Program Manager: Joy Olabisi

Program Start: FY 2026

Graduate Support Ecosystem Project [2026-2030 (projected) – In Progress]

Project Managers: Joy Olabisi, Nazanin Tork, Danielle Ramirez

Timeline: 2026–2030 (projected)

Status: In Progress

This initiative strengthens support for Graduate Coordinators and Directors (GCAD) through onboarding, shared resources, community-building, and Institute-wide engagement opportunities.

Progress

• Established Georgia Tech Graduate Education Summit as an annual convening of graduate faculty and staff to explore emerging trends, share innovative practices and research, and foster collaboration to enhance the graduate student experience and advance graduate education excellence. (2024)
• Launched the initial design of an online resource manual at the 2025 New Graduate Director and Coordinator Luncheon, attended by 22 new graduate directors and coordinators, with an emphasis on role and skill clarity, resource access, and task prioritization.
• Implemented feedback from the 2025 Graduate Education Summit Strategy Session by developing a draft Graduate Coordinators and Directors (GCAD) Handbook, establishing a GCAD Community Teams channel, and hosting an end-of-year celebration.
• Collected feedback on the initial GCAD Handbook draft to inform revisions and continued benchmarking of the resource.  
• Began planning for the 2026 Graduate Education Summit, incorporating feedback to support continued improvements to the Summit and to New Graduate Director and Coordinator Orientations.

Milestones

• Convened 90 members of Georgia Tech faculty and staff who support graduate education at the 2025 Graduate Education Summit: 85% of survey respondents rated the overall experience as excellent or great, highlighting the importance of continued collaboration and initiatives that support graduate students.
• Engaged 40 GCAD members through the GCAD Community Teams channel and hosted 70 GCAD members during the end-of-year celebration.

Interdisciplinary Project [Began FY 2026 – In Progress]

Project Managers: Elizabeth Cherry, Matthieu Bloch

Timeline: Began FY 2026

Status: In Progress

Progress & Milestones

• Reviewed Governance and Administrative manuals and presented them to the Administrative & Multidisciplinary Curricular Matters Subcommittee (AMCM) for feedback.

• No additional outcomes or continuous-improvement updates were reported for January–June 2026.

Recruiting & Onboarding Project [Began FY 2026 – In Progress]

Project Managers: Gordon Moore, Marc Ebelhar, Brittani Hill

Timeline: Began FY 2026

Status: In Progress

This project supports a more intentional recruitment-to-enrollment experience by strengthening yield programming, cross-unit collaboration, pre-enrollment communications, and onboarding strategies for new graduate students.

Progress & Milestones

• Executed pilot Ph.D. yield programs in partnership with graduate programs and launched a new master’s yield event to facilitate cross-unit interactions and information sharing.

• Established an ad hoc New Graduate Student Onboarding Working Group with campuswide representation to identify communication and programming strategies for students between admission and enrollment.

• Spring 2026 yield participation included 89 students at the March 5–7 Ph.D. event, 44 students at the March 12–14 Ph.D. event, and eight students at the April 10 master’s event.

• Working group recommendations were shared with campus partners and are informing AY2027 communication and programming plans, including enhanced pre-enrollment sessions.

• Feedback from the spring pilot events will inform future improvements to academic program engagement, event topics, logistics, and sequencing.

Program Manager: James Black

Program Start: FY 2026

This initiative provides a framework of academic support to improve student retention, degree completion, expand career pathways, and enhance the graduate student experience.

Graduate Student Employment Project [FY 2026–Ongoing – In Progress]

Project Manager: James Black

Timeline: FY 2026–Ongoing

Status: In Progress

This project improves transparency, consistency, and guidance related to graduate student employment.

Progress

• Developed the Graduate Student Employment Manual in 2025 as a cohesive and comprehensive reference for Georgia Tech, the University System of Georgia (USG), and federal policies and requirements related to graduate student employment.
• Established a GTA/GRA Employment Documentation requirement and process in 2025 to provide all graduate research assistants with an employment letter outlining the specific conditions of their appointments, including stipend rates, duties, and tuition support.
• Launched and completed the Advisor-Advisee “Gray Areas” Working Group in spring 2026 to develop guidance for scenarios not explicitly addressed by existing policy or that are situation-dependent.
• Surveyed graduate students through the Gray Areas Workgroup, developed recommendations, and presented the group’s findings to the Student Academic and Financial Affairs Committee (SAFAC) for review.
• Began implementing an automated process to distribute employment documentation to all GTAs and GRAs with greater consistency and accuracy.
  • Next steps include socializing and implementing recommendations from the Gray Areas Working Group. 

Milestones

• Provided employment documentation outlining specific appointment terms to more than 96% of GTAs and GRAs in spring 2026, compared with 32% represented in a 2023 Internal Audit sample.

