Teaming for Interdisciplinary Research Pre-Seed Program

The Embark Georgia Research Consortium (EGRC) seeks to build the research efforts of the Embark Georgia program by bringing together multidisciplinary faculty across Georgia and beyond. Our team of eight faculty members and two graduate students represent six different disciplines and three universities (eight of us are at UGA). Our research consortium recently participated in the National Conference for Hidden Populations where we collaborated with similar research-to-practice teams in other states and during which we outlined a series of research projects to examine the experiences and outcomes of college students who previously experienced foster care or homelessness. We will present our findings at next year’s conference and will pursue additional publication and presentation opportunities. Funding from this Interdisciplinary Research Pre-Seed Program will support our efforts to collaborate on these research projects and to identify additional sources of extramural support. Below are summaries of a few current projects:

Longitudinal quantitative analysis on college student transfer, retention, persistence, and graduation. Datasets from Georgia Department of Family and Children Services for youth in foster care and from Fanning Institute for recipients of Federal Education and Training Vouchers for young adults who experienced foster care.

Qualitative analysis of student experiences. Interview, focus group, and photovoice data to examine the sense of belonging and the college aspirations of high school foster youth who participated in Embark Georgia summer programs.

Inventory of campus support services and capacity. Systematic review of public information (mainly websites) for all institutions in the Technical College and University systems to examine resources available for students from our target population.

Team Lead

Erik Ness
eness@uga.edu
UGA Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education

Team Members

Grace Bagwell Adams
gbagwell@uga.edu
UGA College of Public Health
Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Institute of Gerontology

Kim Skobba
kskobba@uga.edu
UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences
Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics

David Meyers
dmeyers@fanning.uga.edu
UGA Public Service and Outreach
J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development

Amy Salazar
amy.salazar@wsu.edu
Washington State University Vancouver,
College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
Human Development

Lori Tiller
lrl@fanning.uga.edu
UGA Public Service and Outreach
J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development

Katherine Adams
katherine.adams@ung.edu
University of North Georgia,
College of Education
Social Foundations & Leadership Education

Daniel Gibbs
dangibbs@uga.edu
UGA College of Social Work
Social Work