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NEW YORK - Marc Wheeler, vice president of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Alaska, was recently selected to be one of the William T. Grant Foundation's fourth group of Distinguished Fellows.

Hosted by Portland State University, a grant of $164,581 was awarded to Wheeler and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Alaska for Wheeler's Youth Mentoring Research Project for 2008-2010.

"This is a great opportunity for Big Brothers Big Sisters and for me personally," Wheeler said. "I'm looking forward to learning how research can help us improve our mentoring programs to have the maximum positive impact on Alaska's children."

Wheeler, a practitioner with 13 years of experience in public service, including eight years of leadership at BBBS, is one of a select number of BBBS executives working on an initiative to enhance BBBS of America's national model for school-based mentoring programs.

Wheeler wants to develop his ability to recognize, understand and use youth mentoring research, with a focus on school-based mentoring. He will use this award to work with Thomas Keller, an influential mentoring researcher, at Portland State University.

Wheeler also will take research classes at the University and will work with collected data to co-author an empirical paper on issues related to school-based mentoring. Finally, he will work with David DuBois and Keller to write a guidebook for BBBS and other youth mentoring agencies on current mentoring research and research principles and how they relate to programming. He hopes that this fellowship will allow him to help other mentoring practitioners incorporate research into their work.

The William T. Grant Foundation created the Distinguished Fellows program to increase the supply of, demand for and use of high-quality research in the service of improved youth outcomes. This program, designed for those who are in mid-career and influential in their roles, gives prominent researchers the opportunity to immerse themselves in practice or policy settings and allows similarly distinguished practitioners and policymakers to work and be mentored in research settings. This year's fellows are a diverse group: awards went to two researchers; one policymaker; and two practitioners, one of whom focuses on advocacy work.

Other winning projects were "Improving Child Welfare Outcomes for Children and Families through Effective Service Systems," at the Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy, Muskie School of Public Service University of Southern Maine; "Involving Parents in the Schooling of Immigrant Mexican Students," at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education; "Addressing the Needs of Children in Child Welfare: Views from the Front Line," at Tufts Medical Center; and "Promoting Children's Health by Building Healthier Food Environments," at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Applications for the Fifth Annual Distinguished Fellows Competition are now being accepted. Submission deadline is Jan. 8. For more information about the Foundation, its programs and its grantees, visit www.wtgrantfoundation.org.