Engage

College for Health, Community and Policy

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, 2021

ENGAGE Sociology student named outstanding Black student leader p12

Taking COVID to the classroom p13

Faculty in Criminology and Criminal Justice earn two grants p21

Researchers pool resources to launch national survey on pandemic’s effects p19

Katie Vela'14

South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless p8

Welcome to Engage!

This is the inaugural issue of the College for Health, Community and Policy’s semi-annual magazine and we are so glad you are here to engage with us through this medium. Since the College is new and the magazine is new, I want to take some time to introduce you to both—and to me.

I am a sociologist, trained as a demographer, and I study spatial disparities in mortality—essentially that means I look at death rates for counties across the US and try to understand why they are higher in some areas (over a fifty-year period!) and lower in other areas. Understanding the root causes of these disparities has made me passionate about health equity and making sure that we work to solve the many disparities we have in our communities, especially in America.

Last fall, when I learned about the launch of the College for Health, Community and Policy, I was very excited about this leadership opportunity for three reasons: (1) I knew that President Eighmy and Provost Espy were— and are—committed to the urban-serving and Hispanic-thriving missions of the university—we all want to make a difference in San Antonio, South Texas and the nation, (2) that the preposition for in the College’s title showed me that the mission would be centered around a call to action—to improve the well-being of all the communities that we partner with in research and learning, and (3) that the unique combination of programs and research centers that make up HCaP (as we are affectionately known) would allow us to break up silos and enter into a 21st century learning model that would BRIDGE the disciplines represented in the College.

On a more personal level, I was born and raised at the east-end of I-10 in Jacksonville, Florida and moved a couple of hours west to attend Florida State University for my bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. Most of my academic career was spent at two land grant institutions—Mississippi State University, where I spent the formative years of my career, and West Virginia University, where I led the department through the development process to establish a new doctoral program.

I frequently ask my students to tell me something unique about themselves; so, I have a few “fun facts” myself, as I won’t ask them anything I won’t do myself. My mother raised four teachers—my younger sister is the only one who still teaches in a classroom on a daily basis, but there was a time when we all were classroom teachers. I’m very proud of her for that accomplishment. I’m also a native Floridian—born at a time when nearly all Floridians were transplants. I’m a traveler—I’ve been to all 50 states (before my 50th birthday) and I’ve visited a couple dozen countries as well. Last, but certainly not least, I love good food and good wine—send me all of your suggestions about where I can find

both in San Antonio, South Central Texas, the state as a whole, anywhere really!

I moved to San Antonio and to UTSA to be the “project manager” on building this new College because I also love challenges. Following a two-year planning process, the College for Health, Community and Policy (HCaP) was launched with eight departments and one program. The departments from the former College for Public Policy – Criminology and Criminal Justice, Demography, Public Administration and Social Work – joined the Departments of Psychology and Sociology (historically located in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts) and the Departments of Kinesiology and Public Health (from the College of Education and Human Development), along with the Nutrition and Registered Dietetics program.

As we came together in the UTSA systems across campus in the new fiscal year (September 2020) we were officially the largest college on campus with 20% of the student body pursuing a degree within one of these programs.

We won’t stop there—we have ambitious plans to add to our current undergraduate and graduate offerings; so stay tuned for more information on new interdisciplinary programs, as well as new programs in social work and nutrition.

In addition to our academic programs, we have integrated five research centers and are currently reorganizing them under an umbrella research organization called the Institutes for Health, Community and Policy (iHCaP). These centers include: (1) the Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research founded in 2004 and led by Lloyd Potter, Ph.D., which also includes the Texas Demographic Center, (2) the Institute for Health Disparities Research founded in 2010 and currently led by Eric Shattuck, Ph.D., (3) the Policy Studies Center founded in 2013 and led by Roger Enriquez, JD and (4) the Center for Community Based and Applied Health Research founded in 2018 and co-led by Meizi He, Ph.D. and Erica Sosa, Ph.D.. In her capacity as Associate Dean of Research in HCaP, Erica Sosa will also lead iHCaP—we’re anticipating fantastic growth in funded research that will be organized under this new infrastructure.

Our short-term goals involve standing up the College and developing procedures for every aspect of college work, building transdisciplinary topnotch undergraduate and graduate programs, launching a Student Success Center and renovating spaces to create our HCaP home on both campuses.

New Faculty

Brian Armenta Assistant Professor, Psychology

Stephanie Cardwell Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice

Jimi Francis Assistant Professor, Kinesiology

Ginny Garcia-Alexander Assistant Professor, Sociology

Terrence Hill Associate Professor, Sociology

Longer-term, we intend to increase our research profile, continue to grow enrollments and, most importantly, hire an Associate Dean of Community Engagement and Partnerships who will lead all of the community engagement efforts in the College, across teaching, research and service.

You may wonder why I wanted to call this publication Engage. We are dedicated to working with our communities to better understand the problems they are facing and to build solutions with them— making the world a better place. We want our students to be engaged with the community, we want our faculty to be engaged with the community and we want the community to be engaged with us. This publication is one of the means for us to engage with our alumni.

Engagement is at the core of our mission—in fact, it’s right there in the name of the College. We are a College FOR Health, Community and Policy.

Because we are in the midst of standing up the College, you will see many articles about who we are, you will meet the new College administrators, you will learn about three new department chairs, you will see profiles on various alumni and basic data about HCaP— the newest, boldest and largest college at UTSA. I hope you enjoy reading about some incredibly successful alumni, some of the amazing work that our faculty are doing and some of the innovative teaching we integrated about the COVID pandemic.

