool designed to enhance student learning.
Dr. Mourad Dakhil is a faculty member in the Department of International Business. His dedication to student success is recognized because of his creative and effective virtual exchange initiative that strengthened the relationship with valued foreign partner institutions and provided an amazing learning experience for students.
Teaching for Social Justice and Democracy Award (CETLOE)
The award, given by the university’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Online Education, recognizes faculty who “integrate current social justice issues into their courses to better engage Georgia State students in order to help them to develop their social, emotional and expressive capacities.”
- Dr. Ewa McGrail of the Department of Middle and Secondary Education
- Dr. Owen Cantrell of the Department of English at Perimeter College
Faculty/Staff Town Hall on Student Mental Health – Recording and Resource Handouts
Students have experienced a great deal of stress throughout the pandemic and return to classes. Many faculty and staff have expressed a desire to learn more about how to identify students in distress and especially how to get those students referred to the support resources at Georgia State’s campuses.
If you missed the faculty/staff virtual town hall on student mental health, you can view a recording and access downloadable resource handouts at the SharePoint link below, using your Georgia State campus ID and password.
International Education Awards
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 Georgia State International Education Awards.
Award Winners
Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement
Jelena Subotić
Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement
Nuru Mugambi
Faculty Award for Global Engagement – Teaching, Service & Outreach
Eric Kendrick
Faculty Award for Global Engagement – Research & Scholarship
Sue Kasun
Faculty Award for Global Engagement – Virtual Exchange
Jessie Hayden
Staff Award for Global Engagement
Avinash Sukhu
International Graduate Student of the Year
Heena Sadhwani
International Undergraduate Student of the Year
Kudzanai Maveneke
Study Abroad Program Director of the Year
Athertina Steinau
Study Abroad Student of the Year
Marquis Daly
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.
Visit the International Education Awards site for more information about the awards and recipients. Award winners were honored at the virtual International Honorary Reception on Nov. 8.
Nov. 16 Diversity Dialogue on Student Leadership – Recording Now Available
The Diversity Dialogues Series wrapped up for the fall 2021 semester with a conversation exploring student leadership and diversity efforts at the university.
A recording is now available at the link to the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion website below in the blue button. You do not need a Georgia State campus ID/password to access this recording.
Participants included:
- Brianna Bailey, Senior and President, Student Government Association
- Petar Ivan Ivusic-Araya, Senior, Administrative Officer, Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc.
- Sing Hui Lee, Doctoral Student and Student Justice, Student Judicial Board
- Ira Livnat, Law/Honors College student and Speaker of the Atlanta Senate, Student Government Association
- Dr. Michael Sanseviro, Vice President for Student Engagement
- Dr. Curtis Byrd, Special Advisor to the Provost for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Perimeter College – Grants for Student Success, Learning Innovation and Underrepresented Students in STEM
Two Perimeter College faculty have secured major U.S. Department of Education grants to help promote their students’ success.
Dr. John King, associate professor of mathematics, is the principal investigator for a new five-year $3 million U.S. Department of Education Predominately Black Institution (PBI) grant to help improve math success and pass rates for Black and African American male students. Project IMPACTS, builds on the success of previous PBI grant for African American students taking remedial math.
Dr. Ursula Thomas is the principal investigator of a four-year, $851,464 grant providing free childcare for low-income Perimeter College students. Thomas, an associate professor education, says two generations will benefit from the one program. “We have decades of data that shows that by supporting college students with families—especially the high needs students we serve—those students are more academically successful,” Thomas said. “We also know that when a parent participates in post-secondary education and has appropriate childcare that there are better outcomes for their children as well.” The Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) federal grant also will provide in-classroom field observation experiences needed by Perimeter College teacher education students to complete their degrees.
– Rebecca Rakoczy, Perimeter College PR & Marketing
School of Music Faculty, GSU Women’s Chorus, Recognized with National Awards
Students, faculty and alumni from the university’s School of Music have won in several categories of The American Prize, a national series of contests in the performing and classical arts.
The American Prize is designed to evaluate, recognize and reward the best performers, ensembles, composers, directors and administrators in the United States.
The GSU Women’s Chorus won first prize in the choral performance category for colleges and universities with larger programs, besting Baylor University and the University of Texas at Arlington. Directed by Lecturer and Associate Director of Choral Activities Jennifer Sengin, the ensemble was reinstated during the spring 2019 semester and is an auditioned women’s ensemble designed for individuals with an interest in singing repertoire specifically written for women’s voices.
