UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute Newsletter

 

Support us Recipients of FPG Next pilot funding announced Last year, FPG Director Brian Boyd launched an initiative that would guide future work at the Institute. With FPG Next, Boyd aimed to leverage the Institute’s strengths and expand FPG’s project portfolio. He also wanted to foster even more collaboration throughout the Institute—across and among our research and evaluation, implementation science and technical assistance groups—and across UNC’s campus. In the initial phase, the FPG Next planning groups conducted a landscape analysis to help identify research and collaboration opportunities and forward-looking trends. Next, teams led by FPG researchers in collaboration with campus partners worked on new project proposals in pursuit of a pilot grant opportunity. We recently announced the recipients of the FPG Next pilot funding. “These newly funded projects are exciting,” said Noreen Yazejian, FPG's interim associate director for research, “not only for the knowledge they will generate in the short term but also for their potential to spark further discovery, improve outcomes for children and families, and bring tangible benefits to North Carolina and beyond through innovative practices.” Read the full announcement Project News Bringing critical attention to young learners in rural communities Deepening her commitment to support families and professionals in maximizing children’s learning potential through interventions and resources, FPG's Hsiu-Wen Yang recently led a project focused on advancing outcomes for multi-language learners in rural, agricultural communities. Working to understand green spaces and their importance for mental health After reading about research showing the incidence rate of diagnosable psychiatric disorders in adults was lower in those who grew up near green spaces as children, FPG's Nissa Towe-Goodman became interested in exploring how the availability of natural areas could offset the development of those disorders. People Spotlight Yolanda Perkins is an implementation specialist at FPG with more than 20 years of experience in K-12 and post-secondary education. Her work focuses on supporting education and state agencies in developing processes that ensure the successful implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practices and programs. Ping Chen is an advanced research scientist and social science research methodologist at FPG. With interdisciplinary experience in social science and epidemiology, she specializes in conducting research to understand social, environmental, behavioral, and biological linkages in developmental and long-term health trajectories. Amelia Krysinski is a project manager with the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at FPG with experience in project management, coordinating participants and data collection for research studies, and much more. Katy McCullough is a co-principal investigator and an associate director within ECTA at FPG. She provides advanced technical assistance to IDEA Early Intervention/Part C and Early Childhood Special Education/Part B, Section 619 programs. Awards Spotlight 2025 Clifford Fund Jani Kozlowski, a TA specialist at FPG, is this year’s recipient of the Richard M. Clifford Fund for International Collaboration on Early Learning Environments award. Kozlowski was chosen because her work reflects Clifford’s passion for fostering international collaborations among researchers to further understanding of quality in early learning environments. 2025 Barbara Davis Goldman Award Mia Alto, a UNC student majoring in psychology and management and society with a minor in Spanish, has been involved in many service opportunities at Carolina and in the local community. For the past year, she's been working with FPG's autism team and is this year's recipient of the Barbara Davis Goldman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. Project Milestone AFIRM launches redesigned website For the past 10 years, members of the autism team, including Ann Sam, Victoria Waters, and Sam Odom, at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute have provided Autism Focused Intervention Resources & Modules, offering evidence-based practices to support learners on the spectrum from birth to 22 years of age. To celebrate this milestone and recognize Autism Acceptance Month, the AFIRM team launched its new website in April. This wasn't the only milestone to acknowledge—AFIRM is now reaching more than 400,000 users worldwide. These individuals hail from 203 countries, including all 50 US states and territories. Users—which include more than 86,000 paraeducators, more than 80,000 special education teachers, nearly 75,000 university students, and more than 23,000 general education teachers—have accessed AFIRM more than 73 million times. Read the full story. Recent Publications A Translational Framework for Personalizing Intervention Models to Prevent Substance Use Disorder “I’m Excited to Have my Voice Heard”: Understanding Autism Research Participation From the Perspective of Autistic Women, Non-Binary Adults, and Parents of Autistic Girls Supporting Family Capacity-Building: Initial Effects for Providers, Parents, and Toddlers With Autism Advancing Health-care Equity for Autistic People: Mental Health as a Key Priority A longitudinal study of Head Start teacher turnover trends and factors Improving Disaster Recovery for Marginalized Communities Through Building Trusting Relationships Improving Evaluations of Trauma-Informed Professional Development in Early Care and Education Settings Through Observational Measures For more news stories and information about our projects, publications, and resources, be sure to visit our website. Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 910 Raleigh Road Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8180 Contact us

UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute | 910 Raleigh Road | Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8180 US