2014-2015 Awardees

Robert Brown
Economics/CHABSS
Community Partner:  The Watershed Conservation Authority (WCA)
Designing Geographic Information System (GIS) Spatial Mapping of San Gabriel River Visitors
San Gabriel River (SGR), flowing from the mountains surrounding Los Angeles County, attracts thousands of visitors to picnic, water play, view scenery, and connect with the environment.  Visitors are predominantly low-income Latino/Hispanic households from densely populated urban neighborhoods -- a group with traditionally limited access to outdoor recreation.
Watershed Conservation Authority (WCA) oversees the Disadvantage Communities Committee, which engages communities disenfranchised in regional planning processes.  This partnership with WCA will design GIS mapping to test whether SGR visitors originate from communities with limited park access. This research aims inform regional planning to better serve underrepresented groups in Los Angeles County.

Sara Bufferd & Kimberly D'Anna-Hernandez
Psychology/CHABSS
Community Partner:  North County Health Services - Agricultural Health
Examining Cultural Stressors, Psychological Well-Being, and Access to Mental Health Services in Mothers and Children in Mexican Farmworker Families
This research project will document the mental health needs of mothers and young children from Mexican farmworker families in North County San Diego. Data collection and distribution of information will occur with the assistance of local community leaders (promotoras), the National Latino Research Center at CSUSM, and with our community partner at North County Health Services (NCHS). We will examine relations between acculturation, stress, maternal depression, and child psychopathology. Our findings will provide essential data to inform prevention and intervention programs as well as implement policy related to maternal and child mental health in the growing Mexican farmworker population.

Dawn Formo
Literature & Writing/CHABSS
Community Partner:  North County Professional Development Federation (NCPDF)
Developing College Ready Writers Together
In partnership with the Director of North County Professional Development Federation (NCPDF) and our Alliance to Accelerate Excellence in Education, we will develop sequenced workshops to accomplish these goals:
1. Enhance the CSUSM and Alliance Partnership 
2. Create a professional space for honest and helpful conversations between instructors across institutions and institutional levels where we learn from each other
3. Facilitate conversation about writing instruction between high school and university faculty
4. Strengthen high school students’ preparation for university-level writing
Realizing these goals will enrich high school students’ college readiness while also generating cross-institutional understandings of the Common Core.

Ana Hernandez
School of Education/CoEHHS
Community Partner:  San Marcos Unified School District
Implementing the New CA English Language Development Standards in Secondary Education
School of Education and San Marcos Unified School District will collaborate in the training of English Language Development (ELD) teachers in secondary education.  The grant provides professional development and materials to assist in the implementation of this community project. The collaboration advances teachers’ knowledge of the ELD Standards, assists educators in developing lessons that transform the instruction of English Learners by examining the implementation of the new standards.  This partnership meets the goals of teacher preparation for both organizations and contributes to the body of research on best practices for linguistically diverse populations in public education.

Pamela Kohlbry & Jo Ann Daugherty
School of Nursing/CoEHHS
Community Partner:  Palomar Health - Community-based Care Transition Program (CCTP)
Developing Innovative Roles to Manage Transitions of Care
Transitions between healthcare settings often creates confusion for patients and caregivers resulting in unnecessary hospital readmissions.  To improve healthcare transitions, Palomar Health (PH) has developed the Community-based Care Transition Program (CCTP).  This comprehensive community-based plan functions to mobilize healthcare workers in an innovative way to manage transitions of care.  CSUSM School of Nursing and PH are partnering to research satisfaction and effectiveness of this new nursing role.

Suzanne Moineau
Speech-Language Pathology/CoEHHS
Community Partner: Palomar Health - Villa Pomerado
Presenting at the National Engagement Scholarship Consortium Annual Conference
With limited medical placements for graduate students in speech-language pathology to obtain necessary clinical hours to gain essential skills, and with continued cuts to medical funding for skilled services to citizens in need, we have developed a community-university engagement that has served the needs of all in an ecologically valid and economically conscious way. In a collaborative endeavor, our university faculty has teamed with a large local health system to provide scaffolded experiences to graduate students to bridge the gap between knowledge and skills, while providing free services to long-term residents in the Palomar Health System.

Kendra Dyanne Rivera
Communication/CHABSS
Community Partner:  North County Health Services - Women's Health Services
Understanding the Communication of Stress, Acculturation and Social Support Among Pregnant Mexican and Mexican-American Women
This research partners with Women’s Health Services at North County Health Services to explore the role of stress, acculturation and social support among pregnant Mexican and Mexican American women.  The primary goals of this interview-based research are: 1.) to better understand how Mexican/Mexican-American women communicate stress during pregnancy; 2.) to gain understanding about the role that acculturation and social support play in that stress; 3.) to study participants’ experiences at the partnering clinic; and 4.) to provide suggestions for how the clinic might improve their communication to be more culturally competent and thus to reduce stress for patients.

