Recent Awards and News

       
Leah Katherine Saal, Ph.D.

       
Lisa Schoenbrodt, Ed.D.

Loyola University Maryland is awarded a grant towards their Messina program for first year students

 Loyola University Maryland’s distinctive first-year living and learning program, Messina, has been awarded a Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) Program Development Grant to deepen vocational exploration and discernment among undergraduate students. The approximately $48,000 grant, which was awarded from the Council of Independent Colleges, will be used between May 1, 2021, and April 30, 2023. “Through this grant opportunity, we will deepen our connection to and learn from peer institutions who value promoting undergraduate students’ intellectual and theological exploration of vocation,” said Carolyn Barry, Ph.D., associate dean for social sciences and graduate programs and professor of psychology. “That focus on vocation will enhance the experience for students in Messina, which offers an opportunity for self-discovery and exploration as students learn more about Loyola, Baltimore, and themselves.”

 Loyola faculty receive grant to help develop courses for special education leaders

Irene Bal, lecturer in the Educational Technology Program, and Kelly Keane, Ed.D., senior lecturer and director of the Educational Technology Program at Loyola University Maryland, have been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), Division of Early Intervention/Special Education Services. The grant will assist with the design, development, and pilot testing of four to five fully online micro-credential courses to address Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings and support IEP chairpersons in Maryland public schools. The support from this grant is focused on narrowing the gap for children and youth with disabilities and their families by focusing on access, equity, and progress through a credentialing system for IEP chairs.

National Science Foundation’s HER Core Research Awards Dr. Qi Shi two-year grant

Qi Shi, Ph.D., associate professor of education specialties, has been awarded a $193,853 two-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s HER Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research program. The grant will support her professional development and research, “A Phenomenological Analysis of STEM Interest, Access, and Persistence of Latina English Learners.”

John Templeton Foundation Awards Dr. Meghan Page Research Grant

The John Templeton Foundation has awarded Dr. Meghan Page a $1,455,601 grant to support her project, “Building Foundations in Science-Engaged Theology: Insights from Philosophy of Science.” The grant will fund a series of summer seminars that explore how scientific concepts can be applied to questions about the nature of the divine. The grant also provides funds for the development of both research and pedagogy that integrates philosophy of science with investigations of the divine. Page plans to incorporate the philosophy of science and religion research and insights learned from this grant into her courses at Loyola.    

Loyola Selected to Develop Computer Science Teacher Education Program

Dr. Kelly Keane and Ms. Irene Bal were awarded the Maryland Preservice Computer Science Teacher Education Program grant for their project, “Online Micro-credentials for K-8 Computational Thinking.” The project focuses on developing computational thinking courses for K-8 preservice and in-service teachers. This will have a positive impact for both educators and their students throughout Maryland.

Loyola Faculty Awarded Maryland Department of Disabilities Contract

Drs. Lisa Schoenbrodt and Leah Saal received a Maryland Department of Disabilities (MD DoD) Sole Source grant for their project titled Learning to Lead: Training Self-Advocate Educators for Law Enforcement (Project Lead). Project Lead prepares and supports individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to serve as educators for public service individuals.

Zarker Morgan Receives Italian Embassy Award for Loyola

As a result of Dr. Leslie Zarker Morgan’s efforts to support the Modern Languages and Literatures department through her grant writing, the Italian Embassy has awarded Loyola funds to partially support an Italian instructor position for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Loyola Awarded Grant from Maryland Department of Commerce

The Maryland Department of Commerce has awarded Loyola University Maryland a $500,000 grant. This funding will be used to institute an endowed professorship in innovation that will enhance the expansion of undergraduate scientific research in biohealth and provide students with professional skills to work in bioscience industries. This funding matches $500,000 raised by Loyola's Office of Advancement to assist with initiatives that foster innovation and entrepreneurship at the University through 2021.

Lynch and Kushner Receives Funding from Baltimore Police Department

The Police Foundation awarded Drs. Moira Lynch and Danielle Kushner funding to conduct field work collecting qualitative information on community opinions related to the Baltimore Police Department’s community policing efforts. This work will assist the BPD in their efforts to reform policing in Baltimore.

