Faculty

Academic Unit

Engagement Project

Daniel Castaneda

Engineering

Engineering Connections in the Community and the Classroom

This grant supported Phase One of a multi-phase project to develop and fabricate a small-scale “strong table,” specifically mimicking large-scale “strong walls” used at many earthquake engineering research laboratories throughout the nation. The actualization of this strong table affords opportunities for young people to design small-scale balsa-wooden framed structures and to evaluate the extent of structural deformation when subjected to various loading conditions. As part of Phase One, an engineering undergraduate research student was hired to lead the design and fabrication of a small-scale strong table. The student researcher procured a variety of t-slotted framing and fittings, electric actuators, dial indicators, and spring force sensors to design and construct the strong table to be reconfigurable in supporting upwards of four unique operating stations. Phase Two of the project will include incorporating the use of the strong table in relevant structural engineering courses at JMU Engineering and at appropriate K-12 outreach events in Fall 2024.

Erin Clinard

Communication Science & Disorders

Cultivating Professional Competency Through Professional Development: A Series of for Students, Faculty, & Community Partners

With the assistance of the Faculty Senate Mini-Grant, we created the “JMU Summer Learning Series: Cultivating Competency,” a series of professional development opportunities for speech-language pathology and related professions. Through this series of 8 workshops, we offered 13.5 hours of engaged learning in June and July 2024. Content-area experts from across the state and region were invited to cover topics such as supporting individuals who are neurodivergent, trauma-informed care, ethical decision-making for end of life, caregiver coaching, and interprofessional practice.  Participants included graduate students in the online and residential speech-language pathology programs, faculty, and community professionals. The workshops were free of charge. All workshops met the rigorous criteria set forth for continuing education through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and ASHA-certified faculty and community speech-language pathologists were eligible to receive free continuing education units (CEUs) for participating.

Laura Dengo, Sarah Sackett, Trent Hargens & Jeremy Akers

Health Professions

Impact of the Balanced Dukes "Whole Health Challenge" on the well-being of JMU's employees

Our project explored the impact of the Balanced Dukes’ Whole Health Challenge (WHC) on the health and well-being of JMU employees. The WHC is an 8-week program that has been offered to faculty and staff since 2019 to promote the adoption of 5 healthy habits: hydration, sleep, exercise, fruit and vegetable intake, and mindfulness. 138 employees signed up for the WHC in 2024; 87 individuals completed baseline testing.  WHC compliance was 70.4±21.4%, and improvements were observed for 4 out of 5 of the target behaviors. Daily intake of fruits/vegetables increased by ~0.8 servings (p=0.002). Water intake increased significantly by ~10 ounces/day. Weekly physical activity increased by ~29% (p<0.001) and sleep also improved as indicated by changes in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. However, laboratory measures (i.e. weight, blood pressure, lipid profile) did not significantly change over 8 weeks. Even though participation in the WHC did not result in changes in cardiometabolic parameters, participants did experience significant improvements in lifestyle behaviors that support their well-being.

Joshua Ducey & Prabhashi Withana Gamage

Mathematics & Statistics

Improving the Experience of the SUMS Conference at JMU

The mini-grant funds were used to purchase several items to improve the experience of the SUMS conference at JMU, one of the largest conferences in the country focusing on undergraduate research in mathematics/statistics.  We now have new easels/cardboard for the poster session and updated materials for the tables of mathematics puzzles and games that keep our attendees engaged.  We expect these improvements to be functional for the next 10 years.  

Diana Galarreta-Amina

Languages, Literatures & Cultures

Improving Spanish-Speaking Communities’ Health through Partnerships between JMU Medical Spanish Students and Sentara Community Care Center in Harrisonburg

This partnership allowed JMU students minoring in medical Spanish to volunteer in vaccination clinics with members of the Spanish-speaking communities. Fifteen students completed 2 modules online about the ethics and basics of medical interpretation as preparation to their volunteering experience and signed up for different vaccination clinics in the Spring of 2024. In the clinics, students helped Spanish-speaking parents learn about the vaccines their children needed before starting school. Two representatives of Sentara Care Center visited three classes in medical Spanish to talk about their work in the community and social determinants of health. Students also learned about other opportunities in the community to work and serve the Spanish-speaking community in Harrisonburg in medical contexts.

