Sterling Service and Prized Research

“$2 million club” covers STEM subjects, student success, and education efforts

($2M–$4.99M total funding)

Melissa Towe, $4.02 million

In 2014, Towe became director of MTSU’s TRIO Student Support Services (SSS), which serves low-income, academically at-risk students. The program is 100% federally funded by the U.S. Department of Education and aims to increase the retention and graduation rates of participants.

To qualify, a full-time undergraduate student must have a verified academic need and either be a first-generation college student, meet income eligibility under federal guidelines, or have a documented disability registered with MTSU’s Disability and Access Center.

Services offered include free tutoring, financial advising and financial literacy education, academic and major/career counseling, personal support, grants, success workshops, cultural events, a computer/resource lab, and graduate school assistance.

Amy Phelps, $3.8 million

Phelps, a Chemistry professor, is the principal investigator (PI) on the $1.45 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Noyce MTeach award that provides scholarship support for future teachers of chemistry, biology, earth science, physics, and mathematics.

Additionally, she is part of the leadership team for the Tennessee STEM Education Center’s four-year, $609,435 award from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program, with Gregory Rushton as PI.

The collaborative research effort with other universities focuses on active learning environments for large-enrollment chemistry courses.

Gregory Rushton, $3.1 million

In 2018, Rushton assumed the reins of the Tennessee STEM Education Center (TSEC), an outreach arm of MTSU aimed at improving K–20 education in science, technology, engineering, and math, both locally and nationally. During this time, he has been funded as principal or co-principal investigator on six distinct awards totaling nearly $4 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Tennessee Board of Regents.

His grants as PI include almost $1.4 million from the Institute of Education Sciences, as well as $1.02 million, $609,435, and $214,350 awards from the NSF.

Some of his recent projects seek to understand the experiences of minoritized populations in undergraduate STEM courses and to understand how precollege STEM teacher leadership programs impact the retention of educators in high needs school environments.

Connie Casha, $3.02 million

As director of early learning programs at MTSU, Casha helps guide three programs affiliated with the College of Education: the Home and Community Based Early Intervention Program (see page 20), Ann Campbell Early Learning Center, and MTSU Child Development Lab. These programs support families and children; educate and empower families and the community as advocates for all children; and engage current and future leaders with professional growth opportunities.

Casha recently helped launch the “Pyramid Model for Social and Emotional Skills” online training program for Tennessee’s pre-K, preschool, and Head Start teachers, co-hosted by MTSU and funded by the state.

Holding an M.Ed. from MTSU in Early Childhood Special Education, she formerly served as early childhood education director for Tennessee.

Paul Craig, $2.9 million

Coordinator of the Aeronautical Science master’s program and an Aerospace professor, Craig served as PI on four National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research grants. Findings and evidence from the seminal $750,000 SATS Aerospace Flight Education Research (SAFER) into scenario-based training for pilots was used to change the method by which all pilots are now tested in the U.S.

Further, success of this project led to Craig’s landing another $1.5 million project funded by two NASA grants, providing for the creation of MTSU’s Flight Operations Center–Unified Simulation (FOCUS) lab. This scenario-based training went beyond pilots and also involved Industrial/ Organizational Psychology curriculum, plus funded MTSU’s first jet flight simulator.

Craig included the complete story of SAFER and FOCUS in his 14th and latest book, Flight Times .

Song Cui, $2.6 million

Cui, a School of Agriculture associate professor involved in cutting-edge agriculture practices using drones, is the director of MTSU’s new interdisciplinary Digital Agriculture Center—a first in Tennessee. He leads the team that landed a three-year, nearly $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture to offer high-quality experiences and projects for non-formal educators (such as scouts, 4-H, and afterschool programs) and youth.

Cui (pronounced choy) also is part of a $450,000 USDA grant, along with Psychology’s Ying Jin and Agriculture’s Chaney Mosley, to create a three-year institute to provide professional development to high school agriculture teachers for project-based and “deeper learning” instruction.

He has published more than 20 agricultural science studies since 2020.

Ryan Otter, $2.5 million

Otter, a Biology professor, researcher, and now director of MTSU’s Data Science Institute (DSI), has twice received international acclaim along with three student researchers for studying riparian spiders. Their work, most recently published in the international scientific journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry , proposes using spiders as a cost-effective way to monitor chemical contaminants in aquatic ecosystems.

An environmental toxicologist, Otter was part of a multiagency response team after the 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant, using spiders to gauge contamination.

The DSI also is involved in MTSU’s Digital Agricultural Center, on a $750,000 interdisciplinary USDA grant that assists in the DSI’s goal to advance environmental science through the use of data science.

Dovie Kimmins, $2.5 million

Kimmins, a Mathematical Sciences faculty member since earning her master’s at MTSU in 1983, has worked extensively with preservice and in-service teachers.

She directed the Teachers Now congressionally directed grant program during 2008–10 to focus on increasing the number and quality of middle grades teachers produced by the University. Kimmins has directed or co-directed 18 professional development projects impacting over 1,000 teachers from at least two-thirds of the school districts across Tennessee.

She recently has collaborated with colleagues on math literacy training for K–5 teachers in Murfreesboro City Schools through the district’s state Department of Education grants. Kimmins also served on the committee to author the state mathematics curriculum standards and has organized seven statewide conferences since 2005.

Bronze: $1 million club

($1M–$1.99M total funding)

Guanping Zheng (Center for Asian Studies)

Tracey Huddleston (Elementary and Special Education)

Robert Blair (Marketing)

Hugh Berryman (Sociology and Anthropology)

Zhijiang Dong (Computer Science)

Donald Walker (Biology)

Murat Arik (Business and Economic Research Center)

Jason Jessen (Molecular Biosciences)

Dorothy Craig (Womack Educational Leadership)

Ron Henderson (Physics and Astronomy)

Elliot Altman (Biology)

Bev Clanton (Health and Human Performance)