Konradi Awarded Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation Grant

The Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) Foundation has awarded the University of Washington and, by subaward, Dr. Amanda Konradi, a collaborative 2018 Research Support Grant. This grant will fund their project titled: “To Operate or Not to Operate? Studying Stigma and Quality Of Life Outcomes in Craniofacial Fibro-osseous Diseases.”

Rivers Awarded NIH Subaward

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has awarded University of Maryland and, by subaward, biology professor David Rivers, Ph.D. a R25 Science Education Partnership award. Dr. Rivers has been tasked with developing a Loyola Forensic Academy for high school students.  The academy will be a one-week summer module focused on forensic science, relying on hands-on activities, discussions, and presentations from the Baltimore City Police Forensic Unit, ATF agents, and local forensic experts. Alan Thoms-Chelsey, affiliate faculty in the biology department, will assist in the development and implementation of this program.

Flores-Koulish Awarded Seed Money for Film Project

Associate professor in the School of Education, Stephanie Flores-Koulish, Ph.D. and her collaborator, Jacqueline Arias, received seed funding from Women in Film and Video for their documentary project titled: The Remnants in Our Blood. This documentary will follow the story of four Latinx adoptees attempting to restore their cultural identities by investigating the US Military conflicts that brought them to America.

Carey Named 2019 Guggenheim Fellow

Dr. Ryan awarded Truman Library Institute Research

Raunak Awarded Extension from the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Associate professor of computer science, M.S. Raunak, Ph.D., was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) Measurement Science and Engineering (MSE) program in the summer of 2018. NIST granted an extension to his award that will support his project titled "Developing Test Strategies for Difficult-to-Test Software." This extension will allow him to continue his collaborative research on techniques in designing test cases for software. 

Asia Library Travel Grant Awarded to Yu Zhang

Yu Zhang received the Asia Library Travel Grant from the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies of the University of Michigan. This collection is critical to Yu Zhang’s research on her second book-length project, entitled “Living in Tradition, out Passion.” This book project will study Christian women in China at the turn of the twentieth century—both the female missionaries who traveled to China to serve, as well as the Chinese Christian women who became faithful under their influence.

Gomez Awarded Knott Foundation Grant

The Knott Foundation has awarded Margarita Gómez a Grant for $2,500 for her Translanguaging Writing Club at Archbishop Borders Dual Language Catholic School. This grant supports the implementation of this program as well as her research on the efficacy of bilingual writing.

National Science Foundation (NSF) to Award Schiefele Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology

With this NSF grant, Dr. Lisa Schiefele's Build-A-Genome (BAG) Network will host annual workshops; develop, distribute, and support workflows for synthesis of yeast neochromosomes and bacteriophage genomes; provide common resources of software, databases, genomics services, and scientific expertise; and disseminate scientific pedagogical results and teaching modules through publications and presentations.

Witt to Receive DAAD Research Stay Grant

Jeff Witt, Ph.D. was awarded a DAAD Research Stay grant to work with the University of Leipzig Center for Digital Humanities and Dr. Thomas Köntges for a month this fall. This research stay will further his work on his Scholastic Commentaries and Texts Archive (https:/scta.info), which overlaps and connects with the Latin and Greek classical corpus that is the center of Dr. Köntges’ research. The collaboration will allow them to establish a set of protocols that will use advances in topic modeling to analyze corpora from both archives and identify relationships between the sets.

AARC Award to Fossett

Tepanta Fossett, Ph.D. was awarded an Advancing Academic-Research Careers (AARC) Award from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. This award is intended to support the academic-research careers of faculty in the field of communication sciences and disorders. With this award, Dr. Fossett will conduct research on her project titled “Test-ReTest reliability and concurrent validity of the multiple-choice version of the Story Retell Procedure.”

Loyola to Receive Grant for Interfaith Innovation

For the second year in a row, the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) has awarded Loyola’s Campus Ministry a grant to strengthen interfaith cooperation on Loyola’s campus. This year's award, Campus Innovation Grant, will continue the important work of the Interfaith Strategic Planning Committee to begin the process of providing our campus and at-large community opportunities for increased awareness and heightened support and enthusiasm around interfaith programming, dialogue, and communication. Scott Adams, Assistant Director of Interfaith and Ecumenical Ministries will be leading this project.

The Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Awards Betz Grants-In-Aid

Diana Betz, Ph.D. was awarded a grant from SPSSI for her study on defensiveness and self-affirmation in reactions to information about sexual assault. Dr. Betz will conduct two experiments to examine the role of defensiveness in response to information about sexual assault’s prevalence and harms.

Page Receives University of Notre Dame Award

Meghan Page, Ph.D. assistant professor of philosophy, received an award for her project “Creative Accounts of Creation” by the University of Notre Dame Center for Philosophy of Religion. Her two part project explores novel philosophical metaphors of creation that contrast with the world-actualization model, in which God creates by actualizing some possible world. These metaphors will show that lived experiences share an important theme: the creative process involves a singular focus rather than the selection of one option from many.

Schoenbrodt and Saal Awarded Two Year Grant from Maryland Department of Disabilities

Loyola’s Lisa Schoenbrodt, Ph.D. and Leah Katherine Saal, Ph.D. have been awarded $45,000, a two year grant from the Maryland Department of Disabilities to pilot and validate a replicable and sustainable model of the LEAD Program. The LEAD Program helps to train individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to serve as Self-Advocate Educators/Trainers for Law Enforcement. These individuals will participate in role-play and scenario-based training tasks with law enforcement officers to better prepare officers for real world situations. 

Sandler Awarded Summer Stipend by the National Endowment for the Humanities

Willeke Sandler, Ph.D. assistant professor of history, has received a Summer Stipend award by the National Endowment for the Humanities. This grant will allow Dr. Sandler to travel to Berlin and conduct research in the Federal Archives and the Political Achieve of the German Foreign Office for her second book, Unofficial Empire, investigates Germans’ movement between Germany and its former colony of German East Africa from the mid-1920s through the mid-1940s.  

Diehl Granted Award for Project "Postwar Japan through its Golden Age of Film"

 The Japan Foundation has awarded Chad Diehl, Ph.D. $1,200 for his project, “Postwar Japan through its Golden Age of Film,” which explores the cultural and social history of Japan after the Second World War through a study of film of the postwar period. This project will help Loyola students expand their understanding of Japanese culture and history by engaging students in the study of postwar films as Japan attempted to work though past traumas and articulate present economic and social issues. The project includes a film screening, as well as a presentation by Professor Takuya Tsunoda. 

Helfenbein Granted Sub Award for Evaluation of Baltimore Police Department Juvenile Pre-Petition Diversion Program

The Baltimore City Police Department has granted a sub award to Robert Helfenbein, Ph.D. for the Evaluation of the Baltimore Police Department Juvenile Pre-Petition Diversion Program. This program provides an alternative to the juvenile justice system for youth charged with nonviolent, misdemeanor offenses. Dr. Helfenbein, and a team of professors and graduate research assistants from the School of Education, will spend a year analyzing the program’s process and policies, and developing recommendations for improvement. The goal of this evaluation is to increase the number of youths referred to this program, and to increase the completion rate of the program while reducing re-arrest rates of the program graduates.

Sutherland to lead "Prophet with a Pencil: The Continuing Significance of Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’"

University of Virginia’s Project on Lived Theology has launched a new, $30,000 initiative, Prophet with a Pencil: The Continuing Significance of Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’- a gathering of ten King scholars which will be led by Loyola’s own Arthur Sutherland, Ph.D. Convening in Birmingham, Alabama, this June, this three-day gathering will allow these scholars to share drafts of their essays, meet with surviving participants of the Birmingham Children’s March, and will participate in an exchange of ideas with civil rights activists.  The assembly’s work includes publishing a volume of essays and hosting a public forum on the theological ideas and questions raised by King in 1963 that are still relevant today.

Chia-Smith Granted Award for "Developmental Psychobiosocial States in Competitive Badminton"

Wendy Chia-Smith, Ph.D. was awarded a grant of $5,000 in support of her study, “Developmental Psychobiosocial States in Competitive Badminton.” The project will examine the extent to which age impacts the psychobiosocial states of elite badminton players. The goal of the study is to assist coaches in understanding the individual zone of optimal function for each age group in order to help athletes cope with changing psychobiosocial states during matches. 

Bannister Granted Award for Julio Fine Arts Gallery

Kim Bannister and the Julio Fine Arts Gallery were awarded a Maryland State Arts grant for the third year in a row! The Gallery is committed to encouraging the understanding and appreciation of the visual arts through its offerings of diverse, high quality exhibitions, lectures, and workshops; and preserving its permanent collection art objects as a resource for the community.  

Thomas and Brugh Awarded Grant for "Multilingual Baltimore"

Maryland Humanities has awarded a grant to Andrea Thomas,Ph.D. and Patrick Brugh, Ph.D. for their video project “Multilingual Baltimore.” This screening is a video compilation and viewing of an oral history project students completed last year with immigrants who have settled in Baltimore. Students learn more about the language and immigrants share their stories, in their native language. The student interviews are in Arabic, Chinese, French, Italian, and Spanish will be publically screened to foster mutual respect while bridging cultural divides in the Baltimore community. 

Caesar Awarded Grant for The American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation

The American Speech- Language- Hearing Foundation has awarded a grant of $75,000 in support of Dr. Lena Caesar’s project titled, “The Ecological Validity of Narrative Sample Analysis for Diagnosing Language Disorders in Guyanese Children.” Caesar will use the grant to work to improve the lives of children who reside in Guyana, South America by collecting evidenced-based data that will assist in the accurate diagnosis of communication impairments in clinical populations. 

Scalenghe Awarded Grant for National Endowment for the Humanities

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a grant of $210,912 in support of Sara Scalenghe’s project titled “Global Histories of Disability.” With this grant, Dr. Scalenghe will direct a four-week NEH Summer Institute for twenty-five college and university teachers held on the campus of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The Institute will consist of three core units organized geographically: The United States, Europe, and the “non-Western world,” specifically the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. The units will be preceded by three days of introductions to the Institute, to Gallaudet University, to Deaf culture and ASL, and to disability history, and will be followed by one and a half days of participants’ project presentations.

Loyola to Receive Grant for Interfaith Innovation

The Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) has awarded Loyola’s Campus Ministry a $5,000 Strategic Planning Interfaith Innovation Grant. This grant is designed to support the development of a campus-wide, multi-year strategic plan for interfaith cooperation on Loyola’s campus. Loyola will convene a diverse group of high-level stakeholders who will meet regularly throughout this upcoming academic year to design a strategic plan document. In addition to funding, IFYC will also provide strategic planning frameworks and resources, a student survey and analysis, coaching, and a two-day visit. Scott Adams, Assistant Director of Interfaith and Ecumenical Ministries will be leading this project.

Raunak Awarded Grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology for Research on Software Testing

M.S. Raunak, Ph.D. associate professor of computer science, received an award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) Measurement Science and Engineering (MSE) program. This award provides financial assistance to support collaborative research in the broad areas of Advanced Network Technologies and Cloud Computing. Dr. Raunak will focus on Software Testing in his project titled, "Workflow-based Systematic Testing of Information Systems Software."

Castillo Awarded Louisville Institute First Book Grant for Minority Scholars

This award supports Daniel Castillo’s book, “An Ecological Theology of Liberation” which offers a narrative about the eco-liberationist reading of key themes in biblical theology. It addresses the question, “What is the relationship between salvation, human liberation, and care for creation?” The book highlights the need for radical transformation of society. Dr. Castillo discusses three subjects relating to the North American church. First, he talks about the complex ways of how the crises of material inequality and ecological degradation are linked. Also, he conveys that the interrelated preferential options for the poor and earth are intrinsic to the Christian faith. Lastly, he brings up of the forms these interrelated options might take within the landscape of contemporary politics and culture. Dr. Castillo is an assistant professor of Theology.

Camper Awarded Research Grant International Society for the History of Rhetoric and National Endowment of Humanities

Martin Camper, Ph.D. has been awarded a research grant from the International Society for the History of Rhetoric and the National Endowment of Humanities Summer Stipend. This award will help support his work on his a second book titled, " How the Bible’s Meaning Changes: Argument and Controversy in the Church". The project explores five cases in Christian history since the 16th century where some segment of the church has completely reversed its official stance on a biblical issue. Camper plans to explore how these reversals in biblical meaning were accomplished through argument, building on a rhetorical method for analyzing interpretive controversies detailed in his first book, Arguing over Texts: The Rhetoric of Interpretation, which is due out from Oxford University Press 2017.

Assistant Professor of Theatre Awarded Residency at São Paulo Escola de Teatro

Daniel Pinha, assistant professor of theatre at Loyola University Maryland, was awarded a residency at the prestigious São Paulo Escola de Teatro—Centro de Formação das Artes do Palco (São Paulo Drama School – Development Center for Stage Arts) in Brazil for the 2017 summer. Pinha will be exploring ways of creating scenic design that are not based on a script but rather on visual elements brought to the performance space. He will be studying how this particular process of creating a dramaturgy is effective and what the benefits are of developing the theatrical design from the visual elements.

Loyola Biology Faculty wins $154K Grant from the U.S. Department of Justice

Loyola faculty members of the biology department have won a grant of $154,521 from the U.S. Department of Justice to help create an accurate analysis of critical evidence involved in crime scene investigations by developing a technique for law enforcement to differentiate fly artifacts from human bloodstains. David Rivers, Ph.D., professor of biology and principal investigator, is involved in this two-year project alongside Rebecca Brogan, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, and Andrew Schoeffield, Ph.D., associate professor of biology.

Fenner & O’Neill Awarded EiF Grant

Assistant professor of engineering, Raenita Fenner, PhD, and professor of writing, Peggy O’Neill, PhD, have been awarded a grant from the Engineering Information Foundation (EiF). This interdisciplinary project looks to improve instruction of technical writing by integrating technical analysis with quality instruction in writing. 

NSF Funded Scholarship Program for Students

An interdisciplinary group of sciences faculty has been awarded a $565,495 grant from NSF to create a scholarship and mentoring program in which they will recruit and graduate academically talented low-income students pursuing a degree in computer science, physics, mathematics, or statistics. The new C-PaMS Scholars Program will award six students from the Class of 2020 and six from the Class of 2021 up to $10,000 annually during their four years at Loyola. Mili Shah, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics, will be the grant’s principal investigator.

NSF to Supercharge Research Computing Power at Loyola

 Four Loyola faculty members have been awarded a $280,120 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster that will exponentially expand research opportunities for faculty and students across disciplines. Megan Olsen, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science and principal investigator on the grant. Olsen’s co-awardees are Biggi Albrecht, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry; David Binkley, Ph.D., professor of computer science; and Jeremy Schwartz, Ph.D., associate professor of economics.

MADE CLEAR Grant Awarded to Loyola to Support Climate Change Education

 The goal of this grant is to create more expertise on campus and to empower faculty and administrators to develop their ability and confidence to incorporate climate change education into both course curricula and co-curricular learning experiences. Bernadette Roche, Ph.D., associate professor of biology and director of environmental studies will serve as the project Principal Investigator. Roche’s co-awardees are Elizabeth Dahl, Ph.D., associate professor of Chemistry, and Randall Jones, Ph.D., associate professor of physics.

Undergraduate Physics to Get Boost from NSF

Loyola has been awarded an $80,977 grant from the NSF for a collaborative project that will significantly enhance undergraduate physics education by developing, evaluating, and sharing methods to incorporate workforce-relevant skills and activities in the student experience. Bahram Roughani, Ph.D., is the associate dean for natural and applied sciences and the principal investigator on the grant.

Rivers Awarded NSF Grant to Create a Network to Prep Students for Careers in Biotechnology

Loyola biology professor David Rivers, Ph.D., won a $50,000 grant from NSF to create and lead the Mid-Atlantic Biology Research and Career (MABRC) network. This network consists of biotechnology educators and professionals from the public and private organizations across the mid-Atlantic region committed to preparing students for careers in biotechnology. The aim of the network is to help high school and college students gain the professional skills needed for a career in the growing science field of biotechnology.

Coalition of Baltimore-Area Colleges Win $750K Grant from Department of Justice

 Loyola, along with nine other Baltimore-area colleges and universities, have won a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. This grant is to generate new strategies to prevent, respond to, investigate, and hold offenders accountable for sexual assault and dating violence. It is also centered on creating a survivor-centered, trauma- informed approach to helping victims of sexual assault and dating violence.