March 2022 Chronicles

On the Horizon

Dr. Kathleen Ragsdale will serve as an abstract reviewer for the 150^th American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting, which will be held in November in Boston, MA. Her program review areas include Food and Nutrition and Sexual and Reproductive Health.

In April, Dr. Kathleen Ragsdale will give a professional development seminar for graduate and undergraduate students who are members of the Feed the Future Fish Innovation Lab Student Network. Ragsdale’s seminar will focus on giving effective scientific presentations and will draw on her more than 15 years of first-hand experience presenting at conferences, at USAID events, and other professional meetings, serving as an invited panel moderator at American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meetings and other professional meetings, and serving as a Judge at Graduate Research Symposia and Undergraduate Research Symposia hosted by Mississippi State University.

Makayla Smith, ADI-ORED Undergraduate Research Scholar with the SSRC, will perform in the MSU presentation of the musical, Once on This Island on April 6, 7, 9, and 10 at the McComas Hall Theatre.

Makayla Smith, ADI-ORED Undergraduate Research Scholar with the SSRC, will perform in the State Sings, Schola Cantorum presentation of the Suffrage Cantata, a large vocal arrangement for treble voices with narration (done by Aundrea Self of WCBI from Columbus, Mississippi) detailing the history of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, by award-winning composer Andrea Ramsey at First Baptist Church on Friday, April 8^th at 7:00pm.

Awards & Recognition

Dr. Kathleen Ragsdale and Dr. Mary Read-Wahidi have been named Masters of Public Health (MPH) Practicum Field Instructors within the Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). This designation will allow Ragsdale and Read-Wahidi to guide MPH Practicum experiences related to health, food security, and nutrition- and gender-sensitive aquaculture and fisheries development, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. This opportunity was facilitated by Dr. Lora Iannotti, whose visit to the SSRC and Mississippi State University on February 9-11 was co-hosted by the SSRC and the Global Center for Aquatic Health and Food Security, the MSU organization that hosts the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish (Fish Innovation Lab).

ADI/ORED Undergraduate Research Scholar, Ania Issac, has applied to receive an Arts & Sciences Student First Undergraduate Excellence Opportunity (SFUEO) Award from Mississippi State University (MSU). The funds will be used by Ania to conduct field-based research in Zambia in Summer 2022 for the FishFirst! Zambia project under the direct supervision and mentorship of Drs. Kathleen Ragsdale and Mary Read-Wahidi. Ania was selected as an ADI/ORED Undergraduate Research Scholar by the Division of Access, Diversity, and Inclusion (ADI) in collaboration with the Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) for Spring 2022 and is working with the SSRC Gender Impacts Lab.

Robert Kolbila – an SSRC Graduate Research Assistant and PhD student of Sociology – has been awarded a Marion T. Loftin Award. This award will fund his field-based research in Zambia in Summer 2022 for the FishFirst! Zambia project under the direct supervision and mentorship of Drs. Kathleen Ragsdale and Mary Read-Wahidi.

Announcements

Dr. Devon Brenner, along with co-editors Amy Price Azano, Catharine Biddle, and Erin McHenry-Sorber, published the latest edition of The Rural Educator, journal of the National Rural Education Association.  This special issue of the journal addresses Race and Rurality in Rural Education. https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/ruraleducator/

Dr. Devon Brenner, coordinator, traveled to Washington, D.C. with five Mississippi educators, including Amanda Tullos (Partnership School Director, MSU), Diana Outlaw (Teacher Preparation for Rural Teacher Persistence and Retention Project Coordinator, MSU), and John Wyatt (Associate Professor of Industrial Technology, MSU) to attend the Washington Policy Seminar, part of the Mississippi Education Policy Fellowship Program.  Attendees at this national event learned more about federal education policy and the role of the federal government in K-12 and higher education.

Presentations & Conference Participation

Publications & Reports

Brenner, D. (2022, March). Beyond fate: Funding structure and public policy mean rural schools don’t get fair share. The Daily Yonder. https://dailyyonder.com/beyond-fate-funding-structure-and-public-policy-mean-rural-schools-dont-get-fair-share/2022/03/15/

Ragsdale, K., Read-Wahidi, M.R., Zhou, Q.M., Clark, K., Asigbee, M., Tamimie, C. & Goldsmith, P. (2022). Low-cost soybean input bundles impact women farmer’s subsistence livelihood traps: Evidence from Northern Ghana. Food Security. doi: 10.1007/s12571-022-01263-2.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-022-01263-2

Read-Wahidi, M., Kolbila, R. & Ragsdale, K. (2022, March). Teen Health Mississippi Choose Your Method Campaign Evaluation Final Report. Teen Health Mississippi. Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University. 11 pp.

Read-Wahidi, M.R., & Ragsdale, K. (2022, March). GRADA-FIL Results at a Glance: Gender Responsiveness within Research Teams. USAID, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish. Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University. 2 pp. https://www.fishinnovationlab.msstate.edu/sites/www.fishinnovationlab.msstate.edu/files/2022-03/GRADA-FIL_Results%20at%20a%20Glance_4_Gender%20Responsiveness%20within%20Research%20Teams_FINAL.pdf

Wall, C.; Tolar-Peterson, T.; Reeder, N.; Roberts, M.; Reynolds, A.; Rico Mendez, G. (2022). The Impact of School Meal Programs on Educational Outcomes in African Schoolchildren: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3666). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063666