Congratulations to Payton Womack, Ph.D student in the Program Planning & Evaluation (PPE) Program in the College of Education, for accepting the Graduate Assistant position through TCRI CARES! Payton will collaborate in the project’s research design seeking to develop and implement an accessible, sustainable, and responsive PPE model that will promote rural economic resiliency during and beyond the pandemic, specifically within our service region but also replicable in rural regions across the nation. Payton states, “After seeing the effects of the coronavirus in my rural community, I felt very drawn to the TCRI CARES project. The applied research within the grant provides me with an innovative opportunity to put my passion for rural communities to work with the intention to become stronger and better within the Upper Cumberland and across other rural areas.” Wings up! View the story here: https://www.tntech.edu/grand-challenge/news/articles/20200803-paytonwomack-tcricares.php