Faculty Research
Contract for Literature Reviews
The Contract for Literature Reviews project is headed by Dr. Kimberly S. Clay. Its purpose is to identify and survey any existing best practices efforts directly relevant to nutrition and physical activity, including efforts to develop guidelines for practice and data collection.
Intellectual Capital Partnership Program (ICAPP)
The ICAPP project is a two-year project that will operate under the direct supervision of Dean Daniels along with Drs. Brian Bride and Nancy Williams. Under this project, the School of Social Work seeks to support the development of the behavioral health professions talent through an innovative strategy to expand education, training and distribution of clinical behavioral health professionals around the state.
Asset Building among Low-Income Households in Athens: The Role of Household Characteristics and Institutional Factors
This project, directed by Assistant Professor David Okech, is funded by the Faculty Research Grant Program. Dr. Okech’s study has four main rationales....
Child Welfare in Georgia
Associate Professor Alberta Ellett as PI of child welfare programs and projects has secured funding exceeding $8.64 million including UGA matching funds since 2001. The largest and longest standing of these programs is the Title IV-E Child Welfare Education Program with the purpose of recruiting, educating and preparing students for competent child welfare practice. Since directing the Social Work Title IV-E Child Welfare Education Practice Program Dr. Ellett increased the external federal funding of this instructional program ten-fold. This program provides financial stipends for full-time students and for part-time students. Students are selected based upon their interest in and commitment to a career in public child welfare. In exchange for the stipend, students take two child welfare courses, do their internship in DFCS, and have a DFCS work commitment year for year of financial support. To date, the IV-E program has provided 295 student stipends. Nearly all of the UGA IV-E graduates have been employed by the Georgia DFCS. In the fall of 2006, this program doubled the number of students admitted into the part-time MSW program in Gwinnett.
Healthy Teens: Understanding Social Competence Development from Middle to High School
Dr. Patricia Reeves is a co-principal investigator for a three-year, Centers for Disease Control-funded research project. The goal of this interdisciplinary, mixed methods research is to increase understanding of the protective factors that influence the development trajectories (i.e., patterns of continuity or patterns of change over time) for students in grades 6-12 in relation to several risk factors, including aggression toward peers and dating violence. The study was funded for over $900,00 and involves approximately 700 students in eight Northeast Georgia schools. Collaborators with Dr. Reeves on this project are Pamela Orpinas, Professor, College of Public Health; Andy Horne, Interim Dean in the College of Education; Debbie Bandalos, Professor, College of Education; and Katherine Raczynski, Project Manager.
Training Georgia’s Family Independence Case Managers and Staff and Treat Addictions
Professor Lettie Lockhart is the Director of the School of Social Work Training Project and PI for the Training of Georgia’s Family Independence Staff Contract. The SSW Training Project provides human service training across the state of Georgia. The SSW Training Project employs 11 trainers and 3 administrative staff. Over the past two decades, the SSW Training Project has received a contract from Georgia Department of Human Resources-Division of Family and Children Service to train all newly employed Family Independence Case Managers, Medicaid Eligibility Specialists, and Program Assistants on policies and computer application for public assistance programs [e.g., Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Food Stamps, Family Medicaid, ABD Medicaid].
Department of Juvenile Justice Awards Funding
The Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), an agency of the State of Georgia, has committed to renewing its contract with UGA. Under the contract, the School of Social Work will fund assistantships for MSW students to assume caseloads of designated DJJ youth and provide a variety of services including individual, group and family counseling, life skills development and access to community resources. In addition a doctoral teaching assistant working directly with a faculty advisor will enable students to achieve course objectives for Social Work classes. The Principal Investigator for this project is Larry Nackerud and Edwin Risler.
Holosko-Nackerud Collaboration the Needs of the Child Welfare System in Georgia
Berger Professor of Family and Child Welfare Michael Holosko and Professor Larry Nackerud will serve as evaluators for a project funded under the DHR Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Addictive Diseases. Holosko and Nackerud are evaluating how a number of state agencies through an umbrella program called Kids Net Georgia can offer more timely services to at-risk youth with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders, in more efficient community based ways, less costly and more collaboratively.
Cancer Survivorship and Nutrition
Kimberly Clay’s research is funded by the Department of Human Resources Comprehensive Cancer Control Program and looks at cancer survivorship and nutrition. Clay will expose 50 medically underserved older adult cancer survivors and their caregivers to an interactive nutritional intervention that will offer advice on the importance of good nutrition in cancer survival and disease prevention as well as ways to reduce side effects of cancer-fighting medications. The project is expected to facilitate an increase in the quality of life among older adult cancer survivors and their caregivers in East Georgia. Jaegoo Lee, a doctoral student in Social Work, will serve as research coordinator.
Documented Immigrant Labor in Georgia: Emerging Patterns and Questions
This project by Associate Professor Edwin Risler will explore the emerging patterns, trends, and impacts of recent, documented/legal immigrants in the labor market in Georgia.
