Faculty Highlights: Grants and Awards From Spring 2017

In this section, Drexel Quarterly provides an update on research funding, commercialization activity and faculty honors at Drexel, courtesy of the Office of the Provost. This update offers a snapshot of activity during the spring quarter.

Sponsored Projects and Awards

Neville Vakharia, assistant professor and research director in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design’s graduate arts administration program, has been awarded a $25,000, one-year grant from Stanford University's Center on Philanthropy & Civil Society. This highly competitive grant program is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the purpose of supporting scholarly research projects that focus on the role of digital data and infrastructure to improve decision making in the social sector. Only seven grantees were selected from applicants nationwide.

The Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design’s product design program has been awarded a $19,600 VentureWell grant to support their latest course offering, “Clinical Immersion to Product Innovation.” This interdisciplinary course will leverage expertise and opportunities through a collaboration with the College of Engineering and the Close School of Entrepreneurship. Raja Schaar, an assistant professor in the product design program, spearheaded the grant.

Brandy-Joe Milliron, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, was awarded $22,300 for her project, “Heart Healthy Cooking Lab: Youth Exploring Wellness through Gardening.”

Clare Milner, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, was awarded $14,000 for her project, “Impact Shock and Risk of Stress Fracture in Walking, Marching and Running.”

Christopher Li, PhD, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering, was named the principal investigator on a $548,166 National Science Foundation grant entitled, “Confined and Directed Polymer Crystallization at Curved Liquid/Liquid Interface.”

Naomi Goldstein, PhD, co-director of the JD/PhD program in law and psychology and professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, received a $1.4 million Academic-Community Experience (ACE) award for “A Postdoctoral Training Fellowship in Implementation Science to Promote Mental Health National Institute of Mental Health (T32).” Goldstein also received a $701,523 grant from the Stoneleigh Foundation for “Promoting Youths’ Successful Completion of Probation: Applying the ACF Model to Juvenile Justice.”

Tatyana Livshultz, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth & Environmental Science in the College of Arts and Sciences, received a $309,342 NSF grant for “Collaborative Research: Macroevolution of a Group of Plant Secondary Defense Compounds in the Dogbane and Milkweed Flowering Plant Family.”

Selected Faculty Honors and Awards

Jocelyn Tarquini, an assistant teaching professor in the film and video department in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, has been nominated for an Emmy Award for her editing on the National Geographic Channel’s “Weird But True!” in the daytime Emmy’s category. Nick Bell, film & video '16, colored the show. Current students Henrique Silva and Duy Tong served their co-ops with Tarquini and two new students will work on season two for their co-ops.

Stella Lucia Volpe, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition Sciences in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, was the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award at the Annual Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Nutrition (SCAN) Symposium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Margaret Finley, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, received a career development award from the Office of Faculty Affairs for 2017-18. The award is designed for tenure-track faculty members to increase their exposure to colleagues at other institutions who will be mentors and collaborators.

Ryan J. Clancy, clinical instructor in the physician assistant program in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, has been recognized as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA).

Seven faculty and administrators from Drexel were honored with the Northeast Atlantic Sport Psychology (NASP) Conference MVP Award, including Ellen Staurowsky, EdD, a professor of sport management in the Center for Hospitality & Sport Management; Amy Giddings, PhD, an assistant clinical professor and program director of sport coaching leadership in the School of Education; and Eric Zillmer, PsyD, Carl R. Pacifico Professor of Neuropsychology and Drexel’s director of athletics.

Eric Brewe, PhD, an associate professor of physics and science education in the College of Arts and Sciences, was elected chair of the American Physical Society's Education Policy Committee for 2017.

Harriet Levin Millan, director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing and associate teaching professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, received the Haitian Coalition Award for leading creative writing study abroad trips to Haiti since 2013.