The 2026 Benefits Fair will be held Thursday, Oct. 22, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. in Mahler Hall at the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel. Open enrollment presentations will be offered at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m.
Register for a virtual open enrollment information session:
- Monday, Oct. 26 or Tuesday, Nov. 3 (active employees)
- Thursday, Oct. 29 (retired employees)
Explore the 2027 open enrollment website.
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. A tobacco cessation option is available during open enrollment.
Confirm your contact information
To receive important benefits updates, including a confirmation of benefits, electronically, visit oneusgconnect.usg.edu and click “Manage My Benefits.”
Once logged in to OneUSG Connect – Benefits, select “Validate Your Personal Information” and confirm your preferred email address and telephone number. While you’re there, take a moment to review and confirm your home address as well.
Fall 2026 Commencement will be held on Friday, Dec. 11 at Stegeman Coliseum at the following times:
- Undergraduate: 10 a.m. (faculty arrival time at 9 a.m.)
- Doctoral/master’s/specialist: 2:30 p.m. (hooding faculty arrival at 12:45 p.m.; processional faculty arrival at 1:30 p.m.)
We have again made special arrangements to help facilitate faculty participation in the fall ceremonies, including offering complimentary regalia rental from the UGA Bookstore and parking at the Carlton Street Deck next to Stegeman Coliseum.
Graduate ceremony
Please note that if you are a major professor for a doctoral student, not only is it an honor, but it is also expected that you attend and participate in the hooding of your student. If you cannot attend for some unavoidable reason, please identify a substitute to attend and hood your student at the ceremony.
Faculty participating in the hooding activity will sit with their doctoral students in the Coliseum and be part of the academic procession. You will line up with your student(s) in the Basketball Practice Gym, which is on the second floor of the Coliseum Training Facility. Please make plans to meet in the Coliseum with your student no later than 12:45 p.m. Faculty not participating in the hooding activity will assemble in the conference room on the lower level of Stegeman Coliseum, and we ask that they also arrive around 1 p.m. These faculty members will march in immediately preceding the platform party.
Regalia rental
Faculty regalia rental forms are due to the UGA Bookstore by Tuesday, Oct. 20. Regalia costs are only covered for faculty participating in the institutional ceremonies on Friday, Dec. 11. Regalia rentals requested after that date are not guaranteed and may incur a personal rush fee of $20 or more. Once faculty register to participate in one or both of the ceremonies, they will receive a confirmation email with a link to the regalia form. No faculty regalia rentals will be accepted after Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Parking
Parking is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Use the registration link to request a parking pass for each ceremony you plan to attend.
Clear bag policy
The clear bag policy for UGA athletic events is in effect for commencement. Please follow these guidelines.
Faculty who plan to attend any of the commencement ceremonies should use this form to register. For additional information, please refer to the Commencement website.
The Mary Frances Early College of Education Student Ambassadors are hosting Student Appreciation Day on Monday, Nov. 9! This event offers opportunities for connection and creates a welcoming environment that highlights student success and belonging. A cornerstone of the event is the “64 for 64” Student Spotlight initiative, honoring the legacy of Mary Frances Early and the 64 years since she earned her M.M.Ed.
Sixty-four amazing undergraduate and graduate students will be selected to highlight their leadership, academic achievement, and impact in the College. Ambassadors are asking for nominations for the initiative. If you know of any student leaders, students doing great work in research, or students doing great work in the community that you believe should be highlighted, please fill out this form by Friday, Oct. 16.
- Deadline to express interest: Monday, Oct. 19 at noon
Program overview
The UGA Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost (Provost’s Office) and the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach (OVPPSO) are pleased to announce the 2027 Rural Engagement Workshop for Academic Faculty, a program designed to build momentum for high-quality, community-engaged research in rural Georgia communities. The program is sponsored by the Provost’s Office and coordinated by OVPPSO, in partnership with UGA Cooperative Extension. Over the last five years, Rural Engagement Workshop alumni have received more than $15.4 million in subsequent funding to conduct community engaged research in rural Georgia.
The workshop will consist of six mandatory, in-person sessions held on Fridays during the 2027 spring semester, including a visit to a rural community to learn from its leaders about effective ways to partner on academic projects, plus two networking events with alumni and Public Service and Outreach/Extension partners. The sessions will provide participants a greater understanding of Georgia’s rural demographics and trends, convey key information on developing sustained relationships with communities, and enhance the ability of faculty to engage in successful research focused on rural areas of the state.
Purpose
The purpose of this program is to strategically apply knowledge and research generated at UGA to empower communities and organizations across Georgia and improve quality of life. Through interactive sessions led by experienced scholars, academic faculty will recognize the benefits of collaborating with faculty in Public Service and Outreach (PSO) and Cooperative Extension to conduct successful community engaged scholarship in rural Georgia.
Eligibility
The workshop series is limited to 20 full-time academic faculty members. Participants in the workshop can come from any UGA college or school and must be nominated by their respective deans. Nominees may have expertise in a variety of research areas, including but not limited to natural resources and the environment, workforce development, public health, poverty, educational achievement, and quality of life.
Nomination and application process
Each dean may nominate up to four applicants from their respective college or school. The UGA deadline for nominations is Monday, Oct. 26. To be considered for nomination, please email Carey Lovelace by noon on Monday, Oct. 19. In the nomination email, please include 3-5 sentences to highlight the following:
- Why the nominee would be a good candidate for the Rural Engagement Faculty Workshop (e.g., the program aligns with the candidate’s background or research interest; the program would help the candidate advance a current research agenda; the candidate would help the college meet a rural engagement goal)
After the nomination process, faculty will be sent a separate link to complete the program application. As part of the application process, nominees will be required to include a one-page proposal for a potential project relevant to rural Georgia. The proposal should include general ideas for collaboration with one or more PSO units and/or Cooperative Extension.
