SSRI Mentored Early Career Faculty Fellows

Course releases for mentored, new interdisciplinary projects to build a novel line of sustainable research
Eligibility: Penn State tenure line faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor and who conduct research in the social and behavioral sciences at UP and the College of Medicine are eligible

The SSRI Mentored Faculty Fellows Program supports the career development of Penn State early career faculty in social and behavioral sciences at all Penn State campuses.

The mentored Faculty Fellows award supports training in a new area of research, an extension of existing research into new areas and/or the development of new interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at building sustainable research and securing external funding. Funding is provided to the home department for one year to support protected research time for the applicant and to support research mentors via summer supplements. Priority will be given to proposals that are aligned with SSRI’s mission to foster novel, interdisciplinary research to address critical human and social problems at the local, national, and international levels and are likely to lead to future external funding.

2025 Awardee

Katie Bateman, Teacher Education, Behavioral and Educational Science, Harrisburg
Neurodivergence in Emerging Adulthood: Implications for Teacher Education and Workforce Inclusion.

The goals of this fellowship will be to lay the groundwork for further empirical studies of the emerging adulthood neurodivergent teacher and the supports that will enable them to thrive and remain engaged in the highly need work of K-12 education. Teacher attrition, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, has created ongoing financial challenges for districts. Nationally, 15.7% of educators leave their teaching positions each year (Rumschlag, 2017), and they are not being replaced by an equal number of new teachers (Fuller, 2023). Burnout, extended exposure to stressful situations resulting in physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion, is one source of attrition, particularly for novice teachers (Nguyen & Kremer, 2022; Rumschlag, 2017). Teacher burnout also negatively affects students’ academic achievement and motivation (Madigan & Kim, 2021). One potential mitigating factor is that novice teachers, often new college graduates in their early twenties, are also navigating emerging adulthood, a distinct and critical transitional stage in human development. Emerging adulthood is a time of increasing independence and autonomy for young people (18-29) in which they explore and develop their identity (Arnett, 2000).

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Please reach out to ssri-seed-grant@psu.edu for questions.