Projects
Projects
STARS (Scholars in Teaching, Applied Research, and Service)
Project S.T.A.R.S. is a multi-site partnership between the doctoral school psychology programs at the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). The project is designed to prepare doctoral students to become faculty members who will have the teaching, applied research, and service expertise to lead school, district and state implementation of evidence-based practices within a multi-tiered system of supports. Project S.T.A.R.S. host monthly invited speaker seminars as part of the project in addition to annual retreats as professional development opportunities for the nine students currently matriculating in the program.
Principal Investigator: Evan Dart, Ph.D.
Project Dates: 2021-2025
Grant Amount: $2,000,000
Funder: U.S. Office of Special Education Programs
Project Director: Tameisha Hinton, Ph.D.
Florida Resiliency Project
S.O.A.R. (Strengths, Optimism, Achievement, and Relationships)
Project S.O.A.R. evaluates the efficacy of the Well-Being Promotion Program (WBPP), as well as the fidelity, feasibility, acceptability of implementation and training, and cost-effectiveness of the WBPP. The WBPP is an innovative Tier-2 intervention to increase student subjective well-being (SWB), intended for use by school mental health teams that is integrated within a multi-tiered system of support for student mental health.
Principal Investigator: Shannon Suldo, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigators: Sarah Fefer, Ph.D., John Ferron, Ph.D., and Sarah Kiefer,
Ph.D. Project Dates: 7/01/2020 – 6/30/26
Grant Amount: $3,300.000
Funder: Institute for Education Sciences (IES)
Project Director: Kristen Mahony-Atallah, Ph.D.
Project SAFETY-2 (School Assessments for Evaluation of Threat to Youth)
Project SAFETY-2 is a collaborative grant-funded project between the University of South Florida and Hillsborough County Public Schools. The project aims to: 1) Support middle school behavioral threat assessment teams processes through providing trauma-informed training and coaching; 2) Expand behavioral threat assessment training to include (a) education for school personnel and students on school violence prevention, (b) strategies to improve school climate, and (c) monitoring and fidelity plans; and, 3) Create and facilitate a “train the trainers” model to build internal school district capacity to continue the coaching and other grant activities independently
Principal Investigator: Nathaniel von der Embse, Ph.D.
Project Dates: 2022-2025
Grant Amount: $2,000,000
Funder: U.S. Bureau of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)
Project Director: Tameisha Hinton, Ph.D.
SMARTS (School Mental health Assessment, Response, and Training for Suicide prevention)
Project SMARTS reduces suicide in Florida middle schools by involving multiple stakeholders including school leaders, educators, parents, and community behavioral health agencies to deliver prevention services for youth.
Principal Investigator: Nathaniel von der Embse, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigators: Kimberly Gryglewicz, Ph.D., Marc Karver, Ph.D.
Project Dates: 8/31/2022 – 2027
Grant Amount: $3,500,000
Funder: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center
for Mental Health Services (CMHS)
Project Director: Erica Ortiz-Pellicer, Ed.D.
MIDAS (Multi-Informant Decisional Assessment System)
Project MIDAS is intended to develop an online system to integrate and use multiple sources of data, from multiple informants, for accurate and efficient identification of social-emotional and behavioral (SEB) concerns in middle school students. This project will conduct a multi-year, mixed method approach for calibrating, testing, and refining the MIDAS system to inform real-world decision-making within school settings.
Principal Investigator: Nathaniel von der Embse, Ph.D.
Project Dates: 8/01/2021-7/31/2025
Grant Amount: $2,000,000
Funder: Institute of Education Sciences
Project Director: Joseph Latimer, Ph.D.
Florida Resiliency Project
The Resiliency Resources Project is focused on the development and production of content to support student resiliency. In partnership with the Florida Department of Education, this content is aligned with state resiliency education standards and meet specific state requirements related to instruction in resilience education and character development. The Resiliency Resources Project provides comprehensive instructional materials to be delivered by qualified school personnel on resilience characteristics and related domains differentiated by grade band and also provides training and resources to support teachers and staff with fostering students’ resiliency.
Principal Investigator: Evan Dart, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator: Shannon Suldo, Ph.D.
Project Dates: 11/30/2022-9/30/2024
Grant Amount: $1,200,000
Funder: Florida Department of Education
Project Director: Cheryl Gelley, Ph.D.
Resilience Assessment (Florida Specific Youth Survey)
The Resilience Assessment Project is focused on the development, administration, and refinement of the Florida Specific Youth Survey (FSYS), a measure of resilience and behavioral health for Florida high school students. The FSYS is being developed in collaboration with the Florida Department of Education and is aligned to the required instruction for Resiliency Education, Civic and Character Education, and Life Skills Education.
Principal Investigator: Nathaniel von der Embse, Ph.D.
Project Dates: 8/01/2022-7/31/2024
Grant Amount: $600,000
Funder: Florida Department of Education
Project Director: Joseph Latimer, Ph.D.