Psychologist: Don’t pigeonhole kids with mental disabilities
    Too often children with mild intellectual disabilities are given one chance to show their ability to learn to read, according to Georgia State University psychology professor Rose Sevcik. “If they don’t make it, they are set aside and often times labeled as, ‘can’t learn.’ But we know they can learn,” she said. Sevcik is leading the Georgia State Reading Program, a five-year, $2.8 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate the effectiveness of reading interventions for students with an IQ below 70 in grades 1 through 5 in metro-Atlanta. The program currently is being taught at Grayson Elementary School in Gwinnett County and will start soon at Brookwood, Mimosa, Connally and Liberty Park elementary schools. To talk with Sevcik, contact John Allen at 1-3576 or jwallen@gsu.edu.

Meth addicts: How do they stop?
   From blue-collar workers to soccer moms, 12 million Americans have tried methamphetamine and 1.5 million are regular users, according to federal estimates.

   Brian Dew, a Georgia State assistant professor of counseling and psychological services,  and a team of graduate students have interviewed more than 70 recovering addicts who have been clean for at least two weeks. The study has produced several important findings so far, including that it may take more than a year to overcome withdrawal symptoms; and that women are less likely to be involved in traditional recovery support groups. To interview Dew, contact Wendy Bigham at 404/651-3578 or wbigham@gsu.edu.

Biologist: Sexuality is regulated in the brain, not below the belt
   The blue-banded goby takes the expression, “changing one’s stripes” to a whole new level. Under certain social inducements, the fish will change sex, transforming its sex organs from female to male or vice versa. A recent study by Georgia State University biology professor Matthew Grober suggests that the initial stages of the fish’s sex change are regulated in the brain, which could help better explain the biological basis of human sexual identity. “The field of biology really has this view of sex as a below-the-belt phenomenon. But, if you ask people where sex resides, it resides up here,” Grober said, pointing to his head. To interview Grober, contact John Allen at 1-3576 or jwallen@gsu.edu.

Number of uninsured young adults rising
   As the cost of health insurance rises, more young professional Georgians opt to go without it, according to a recently released report by William S. Custer and Patricia Ketsche, professors in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business. The professors, who have been tracking Georgia’s uninsured population for about 10 years, estimate that the number of uninsured 18- to 24-year-olds in Georgia has increased from 28 to 33 percent over the past five years. The report, based on Census Bureau data taken in March, links the increase in the number of uninsured Georgians directly to the rise in health care costs. The rise continues to outpace economic growth, relative to family income. To reach Custer or Ketsche, contact Leah Harris at 404/651-3575or lvh@gsu.edu.

Happening at Georgia State University

College of Law hosts final biotechnology seminar
   Georgia State University’s Center for Law, Health & Society will present the final seminar in a new three-part Distinguished Speaker Series on Biotechnology Law, Policy and Ethics Nov. 14. The seminar, “Creating Human-Nonhuman Chimeras: New Techniques, New Ethical and Legal Challenges,” is scheduled for 4 p.m. in room 170 in the Urban Life Building.  Speakers include Cynthia B. Cohen, senior research scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University; and Henry T. Greely, the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson professor of law and director for the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University. For more information, contact Leah Harris at 404/651-3575 or lvh@gsu.edu.

Activists address human rights, environment
   Kerry Kennedy, human rights activist and daughter of assassinated presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy, will kick off Georgia State’s University Speaker Series at 3 p.m. Nov. 17 in the Student Center’s Speaker’s Auditorium. She is one of five internationally known speakers who will speak at this year’s series, titled “International Perspective: Human Rights, Peace and the Environment.” Other speakers include Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center on Jan. 17; William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, on Jan. 18; and Arun Gandhi, grandson of legendary spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi, on April 6.  Lectures are free and are open to the public. For more information, contact Wendy Bigham at 404/651-3578 or wbigham@gsu.edu.

Georgia State Leads is a publication from the Department of University Relations. For more information about the publication or to sign up to receive Georgia State Leads, contact Leah Harris at 404/651-3575 or lvh@gsu.edu.

©2005 Georgia State University