JULY 2026 AWARDS AND PROPOSALS

Congratulations! The following UTC Faculty and Staff have attracted $1,924,108 in external grant and contract awards:

• Dr. Amber Roache (Nursing) has received $632,091 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “Clinical-Academic Partnerships: Breaking Down Barriers to Care 2023-27.”
• Angela Dittmar (Arts-Based Collaborative) has received $11,100 from the Tennessee Arts Commission for the project entitled, “Arts Integration in Midtown: A Catalyst for Community Wellbeing.”
• Charlie Mix and Laura Lee (CAGDS) have received $181,730 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “TDOT Collaboratory Proposal: A Shared Online Environment for Geospatial Data Collection and Analysis.”
• Dr. Deborah McAllister and Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education), in collaboration with Vanderbilt University, have received $31,166 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the project entitled, “STEM Topics for Pre-service Teachers.”
• Dr. Deborah McAllister, Dr. Jason Gordon, and Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education) have received $49,984 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “NSF FF: Planning: Empowering Children to Thrive in the Digital Era through Collaborative Learning Experiences.”
• Dr. Elizabeth O’Brien (School of Professional Studies), Dr. Kevin Doyle, Dr. Alexandra Frank (Counseling), Dr. Amanda Hardin (School Psychology), Dr. Amy Doolittle, and Dr. Bethany Womack (Social Work) have received $600,000 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “Behavioral Healthcare through Interprofessional Training.”
• Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education), in collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Education, has received $86,000 from the US Department of Education for the project entitled, “2027 TN Governor’s School for Prospective Teachers.”
• Dr. Keenan Dungey (Chemistry) has received $4,800 from the American Chemical Society for the project entitled, “Project SEED site in Chattanooga for 2026.”
• Dr. Linda Hill (Nursing) has received $17,732 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “2020-27 HRSA Nurse Anesthetist Traineeships.” Twyler Boykin (Center for Community Career Education) has received $309,505 from the US Department of Education for the project entitled, “University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Upward Bound Math & Science.”

Good Luck! The following UTC faculty and staff members submitted proposals for the potential to generate over $31,046,592 in external funding, if awarded:

