SCL Website
Systems Change Lab underwent a website redesign recently. Check out their new site at scl.ssrc.msstate.edu.
SCL Website
In the News
Katerina Sergi appeared in the Spring Newsletter Emerging Scholars Spotlight of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Special Interest Group "Online Teaching and Learning."
A passion for creating brought Canon Sbravati to Mississippi State University and the Social Science Research Center. Read about Sbravati, an SSRC undergraduate research assistant, at https://bit.ly/3ynZohm.
Lab Updates
The Systems Change Laboratory completed the Mississippi Lift Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five (PDG-5) Strategic Plan for the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The plan details opportunities and goals for Mississippi’s early childcare system.
Amanda Tullos and Dr. Devon Brenner joined this year’s participants in the MS Education Policy Fellowship Program at the Washington Policy Seminar in Washington, DC, on March 20-22. Fellows and education leaders from around the state learned about federal education policy and appropriations and met with Congressman Bennie Thompson, Congressman Michael Guest, and Julia Cunningham, Director of Rural Engagement at the U.S. Department of Education.
Mississippi Alcohol Safety Education Program
Dr. Blythe McCance and Chuck Dawkins attended the Mississippi Justice Court Judges Conference in Philadelphia, MS, on April 11.
Personnel
Dr. Kathleen Ragsdale served as an invited reviewer for the Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) on the Special Emphasis Panel, PS24-063 - Minority HIV Research Initiative, which was held virtually over two days in April. Dr. Ragsdale also served as a peer reviewer for the journal BMJ Global Health, which is part of the British Medical Journal's collection.
Madeline Burdine, MS MA, an SSRC research associate with the Gender Impacts Lab, successfully defended her master's thesis at the University of Mississippi on April 22.
Awards & Recognition
Rachel Adair, an undergraduate research assistant in the Message Laboratory mentored by Dr. Holli Seitz, received 2nd place in the Public Health Research Competition held in conjunction with the Spring 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium for her poster titled "Using Diffusion of Innovation Theory attributes to predict intention to click, try, and share HappyHealthy physical activity posts on Facebook." This work also forms the basis of her senior honors thesis. Read about all winners at https://bit.ly/4bA4zcJ.
SSRC Project Manager Amanda Tullos has been selected for the Leadership Mississippi Class of 2024, conducted by the Mississippi Economic Council. Learn more about the program at https://bit.ly/4dzzOGr.
Publications
Lebakula, V., Datla, V., Wanik , D. W., & Cosby, A.G. (2024, April 15). Predicting County-Level Population From VIIRS Nighttime Light Imagery With Deep Learning, IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 24, no. 8, pp. 13477-13487, 15. doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2024.3363693.
Presentations & Conference Participation
On April 4-5, Dr. Heather Hanna, Melissa Luckett, and Nell Valentine attended the Mississippi LIFT summit in Oxford, MS. The Mississippi Lift Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five (PDG-5) Strategic Plan was presented to the Mississippi Department of Human Services and partners including the Mississippi Department of Education, the Mississippi Early Childhood Inclusion Center, and the Children's Foundation of Mississippi.
Dr. Devon Brenner appeared on a panel of national experts to discuss the federal government's role in education at the Washington Policy Seminar in Washington, D.C. The annual WPS convenes education leaders from eight states to learn more about education policy and advocacy. Brenner spoke about rural education, higher education policy, and the unique needs of rural schools. Katerina Sergi, a Mississippi Education Policy Fellowship Program fellow, and Amanda Tullos, MS EPFP manager, also attended the WPS.
Dr. Devon Brenner joined PREPS Associate Director Patti Permenter, National Rural Education Association Director Allen Pratt, and Rural Schools Collaborative Director Taylor McCabe Juhnke to talk about why rural matters in Mississippi for the PREPS annual conference in early March.
Katerina Sergi presented "Developing Sustainable Collaborations in Educational Research" of the Special Interest Group "Motivation in Education" at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) held on April 11-14, 2024 in Philadelphia.
Anreddy, S., Sergi, K., McMillen, R., Stouffer, C., & Valentine, N. (2024, March). TRAPS -A Visual Analytics System for Public Health Surveillance. [Presentation]. 16th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. New Orleans, LA.
Anreddy, S. & Stouffer, C., McClelland, E. (2024, March). Increasing Program Capacity Through Data Dashboards. [Presentation]. Approaching the Fifth Year: Showcasing and Synthesizing Our Progress CDC-RFA-DP202001 Awardee Meeting. Atlanta, GA.
Adair, R. & Seitz. H. H. (2024, April 11). Using Diffusion of Innovation Theory attributes to predict intention to click, try, and share HappyHealthy physical activity posts on Facebook. [Poster Presentation]. 2024 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. Mississippi State University.
Bradford, A., Ragsdale, K., Mudege, N.M., Read-Wahidi, M.R., Muzungaire, L., Kakwasha, K., Burdine, M., Howard, D. (2024, April 11). Exploring ComFA+Fish Results: A Nutrient Analysis of Kapenta Dried Fish Powder and Taste-Test Results from Three ComFA+Fish Sensory Panels in Rural Zambia. [Poster Presentation/Public Health Research Area]. 2024 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. Mississippi State University.
Howard, D., Ragsdale, K., Mudege, N.M., Read-Wahidi, M.R., Muzungaire, L., Kakwasha, K., Burdine, M., & Bradford, A. (2024, April 11). ComFA+Fish: A FishFirst! Zambia Innovation to Address Childhood Malnutrition in Zambia and Beyond. [Poster Presentation/Public Health Research Area]. 2024 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. Mississippi State University.
Howard, D., Ragsdale, K., Read-Wahidi, M.R., Burdine, M., & Bradford, A. (2024, April 12). ComFA+Fish: A FishFirst! Zambia Innovation to Address Childhood Malnutrition in Zambia and Beyond. [Oral Presentation/3Minutes Research Pitch]. 2024 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. Mississippi State University.
Kolbila, R., Ragsdale, K., Read-Wahidi, M., Clark, K. (2024, April 3-6). What Does Agricultural Mechanization Equipment in the Hands of Women’s Cooperatives Mean? Evidence from Ghana. [Oral Presentation]. Southern Sociological Society Conference, New Orleans, LA.
Palocsik, O., May, D.C., & Stubbs-Richardson, M., (2024, April 11). I always feel like somebody’s watching me: Examining the video surveillance among police departments in Mississippi. [Presentation]. 2024 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. Mississippi State University.
Stubbs-Richardson, M., Brown, L., Earley, E., Nelson, S., & Hernandez, T. (2024, April 3-6) Identity salience, social institutions, and emotions expressed about the COVID-19 pandemic on Twitter. [Presentation]. Southern Sociological Society, New Orleans, LA.
Tate, A. & Seitz, H. H. (2024, April 11). Vaccine education for older adults in rural areas. [Presentation]. 2024 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. Mississippi State University.
Valentine, N., (2024) Mississippi Lift Preschool Development Grant Birth to Five Strategic Plan. [Presentation]. MS Lift Summit, Oxford, MS.