For The American Prize in Composition-Instrumental Chamber Music, Profesional Division, Nick Demos took first place for his composition, “Frontlash.” He is director of CENCIA, and coordinator of composition studies for the School of Music. Demos served as director of the school from 2017 through June 2021, and is the artistic director of the neoPhonia New Music Ensemble.
Robert Thompson, who retired from Georgia State in May, tied for second place in the category listed above for his composition, Ninth Wave. A composer of instrumental and electroacoustic music, he served as professor of music composition prior to his retirement. He is the recipient of several prizes and distinctions for his music, including first prize in the 2003 Musica Nova Competition, the First Prize in the 2001 Pierre Schaeffer Competition and awards in the Concorso Internazionale “Luigi Russolo”, Irino Prize Foundation Competition for Chamber Music, and Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges – including the Commande Commission 2007.
Additionally, a School of Music alum, Nicholas Wheeler, earned a finalist honorable mention in the composition for choral music (shorter works) category for his composition of The Star Spangled Banner. He is currently an orchestra instructor at Mount Pisgah Christian School in Johns Creek, and he studied music composition under Thompson in his graduate studies at Georgia State.
Michael Pesko Appointed to Health Canada Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for Vaping Products
Michael Pesko, an associate professor of economics in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, has been appointed for a three-year term to the Health Canada Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for Vaping Products by the government of Canada. The body advises the Canadian government on e-cigarette policy.
Pesko is a Second Century Initiative (2CI) faculty member, hired under the regulatory science cluster that began under 2CI. He is a health economist, and his research uses retrospectively-collected data and quasi-experimental methods to evaluate health policy changes, with particular interest in e-cigarette policy.
Social Action Alliance Initiative: Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
The Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (AYS) is developing an interdisciplinary, experiential undergraduate initiative, the Social Action Alliance (SAA), designed to train future community leaders in public service, advocacy, philanthropy and civic engagement.
SAA will launch with a new perspectives course, Collective Social Action, spring semester 2022. It’s the first step towards a new certificate program in development and will be open to students across all Georgia State University campuses and majors.
The new program will lead with social action in classroom and field learning opportunities, focused on teaching students how to solve pressing public problems that require collaboration among the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Opportunities for scholarships, stipends and paid internships will be available.
Its curriculum and transformative field experiences will feature multidisciplinary faculty who will educate the next generation of social collaborators on how to produce meaningful impact through public service and continuous civic engagement, regardless of their degrees and career choices.
The Social Action Alliance was developed through a unique partnership with the Next Generation Service Corps, a national initiative led by the Volker Alliance and Arizona State University that seeks to strengthen American democracy by encouraging broad participation in public service, diverse leadership and constructive collaborations. NextGen Service member universities fill a critical educational gap by helping undergraduates develop the values, nimble thinking and collaborative leadership required to effectively serve. Georgia State is one of 10 universities selected as a NextGen Service member.
Read more at the Georgia State News Hub through the link below.
Kim Siegenthaler Appointed to Board of University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA)
Kim Siegenthaler, Associate Provost for Online Strategies has been appointed to the board of UPCEA (University Professional and Continuing Education Association), the nation’s largest professional, continuing and online education association.
Siegenthaler will serve as secretary/treasurer of UPCEA for the board during a two-year term beginning in 2022. As the inaugural holder of her current Georgia State leadership position, she advances Georgia State’s university-wide strategy for delivering high-quality online courses, certificate programs, degree programs and executive education to traditional and life-long learners.
In her portfolio is Georgia State Online, launched in 2021 with over 80 online and hybrid program options and the educational support infrastructure needed to ensure success in an online or hybrid modality. She also oversees the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Online Education (CETLOE), dedicated to the scholarship and practice of exemplary instruction at Georgia State.
Watch the Kreuter Katz Lecture from the School of Public Health
Watch this year’s Kreuter Katz Lecture on Health Equity, a signature lecture event of Georgia State’s School of Public Health, featuring Sandro Galea, the Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. His lecture was entitled, “Inequality and the COVID-19 Pandemic: How We Got Here and Where to Go Next.”
The recording is embedded below. For more information about previous lectures, click the link in the blue button underneath the video.
Georgia State to Establish Center on Brain Development, Structure and Connectivity Using National Science Foundation Grant
A team of researchers at Georgia State University has been awarded a prestigious five-year, $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) program, which supports the research capabilities of minority-serving institutions through the establishment of centers that effectively integrate education and research.
