As part of the development of our new strategic plan, we are updating our mission and vision, and we need your input via this survey.
This is the same survey that was distributed prior to the fall meeting in August, so if you completed it then, you do not need to complete it again. We are sharing the link again in an effort to broaden participation. Your responses will help us define the themes in the message development process.
As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen and enhance the Staff Representative Group (SRG), the Office of Faculty and Staff Services is assisting with a restructuring process designed to better support staff engagement, communication, and representation across the College. To help inform this work while continuing to promote celebration and community, we are seeking volunteers to serve on two different ad-hoc committees:
One committee will focus on key aspects of the restructuring effort. This committee will review current practices, identify areas for improvement, and make recommendations that will help shape the future direction of SRG. Participation provides an opportunity to contribute to meaningful organizational change and ensure that staff perspectives are represented throughout the process.
The second committee will focus on SRG’s annual events and initiatives: the chili cook-off, door decorating contest, and the ice cream social. This committee will be provided with the opportunity to develop the program for the annual staff retreat while receiving support from College event personnel on venue options and logistics.
We aim for broad College representation on both of the committees, with supervisor approval required.
Please email Allison Nealy, associate dean for personnel development and leadership, if you are interested in serving on either committee. Thank you for your commitment to our community!
Every year, the College provides funds for staff professional development. In the past, these funds have been used to support a variety of opportunities, including conference registration fees and eligible travel expenses for professional conferences. Funds have also supported professional development programs, such as Professional Administrative Day hosted by the Georgia Center, as well as non-certification workshops, trainings, and courses that align with an employee’s current position and job responsibilities.
Professional development funds have also been used for professional memberships that support an employee’s current role and professional development, provided the membership purchase complies with UGA’s membership purchasing guidelines. Memberships may be considered when they are financially beneficial (such as when the cost of the membership plus conference registration is less than the non-member registration cost), when the membership is necessary to perform the employee’s job duties and is identified as a requirement within the employee’s job description, or when the membership provides access to professional information, resources, or other benefits that can be directly used in the employee’s current position. Other professional development opportunities that enhance an employee’s skills or knowledge and have a clear connection to their work in the College of Education may also be considered.
Unallowable uses include:
We will have a limited amount of funding, so the awards will be handled on a first-come basis. The maximum funding request awarded will be $500. When funding requests for staff development exceed $500, we encourage staff to seek matching support from their department/unit when they apply. This amount should be listed on the request by their supervisor. Funding caps and additional restrictions may be added as we see the number of requests received. The goal of this process is to provide support to as many College staff as possible. Please visit our Professional Development and Training webpage for more details.
To apply, complete the Staff Professional Development Funds request form.
Faculty are reminded that UGA has a policy related to conducting work outside the University for pay. Please read and familiarize yourself with UGA’s conflicts of interest, conflicts of commitment, and outside activities policy.
Completed forms for consulting activities that fall under this policy should be submitted to the Office of Faculty and Staff Services.
Flu shots will be available in Aderhold Hall on Thursday, Oct. 1. No reservations needed. All appointments are walk-ins and will be treated on a first-come, first-served basis.
September is National Preparedness Month, a reminder that preparation is one of the best ways to protect ourselves and those around us. UGA Learning & Development offers a variety of courses to help employees build awareness, confidence, and emergency response skills. We encourage faculty and staff to explore the opportunities below.
To view upcoming course dates and register, please visit pep.uga.edu.
This course is a video-based, instructor-led course that teaches adult and child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use, infant CPR, and how to relieve choking in adults, children, and infants. This course teaches skills with the American Heart Association’s research-proven practice-while-watching technique, which allows instructors to observe the students, provide feedback, and guide the students’ learning of skills.
Individual preparedness is the responsibility of all faculty, staff, and students on the UGA campus. Everyone should know how to prepare, respond to, and recover from an emergency or disaster both at home and in the workplace. This class will help prepare members of the UGA community to respond to various building level emergencies and national emergencies.
Practical options for staying safe during active shooter or active threat events.