Camile Schuster
Marketing/CoBA
Community Partner:  International Trade Administration
Collaboration for Exports:  US International Trade Administration, CSUSM, and Business Community
CSUSM has a Memorandum of Understanding with the US International Trade Administration office in San Diego to create joint projects involving students from CoBA. Industries in San Diego with high potential to export products are identified; countries with demand for those products are identified; students conduct research to determine strategies for entering those markets; events are planned for industry representatives to interact with students and experts who can facilitate the next steps in their journey to increasing exports.

Shahed Sharif
Mathematics/CSTEM
Community Partner:  North County Professional Development Federation (NCPDF)
Transformational Geometry: Additional Training for Teachers
This project is comprised of three professional development sessions for current and future high school teachers. The topic is transformational geometry, a part of the Common Core Standards which is new to the high school curriculum. Undergraduates, credential students, and high school teachers work together in a workshop-style format to understand both mathematical content and how to teach mathematics in a discovery-driven format.

Patricia Stall
School of Education/ CoEHHS
Community Partner: Vista Unified School District
Preparing Secondary Teachers for Social Justice, Equity, and Empathy in a Rapidly Changing Landscape
The demographics of public school students are changing rapidly with Hispanic students being the largest growing student population. Since the vast majority of teachers continue to be White, to prepare secondary teachers to meet the different cultural, linguistic, learning and emotional needs of public school children, the beliefs, attitudes, and professional demeanor of those prospective teachers must be addressed in a strategic and concerted manner.
In this partnership with Vista Unified, teacher candidates are paired with cooperating teachers in targeted secondary classrooms with significant populations of English Learners, Special Needs students, and At-Risk Students. Teacher candidates also observe and intern in Project A.W.A.R.E., an intervention program for at-risk students, in order to develop awareness and skills to recognize, develop empathy, and work effectively with at-risk students. The primary goals of the project are to: 1) prepare teacher candidates to work effectively and empathetically with all students, and the targeted populations, in particular and 2) improve the retention rates and achievement of the target populations.

Kimberly Vanderbilt
Pyschology/CHABSS
Community Partner:  San Diego Chilrden's Discovery Museum
The Science Connection: supporting science awareness and investigating how children learn about the world around them.
The Science Connection, a partnership between the San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum and the Social Cognitive Development Lab at CSUSM, encourages science engagement and awareness in the community. Young children and families who visit the Museum learn about science concepts and other aspects of the world through active exploration of exhibits. The Lab also conducts interviews at the Museum, supporting empirical research on children’s development, and allowing visitors the opportunity to learn about and participate in actual science. The Science Connection also helps to support free events for the community, as well as opportunities for student involvement in scientific research.

Jill Weigt & Linda Shaw
Sociology/CHABSS
Community Partner:  St. Vincent de Paul Village (SVdPV)
Public Sociology and Homelessness: Research Internship
To enhance its training of graduate students in the areas of public sociology, which seeks to serve the community, the Master of Arts in Sociological Practice (MASP) program is partnering with St. Vincent de Paul Village (SVdPV), the largest homeless social services provider in Southern California, to develop an innovative community research and evaluation internship program. The program will consist of a graduate seminar focused on homelessness and poverty, combined with a research internship, that has two main goals: 1) to assist SVdPV in answering research questions focused on “best practices” for the delivery of social services to the homeless on an individual, community, and national level; and 2) to provide MASP students with the opportunity to gain advanced research and evaluation skills and experience while engaging in real world situations beyond the confines of the classroom.

Robert Yamashita & Marsha J. Treadwell
Liberal Studies/CHABSS
Community Partner:  State Dept. of Public Health
PHRESH Start Project: Building Patient Community as a Bridge to Uninformed Populations
Thalassemia is the most common genetic disorder in the world. California Public Health Research, Epidemiology and Surveillance for the Hemoglobinopathies (PHRESH) data show a high prevalence in Southeast Asian (SEA) communities and that over 20% of severe cases are not seen at an approved treatment center. Thalassemia specialists recognize that although SEA patients constitute a significant proportion of cases, their needs are not adequately addressed because the clinical significance of the disorder is poorly understood by non-specialist healthcare providers and essentially unknown in the at-risk population. This project targets SEA patients as a way to develop access pathways for furthering SEA community engagement in health. It is collaboration with the leading North American treatment center at Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland (UCSF) and the State Department of Public Health.