The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Nursing is partnering with ENCORE Ministry Foundation to launch a new Age-Friendly Congregation Certificate program designed to help faith communities and individuals better support older adults through intentional, practical action.
The eight-module program, believed to be the first of its kind nationally, offers a structured, nondenominational approach to helping congregations better support older adults. Open to congregations and individuals across the United States and beyond, the program is free through grant funding and delivered in a self-paced, online format with optional in-person sessions.
Developed by UTC faculty in collaboration with ENCORE Ministry Foundation, the certificate program equips participants with tools to reframe aging, improve accessibility, strengthen intergenerational connection and support physical, mental and spiritual well-being. Congregations that complete the program earn an Age-Friendly Congregation designation, while individuals may earn recognition as Age-Friendly Congregation Champions.
“The Age-Friendly Congregation Certificate program gives individuals and congregations a practical way to become more intentional about supporting older adults,” says Dr. Kristi Wick, UC Foundation associate professor and Vicky B. Gregg Chair of Gerontology in the UTC College of Nursing. “It is a first-of-its-kind program built around learning modules that help congregations turn that commitment into action.”
The program reflects years of age-friendly work led by the UTC College of Nursing and supported through a Tennessee Department of Health grant now in its fifth year.
Wick says the certificate represents a sustainable way to extend that work well beyond the life of the grant.
“We brought together what we’ve learned over the past several years, along with the questions congregations are asking and the support they’ve told us they need, to create something sustainable. This program gives people continued access to those resources well beyond the life of the grant.”
Participants move beyond coursework to implementation. Congregations develop and carry out an action plan, complete a project and document their experience through a photo story, recorded testimony or written narrative.
Upon completion, congregations receive formal designation, along with digital and physical recognition, to support and expand their work.
Rev. Dr. Richard Gentzler, older adult ministry director for ENCORE Ministry Foundation, says the program responds to demographic shifts that faith communities can no longer ignore.
“The reality is that we’re an aging society and we need to really be thinking about the needs of older persons. People are living longer. We’re all going to be older adults at some point if we’re not already.”
Gentzler says faith communities occupy a unique space within the broader age-friendly ecosystem because they are already places of trust, connection and shared purpose. At the same time, he says congregations often overlook practical barriers that affect older adults, such as scheduling evening Bible studies during winter months when traveling after dark can limit participation.
He says many congregations want to respond to the needs of older adults but lack the training to know where to begin.
The Age-Friendly Congregation Certificate program addresses those needs through eight modules that focus on creating age-friendly congregations, healthy aging and resilience, spirituality and aging, supporting older adult well-being, social inclusion and intergenerational connection, ministry models and program design, advocacy and safety, and sustainable action planning.
“What we’re trying to do with the age-friendly congregation is make this a really useful, helpful tool for faith leaders and laypersons engaged in this particular ministry within their local congregations,” Gentzler says.
Enrollment is open until capacity is reached. Information and registration details are available at utc.edu/engaging.
22-year-old high jump record broken by Carden
Halle Carden set a new program record in the high jump to lead the Chattanooga Mocs women’s indoor track and field team at the UAB Green & Gold Invitational in Birmingham.
Carden cleared 5 feet, 7.25 inches (1.71 meters) to place second in the event, breaking a Chattanooga indoor record that had stood for more than two decades. The previous mark of 5 feet, 6 inches was set by Anna Hutcherson in 1999 and later matched by Alison Frese in 2004. The jump also marked a personal best for Carden.
Ledford earns All-American nod
Lydia Ledford, a future member of the Chattanooga women’s basketball program set to join the team next season, has been named a 2026 McDonald’s All-American nominee for the East team.
She is one of 392 players nationwide selected as nominees for the prestigious McDonald’s All-American Game, scheduled for March 31 in Glendale, Arizona.
Ledford is a 5-foot-11 guard from Buford, Georgia, and Buford High School. She has helped lead Buford to three region championships and has earned All-State honors. Ledford is the No. 86-ranked player in the country in her class and the No. 4 player from Georgia.
Ledford is one of three recruits from the 2026 high school class signed by head coach Deandra Schirmer.
“These awards showcase how dominant Lydia has been at the high school level. The exciting thing for us is that she’s just getting started,” Schirmer said in November, during the early signing period. “She’s a proven winner, and she’ll add a championship edge to our team.”
Mini-grants fuel UTC innovation
Small amounts of early funding are often what determine whether a research idea moves forward or loses momentum.
