February 2022 Chronicles

Published by Emile Creel on

New Projects

Dr. Sheena Gardner will serve as Principal Investigator for the 2021 Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Report. Researchers will assess DMC within Mississippi’s juvenile system. States participating in the Federal Formula Grants Program are required by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act of 2002 to collect juvenile justice data to guide DMC identification and reduction efforts. Using data from the Mississippi youth Court Information Delivery System (MYCIDS), researchers will determine whether there is an over-representation of minority youth at eight points of contact within the juvenile justice system. The project is funded by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.

Dr. Angela Robertson will lead efforts to conduct a survey for the Evaluation of Hope Sciences and Trauma-Informed Training. The survey will evaluate the extent to which training participants report current use of the skills taught during the training with their clients that are involved with the Mississippi Youth Court system. The Hope Science Institute of Mississippi is funding the project.

Dr. Ben Walker will serve as the principal investigator for the SSRC’s data and technical support to the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi for the Mississippi KIDS COUNT project with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. As part of this work, they will assist the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi with the projection of the annual KIDS COUNT data book, county fact sheets, legislative calendar, maintenance of the KIDS COUNT data center, and will provide data support to the Mississippi KIDS COUNT director as needed.

On the Horizon

ADI-ORED Undergraduate Research Scholars with the SSRC, Ania Issac and Makayla Smith, are each drafting an abstract for submission to the 2022 Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium, under the mentorship of Dr. Mary Read-Wahidi, Dr. Kathleen Ragsdale, and GRA Robert Kolbila of the SSRC’s Gender Impacts Lab.  
 
In the News

Dr. Devon Brenner is featured on this month’s Institute for Educational Leadership’s Education Policy Fellowship Program’s Fireside Chat. The series is designed to lift up alumni leadership stories, their experience in EPFP, and to spotlight their current work. Watch at https://bit.ly/3tpcrJj

Dr. Devon Brenner co-authored a new blog post on the Advancing Research & Innovation in the STEM Education of Preservice Teachers in High-Need School Districts’ (ARISE) website. Read the article at https://bit.ly/35v1U7P.

Dr. Kathleen Ragsdale and Dr. Mary Read-Wahidi‘s new  Post-Harvest Fish Loss Assessment for Small-Scale Fisheries tool was featured on the Feed The Future Innovation Lab for Fish’s website. Read at https://bit.ly/3tANyL0.
Wolfgang Frese Survey Research Laboratory

The Survey Research Laboratory is in the process of entering data for the 2021 Natural Resource Enterprise Landowners Survey. This is a paper-based survey administered semi-annually to Mississippi landowners who are interested in using a portion of their land to start a natural resource enterprise such as agritourism, fee hunting/fishing, horse trail riding, etc. The 2021 survey administration yielded approximately 300 completed questionnaires. Dr. Daryl Jones, Extension Professor at Mississippi State University, serves as the primary investigator for this project.

Presentations & Conference Participation

Dr. Lora Iannotti, Associate Professor and Director of the E3 Nutrition Lab at the Institute of Public Health, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, visited Mississippi State University on February 9-11. Her MSU visit was jointly hosted by the SSRC and the Global Center for Aquatic Health & Food Security — the umbrella organization that hosts the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish (Fish Innovation Lab). The Nutrition Specialist for the Fish Innovation Lab, Dr. Iannotti is a recent recipient of a $3.2 million NIH grant focused on child stunting and development in Haiti. She is leading a systematic review on mollusks and crustaceans on which Drs. Ragsdale and Read-Wahidi are co-collaborators.

Callie Poole attended the Delta Health Alliance Community Convening on February 17. The convening focused on the details of a new community-based doula program with support from HealthConnect One.

Callie Poole attended the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Public Policy Forum on February 28. National and state policy leaders shared ideas about supporting young children and the early childhood education profession.

Deleveaux, Jamiko and Cossman, Ronald E. “When the Students Don’t Get Counted: College Town 2020 Census.” February 2, 2022.  Applied Demography Conference (virtual meeting).

Cossman, Ronald E. February 10-11, 2022. “Undercounts in College Towns: Causes and Implications.” Mississippi Data Center annual meeting, Oxford, MS.

Cossman, Ronald E., and Deleveaux, Jamiko. “Where COVID-19 Contributed to Undercounts in College-Dominated Towns in the 2020 Census.” February 27, 2022. American Association of Geographers (virtual meeting).
Publications & Reports

Ragsdale, K., Read-Wahidi, M.R., Marinda, P., Pincus, L., Torell, E. & Kolbila, R. (2022). Adapting the WEAI to explore gender equity among fishers, processors, and sellers/traders at Zambia’s Lake Bangweulu. World Development, 152, 105821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105821   

Ragsdale, K., Read-Wahidi, M.R., Zhou, Q.M., Clark, K., Asigbee, M., Tamimie, C. & Goldsmith, P. (2022). Can low-cost soybean input bundles assist smallscale women farmers out of subsistence livelihood traps? Evidence from Northern Ghana. Food Security. doi: 10.1007/s12571-022-01263-2.

Sinclair, H. C., Wilson, K., & Stubbs-Richardson, M. (Provisionally Accepted). Variation and consistency in youth bullying experiences across cultures. Frontiers in Psychology, section Educational Psychology. See: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.860887/full.