Each month, the work of California State University, Northridge faculty and staff is recognized in a variety of ways, including:

• Funding from outside organizations to support unique programs and cutting-edge research facilitated on campus.
• Publications of books or articles.
• Professional awards.
• Presentations at conferences.
• Appointments and elections to governing boards.

Please use this link to announce your achievements for publication in CSUN Today. 

Below is a list of the individuals whose work was recognized in November and December 2018.

Publications: 

Virginia Huynh (Child and Adolescent Development) published an article titled “Examining Skin Color and Discrimination Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents” (Springer Verlag Publishing Co.), which is a study exploring the associations among skin color and subtle discriminations or microaggressions, offering discoveries on race and social problems.

Victor Shaw (Criminology and Justice Studies and Sociology) published a book titled “Three Worlds of Collective Human” (Springer Nature), which explores three worlds shared by humans in their collective experiences. It identifies and explores the world of common sense, the world of religion and the world of science. The book notes that humans can gain comfort and pleasure in common sense, achieve meaning and purpose from religion, and attain truth and rationality through science. It actively applies theories to and develops theoretical explanations from different domains or situations of human existence. The book may be of interest to theorists, researchers, instructors and students across major academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Kristen Walker (Marketing) and her graduate student Kimberly Legocki were highlighted in an issue of the American Marketing Association’s Marketing News for their research examining consumer responses on Twitter to company wrongdoings.

Awards and Honors:

Janet M. Adams (Physical Therapy) was awarded the Faculty Publication Award from the California Physical Therapy Association for her book “Observational Gait Analysis, A Visual Guide” at the CPTA Annual Conference in Santa Clara.

AIMS² (College of Engineering and Computer Science) program has been named to the short list of programs considered for the 2018 Global Engineering Deans Council Diversity Award, sponsored by Airbus. In addition, AIMS² was recognized as a finalist for the 2018 Examples of Excelencia award in the baccalaureate program category.

Hal Kassarjian (Marketing) was honored with the 2019 Association for Consumer Research (ACR) Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes the dedication and devotion of an ACR member who has served the organization with energy and generosity beyond the call of duty, building a stronger community of scientists and scholars in the field of consumer research. The award only has been given two times previously in the association’s 50-year history.

Zarmine Naccashian (Nursing) was accepted to the distinguished Edmond J. Safra Visiting Nurse Faculty Program at the Parkinson’s Foundation. The highly prestigious, 40-hour accredited “train the trainer” Nurse Faculty Program at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Center improves Parkinson’s Disease nursing care by training faculty leaders across the U.S. to educate nursing students.

Research and Sponsored Projects:

Jessica Baty (Communication Studies) received two grants from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. The Discipline-Based Grant provides $3,000 to support a faculty member in designing and implementing a Community Engagement Course Project in the 2018-19 academic year (including the work of a student scholar for one to two semesters). The Interdisciplinary Grant provides $6,000 to support two or more faculty in implementing a Community Engagement Course Project in the 2018–2019 academic year (including the work of a student scholar for one to two semesters). Baty’s service learning project works with the LAPD Topanga Station Cadets, an after-school program that provides “discipline, leadership, academic excellence and life skills” for youth from the San Fernando Valley. Her Advanced Public Speaking class designs and implements a six-week public speaking workshop to help introduce the cadets to the important life skill of public speaking.

Igor Beloborodov (Physics and Astronomy) received $140,000 from the University of California, Los Angeles in support of a project entitled NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems TANMS.

Veronica Becerra (Environmental and Occupational Health) received a Community Engaged Faculty Research Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. The grant provides $2,000 to support a faculty member conducting community-engaged research during the 2018-19 academic year. Becerra has more than eight years of experience studying indoor air quality as a consultant, with a focus on moisture intrusion issues related to indoor mold. She works with students to study various environmental factors including sustainability and the “built environment,” and she promotes a practical approach to research and local problem-solving.

Annette Besnilian (Family and Consumer Sciences), David Boyns (Sociology) and Douglas Kaback (Theatre) received a Community Engaged Faculty Research Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Their service learning project aims to reduce the incidence of childhood obesity in families of Latino students in LAUSD’s North Educational Service Center, specifically in Title I schools, where most of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch. The program will consist of building gardens. These activities will be designed to help participants achieve and sustain growing foods, gardening and healthier eating habits at school and at home, in order to help reduce obesity in the community and improve health outcomes.

