Faculty Research Interests

Applied Econometrics and Labor Economics

My research interests include: end-of-life nursing education; end-of-life nursing care; and mentoring.

My research interests include: soil structure interaction; disaster risk analysis and how to reduce the disaster's impact on structures and citizens; developing the road and bridge maintenance methods

My research interest lies in the development of counseling skills for allied healthcare providers working in early intervention and pediatric medical services. I am particularly focused on understanding how these skills impact the quality of care provided to young children and their families during critical developmental windows.
My research seeks to explore and expand the repertoire of counseling skills used by SLPs to ensure that families feel empowered and supported. I am particularly interested in investigating how these skills can be developed and refined in professionals who may not have formal counseling training but who nonetheless play a crucial role in family-centered care. Specifically, I aim to examine the role of empathy, reflective listening, and culturally responsive communication as core competencies in pediatric settings to adapt and tailor these skills to diverse family backgrounds and varying developmental needs of children.
Additionally, I am interested in exploring the effectiveness of training programs designed to improve counseling skills in early intervention and pediatric medical SLPs. My goal is to contribute to the body of research that bridges the gap between clinical skills and emotional intelligence, enhancing the capacity of SLPs to deliver holistic, family-centered care.

My research areas include community change strategies and the social impacts of environmental degradation. More specifically, I am working on a model to enhance citizen involvement in community change efforts. I also am examining ways that citizens can work together to address community problems such as crime.

My research interests focus on process modeling and simulation, as well as new technology development centering on chemical processing

• Technical Management Effectiveness through People Engagement
• Environmental Risk Assessment
• Transport, Persistence, Removal and Quantitation of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)

   

In general, exploring and developing new mathematical, statistical, and machine learning approaches to solve transportation, supply chain and logistics complex problems are among my current and future research objectives. Moreover, I am open to conduct cutting-edge research ideas including those involving multi-discipline expertise to come up with new perspectives and solutions to existing complex problems. Relevant areas of my current and future research include: data mining & statistical analysis, decision-making supported by big data, transportation network analytics, project scheduling problems, machine learning algorithms for smart manufacturing, and accident analysis.

My research interests in finance are corporate governance, CEO compensation, empirical asset pricing, investment/portfolio analysis, finance pedagogy, and macroeconomic factors. My dissertation focuses on subjects in corporate finance.

• Grief, loss, trauma, and healing centered practice
• Policy within systems and communities

My research interests are focused on obtaining a structure through x-ray crystallography of the Neutral Cholesterol Ester Hydrolase 1 (NCEH1) protein to better understand its role in cancer and atherosclerosis. I'm also very interested in the pursuit of research in the progression of science education with the application of technology. I'd like to work with new methods to provide quality feedback and interactive learning outside of the classroom to further the conceptual understanding of material learned in the classroom.

• Alzheimer's disease/Dementia
• Caregiving
• Older adults

My research includes studies on the integration of mathematical reasoning into computer science curricula, development and integration of innovative teaching approaches that aim to improve the learning process and enhance the comprehension of the study materials, evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, curricular development issues related to core introductory programming courses, interdisciplinary courses, courses for non-majors, and elective courses for computer science and information systems majors.

My current research focuses on the interactions between trophic levels in host plant-herbivore-predator/parasitoid systems. I am currently working with the tulip tree beauty moth in the Northeast U.S. looking at interactions between host plants, caterpillars, and fly and wasp parasitoids that attack the caterpillars.

I have also recently begun working with an agricultural system in Texas looking at the interactions between cotton, endophytic fungi, and aphid and beet armyworm herbivores. The endophytic fungi colonize the cotton plants and can affect cotton growth and aphid reproduction. I also work on the evolution of fairy shrimp life history, sex determination, and sexual selection.

My research interests all aim to alleviate societal problems. They include alternative refrigerants to R-22 and their physical properties, flammability studies of partially fluorinated hydrocarbons, thermophysical properties of ionic liquids and of their mixtures, and the thermodynamic behavior of medicinally valuable compounds.

I envision communication as a central process in our relational lives, not just a variable. I use a variety of methods to study communication in personal relationships. The majority of my research has focused on LGBTQ+ relational communication, especially the way that socio-cultural factors and shifts, such as marriage equality, affect these relationships. I am also especially interested in studying family communication, especially for marginalized families.

My research interests include Self-care practices; The Internet of Things; Engagement in online learning.

My current research interests include assessing complex sport marketing service quality encounters at professional sport events. The work looks at the encounter from both the service provider's side and the event attendee's side and compares those perceptions.

I primarily specialize in research related to gender, work, and family. The bulk of my research is on work-family conflict and the division of paid and unpaid labor in households. I am particularly interested in health outcomes associated with various aspects of work-family balance. A second area of research examines the effectiveness of high impact practices, such as experiential classroom simulations, in achieving student learning outcomes. While not a primary area of focus, I have also conducted research on how culture and identity shape food patterns and meanings.

My primary interests are in the fields of American federalism and state and local policy agendas. Recently I co-edited the book Teaching Federalism: Multidimensional Approaches (2023), which was published as part of Edward Elgar’s Teaching Methods series. Prior to that I researched how the American federal system has affected the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in four co-authored publications. I am currently co-editing The Health of Democracy in Federal Political Systems: Consolidating, Thriving, or Backsliding? which draws upon papers presented at the 2023 International Association of Centers for Federal Studies Annual Conference in Philadelphia.

Much of my state politics research focuses on Pennsylvania. I have co-edited Pennsylvania Politics and Policy: A Commonwealth Reader, Volume 1 (2018) and Volume 2 (2019). I am currently doing research for Governing the Commonwealth: Politics, Policy and Executive Power in Pennsylvania. The book examines how recent Pennsylvania governors have used their formal and informal powers to influence public policy across a range of issues including education, the environment, and social welfare.