Category: Past News

Owens Institute for Behavioral Research Announces 2025 Distinguished Scholars

The Owens Institute for Behavioral Research (OIBR) at the University of Georgia is proud to announce the promotion of five faculty affiliates to the rank of Distinguished Scholar for 2025. This honor recognizes outstanding research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and sustained contributions to the behavioral and social sciences.

The 2025 OIBR Distinguished Scholars are:

• Brian Bauer (Psychology)

• Malissa Clark (Psychology)

• Rifat Haider (Health Policy and Management)

• Sarah Shannon (Sociology)

• Justine Tinkler (Sociology)

These scholars have demonstrated exceptional leadership in their fields and a strong commitment to advancing impactful, collaborative research that aligns with OIBR’s mission to address complex societal challenges through behavioral science.

Please join us in congratulating these faculty members on their well-deserved recognition.

Dr. Man Kit (Karlo) Lei Named Co-Director of the Center on Biological Embedding of Social Events and Relationships (CBSER)

The Owens Institute for Behavioral Research (OIBR) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Man Kit (Karlo) Lei, an associate professor in Sociology, as the new co-director of the Center on Biological Embedding of Social Events and Relationships (CBSER). He joins current co-director Dr. Steven Beach in leading this research center.

The Center on Biological Embedding of Social Events and Relationships brings together behavioral and biological scientists interested in understanding the intersections of genetic and environmental contributions to health, health behavior, and interpersonal outcomes. The focus of the group is on strengthening the infrastructure for collaborative research and grant proposal writing.

As co-director, Dr. Lei will help guide CBSER’s mission to strengthen research infrastructure, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and support successful grant development. His leadership will be instrumental in advancing the center’s work at the intersection of biology and social science.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Lei on this new role as he helps CBSER continue to grow and thrive within OIBR.

A multidisciplinary research team from the Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE) at the University of Georgia has been awarded the prestigious Presidents’ Award of Distinction by the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (Georgia CTSA). The honor was presented at the Georgia CTSA’s annual conference in March 2025.

This award recognizes innovative, high-functioning research teams whose collaborative efforts have significantly advanced clinical and translational science and are poised to make a lasting impact on human health. The CACHE team, known for its groundbreaking work using immersive media technologies, was recognized for its impactful interventions in behavior change and public health communication.

“For the past 15 years, our research has demonstrated that immersive media technologies can be powerful tools for translational science,” said Dr. Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, OIBR distinguished scholar, founding director of CACHE, and professor in UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “We are honored to have our collaborative efforts recognized and look forward to continuing this work with communities across Georgia.”

CACHE’s work spans multiple colleges at UGA, including Journalism, Engineering, and Public Health, and focuses on using virtual, augmented, and mixed realities to address real-world issues, ranging from vaccine hesitancy and physical activity to storm preparedness and indoor air quality.

Highlighted projects include:

• Virtual Fitness Buddy, a mixed-reality game promoting youth physical activity, supported by a $3.3 million NSF grant.

• Weather the Storm, a VR simulation educating users on storm surge impacts, released with NOAA funding.

• Collaborative research with Emory’s School of Nursing through the Center for Children’s Health Assessment, Research Translation, and Combating Environmental Risk.

OIBR affiliate Dr. Allen Tate, and CACHE director of biostatistics and associate professor in the College of Public Health, emphasized the long-term significance of this research: “The teamwork of CACHE challenges current approaches in preventive medicine and will have transformative effects on public health translational research over the next decade.”

The Georgia CTSA is a partnership among Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Georgia Tech, and UGA, and is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Congratulations to the OIBR faculty who recently received awards:

Justin Lavner – Creative Research Medal

Tom Mote – Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Yilang Peng – Charles B. Knapp Early Career Scholar Award

William Pridemore – Named Inaugural Marienthal Professor in Sociology

Glenna Read – Richard B. Russell Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Greg Strauss – William A. Owens Creative Research Award

Jennifer Thompson – Non-Tenure Track Faculty Research Excellence Award

Ron Simons, Ph.D., Regents’ Professor in the department of sociology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA passed away on Monday, March 31, 2025. Simons had a long and fruitful collaboration with the Center for Family Research (CFR) over the years, and is leaving behind a profound legacy through his contributions to the field and support of other scholars’ work. He is survived by his spouse, collaborator, and colleague, Leslie Simons, Ph.D.

CFR’s director, Steven Beach, Ph.D., says, Simons “was a researcher’s researcher. He was fully engaged and enthusiastic about his research questions and never forgot the deep values that informed them.”

Simons started his career at Iowa State University and joined the department of sociology at the University of Georgia in 2002 with one year at Arizona State University in 2013. In over two decades at UGA, he brought in millions of dollars in research grants as a principal or co-investigator and produced over 300 peer-reviewed articles.

His work has made a major contribution to understanding the processes by which social experiences become biologically embedded and influence mental and physical health outcomes. Most recently, Simons turned his focus to how these experiences may contribute to dementia and was principal investigator on the project, “Stress, Weathering, and Blood-Based Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease: A Longitudinal Study of Low Income, Aging African Americans,” funded by the National Institute on Aging.

