Falk College strives to achieve excellence in education not only through good teaching but also through participation in active research. Our students benefit by learning from researchers who are working at the cutting-edge of knowledge, within well-equipped laboratories, and in projects that are both domestic and abroad. We encourage both undergraduates and graduate engagement to achieve not only a rewarding educational experience but also enhanced career opportunities upon graduation. Learn more about the different types of research awards.
2021-2022 Fellowship or HonorJessica Garay 2021-2022 American Society of Nutrition (ASN) Science Policy Fellow
Over the next year, Professor Garay will engage in meetings with various stakeholders involved in federal legislation, including representatives from various federal agencies as well as individuals who have worked on Capitol Hill. Professor Garay will have opportunities to advocate for health related legislative issues, and will serve as an ex officio member of the ASN Committee on Advocacy and Science Policy.
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Extramural AwardThe Influence of Contextual and Constitutional Emotional Processes on Speech Motor Control and Speech Motor Learning in Early Childhood Stuttering
The goals of this project are to advance the understanding of stuttering development in preschool-age children and inform future fluency treatment. Specifically, the researchers are interested in how different aspects of emotional reactivity influence children’s speech motor control and speech motor learning.
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Extramural AwardMaria Brown and Mary Helen McNeal partner with Vera House in Preventing Elder Abuse Project
Vera House in collaboration with Maria Brown, Research Assistant Professor in Social Work and Aging Studies Institute and Mary Helen McNeal, Professor in College of Law, will establish the Expanding CORE (Community-Based Options to Respond to Elder Abuse) Program in three apartment buildings in Syracuse.
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Extramural AwardThe Impact of College Conference TV Networks on College Football and Basketball Attendance
Sport Analytics senior Sam Marteka and junior Mackenzie Mangos are working with assistant professor Jeremy Losak on research being conducted as part of an ACC Initiatives Grant. As more sporting events become available on live television, an obvious question is the extent to which television acts as a substitute or complement for in-stadium attendance. This is especially true at the collegiate level where ticket sales and other game day revenues make up a significant portion of total revenues. Using a panel dataset from 2002-2019, this project will examine the effects of new conference networks and the increase of televised events on attendance for college football NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and college basketball NCAA Division 1 schools.
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Extramural AwardPiloting a SARS2 Early Warning Wastewater Surveillance Platform
In response to the coronavirus, Syracuse University researchers have teamed with SUNY ESF, SUNY Upstate, and industry partners to pilot a statewide wastewater surveillance platform for New York state. This project will examine the usefulness of wastewater surveillance as an early warning of increasing coronavirus transmission and establish wastewater sampling standards for the state of New York.
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Extramural AwardExploring FIFA Video Games as a Channel to Promote Football Participation, Football Literacy, and Psychosocial Well-being
This project is proposed to (1) investigate how FIFA video games usage is associated with football participation and psychological well-being, and (2) develop strategies to better utilize the video game series in stimulating football participation. Two survey-based studies are designed for the project, targeting adults in the U.S. and Canada. In Study 1, we compare four groups [FIFA video games usage (Y/N) x physical play in football (Y/N)] on their football enjoyment/involvement and physical and mental health. In Study 2, we focus on those who only play football online, and introduce/test the concept of ‘football literacy’ as a mediator explaining the football participatory effects of playing FIFA video game series.
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Extramural AwardDeveloping an Instrument to Assess Intergenerational Digital Communication by Older Adults: Expanding the Solidarity Model
The purpose of this project is to develop a reliable and valid instrument that measures the use and efficacy of various forms of intergenerational digital communication and integrate those measures within the intergenerational solidarity inventory, the gold standard for measuring intergenerational family relationships. The researchers incorporate these new forms of communication into the intergenerational solidarity paradigm and its measurement tool by conceptualizing and empirically developing a new dimension of solidarity labelled “digital solidarity.”
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Extramural AwardHeart and Vascular Responses Across the Lifespan in Ts65Dn Mice, a Model of Down Syndrome
Down syndrome (Ds) is a developmental disability that results from triplication of chromosome 21. Persons with Ds are confronted with a variety of daily challenges including heart defects at birth and lower blood pressure and heart rate at rest and during times of activity. This work aims to uncover contributors of the cardiovascular phenotype observed in Ds by using the Ts65Dn mouse, a model of Ds. The team includes Lara DeRuisseau, research professor in the Department of Exercise Science at Falk College as PI, and Kevin Heffernan, associate professor in the Department of Exercise Science at Falk College and Melissa Bates, assistant professor in the Department of Health and Human Physiology at the University of Iowa as co-Is.
