Category: Announcements

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. and children, Angela, Joe, and Sara, and grandkids, Jack, Joey, Teddy and Lillie.

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.

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Sierra Carter, Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgia State University, is joining the faculty of UGA’s Department of Psychology and will become the next  associate director of CFR. Her appointment begins in August.  

Dr. Carter is a leader in studying health disparities and how the effects of discrimination and racism play out in the health of Black Americans. She has worked with some of our CFR-affiliated scholars in the past and is poised to lead CFR in our continued efforts to study how families and individuals thrive in the face of stress from social and environmental stressors like racism and poverty.   

Read more about Dr. Carter in this Scholar Spotlight.

Despite a day of cold rain, the Reading Room of Miller Learning Center was full of students and faculty to hear this year’s speaker for the 2025 Gene Brody Symposium from CFR and the Owens Institute for Behavioral Research (OIBR). Our featured scholar, Dr. Riana Anderson of Columbia University, spoke about the need to continue not only studying the effects of racism on the mental health of youth but to act with bold prevention and intervention efforts. “I will not be silent,” she said.  

She reminded the audience that there is an abundance of research demonstrating the detrimental effects of racism and discrimination in all its forms on both the physical and mental health of Black youth. Yet we know that racial socialization—an effort by parents and others to help youth feel pride in their race and equipped for dealing with racism— can disrupt those negative outcomes. Dr. Anderson has investigated ways that parents help their children understand racial experiences and developed innovative racial socialization programs that support parents and children in reducing racial stress and enhancing racial coping. 

The Georgia Home Visiting Institute was held August 20^th in Peachtree City. This annual training and motivational experience is for Georgia’s home visitors who serve expectant and at-risk families with children from birth until kindergarten. Home visiting uses a strengths-based, family-centered support strategy that helps families raise children who are physically, socially, and emotionally healthy and ready to learn.

Georgia’s Department of Public Health operates several programs throughout Georgia, and CFR provides support services. Led by CFR’s Michelle Lanier, the Home Visiting Technical Assistance and Quality Team Director, CFR helped plan, organize, and lead the Institute.