Prestigious Cohort Fellowship Project [FY 2026–Ongoing – Ongoing]

Project Manager: Bonnie Ferri

Timeline: FY 2026–Ongoing

Status: Ongoing

This project supports high-achieving graduate students through cohort-based fellowship programming, mentoring, and leadership development.

Progress

• Introduced health insurance premium subsidies for full fellowship students in fall 2024, covering 76% of premium costs, saving students $2,000 annually; increased the subsidy to 85% in 2025.
• Matriculated the inaugural cohort of Stamps Fellows in fall 2025.
• Developed leadership programming for the Stamps Fellows Program, including a spring Leadership Dialogues series featuring prominent academic leaders.
• Hosted a year-end retreat for Stamps Fellows to reflect on the inaugural year and provide input on future cohort activities.
• Began redefining programming for future Stamps Fellows cohorts based on the feedback and lessons learned during the inaugural cohort.

Milestones

• Increased the health insurance premium subsidy for full fellowship students from 76% in fall 2024 to 85% in fall 2025, building upon annual savings of more than $2,000 per student.
• Achieved an 80% NSF Graduate Research Fellowship award rate among eligible inaugural Stamps Fellows in spring 2026, compared with 34% among other eligible first-year Ph.D. students.

Academic Support Project (Includes Advising Platform)  [FY 2026–Ongoing – In Progress]

Project Managers: James Black, Thomas Ploetz, Elizabeth Henry

Timeline: FY 2026–Ongoing

Status: In Progress

This project expands academic advising infrastructure and tools to support graduate student progress and access to information.

Progress & Milestones

• Completed a pilot with the College of Computing and prepared for a full launch to all graduate programs and graduate students in fall 2026.

• Hired and onboarded an Enterprise Systems Analyst to provide technical support.

• The fall launch will include the “Ask George P. Burdell” AI-powered chatbot to provide tailored responses to student inquiries.

• The project is on target for 75% of Ph.D. programs to build Journeys that track Ph.D. milestones.

Program Manager: Bonnie Ferri

Program Start: FY 2026

Graduate Support Fund Project [FY 2026–Ongoing – In Progress]

Project Manager: David Ballantyne

Timeline: FY 2026–Ongoing

Status: In Progress

This project expands financial support mechanisms for graduate students and postdocs, including emergency, professional development, and degree-completion support.

Progress

• Established donation mechanisms for the Graduate Student Emergency and Safety Net Fund, Stamps Graduate Student Support Fund, and Graduate Students and Postdoc Professional Development Fund, with “Give Now” buttons added to the website.
• Established Thesis Completion Grant programs for spring and summer 2026 for students who lost financial support while completing their final thesis semester.
• Continued identifying potential funding sources to sustain the Thesis Completion Grant pilot after a request for additional institutional funding was not approved, building on strong feedback from program directors and participating students.

Milestones

• The Stipend Policy and advocacy from GPE set in place a request for additional funding for stipends, which was supported by the GT Executive Leadership Team Advocating through an allocation of $2M to the colleges for graduate student stipends.
• Received $200,000 to support graduate students facing hardships and are considered “at risk” of completing or continuing their degrees.
• This “pain point funding” strategy was recommended by the Financial Strategies for Graduate Students Working Group in 2024 as a targeted approach to maximizing the impact of limited funding resources.
• Supported 19 students through $200,000 in Thesis Completion Grant funding in spring 2026 and 21 students through $131,000 in funding in summer 2026.

Expanding Scope of External Funding of Students Project [FY 2026–Ongoing – In Progress]

Project Managers: Bonnie Ferri, Jana Stone

Timeline: FY 2026–Ongoing

Status: In Progress

Progress & Milestones

• Established a working group to create policy for a “Ph.D. Pathway for Working Professionals.”

• The working group drafted a policy and began broad distribution to gather feedback.

• The policy will be brought to the Institute Graduate Curriculum Committee (IGCC) for approval; if approved, it would be effective for the fall 2027 incoming class.

Program Manager: Jana Stone

Program Start: FY 2026

Career Readiness Project [2026-2028 – In Progress]

Project Managers: David Gaston, Gwenn Seo

Timeline: 2026–2028

Status: In Progress

This project strengthens graduate student career decision-making by equipping students to make informed career choices, expanding campus adoption of a shared career readiness model, and improving the collection and visualization of career readiness and outcomes data.

Progress & Milestones

• Secured campus partner engagement and feedback, launched a dedicated Career Readiness resource website, and developed learning outcomes and seven competency rubrics.

• Convened the inaugural Career Outcomes Designation Working Group to enhance career outcomes data collection and visualization.

• Presented the Career Readiness work at the NACE conference and received positive recognition and feedback from colleagues and employers.

• Career competency rubrics are under final review for an early fall 2026 launch.

