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Catalyst Grants

The purpose of the Catalyst Grant program is to increase research collaborations among faculty and staff in the College of Education departments and those located at the Friday Institute. A primary objective of this program is to “seed” collaborative research that will lead to further research and support from external granting agencies.

2024-2025 Grant Winners

  • Empowering Rural Young Girls: Enhancing Computational Thinking Through a STEAM Club

Joey Huang, assistant professor; Carrie Robledo, computer science research scholar; Rebekah Davis, research scholar

  • The Impact of SEL Professional Development & Wellness Skills on Teacher Retention

Krista Holland, professional learning scholar; Alicia Fischer, research scholar; Gail Jones, Distinguished University Professor of Science Education

  • My Teaching Copilot: Prototyping an AI Assistant to Facilitate Cognitive Presence in Collaborative-Inquiry Online Learning

Ela Castellanos-Reyes, assistant professor of learning, design and technology; Cigdem Meral, research assistant

2023-2024 Grant Winners

  • Graduate Students’ Academic Identity and Self Efficacy for Interdisciplinary Graduate Education

Alicia Fischer, research associate at the Friday Institute; Shiyan Jiang, associate professor of learning design and technology in the College of Education; and Gail Jones, Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor in the College of Education and senior faculty fellow at the Friday Institute.

  • Early Elementary-Grade Teachers’ Equitable Implementation of Science of Reading

Jackie Relyea, assistant professor of literacy education in the College of Education; Dennis Davis, associate professor of literacy education in the College of Education; Jill Grifenhagen, associate professor of literacy education in the College of Education; and Marie Himes, research scholar and director of the New Literacies Collaborative at the Friday Institute.

  • Creating Hopeful Futures: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Art-Based Literacy Practices with Refugee Youth

Angela Wiseman, associate professor of literacy education in the College of Education; Crystal Chen Lee, assistant professor of English language arts education in the College of Education and faculty fellow at the Friday Institute; and Jose Picart, a professor of counselor education in the College of Education and deputy director at the Friday Institute.

2022-2023 Grant Winners

  • Virtual Academies in North Carolina: Examining Profiles, Issues and Trends

Blake Wiggs, research scholar (Friday Institute), and Florence Martin, professor of learning, design and technology in the College of Education

Gail Jones, Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor in the College of Education and senior faculty fellow (Friday Institute); Meghan Manfra, professor of social studies education in the College of Education; Sarah Carrier, professor of elementary science education in the College of Education; and Rebecca Ward, assistant state climatologist in the North Carolina State Climate Office and a doctoral student in the Learning and Teaching in STEM science education concentration in the College of Education

  • Preservice Access to Computing Knowledge (PACK) Success

Rebekah Davis, research associate (Friday Institute), and Temple Walkowiak, associate professor of elementary mathematics education in the College of Education

2021-2022 Grant Winners

Amato Nocera, assistant professor, and Jennifer Houchins, director of technology programs (Friday Institute)

  • Changing the Tide: Supporting and Retaining Residency Licensed Special Educators 

Jessica Hunt, associate professor of mathematics education and special education and faculty fellow (Friday Institute), and Patricia Hilliard, research scholar (Friday Institute)

Gemma Mojica, research scholar (Friday Institute); Sunghwan Byun, assistant professor of mathematics education; and Emily Thrasher, research associate (Friday Institute)

2020-2021 Grant Winners

Angela Wiseman, associate professor of literacy education; Brittany Miller, research associate (Friday Institute); and Qiana Cryer-Coupet, assistant professor of social work (College of Humanities and Social Sciences)

Chandra Alston, assistant professor, and Sarah Bausell, research associate (Friday Institute)

Callie Edwards, associate director, program evaluation and education research (Friday Institute); and Jemilia S. Davis, former director of strategic initiatives & external relations (College of Education Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research)

2019-2020 Grant Winners

Shiyan Jiang and Bita Akram (Friday Institute)

  • Digital Durham Program Evaluation: Working Towards a Strategic Plan 

Erin Huggins (Friday Institute) and Laura B. Fogle

Meghan Manfra and Alex Dreier (Friday Institute)

  • Refining Survey Tools’ Content, Theory and Presentation

Sara Weiss (Friday Institute) and Paul Umbach

Gail Jones (Friday Institute), Sarah Carrier, Cesar Delgado, LaTricia Townsend (Friday Institute) and Jill Grifenhagen

  • Amplifying Youth Voices in University-Community Partnerships: Write. Engage. Lead.

Crystal Lee and Jose Picart (Friday Institute)

2018-2019 Grant Winners

Gail Jones (Friday Institute), Sarah Carrier, Melanie Smith, Tamecia Jones, Lynn Cross and Sherry Freeman (Friday Institute)

Crystal Chen and Jose Picart (Friday Institute)

Jamie Pearson, Mary Ann Wolf (Friday Institute) and Alex Dreier (Friday Institute)

  • Developing a Web App Tutoring Tool to Support Decoding and Spelling Instruction

Dennis Davis and Mark Samberg (Friday Institute)