George Hancock has been named executive director of UNCG’s SERVE Center.
SERVE has worked with educators and policymakers for nearly 30 years to improve educational outcomes for students of all ages. The center offers research, development, dissemination, evaluation and technical assistance services related to education, and its current work includes providing services for at-risk students, evaluating high school reform and providing program evaluation services.
Hancock has led SERVE over the last year as interim director.
He joined UNCG in 2015 as director of SERVE’s National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE), which he continues to lead. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education and housed within the SERVE Center, NCHE provides information to schools and universities all over the country on how to identify homeless students, increase enrollment, and keep students from falling behind in their classes.
Hancock has worked at nearly every level and position available in the state education system, including as a teacher, principal and state coordinator. He became an administrator in Wake County, and eventually worked his way to principal of a Title I school. He later became the state coordinator for a set of federal prevention and intervention programs for children who are neglected, delinquent or at-risk, before joining UNCG.
Located at the north Gateway University Research Park in Browns Summit, SERVE is a university-based, non-profit center dedicated to the most efficient and effective use of data, research, and evaluation at all levels of the education. When SERVE began, the challenges that schools faced were lack of data and access to research. Today, the challenges for leaders often lie in too much information and too little time to make sense of the vast amount of data, research, and evaluation.
SERVE commits to helping educational leaders make sense of the complicated array of data, research, and evaluation available in light of their particular issues, organizational challenges, or specific needs and time frames. The center works closely with its clients to understand their organizational context, then design tailored services that result in timely, relevant, and responsive information to inform strategies, policies, programs, and practices.
SERVE has been awarded over $200 million in contracts and grants and has successfully managed 14 major awards.
