UNT Washington DC Faculty Fellows 2021

UNT Washington DC Faculty Fellows

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March 15, 2021 Good Day — Last year, in 2020, the UNT Division of Research and Innovation created the Washington DC Faculty Fellows program. This program was designed to introduce a selected cohort of faculty, chosen by their college deans, as examples of rising star research programs at UNT. The program is designed to introduce faculty to agencies of funding in the federal government and to prepare pre-tenured junior faculty for the opportunity to engage with program managers associated with these agencies. Through this three-month training and preparation program, we work with these faculty to build a sense of assurance and knowledge regarding engagement with the funding agencies.

This year, 2021, we are proud to introduce the second cohort of UNT Washington DC Faculty Fellows. These junior faculty are among our brightest researchers and we wish them the very best as they move through the early years of their career.

Spanning all our academic colleges, these researchers are thought leaders in their disciplines and are reflective of our commitment to diversity and inclusion as well as our appreciation of all forms of research across the many varied sciences, our engineering programs, our humanities and our arts programs.

We hope you have an opportunity to meet with these bright energetic faculty and see what we see in them — an extraordinary future full of opportunity and possibility.

Congratulations to our 2021 cohort of UNT Washington DC Faculty Fellows.

Mark R. McLellan Vice President for Research & Innovation

College of Health And Public Service Seven academic departments comprise the College of Health and Public Service (HPS), including Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation and Health Services, Social Work, and Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology.

HPS researchers aim to address complex social issues in public administration, public health, and urban design.

Sharon Miller

Assistant Professor, Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Dr. Miller’s goals of her current cortical auditory event-related potential program are to identify biomarkers of successful speech and language performance in persons with and without communication disorders and to develop auditory training protocols that maximize brain plasticity and improve auditory and speech-language outcomes.

Haley Zettler

Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice Dr. Zettler’s primary research interests focus on correctional populations and programs designed to reduce recidivism.

She is also interested in the role that mental health, substance use, and trauma have on recidivism.

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College of Engineering The College of Engineering and its five academic departments have established clusters of research excellence in additive manufacturing, cybersecurity, and bioengineering. CENG also works with the government on state and national initiatives, including research in national defense, response analysis, and nuclear waste storage.

Melanie Ecker

Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering Dr. Ecker’s research interests lie in polymer science and biomedical engineering. She wants to combine both fields to develop biomedical devices, such as conformal and biocompatible neural devices to study the electrophysiology of the enteric nervous system.

Yijie (Steven) Jiang Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Dr. Jiang’s research background is in advanced manufacturing of nanocomposite materials.

College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism

The College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism aims to transform learning, research, and engagement for a global experience economy.

All areas in the college are engaged in research that is focused on sustainability, and innovation.

Iva Jestratijevic

Assistant Professor, Department of Merchandising and Digital Retailing Dr. Jestratijevic’s current research is focused on sustainability and transformative behavior, specifically exploring the ways in which social and environmental initiatives perpetuate sustainable transformation, assuring corporate, collective and personal well-being.

Xi Leung

Assistant Professor, Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management Dr. Leung’s research interests include information technology, social media, hospitality management, destination marketing, and hospitality education. Her work emphasizes applying new technology as tools for hotel/restaurant/destination marketing and management.

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College of Information The College of Information houses three departments: Linguistics, Learning Technology, and Information Science. The college’s main domains of knowledge are in information science, library science, computing and technology systems, learning and cognition, linguistics, and human performance.

Fred McMahan

Assistant Professor, Learning Technologies Dr. McMahan’s research primarily focuses on adaptive virtual environments. Specifically using neurogaming techniques to build XR environments that adapt to the user to provide an ever-changing experience.

Lingzi Hong

Assistant Professor, Informational Science Dr. Hong’s research interests include data science and engineering, urban computing, crisis informatics, and data ethics.

College of Education The College of Education consists of the following departments in which all are engaged in funded research: Teacher Education and Administration, Counseling and Higher Education, Educational Pyschology, and Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation. COE researchers and practitioners are innovators and advance new practices in their spheres of influence.

Carrie Allen

Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Psychology Dr. Allen’s research aims to address institutional and systemic inequalities within STEM education by supporting the design and implementation of STEM learning reforms

Stephanie Silveira

Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion, & Recreation Dr. Silveira’s research includes mixedmethods approaches in order to engage communities in her research creating tailored health promotion programs and examining outcomes such as psychosocial factors, body composition, fitness, diet, and physical activity.

