Penn State Lehigh Valley faculty engage in scholarly activities off-campus

Penn State’s mission includes helping to improve the well-being and health of individuals and communities through teaching, research and service. Penn State Lehigh Valley (PSU-LV) faculty regularly present, serve on panels and share their research with people and institutions outside of Penn State.

Over the last several months, PSU-LV faculty’s off-campus engagement included:

Christina Galbiati, lecturer of graphic design, and Eileen Grodziak, instructional designer, presented “Creactive: Creative Process Before Technology” a pedagogical approach investigating how design process introduced before technology implementation can enhance creative outcomes at the Lilly Conference in Bethesda, Maryland, though the event was held online, in May 2020. Students were involved via an IRB research study with Galbiati’s Graphic Design Intro to Design classes, as well as a cross-site study with a class at Moravian College. 

Nichola D. Gutgold, professor of communication arts and sciences:

• Gutgold led a talk about feminism at the event, “Circle Talk Leader: Feminism Yay or Nay?” held at Cedar Crest College on Jan. 23.
• Her book “Seen and Heard: The Women of Television News” was featured on Katie Couric’s Podcast in Feb. 2020.
• Gutgold served as a guest on Big Time Talker Podcast regarding "How to Communicate More Effectively During the Pandemic" in March.
• Gutgold served as emcee of the Literacy Center graduation held via zoom on June 18. Gutgold is on the board of directors and is the incoming board president of the Literacy Center.

Tai-Yin Huang, professor of physics:

• Huang published a paper titled, “Trends in the Airglow Temperatures in the MLT Region—Part 1: Model Simulations,” with her undergraduate research assistant Michael Vanyo.  This project has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). She will give a presentation on that topic at the virtual CEDAR meeting in late June.
• She gave an online presentation titled, “The Unusual Intensity Pattern of OH(6,2) and O(1S) Airglow Observed Over the Andes Lidar Observatory” at the European Geophysical Union General Assembly Meeting in May.
• Huang served as a guest editor for the journal, “Atmosphere.”
• She has been appointed as a Council member of the International Engineering and Technology Institute since March 2020. 
• She was an invited panelist on the Disciplinary Panels at the Commonwealth Campuses Spring Grant writing Workshop in May 2020.   

Jennifer Jarson, head librarian:

• Jarson presented twice at the SoTL Commons Conference in Savannah, Georgia in February.
  • Her posted titled "Strengthening Information Literacy and Metacognition with a Constructivist Activity" was presented on Feb. 20.
  • Jarson and Director of Virtual Education Kate Morgan’s poster titled "How Does a Campus Engagement Series Impact Participants’ Inquiry Mindsets?" was presented on Feb. 21.

• Jarson delivered a workshop titled "How Much Time Do You Have? Quick and Flexible Activities to add Some Metacognition to Your One-shot Information Literacy Sessions" at the LOEX Conference, which was moved online in response to the pandemic on May 6.
• Jarson delivered a presentation titled "Connecting Information Literacy & Metacognition with a Constructivist Activity" at the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) Information Literacy Symposium, which was moved online in response to the pandemic, on May 13.

Mark Milliron, lecturer of health policy and Administration, is a Public Health Program Administrator with the Pennsylvania Department of Health where he coordinates the State Health Assessment, State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) and the Health Improvement Partnership Program. The SHIP is the Department of Health’s plan for implementing strategies to improve the health status of the population of the state. Priorities that have been identified in Pennsylvania include addressing obesity, physical inactivity and nutrition; primary care and preventive services; and mental health and substance use. Milliron coordinated and edited the recent publication of the 2019 annual SHIP report, compiling data and statistics on health indicators for these topics. He also edits the Pennsylvania Health Improvement Partnership newsletter and recently published the Spring 2020 edition featuring public health information on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kate Morgan, director of virtual education and Experiential Digital Global Engagement (EDGE) campus coordinator, and Tiffany MacQuarrie, assistant teaching professor of English at Penn State Beaver and professor in charge of EDGE, received a $14,000 grant from Global Programs at Penn State to forge an EDGE relationship with the University of Auckland in New Zealand. The grant will cover travel costs for relationship-building, program development, and incidentals related to the partnership. The grant runs through Dec. 31. 2021. Currently, three Penn State instructors from different commonwealth campuses have been identified to engage with the program and are awaiting UA partners. These globally networked courses intensify disciplinary learning in all fields, both in those which engage other cultural perspectives and fields less traditionally associated with global learning. EDGE seeks to build bridges among international partners, instructional design, and teaching faculty through courses linked by a two to four week collaborative project, thereby promoting, integrating and enhancing international education experiences across curricula. Because travel is not required for EDGE, the program provides the opportunity to engage in global learning for ALL Penn State students. EDGE has partners all over the world. Interested in learning more about the program or to discuss ideas on EDGE’ing a class, contact Kate Morgan at [email protected]. 

