JMU Research, Scholarship & Creative Endeavors
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Our hearts go out to the entire Bridgewater community after Tuesday's tragic events.
For those in need of support, our senior leadership shared a message of care and resources for the JMU community, and we’d also like to share a message of support from President Jonathan Alger:
We are shocked and saddened by the tragedy that took place on the campus of Bridgewater College, our neighboring institution with whom we work closely.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the victims during this difficult time. These are members of our communities, working to keep the campus safe and we are forever grateful for their efforts.
In these moments of extreme grief and uncertainty, we are prepared to support the Bridgewater community in whatever ways we can. We have been in touch and are ready to support and provide resources today, tomorrow and in the weeks to come. We stand together as colleagues, neighbors and friends.
With deepest condolences from all of us at James Madison University.
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Congratulations to Lauren Alleyne, associate professor of English and assistant director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center, and Erica Lewis, associate professor of nursing, who were recognized by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) as 2022 Outstanding Faculty Award recipients. SCHEV describes the award as “the Commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities.”
Virginia Clean Cities unveiled a solar powered electric vehicle charging station (photo below) to the Harrisonburg community during a December ribbon-cutting. “Virginia Clean Cities is excited to host this innovative electric vehicle charging station right here in Harrisonburg. This not only provides zero emission vehicle charging from electricity sourced from pure sunshine, but also serves as a valuable research and teaching tool for students at James Madison University, and is part of a two-station pilot program in Virginia and West Virginia,” said Alleyn Harned, executive director of VCC at JMU.
Nick Swayne, director of 4-VA and JMU X-Labs, was quoted in a recent U.S. News & World Report story, “Picking the Degrees and Majors of the Future.” Swayne observed, “...transformative disruptions are tough to anticipate with sufficient advanced warning to be useful in picking a career field.”
Office of Research & Scholarship
James Madison University
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JMU to Hire Vice President for
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
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In an email announcement, President Alger shared plans to launch a national search for a VP for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Also serving as the Chief Diversity Officer, this position will be “responsible for strategic leadership, innovation, and vision to advance and foster diversity, equity, and inclusive (DEI) excellence for faculty, students, and staff.”
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Jennifer Coffman (School of Integrated Sciences) received $479,326 from the Institute for International Education to recruit and train Project GO scholars who will travel to East Africa as part of James Madison University’s East Africa Field School, participate in beginner to advanced Swahili language training, undertake additional coursework focused on human-environment interactions in East Africa, and demonstrate Swahili proficiency at ILR Level 1 or better by program’s conclusion.
Kerry Cresawn (Center for STEM Education & Outreach), Robbie Higdon (Department of Middle, Secondary & Mathematics Education), Eric Pyle (Department of Geology & Environmental Science), Barbara Reisner (Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry), and Angela Webb (Department of Middle, Secondary & Mathematics Education) were awarded $171,381 to better understand the factors that influence students’ decisions to enter the STEM teaching pipeline and become teachers, using practices that are shown to improve STEM teacher retention.
Suzanne Fiederlein (Center for International Stabilization & Recovery) received $431,811 from the U.S. Department of State to help develop tools for Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) to increase the relevance, impact and effectiveness of EORE methodologies in Lao PDR.
Justin Henriques (Department of Engineering) received $310,000 from the Kern Family Foundation to produce a podcast series – Entrepreneurial Mindsets at Work (EM@Work) – to provide students real world examples of how entrepreneurial mindsets are used in professional practice.
Hossain Heydari and Brett Tjaden (Department of Computer Science) received $115,446 from the U.S. Department of Defense to encourage faculty and students to perform cutting edge research, disseminate knowledge, foster collaboration, support outreach, increase the number of underrepresented students, help recruiting efforts, and educate cybersecurity professionals.
Carmen Moreno (Institute for Innovation in Health & Human Services) was awarded $19,899 from the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority to promote health careers and access to primary care for medically underserved populations through community-academic partnerships.
Maryam Sharifian (Department of Early, Elementary & Reading Education) received $2,404,995 from the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation to address barriers of access to quality preschool education within community-based settings, support public/private systems of preschool delivery focused on expanding access to publicly funded preschool services for underserved 3- and 4-year old children within high quality private, community- (non-school) based early childhood care and education (ECCE) settings.
Emily York and Shannon Conley (School of Integrated Sciences) were awarded $305,012 from the National Science Foundation to support a multi-institutional scale-up study organized around a collaborative multidisciplinary model for developing cross-cutting science and technology studies pedagogies.
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Furious Flower and Libraries Receive $2 Million Grant
From Media Relations:
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded James Madison University $2 million over four and a half years to secure the digital future of the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the nation’s first academic center devoted to Black poetry. This generous grant will support the Center’s internationally recognized leadership and provide for archival description, digital preservation, and global access to an extensive archive of Furious Flower poetry and spoken word performance videos held by JMU Libraries Special Collections. The grant will help to strengthen and enhance the Center’s web and scholarly publishing infrastructure in partnership with open access and digital scholarship initiatives at the JMU Libraries.
