The Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards are competitive research grants that provide seed money for junior faculty members. Since the program’s inception, ORAU has awarded 910 grants totaling more than $4.55 million. Including the matching funds from member institutions, ORAU has facilitated grants worth more than $9 million.
ORAU’s $25,000 annual Extreme Classroom Makeover is back for the 2025 school year! The grand prize will be awarded to one East Tennessee teacher for updating his or her classroom with the latest technology. Through this program, ORAU has given away more than $500,000 to local schools since 2009. In all, ORAU has impacted more than 30 East Tennessee schools and thousands of students.
The U.S. Surgeon General says Americans are confronting an epidemic of loneliness. About half of U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness, and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Loneliness has physical health consequences, and impacts work performance, academic achievement and our overall mental health. Additionally, the Surgeon General has warned that the stress of caring for children has an impact on our mental health. Many members of Generation X may be caring for children or again parents or both, and the stress of caregiving has impacts on mental health as well. In this episode of Further Together, hosts Michael Holtz and Matthew Underwood talk to Jennifer Reynolds, senior manager of health communication, marketing, and promotion and Kristin Mattson, senior health education specialist. Both work in ORAU's Public Health and Healthcare Program. Throughout this episode, the hosts and guests discuss the problems, contributing factors, their lived experience, and where ORAU has done work to better understand and provide solutions. For more information on the work of ORAU's Public Health and Healthcare team, visit https://orau.org/public-health-healthcare/education-and-promotion.html.
