ScholarWorks@Georgia State University
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Publication Open Access Establishing Priorities for Academic-Practice Partnerships to Address Health and Homelessness: Findings from a Rapid Analysis of Interviews with People Experiencing Houselessness(2026-02)In Fall 2025, the Center undertook the second phase of a community needs assessment to inform the development of a strategic plan and research agenda. This phase focused on hearing from people experiencing houselessness in the Atlanta area to better understand their lived experiences, awareness of homeless-serving organizations and resources, and perceptions of system strengths and gaps. While phase one interviews with homeless-serving organizations largely focused on the City of Atlanta, individuals experiencing houselessness were residing in the City of Atlanta, DeKalb County, and Fulton County. To capture a range of perspectives, we conducted 12 interviews with individuals experiencing various types of houselessness. Some individuals were living in extended stay hotels, others were living on the street, and some were living in transitional shelters. The sample included single adults, as well as individuals with partners and children. Length of time experiencing houselessness varied widely – from many years to only recently. Interviews explored: 1) awareness of and experiences accessing and utilizing services, 2) strengths and gaps in the homeless-serving system, and 3) opportunities to enhance system effectiveness and collaboration. A full description of the interview methods is provided in Appendix A. The purpose of this report is to share key findings from these conversations and provide insights to inform the Center’s strategic directions and efforts in research, evaluation, and technical assistance. These insights are intended to guide the Center’s future efforts and spark continued dialogue among stakeholders. Stakeholders are encouraged to use this report to identify areas for partnership, target unmet needs, and support planning efforts across the system.Publication Open Access Establishing Priorities for Academic-Practice Partnerships to Address Health and Homelessness: Findings from a Rapid Analysis of Key Informant Interviews(2025)Key findings indicate that the homeless-serving system in Atlanta provides a wide variety of housing-related and supportive services and resources and possesses several strengths. While results suggest that the city, organizations and systems serving the homeless operate with good intentions and to the best of their ability, there are gaps in and barriers to effective service provision and collaboration. Interviewees recommended several strategies to bridge these gaps and address the barriers. Overall, findings suggested several ways in which the Center can support current services and strengths and conduct meaningful work to address the gaps and research opportunities for improvement.Publication Restricted Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Diabetes Burden Along the USA-Mexico Border: An Integrative Analysis of Past Trends and Future Projections(2025)Diabetes mellitus represents one of the most significant public health challenges facing the USA-Mexico border region, where prevalence rates are 2-3 times higher than national averages. This dissertation provides the first comprehensive, multidimensional analysis of diabetes burden across all ten border states, integrating historical trends (1990-2021), spatial patterns (2018-2023), and future projections (2022-2030). Using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021, CDC WONDER, and Mexican national statistics, we employ trend analysis, spatial autocorrelation, and multi-model forecasting to characterize the diabetes epidemic across this binational corridor. Our historical analysis reveals a profound epidemiological paradox: while disease occurrence has converged between Mexican and USA border states (prevalence: 9,010 vs 8,298 per 100,000; incidence: 435 vs 426 per 100,000), mortality outcomes remain dramatically divergent. Mexican border states experience nearly five-fold higher mortality (67.2 vs 12.0 per 100,000) and three times higher disability-adjusted life years (DALYs: 2,355 vs 896 per 100,000), representing "epidemiological failure" where healthcare systems cannot prevent fatal complications despite detecting disease. Our spatial analysis identifies "epidemiologic cliffs" at the international border where adjacent communities experience up to six-fold mortality differences. High-Low spatial clusters concentrate precisely at the USA-Mexico boundary (Moran's I = 0.454, p<0.001), demonstrating that healthcare system factors override shared genetic ancestry, environmental exposures, and lifestyle patterns in determining outcomes. Our forecasting analysis projects 30-50% increases in diabetes burden by 2030, with approximately 23,000-26,000 annual deaths, 15-17 million people with diabetes, and 1.6-1.8 million DALYs. However, trajectories diverge markedly: Mexican border states face accelerating working-age mortality (ages 20-59: +15-58%), while USA border states show declining mortality but dramatic youth prevalence increases (age <20: +35-52%). These findings demand urgent binational responses: Mexican states require immediate mortality prevention through expanded treatment access and medication affordability, while USA states must prepare for rising youth prevalence through school-based screening and pediatric endocrinology capacity. The methodological frameworks developed provide transferable approaches for studying other diseases characterized by binational disparities.Publication Open Access eCampus Course Offerings and Enrollments in the Technical College System of Georgia: How Well Does eCampus Serve Rural Students?(2026-03-06)Young people from rural areas enroll in postsecondary education at lower rates and obtain less postsecondary schooling, on average, than other students. Distance to postsecondary institutions and smaller sets of course and program offerings at rural institutions contribute to this differential. In summer 2021, the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), which oversees Georgia’s 22 public technical colleges, implemented a system-wide “eCampus” initiative to address these disparities. The eCampus initiative allows students to take online courses and enroll in programs hosted by other system colleges through their own college using a common learning management platform. In this report, Jennifer Darling-Aduana, David C. Ribar, and Ross Rubenstein use administrative data from all 22 TCSG technical colleges from fall 2020 until summer 2024 to examine how the availability of eCampus courses and enrollments in these courses have changed over time, particularly for rural students, rural-located colleges, and rural-serving colleges. We find that most students—including rural students and students at rural-located and rural-serving institutions—attend colleges offering at least one eCampus course. The numbers of eCampus courses and enrollments have grown over time. However, the numbers of course offerings have been modest, averaging 4.9 courses per college each term in AY 2022, 6.3 courses in AY 2023, and 7.3 courses in AY 2024. Total enrollments in eCampus courses have generally been less than 1% of all course enrollments. Multivariate analyses indicate that there is no difference in rural and non-rural students’ eCampus enrollment rates once we take course availability into account. The analyses also show rural students’ enrollments in other online courses are 10 percentage points higher than non-rural students once we control for other characteristics of the groups, suggesting that there is demand for eCampus and other online courses among rural students. However, rural-located and rural-serving institutions may need to offer more eCampus courses to reduce geographic inequities.Publication Open Access From 1948 to 1984: the Critical History of the Novel 1984 and its Significance in the Language Arts Curriculum of the Eighties(1982)Chances are that secondary school students will be highly motivated to read and to read about the novel 1984 during the decade of the eighties. They will hear about the novel and its author on television, and they will read about them in the popular press. Much of the fanfare, fervor, and attention generated is likely to be superficial, misdirected, and misleading. I feel that the novel and its author deserve more serious and rational treatment than they are apt to receive through the popular media. In my opinion, the novel 1984 deals in a very powerful and relevant way with matters that are at the very heart of the language arts curriculum, with matters that affect profoundly and significantly the quality and direction of our lives in this day and time. Therefore, students are entitled to read this controversial, frequently misunderstood work under the direction and guidance of an informed and objective language arts teacher.
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