From the Office of Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA):

Principal Investigator: Judy Russell
Project Title: Drake University Head Start and Early Head Start Program
Project Summary: The Head Start/Early Head Start program provides young children with the opportunity to develop academic, interpersonal, and social skills to better prepare them for school readiness, kindergarten, and beyond. Des Moines Public Schools has been a long standing Delegate of the Drake University Head Start program, providing services to children in the Des Moines metro area. They provide a strong partnership as the largest school district in Iowa and serving high need families. The Office of Head Start is transitioning grants to provide Head Start and Early Head Start services from indefinite project periods to five-year project periods in accordance with Section 641 of the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007.
Funding Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Amount: $6,751,396

 

Principal Investigator: Janet McMahill
Project Title: Iowa South Central Regional STEM Scale-Up Programming Support
Project Summary: Now in its fourth year of operation, Drake University is one of six established Regional STEM Network Hub institutions in our state. Funding is used to financially support scaling up exemplary STEM projects throughout Iowa that have demonstrated a positive impact on student interest and achievement, targeting all learner sectors from preschool through postsecondary.
Amount: $500,995

 

Principal Investigator: Renee Sedlacek
Co-Principal Investigator: Mandi McReynolds
Project Title: The AmeriCorps Community Health Coaches Program
Project Summary: Drake University will direct 10 full-time and 10 minimum-time AmeriCorps members to assist the Healthiest State Initiative in encouraging rural towns across Iowa to commit to adopting practices that will improve the overall health and happiness of the residents in their community. AmeriCorps members will serve as liaisons between local organizations and the Healthiest State Initiative by providing training, education, and assessment workshops to schools and businesses in 10 rural communities across the state. At the end of the first program year, the AmeriCorps members will be responsible for growing the number of individuals who report an increased knowledge of nutrition and increasing the number of individuals who report their workplace is functioning more effectively after training. In addition, the AmeriCorps members will leverage an additional 100 volunteers who will be engaged in developing programming and events focused on nutrition education.
Funding Agency: Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) / Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service (ICVS)
Award Amount: $166,347

 

Principal Investigator: Janet McMahill
Project Title: Regional STEM Network Management at Drake University
Project Summary: The purpose of the Regional STEM Network is to provide broader access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics educational opportunities and promote STEM economic development. Current and developing STEM activities will span one or more Iowa STEM regions. Regions will share information, work together, and be interconnected by coordination of resources.
Funding Agency: Iowa Mathematics and Science Education Partnership on behalf of the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council
Amount: $70,710

 

Principal Investigator: Anne Murr
Project Title: Workplace Literacy Program
Project Summary: The goals of this project are to expand adult literacy services to offer more accessible instruction to low-literate adults in the community. Funding will also be used to continue ALC’s one-to-one tutoring services. The ALC will also develop short-term literacy modules to be instructed on site at community-based organizations in an effort to reach low-literate adults who may not enroll for long-term individualized mentoring ALC services. The project will develop workplace literacy programs in partnership with local employers to meet the basic education needs of low-literate employees.
Funding Agency: United Way
Award Amount: $43,000

 

Principal Investigator: June Johnson
Project Title: Prescribing patterns for canaglifozin (Invokana) in a specialty endocrinology group practice: Patient characteristics and outcomes
Project Summary: Funds will be used for research study to examine and describe actual canagliflozin (Invokana) prescribing patterns and patient outcomes in a specialty endocrinology group practice, the Iowa Diabetes and Endocrinology Center (IDEC).
Funding Agency: Janssen Pharmaceuticals
Award Amount: $31,200

 

Principal Investigator: Brian Gentry
Project Title: Infection Mitigation During Space Flight: Combination Pharmacotherapy to Combat Herpes Viral Infections, Curtail Drug Resistance, and Decrease Incidence Rates of Adverse Effects
Co-Principal Investigators: Pramod Mahajan, Ron Torry, & Marc Busch
Funding Agency: Iowa NASA EPSCoR
Award Amount: $20,000

 

Principal Investigator: Neil Hamilton
Project Title: Landowners’ Legal Guide
Funding Agency: Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation
Award Amount: $10,000