Faculty News

Professor William Elliott III spoke with the New York Times about how establishing college savings accounts early transforms expectations about the future and impacts savings. “A savings account for a low-income kid means a lot more to them than it does for a wealthy kid.”

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Angela Fernandez has been selected as a William T. Grant AQC Scholar with the Institute in Critical Quantitative, Computational & Mixed Methodologies. The institute’s mission is to advance the presence of scholars of color among those using data science methodologies, and challenge researchers to use those methods in ways that can dismantle the structural barriers to enable human flourishing for underrepresented communities, professionals, and young people.

Professor Trina Shanks was interviewed by West Michigan Fox Channel 17 about vaccine hesitant groups she has been researching. Shanks survey shows that over 50 percent of Detroiters intend to get the vaccine. “There’s people who literally said, 'I don’t want to take it' in December, but when the opportunity came, they did get the vaccine,” Shanks said.

Lecturer and ENGAGE Program Manager Ayesha Ghazi Edwin and Clinical Assistant Professor Daicia Price will both be awarded 2021 Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prizes (TIPs). These awards honor faculty who have developed innovative approaches to teaching that incorporate creative pedagogies.

Ghazi Edwin’s award is for her project, Improving Our City: The Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission Project. “Participating in the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission project in SW 560 was the highlight of my experience in the MSW program,” said MSW Student Bryant Hepp. “The project allowed me to apply coursework in community engagement, have meaningful discussions with classmates which improved and extended my in-class learning, and present that information to local government officials. By bridging the gap between my identity as a student and member of the local community, the project helped me feel connected to others even during a pandemic.”

Price’s award is for her course, African-Centered Practices in the Community and in the Classroom. Not only does Price incorporate inclusive teaching principles, she also provides historical context of the origination of the theoretical framework and attributes African culture and ideology. “By engaging the contributions of African Americans within specific disciplines, and utilizing unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith, educators are able to create a cohesive classroom that prepares future leaders to engage in work that supports the pursuit of social justice,” she says. “This course design provides educators with a chance to decentralize Western European standards within the academic and professional settings by introducing and developing alternatives to teaching, learning, and practice.

Assistant Professor Fernanda Cross will receive an Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the 2021 Society for Research on Child Development. Cross’ dissertation examines how the roles of sociocultural stressors, such as discrimination and documentation​ status, influence parental ethnic-racial socialization practices in Latinx​ immigrant families. Selection for the awards is based on criteria that included the quality of the dissertation, publications emerging from the project, and the nominee’s current position and engagement in the field of child development research.

Professor Joe Ryan is quoted in the American Public Media story “How Utah has let its many youth treatment centers off the hook” about the use of horse troughs as “therapeutic discipline” at a residential treatment center for young women in Utah. Ryan said “It clearly was humiliation."

Ryan reviewed Utah state and law enforcement reports on trough discipline used “If that's not humiliating public shaming, I don't know what is."

Edie Kieffer and a team from the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation study on the impact of dental coverage is featured in the latest issue of ADA News. Their research suggests that Medicaid’s dental coverage has improved enrollees’ health in ways that have helped them seek a new job or do better at the one they have. “Many enrollees spoke passionately and sometimes joyously about how having dental benefits had changed, and in some cases, saved their lives,” said Kieffer.

PhD student Garrett Pace, Associate Professor Shawna Lee, and Professor Andrew Grogan-Kaylor's research was cited in public policy discussions in Colombia, leading to a ban on corporal punishment of children in that country.  Colombian legislator Julián Peinado Ramírez shared his memo on Twitter, which references Grogan-Kaylor, Lee and Pace’s 2019 work. The research and ban were also featured on Radio Santa Fe 1070 AM Bogotá.