Policy Task Force Previous Projects

We had an amazing experience with the Georgia Tech Public Policy Task Force! The students were so
impressive, not only with their subject matter expertise, but with the passion and enthusiasm they displayed when tackling our project. They clearly heard our pain points and delivered a professional-level report with concrete and realistic recommendations that we look forward to implementing in the future.

– Atlanta Emerging Markets Inc., 2020-21 Project Participant

2024-25

Instructors: Hicks and Whetsell

• Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc: How AEMI can best implement emerging research/innovative models to increase access to capital for minority
  social entrepreneurs?
• City of Atlanta: Identify and evaluate alternative public/private governance models for public schools
• City of Chamblee: How can Chamblee encourage affordable housing?
• Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns: How can the Council best serve Georgia’s American Indian/Alaska Native communities?
• Southern Regional Education Board: What policies and practices at the state and federal levels support the teaching of reading beyond elementary
  school?
• Woodstock Fire Department: What are the major community fire risks in Woodstock?

2023-24

Instructors: Hicks and Whetsell

• Atlanta Mayor's Office of Sustainability: How can the City of Atlanta provide sustainable, climate resilient, affordable housing?
• Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities: How do other states run their mobile mental health crisis response services and what best practices might
  Georgia adopt?
• Roswell Fire Department: What are the major community fire risks in Roswell?
• Sandy Springs Economic Development Manager: Post-pandemic, how do cities similar to Sandy Springs foster economic development?
• Sandy Springs Mayor’s Office: How can the Sandy Springs Civic Roundtable strengthen the network of non-profits serving Sandy Springs?

2022-23

Instructors: Hicks and Whetsell

• City of Albany, Georgia: What programs have policymakers and stakeholders used in midsize U.S. cities to redevelop following
  natural disasters and disinvestment, and how can their strategies inform CEDR’s goals in Albany, Georgia?
• Fulton County Technology and Energy Enhancement Authority (FTEEA): What innovative organizational structures and program attributes have other community-focused entities
  implemented to improve energy sustainability equitably?
• Georgia Audubon: What factors contribute to the successful passage of an invasive species ban, and how can the policy processes for invasive species bans in other states serve as a model to pass an invasive plant ban in
  Georgia?
• Georgia Native Plant Society: What steps have policymakers and stakeholders taken in other municipalities to pass pro-native plant legislation, and how can their strategies and actions inform the Georgia Native Plant Society’s advocacy goals?
• PAWS Atlanta: What are the best practices used by successful no-kill animal shelters in around Atlanta for preventing long-term guests and mitigating their costs, and how can this information improve how PAWS Atlanta operates?

2021-22

Instructors: Hicks and Youtie

• Atlanta Emerging Markets Inc.: What factors play the largest role in the persistence of the racial wealth gap in Atlanta? What actions can AEMI take to decrease the racial wealth gap in Atlanta?
• The Nature Conservancy: What policies and programmatic practices impact the ability to successfully implement nature-based solutions along the contiguous United States coast? Which policies offer the greatest potential for helping to accelerate the clean energy transition in Georgia?
• Georgia Social Impact Collaborative: How have ecosystem partners in pay-for-success programs ensured that their programs created the social impact they set out to achieve?
• Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation: What are the most important factors affecting the supply of audiologists, optometrists, and ophthalmologists in the United States?

2020-21 

Instructors: Hicks and Youtie

• Atlanta Emerging Markets Inc.: What business and community development needs are unmet in low-income areas of Atlanta? What best practices in the successful financing of nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, and high-impact businesses result in positive economic development outcomes in underserved
  neighborhoods?
• Georgia Audubon: What steps have policy entrepreneurs taken in other municipalities to pass bird-safe legislation, and how can their strategies inform Georgia Audubon’s advocacy process?
• Piedmont Park Conservancy: What would it take to develop and gain support for a policy that would provide a sustainable funding model to support not only Piedmont Park but all other public parks in the City of Atlanta? What is the additional monetary value added to residential properties in the Midtown area of Atlanta, Georgia, due to proximity to Piedmont Park?

2019-20

Instructors: Hicks and Youtie

• Community Activist Doug Joiner: What are the best practices around inclusion of children’s voices in municipal policy & transportation planning? Where has this been done? Where has it worked and not worked? And why? Which methods of incorporating youth participation are best suited to achieving optimal youth engagement in municipal and community planning practices relevant to transportation?
• Invest Atlanta: How can Atlanta create impactful incentives to retain existing scale-up technology companies or attract out-of-area scale-up companies to choose Atlanta?
• Northwest Georgia High Demand Career Initiative: As part of the HDCI grant, the region is working to launch a high-demand career pathway website portal for students, educators, and employers in the region. Have sites like this helped students navigate the pipeline to reach a high-demand career in their field of interest? How effective are career websites in overcoming information asymmetries and matching employers and employees?
• Piedmont Park Conservancy: How can a public park of almost 200 acres address increasing e-scooter traffic? What are the best practices and recommendations that are most appropriate for Piedmont Park, given the fact that the Beltline comes through the Park? How have comparable organizations regulated e-scooters, and why were policies chosen over their alternatives? What policies do Piedmont Park users, including e-scooter riders, cyclists, and pedestrians, prefer?