Using the grant, Georgia State will establish the Center for Dynamic Multiscale and Multimodal Brain Mapping Over the Lifespan (D-MAP), which will focus on brain development, structure and connectivity from childhood onward. Nationwide, D-MAP is one of only five new CREST centers funded in 2021.
“This significant investment from the National Science Foundation is recognition of our strength in brain research as well as our ability to train a diverse new generation of scientists,” said Vince Calhoun, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and the project’s principal investigator.
The multidisciplinary center will embark on three research projects to study links between the brain’s development in different stages of life.
In the first project, researchers will develop new methods to improve understanding of the brain’s structure and functional connectivity patterns and how they change over time during learning and across the lifespan. The researchers then plan to apply these methods to study how the brain changes and what areas of the brain are critically engaged in reading. They will also study how transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) — a noninvasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate the brain — can modulate the brain’s reading network.
The second project is focused on developing novel techniques to fuse different kinds of imaging data, such as information about the brain’s structure and its connectivity, and how various measures change over the lifespan. The researchers will leverage deep learning to analyze this data and identify brain patterns related to cognition and mood.
In the third project, the team will analyze large existing neuroimaging datasets — which include participants ranging from kindergarteners to people in their 80s — to develop “predictive fingerprints” of the developing and aging brain. They will then use their findings to predict aspects of linguistic processing, such as working memory or processing speed, using imaging data.
The center will also provide hands-on research experiences for students, particularly those who are historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
— Jennifer Rainey Marquez, Associate Director, Communications and PR, Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development
Read the full article below at the university News Hub.
Faculty Spotlight
A Lens on Belonging: Filmmaker Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz’s Lens on Immigration
While working on a project with the Mexican American immigrant community in upstate New York, Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz, an independent documentary filmmaker and (now former*) assistant professor at Georgia State University’s School of Film, Media and Theatre, noticed something strangely familiar.
A lot of the questions she was asking in the filmmaking process — Where are you from? How long have you been here? Why are you here? — sounded like the questions she and her family had been asked in immigration interviews and by customs agents as Iranian immigrants traveling to and from the United States. Her intention, of course, was very different than that of immigration officials. But Ebrahimi Bazaz said the realization made her think of the ways she and other documentarians might be unintentionally “othering” subjects in their work.
Read more at the Georgia State Research Magazine site through the link below.
*Editor’s point of clarification, Faculty Spotlight 1: At the time of publication in the GSU Research Magazine, this faculty member was still at the university but the editor of this newsletter was informed during the afternoon of 12/2/21 that she is no longer at Georgia State. This information was not known at the original time of publication of this newsletter. The article remains on this page for the convenience of the reader who may still be interested in this topic.
Transformative Technology: Yu-Ping Chen Uses Virtual Reality to Improve the Lives of Children with Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy (CP), which can result from abnormal brain development or a brain injury in utero or shortly after birth, is the most common childhood physical disability, affecting approximately 1 in 345 kids. Physical therapy can help improve children’s motor skills and prevent the disability from worsening over time, but not all kids with CP have equal access to in-person therapy, says Yu-Ping Chen, associate professor of physical therapy in the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions.
Even for kids who participate in therapy, “parents have to take the time to supervise their progress,” she says. “And it can be boring for kids to practice at home on their own.”
To help keep kids motivated and expand access to therapy, she and her collaborators have turned to technology. They’re working to test and develop virtual reality games — even a humanoid robot — as at-home intervention tools for pediatric patients.
For World Cerebral Palsy Day, the Georgia State Research Magazine spoke with Chen about her research and how technology can help give kids with CP a better life. Read the interview by selecting the link below.
News from the Next Generation Program
A Look Back from the Georgia State Research Magazine at the Second Century Initiative (2CI) and the Next Generation Program for Strategic Faculty Hiring
Georgia State was designated as an R-1 research university in 1996 – and ever since, the institution’s research trajectory has accelerated. Both 2CI and the Next Generation Program for strategic faculty hiring proved incredibly transformative. The Georgia State Research Magazine has an exciting retrospective which includes 2CI and Next Gen as one of “Seven Great Moments in Georgia State’s Research History.”
Check out the article at the university news hub through the link below. You can also read individual profiles of 2CI and Next Gen faculty through the second link below on the Next Gen Program website.
About the Newsletter
News from the Office of the Provost is an e-newsletter highlighting news and activities in academic affairs at Georgia State University. For questions about the newsletter, email Jeremy Craig at [email protected].
Previous issues are available by selecting the button below.