• Dr. Brooke Epperson, Tessa Mullinax-Baker, Dr. Rosebelle Peters, Dr. Latisha Toney, Dr. Jenny Holcombe, and Maggie Duckworth (Nursing) have requested $2,965,960 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “BRIDGE-RN – Bridging Rural workforce gaps through Immersive, Deliberate, Guided Entry into practice.”
• Charlie Mix and Nyssa Hunt (CAGDS) have requested $10,000 from the Mainspring Conservation Trust for the project entitled, “Mainspring Conservation Trust – Conservation Priority Model Update.”
• Charlie Mix, Nyssa Hunt, and Laura Lee (CAGDS) have requested $40,549 from Skytec LLC for the project entitled, “Riparian Buffer Assessment and Prioritization Model.”
• Dominique Tran (Center for Global Education) has requested $10,000 from the Institute of International Education for the project entitled, “STEM Global Career Pathways: Helping UTC STEM Students Turn Study Abroad into Career Success.”
• Dr. Hannah Barger, Dr. Kristen Singletary, April Anderson, Dr. Jenny Holcombe (Nursing), and Kenneth Scannapiego (Financial Aid) have requested $3,249,995 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “CARE Nursing Scholars: Cultivating Access and Readiness through Education.”
• Huu Hoang Nguyen and Dr. Mina Sartipi (CUIP) have requested $53,000 from UrbisIQ LLC for the project entitled, “EdgeGuard-V2X: Cloud-Edge AI for Congestion Prediction and Location-Specific Traffic Advisories.”
• Dr. Jared Pienkos (Chemistry) has requested $75,000 from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation for the project entitled, “Changing the properties of transition metal compounds with N-O chemistry.”
• Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education) has requested $1,005,963 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “CAREER: Professionally Responsive Instructional Support Model.”
• Dr. Jessica Hackathorne, Dr. Taylor Kozell, Dr. Rebecca Littleton, Dr. Erin Melhorn (Occupational Therapy), and Kenneth Scannapiego (Financial Aid) have requested $3,249,990 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “GATEWAY – Growing Access to Therapy through Education, Workforce development, Advocacy, and communitY.”
• Dr. Kara Hamilton and Dr. Joel Harden (Health & Human Performance) have requested $15,000 from Fast Break Athletics for the project entitled, “2027 Fast Break Phase III.”
• Dr. Kimberly Wingate and Dr. Stephanie Brennan (School of Education) have requested $350,000 from the Tennessee Department of Education for the project entitled, ” UTC Registered Teacher Apprenticeship Program (RTAP) Expansion Grant Application.”
• Dr. Kristina Wick (Nursing) has requested $218,273 from the Tennessee Department of Health for the project entitled, “Tennessee Memory Care Assessment Network.”
• Dr. Kristina Wick and Dr. Meagan Oslund (Nursing) have requested $3,464,471 from the Tennessee Department of Health for the project entitled, “MobileMOC – Healthcare Resiliency Program.”
• Dr. Kate McKinney, Farron Kilburn, Dr. Christopher Doneski, Dr. Jason Peter, and Bethany Weaver (Nursing) have requested $2,161,325 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “Pathways to Practice: Advancing Nurse Practitioners from Disadvantaged Backgrounds in Southeast Tennessee.”
• Matthew Holzmacher, Brett Fuchs, and Sean O’Brien (Campus Law Enforcement) have requested $125,000 from the US Department of Justice for the project entitled, “Enhancing Community-Oriented Policing Efforts at the UT Chattanooga Campus.”
• Dr. Meagan Oslund and Dr. Kristina Wick (Nursing) have requested $1,500,000 from the Tennessee Department of Health for the project entitled, “Active Nutrition and Community Health Outreach for Rural Counties (ANCHOR): Community-Centered Chronic Disease Prevention in Rural Tennessee.”
• Dr. Mina Sartipi, Dr. Mohamed Fadul, Austin Harris, Huu Hoang Nguyen, and Yasir Hassan (CUIP) have requested $5,029,401 from the US Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “COSMOS: Cooperative Sensing & Mitigation for Optimized Intersection Safety.”
• Dr. Murat Barisik (Nanoengineering Center) has requested $100,000 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: Continuous Airborne Viral Aptasensing in Built Environments.”
• Dr. Nagwan Zahry (Communications) has requested $27,878 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Tennessee Coordination Hub: AI Tennessee: Driving Growth and Leadership in AI.”
• Dr. Nancy Fell, Janine Boehme, Dr. Rebecca Littleton, Dr. Carolyn Padalino (Physical Therapy), and Kenneth Scannapiego (Financial Aid) have requested $3,250,000 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “Strengthening The Rehabilitation Workforce through Investment in Disadvantaged Students and Education (STRIDE).”
• Dr. Rahul Bhosale (Civil and Chemical Engineering), Dr. Abdel Karrar, Dr. Nurhidajat Sisworahardjo  (Electrical Engineering), Dr. Reetesh Ranjan (Mechanical Engineering), and Dr. Kumar Yelamarthi (CECS Dean) have requested $409,376 from the Appalachian Regional Commission for the project entitled, “Bridging Nuclear and Manufacturing: An Interdisciplinary Workforce Development Initiative for Appalachia.”
• Dr. Rahul Bhosale (Civil and Chemical Engineering) has requested $599,988 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “CAREER: Toward Low-Temperature Isothermal Solar Chemical Looping Reforming of Methane Coupled with H2O/CO2 Conversion through Compositionally Complex Cerium Oxides.”
• Dr. Rick Dierenfeldt, Dr. Tammy Garland, and Dr. Laura Lutgen-Nieves (Criminal Justice), in collaboration with the Hamilton County Coalition, have requested $159,347 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “Substance Use Disorders and Recovery in Rural Tennessee Counties.”
• Sean O’Brien and Ben Chassen (Campus Law Enforcement) have requested $76,428 from the US Department of Justice for the project entitled, “Annual Drug Enforcement Administration State and Local Task Force Agreement.”
• Dr. Venkateswara Kode (Civil and Chemical Engineering) has requested $632,219 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “CAREER: Humidity-Regulated Atmospheric Resource Recovery Using Functionally Paired Sorbents.”
• Dr. Wolday Abrha (Engineering Management and Technology) has requested $461,440 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “CAREER: Enhancing Engineering Education Through Multidisciplinary Research Engagements.”
• Dr. Xiunan Wang (Mathematics) has requested $476,603 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “CAREER: Mathematical Theory and Inference for Memory- and Perception-Driven Movement in Marine Megafauna.”
• Dr. Yingfeng Wang (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $100,000 from the Google Inc. for the project entitled, “TASK-EFT: Application-Aware Error Budgeting for Resource-Efficient Early Fault-Tolerant Quantum Simulation.”
• Dr. Yukun Yuan (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $596,796 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “CAREER: Toward Human-Aligned Service-Oriented Cyber-Physical Systems through Closed-Loop Sensing and Control Co-Design.”
• Dr. Zihao Wang (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $632,590 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “CAREER: Generative Integrity Learning for High-Value Translational Inverse Problems.”