Katrina Gobetz

Biology

Collaborative Student Research Using Innovative Field Technology: An Inclusive Approach to Mammal Studies

Shin Ji Kang

EERE

Multimodal Professional Development for Early Childhood Teachers in Uzbekistan

I worked with an undergrad student to support professional development for 20 early childhood teachers in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, who had little access to up-to-date teacher trainings and resources. Based on our needs assessment, a student researcher and I organized 5 online learning modules in March through May in 2024. Each module was released on a biweekly basis; informal interactions and supplemental coaching occurred between modules. In late May and early June, I traveled to visit their classrooms in Tashkent, observed teaching, provided one-on-one and small group consultations, and offered a full-day large-group workshop. I also visited Kimyo International University in Tashkent (KIUT) to discuss possible international engagement partnerships. Stemming from a shared need to grow and retain globally competent teachers, I facilitated discussions toward a fruitful collaboration between the two universities, formalized by an official MOU. I also visited and offered professional development for early childhood teachers in Nukus, one of Uzbekistan’s poorest regions.

Cindy Klevickis

ISAT

Student Research Connecting the Local Poultry Industry to Study a Respiratory Disease in Turkeys 

Because of this support, I was able to recruit 4 students to do lab research on the microbiology of Bordetella avium and Bordetella hinzii during the Spring semester. This research experience was valuable as part of graduate school applications for two of the students who were seniors. Another member of our project team, a rising senior, received a highly competitive Merck Sprinter Internship. The fourth member of this team was part of the FYRE (First Year Research Experience) program; he is continuing this research in the fall.  Collectively, the students presented posters at two conferences at the end of the semester: the Shenandoah Valley Student Chapter of the American Biological Society, and the Bio symposium here at JMU.

Elisabeth Kvernen

SMAD

Visual Communication in the Mindfulness Meadow: A Collaboration between SMAD and Keister Elementary Students

Spending time outside during the school day has been proven to improve both educational and social-emotional learning outcomes for school-age children. Through this collaboration, university and elementary-age students worked together to produce signs, posters, and stickers that celebrated mindfulness practices in a new outdoor learning space at Keister Elementary School called the “mindfulness meadow.” The goal of this project was to empower elementary school students by amplifying their voices through design. The collaboration also gave university students the chance to engage with and learn from their local community and promote social-emotional learning through their creative work. As a result of this collaboration, over 500 students at the elementary school will be able enjoy a collaborative art gallery and practice mindfulness activities outside. In May 2024, nearly 200 parents and students visited the school to celebrate the opening of the mindfulness meadow.

Dennis Lo

English

Forging Media Literacy on Spatial Computing for JMU Students Studying Film and Media  

One Apple Vision Pro “spatial computer” was acquired and incorporated in Advanced Studies in Film and Media Theory (ENG 420) in the Spring 2024 semester. Students watched 3D films on the screening list using the Vision Pro and were trained in the basics of spatial computing (the “language” used by the Vison Pro). An augmented reality final project was successfully developed from the ground up, along with a training guide for the Vision Pro designed specifically for this class. New hands-on modules that applied critical theories to the understanding of mixed reality were also developed for this class with the Vision Pro as their centerpiece. These new curriculum materials will all be reused in future iterations of the class. Dr. Lo has continued to use the Vision Pro for shooting augmented reality and mixed-reality video essays, with an aim to identify and explore additional instructional applications for the device. The findings from these experiments will be discussed at a roundtable Dr. Lo has organized and is chairing at the 2025 Society of Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, which brings together a panel of some of the leading experts in extended reality (XR)—VR, AR, and MR—studies to discuss the scholarly and pedagogical implications of spatial computing.

Cara Meixner

Grad Pysch

Beyond Land Acknowledgments: Relational Engagement with the Monacan Indian Nation

The Monacan Indian Nation, the most western of Virginia’s indigenous peoples, was federally recognized by the United States Congress in January 2018. Though settled on Bear Mountain for more than 10,000 years, the tribe among others fell victim to the Racial Integrity Act, erasing facets of its legacy and rendering the quest for federal recognition to be challenging. Such statistical genocide is among the topics explored in a multi-course sequence undertaken by school psychology students. Long term, we aspire to work with the Monacan nation and JMU’s Native American Indigenous Awareness, Relations and Action Working Group to contemplate educational partnerships of principal benefit to the Monacan peoples. Specifically, and to begin seeding such opportunities, Senate funds were used to (1) bring Rufus Elliot, Monacan citizen, to speak to our students and faculty; (2) take a one-day site visit to Bear Mountain in Amherst, site of the Monacan ancestral home, where students and faculty engaged with members of the Monacan Indian Nation including Lou Branham, assistant chief; and (3) purchase texts authored by Monacan and other indigenous scholars. 

