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Family and Consumer Sciences

Ohio State University Extension

CFAES

Congratulations

Academia

Alisha Barton, Miami County Extension educator, received her Masters of Science from Ohio State's College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences.

Grants

Whitney Gherman, Marion County Extension educator, received a seed fund grant for Racial Justice. Whitney is the lead PI on one of 10 team projects awarded for the first round of Ohio State’s Seed Fund for Racial Justice. This program seeks to develop exploratory research approaches and creative ideas that will help contribute to the elimination of racism and solve its underlying causes and consequences on our campuses, in our community, and across the nation. Marion Dreamkeepers will allocate material resources and support to young people so they can be at the forefront of racial justice organizing -- using photography, storytelling, and civic engagement to advance local solutions and close racial and cultural disparities. To learn more, contact Whitney at gherman.12@osu.edu.

Donna Green, Erie County Extension educator, received a $6,500 grant to initiate a standing desk pilot for a classroom in Erie County. The goal of the taskforce is to implement policy, systems, or environmental changes in Erie County to facilitate healthy behavior change. The grant dollars purchased 25 standing desks for an Erie County elementary classroom. The pilot’s focus is to determine if stand-up desks help increase student energy levels, cognition, memory and focus.

Sandra Allison, Lake County Extension educator, received a grant from the Cardinal Health Foundation to help fight the opioid epidemic in Lake County. The grant is designed to expand medication safety education for thousands of students in K-12 schools and universities, using “Generation Rx” educational materials.

Ingrid Adams, Extension specialist, was awarded a one-time $14,500 grant from the City of Columbus to engage more deeply with the City and its partner organizations to address the disparities that exist, and ensure bright futures for boys and young men of color.

Michael Betz, assistant professor and Extension state specialist, was awarded a $34,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development to research the economic impact of opioid misuse in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia; Mike is the principal investigator (PI) on a 2-year $1.1 million grant from SAMHSA to implement and evaluate evidence-based drug-abuse reduction curricula in rural Ohio middle-schools. He is also co-investigator on two other grants from the Ohio Department of Higher Education and USDA NIFA totaling $720k over two years to do the same in four additional Ohio counties.

Sanja Ilic, assistant professor and Extension state specialist, received a Connect and Collaborate Grant from Global One Health initiative (GOHi) in partnership with the OAA, Office of Outreach and Engagement partners for their project, Development of an Education and Outreach Program to Assist Fresh Produce Growers with Meeting Food Safety Requirements.

Lauren Jones, assistant professor and Extension state specialist, and her team, received a two year, $36,782, research grant from the College of Education and Human Ecology’s Dean’s Emerging Scholars Seed Grant Program. Jones will study the long-term effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), one of the largest anti-poverty programs in the United States benefiting underserved and under-represented populations such as disabled individuals and low-income, working parents. [Read more…]; Jones and her team also won an Affordable Learning Exchange grant to transform the Consumer Sciences General Education (CONSCI 2910) course into a low-cost course that uses open source materials.

Caezilia Loibl, associate professor and Extension state specialist, received a $20,000 Connect and Collaborate grant for "Improving Quality of Life of Chronically Ill Individuals through Financial Coaching; Caezilia was awarded a $134,578 grant from the Social Security Administration Retirement and Disability Research Consortium at the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As co-PI, the project will investigate “Debt Stress and Mortgage Borrowing in Older Age: Implications for Economic Security in Retirement.” The team also includes Stephanie Moulton (PI), John Glenn College of Public Affairs, and Donald Haurin, OSU Department of Economics.