Open enrollment occurs once a year for eligible faculty, staff, and retirees to sign up for health insurance and other benefits, as well as to make adjustments to their current plans or discontinue coverage. This year’s University System of Georgia (USG) benefits open enrollment period will be Oct. 28-Nov. 8.
Take action! Surcharge certification required:
If you are enrolled in healthcare coverage, you must certify your tobacco use and working spouse status, or the monthly surcharges will apply. (Note: Working spouse surcharge does not apply to retirees).
UGA Benefits Fair and Well-Being Expo
- Date: Friday, Oct. 18
- Time: 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
- Location: Mahler Hall, Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel
Support Dawgs is a three-part program that provides training for UGA students, faculty, and staff. It is designed to increase awareness of mental health and well-being needs and offer appropriate support and response.
You can register for professional learning sessions on the Support Dawgs webpage.
- Application deadline: Thursday, Oct. 31
Applications for the 2025-26 Parents Leadership Council (PLC) Grants Program are now open. Last year, the PLC awarded more than $1.2 million to 162 student organizations and academic units supporting critical undergraduate student needs. The Mary Frances Early College of Education received thousands of dollars for math education, the School Supply Closet, teacher candidate training, and several other initiatives.
To apply or learn more, visit the PLC webpage or email parents@uga.edu with any questions.
- Nominations deadline: Thursday, Oct. 31
Each spring, the Mary Frances Early College of Education hosts a Celebration of Excellence event at which our Distinguished Alumni Awards are presented to those who have exemplified excellence through professional accomplishments, contributions, and service.
Nominations are now open through Thursday, Oct. 31. We encourage UGA alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends to nominate undergraduate and graduate alumni in different stages of their careers. Current employees of the College are not eligible for nomination.
Submit a nomination today.
- Full proposal deadline: Wednesday, Dec. 4
The Spencer Foundation Small Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. The Foundation accepts applications three times per year.
This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. The goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education.
Please contact the Office of Research and Graduate Education pre-award team if you are interested in applying to this opportunity. Budget development should begin as early as possible. Proposal materials are due to OR&GE for review on or before Tuesday, Nov. 19.
- Proposal deadline: Friday, Nov. 1 at 11:59 p.m.
Proposals are now being accepted for the 48th Annual Conference of the Eastern Educational Research Association (EERA), to be held in Hilton Head, South Carolina, from Feb. 20-21, 2025. The EERA conference is held each spring and brings together leading scholars from the eastern United States. The refereed conference typically hosts over 300 scholars, so the conference is small enough to network and connect with colleagues, but large enough to offer a wide range of ideas, research methods, and topics.
Researchers may submit for consideration original proposals that have not been published or presented at another professional meeting. Proposals will be submitted through the online submission portal on the EERA website, and if the proposal is accepted, the lead author must pay all conference fees and be present at the conference. Original proposed research presentations are to be based on completed work or work to be completed before the annual conference. The proposal submission abstract must be less than 1,500 words though, if available, you may also attach your completed paper separately. Submissions should provide sufficient detail for reviewers to judge the quality of the proposal. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method studies are encouraged.
The program will consist of papers and other formats for educational research presentations that have been accepted by the review committee. Session types include paper presentations, panel discussions, poster presentations, roundtable presentations, and birds of a feather sessions. All submissions will be reviewed by at least two scholars or practitioners in the field of education.
For more details and/or to submit a proposal, please visit the EERA website. If you have questions about submitting a proposal or would like to talk to someone about the conference, please contact conference chair William (Willy) Williams at 540-818-6698 or williamsw@concord.edu.
Collaborative Research: Characterizing and Fostering Playful Mathematics for Undergraduate and High School Learning
- PI: Amy Ellis, professor, Department of Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies Education
- Co-PI: Robert Ely, professor, mathematics and statistical science, University of Idaho
- Sponsor: National Science Foundation ECR-EDU Core
- Amount: $804,347
Congratulations to Amy Ellis and her research team for being awarded a National Science Foundation ECR-EDU Core grant. The project will investigate (a) how to meaningfully incorporate playful elements into the foundational secondary and undergraduate mathematics topics of algebra and calculus, and (b) the potential outcomes of “playifying” classroom mathematics for students’ learning and enjoyment. The project will also investigate tasks that can be used for students to explore mathematical ideas such as rates of change, functions, derivatives, and integrals.
View the grant website.
Broadening Participation among Multilingual Learners through High School Teachers’ Professional Learning Experiences in the Instructional Conversation Pedagogy
- PI: Paula J. Mellom, senior research scientist, Center for Multilingual-Learner Education, Research, and Innovative Teaching (MERIT), Office of Research and Graduate Education
- Co-PIs: John Mativo, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Workforce Education and Instructional Technology; Rebecca K. Hixon, assistant research scientist, MERIT, Office of Research and Graduate Education
- Sponsor: National Science Foundation Discovery Research K-12
- Amount: $449,555
Congratulations to Paula Mellom, John Mativo, and Rebecca Hixon on receiving a National Science Foundation DRK-12 award. This exploratory project will develop and test a model of professional learning for high school teachers in which they learn how to embed the Instructional Conversation pedagogy within standards-aligned scientific and engineering practices.
View the project website.
- Date: Every third Monday
- Time: 11 a.m.