Thomas Newman, John Goetschius, Connie Peterson, Jamie Frye, Michael Davidson & Merrick Stewart

Heath Professions

TEMPO: Tactical Education in Medicine and Performance Outreach

Over the course of the academic year 2023–2024, a collaborative clinical partnership was formed between the Department of Military Science, the James Madison University (JMU) Health Center, and the Department of Health Professions to enhance both patient care and student education through strategic use of funding. During the academic year, we cultivated the seeds of a holistic healthcare model, providing direct Athletic Training services for the JMU Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corp of Cadets. This funding provided the basic supplies needed to offer these services for those cadets facing injury or illness during the Spring 2024 semester. We have since expanded these clinical services for the 2024–2025 academic year and intend to approach new stakeholders around campus to support this mission. Additionally, medical equipment that has been purchased will be used this fall to provide students in the MSAT program a deeper understanding of emergency care within a military setting, preparing them for potential future roles working with military personnel or to support their foundational education in emergency care.

Elizabeth Price & Valerie Linsinbigler

Liaison Librarians

Read Purple: Igniting a Culture of Reading in the CoB Learning Complex  

We completed Phase 1 of the project in Spring and Summer 2024, purchasing a rolling book truck and our initial collection of novels. We prioritized buying novels told from diverse perspectives. We also added slips into the front of each book to allow users to leave a review for the next reader. The Libraries' Communication and Outreach team worked with us to design a bookmark and purchase stickers to hand out at events. For Phase 2, we are collaborating with CoB’s Council of Inclusive Excellence to host three Read Purple events in Hartman Hall to connect with CoB readers in the fall semester. We have completed promotional materials for the Read Purple book exchange and events, including a registration form, feedback survey, poster, event fliers, and digital signage to display in the CoB Learning Complex. To encourage students to attend multiple events throughout the year, we have designed a reading challenge that will enter students into a prize drawing if they read books in six categories during the academic year. Learn more about this project 

Steven Reich

History

Buzzards over Texas: A Story of Race, Violence, and the Search for Justice in the Jim Crow South

The mini-grant supported an extended research trip that I took from February 16 to April 8. During that trip I traveled to Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Alabama to conduct in-person interviews of 18 descendants of the 1910 massacre in Sandy Beulah, Texas. I also did extensive archival research at the Anderson County Courthouse (Palestine, TX), the Anderson County Historical Commission, the Special Collections of the Anderson County Public Library, the Houston County Courthouse (Crockett, TX), the Houston County Historical Commission, the Freestone County Courthouse (Fairfield, TX), the Leon County Courthouse (Centerville, TX), the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (Austin, TX), Special Collections at the Newton Gresham Library, Sam Houston State University (Huntsville, TX), the Tobin & Anne Armstrong Texas Ranger Research Center (Waco, TX), and the Texas Collection at Baylor University (Waco, TX). Upon my return, I spent several weeks transcribing the interviews and processing the archival materials collected. The resulting book will be published by W. W. Norton, Inc., in late 2025 or early 2026. 

Morgan Steffan

Biology

Biology Night at the Young Children's Program

Tina Switzer

Nursing

Advance Directive Community Outreach

As I began teaching community health nursing clinical, I found that my graduating students relayed only a vague understanding of how to discuss advance directives with patients.  The mini-grant was used to teach my students how to approach these conversations. They then took this outreach to a variety of community and clinical sites in rural Page County.  They set up informational tables in local primary care clinics, handed out brochures in English and Spanish, and completed education interactions with patients and families. The students also visited the local senior center and offered an educational activity while answering questions. My students were even invited by the president of our local hospital to attend a Business After Hours event to circulate at the gathering while offering information on advance directives. The students will continue education in the community at our upcoming Remote Area Medical Clinic. I have also shared these experiences for my co-faculty to use in their clinical settings.

