Category: Announcements

Dr. Gene Brody, CFR founder and co-director, has announced his retirement from CFR on June 30 of this year. Brody began his career 46 years ago at UGA, first as an assistant professor and eventually the status of Regent’s Professor and established the Center for Family Research in 1993. “CFR didn’t have many resources back then, “he says, “but we had some good fortune and earned the trust of rural communities and the Black families who lived there. The funders at NIH thought that what we were doing was important; they took a chance on our first longitudinal study and have continued to invest in us for nearly three decades.”

“Gene Brody has an extraordinary mind – and an amazing heart,” says CFR’s Associate Director, Anita Brown. “In 30 years of working alongside him, I never witnessed an unkind word directed at anyone.  He wanted CFR to be a place where people felt respected and appreciated for doing the hard work of ground-breaking research. And because he always led with kindness, he managed to do exactly that.”

CFR’s Director, Steve Beach adds that “Dr. Brody has been a leading figure in the field for decades and has allowed the Center for Family Research to become known far beyond the walls of UGA. His presence will be missed, but his influence will continue to be felt for many years as we continue the work of CFR.  We celebrate his storied career and wish him the very best as he enjoys his retirement.”

More information about Dr. Brody’s extraordinary career is available at: Gene Brody – Center for Family Research (uga.edu)

CFR is hosting a training for both our SAAF and SAAF-Teen programs over 5 days at the UGA Georgia Center in Athens in February 2023.  We are excited to offer this opportunity for new sites to train at a reduced cost.  The cost for the training is $7,000.00 plus the registration fee of $125.00 per person.  See the documents below for more details.

SAAF Training

SAAF-Teen Training

CFR founder and co-director, Gene Brody, has been awarded a James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award by the Association for Psychological Science. The award recognizes scholars for a lifetime of outstanding contributions to the area of applied psychological research. APS will publish an article about Brody later this fall.

Learn more: APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award – Association for Psychological Science – APS

CFR is offering training and access to our Strong African American Families-Teen (SAAF-T) program to an Athens-area organization with a history of success providing community-based family programming in communities of color. SAAF-T is a 5-session, interactive program for African American teens aged 14-16 and their caregivers. It focuses on strategies that help teens make positive decisions regarding their future and addresses risks that can deter positive development. Learn more about SAAF-T.

Interested agencies should read the Request for Proposals for details on completing the application. For questions, contact Tracy Anderson at tnander@uga.edu

The 2023 Gene Brody Symposium will provide a fascinating discussion about the adolescent brain between Adriana Galván, Professor of Psychology at UCLA, and Olu Ajilore, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois-Chicago. The discussion will explore Dr. Galvan’s multimodal approach to understanding how brain development in adolescents affects and is affected by experience. How can caregivers, educators and practitioners support adolescents through this developmental period? How does adolescent brain development affect their ability to learn? What is the effect of sleep and stress on adolescent cognitive and emotional development? Hear what Dr. Galván is learning from her research and what questions remain. Participants will be encouraged to ask questions.

Watch live on YouTube: 2023 Gene Brody Symposium – YouTube

February 9, 2023 at 2 pm EST

UGA’s Extension Service has published a story in their Newswire about home visiting in Georgia. CFR provides vital support services to the home visiting programs throughout the state.

Across Georgia, home visitors support a good start | CAES Newswire (uga.edu)

UGA’s Office of Research Communications has featured an article describing the ongoing work of CFR’s Family and Community Health Study (FACHS). The article describes the origins of the study along with current efforts to further insight into the effect of family processes, neighborhood characteristics, and other contextual factors on African American parents and their children.

FACHS: 25 years of studying health and well-being in African American families – UGA Research News

We have known for a long time that being born into an impoverished environment can lead to a number of negative outcomes for children. One of those is that children from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to be behind more advantaged children in their cognitive development. But what are the mechanisms through which this happens? Does poverty affect cognitive development indirectly by reducing access to resources like quality housing and nutrition, or is it the actual presence or absence of income?

Join us for a discussion with Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD–Professor of Neuroscience and Education at Columbia University–to explore the relation between poverty and child development including learning more about a ground-breaking study underway to learn if simply reducing poverty alone can affect brain development positively. The discussion will be broadcast live on here on YouTube.

March 2, 1:00-200 pm EST

Add this to your calendar

Have a question for Dr. Noble? Send it to symposium@uga.edu ahead of time or during the broadcast.

Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. As a neuroscientist and board-certified pediatrician, she directs the Neurocognition, Early Experience and Development (NEED) lab, where she and her team study how socioeconomic inequality relates to children’s cognitive, emotional, and brain development.  Her work examines socioeconomic disparities in cognitive development, as well as brain structure and function, across infancy, childhood, and adolescence.

The Gene Brody Symposium honors Regents Professor and the Center for Family Research Co-Director, Dr. Gene Brody