Business continuity planning (BCP) is the practice of planning how your department will provide services or conduct departmental business during or after an emergency. This course will include examples of how business continuity plans can benefit your department and improve your readiness to a variety of possible disasters. Additionally, participants will learn how to access a University-based online planning system which will assist departments with developing their continuity plans.
Emergencies requiring CPR can and do occur without warning. Many people who survive a cardiac emergency are helped by a bystander. The purpose of this class is to teach untrained bystanders how to perform compression-only (hands-only) CPR and use an AED. In this course, we will cover basic life support techniques used to perform compressions and basic life support techniques to restore and maintain circulation.
Note: This course is intended to provide the learner with knowledge-based training only. This course does NOT certify you in CPR. If you need accommodations for this training session, please email learnanddev@uga.edu at least one week before the session.
As part of a national initiative, UGA’s Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) is coordinating campus efforts to help “Stop the Bleed.” “Stop the Bleed” is a nationwide campaign to empower individuals to act quickly and save lives. No matter how rapid the arrival of professional emergency responders, bystanders will always be first on the scene. A person who is bleeding can die from blood loss within five minutes, therefore it is important to quickly stop the blood loss. OEP will teach attendees ways to control massive bleeding including using a tourniquet and packing a wound.
UGA faculty, staff, and students travel domestically and internationally on a frequent basis. Safety, security, and emergency planning considerations should be a part of a well-planned trip. This class offers tips and techniques that may assist the first-time traveler or the well-seasoned traveler to avoid potential problems at the airport, on mass transit, at their hotel, and while touring at their destination.
The art of research can be a daunting task. Finding an idea is hard enough without considering how to construct your methods and analyze your data. It can be overwhelming to try and describe your idea to another person, and getting support can feel impossible.
At the Quantitative Methods Consulting Center (QMC), we understand how hard the research process is, and we’re here to help! Our consultants are educational researchers trained in statistics and research methods and offer a wide range of services, including research planning and design, software support, survey and assessment design, grant support, and much more. Our goal is to help you connect the dots for your research project, from development to reporting. We have expertise in a wide range of statistical tools and will work with you to find a method that matches your goals and data.
We also offer office hours to assist with questions from students in ANOVA and regression classes. Stop by Aderhold Hall Room 321A on Wednesdays from 10 a.m.-noon with your coursework questions and get in-person help. To request a consultation, please visit our website or email us at qmcenter@uga.edu.
Mark your calendars! Breakout session proposals for the 58th Annual Georgia Conference on Children’s Literature are now open. The 2027 conference will take place on Friday, March 19.
We invite you to share your ideas, research, and perspectives on children’s literature. More conference news will be coming soon!
Join Dean Denise Spangler at the Jacqueline and John Head Terrace outside the Zell B. Miller Learning Center for Saucehouse BBQ, beverages, and pre-game fun!
Please register to purchase tailgate tickets by Monday, Sept. 28. Note that neither parking nor game tickets are provided. In the event of inclement weather, the tailgate will be canceled.
Join the UGA qualitative research program for the first UGA QUAL Lab Speaker Series of the semester, “Artistic Inquiry and Methodological Surprise: Experimenting with What Research Can Do,” presented by Mira Kallio-Tavin.
Methodological experimentation has a long history in qualitative and postqualitative inquiry, including ongoing efforts to challenge and rethink predetermined methods. This talk enters these ongoing conversations through artistic inquiry. Drawing from recent collaborative research projects and emerging work on immanent artistic inquiry, Kallio-Tavin explores what artistic practices might contribute to methodological experimentation when thinking-making-doing or artistic production is understood not only as a research method, but as a mode of sensing, relating, and inquiring.
Through examples of collective artistic experimentation, she considers how inquiry can take shape through relations among concepts, theory, materials, bodies, affects, environments, technologies, and more-than-human lives. Artistic practices can create conditions for staying with uncertainty and methodological surprise, allowing inquiry to change direction through what emerges in the inquiry rather than only through what was anticipated in its design. Her collaborative work with methodological composting, for example, has explored how concepts and practices can be recycled, reconfigured, layered, and transformed through collective thinking-making-doing. In this talk, she considers artistic inquiry as a space for methodological curiosity and experimentation.
