One of the keys to successful research is having an opportunity to present your work at conferences and other important meetings to disseminate your results.
The Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative’s Community-Campus Dissemination Support funded six Northern Arizona University researchers with up to $2,000 each to travel to a conference or meeting to present the outcomes from their SHERC-funded research.
Receiving the funding were Anita Antoninka, assistant professor, School of Forestry; Brooke de Heer, assistant professor, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Olivia Lindly, assistant professor, Department of Health Sciences; Matthew Salanga, assistant professor, Department of Biological Sciences; Emily Schneider, assistant professor, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice; and Amit Kumar, assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy.
Salanga and doctoral student Phillip Kalaniopio presented their work, “The Effects of Depleted Uranium on Mitochondrial Function in Zebrafish,” on May 22 at the 21st Pollutant Responses in Marine Organisms Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. Their work was originally supported by a SHERC Pilot Project Program (G1004125) grant, “Synergistic toxicity of depleted uranium and UV radiation in a humanized zebrafish model of melanoma.”
Antoninka presented “Valley Fever Spreads Beyond Endemic Regions” at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Aug. 14-19, in Québec, Canada.
Undergraduate Brianne Cooke, who began her Master of Science program this fall, also attended the meeting with Antoninka and presented the poster on a pilot project addressing the relationship between climate change and land use and the range increase of Valley Fever.
“The travel grant funding allowed for [my graduate student] Brianne’s travel and a presentation at a very large and well-attended international conference. We were able to network, talk about our research and give a young student an opportunity for professional development,” Antoninka said. “The pilot project funding has been integral to this new line of research, looking at the relationships between land degradation, restoration of soil communities and coccidioides abundance and ability to disperse. It has forged new collaborations, brought in new students, and will continue with publications and additional grant proposals.”
De Heer will attend the annual conference for the American Society of Criminology, Nov. 16-19 in Atlanta, Georgia, and will present “Sexual Consent: Queer Experiences, Perceptions, and Insights.”
De Heer’s research indicates that while queer experiences of consent share similarities with cisgender, heterosexual experiences of consent, there are some innovative practices and insights utilized within the queer community that can inform the understanding of consensual communication around sex.
“Without SHERC funding, this project would never have developed in the way it has,” de Heer said. “It has allowed me to expand my research portfolio in productive, rewarding, and meaningful ways and support graduate student work as well.”
Lindly attended the Institute for Human Development 2022 Evidence for Success Hybrid Disability Conference on June 21 in Scottsdale, Arizona, with doctoral candidate Candi Running Bear, who is in NAU’s Curriculum and Instruction program.
Lindly and Running Bear presented “Lessons Learned and Initial Findings from the Diné Parents Taking Action Pilot Project” where they discussed their preliminary study findings regarding Diné parent and guardian experiences raising autistic children compared to past study findings regarding the experiences of parents from other ethnic groups raising autistic children. They also described the key components of the Parents Taking Action program and common approaches to adapting the program for different cultural groups.
“The funding enabled Candi, our project coordinator, to participate in this conference and share what we have learned from the project to date,” Lindly said. “Participants in our session provided feedback on the project virtually and in person. This was a unique opportunity to share our work and receive feedback from members of the disability community.”
Schneider will also attend the annual conference of the American Society of Criminology, Nov. 16–19, and present “Possibilities and Limitations of Participatory Action Research Among the Incarcerated.”
She said she would not have been able to attend the conference without SHERC funding.
In her presentation, she will discuss preliminary findings that reveal major discrepancies between the academic literature and incarcerated participants’ perspectives on issues surrounding gender, counseling, communal living, and the role of peer mentors in jail-based reintegration and recovery programs.
“Through exploring the differences between how program participants versus academic researchers conceptualize strategies for reintegration and recovery, I analyze the utility of PAR methods and offer suggestions as to how to best implement such methods in the context of working with incarcerated individuals,” she said.
Kumar will attend the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) annual conference 2022 in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Nov. 2–6. He will present a symposium on “Racial Differences in Transition of Care among Medicare Beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias.”
The funding for this program was from the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative at Northern Arizona University (U54MD012388), which is sponsored by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD).