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Fox Theater and Jittery Joe’s Coffee Collaboration
Sandra Dunagan Deal Center Awards $250,000 in Grant Funds for Literacy
The Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy awarded a total of $249,978 in grant funding to University System of Georgia researchers. The funds were awarded to five recipients working to improve early language and literacy, this time supporting projects investigating the implementation of evidence-based language and literacy strategies in organizations serving children and families.
“Implementation science is the key bridge between research and what works in the real world,” said Dr. Lindee Morgan, executive director of the Deal Center. “When we invest in research to understand what works, we can drive meaningful and systemic change.”
The Deal Center is a special funding initiative created by the Office of the Governor in 2017. The center is intended to improve reading outcomes for Georgia’s children and is housed at Georgia College & State University. The grants recipients are:
- Dr. Gary Bingham; Georgia State University; Building an Early Language and Literacy System (BELLS): An Implementation Study of the Literacy and Justice for All Initiative in Atlanta
- Dr. Brennan Chandler; Georgia State University; Building Caregiver Capacity for Structured Literacy at Home: A Parent Leader Implementation Pilot
- Dr. Jialin Lai; Augusta University; Evaluating the Feasibility of the WRITE HOME Backpack Project: Enhancing Parent-Child Reading—Writing Interactions to Support Family Literacy Practices
- Dr. Kristin Sayeski; University of Georgia; A University-School Partnership to Enhance Teacher Preparation and Early Literacy Outcomes
- Dr. Melissa Baker; Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College; M2-Enabled Reflective Literacy Coaching for Early Career Teachers: Strengthening Science of Reading Practices in Rural Georgia
Atlanta Entrepreneurs Accepted to National Business Accelerator
Two Atlanta business owners who started a mobile personal care service and toy and entertainment company have just been selected for a national business accelerator. Launched in 2021, Fiverr’s annual Future Collective program aims to create a more equitable playing field for entrepreneurs.
Kristine Reed, founder of Mobile Beauty Bar, a mobile personal care service that offers makeup services, hair services, nail services, and grooming services, and Andrea Furtick, founder of AGC Toys Inc., a transmedia toy and game company, are among the twenty-two founders in the 2026 cohort. As members of Fiverr’s 2026 Future Collective, they will receive one-on-one business coaching and resources over six months that allow them to hire freelance talent to support marketing, operations, development, or other business challenges.
Fiverr is an online marketplace connecting business owners with freelancers across industries, started the Future Collective program out of a commitment to enabling a more equitable playing field for entrepreneurs.
Brett Graff is SocialMiami.com’s managing editor and has been a journalist covering money, people and power for over 20 years. Graff contributes to national media outlets including Reuters, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Maxim, and the PBS show, Nightly Business Report. A former U.S. government economist, her nationally syndicated column The Home Economist is first published in The Miami Herald and then on the Tribune Content Agency, where it’s available to over 400 publications nationwide. She is broadcast weekly on two iHeartRadio news shows and is the author of “Not Buying It: Stop Overspending & Start Raising Happier, Healthier, More Successful Kids,” a parenting guide for people who might be tempted to buy their children the very obstacles they’re trying to avoid.