Gerald Weniger

Heath Professions

"While Coats on Call" with the Medical Society of Virginia 

On February 7, 2024, 28 JMU PA students and 6 faculty members attended “White Coats on Call” in Richmond, Virginia.  We joined with PA students & faculty from other PA programs in the state of Virginia, as well as practicing PAs & physicians from across the state for a day of civic engagement. This included meeting with VA senators and delegates to discuss current issues affecting healthcare in Virginia, including supporting a budget amendment that would increase Medicaid reimbursement, supporting a bill for a Physician Loan Repayment Program, and emphasizing the importance of maintaining the Joint Boards of Nursing and Medicine. The event provided our students with a firsthand understanding of the complexities involved in the legislative process of healthcare law and some of the challenges associated with advancing the profession.

Faculty 

Academic Unit

Engagement Project

Canessa Nicole Collins

Marketing 

Wrapping Our Community Place with Student Engaged Learning 

Our Community Place, located in Harrisonburg, has been serving those in need for 10 years. The organization serves over 8,300 hot meals a year to marginalized and homeless people; provides shower and laundry services, case management services, job training, and learning opportunities while helping to find housing and employment, referrals for health and dental services, and mental health and substance use support group and counseling services. Our Community Place needed a wrap for their box truck, as well as other local nonprofits, to serve as a mobile advertisement bringing awareness to the organization and its services for the local community. Forty JMU marketing students, in two sections of MKTG 498: Creative Marketing Strategy and Design, created ideas for a truck wrap using a blank template of the truck. Our Community Place voted on their favorite wrap and MKTG 498 student Lindsay Merritt’s project was chosen. The grant provided the funds to wrap the truck, using a local company, ENS Graphics in Broadway. 

Jessica Del Vecchio 

School of Theatre and Dance 

Kunqu Performance in Action 

I used the Faculty Senate Mini Grant to have the Kunqu Society of New York do two Zoom workshops with my class THEA 316: Theatre Histories, Texts, and Performances II. The workshops were facilitated by Dr. Dongshin Chang (Hunter College, NYC), a scholar and amateur performer of Kunqu, and Mr. Min Cheng, a performer and master teacher of the form. Prior to the workshops, students studied the history of the form, its major characteristics, and specific performances. In the first workshop, students learned and practiced codified movement and gestures and, in the second, the speaking and singing style. One student wrote, “The Kunqu workshop gave me tangible admiration and appreciation for an art form that I could only once admire from arm’s length…I now believe further cross-cultural exchanges like this one are needed to educate and grow the possibilities of what theater can accomplish on a global scale.”  

Lora Henderson

Graduate Psychology

Codesigning Resources for Caregivers of Native American Youth Impacted by Trauma

Wanchi Huang 

Music 

Monticello Strings  

Monticello Strings is a string chamber group of faculty and student string majors with different concentrations; some are with performance and some are music education or industry concentrations. In March 2022, we traveled to surrounding communities to engage in outreach and educational programs with challenging and diverse genres of string chamber works, ranging from traditional European composers, such as Felix Mendelssohn and Anton Dvorak, to works by living African American composer Adolphus Hailstork. Performance venues included the Wayne Theater (Waynesboro), The Handley Auditorium (Winchester), Boys and Girls Club After School Programs (Blue Stone Elementary School), and Forbes Center Recital Hall. Performances were also live-streamed on social media, giving us an online audience that was perhaps too far away or not comfortable being in close proximity with others.  

Krisztina Jakobsen & Ben Blankenship 

Psychology

Summer Research Experience for Underrepresented Undergraduates in Psychology 

The Summer Research Experience for Underrepresented Undergraduates (SREUU) was designed to support participants in their academic and professional goals and improve participants’ sense of belonging in the department and the university. With funding from the Faculty Senate and Department of Psychology, we were able to offer a paid summer research program and provide professional development books for six students. Generally speaking, the students reported that they gained confidence in their research skills and in preparing for and applying to graduate school; they regularly commented that they were glad to have the support of the three faculty mentors, faculty coordinator, and numerous guests.  