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2020-2021 Fellowship or HonorEstimating Cardiovascular Age in the Community: We are Only as Old as Our Arteries
The current COVID-19 pandemic has shined a bright light on the racial divide in health in the U.S. with African Americans bearing a disproportionate burden of coronavirus-related morbidity and mortality. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are emerging as prominent risk factors for coronavirus and its related sequela. African Americans have higher CVD risk factor burden and as such are experiencing higher mortality rates from coronavirus. Moreover, the coronavirus may cause acute cardiac damage even in those without a history of CVD. Whether this acute damage has chronic effects on cardiovascular health in survivors of coronavirus remains unknown.
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2018-2019 Fellowship or HonorImpact of Gardening on Refugee Mental Health, Community Building, and Economic Well-being in Central New York
This project seeks to examine the relationship between home and community gardening practices, mental health indicators, community building, and socio-economic well-being (with an emphasis on food security) in resettled refugee populations. Existing literature on refugee populations suggests that refugees face a decreased probability of sustaining socio-economic development if nutritional and general health needs are unmet.
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Intramural Sponsored ProjectWiSE Faculty Covid Resource Grant
This grant supported two graduate students who assisted in a literature search on the topics of vegetarian diet prevalence in athletes, measurement of inflammatory markers, diet assessment in female athletes, and omega-3 fatty acid bioavailability. As a result of this literature search, we are now working on a manuscript that synthesizes these topics together.
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Extramural AwardCommunity and Work Participation Disparities: A Program of the ADA Participation Action Research Consortium (ADA PARC)
ADA PARC is a multi-site research collaboration bringing together the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) centers to examine the factors that influence the participation of people with disabilities in their communities to identify key participation disparities and strategically act to address them. We are conducting a multiregional strategic gap analyses across three primary participation areas community living, community participation, and economic equity. In some areas, such as community living and work, this will involve mining existing large population and community datasets so we can inform the benchmarking of key participation disparities and promising practices at state, regional and community levels. The ADA PARC will create a tool and a systematic process for assessing community participation at the community level for people to assess their communities.
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2020-2021 Falk Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Seed Grant AwardInterpersonal and Leadership Skills Family Based Brief Intervention with Youth: Determining Effectiveness, Feasibility, and Acceptability
Primary-age students with social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties (SEBD) are at a significantly higher risk of experiencing poor outcomes such as high school dropout rates, poor academic achievement, poor post-school outcomes, and social outcomes. Adverse intrapersonal and interpersonal outcomes may be particularly increased for students with SEBD who face challenges in their well-being, connectedness to peers, and relationships with peers and adults.
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2020-2021 Falk Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Seed Grant AwardIntergenerational Transmission of Trauma in Military Families
Child maltreatment is a significant issue in the U.S. military, with evidence showing elevated levels of fatal child maltreatment and shaken baby syndrome in military communities. The unique characteristics and circumstances of military families underscore the need for understanding child maltreatment in military families.
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2020-2021 Falk Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Seed Grant AwardAge at League Entry and Early All-Cause Mortality Risk Among NFL Players
Is age at entry associated with all-cause mortality among NFL players, after controlling for position-of-play cluster, career NFL game exposure, birth year, body mass index, entry year, and ability? In this cohort study of 9,049 National Football League players, an earlier age at NFL entry was associated with a statistically significant increase in the hazard ratio of death controlling for position-of-play cluster, career NFL game exposure, BMI, birth year, and expected ability at League entry.
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2019-2020 Falk Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Seed Grant AwardAssessing the Social-Emotional Pathways between Organized Sports and Young Adult Outcomes
This study investigates the social-emotional mechanisms through which organized sports participation is associated with long-term educational and health outcomes. Large numbers of young people engage in sports through organized activities outside of school hours. Organized sports – which include athletic activities that are supervised and/or facilitated by adults in the contexts of sports teams, athletic lessons, or community athletics centers – offer young people important opportunities to develop social-emotional skills and prosocial beliefs that foster healthy development.
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2019-2020 Falk Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Seed Grant AwardEstimating the Causal Effects of Organized Activities: Testing the Efficiency of Propensity
This study tests the utility of propensity score matching to study the effect of organized activity participation in adolescence on long-term outcomes. The potential of organized activities has taken on new importance in recent years as content that can help support the healthy development of youth. Organized activities – including after-school programs, extracurricular activities, and summer programs – receive substantial federal, state and private investments, and rigorous methods are needed to assess their impact on young people’s educational and labor market outcomes.