At UTC, that push comes from the MOCS Innovate! The Harris Chair Seed Fund for Innovation award, a mini-grant program that, for the past five years, has provided seed funding to UTC researchers working to develop their work into real inventions.
“This comes out of an intentional effort on the part of several of us to create a research commercialization program here at UTC,” says Dr. Thomas Lyons, the Clarence E. Harris Chair of Excellence in Entrepreneurship in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business. “Six years ago, there was no such program. We were seeing researchers struggling with what they were supposed to do.”
Lyons says faculty members who submitted invention disclosures to external offices often received rejections and little guidance on next steps, “and then they just give up because there was nobody there to help them. So it was off to the next invention, the next bit of research.”
That is why Lyons and his team worked with campus leaders to create the award, funded through the Harris Chair’s charitable endowment.
This year, five faculty members received MOCS Innovate! awards ranging from $3,500 to $4,000.
Lyons says the goal is to move in where larger investors typically will not.
“This is where the risk is highest,” he says. “We’re stepping in and saying, ‘We believe in you. Take it as far as you can.’”
Here is a look at the 2026 MOCS Innovate! awardees:
Megan Cales, coordinator of career engagement in the Decosimo Success Center in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business, is continuing the development of the Brooks Band, a wearable device designed to help individuals who struggle with voice volume regulation due to autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or hearing impairments.
The device provides discreet haptic feedback when a wearer’s voice exceeds appropriate levels, helping build awareness without drawing attention or relying on external correction. Feedback from students, families and educators has helped shape the design as the project has progressed.
Since receiving earlier MOCS Innovate! support, Cales says the Brooks Band team has built a working prototype, completed extensive customer discovery interviews, filed a provisional patent and connected with schools and therapy centers interested in pilot testing.
With the award, the team will refine the device by adding a clip-on microphone to improve voice capture accuracy and prepare for user testing in partnership with UTC’s Biomechatronics and Assistive Technology Lab, housed in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
Dr. Medhi Khaleghian, a postdoctoral research fellow with the Center for Urban Informatics and Progress, is focused on using drone technology to improve how cities and agricultural systems collect and interpret data. His work involves developing a multispectral drone system designed to enhance urban infrastructure monitoring and agricultural intelligence.
By integrating advanced sensing capabilities, the system aims to support more efficient analysis across complex environments. The award will allow Khaleghian, who received his Ph.D. in computer science from UTC in May 2025, to continue developing and testing the technology as it moves closer to application.
Dr. Shahnewaz Karim Sakib, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, developed an AI-based system after experiencing the competing demands of teaching, research and accreditation reporting early each semester.
The platform acts as a purpose-built “AI co-pilot,” generating syllabi, learning outcomes, rubrics and weekly schedules from short prompts while automatically aligning materials with accreditation requirements.
“At its core, the project shifts faculty effort from paperwork to pedagogy, while making accreditation, accessibility and privacy more reliable and transparent,” Sakib says.
The system also maintains a detailed audit trail, allowing instructors and reviewers to see exactly how learning outcomes map to assessments and why each alignment was made. With MOCS Innovate! funding, Sakib will continue refining the platform to support accreditation reporting, annual reviews and broader curriculum assessment needs.
Dr. Maged Shoman, a research assistant professor with the UT–Oak Ridge Innovation Institute and the Center for Urban Informatics and Progress, is addressing what is often called the “last-mile” problem in urban logistics, the most expensive and environmentally taxing part of grocery delivery.
Rather than relying on large trucks navigating residential streets, Shoman proposes a network of smart microhubs in which mobile, autonomous pods stocked with high-demand items temporarily park in neighborhoods while small electric delivery robots handle final deliveries to customers’ doorsteps.
With support from the award, the project is moving from computer simulations to physical hardware, allowing Shoman to begin testing real-world feasibility.
Dr. Weidong Wu, a professor of civil engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, is developing a web-based platform that automates ABET course assessment reporting, replacing fragile, manual workflows with stable tools that generate statistical analyses, visualizations and submission-ready reports.
Built using R Shiny and Quarto, the system allows faculty to merge reports with supporting materials such as syllabi and student work into a single PDF, reducing a process that can take hours to just a few steps.
The MOCS Innovate! award will support further development of the platform as Wu works to improve consistency, reliability and efficiency in accreditation documentation.
Source: UTC