Research from the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences is getting widespread attention. Take a look at some of our faculty’s latest work.
Hollie Raynor, CEHHS associate dean for research, has been named to the USDA 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee for the US Department of Health and Human Services. Raynor, a nationally recognized researcher, will be lending her expertise in the development of updated dietary guidelines. The dietary guidelines serve as the foundation for national nutrition programs, standards, and education. In addition, they provide health professionals with guidance and resources.
Four CEHHS faculty members—Hollie Raynor, Junehee Kwon, Lyndsey Hornbuckle, and Jennifer Jabson Tree—collaborated on policy insights and research initiatives with the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, DC, think tank. The faculty team from four departments (Nutrition; Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management; Kinesiology; Recreation and Sport Studies; and Public Health) shared their expertise on health inequity.
Melinda Gibbons, Marilee McCurdy, and Casey Barrio (Educational Psychology and Counseling) received $16 million in federal funding for two projects that will improve the accessibility of school-based mental health services for rural Tennesseans. Like many states, Tennessee suffers from a chronic shortage of school psychologists, school counselors, and social workers, especially in rural areas. The project will allow 40 of the highest-need rural school districts to receive about 350 mental health providers. A mentorship program will be put in place to help support and retain the providers so that these rural students can receive much-needed services. The project is expected to help relieve the chronic shortages of mental health practitioners in rural schools and to improve access to preventive services, improve early intervention for mental health concerns, and increase the potential for student academic success through the provision of services to increase social and emotional well-being.
Zoi Traga-Philippakos and Margaret Quinn (Child and Family Studies) received a grant from Reading Reimagined—inclusive research and development program under the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund—for their project “Developing Multisyllabic Decoding and Encoding Skills for Upper Elementary Learners (Big Words: Building Words + Making Meanings).”
Lynn Hodge, Elizabeth Dyer, and Joy Bertling (Theory and Practice in Teacher Education) along with Carlyle Clark of the Boys and Girls Club of Tennessee Valley received a National Science Foundation grant titled “Mathematizing, Visualizing, and Power: Appalachian Youth Becoming Data Artists for Community Learning.”
Joshua Rosenberg and Alex Lishinski (Theory and Practice in Teacher Education) and Greg Peterson (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) received a National Science Foundation Resgrant titled “Broadening Participation in Introductory Computer Science: Investigating Self-Assessment Practices for Increasing Student Learning and Self-Efficacy in Two Institutional Contexts.”
Lynn Hodge, Joshua Rosenberg, and Elizabeth Dyer (Theory and Practice in Teacher Education) along with Amir Sadovnik of Oak Ridge National Laboratory received an NSF grant titled “Computer Science for All: Expanding a Research Practice Partnership to Integrate Computer Science and Literacy in Rural East Tennessee Schools.”
Lynn Hodge and Nick Kim (Center for Enhancing Education in Mathematics and Sciences) received a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission titled “Lifelong STEM Learning through Microcredentials.”