Jacqueline S. McLaughlin, associate professor of biology at Penn State Lehigh Valley; Heather Amatore, interim bursar and registrar assistant at Penn State Lehigh Valley; Stam M. Zervanos, emeritus professor of biology at Penn State Berks; and Douglas Hochstetler, former director of academic affairs at Penn State Lehigh Valley posed at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. following McLaughlin's Jefferson Science Fellow 2020 Distinguished Lecture on Jan. 28, 2020. 

Credit: Jacqueline S. McLaughlin

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Jacqueline S. McLaughlin, associate professor of biology:

• McLaughlin presented the results of a research study she spear-headed,  “A Retrospective, Mixed-Methods Impact Analysis of the U.S. Embassy Science Fellows Program” as part of the Jefferson Science Fellowship Distinguished Lecture Series at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics on January 28, 2020, in Washington D.C.  Collectively, this work highlights important U.S. international science and technology cooperation trends and perceived cooperation benefits for Embassy Science Fellow program participants, sponsor agencies, foreign partners, and U.S. foreign policy objectives. A manuscript of this important work is presently in preparation.
• McLaughlin was appointed a consultant position as a Science Adviser to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of Science and Technology (OES/STC) following her tenure as a 2019 Jefferson Science Fellow in the same office. She is working on several projects that promote and protect American leadership in science, technology, and innovation and advance U.S. foreign policy interests.
• McLaughlin served on a local Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) for Advarra, one of the largest clinical research compliance companies/central IRBs in North America, on June 2, 2020. The focus of this IBC was to review gene transfer therapy products/studies in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth Nelson, reference and instruction librarian, presented Penn State Berks' librarian Brett Spencer on Argument Architect, the instructional boardgame they developed as a partnership between campus libraries at the University Libraries' annual Community of Practice: Instruction day (via Zoom) on May 14. This boardgame has been played at Penn State Lehigh Valley in a few classes already and helps students address their knowledge gaps in how to progress from finding research to creating an argument around that research. They also published an article on the game in the open-access journal Pennsylvania Libraries: Research and Practice (PaLRAP).

Jennifer Parker, associate professor of sociology, served as a visiting scholar at Universite Paris 8 and Institut d'Etudes Européennes in Paris, France. Parker delivered the following talks on the sociology of ethnic relations and historical and contemporary contributions of Black American writers:

• "La sociologie des échanges interculturels en termes ethniques" ("The Sociology of Intercultural exchanges in ethnic terms")
• "La littérature contemporaine aux USA: Les écrivains noirs américains et leur position dans le champ de l’édition" ("Contemporary literature in the USA: A focus on the contributions of black American writers")

Anita Yuskauskas, program coordinator and instructor in health policy and administration:

• Yuskauskas has been invited to co-chair a national technical expert panel (TEP) on quality measures for community based long term care services.  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contracted with The Lewin Group to develop and maintain the standardized set of national measures. The TEP advises on measures’ importance, alignment, scientific acceptability, feasibility, usability, use, and harmonization. The TEP is composed of 15 members, who serve a minimum three-year term, with an optional two-year extension
• Yuskauskas has also been invited by The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to serve as a Merit Grant Proposal Reviewer. The national grant program supports the promotion of health information exchange and interoperability to overcome major barriers and improve health care outcomes. The program is entitled “Integrating Health Care and Human Services Data to Support Improved Outcomes.” The ONC is the principal federal entity charged with the coordination of nationwide efforts in health information technology (IT) and the electronic exchange of health information.