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In Memory: The Holocaust and Society |
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In commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, JMU Libraries is hosting a new display of books and resources about the Holocaust. Organized by humanities librarian Malia Willey and history professor Maura Hametz, the display is available in Carrier Library and can be accessed online.
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Health Sciences Professor Researching Obesity Health Disparities
From Creative Services:
[Professor Santo] Coleman was selected to be part of the Obesity Health Disparities PRIDE Program which is housed at the University of Houston College of Medicine. OHD PRIDE is a two-year research training and mentoring program for faculty from underrepresented backgrounds.
Coleman's main focus throughout his career has been obesity and obesity disparities, especially in minority communities. His dissertation at the University of Connecticut was on obesity in African American and Caribbean Black fathers and sons. He said he's looking forward to continuing his training working with this population as well as increasing his knowledge related to obesity research through this program.
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Cybersecurity Q&A with Integrated Science
and Technology Professor
From Media Relations:
"The biggest threat is imposed by the human factor where people may fall victim to phishing scams and e-mail spoofing to trick them into revealing sensitive information such as passwords to e-mail accounts, social media accounts and even bank accounts," said Ahmad Salman, a professor of integrated science and technology who researches cryptography for secure communications in lightweight devices and also explores the security and privacy concerns in IoT devices and intelligent transportation systems.
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Collaborative Grant will Assess Teacher Education Programs |
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Over the past seven years, education legislation in the Commonwealth of Virginia has undergone manifest change, prompting the Virginia Department of Education (VDoE) to mandate and regulate the accreditation of all teacher programs statewide. This standard, however, highlighted a gap between available data and the metrics needed to evaluate these programs. Thanks to a grant from 4-VA, the College of Education at James Madison University (CoE) will partner with colleagues at the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond to understand how to best assess the efficacy of their completers as teachers post-graduation. Additional collaborators from George Mason University, Old Dominion University, VDoE, the legislature and public school systems will assist in identifying available data, information barriers and necessary structures for implementation.
When asked how this work advances CoE’s community objectives and values, Dr. Amy Thelk, Assistant Dean for Assessment, Accreditation & Accountability, commented, “Improving this process further frees up our time and talents to reimagine ourselves as a research-intensive institution. Thinking about our desire to develop compassionate, highly qualified educators, having access to information that will guide us in program development would be of great benefit. My position at the College has allowed me to follow the winding journey as one accreditation body transitioned into a new one, folding together legacy requirements with new ones that reflect the current milieu. I am excited to embark on this project with a crew of innovative and creative thinkers from around the state to really advance the narrative surrounding this work from deficiency to progress.”
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A Closer Look at the James Webb Telescope with Physics & Astronomy |
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From Media Relations:
[Department of Physics & Astronomy] Professor Anca Constantin said the new telescope will provide much clearer images of deep space than the Hubble Telescope, which is good news for her research.
One of the things Constantin hopes to see more clearly is the impending merger of three galaxies, a discovery that gained worldwide attention in 2020. One of Constantin’s students, Jenna Harvey, contributed research to the discovery.
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Marketing Faculty Explores How Size Labeling Affects Consumer Behavior
From Showker Shoutouts:
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English Alum Amber McBride’s Journey to Poet, Author, and Professor |
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From CAL Communications and Marketing:
“I got into a car accident, had to go to the hospital. It wasn't that serious, but what if it was more serious?” McBride said. “What if I just didn't do the thing I wanted to do?” She can laugh now about the most nerve-racking part of the transition — telling her parents — but she knew she’d need their support. McBride’s parents are her best friends, and she credits them for at least part of her decision to attend JMU because they met here as first-generation students.
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Spring Performances by the Monticello Strings
The Monticello Strings, a faculty-student ensemble, received an internal grant that will support spring performances both on campus and at venues throughout the Shenandoah Valley. Mark your calendars now and make plans to attend!
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March 1, at 7pm in Forbes Recital Hall
- March 2, at 7pm in Wayne Theatre in Waynesboro
- March 4, at 2:30pm in Handley Library in Winchester
- March 25, at 4-5pm at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Harrisonburg
Follow the JMU School of Music YouTube channel to view additional performances by the Monticello Strings faculty: Wanchi (violin), Diana Phoenix-Neal (viola), Carl Donakowski (cello) and Sam Suggs (double bass).
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Another Successful Three Minute Thesis Competition!
The Graduate School hosted the fifth annual Three Minute Thesis competition on January 21st. Jaclyn Tolchin, a Biology master’s student, won first place with the presentation “Does the song of a vocal mimic reflect changes in avian acoustic communities across an urban gradient?” Our thanks to all who made this competition possible -- the Graduate School, student presenters, faculty advisors, and judges panel, which included R&S AVP for Research & Innovation Keith Holland.
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