Seed grant
The workshop is designed to help faculty participants develop and hone their collaborative research ideas into a seed grant proposal. At the end of the workshop, each participant is expected to be part of one or more seed grant proposal submissions. Through a competitive review process, the Provost’s Office will provide up to $70,000 to fund a maximum of 10 proposals, ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.
For more information about this unique opportunity and to access the nomination link, please visit the Rural Engagement Faculty Workshop webpage.
- Proposal deadline: Friday, Oct. 30
Faculty interested in collaborative approaches to educational equity may wish to explore a new funding opportunity from the Atlassian Foundation. The foundation is seeking proposals from collective action initiatives working to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged learners in the AI era. Awards of up to $1 million over two years are available.
To be competitive, proposed initiatives must:
- Directly address poverty or disadvantage for a clearly defined beneficiary group
- Demonstrate collective action through collaboration among multiple organizations or stakeholders with shared goals, delivery, and learning
- Focus on helping education evolve in response to emerging technologies, ensuring advances such as AI help close opportunity gaps rather than widen them
While this opportunity may be a challenging fit for some projects due to its specific requirements, the funding level makes it worth consideration for faculty leading large-scale, collaborative efforts in education and access.
The UGA Office of Foundation Relations is available to support proposal development for interested faculty; please contact Matt Pruitt.
Learn more and apply on the open call for proposals webpage.
The JoLLE (Journal of Language and Literacy Education) graduate student team has been planning the upcoming JoLLE conference with excitement. For the first time since the pandemic, the conference will be back in person. It will be held Feb. 12-14, 2027, in Athens, Georgia, at the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel on UGA’s campus.
We’d love to have members from across the Mary Frances Early College of Education community submit and attend to foster interdisciplinary conversations about the conference themes of community, praxis, healing, and power.
Please do share widely with networks! And don’t hesitate to be in touch with any questions by emailing jolle.conference@gmail.com. Also, please view our newly published issues from this past summer.
- Proposal deadline: Sunday, Nov. 1
We hope to see you at the annual meeting of the Southeast Philosophy of Education Society (SEPES), held Feb. 5-6, 2027, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
SEPES has a long tradition of providing a friendly forum for dialogue and the exchange of philosophical ideas related to a broad variety of educational topics. We welcome presentations from graduate students, faculty, and practitioners from both within and beyond educational foundations. While there is no particular theme for the conference, we invite proposals that meaningfully engage philosophy in the consideration of problems of educational relevance.
Please view the call for proposals for more information and the link to submit proposals.
The Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education is pleased to partner with Samantha Weldon (B.S. ’11, M.A.T. ’16), a UGA Double Dawg and 2026 40 Under 40 honoree, for a presentation on Monday, Oct. 26 at 5 p.m.
Weldon will share her journey from the Mary Frances Early College of Education to entrepreneurship and behavioral health leadership. After earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in special education with an emphasis in behavior, she became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) in 2017. Following several years in clinical and leadership roles, she founded Pure Heart Behavior Therapy, where she currently serves as owner, providing individualized, evidence-based applied behavior analysis services for children with developmental disabilities.
Through her clinical work, school partnerships, student mentorship, and the creation of Anna’s Gift, a respite care program for families and caregivers, Weldon continues to make a meaningful impact across Georgia. Her presentation will highlight her experiences at UGA, the path to establishing her own business, and her current work supporting children and families.
- Date: Friday, Oct. 30
- Time: 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (Chili Cook-off and Dessert Bake-off); 3:30-4:30 p.m. (trick-or-treating)
Join us for the MFECOE Staff Chili Cook-off and Dessert Bake-off! Staff, faculty, and building services colleagues are invited to enter a chili or dessert, sample entries, vote for favorites, and enjoy raffle prizes. Costumes are encouraged (workplace appropriate)!
Trick-or-treating will follow from 3:30-4:30 p.m. for the children of our staff, faculty, and building services teams. Departments and suites are encouraged to decorate and provide candy. Trick-or-treaters will begin on the sixth floor and make their way down.
RSVP by Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 5 p.m. to compete, attend, or register your children.
Koo presents at Global Korean Week
Katie Koo, an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Human Development Services, was invited to speak about Korean American young professionals’ experiences and necessary policies to support Korean diaspora professionals at the Global Korean Week Ceremony from Sept. 28-Oct. 1.
During the event, Koo shared her research and professional life as a faculty member at the University of Georgia in front of 1,200 global Koreans, including the president of Korea, politicians, mayors, and policymakers, and her speech was aired on major Korean broadcasting systems. She also had a chance to speak about her Korean government-funded research projects and her research team’s work in front of 70 research funders, Congress in Korea, and the Overseas Koreans Agency.
Alumna named to Georgia Trend’s 40 Under 40
Rebecca Parshall (Ph.D. ’22), an alumna of the College’s educational administration and policy doctoral program, was named to Georgia Trend’s 40 Under 40 list.
Parshall leads or participates in various regional partnerships across Metro Atlanta, including Atlanta Vision Project, which expands access to vision screenings and eye exams; Literacy and Justice for All, whose pilot program addresses language arts scores; and RETAIN, which aims to improve teacher and principal burnout.
Read the full story in Georgia Trend.