Achievements

Kauyumari Sanchez

Psychology

Kauyumari Sanchez, PhD published the article Cross-modal matching of monosyllabic and bisyllabic items varying in phonotactic probability and lexicality in Frontiers in Language Sciences, 4, 1488399. https://doi.org/10.3389/flang.2025.1488399

Ethan Gahtan, John Steele, Emma F. Jones, McKay Gog Butler, Darina Trendafilova, Mayra S Mendez, Luke A. Jernigan

Psychology

Professors Ethan Gahtan (Psychology) and John Steele (Biology) along with students from psychology, biology, and chemistry developed a new transgenic zebrafish line in the Behavioral Neuroscience Research Lab. This development was first described in 2022 in the Journal of Comparative Neurology. They developed a zebrafish fluorescent reporter line to track neuronal chloride (Cl-), KCC2, expression in vivo during early brain development. "KCC2 regulates neuron excitability and development". Then in 2024 the team contributed this genetics resource to the Zebrafish International Resource Center (ZIRC) to make it available to external researchers. Article reference: DOI: 10.1002/cne.25411 ; ZIRC entry: https://zfin.org/ZDB-PUB-221018-26#summary 

Marshelle Thobaben

Nursing

Published the chapter, Chapter 33: People of Turkish Culture in Handbook for Culturally Competent Care. 2nd ed. 2024. Ed E. Fenkl, L. Purnell, pp. 445-460.

Dr. Meenal Rana

Child Development

Dr. Meenal Rana, along with her colleagues from Virginia State University and the University of Nevada, co-authored the article titled, "Transnational Families in the COVID-19 Era: Health and Well-being of South Asian Older Parents with Adult Children Abroad". Using the backdrop of the global pandemic, globalization, and immigration, the paper focused on the health outcomes of older parents in transnational families. The study used autoethnographic data from the three authors to examine the cultural perception of care, sense of familism, care reciprocity, gendering of care, use of technology, and economic factors relevant to health and wellbeing in transnational families. 

Dr. Meenal Rana

Child Development

Dr. Meenal Rana and Dr. Mona Abo-Zena completed the special issue of Religions, “Focusing on the Elusive: Centering on Religious and Spiritual Influences within Contexts of Child and Young Adulthood Development” in the fall of 2024. The issue includes 11 articles representing a diversity of sociocultural and religious groups representing different countries of residence (e.g., El Salvador, India, Pakistan, USA), immigrant countries of origin (e.g., Nepal), ethnic and racial groups (e.g., Latinx, Asian, white European/Danish), and religious groups (e.g., Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Later Day Saints, Hindu) on topics such as sexual violence, parent-child relationships, death, LGBTQIA+, and mental health.

Riley N Nelson, Amanda Johnson Bertucci, Sara Swenson, Angel Seguine, Meenal Rana

Child Development

Child Development and Psychology students, three of whom were part of Dr. Rana's Children & Stress class in fall 2023 co-authored a peer-reviewed article, titled, "Building Resilience during Compassion Fatigue: Autoethnographic Accounts of College Students and Faculty in Education Sciences. The student authors are Riley N Nelson, Amanda Johnson Bertucci, Sara Swenson, and Angel Seguine. Utilizing an autoethnographic approach, this study covers a breadth of compassion fatigue, from predisposition to onset and recovery, and considers alternative strategies for coping, including creating meaning from difficult experiences.

Matias Solorzano

Psychology

Matias Solorzano, a graduate student in Academic Research in the Psychology Department was awarded the McCrone Graduate Fellowship Award in recognition of his research in neurodivergence in academia. The award not only recognizes Matias' dedication to research but will provide support for his research. Matias will be speaking on his research on Tuesday, November 12th during the McCrone Award Reception at the Plaza Grill from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. 

Amber Gaffney, Benny Anjewierden

Psychology

Dr. Amber Gaffney along with alumni and current lecturer Benny Anjewierden and several other alumni published a paper in Groups Processes and Intergroup Relations. This paper details major theory and methodological developments in a social identity model of social influence. Anjewierden*, B. J., Syfers*, L., Pinto, I. R., Gaffney, A. M., & Hogg, M. A. (2024). Group responses to deviance: Disentangling the motivational roles of collective enhancement and uncertainty reduction. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.

Riley Nelson, Amanda Johnson Bertucci, Sara Swenson, Angel Seguine, Meenal Rana

Child Development

Riley Nelson, a senior (Psyc), Amanda Johnson Bertucci, a recent graduate (CD), Sara Swenson, a senior (CD); and Angel Seguine, a recent graduate (Psyc) co-authored a peer review article with Dr. Meenal Rana, titled, "Building Resilience during Compassion Fatigue: Autoethnographic Accounts of College Students and Faculty," in the special issue of Education Sciences (accepted and in press), "Addressing Mental Health and Well-Being in Higher Education: Collaborative Insights from Education, Psychology, and the Learning Sciences." The conception of this manuscript started in CD 362 (Children and Stress) class in the fall of 2023. 

Dr. Hyun-Kyung You (Cal Poly Humboldt) Yu-Jin Jeong (Jeonbuk National University) and Sungeun Yang (Inha University) in Korea. 

Child Development

Professor Hyun-Kyung You in Child Development and her colleagues published an article, “Revisiting Transnational Activities: Korean Immigrant Mothers’ Home Visit for Families,” in Sage Open. Continuing research on transnational families, this original research explores the return trip experiences of Korean immigrant women with children. Purposefully planned and coordinated trips to Korea were not only for children to enhance their Korean identity but also for their transnational relationship with aging parents. 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21582440241240912

Co-authors are Yu-Jin Jeong (Jeonbuk National University) and Sungeun Yang (Inha University) in Korea.