2018-19

Instructors: Isett and Hicks

• Atlanta Regional Commission: Affordable housing: What are the best practices in regionally coordinated affordable housing policy across the United States?
• City of Atlanta, Mayor’s Office of Resilience: Farmers’ markets: What are the barriers to permitting for farmers’ markets in Atlanta, and how can best practices in other cities serve as a model for Atlanta’s permitting process Indoor farming: What zoning/permitting processes will best facilitate the integration of CEA in the city of Atlanta?
• Second Helping Atlanta: Recovering wasted food: What is the feasibility of rescuing food from the TV and film production industries in Atlanta?
• The Nature Conservancy: Carbon sequestration in privately owned GA forests: How will design choices involved in a voluntary carbon sequestration and storage program in Georgia affect stakeholder participation?

2017-18

Instructors: Isett and Hicks

• The Nature Conservancy: Rooftop solar in Atlanta: What is the technical potential of widespread commercial rooftop solar in Atlanta, and what are the barriers to achieving it?
• Aquatic Connectivity in Georgia: What are the regulatory, economic, and cultural barriers to dam removal and culvert restoration in the state of Georgia?

2016-17

Instructors: Isett and Hicks

• Community Activist Doug Joiner: Safe Routes to School (SRTS): What processes and strategies have been used to develop social capital and engage caregivers and community members of a low-income minority neighborhood in an SRTS program?
• Georgia Institute of Technology Treecycling: How can Georgia Tech manage the wood waste produced by the removal and pruning of trees on campus?
• Atlanta Regional Commission: Affordable Housing for Artists: What are the best practices in the provision of affordable housing for artists?
• City Schools of Decatur: Students on the Move: What are the effects of student mobility on academic achievement, attendance, and discipline?

2015-16

Instructors: Isett and Hicks

Centers for Disease Control:

• Improving Dissemination of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2016 Report to Congress on the Management of Traumatic Brain Injury in Children: how do seven stakeholder groups respond to information dissemination methods on the prevention of TBI in children? 
• Assessing the Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Intimate Partner Violence Prevention: Investigating the impact of the ACA on intimate partner violence among non-elderly adult women in the United States.

Thank you very much for your excellent presentation and report. All who attended and called into the talk were very impressed with the quality and comprehensiveness of your work. It was a pleasure to work with all of you! Congratulations and Best Wishes to the graduating seniors! Dr. Isett and Dr. Hicks, your excellent mentorship for the students is most appreciated. I hope we can collaborate again.

– CDC client, 2016

2014-15

Instructors: Isett and Hicks

Centers for Disease Control

• Building Healthy Homes: analyzing the history of changes to building codes to identify factors associated
  with successful building code changes to advise the CDC on how to protect lower-income families from
  dangers such as mold, pests, and radon by strengthening regulations and guidelines to make homes safer.
  • Published as: Coyle, E.C., K.R. Isett, J. Rondone, R. Harris, M.C.B. Howell, K. Brandus, G. Hughes, R. Kerfoot, D. Hicks. (2016) Making Homes Healthy: International Code Council Processes and
    Patterns. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. 22(4) 338–347. doi:
    10.1097/PHH.0000000000000357
• Salmonella in Communities of Color: analyzing efforts for health education for minority communities to
  identify strategies that the CDC can use to enhance the effectiveness of its educational materials on safe
  handling of chicken in home kitchens in minority households
• Salmonella in Poultry: a cost-benefit analysis of adding probiotics and essential oils to poultry feed to
  provide the CDC with the tools needed to convince industry to remove antibiotics from chicken feed and
  substitute alternatives that have been proven effective without creating antibiotic-resistant salmonella
  strains

2013-14

Instructors: Isett and Hicks

Atlanta Local Food Initiative

• Urban Agriculture in Atlanta – A Six City Case Study Analysis: An Analysis of best practices in urban
  agriculture programs in Baltimore, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco

Centers for Disease Control

• Youth Recreational Marijuana Policy: Develop a public health response framework for addressing the
  potential widespread legalization of recreational marijuana
• E-cigarettes: What are the ramifications for anti-smoking norms from the emergence of e-cigarettes?

Marcus Autism Center

• Reimbursement of Telemedicine in Georgia: Generate feasible legislative strategies for the promotion of reimbursement of telehealth for autism in Georgia

Fulton County Health Department

• Healthy Cities Task Force: Applying a Qualitative Comparative Analysis to discern the unique
  characteristics of municipalities in Fulton County/Atlanta and develop a framework to promote "healthy
  cities" strategies

2012-13

Instructors: Isett and Hicks

The American Legacy Foundation

• Smoking Endgames in the United States: an analysis of the effectiveness of three "endgame strategies" that seek to eliminate the consumption of combustible tobacco and associated health harms: the nicotine
  reduction strategy, sinking lid strategy, and reduced harm alternative strategy