Congratulations to Dr. James LaPlant, University System of Georgia African American Male Initiative (AAMI) Grant Awardee!  With an overall focus on student success, the AAMI grant serves to provide mental health resources to promote student well-being, peer mentoring and check-ins, and academic and career support.  Widely credited with being the first-ever statewide effort specifically focused on increasing post-secondary educational attainment among Black males, AAMI has a documented track record of increasing the enrollment, retention, and graduation of African American males within Georgia’s public colleges and universities since its 2002 inception.

Dr. James LaPlant is the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Interim Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, and Professor of Political Science. Dr. LaPlant has recently taught courses on Southern Culture and Politics, Conspiracy Theories in American Politics, and American Politics in the Age of Donald Trump. He regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate course on quantitative research methods and his research has dealt with topics ranging from policy diffusion to southern politics to political parties in the Czech Republic. Dr. LaPlant is currently the Editor-in-Chief of SPUR: Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research.