- Location: Aderhold Hall Room G23
New to the Mary Frances Early College of Education? All staff are welcome to attend Staff Representative Group (SRG) meetings. We invite you to get to know us a little better—our structure, our purpose, and what we may be able to do for you as your staff representatives.
Upcoming SRG meeting dates:
- Monday, Oct. 21
- Monday, Nov.18
- Monday, Dec. 16
- Monday, Feb. 17
If you have any questions, please email coesrg@uga.edu.
- Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2025
- Location: Aderhold Hall
The Office of Research and Graduate Education invites you to save the date for the upcoming Mary Frances Early College of Education annual Research Conference to be held on spring 2025 Reading Day. Activities will include student and faculty poster sessions, presentations by faculty, and the 3-minute graduate student thesis competition.
Stay tuned for more details coming in January.
- Date: Friday, Oct. 18
- Time: 10-11:30 a.m.
- Location: Aderhold Hall Room 206; Zoom
The College-wide meeting has been rescheduled for Friday, Oct. 18. The Office of Academic Programs team will share information about our enrollment management strategies, and Dean Spangler will share additional information. You are welcome to submit suggestions for topics for this and future meetings, as well as for the dean’s COEfyi posts.
Please RSVP by Wednesday, Oct. 16. Participants who registered for the Sept. 27 event do not need to re-register. Refreshments will be provided from 9:30-10 a.m. The Zoom link will be sent out the day before the meeting.
- Dates: Monday-Tuesday, Oct. 21-22
- Times: 3-6:30 p.m. (Monday); 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (Tuesday)
- Location: Aderhold Hall Room 206 (register today)
Join the Torrance Center for a two-day conference that will delve into interdisciplinary ideas surrounding healing and well-being, while fostering rich discussions and collaborations highlighting the transformative power of music and art in nurturing community resilience. Admission is free, but registration is required.
- Date: Friday, Oct. 18
- Time: 12:30-2 p.m.
- Location: Aderhold Hall Room 206; Zoom
Alyssa Hadley Dunn, author of “Teaching on Days After,” will join us via Zoom on Friday, Oct. 18 from 12:30-2 p.m. Dunn is professor of curriculum and instruction and director of teacher education at the University of Connecticut.
During this session, she will share information about how to balance caring for your students while also caring for yourself, how to think about modifying your syllabus to make space for what has just happened, and give us a common language to use in talking about teaching on the days after tragic events. She will also take questions. In the spring, Dunn will join us in person for an interactive session using case studies to practice the language, to grapple with how to do what is right when you don’t know what right is, and more. She will also offer a session for students in the spring.
We will provide space in Aderhold Hall Room 206 for those who wish to gather together to hear Dunn on Oct. 18, as well as a Zoom link for those who wish to participate elsewhere. Please RSVP to attend. Participants who registered for the Sept. 27 event do not need to re-register.
- Date: Tuesday, Oct. 22
- Time: 4-5:30 p.m.
- Location: UGA Chapel
Join us for the 2024 Annual Torrance Lecture featuring Nigel Osborne, emeritus professor of music and human sciences at the University of Edinburgh, with his presentation “A New Era for Music and Art in Service of Community Healing.”
Admission is free, but registration is required.
- Date: Wednesday, Oct. 23
- Time: 2-3 p.m.
- Location: Zoom (register today)
- Presenter: Roshaunda Breeden, assistant professor, North Carolina State University
Join the UGA qualitative research program for the UGA QUAL Lab Speaker Series, “Miles Away, But in Our Own Backyard: A Participatory Action Study Examining Relationships Between Historically White Institutions and Black Communities,” presented by Roshaunda Breeden.
In her presentation, Breeden will present a rich discussion of the relationships between historically white institutions (HWIs) and their local Black communities, using a participatory action research (PAR) methodology grounded in Critical Race Theory and undergirded by endarkened feminist epistemology. The study focuses on two key research questions:
- How do Black communities experience and make meaning of their local HWI?
- How does history intersect between Black communities and the university?
Rooted in PAR, the study involved two Black undergraduate co-researchers from Athens, Georgia, and employed an intergenerational approach to data collection, centering the voices of Black undergraduate students, community leaders, and families from the Athens-Clarke County area. Findings revealed strained relationships, intentional erasure of Black history, and a legacy of institutional racism from their local HWI, the University of Georgia. In collaboration with the community, participants’ experiences were shared through Athens Vignettes, a stage play featuring three vignettes, which offered a powerful medium for performative counter-storytelling to highlight these injustices.
Although the study is situated in Athens, Georgia, the implications extend to institutions with similar historical legacies across the United States. HWIs can improve their relationships with Black communities by acknowledging their racial histories, atoning for the harm caused, and instituting systemic changes to benefit future generations of Black families and communities. This session invites attendees to reflect on the roles of power, history, and race in shaping university-community relationships and to consider strategies for fostering equitable and just research partnerships.
Early Childhood Education: A Key Ingredient to Latino Student Achievement
- Date: Thursday, Oct. 24
- Time: 6 p.m.
- Location: Zoom (register today)
- Speaker: Eugene Garcia, professor emeritus, Arizona State University
The CLASE Distinguished Speaker Series: Celebrating Latiné Achievements highlights the remarkable contributions of distinguished Latiné leaders across various fields. This initiative elevates their voices and accomplishments, inspiring pride and dialogue in the Latiné community and beyond.