Faculty and Staff Grants from July 2021

Congratulations to the following faculty and staff members who received grants and awards in July 2021.

Daniel Brisson, professor at the Graduate School of Social Work and executive director of the Center on Housing and Homelessness Research

• Grant from Impact Charitable for "Denver Guaranteed Basic Income"
• Project abstract: The Denver Guaranteed Basic Income Program is a 12-month program providing cash benefits to unhoused people living in Denver. The aims of the program are to test the feasibility and impact of a GBI program for unhoused people.

Michael Campbell II, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

• Grant from Boston University, subaward from the Russell Sage Foundation, for "21st Century Justice"

Kimberly Chiew, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and director of the DU Motivation, Affect & Cognition (MAC) Lab

• Grant from the Brain and Behavioral Research Foundation for "Investigating temporal dynamics of motivation-cognitive control interactions in children with ADHD using high-resolution pupilometry"
• Project abstract: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood mental illnesses. In addition to cognitive impairment, deficits in motivational processes have been characterized in ADHD, dovetailing with evidence that dopamine neurotransmission — implicated in reward and motivational processing — is disrupted in this population. Despite this, investigations of reward incentives on cognitive performance in ADHD have yielded mixed results; thus, there is a critical need for more nuanced characterizations of motivational influences on cognitive performance, which this project will address.

Christopher Coleman, professor of emergent digital practices at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

• Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the Clinic for "Open-Source Arts"
• Project abstract: A five-week online workshop plus a two-day event in Denver will train a diverse national group of 10 digital artists to be open-source contributors. They will learn to engage and reshape the communities of developers around creative, open source tools as fully participating members. We are empowering underrepresented people in the field to do this work, to seed new, more inclusive ideas into the toolmaking communities and into the shape of the tools themselves.

David Coppini and Kareem El Damanhoury, assistant professors in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

• Grant from Colorado College, subaward from the Online News Association, for "ONA Colorado College Subagreement"
• Project abstract: Researchers will prepare a list of Colorado media outlets, organized by county, using different databases. For each media outlet, researchers will code for different dimensions, such as unique visitors/reach and percentage of stories that are original and local.

Catherine Demers, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

• Grant from the National Institutes of Health for "NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship"
• Project abstract: Maternal history of depression is a well-established risk factor for the development of psychopathology in the offspring. This project examines mechanistic pathways by which maternal mental health during pregnancy influences risk trajectories for mental health outcomes. Findings could elucidate the pathways underlying this intergenerational transmission of risk and facilitate the identification of novel targets for prevention and early intervention.

Gareth Eaton, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• Grant from the National Institutes of Health for "Preclinical Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Tumor Imager"
• Project abstract: Revolutionary methods of acquiring electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of free radicals create a paradigm shift in application of EPR to understanding the role of radicals in cancer and other diseases. Lung damage, stroke, myocardial infarction, brain injury, wound healing, other trauma, and peripheral vascular limitations may similarly benefit from EPR imaging of redox status. This project will include two powerful techniques and will test the imager in applications to redox equilibria in mouse tumors, reactive oxygen species related to cancer in mice, and acute lung injury.

Nicole Herzog, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

• Grant from the Bureau of Land Management for "Surprise Valley Starch Analysis"
• Project abstract: Services provided include microbotanical and use-wear analyses on 15 ground stone archaeological artifacts to be conducted at the Paleodiet Lab at the University of Denver.

Johnny Kim, professor at the Graduate School of Social Work

• Grant from Ellipsis Health for "Validating and evaluating an Artificial Intelligence enabled depression and anxiety screening tool for adolescents and young adults"
• Project abstract: Our goal is to refine, evaluate and disseminate the Ellipsis Screening Tool for middle and high school students. Ellipsis is an artificial intelligence-enabled depression and anxiety-screening tool.

Michelle Knowles, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Lotta Granholm-Bentley, professor and founding executive director at the Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging

• Grant from the National Science Foundation for "MCA - Application of quantitative imaging methods to identify molecular components of multi-vesicular body fusion sites"
• Project abstract: Exosomes are widely known for their role in disease, however, they are essential for cell-to-cell communication, cellular homeostasis and thought to be involved, generally, in the process of aging. The goal of this grant is to bring together expertise in quantitative imaging of membrane fusion to apply these methods for understanding how aging affects the exosome secretion process. Together, they will identify how this secretion process is regulated on a molecular level and how this process can become dysfunctional in aging.

Mike Hoa Nguyen, assistant professor in the Department of Education at the Morgridge College of Education

• Grant from the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholars for "APIA Scholars—AANAPISI Portfolio"
• Project abstract: This project will conduct an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) learning tour (past and current AANAPISI); identify barriers to the federal designation, orientation, grant cycle and reporting to inform policy recommendations; and examine challenges and success to institutionalizing the AANAPISI designation (brand), buy-in, integration of AANAPISI initiatives and learning into institutional supports, program, curriculum, leadership support and sustainable funding sources.

Julie Sarama, professor and Kennedy Endowed Chair in Innovative Learning Technologies at the Morgridge College of Education and co-executive director of the Marsico Institute of Early Learning and Literacy, and Crystal Day-Hess, assistant director at the Marsico Institute

• Grant from Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (mDRC) for "VIQI Full-Scale"
• Project abstract: VIQI is a large-scale, rigorous study with several important aims and implications for current early care and education (ECE) policy and practices. VIQI will test how different levels and features of classroom quality relate with children's developmental outcomes and will look at the relationship of initial classroom quality to changes in observed quality and children's outcomes through a rigorous experimental design. In sum, the VIQI project will be poised to provide new and rigorous evidence for the ECE field on both the determinants and the benefits of high-quality programming across various settings.