• Next steps include refining and launching the Career Readiness Model and seven competency rubrics and expanding integration across curricular and co-curricular partnerships.

• The 2027 Career Readiness Symposium is scheduled for March 31, 2027.

Mentoring in Research Project [2026 –  Ongoing]

Project Manager: Jana Stone

Timeline: 2026–Ongoing

Status: Ongoing

This project improves mentoring effectiveness and encourages communication and informal resolution of issues between mentors and mentees, strengthening the overall graduate student and postdoctoral experience.

Progress

• Launched the Impactful Research Mentoring workshop series during the 2024–25 academic year, with dedicated programming for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars as well as faculty.
• Expanded the Impactful Research Mentoring workshop series in 2025–26 to include 14 one-hour workshops for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars and six workshops for faculty.
• Facilitated an additional 14 customized workshops designed to address the specific mentoring needs of faculty and graduate student populations within individual schools.
• Transitioned the 2026–27 Impactful Research Mentoring workshop series to a fully virtual format to better align with participant needs and expectations.

Milestones

• Reached 169 participants through the Impactful Research Mentoring workshop series, exceeding the goal of increasing participation by 50% over the 62 participants served in 2024–25.
• Engaged an additional 182 faculty members and more than 120 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars through customized, school-specific workshops.

Professional Skill Development & Integration Project [Intended Start: FY 2027 –  Not Yet Started]

Project Managers: Joy Olabisi, Jana Stone

Timeline: Intended Start: FY 2027

Status: Not Yet Started

Progress & Milestones

• No new six-month progress update was reported for this project.

Emerging Technologies & Research Ethics Project [Intended Start: FY 2028 –  Not Yet Started]

Project Manager: Jason Borenstein

Timeline: Intended Start: FY 2028

Status: Not Yet Started

Progress & Milestones

• No new six-month progress update was reported for this project.

Program Manager: David Gaston

Program Start: FY 2027

Status: Not Yet Started

Employment Connections Project [Intended Start: FY 2027 –  Not Yet Started]

Program Managers: Gwenn Seo, Andrea Comsa

Timeline: Intended Start: FY 2027

Status: Not Yet Started

Progress & Milestones

• None

Corporate Sponsorships/Partnerships Project [Intended Start: FY 2028 –  Not Yet Started]

Program Managers: Rob Rogers, Nadia Steighner 

Timeline: Intended Start: FY 2028

Status: Not Yet Started

Progress & Milestones

• None

Alumni Engagement Project [Intended Start: FY 2029 –  Not Yet Started]

Program Managers: David Gaston, Rob Rogers, Alumni Association Partner 

Timeline: Intended Start: FY 2029

Status: Not Yet Started

Progress & Milestones

• None

Program Manager: Karena Nguyen

Program Start: FY 2026

Postdoc Support Ecosystem Project [Began FY 2026 – In Progress]

Project Managers: Jana Stone, Karena Nguyen

Timeline: Began FY 2026

Status: In Progress

Progress & Milestones

• Recruited volunteers to relaunch the Georgia Tech Postdoc Association.

• Held a retreat for volunteers who will lead the new association, which is scheduled to officially launch in fall 2026.

• GPE will continue engaging with the Postdoc Association to support its initiatives and establishment as an organization.

• Engagement among Postdoc Advisory Council faculty representatives continues to vary across units.

Cohort-Based Professional Development Project [Began FY 2026 –  Ongoing]

Project Manager: Karena Nguyen

Timeline: Began FY 2026

Status: Ongoing

Progress & Milestones

• Partnered with the Writing and Communication Program’s Grant Writing Committee to host a Grant Writing Workshop for postdocs in March 2026.

• The March workshop had 20 attendees, and a Teams channel for grant resources was created and added to the Postdoctoral Services website.

• Based on engagement and post-event survey feedback from two grant-writing workshops, GPE will continue working with the Naugle Communication Center to offer grant-writing support for postdocs in spring 2027.

Postdoc Employment Project [FY 2025–2030 (projected) – In Progress]

Project Manager: Jana Stone

Timeline: FY 2025–2030 (projected)

Status: In Progress

This initiative addresses gaps in postdoctoral compensation clarity, benefits, and performance evaluation to support the recruitment and retention of top postdoctoral talent.

Progress & Milestones

• Met with the Office of Human Resources Compensation team to establish plans and a timeline for the compensation project.

• Previously established milestones include publicly sharing postdoc salary ranges and minimums, addressing benefits for eligible fellowship recipients, aligning compensation standards with peer institutions, and developing a postdoc performance evaluation template.

Orientation & Onboarding Project [Intended Start: FY 2027 –  Not Yet Started]

Project Manager: Karena Nguyen

Timeline: Intended Start: FY 2027

Status: Not Yet Started

Progress & Milestones

• No new six-month progress update was reported for this project.