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College of Visual Arts and Design The College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) includes the departments Art Education, Art History, Design, Studio Art, and Interdisciplinary Art and Design Studies. CVAD researchers are engaged in exploring research that reveal new knowledge and assume a critical role in building North Texas into a world-renowned center for culture and education.

Lauren Cross

Assistant Professor, Department of Interdisciplinary Art & Design Studies Dr. Cross’ research addresses interdisciplinary topics within the visual arts and design, including critical theory, social practice, art entrepreneurship/ arts administration, curatorial studies/ museum studies, multiculturalism, and women’s and gender studies.

Pedram Baldari

Assistant Professor, Department of Studio Art Professor Baldari’s artistic research is focused on the exploration of power dynamics, systems of legitimacy in an out of the arts, disorientation inherent in his Kurdish experience in regard to the state — past, in his native land and present, in the U.S, displacement, the concept of citizenship, war and immigration.

College of Music The College of Music is home to eight divisions, including Composition Studies, Conducting and Ensembles, Instrumental Studies, Jazz Studies, Keyboard Studies, Music Education, Music History, and Vocal Studies. The College of Music is engaged with promoting research and innovation in music education and performance.

Daphne Gerling

Assistant Professor, Department of Instrumental Studies Dr. Gerling performs and teaches as a violist. Her research interests include under-represented Latin American music for viola. Her interests and skills include music leadership development, program building, curriculum development in pedagogy and entrepreneurship, and graduate academic administration.

Jamey Kelley

Assistant Professor, Department of Music Education Dr. Kelley’s research interests include singing accuracy, participation in music education, aural skills development, music teacher education, social psychology of music education, and gender issues in music education.

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College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

The College of Language Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) is comprised of 22 academic departments and 11 centers and institutes. CLASS is built on a mission to kindle the thirst for truth, justice, and beauty while fostering cultural literacy and scientific investigation.

Newly Paul

Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism Dr. Paul’s research interests include political communication, race and gender issues in the media, and women in politics.

Marti Jones

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology Dr. Jones’ research interests include racial and gender identity, identity development theory, intersectionality, multicultural & cross-cultural counseling, group psychotherapy, and mixed methods.

College of Science The College of Science (COS) is comprised of four core departments: Biology, Chemistry, Math, and Physics. COS is also home to a variety of research centers and labs including the Advanced Environmental Research Institute (AERI) and the Biodiscovery Institute (BDI).

Elizabeth Skellam Assistant Professor, Chemistry

Dr. Skellam’s research interests include discovering and elucidating novel molecules, complex secondary metabolite pathways, and unusual biosynthetic enzymes from microorganisms using chemical and biological methods.

Yaun Li

Assistant Professor, Physics Dr. Li’s research interests include galaxy clusters and massive galaxies; black hole accretion and feedback; the interstellar medium, the intra-cluster medium and the circum-galactic medium. She uses computer simulations to study various physical processes related to galaxy evolution and supermassive black holes.

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DRI Nominations Each year, the Division of Research and Innovation nominates two outstanding faculty to be part of the UNT Washington DC Fellows Program.

Mauricio Antunes Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Dr. Antunes’ research interests include the development of synthetic transcriptional and post-transcriptional control systems whose behavior can be modulated by specific inputs, engineering complex synthetic genetic circuits to improve plant production and biosynthesis, and re-wiring metabolic pathways in plants using gene regulatory controls.

Huaxio (Adam) Yang Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Dr. Yang’s lab applies the cutting-edge multi-scale biomedical engineering tools and stem cell technologies to understand and treat human cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial infarction, familial cardiomyopathies, congenital heart diseases, and cardiovascular toxicity.

College of Business The College of Business (COB) consists of five departments: Accounting; Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, and Law; Information Technology and Decision Sciences; Management; and Marketing, Logistics, and Operations Management. All departments participate in research that promotes innovations in economic and commerce matters.

Hoda Vaziri

Assistant Professor, Department of Management Dr. Vaziri’s research interests include workfamily, work-nonwork, multiple identities, employee well-being, and quantitative methods.

Obi Ogbanufe

Assistant Professor, Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences Dr. Ogbanufe’s research interests include information security, machine learning, text mining, risk management, and smart devices.

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Peter Kipp

Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting Dr. Kipp’s general research interests include AIS and auditing topics with a behavioral and decision-making focus.

For more information about our current and past Fellows, visit research.unt.edu/dc-fellows