Research Awards
March 2025
Dr. Carolyn Kaldon, research professor for the Center for Research in Educational Policy (CREP), was awarded $650,000 from U.S. Department of Education (US DoEd) for her project “Tutor901: High-Impact Tutoring for High-Needs Students”.
Dr. Janay Camp, research professor in Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, was awarded $439,422 from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for her project “Affecting Communities Through Educator Voices (ACTEV)”.
Dr. Melanie Burgess, assistant professor in Counseling Educational Psychology & Research (CEPR) was awarded $416,312 from U.S. Department of Education (US DoEd) for her project “ASPIRE: Advancing School Counseling Programs by Increasing Representation and Experiences”.
Dr. Eric Bailey II, assistant vice president in Student Academic Success in the Division of Student Academic Success, was awarded $309,504 from U.S. Department of Education (US DoEd) for his project “University of Memphis Upward Bound”.
Dr. Shahram Pezeshk, chair & professor in Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, was awarded $249,891 from (New Prime) Federal Highway Administration for his project “UTAP: Rapid Health Monitoring Of Bridges In Tennessee”.
Dr. Claudio Meier, associate professor in Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, was awarded $249,680 from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for his project “Leveraging Geospatial Data to Explain Urbanization Effects on Flood Response with the Hydrologic-Connectivity-Based Index of Urbanization HCIU”.
Dr. Chunrong Jia, professor in the Division of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Environmental Health in the School of Public Health, was awarded $211,557 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for his project “Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center Program (EJ TCTAC)”.
Dr. Manob Saikia, assistant professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, was awarded $175,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project “CRII: SCH: RUI: Development of Hybrid EEG-fNIRS Neuroimaging Headband for Neurofeedback”.
Dr. Emily Puckett, associate professor in Biological Sciences, was awarded $87,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her project “Hair-greying and melanocytic regulation of BCL2 in a non-model organism”.
Dr. Alexander Headley, assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering, was awarded $73,903 from the Sandia National Laboratories for his project “Integrating Battery Degradation Data into QuESt for Enhanced Technoeconomic Analysis”.
Dr. Robert Smalley, research professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI), was awarded $62,000 from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for his project “GPS Array for Mid-America - monitoring deformation in the New Madrid seismic zone”.
Dr. Jill Dapremont, department chair and professor in the Family, Community, and Health System Science in the Loewenberg College of Nursing, was awarded $42,444 from National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her project “Health Disparities: Black Women and Breast Cancer”.
Whitney Hardy, director in the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship, was awarded $39,100 from Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development for her project “Greater Memphis Chamber Multicultural Entrepreneur Accelerator”.
Dr. Fanta Gutema, assistant professor of research at School of Public Health, was awarded $37,470.70 from the Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute (RGHI) for his project “Genomic Fingerprinting of Enteric and Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria at the Hygiene and One Health Interface for Tracking Disease Transmission in Urban and Peri Urban Bishoftu town, Ethiopia”.
Dr. Gretchen Peterson, professor and graduate coordinator in Sociology, was awarded $30,000 from Ford Philanthropy for her project “Development of Ford Community Center in Stanton”.
Dr. Richard Bloomer, dean and professor in the College of Health Sciences, was awarded $25,000 from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (US DHHS) for his project “Substance Use Prevention Among Vulnerable Youth”.
Dr. Gary Stinchcomb, assistant professor in Earth Sciences, was awarded $18,600 from The Leakey Foundation for his project “Aggrey Minya: Francis H. Brown African Scholarship”.
Dr. Latrice Pichon, professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health, was awarded $13,540 from The National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her project “Identifying multilevel facilitators of care outcomes among Positive Deviants to design an intervention for Black sexual minority men living with HIV.”.
Dr. Lara Condon, assistant professor of Math Education in Instruction and Curriculum Leadership, was awarded $10,371 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) for her project “EdLight Pathways: Coaching on Teachers' Response to Misconceptions.”.
Dr. Thierry Morlet, associate professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, was awarded $6,818 from the James S. McDonnell Foundation for his project “A naturalistic examination of the listening environment and its role on development”
Dr. Mary Tucker, chief policy & compliance officer in the University Schools, was awarded $5,000 each from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for her projects “University High: Building Robots, Launching Careers” and “University Middle: Computer Science and Robotics for All”.