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Catch up on the latest about accomplishments and activities related to the university's Strategic Plan during its second phase.

News, News and Events, Strategic Plan

A Second Century Initiative Faculty Q&A: Laura Salazar

A Second Century Initiative Faculty Q&A: Laura Salazar

The Second Century Initiative (2CI) brought more than 80 leading scholars and researchers across a diverse array of disciplines; its successor program, the Next Generation Program, continues to do so. Each faculty member has provided the university with their unique perspectives and leadership in their fields. Their work moves forward important and innovative research and scholarship, while lifting the reputation of Georgia State University and its colleges/schools for work addressing the challenges of the 21st century.

This article on the Next Generation Program site is part of a series highlighting individual faculty members and their perspectives through a question-and-answer format. Dr. Laura Salazar came to Georgia State under the first round of 2CI, and is a professor in the School of Public Health. Click the link to read the profile.

News, News and Events, Strategic Plan

Digital Learners to Leaders Program Named as Finalist for Prestigious Technology Association of Georgia Award

Digital Learners to Leaders Program Named as Finalist for Prestigious Technology Association of Georgia Award

A program developed by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Georgia State University was named as a finalist for a Technology Association of Georgia Diversity Leadership Award.

The program, Digital Learners to Leaders (DLL), was developed by CETL to address underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM careers and the technology industry. DLL works to advance student understanding of digital literacy by encouraging program participants to create digital solutions to urban challenges.

With the help of professionals in Atlanta, DLL is designed not only to teach students STEM topics, but also to mentor and provide students with necessary skills for successfully entering the workforce. The program was nominated for the leadership award just one year after its implementation by CETL.

News, News and Events, Strategic Plan

Research: Founding Director Named for the New Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS)

Research: Founding Director Named for the New Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS)

Vince Calhoun, one of the world’s foremost experts in brain imaging and analysis, has been named the founding director of the Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS) at Georgia State University.

TReNDS will be a tri-institutional effort supported by Georgia State, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, with a focus on increasing cooperation among Atlanta brain imaging researchers.

Calhoun will be professor of psychology at Georgia State, with secondary appointments in the departments of Computer Science and Physics and in the Neuroscience Institute. Calhoun will have appointments at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He will have additional appointments at Emory in the departments of Neurology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Radiology and Imaging Sciences. Calhoun is joining the university as a Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Eminent Scholar in Brain Health and Image Analysis, becoming the first eminent scholar with appointments at three institutions.

News, News and Events, Strategic Plan

Georgia State Rises To No. 2 In Nation for Innovation

Georgia State Rises To No. 2 In Nation for Innovation

Georgia State University is ranked the second most innovative university in the nation and second in the country for its commitment to undergraduate teaching in the 2019 Best Colleges edition of U.S. News & World Report magazine.

Georgia State was the fourth most innovative institution in last year’s rankings. It was eighth last year among national universities cited for an “unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.” Arizona State University is first in this year’s innovation ranking and Princeton University topped the undergraduate teaching ranking.

Long recognized as one of the nation’s most diverse institutions, Georgia State is 10th in U.S. News’ ranking of the most ethnically diverse national universities. Additionally, the university’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business moved from 64th last year to 44th this year in the magazine’s ranking of undergraduate business programs.

News, News and Events

Fall 2018: Georgia State Welcomes Record, Diverse Freshman Class

Fall 2018: Georgia State Welcomes Record, Diverse Freshman Class

Georgia State University has enrolled the largest freshman classes in its history this fall at the university’s downtown campus and the five campuses of Georgia State’s Perimeter College.

At the Atlanta Campus, more than 4,600 first-year students enrolled at the university, an increase of 700 students compared to the fall semester of 2017. The class set a record with an average high school grade point average (GPA) of more than 3.5. Average SAT scores for incoming students have increased by 20 points.

This fall’s student body is also the most diverse in the school’s history. A record number of African-American, Hispanic and Asian American students are enrolled at Georgia State. Students come from every county in Georgia, every state in the nation and more than 140 nations.

The university has been recognized nationally as a leader in student success efforts, from using predictive analytics to keep students on track to graduate, to awarding thousands of Panther Retention Grants, small grants to help fill financial gaps that might otherwise lead to a student dropping out. Georgia State’s actions to become a national model for undergraduate student success, and expansion of its Honors College, are part of a greater 10-year strategic plan that has transformed the university.

News, News and Events, Strategic Plan

Goal 3 – Research: Tackling Obesity Through a New $3 Million Grant

Goal 3 – Research: Tackling Obesity Through a New $3 Million Grant

Georgia State University has received two four-year grants totaling almost $3 million from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to research the epigenetic mechanisms that may fuel obesity.

Hang Shi, associate professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is the lead investigator on both projects.

Epigenetics is the study of any process that alters gene expression—or the way that genes “behave”—yet does not change the underlying DNA sequence. How the body regulates gene expression is hereditary but it can also be affected by a person’s environment. For this reason, obesity experts see epigenetics as a link between environmental risk factors (such as diet and lifestyle) and genetic risk factors for the disease.

News, News and Events, Strategic Plan

Goal 3 – Research: Tackling Debilitating Chronic Inflammation

Goal 3 – Research: Tackling Debilitating Chronic Inflammation

Scientists across Georgia State University are working to better understand the relationship between chronic inflammation and a number of serious health conditions. They’re also striving to uncover what fuels uncontrolled inflammation and pinpoint ways to prevent the body’s inflammatory response from going awry.

News, News and Events, Strategic Plan

Goal 3 – Research: University Receives $1.4 Millon to Study Effects of E-Cigarette Regulations

Goal 3 – Research: University Receives $1.4 Millon to Study Effects of E-Cigarette Regulations

Georgia State University has received $1.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to lead a four-year research initiative that will evaluate the effects of early attempts to regulate electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes).

Enhancing research is part of Goal 3 of the Strategic Plan.

The study is led by economist Michael Pesko, a fifth round Second Century Initiative hire in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State, in partnership with Cornell University, Temple University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Pennsylvania, and the School of Public Health at Georgia State.

Researchers will study the effects of e-cigarette-related regulations on pricing, access, public perception of the safety of e-cigarettes, and the use and sale of e-cigarettes, traditional cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco. They will also investigate the impact of e-cigarette regulations on sales of nicotine replacement therapies, such as gum and patches, for those who are seeking to quit smoking.

“There is a gap in understanding how to regulate or deregulate e-cigarettes in the most optimal way from the perspective of public health,” Pesko said, “and a lack of understanding of what spillover effects vaping regulations might have on other health behaviors.”

News, News and Events, Strategic Plan

Goal 4: New Executive Director Appointed for the Creative Media Industries Institute

Goal 4: New Executive Director Appointed for the Creative Media Industries Institute

Brennen Dicker, a film and video professional with 20 years of experience, has been named executive director of Georgia State University’s Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII). CMII is a cross-college disciplinary institute, affiliated with the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of the Arts.

Dicker’s appointment as executive director of the CMII is part of Georgia State’s efforts to fulfill its strategic plan, aimed at elevating the university’s reputation for excellence and innovation in research, scholarship and creative endeavors. He joins Georgia State as a strategic hire under the Next Generation Program.

The CMII aligns with a strategic goal to highlight the arts and media, and to use the university’s strengths to create opportunities for exploration of the intersections among creativity, technology and entrepreneurship as metro Atlanta’s media industries in film, television, gaming and more form a vital part of the regional economy.