While his highly cited research has had tremendous impact on medical sociology, understanding family influences on the life course, criminology, and the importance of socio-economic status on lifespan development, his presence on campus has been equally impactful. Man Kit (Karlo) Lei, associate professor in the department of sociology, worked with Simons as both a student, and later, as a colleague.

“Ron was my academic role model and a father-like figure,” he said, adding that Ron used his own life, even while going through multiple rounds of chemotherapy, as a teaching tool. “Until the very end, [Simons] remained committed to his work—studying how social factors shape later life, especially for minority groups…I am incredibly proud to have been his student and colleague.”

In the course of his career, Simons’ work has been lauded by numerous awards. Among them, he was selected as a Fellow in the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in 2023, named a Regents’ Professor at UGA in 2020, and chosen for the Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award in 2019. Upon receiving the SEC award, UGA President Jere Morehead said that Simons “has brought great distinction to the University of Georgia.”

He will be greatly missed.

Written by: David Pollock, Center for Family Research

The Owens Institute for Behavioral Research hosted the 2025 Annual William A. Owens Lecture on February 27, 2025, featuring Dr. Steven G. Rogelberg, Chancellor’s Professor at UNC Charlotte. Hosted by Alan Flurry, Director of Communications with the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Rogelberg delivered an engaging talk on “The Surprising Science of Meetings,” offering research-backed insights into improving workplace meetings for efficiency, effectiveness, and employee well-being.

Held at the UGA Richard B. Russell Jr. Special Collections Library, the lecture attracted a diverse audience of faculty, and students, eager to learn from Dr. Rogelberg’s expertise. The event concluded with a reception, providing attendees with an opportunity for discussion and networking.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this insightful event! Stay tuned for details on next year’s lecture.

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Stacie Isbell to Grants Manager at the Owens Institute for Behavioral Research (OIBR).

Stacie has been a dedicated member of the UGA community since 2002 and joined OIBR in November 2021. In her new role, she will oversee restricted accounts for Distinguished Scholars and Affiliates of the Institute, serving as the primary contact for Principal Investigators (PIs). Her responsibilities include ensuring project personnel are paid according to project budgets, sponsors, and state guidelines, as well as monitoring accounts and project spending to maintain audit-ready records.

The Grants Manager position also ensures all grant spending complies with UGA and funding agency guidelines. Stacie will provide monthly project status reports, oversee budget updates, and utilize UGA systems—including UGA Jobs, UGA Financial Management System, UGA Budget Management System, and UGAmart—to manage and approve all grant expenditures.

Reflecting on her promotion, Stacie shared:
“I am grateful for the recent promotion to grants manager. I am truly honored and excited about this new position. I appreciate all your support and confidence in my abilities.”

Stacie’s office is located at 252F Brooks Hall, and she can be reached at sisbell@uga.edu or 706-542-6100.

Please join us in congratulating Stacie on this well-deserved achievement!

The way parents and their children play together may be the framework for how kids will treat other children, according to a recent study from the University of Georgia.

Figuring out how to approach new social situations is key for toddlers, and research suggests that caregivers play a big part in giving kids a script to draw from.

The new study found the way mothers and toddlers interacted during play predicted how the children later interacted with other kids.

“It’s not just what the mom does when they’re interacting, and it’s not just what the child does when they’re interacting,” said Niyantri Ravindran, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “It’s really about how their behaviors are occurring together. That back-and-forth dialogue between the mother and child is contributing to how children are interacting with their peers.”

Caretakers help kids practice for future social situations

The researchers focused on two main types of behavior in 120 toddler-aged children: responsiveness and assertiveness. They followed the children through their preschool days, examining how they interacted with their friends while playing, and later paired them with both new kids, and close friends.

Children who were receptive to the suggestions of their playmate and enthusiastic about playing with them scored high on responsiveness.

Mothers and children had a strong connection if the mother was sensitive to the child’s behavior and the child responded positively. When they showed this dynamic during play, those children were more likely to show the same responsiveness with their friends.

Similarly, when mothers were sensitive and children were assertive during play, those children were more likely to be assertive with kids they didn’t know. While many may think assertive behavior equals aggressive behavior, assertiveness in this study meant that the children took initiative, like inviting another kid to play or coming up with ideas for games.

“You don’t want a child to be completely only compliant and never really taking the initiative,” said Ravindran. “Neither do you want a child who is bossy and never listening to the other kids’ suggestions. Having a balance between those two behaviors could help result in more socially competent children.”

Caregivers play a large role in how children develop social skills and not just because they are their children’s primary role models. How kids and parents interact serves as practice for new social situations.

“You’re going to guide your child, teach them and show them how to do things, but it’s also just as important to follow their lead sometimes,” said Ravindran. “That can really help balance out those behaviors.”

This study was published in Developmental Psychology and co-authored by Nancy L. McElwain of the University of Illinois’ Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

Writer: Sydney Barrilleaux
Contact: Niyantri Ravindran, niyantri.ravindran@uga.edu