Dean’s Award for Excellence: Dr. Jay Mancini
Dr. Mancini is the inaugural recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence. This award is given at the discretion of the dean to honor alumni, former staff or faculty, or friends of the school for exceptional service, scholarship, or other exemplary contributions to the mission and advancement of HHS and UNCG.
Dr. Mancini earned his Ph.D. from UNCG in 1977 in Child Development and Family Relations (now Human Development and Family Studies), and is currently an adjunct professor in HDFS at the University of Georgia and is Professor Emeritus of Human Development at Virginia Tech.
Some of Dr. Mancini’s accomplishments include being the Haltiwanger Distinguished Professor, as well as being head of the Department of Human Development and Family Science at the University of Georgia. He also served on the faculty in the Department of Human Development at Viriginia Tech, and was the Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment.
Dr. Mancini’s work has focused on lifespan human development, community systems, building community capacity, military family support systems, time-use and families, and psychological well-being, with his career focused on resilience and vulnerabilities of individuals, families, and communities, and their multiple intersections. Much of his work has focused on supporting military families and the distinct dynamic of military service. He has received numerous awards recognizing his career contributions to the family science discipline. Dr. Mancini has more than 200 publications, including articles in some of the most prestigious journals in his field.
His program development and evaluation research has been funded by extensively over the years by the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of the Air Force, U.S. Department of the Army, and U.S. Department of Defense with more than $15M in grant funding.
Dr. Mancini has left a legacy at UNCG and the institutions where he’s worked of impact, student success, and research. He received the Dean’s Award just before his death in October 2024.