Featured Awards – July 2019

Please join us in congratulating the following MSU faculty and staff who received awards this month.

Gerard Costa and Kaitlin Mulcahy • Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health
FY19 Socio-Emotional Formation Initiative (SEFI)
New Jersey Department of Human Services
$1,700,000
SEFI supports the statewide integration of professional development opportunities aimed at promoting the social and emotional well-being and inclusion of all infants, toddlers and young children with and without developmental, emotional and behavioral difficulties. SEFI approaches this work through the full continuum of promotion, prevention, and intervention efforts. SEFI works with the state’s Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS), called “Grow NJ Kids”. SEFI staff work with the early childhood education and care centers throughout the state, providing education, support and soon will expand to provide infant & early childhood mental health consultation services.

Willard Gingerich • Academic Affairs
Joana Dos Santos • University Facilities
Saliya Desilva • Chemistry and Biochemistry
GROWING APPRENTICESHIP IN NONTRADITIONAL SECTORS (GAINS): MSU New Jersey DOL Apprenticeship Program (MAP)
NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development
$523,380
The MSU MAP Program establishes apprenticeships that align with MSU’s mission to serve the educational needs of New Jersey through a comprehensive range of programs. They include an Employer Model Apprenticeship in Facilities, and Workforce Intermediary Apprenticeships in Child Advocacy and Social Work and Chemical/Medical Technology.

Andrada Ivanescu • Mathematical Sciences
Statistical analysis of QTVI data during sleep
Johns Hopkins University
$30,000
This collaborative project with Johns Hopkins University is focused on modeling QTVI data during sleep for study participants who are healthy as well as study participants who take methadone. The difference between these groups will be analyzed during different stages of sleep while accounting for time to sleep onset and other baseline covariates. Dr. Ivanescu will be involved in collaborative initiatives for research on QTVI modeling using statistical methods with the JHU Department of Medicine research group.

Reva Jaffe-Walter • Educational Leadership
Improving the Experiences and Outcomes of Immigrant Youth: an Examination of the INPS – Year 3
William T. Grant Foundation
$25,299
In participation with researchers from New York University and the Research Alliance for New York City Public Schools on this $600,000-awarded project, Dr. Jaffe-Walter will lead qualitative research in four immigrant serving case study schools in order to understand the practices and structures that promote positive outcomes for recently immigrant students.

Christopher Leberknight • Computer Science
Anna Feldman • Linguistics
SaTC: CORE: Medium: Collaborative: A Linguistically-Informed Approach for Measuring and Circumventing Internet Censorship – Year 3
National Science Foundation
$171,497
This collaborative project with Princeton University—with a total award of $1,040,850 between both institutions—will apply computer science and linguistics to develop new Internet censorship detection and circumvention techniques.

Robert Reid • Family and Child Studies
Pauline Garcia-Reid • Family and Child Studies
Project C.O.P.E. – Year 5
US Department of Health & Human Services/SAMHSA
$283,875
Dr. Reid and Dr. Garcia-Reid’s Project C.O.P.E. works to prevent substance abuse and the spread of HIV among African American and Latino youth in Paterson, NJ.

Jude Uy • Counseling & Psychological Services
Project Suicide Awareness Violence Education and Response (Project SAVER) at Montclair State University – Year 3
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
$102,000
In year three of a three year program, Project SAVER will support mental health services on campus focused on suicide and self and other directed violence prevention. The initiatives proposed by Project SAVER are comprised of two major components, a University on-campus initiative, known as Project HawkSAVER, and an off-campus initiative to establish a consortium for suicide prevention among institutions of higher education throughout the state of New Jersey, or The University and College Alliance for Prevention of Suicide (UCAPS).