Grants & Contracts

GRANTS/ALLOCATED FUNDING

National Endowment for the Humanities (for summer institute for teachers project titled “Shakespeare and Digital Storytelling”) $187,673 (2021)

National Endowment for the Humanities (for summer institute for teachers project titled “Shakespeare and Digital Storytelling”) $148,360 (2020)

Humanities Faculty Fund Award (professional development award from Agnes Scott College for workshop on video production) $2759 (2018)

 U.S. Department of Education, Improving Teacher Quality State Grants Program, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title II, Part A (for project titled “Delving into the Digital Humanities with Secondary Teachers”) $43,562 (2017-2018)

Holder Fund for Faculty Innovation (professional development award from Agnes Scott College for workshop on digital storytelling) $2850 (2016)

Humanities Faculty Fund Award (professional development grant from Agnes Scott College for project titled, “Examining YA Literature with Queer and Questioning Characters”) $4365 (2016)

National Council of Teachers of English Research Foundation (research grant for “ESL Learners and High-tech Storytelling: Promoting Academic Confidence”) $1700 (2015-2016)

Addison Fund Award (professional development grant from Agnes Scott College for project titled “Reading Literature from the Inside Out: Studying the Construction of YA Novels”) $3600 (2015)

Humanities Faculty Fund Award (professional development grant from Agnes Scott College for project titled, “Oral Histories Redux: A Digital Humanities Approach to Storytelling”) $3110 (2014)

Sims Award (professional development grant from Agnes Scott College to attend digital storytelling workshop at the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, CA) $2250 (2012)

Margaret A. Cargill Foundation (development of a Teachers’ Guild Project, providing on-going professional development opportunities for early-career teachers) $450,000 (2011-2015)

Rotary International (for development of a summer literacy camp for refugee boys, in partnership with the Fugees Family Organization) $15,000 (2010)

Atlanta Women’s Foundation (research on the development of a culturally sensitive curriculum for students at the International Community School in DeKalb, County, GA) $200,000 (2008-2010)

Urban Sites Network of the National Writing Project (in collaboration with the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project—to create a professional development workshop for teachers) $5000 (2008-2009)

Center for Teaching and Learning Research Grant (research on “teacher as artist”) Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA $3000 (2007)

Salimbacious Trust Grant (innovative ideas from students) $2000 (2007)

Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (National Council of Teachers of English) (research project on teaching young adult literature with gay, lesbian, and bisexual characters) $1400 (2006-2007)

Arvle and Ellen Turner Thacker Endowment Fund Grant, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY  $750 (2005)

Bluegrass Writing Project Grant, Kentucky Department of Education, Frankfort, KY $43,000 (2004-2005)

Bluegrass Writing Project Operations Grant, National Writing Project, Berkeley, CA $43,000 (2004-2005)

Research Grant, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY $1200 (2005)

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Resource Team Grant, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA $600 (2004)

CONTRACTS & CONSULTING           

Texas Christian University (TCU)
Fort Worth, Texas
Invited as consultant to work with faculty and graduate students in the English Department on developing a new course on the literary marketplace and young adult literature. Presented a lecture and met with students and faculty to review outlines, syllabus, and research. (Fall 2012)

Fugees Family Organization
Atlanta, Georgia
Conceptualized and designed literacy curriculum for six-week “Academic Boot Camp” for the Fugees Family Organization, a non-profit with the goal of providing support for refugee children and teenagers who live in and near Clarkston, Georgia (near Atlanta). The Fugees are a competitive soccer team, and the organization uses soccer as a central focus to motivate the team members to learn skills that will bolster their chances of success of thriving in the United States, both academically and socially. The curriculum focused on the development of oral and written language facility in English, using 21st-century technologies (digitally recorded interviews, filmmaking, etc.), and the development of skills and behaviors related to academic confidence.  (Summers 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Grant funding.) [www.fugeesfamily.org]

Summer Institute for Teachers
Atlanta, Georgia
Designed and provided oversight for a one-week intensive professional development institute for 42 in-service teachers. Assisted with the design of six mini-courses. Planned and implemented assessment strategies. (Summer 2012, Summer 2013, but project is ongoing.) Grant funding.

Young Audiences of Atlanta, Woodruff Arts Center
Atlanta, Georgia
Research consultant for project to evaluate effectiveness of six-session residencies for elementary students (dance and music residencies). Served as primary researcher for the project, overseeing collection of data, working closely with Young Audiences team and administrative team at the research site (an elementary school in Atlanta).  (2011) [www.yawac.org]

Atlanta Public Schools
Atlanta, Georgia
As a guest artist at South Atlanta High School of Computer Animation and Design (Atlanta Public Schools), designed and taught a one-week unit for 9th grade students on “Transpoemations,” the creation of original poetry that is translated to a digital story, using Microsoft’s MovieMaker software. (2009)

Institute for Student Achievement/Columbia University
New York, New York
Served as a coach for an urban school reform project at an Atlanta public high school, part of a high school transformation project sponsored in part by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [through the Institute for Student Achievement and the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (Columbia University), New York, New York]. (2007-2009) [www.studentachievement.org]

Bloomingdale Elementary School
Savannah, Georgia
Provided professional development [teachers received professional learning units (PLUs)] for 40 teachers, focused on arts-based literacy instruction and writing-across-the-curriculum. (2007)

Carnegie Center for Literacy
Lexington, Kentucky
Working with Carnegie Center for Literacy in Lexington, Kentucky, designed and taught a four-week workshop on reading fluency for middle school students, using readers’ theatre as a method for developing comprehension, fluency, and performance skills. [www.carnegieliteracy.org] (2005)