University of Nebraska–Lincoln students will soon have access to new online courses designed to provide career-ready training in early childhood care and education.
Starting in the 2026–27 academic year, undergraduates in all majors can enroll in Connections for Kids — a series of five online courses focused on preparing them to promote young children’s social and emotional development through innovative, evidence-based practices.
What factors should you consider when selecting a data repository?
The March 9 NAECR Knowledge event was led by Amanda Prokasky, senior research specialist at the Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics & Psychometrics (MAP Academy), who outlined best practices for data repository selection and offered guidance for multiple points of the research cycle.
Name: Kristin Moilanen
Title: Proposal Development Coordinator
Hometown: Fenton, Michigan
Where did you work prior to joining CYFS? What was your role there, and what did it entail?
“After completing my Ph.D. in developmental psychology at UNL in 2005, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychology at the University of Pittsburgh prior to stepping into a faculty role as an assistant (and later associate) professor in Child Development and Family Studies at West Virginia University. I was also an associate editor, then later became the editor-in-chief, of the “Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.” I left WVU in 2022 for a remote visiting research specialist position in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois–Chicago. I wore many hats in this role, in which I was the project manager and lead data analyst for a NIH-funded study on health in middle adulthood.
For someone with hearing loss, a successful cochlear implant can be life-changing. But because outcomes vary, determining candidates most likely to benefit from the procedure is crucial.
A cochlear implant (CI) is a complex electronic device that can improve hearing in individuals with severe to profound hearing loss. While the implant does not restore normal hearing and differs from hearing aids, which amplify sounds, it does provide a useful representation of sounds by stimulating the auditory nerve. The device’s success depends on how well the auditory nerve functions.
As many as three-quarters of the nearly 25,000 American youth in residential care have experienced significant trauma, including maltreatment, poverty and, for many, systemic racism and discrimination.
Research suggests that such trauma increases risk for mental and behavioral health problems. However, some youth in residential care with trauma still display steadfast resilience, functioning well even in the presence of significant risk.
For more than 20 years, the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools has worked to make a positive difference in people’s lives through research in the social, behavioral and educational sciences.
Building on this foundation, the center is launching the second round of its Signature Research Impact Program — a funding opportunity designed to support high-impact research that benefits Nebraska’s children, families, schools and communities.
Ciara Ousley, assistant professor of special education and communication disorders, has been named the 2026 recipient of the Early Career Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD).
The Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics (MAP Academy) is awarding $10,000 through a competitive funding opportunity created to enhance the rigor of field-based human subjects research at the University of Nebraska.
These awards were made possible by a grant from the Nebraska Research Initiative.
