Faculty Research Interests

I research the intersections between children, parents, and the media. This research varies from studying children's television content to helping parents use media as teachable moments with their children.

My research interests center around the visualization of geographic space for any purpose. This area of research is called "geovisualization." I specialize in the geovisualization of natural habitats, engineered projects, subsurface geology, surface and ground water hydrology, geophysical data, and urban attributes. For example, I have recently been involved in modeling rainfall runoff streamflow characteristics for a local watershed while assisting a local community analyze the spatial distribution of crime. My research includes geovisualization for local projects, as well as international projects in Costa Rica, the Amazon jungle in Peru, and the Tibetan Plateau of China.

My clinical research interests relate to providing evidence to support occupational therapy interventions and provide effective, quality care to the clients we serve.

• Clinical supervision and mentorship in social work practice
• Impact of communication technology
•  Mindfulness and self-care
• Trauma awareness
• Social work values and ethics

My research interests include 19th- and 20th-century narrative works. I have published articles on works of literature from the Andean region and Mexico as well as on Latin American Jewish writers, Latin American globalization, and so-called narco-literature.

My research interests focus on the use of qualitative methods to examine the narratives of older adults. More specifically, I have been using narrative approaches to examine the oral histories of older adults in China and transgender older adults in the U.S. and Thailand. Past research has included an emphasis on grandparent caregivers of grandchildren; Soviet immigrant Jews, Ukrainians, Vietnamese, and Cambodians caring for their parents; older volunteers; and clinical use of behavior modification and older adults.

My research focuses on the diverse interface between plants and insects. Plant-insect interactions are incredibly diverse and can largely be divided into interactions where plants co-opt insects as pollen vectors (for plant reproduction) and interactions where insects utilize plants as food sources and brood sites. Frequently these two sets of interactions are interrelated. I find it important to consider (1) insect perception of plant cues such as scent, color, shape, and texture, and (2) the multiple contexts in which plant cues, especially scent, may be used by the insect community.

Specifically, I am interested in ecological (multi-trophic) interactions related to floral and vegetative scents and how plant-to-insect olfactory signals function in concert with visual and/or tactile plant cues.

• Children's Mental Health
• Inter-professional Education
• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
• Sensory Information
• Teaching in the Digital Age
• Trauma-Informed Practice

My research interests include (1) urban ecology in southeastern PA, spanning urban herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians), urban invertebrates (principally nocturnal Lepidoptera and aquatic macroinvertebrates), and urban invasive plants; (2) biodiversity of Honduran Lepidoptera (new project involving field and archival work in collaboration with Zamorano University at the Uyuca cloud forest preserve in Honduras); (3a) pedagogy of academic service learning (locally in Chester, PA, and internationally in Honduras) to enhance student learning, civic engagement, and engagement in global human sustainability; (3b) pedagogy of undergraduate ecological education using practitioner research.

Diabetes, Cardiovascular

My scholarly projects have tended to explore three occasionally overlapping areas: 1) southern fiction and postmodernism, which extends work done for my dissertation, but with a sharper focus on humor (and a less dogmatic application of postmodern theory); 2) the intersection of rock music and literature/literary theory; and perhaps most significantly, 3) the art (and aesthetic philosophies) of Flannery O'Connor, which I have striven to approach from what might be called 'undoctrinaire' perspectives.

I have published several articles on O'Connor, as well as other authors, including Don DeLillo, James Dickey, William Faulkner, Barry Hannah, and Walker Percy. I've also published on Bruce Springsteen, and I am co-editing a collection of essays on explorations of evil in rock music.

My research interests are in the areas of orthopedics and sports medicine.

My research focuses primarily on all things poetry and poetics. My book, Adelante, is a collection of poetry that examines the relationships between place and loss, juxtaposing the death of my Cuban father with the suffering and resilience of the natural world. I am also interested in global poetic forms and ekphrastic modes. Other creative pursuits include creative nonfiction and place-based writing. My critical interests include immigrant, Latinx, and Caribbean literatures, and I have presented scholarship on writers such as Eduardo C. Corral and Derek Walcott. Whether crafting original poetry or critically engaging literature by others, I am interested in how images conceal and reveal ideas.  

My research interest is in the area of radiation vasculopathy. We recently completed our retrospective research study on head and neck cancer patients who received radiation therapy to the head and neck. After analyzing our medical records, the majority of patients were at high risk of cardiovascular events. More information on this work: "Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Measurement Promises to Improve Cardiovascular Risk Evaluation in Head and Neck Cancer Patients." Our future plan in this field to explore biomarkers of atherosclerosis in setting of radiation therapy among head and neck cancer patients.

My research interests are critical care nursing, including novice nurses in critical settings, and death and dying in the intensive or critical care units.

• High Resolution Imaging Radar for Self-Driving Car
• RF Sensing for Assisted Living and Remote Patient Monitoring
• American Sign Language (ASL) Recognition
• Statistical Signal and Array Processing
• Cognitive Radar
• Adaptive Beamforming
• Massive MIMO and Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (IRSs) for 6G and Beyond
• Sparse Arrays • Sparse Sampling
• Target Localization and Tracking
• Convex Optimization
• Machine learning

My research agenda explores Black girls and women in P-20 educational and social contexts, college student development and success, and critical qualitative methods.

As a critical qualitative researcher, I am interested in using critical theory and intersectional scholarship to examine inequities and interlocking systems of oppression. My dissertation study, “I’m Not Your Mammy: Unearthing the Racially Gendered Experiences of Undergraduate Black Women Resident Assistants at Predominantly White Institutions.” was awarded the Rita Wolotkiewicz Prize in 2019 for its contribution to advancing scholarship on equity issues in education.

My most recent work was highlighted in the Journal of Postsecondary Student Success, Urban Education Policy Annuals, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and The HBCU Times.

• Systematic racism and how its maintained in societies 
• Clinic practice in understanding the trauma experienced by Blacks across the lifespan 
• Affinity circles (practice in creating safe space for race specific work)

My research interests focus primarily on accounting education, professional accounting certifications, and taxation.

• Preventative medicine
• Sports injuries
• Orthopedics