College Research Center

Welcome to the
David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics Research Center

The Research Center helps foster a vibrant disciplinary and inter-disciplinary research community within the College, and facilitates individual and collaborative scholarly research by faculty.

Our faculty engages in a wide variety of research activities that impact the lives of individuals, families, organizations and the community. Their fields of expertise include child and family studies, marriage and family therapy, public health, food studies and nutrition, social work and sport management.

Recent topics of funded projects include: children’s self-regulation in an urban environment, the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk families through Social Security reform, bullying and domestic partner violence, social media uses in marketing, reduction of health disparities and promoting health and healthy lifestyles among minority communities, improving healthcare for persons with disabilities, and trauma research training for undergraduate veterans.

Faculty Research Highlights

Jeff Pauline receives grant to identify methods for increasing physical activity among college students

Jeff Pauline, Ed.D.,, assistant professor, Department of Sport Management, receives grant to identify methods for increasing physical activity among college students. The prevalence of obesity in the United States is at an all-time high. The time period young adults spend in college is viewed as a critical period of weight gain. Reduced physical activity coupled with increased sedentary activities, such as studying and computer use, and a change in eating habits, creates the perfect storm for gaining weight.

Razza presents "Attention, Self-Regulation and School Success"

Rachel A. Razza, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Child and Family Studies, is a featured presenter at the conference, “Executive Skills for School Success: Enhancing Self-Regulation, Reasoning and Working Memory.” The conference explores the science of "executive function" and how to use teaching strategies, meditation, exercise and brain training to enhance working memory, attention, self-control, thinking, and visual-spatial skills to better prepare students for the future.

Katherine McDonald Receives Early Career Award

The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) has selected Katherine McDonald, assistant professor of public health in the Falk College and faculty fellow at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI), as the recipient of the 2012 Early Career Award. The Award recognizes McDonald for her achievements and many contributions to the field of developmental disabilities.

Sanda Lane Book Reviewed in Medical Anthropology Quarterly

In the December 2012 issue of Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Sandra Lane’s Book Why Are Our Babies Dying? Pregnancy, Birth, and Death in America was reviewed by Rachel R. Chapman of the University of Washington.

Training Veterans to Conduct Research with Fellow Veterans

Professor of public health Brooks Gump, Ph.D., M.P.H., will continue leading a program this summer for undergraduate veterans interested in becoming trauma researchers. Gump was one of six faculty from three upstate New York universities (Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate, and SUNY Oswego) who participated in the Research Education for Undergraduates (REU) program as a mentor in 2012.

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, REU is now recruiting undergraduate veterans and a limited number of non-veterans who can earn $3,000 for participating in an intensive four-week summer program from June 3-28, 2013 at SUNY Oswego.

The program involves coursework, mentored student-faculty interaction, and development of a research project. After the program's summer component is complete, the second phase continues the following semester with research conducted under the continued mentorship of REU faculty.

Ultimately, the research findings are submitted for presentation at a national or international conference.

School of Social Work Partners with UAlbany, Upstate Consortium to Support Veterans' Health

The Syracuse University School of Social Work is part of a consortium of upstate New York schools, led by the University at Albany’s School of Social Welfare, to support behavioral health initiatives for veterans. Under the umbrella of the Upstate New York Mental and Behavioral Health Education Consortium (UNY-MBHEC), the partners include the University at Buffalo, University at Binghamton, University at Brockport, Nazareth College of Rochester and Roberts Wesleyan College, in addition to the School of Social Work in SU’s Falk College and UAlbany.

The project, which is supported by a three-year, $480,253 competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is intended to increase social workers’ capacity to address the mental and behavioral health needs of veterans, military personnel and their families, and residents of medically underserved rural communities.

School of Social Work Professor Works with the American Evaluation Association

Karen Kirkhart, professor, School of Social Work served as a writing team member at the American Evaluation Association, a resource for program evaluation and other related inquiry. The team developed a statement on cultural competence in evaluation, identifying definitions and expectations for cultural competence, guiding both evaluators and the funders of evaluation.

The statement is significant because it identifies how those designing and carrying out evaluations conduct themselves and their work and also what the public should expect of evaluators.

Approved by the American Evaluation Association board in March, the statement was supported by the full membership in April, it is available on the American Evaluation Association’s website, www.eval.org/ccstatement.asp and through the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics’s Research Center.

Deborah J. Monahan Associate Dean of Research