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Extramural AwardIntergenerational Antecedents of Care to Older Adults Approaching the End of Life With and Without Dementia
In this project, researchers examine vulnerability of older adults in relation to the care-careers of their adult children over the family life cycle. Results will inform theory about how and when children respond to their parents’ early investments in them. Goals of the research are to: (1) link early transfers of valued resources of time, money, and emotion to rates of change in the amount of care adult children provide to their vulnerable older parents; (2) test a novel methodological approach—the “countdown model”—that uses time-to-death to represent global vulnerability that triggers the delivery of care to older parents; and (3) identify whether care to older parents is more strongly associated with time-to-death from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-related causes compared to other causes.
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2019-2020 Falk Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Seed Grant AwardHealth Behaviors among Pregnant Women with Prior Pregnancy Loss
During pregnancy, the presence of maternal stress significantly increases the risk for adverse birth outcomes, including preterm birth and intrauterine growth restriction, both of which can result in low birth weight. Exposure to stress during pregnancy may affect food choices, exercise habits, use of tobacco or other drugs, and sleep patterns. Levels of psychosocial stress specifically may be particularly elevated for pregnant women who have previously experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth, which occurs in 1 in 4 pregnancies.
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Extramural AwardPaternal Risk Factors and Preschoolers Academic and Social Skills in Kenya; The Mediating role of Protective Factor
Using propositions within developmental psychopathology and parenting theories and frameworks, this study examines the associations between paternal risk factors (intimate partner violence, paternal depression, destructive conflict resolution behavior, and harsh parenting) and childhood outcomes (literacy and numeracy skills and internalizing and externalizing behaviors) and the mediating role of protective factors (social support, ethnic socialization, and constructive conflict resolution behavior) on these associations in Kenyan families. Participants are 350 fathers, their wives/partners and preschool-aged children, and their children’s teachers. Researchers hope that findings will inform the development of parenting policies and intervention programs that target risk and protective factors and paternal parenting and childhood development in low- and middle-income countries.
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2019-2020 Falk Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Seed Grant AwardManagerial Diversity and Misconduct by Male Professional Athletes
Organizations and managers have a strong interest in preventing and redressing employee misconduct, which is voluntary behavior that deviates from prevailing norms. When employees are admired public figures, as is often the case with professional athletes, the negative consequences of misconduct to organizations may be more likely and more severe than in other contexts. This research project represents the first examination of the organizational determinants of misconduct by high-profile employees of professional sports teams.
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2019-2020 Falk Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Seed Grant AwardOlympic Sponsorship in Small States; Strategies and Partnerships for Caribbean National Olympic Committees
The Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (“CANOC”) consists of 28 National Olympic Committees (“NOC”) in the Caribbean region. A key agenda of CANOC’s member NOCs is developing an Olympic sponsorship program to provide the needed support for their national team and sport events and to diversify the revenue stream heavily reliant on the International Olympic Committee and government subsidies. Being placed in a unique sport market of small states (cf. characterized by a small population, confined economy, small private sectors), Caribbean NOCs have struggled to bring sponsorship revenue and existing knowledge on sponsorship had limited applicability (cf. as mainly derived from advanced sport markets).
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Extramural AwardSocial Work Practice Fellow Program: Three-Model Implementation
Syracuse University School of Social Work Continuing Education Program has been awarded $21,000.00 in a collaborative grant with Adelphi University from the Health Foundation of Western and Central New York. The 18-month study intends to compare three models of Social Work Practice Fellow (SWPF) program delivery exclusive to social work supervisors. Process and outcome data would be used to assess feasibility, acceptability, and impact of the program in each delivery model as well as in a comparison across models.
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Extramural AwardHeffernan takes over leadership of NSF Research Education for Undergraduates (REU) Program for Trauma Research with Veterans
Kevin Heffernan, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Exercise Science, will take over leadership of the REU program started by Brooks B. Gump, Ph.D., MPH, Falk Endowed Professor of Public Health, in 2012. This program is for undergraduate veterans and non-veterans (five openings for each) interested in becoming trauma researchers. As one of many on-going interdisciplinary collaborations in the Falk College, the REU program also includes faculty members from the Aging Studies Institute and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support the REU program and is now recruiting undergraduate veterans and non-veterans to participate. Students can earn $3,000 for participating in an intensive four-week summer program each June at Syracuse University.
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2019-2020 SU CUSE GrantA Consent Toolkit for Genomics Research Inclusive of Adults with Intellectual Disability: Establishing Feasibility
Adults with intellectual disability experience significant health disparities, and can benefit dramatically from genomics research. Yet ethical, legal, and social challenges in the process of informed consent present barriers to the generation of new knowledge to promote health equity. We can identify solutions to these persistent barriers by capitalizing on human rights advances so that adults with intellectual disability can meaningfully control research participation decisions.
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