Katya Koubek

Educational Foundations & Exceptionalities 

Empowering Multilingual Learners with Culturally Responsive Children's Literature: Partnering with the Shenandoah Virginia Migrant Education Organization 

Kala Melchiori 

Psychology 

Examining How Race Impacts Responses to Vaccine Hesitant Mothers 

My students and I attended the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from June 24-26, 2002, to present our original research on how race impacts responses to vaccine hesitant mothers. The funds covered the students’ flights, conference registration, and hotel costs. The students presented two posters on their research projects and attended many sessions each day on how psychological science can be applied to issues like climate change, colonialism, equity in the classroom, and transgender representation. Students also enjoyed exploring San Juan and learning about the cultural history of the region. We used Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software, purchased with our grant funds, to analyze text-responses to a White or Black vaccine hesitant mother. We found that family was invoked more often for low hesitancy White mothers compared to Black mothers but more often for moderate and high hesitancy Black mothers compared to White mothers. We also found that words with positive emotion were more likely to be used with the low-hesitancy Black mother compared to other conditions. This work is important for understanding how health care providers’ biases may be expressed to patients. 

Thomas E. Moran 

Kinesiology 

Transforming Health through Relationships via In-Person and Virtual Environments 

Presentation on this funded project.

Samuel Morton III

Engineering

MSEL: The Mobile Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Educational Laboratory 

Michael Stewart 

Computer Science 

TeleBand v1.0 

Pam Sullivan 

Early, Elementary & Reading Education 

Studio Wayne Internships 

The Wayne Theatre used this funding to hire students or alumni from JMU’s theatre, dance, and music programs to grow the Studio Wayne aspect of the theatre. The instructors offered courses such as acting for young children, tap dancing, music for preK, cartooning, Improv for teens. The grant also paid for supplies for the sets and props for two of the performance classes offered at the theatre. This funding allowed the Wayne to deliver more classes for students in Waynesboro and the surrounding area, and they have seen a commensurate increase in participation in Studio Wayne offerings. This mutually beneficial arrangement helped grow participation in the arts within a struggling community and provided JMU students with opportunities to practice their intended teaching professions and receive a professional credit to enhance their resumes. 

Tim Thomas 

Educational Foundations & Exceptionalities 

Environmental Radio Program 

The mini-grant funded the radio program Shenandoah Valley Ever Green: Premiering in August 2022, this program provides information about local environmental systems and the people connected to these systems with a focus on scientific evidence and data gathered in the field. I collaborated with Dr. Ryan Alessi (SMAD) to recruit journalism students as correspondents for the show. We arranged with local musicians to record the show’s theme music. I offered grant money to local educators in elementary and secondary classrooms for environmental education projects and recruited four COE faculty to select top applications. These projects were the subject of stories on episodes of the show. WMRA will continue to broadcast the seasonal show. 

Karen Weeks 

School of Nursing 

Incorporating Technology in a Nursing Pedagogy to Increase Alarm Fatigue Awareness 

With this funding, I, in conjunction with the School of Nursing, purchased a lifetime license to iSimulate RealIT 360 monitoring system. The system contains two iPad systems. One iPad is the control unit in which I can change multiple visual and matching sounds to mimic a wide range of acute care environment monitoring systems. The second iPad displays the control and can mimic emergency equipment for life threatening conditions. This system allows for multiple displays that can be streamed to another iPad and other display units within the labs and classrooms.  A pilot of this equipment was used over summer 2022, with students reporting that they were able to apply class content information to different scenarios while implementing alarm fatigue strategies. Incorporating this system into clinical simulations with individual monitors allows students to identify, comprehend, and intervene to both appropriate and false alarms to address alarm fatigue in a complex healthcare environment. 

Kayla Yurco, Manita Khemthong, Galen Murton & Mace Bentley 

School of Integrated Sciences 

Cinematic Representation of Gender, Culture, and Identity in Film: A Focus on Asian Documentaries 

This mini-grant supported a two-day film festival at Grafton-Stovall Theater in April 2022. Faculty co-PIs recruited four students from the Geography, Asian Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies programs who helped organize and advertise the event. The festival was open to the JMU community and included screenings of the award-winning films The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom and Baato followed by discussion and Q&A. Film topics engaged with gender and culture as related to issues of climate change, disasters, development, and resilience—pressing topics of the modern era. Each of the faculty co-PIs, whose scholarship specializes in one or more of the film festival topics, involved students in their spring courses—Gendered Geographies (Yurco), Geography of East and Southeast Asia (Khemthong), Himalayan Geographies (Murton), and Geography and Film (Bentley)—in discussion across course themes and assignments grounded in multimedia resources. Attendees engaged in group discussion, facilitated entirely by students, after the film screenings, which included a live, in-person Q&A with film producers Kate Stryker and Lucas Millard. The festival offered students and other attendees in-depth opportunities for reflection on their identities as global citizens and on cultural connections across borders and boundaries.