The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Administration congratulates all of our recent awardees!  We sincerely appreciate all the time and energy that has gone into creating a successful grant proposal and program.  Please join us in recognizing the VSU faculty who have been awarded.

Faculty and programs are listed below in alphabetical order.

Dr. Jason Allard from the Geology Department was awarded for Educational Modules for GEOG 1112K: Introduction to Weather and Climate from ALG Textbook/GA Tech/USG. Dr. Allard’s work focuses on adopting the OpenStax textbook, developing necessary course tools, support of long term use of open educational resources, and assessment of success for geography course.

Dr. Frank Barnas was awarded for continuation of his work on Channel 17 with the City of Valdosta. Channel 17 provides valuable information to area residents concerning upcoming public events and activities.

Dr. Mark Blackmore was awarded for West Nile Virus Monitoring in Lowndes County and the City of Valdosta, in cooperation with the County and City. Dr. Blackmore’s work Centers on mosquito sampling and identification for West Nile virus.

Derrick Carter and Dr. Connie Richards were awarded from the Georgia Department of Education for the African American Male Initiative program. The program will establish a mentoring program that pairs students with successful African American VSU professional males on campus; provide group and individual counseling, and hold events to introduce students to successful African American males throughout the community.

Dr. Jade Coston was awarded for the 2016-2017 fiscal year for her Babies Can’t Wait program, in recognition of their exceptional work. The Babies Can’t Wait Program Focuses on providing training and education of service providers concerning child and family needs.

Dr. Francis Flaherty from the Physics Department was awarded for Developing New Open Educational Resources for Principles of Physics 1 students from ALG Textbook/GA Tech/USG.  Dr. Flaherty’s work focuses on adopting the OpenStax textbook, developing necessary course tools, support of long term use of open educational resources, and assessment of success for physics course.

Dr. Jacob Jewusiak from the English Department was awarded a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his research “Narrating Aging: Temporal Realism and the Victorian Novel”.

Holly Lawrence from the Office of Social Equity was awarded for the Educational Talent Search Program from the US Department of Education. This program seeks to improve secondary school persistence and graduation and post-secondary education enrollment and attainment in the South Georgia area.

Dr. Mitchell Lockhart’s work on Gopher Tortoise Monitoring on Moody Air Force Base was renewed with the Department of Fish and Wildlife for the 2016-2017 Fiscal Year.  Dr. Lockhart’s research involving long term information on gopher tortoise populations at Moody Air Force Base to facilitate better management of population and habitat.

Dr. Kacy Mixon, Dr. Martha Laughlin, and Dr. Kate Warner from Marriage and Family Therapy were awarded for the Military Families Learning Network program, which Centers on programs which support military service professional who care for military families.

Dr. Ivan Nikolov and Karla Molnar were awarded for the New American Cultural Center and Cultural Programming in the People’s Republic of China from the US Department of State.  The American Cultural Center program will seek to promote greater understanding of the United States among the Chinese public and youth by providing access to a broad variety of Americans who can introduce the American experience and provide popular and academic background for public perceptions.

Dr. Theodore Uyeno of the Biology Department received additional funding for his RUI: Collaborative Proposal: Biting Hard with Soft Feeding Apparatuses from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Uyeno’s work centers on investigating the mechanisms that allow jawless hagfishes to perform coordinated tooth plate and body knotting movements that result in a forceful “bite” despite the absence of opposable jaws and rigid structural elements.

Dr. Susan Wheling from Modern and Classical Languages was awarded for the 2016 Middle School Migrant Education Summer Program from the Georgia Department of Education to provide Georgia Migrant Education Program middle school students with a summer leadership and academic reinforcement experience on a university campus.

Dr. Sherman Yehl was awarded for the Center for Applied Social Science in the City of Warner Robins in collaboration with VSU’s Innovation grants to prepare an updated compensation analysis and selected position description evaluations for the City of Warner Robins, Georgia.