Rob Alexander, Associate Professor Political Science, ICAD Co-Director, CAL

Research Interests: Providing community engagement facilitation when research has community applications

Research Question: How are social service organizations adapting to federal funding disruptions?

Interdisciplinary Research Interest: I offer via the Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue (ICAD) a research partner that can design, implement, and evaluate community engagement processes for grants requiring an applied stakeholder engagement component; for sustainability, I am looking for natural scientists/data scientists interested in examining how data and modelling impacts and influences regional and local government decision-making and policies.

Kelly Atwood, Associate Professor, Director, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Interprofessional Services for Learning Assessment (ISLA), Graduate Psychology, CHBS

Research Interests: Rural behavioral health care, Cardiovascular health (CVH) in rural and underserved populations, AI and cyber intelligence for health security, Design thinking and interdisciplinary innovation

Research Questions: Impact of a mobile care clinic on health outcomes; integrated behavioral health

Collaboration Interest: Other health care professionals- nursing

Modjadji Choshi, Associate Professor, Nursing, CHBS

Research Interests: Global Health and Health Equity, Cardiovascular health (CVH) in rural and underserved populations, AI and cyber intelligence for health security, Design thinking and interdisciplinary innovation

Area of focus on health and well-being: CVH in rural Black women, Self-care strategies for women in remote communities, Global health initiatives

Research Question: What self-care strategies are more acceptable/appropriate and effective to reduce cardiovascular disease risk among rural Black women? How can design thinking accelerate health equity innovations globally? How can AI cyber intelligence improve health security in rural communities?

Interdisciplinary Research Interest: Interdisciplinary partnership in AI, public health, higher education; Experts in global health policy, rural health systems, and community engagements; Innovators in digital health tools and participatory research methods, particularly quantitative methods

Stefano Colafranceschi, Assistant Professor, ISAT, CISE

Research Interests: Software systems, mobile apps, big data, AI

Area of focus on health and well-being: Data-related health tracking systems; AI-based food recognition system; Hospital nurse dashboard/information system apps

Interdisciplinary Research Interest: Aggregate public health data from Virginia to generate heat map to be displayed in real-time; Elementary school AI-automated plate scanner to evaluate eaten foot nutritional and wasted food; Nice to collaborate with health/nurse

Biswadeep Dhar, Assistant Professor, Health Sciences, CHBS

Research Areas: Chronic Disease Prevention, AI in Public Health

Research Questions: How could we use AI in qualitative health sciences research?

Collaboration Interest: Implementation Science in Health Science research, Using AI in Public Health (Disease Prevention)

Alleyn Harned, Executive Director, VCC (REDI)

Research Areas: VCC does clean fuel vehicle and infrastructure planning, outreach, education, and deployment

Research Questions: Utilization of mobile zero emissions health centers as gap fill and rural community assistance as health/dental centers

Collaboration Interest: We seek community need

Jeffrey Herrick, Professor, Academic Unit Head, Health Sciences, CHBS

Research Interests: 1. Community based programming to improve functional capacity, cognition, and sleep in older adults. 2. Describe the skeletal muscle metabolic implications in adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.

Research Questions: 1. Effective methods to improve physical acuity status in sedentary independent living older adults. 2. Does obstructive sleep apnea impair skeletal muscle tissue oxygenation.

Collaboration Interests: Behavior change experts, community program design experts, gerontologists, physical activity interventionists, skeletal muscle physiology experts

Tobias Gerken, Assistant Professor, ISAT, CISE

Research Interests: I am an atmospheric and climate scientist that uses data science methods.

Research Questions: My main research focus is currently on impacts and processes associated with drought. This is something that could be broadened to other extreme events. This is also something that could be explored in a regional context.

Collaboration Interests: Right now, I am mostly interested in exploring potential collaborative topics. I don't have anything specific in mind, but am open to anything that aligns with my expertise

Suzanne Grossman, Associate Director Research and Public Health, IIHHS, CHBS

Research Interests: How public libraries promote health; Immigrant health (especially within communities)

Interdisciplinary Research Interest: Program evaluation of existing programs; Collaborating on grant writing to develop existing community health programs or start new community health programs; Evaluation Initiative; Potential for faculty to connect directly with programs/clinics

Laura Kauffman, Associate Professor, Health Sciences, CHBS

Research Interests: physical activity, health promotion, individuals with disabilities

Collaboration Interests: nothing specific right now

Raihan Khan, Assistant Professor, Health Sciences, CHBS

Research Interests: Environmental Health, Chronic diseases, Infectious diseases, Integration of AI in research

Research Questions: Many. Can't name all here.

Collaboration Interests: Collaborators across discipline to brainstorm ideas and provide diverse expertise

Cindy Klevickis, Professor, ISAT, CISE 

Research Interests: For over 20 years, I have been working with Huguenot high school in Richmond to develop ways to incorporate gardens and cooking into as many different areas of the curriculum as possible. We have raised vet gardens. We have a rooftop garden. We have an orchard and we have indoor hydroponic gardens. We’re trying to find projects that link gardening with history.1) One of my capstone project students is working with pure Shenandoah in Elkton to map about the life cycle sustainability analysis of Hemp fiber, production 3) Another, one of the research areas in our lab is to look at optimizing the effectiveness of essential oils such as oregano and thyme oil in managing infectious disease, diseases of poultry. This involves microbiology and also agricultural economics and chemical identification of the components of the essential oils. It also involves biotechnology

Research Questions: The poultry research is called the Bordetella avium project. For that project, I’d be interested in working with someone from the college of business to do a cost benefit analysis of the different ways in which interventions that would protect poultry from that disease might make not just microbiological sense, but also economic sense.

Collaboration Interests: I would love to find someone from the College of education who would be interested in turning the work that we’ve been doing at Huguenot high school into a research project

Jill Lassiter, Associate Professor, Health Sciences, CHBS

Research Interests: physical activity, health promotion, individuals with disabilities

Collaboration Interests: nothing specific right now

Alan Levinovitz, Professor, Philosophy and Religion, CAL

Research Interests: Classical Chinese thought, comparative religion, the intersection of religion, philosophy, culture, science, and medicine

Interdisciplinary Research Interest: The role of rituals and language in clinical contexts; Cross-cultural approaches to conceptualizing and treating chronic illness

Looking for: People in anthropology, sociology, and medical science

Shawn Lough, Senior Lecturer and Assistant AUH, Computer Information Systems and Business Analytics, CoB

Research Interests: Why individuals engage in AI for health needs, AI for patient advocacy, privacy and security concerns with using AI for health care purposes

Collaboration Interests: Open to discussion

Ayasakanta Rout, Professor of Audiology and AUH, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, CHBS; Director, Hearing Aid Research Laboratory

Research Interests: Hearing aid benefit and satisfaction; Digital signal processing algorithms in hearing aids; Affordability and accessibility of hearing healthcare

Research Question: Assessing the benefit from advanced signal processing hearing aids.

Interdisciplinary Research Interest: Affordable and accessible hearing healthcare; Rural health; Role of AI in healthcare; Digital health

Megan Tracy, Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, CAL

Research Interests: Gendered health science, the microbiome, FemTech industry, Food safety regulation

Area of focus on health and well-being: Translation of bench science into reproductive health on the gendered microbiome into consumer products

Research Question: How do people try to use new technologies and scientific developments to effect social change?

Interdisciplinary Research Interest: Health science communication, history of science, STS-adjacent

Looking for: Growing the Gender & Science Ethnography Lab