- July 12, 2021

Professor Rebecca Lee recently received a Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics--Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), leveraging her ongoing Sustainability via Active Garden Education (SAGE) project. The new project, "Back to Early Childhood Education (ECE) Safely with SAGE, Reducing COVID-19 transmission in Hispanic and low-income preschoolers," or BE SAGE, will test young children (age 3-5 years) and their parents using a COVID-19 saliva test. Testing will be done as part of a coordinated strategy to get kids back to in-person learning safely. The strategy also includes open-air education leveraging school gardens to increase physically active time and improve healthy eating.

“On behalf of our team at SAGE, we are excited for this opportunity to help get our kids back to in-person learning safely in Arizona,” stated Lee. “We are thrilled to partner with our good colleagues in the Biodesign Institute at ASU to offer the saliva test for free at our partner ECE preschool sites!”

The new RADx-UP awards will provide up to $15 million over a two-year period to five projects in the US. BE SAGE will reduce education disparities by getting underserved children back to in-person ECE preschool; helping to close the gap in education and improve vital developmental skills.

Dr. Lee is a professor in the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University. The research team includes Dr. Meg Bruening (College of Health Solutions), Dr. Michael Todd (Edson College), Dr. Hyunsung Oh (School of Social Work), Dr. Joanna Kramer (Phoenix Children’s Hospital) and Tomás León, MBA (Equality Health Foundation). Read more about the NIH RADx-UP Safe Return to School Diagnostic Testing Initiative.