Soheil Boroushaki (Geography and Environmental Studies) received $39,424 from CSU San Bernardino in support of a project entitled Development of Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) Algorithms (Task 5).

Marie Cartier (Gender and Women’s Studies) received three grants from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement: an Engaged Faculty Research grant, a Discipline-Based Start-Up Grant, and a Community Engagement Travel Grant, which provides up to $1,000 to support one faculty member and, if relevant, a student scholar in disseminating engaged research and/or service at a conference or other public event during the 2018-19 academic year. Cartier is advising on and co-producing “The HomoFiles,” a documentary film based on her dissertation and upcoming book, “Baby You are My Religion: Women, Gay Bars, and Theology Before Stonewall.”

Mary R. Cecil (Geological Sciences) received $14,355 from the National Science Foundation in support of a project entitled Acquisition of New Excimer Laser Ablation System for a High-Resolution ICPMS Facility.

Lisa Chaudhari (Health Sciences) received two grants from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement: a Discipline-Based Grant and a Travel Grant. Chaudhari has developed a service learning component that improves students’ theoretical understanding of the pillars of sustainability and how to apply them within a community context. Students actively will participate in CSUN’s food garden and projects that encourage social responsibility.

Matthew Clements (Queer Studies) received a Discipline-Based grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. In 2018, Clements launched a service learning project in which students co-hosted a town hall forum on LGBTQ+ needs and conducted a survey of more than 400 LGBTQ+ youth in San Fernando Valley. The results of their study indicated a need for an informal social event for queer youth to congregate locally, socialize and support each year. This year, Clements will address this community need and give CSUN students valuable research and event planning experience. Students will be working with Project Q, an initiative within Village Family Services (VFS) that seeks to create community and provide support on an ongoing basis for local queer youth and queer youth of color.

Paula DiMarco (Art) received a Discipline-Based Start-Up Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. DiMarco has taught several graphic design courses, including Social Impact Design, where her CSUN students specialized in design thinking strategies and graphic design services. In the Social Impact DesignHub, student designers work individually and in teams on conceptualizing and designing with nonprofit clients from the Los Angeles community. Student designers are challenged to expand their comprehension of design problem solving for new audiences and explore various roles as professional designers when executing socially minded work.

Nelida Duran (Family and Consumer Sciences) and Mirna Sawyer (Health Sciences) received two grants from the Office of Community Engagement: a Discipline-Based Start-Up Grant and an Interdisciplinary Grant, which provides $6,000 to support two or more faculty in implementing a Community Engagement Course Project in the 2018-19 academic year (including the work of a student scholar for one to two semesters). Duran and Sawyer have developed a service learning project that will engage students from their courses on community nutrition and strategies for healthy decision making, by conducting a peer-to-peer health promotion program with their partner, Grimmway Academy, in California’s Central Valley. CSUN students will participate in empowering K-8 students on nutrition and health education. They will develop cultural competence in engaging Latino youth and obtain experience in applying theory to nutrition and public health practice.

Barbara Eisenstock (Journalism) received three grants from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement: an Interdisciplinary Grant, a Discipline-Based Grant and a Travel Grant. Eisenstock’s service learning project allows students to collaborate with the Center for Media Literacy (CML) to expand its Commit2MediaLit social media campaign, advocate for media literacy education bills in the California legislature and facilitate National Media Literacy week activities campus wide.

Rachel Friedman-Narr and Ellen Schneiderman (Special Education) have received $250,000 from the U.S. Department of Education, in continuing support of a project entitled IDEP: Interdisciplinary Deaf Education Teacher Preparation Program.

Kim Goldberg-Roth and Jennifer Pemberton (Educational Psychology and Counseling) have received $50,000 from the City of Los Angeles in support of their Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) program.

Monicka Guevara (Social Work) received a Discipline-Based Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Guevara’s University 100: Sociology students will serve as the CSUN Bridge to the Future cohort, which will involve peer mentoring activities with 12th graders and their families at Canoga Park High School, as the teens complete their college applications and financial aid packages. The CSUN students will complete half of their service hours as mentors for the 12th graders, and the other half will be spent serving a community organization of their choice.

Cedric Hackett (Africana Studies) received a Community Engaged Faculty Research Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Hackett and his students from his Contemporary Issues course will collaborate with the Village Nation at El Camino High School to conduct an exploratory study of alumni and active participants. Village Nation is a nonprofit program that promotes academic success. The CSUN students will study the high school students’ and alumni’s active civic capacity in the community, while promoting healthy outcomes for African Americans and gaining cultural competencies for social justice.

Yoshie Hanzawa (Biology) received a Discipline-Based Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Hanzawa and her plant biology students will collaborate with Canoga Park High School to build the teens’ interest and skills in STEM fields. Centering around increasingly popular subjects such as genetically modified organisms and food, Hanzawa’s project provides CSUN students with opportunities to deepen and transfer classroom learning to real-world applications, and it will provide LAUSD youth with knowledge and the ability to understand and solve some complex challenges of the current and future society.

Krystal Jo Howard (English) received a Discipline-Based Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Howard’s service learning project allows students in LRS 491: Multicultural/Multiethnic Children’s Literature to make connections between ethnic and childhood studies theories and the practice of using multicultural/multi ethnic children’s literature in the elementary classroom.

Nicholas Kioussis (Physics and Astronomy) received $140,000 from the University of California, Los Angeles in support of a project entitled NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems TANMS.

Regan Maas (Geography and Environmental Studies) and Danielle Bram (Center for Geospatial Science & Technology) have received $53,000 from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in supplemental support of a project entitled Operational Evapotranspiration for the State of New Mexico. They also received $33,558 from CSU San Bernardino, in support of a project entitled Developing a Standardized Statewide Geospatial Dataset of Water Agencies for California.

Elena Miranda (Geological Sciences) received $75,567 from the National Science Foundation in support of a project entitled Strain Localization, Shear Zone Connectivity and Magma-Deformation Interactions by Depth Within a 65-Kilometer Thick Transpressional Continental Arc.

Richard Moore (Management) received $27,606 from the California Council on Developmental Disabilities, in support of a project entitled Organizational Development Project for State Council on Developmental Disabilities.

Juana Mora (Chicana/o Studies) received $638,165 from the U.S. Department of Education, in continuing support of a project entitled Developing California’s Workforce: Creating Pathways for Latino Transfer Students in High Demand Careers.

Jennifer Pemberton (Educational Psychology and Counseling) received a Discipline-Based Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Pemberton’s service learning project will provide students in the Marriage and Family Therapy program the opportunity to partner with the Child and Family Guidance Center (CFGC), Balboa Site, an outpatient community nonprofit agency in the San Fernando Valley, to learn how to develop trauma-informed group therapy curricula that will be implemented at the CFGC.

Hendrik Postma (Physics and Astronomy) received an award of $39,536 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled Inhibiting Secondary Structure Formation in Long Single-Stranded DNA.

Carrie Pullen (Health Sciences) received a Faculty Research Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Pullen’s research interests include innovation and best practices in long-term care, and cultural diversity and competency in the health field.

Deqing Ren (Physics and Astronomy) received $133,468 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled Development of a Device for Measuring turbulence in the Air Above Telescopes that Observe the Sun.

Carmen Saunders (Health Sciences) received a Community Engaged Faculty Research grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Saunders is interested in “interprofessional education,” change management leadership, and global health services with an emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean. She is a WISDOM Mentor, as well as the IHI Club Faculty Advisor. Her research interests are in the use of qualitative data analysis as it pertains to interprofessional education, global health professional development training, leadership and technology.

Juana Maria Valdivia (Student Outreach and Recruitment) received $303,643 from the U.S. Department of Education, in continuing support of a project entitled Educational Talent Search – San Fernando Valley North-Central, and $303,643 in continuing support of Educational Talent Search – San Fernando Valley Northeast.

Virginia Vandergon (Biology) received a Discipline-Based Grant from CSUN’s Office of Community Engagement. Students in the Biological Concepts course, a non-majors course for pre-service teachers, will help run an all-day Earth Day event for local elementary and middle school students. The CSUN students will plan, organize and implement the day of hands-on science workshops for the local schoolchildren. The CSUN students will have a chance to increase their content knowledge and confidence in science teaching.

Ivor Weiner (Special Education) received $203,735 from the California Department of Education, in continuing support of a project entitled Family Focus Empowerment Center.

MariaElena Zavala (Biology) received $28,833 from the American Society For Cell Biology, in support of a project entitled Improving Diversity and Career Transitions through Society Support.