Fellows, Affiliates and GDP ’s
Congratulations to the new Fellows of the Institute:
Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, (Advertising), Associate Professor, GDP Class of 2012
Dr. Ahn submitted her National Institute of Heart Lung and Blood (NIH) project titled “The Virtual Fitness Buddy Ecosystem: Using Digital Technology to Promote and Sustain Moderate-to-Vigorous Intensity Physical Activity in Children.”
Research Interests: Digital media; Persuasive communication; Virtual experiences; STEM learning; Health; Consumer psychology
Geoffrey Brown, (HDFS), Assistant Professor, GDP Class of 2014
Dr. Brown received an R01 from NIH to study how rural environments, social networks and paternal factors contribute to infant development in Black families in the rural South. By focusing on the role of unmarried Black fathers, this work is highly novel and will help to develop interventions to encourage fathers to be actively involved in their infants’ lives.
Research Interests: Family relationships; Children’s social and emotional development; Fathering; Early childhood development; Family functioning
Katherine Ehrlich, (Psychology), Assistant Professor, GDP Class of 2016
Dr. Ehrlich recently received a (1) NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation that will focus on proinflammatory phenotypes and depression risk in youth, (2) R03 from NIH focusing on the effects of exposure to parental depression as a risk factor for downstream youth physical health and (3) NIH Director’s New Innovator Award for her project submitted to the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, “Innovative Approaches to the Study of Social Determinants of Health in Children.”
Research Interests: Stress; Health; Families; Relationships across development; Inflammation/Epigenetics
Paula Lemons, (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), Associate Professor
Dr. Lemons (SEER center) and her team were awarded a NSF grant aimed at transforming STEM education at a R1 university through multi-level action teams. This is an outstanding example of truly interdisciplinary scholarship as noted by the team (Paula Lemons, PI; Co-PIs include Tessa Andrews (Genetics), Marguerite Brickman (Plant Biology), Sarah Covert (Assoc. Provost for Academic Affairs), and Erin Dolan (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology). This project has a total of 13 senior personnel including individuals from Math, Chemistry, Physics, Entomology, Statistics, Engineering, and Education, plus many consultants from different units on campus.
Research Interests: Cognition; Discipline-based education; Student learning; Teaching; Professional development
Denise Lewis, (HDFS), Associate Professor
Dr. Lewis submitted her National Academies of Science Gulf Research Program grant, “Community and Family Resilience, Strength and Wellbeing: Sociocultural Influences on Cambodian and Laotian Refugee Communities’ Responses to Environmental Challenges.”
Research Interests: Gerontology; Qualitative methodology; Intergenerational relations; Aging; Immigrants and refugees
Assaf Oshri, (HDFS), Associate Professor, GDP Class of 2014
Dr. Oshri was recently awarded a K01 award from NIH to examine the influence of community and family protective processes on neurocognitive systems and early onset drug use among rural southern youth.
Research Interests: Child maltreatment; Risk behavior in adolescence; Resilience; Impulsivity; Decision making; Poverty
Catherine Walker O’Neal, (HDFS), Assistant Research Scientist
Dr. O’Neal is a long-time collaborator on a series of projects examining military families and social determinants of health. She was recently awarded a grant from the USDA/NIFA/DOD as Principal Investigator that will evaluate the Air Force Personal Financial Readiness Program to help military families.
Research Interests: Cumulative life experiences; Health outcomes; Adolescent life stages; Military families; Racial/Ethnic minorities
We would like to welcome the following new faculty Affiliates of the Institute:
Adrienne Baldwin-White, (Social Work), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Gender-based violence; Sexual assault prevention; Measurement and program development
Kristen Bub, (Educational Psychology), Associate Professor
Research Interests: Social competence; Self-regulation; Executive function; Early childhood; Research methods
Allison Dunnigan, (Social Work), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Child welfare; Foster care; Policy; Methods
Rachel Fusco, (Social Work), Associate Professor
Research Interests: Substance abuse; Mental health; Family violence
Jeremy Gibbs, (Social Work), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Sexual minority youth; Behavioral health; Technology informed methodology
Man Kit (Karlo) Lei, (Sociology), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Social determinants of health and aging; Quantitative methods; Neighborhood studies; Criminology
Tarkeshwar Singh, (Kinesiology), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Sensorimotor control; Eye-tracking; Electroencephalography; Neurodegenerative disorders
Julie Stanton, (Cellular Biology), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Metacognition; Students of color in STEM; Qualitative methods
Dee Warmth, (Financial Planning, Housing & Consumer Economics), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Well-being; Financial decision-making; Decision skill; Overconfidence; Economic empowerment
Kaixiong (Calvin) Ye, (Genetics), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Human genetics; Nutrition; Direct-to-consumer genetic testing
Congratulations to these Grantsmanship Development Program Participants who will be graduating at our Annual Meeting on Nov. 29:
Dorothy Carter, (Psychology I/O), Assistant Professor, GDP Class of 2016
Research Interests: Leadership; Teams; Multi-systems; Social network analysis
Katherine Ehrlich, (Psychology), Assistant Professor, GDP Class of 2016
Research Interests: Stress; Health; Families; Relationships across development; Inflammation/Epigenetics
Logan Fiorella, (Educational Psychology), Assistant Professor, GDP Class of 2016
Research Interests: Instruction; Problem solving; STEM education; Multimedia learning; Learning strategies
Yan Jin, (Public Relations), Professor, GDP Class of 2016
Research Interests: Crisis communication; Risk communication; Social media; Health communication; Strategic conflict management; Information dissemination
Ashley Johnson Harrison, (Educational Psychology), Assistant Professor, GDP Class of 2015
Research Interests: Autism; Eye-tracking; Cross-cultural; Attention; Global
Welcome to the Grantsmanship Development Program (GDP) Class of 2018-2020:
Michael Cacciatore, (Public Relations), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Media depictions of science and risk issues; Social media; Media communication process
Philip Chalmers, (Educational Psychology), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Computational statistics; Measurement invariance; Item response theory; Open-source software design
Jennifer Gay, (Health Promotion), Associate Professor
Research Interests: Physical activity; Children; Adolescents; Occupational health; Growth and maturation; Measurement and methodology
Kalsea Koss, (HDFS), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Social and biological processes; Life course; Biological embedding; Social environmental experiences; Health and well-being
Jiaying Liu, (Communication Studies), Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Health communication; Social psychology; Message effects; Computational social science methods