Featured Awards – August 2014

Stefanie Brachfield (Earth and Environmental Studies, CSAM) was awarded $157,056 by the National Science Foundation for “Collaborative research: Deglacial ice dynamics in the Weddell Sea embayment using sediment provenance,” which seeks to understand how Antarctic ice retreats, which can help to predict how Antarctic ice will behave in a warming climate, by studying the Weddell Sea embayment, in the Atlantic sector of Antarctica.

Gerard Costa and Kaitlin Mulcahy (Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health, CEHS) received a $30,000 contract from the NJ Department of Children and Families for “IECMH Training Project Launch.”

The Environmental Research and Education Foundation awarded ‌‌‌Yang Deng (Earth and Environmental Studies, CSAM) $175,652 for “Approaches to Mitigation of Landfill Leachate-Induced UV Transmittance Impacts” which will identify the origin and nature of UV-quenching substances in landfill leachate, and develop technically and economically viable on-site treatment technologies to address the UV transmittance issue at publicly owned treatment works.

‌Charles Du (Biology and Molecular Biology, CSAM) received a $165,743 subaward from Rutgers University for the second year of the NSF-funded project “A sequence-indexed reverse genetics resource for maize: a set of lines with single Ds-GFP insertions spread throughout the genome.”

‌Lisa Lieberman (Health & Nutrition Sciences, CEHS) received a $32,791 subaward for the third year of a five-year project from Inwood House/Conrad Hilton Foundation for “Adolescent Family Life Program.” Montclair State University is engaging in a sub-award contract with Inwood House to provide evaluation services for the funded project. MSU will continue to be a five-year partner in the study of Inwood House’s Adolescent Family Life program, in order to evaluate the efficacy of Inwood House’s continuum of care for pregnant and parenting teens, when enhanced by specific additional services.

‌The Corporation for National and Community Service awarded $260,863 to Bryan Murdock and Krystal Woolston (Service Learning and Community Engagement) and Randall FitzGerald (NJ School of Conservation) for “EECO AmeriCorps Program – Year 2.” The program will engage 20 AmeriCorps members who will support public schools, the NJ School of Conservation, community- and faith-based organizations, non-profits, and other civic organizations in Northern New Jersey.

Robert Reid and Pauline Garcia-Reid (Family and Child Studies, CEHS) were awarded $125,000 by the US Department of Health and Human Services/SAMHSA for “Project C.O.P.E. at Montclair State University: Using New Media to Prevent Substance Abuse and HIV/AIDS for Populations at Risk in the City of Paterson, New Jersey.” This project will utilize new media platforms to raise awareness and educate target populations in Paterson on the many facets of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS.

The National Institutes of Health awarded $139,734 to Stephanie Silvera for the third year of ”Exploring Sociodemographic and Behavioral Factors Underlying Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Cancer Prevention Behaviors in New Jersey.” These disparities are explained, in part, by unequal access to cancer screening across socioeconomic and racial groups. These findings will serve to examine the complex interaction between socioeconomic status and health behaviors, and how they differ between non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic White, and Hispanics in New Jersey, which has one of the highest cancer rates in the nation.