Team Research

Currently, many rural residents of Georgia are struggling to meet the health and financial needs of their families. They often travel long distances for basic medical services, and many counties lack hospitals or specialty providers, making preventive care and treatment harder to obtain. People in rural communities, especially in the Southeast and in Georgia, also face increased risk of chronic illness, mental health stressors, insurance gaps, and weak economic infrastructures, ultimately negatively affecting quality of life, leading to premature mortality. Our interdisciplinary team comprises 7 faculty members from 6 academic units at the University of Georgia: Human Development and Family Science, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Anthropology, Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics, Communication Studies, and the Ralston Institute for Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Together, we bring a diverse and complementary set of expertise in mixed-method approaches, community-based participatory research, and preventative and intervention science. This collective strength positions us to address complex challenges through rigorous, inclusive, and contextually grounded inquiry. We are deeply committed to reciprocal learning with families and community leaders, recognizing them as experts in the lived realities of their environments. Our research approach centers on familial and community contexts, with a particular emphasis on elevating voices that are often marginalized or excluded. To achieve this, we will engage women, who are often the primary health navigators for their families, and implement a citizen science framework that empowers community members to actively participate in the research process—ensuring that our work remains responsive to local knowledge, needs, and reflective of community priorities. 

If awarded the Teaming (TIR) Pre-Seed Program Award, we will utilize the funding to support the following foundational activities: 1) Strategic Collaboration: Further identify and align our individual and collective scholarly strengths, fostering interdisciplinary work and innovation. 2) Framework Development: Design a theoretical and methodological foundation that integrates academic rigor with community attunement, guiding our program of research; 3) Technology Training: Pursue training in emerging technologies to support mobile health interventions, enhancing our capacity to serve rural populations effectively; 4) Targeted Engagement: Partner with the UGA Ralston Institute for Behavioral Health and Development Disabilities, Extension agents, and Archway Partnership to identify rural communities as pilot sites, ensuring our efforts are grounded in local knowledge and are culturally responsive; and 5) Sustainable Growth: Submit a proposal to the Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program to scale our initiative and secure external funding for long-term sustainability. 

Research Aims: Our specific research aims to do the following: 

• Address the critical need for engagement in E-mobility/mobile health, sustainability, and resilience in rural communities. 

• Strengthen families by connecting them to mental, physical, and financial resources. 

• Leverage technology to identify challenges from biopsychosocial and financial perspectives. 

• Establish baseline assessments of burden across physical, psychosocial, and financial domains, and tracking trajectories over a 12-month period. 

• Identify mechanisms that link financial strain to physical and psychosocial outcomes through longitudinal mediation analysis. 

• Evaluate the effectiveness of a pragmatic “screen-refer-track” model, delivered via community health navigators using a stepped-wedge design. 

Team Lead

Bermudez, Judith
mbermude@uga.edu
College: Human Development and Family Science

Team Members

Sekandi, Juliet
jsekandi@uga.edu
College: College of Public Health
Department: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Tanner, Susan
stanner1@uga.edu
College: Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Department: Department of Anthropology 

Fan, Lu
lufan@uga.edu
College: College of Family and Consumer Sciences
Department: Department of Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics

Arroyo, Analisa
arroyo@uga.edu
College: Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Department: Department of Communication Studies

Mcfarlane, Soroya
soroyajmcfarlane@uga.edu
College: Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Department: Department of Communication Studies

Jinnah, Hamida
hamida@uga.edu
College: College of Family and Consumer Sciences
Department: The Ralston Institute for Behavioral Health and Development Disabilities