Featured Awards – September 2014

‌The US Department of Education awarded Jennifer Goeke (Curriculum & Teaching, CEHS) $278,908 for “Restructuring Preservice Preparation for Innovative Special Education (RePPrISE) – Year 4.” The purpose of this project is to restructure MSU’s existing post-baccalaureate MAT Dual Certification program to prepare middle and secondary educators through three interdisciplinary strands of teacher preparation: Inclusive pedagogy; Intensive content area preparation in mathematics or science; and Integrative STEM (iSTEM) education.

‌Bryan Murdock (Service Learning and Community Engagement, Academic Affairs) was awarded $525,635 by the US Department of Education for the first year of a $2.5 million grant for “City of Orange Proposal to the U.S. Department of Education: University Assisted Full Service Community Schools Program.” This program will allow MSU to work closely with the Orange Public School District to convert two low-performing Title I schools into University-Assisted Full-Service Community Schools.

‌Sandra Passchier (Earth and  Environmental Studies, CSAM) received a $7,993 National Science Foundation-funded supplement from the Consortium For Ocean Leadership for “Understanding ice dynamics, meltwater discharge, and paleocirculation in the Baltic Sea Paleoenvironment through laser particle size and XRF analysis” which will support moratorium core characterization efforts and identify opportunities for future grant-funded studies.

‌Robert Prezant (Dean, CSAM) and Carlos Molina (Biology and Molecular Biology, CSAM) received a $73,127 subaward from Rutgers University for the first year of the NSF-funded project, “Garden State LSAMP Phase II,” which will maintain the program at MSU in addition to addressing several new aspects that serve the greater LSAMP mission.

Robert Reid and Pauline Garcia-Reid (Family and Child Studies, CEHS) received $125,000–the second year of a five-year $625,000 award–from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for “Paterson Coalition Against Substance Abuse (P-CASA).” The proposed project seeks to develop the infrastructure of an anti-drug coalition targeting at-risk racial and ethnic minority adolescents in Paterson’s 1st Ward. As a collaborative effort between Montclair State University and a diverse group of community stakeholders, P-CASA will introduce evidence-based environmental prevention strategies to meet the goals of the Drug Free Communities Grant Program, which are to increase community collaboration and reduce substance use among youth aged 12–17.

The US Department of Education awarded $937,381 to Jennifer Robinson (Center of Pedagogy, CEHS) and Susan Wray (Early Childhood, Elementary and Literacy Education, CEHS–not pictured) for the first year of a $6.2 million project called “The Newark-Montclair State University Teaching Residency Program (NMUTR).” This program, in partnership with the Newark Public Schools (NPS), seeks to improve student achievement by applying rigorous research-based teacher preparation to the concrete needs of the NPS. NMUTR is designed to recruit effective individuals, including minorities and individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force; improve the quality of both new and prospective teachers; increase teacher retention rates; and ultimately improve student achievement.

Teresa Rodriguez (Art Galleries, CART) received $12,828 from the NJ State Council for the Arts in support of the George Segal Gallery’s mission to propagate culture and art through exhibitions and educational and scholarly programs, focusing on contemporary art.

David Rotella (Chemistry and Biochemistry, CSAM) received $422,754—the first year of an anticipated $2.5M contract from the US Department of Defense – Defense Threat Reduction Agency—for “Development of Medical Countermeasures for Botulinum Neurotoxin Intoxication Focused on Therapeutics and Neuroregenerative Medicines.” The aim of this research is to discover small molecule drug candidates for treatment of botulinum toxin exposure.

Jedediah Wheeler (Arts and Cultural Programming) was awarded $49,513 by the NJ State Council of the Arts for in support of Peak Performances’ innovative programming of distinguished artists who push the boundaries of conventional art forms and who work outside of preconceived comfort zones—programming that has featured 28 world premieres and 31 US premieres in 9 seasons.