Image: Amy Stich is a fellow on a new research-practice partnership grant team to explore financial burdens of college and how to improve. The 2022 Institutional Challenge Grant was awarded to Georgia State University’s Georgia Policy Labs (GPL) and Achieve Atlanta. The three-year project is led by co-PIs Sally Wallace, dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State, and Tina Fernandez, founder and executive director of Achieve Atlanta. In addition to the PIs, Stich joins a team of quantitative and qualitative researchers, Jonathan Smith, associate professor of Economics at Georgia State University, and Sam Rauschenberg, vice president of organizational effectiveness at Achieve Atlanta, to provide voice and context to the numerical data. The Project seeks to reduce negative financial impacts of education costs. “By learning more about how these families make college-related financial decisions, we hope to help more people reach the goal of economic mobility through a college degree,” explains Fernandez. They also seek to find ways to better prepare potential students as well as identify structural policy and procedural improvements to support students. The grant, Reducing Inequities in Postsecondary Debt and Repayment through a Multi-Sector Research-Practice Partnership, is funded by William T. Grant Foundation, Spencer Foundation and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. https://news.gsu.edu/2022/04/13/georgia-state-university-achieve-atlanta-research-practice-partnership-wins-national-challenge-grant Type of News/Audience: General News Research