Kallio-Tavin returns to her three most recent research projects and publications, some of which are still emerging. She invites participants to think with questions about what methods can do, where they might become insufficient, and what artistic practices make possible for living with the uncertainty, relationality, and emergence of inquiry.
You are invited to the UGA Mary Frances Early College of Education Department of Kinesiology’s Abbie DeLoach Lecture Series featuring distinguished alumna Erika Rees-Punia (Ph.D. ’18), senior principal scientist in the Department of Population Science at the American Cancer Society. Rees-Punia will be speaking on “From Movement to Meaning: Improving Lives Across the Cancer Continuum.” The Michael E. Penland Family Scholarships and reception will immediately follow the lecture.
The presentation will provide an overview of Rees-Punia’s research using large cohort studies linked with healthcare claims data to examine whether physical activity after a cancer diagnosis can reduce symptoms, long-term side effects, and other serious burdens of cancer and its treatments, such as bone fractures, cardiovascular disease, poor mobility, pain, high healthcare costs, and hospitalizations.
Erika Rees-Punia, Ph.D., MPH, FACSM, is a senior principal scientist in the Department of Population Science at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia. Erika has a background in exercise physiology and conducts epidemiologic research on the promotion and benefits of physical activity in cancer survivors.
Erika also serves as an associate editor for the British Journal of Sports Medicine and a senior associate editor for the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. She was also a part of the scientific committee for the 2022 American Cancer Society Nutrition and Physical Activity Guideline for Cancer Survivors and is a member of and Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Erika earned her Ph.D. in kinesiology from the University of Georgia and her MPH from Emory University. She lives in Evanston, Illinois, with her spouse and two kids. When she is not working, she likes engaging in high-intensity interval training, reading to her kids, and spending time at Lake Michigan.
Abbie Lorene DeLoach (February 2, 1994-April 22, 2015) was dearly loved by all those who knew her. A graduate of Savannah Christian Preparatory School in 2012, Abbie was an excellent student and athlete. During her tenure in high school, she lettered in basketball, volleyball, and track. While her athletic prowess was strong, it was her leadership on the court and as part of the team that made her outstanding.
Dedicated to succeeding in all that she did, Abbie believed in making those around her believe in themselves. This work ethic continued as Abbie went off to college at Georgia Southern University where she was in the nursing program. A devoted student and friend, she excelled in her calling as a nurse. Not only did her love of learning further her studies, but it was also her love of the Lord that deepened her satisfaction of serving others.
The Abbie DeLoach Foundation continues the good work Abbie started, partnering with organizations closest to her heart to give scholarships and support worldwide missions. In 2018, Abbie’s father, Jimmy DeLoach (B.S.Ed. ’82), established the Abbie DeLoach Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship through the foundation.
The Distinguished Speaker Series focuses on amplifying Latiné academic voices and is dedicated to exploring intellectually rich, scholarly, and research-enhancing discussions relevant to the Latiné community. The series is hosted by the Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education in the Mary Frances Early College of Education and is supported by the Department of Language and Literacy Education, the School of Social Work, and the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education.
Please join us for this event, titled “Latiné Translanguaging: Educating Bilingual Latinés” by Ofelia García, a professor emerita in the Ph.D. programs of urban education and of Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures (LAILAC) at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Nominations for the 2027 Alumni Awards are officially open from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30.
To nominate someone for a Distinguished Alumni Award, please submit:
Questions? Please email the Office of Development and Alumni Relations or Kacee Cooper.
Ashley Johnson Harrison, a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, recently received the Fulbright Global Scholar Award (GSA).
The Fulbright GSA is designed to facilitate collaborative research across multiple world regions and will support her travel to the Netherlands, South Africa, and Malaysia.
In collaboration with autism researchers in each of these countries, Harrison will develop the Global Autism Teacher Education (GATE) intervention, a globally focused training designed to help and support general education teachers as they implement evidence-based practices into inclusive classrooms. Using an implementation science framework, this project will incorporate user-centered design to integrate teachers from these different countries into the GATE development.