Speaking of the pandemic, we have launched a Media Club for all students, staff and faculty. In the fall, we discussed a podcast, a documentary and a book about the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. In the spring, we discussed a podcast on the vaccine rollout, a documentary about the early American response to the COVID pandemic and read a novel (End of October) about a fictional influenza pandemic that was released in April 2020.

While we remain virtual, these events—along with our Happy Hour series for alumni and our research roundtable for faculty—provide a means for us to all get to know one another in this brand-new College, and in this brave new world.

All in all, we are gelling as a College. We look forward to being able to do so in person—which will also permit us to have more alumni events where we can get to know all of you as well. In the meantime, we are focusing on our mission, vision and strategic plan that we outlined last summer and we are driving home our brand for all: The Four Cs of HCaP focus on critical thinking, career preparedness, community engagement and—the bridge that brings it all together—a call to action. Join us. Engage with us. Big, bold things are coming our way.

Lynne Cossman Professor, Demography and Sociology

Joseph Houpt Associate Professor, Psychology

Birds Up, Sleeves Up.

Travis Meyers Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice

Emily Nicklett Associate Professor, Social Work

MEET THE NEW CHAIRS Ray Swisher, Ph.D. Sociology Professor Swisher is Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His research employs life course and social stress theoretical frameworks to examine risk factors in the lives of low-income families, and their consequences for health and well-being across the life course. Some of these risks have included living in disadvantaged neighborhoods, exposure to violence and parental incarceration. Outcomes linked to these risks have included depression, crime and violence, substance use, adolescent survival expectations, college graduation, among others. Recent work has focused on issues of social mobility, such as changes in neighborhood poverty across the life course, and educational mobility across generations, including challenges faced by first-generation students. His continuing line of research has examined the collateral consequences of parental incarceration for families and children.

Kara Joyner, Ph.D. Demography Kara Joyner is Professor and Chair of the Department of Demography at UTSA. She also serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Population Research and Policy Review. Her research addresses how a variety of factors influence the formation and dynamics of romantic relationships, including cohabiting unions and marriages. It also considers how different types of relationships influence health and well-being. She recently co-authored a Russell Sage Foundation book on interracial friendships and romantic relationships (The Company We Keep). She is now collaborating with UTSA postdoc Taylor Orth on a project that uses survey experiments to investigate the importance of partisanship in selecting a romantic partner.

Sandra Morissette, Ph.D. Psychology Dr. Morissette is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Boston University. As Director of the Trauma Health Research In Veterans’ Experiences (THRIVE) laboratory, her research primarily focuses on military health psychology. Her expertise is in studying co-occurring conditions, including trauma/post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, and addictive behaviors, with a particular interest in understanding factors that affect functional recovery in post-9/11 veterans as well as suicide prevention. She has published over 100 peerreview articles and book chapters, and serves as a Consulting Editor for the Journal of Clinical Psychology. She enjoys mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, as well as teaching Military Health Psychology and Introduction to Clinical Psychology.

Ray Swisher Chair and Professor, Sociology

Kara Joyner Chair and Professor, Demography

Sandra Morissette Chair and Professor, Psychology

UTSA HCaP Administration Lynne Cossman, Ph.D. Inaugural Dean Alberto Cordova, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Success Kelly Garza Assistant Dean of Fiscal Administration Erica Sosa, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Research Johnelle Sparks, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Faculty Success and Administration Rob Tillyer, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Graduate Student Success Department Chairs Amy Chanmugam, Ph.D. Social Work Richard Hartley, Ph.D. Criminology and Criminal Justice Kara Joyner, Ph.D. Demography Sandra Morissette, Ph.D. Psychology Sara B. Oswalt, Ph.D. Public Health Francine Romero, Ph.D. Public Administration Ray Swisher, Ph.D. Sociology Wan Yao, Ph.D. Kinesiology (Interim) iHCaP Policy Studies Center Roger Enriquez, J.D. Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research Lloyd Potter, Ph.D. Institute for Health Disparities Research Eric Shattuck, Ph.D. Center for Community Based and Applied Health Research Erica Sosa, Ph.D. Meizi He, Ph.D. Texas Demographic Center Lloyd Potter, Ph.D.

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CONTENTS HCaP in the news .................................................................. 4 Milestones ................................................................................ 4 In memoriam .......................................................................... 4 Student veteran devotes herself to community service and health .................................................. 5 Dean’s Community Lecture Series ............................................ 6 New College, same roadrunner................................................. 6 Meet the College ...................................................................... 7 Ways to engage with HCaP ...................................................... 7 HCaP by the numbers.............................................................. 7 Katie Vela ’14 leads south alamo regional alliance for the homeless (sarah) ............................................. 8 Sociology student named outstanding Black student leader ............................................................. 12 Taking COVID to the classroom .......................................... 13

Stay Connected To keep up with general news about the College for Health, Community and Policy, we encourage you to visit hcap.utsa.edu. If you would like to receive our monthly e-newsletter, please make sure we have your email address (send to: hcap@utsa.eduu).

To submit class notes and photos (1-5MB), please email hcap@utsa.eduu.

Engage is published annually for alumni and friends by the College for Health, Community and Policy. If you have opinions or comments on the articles, please email hcap@utsa.eduu or write to us: Downtown campus UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy 501 W. Cesar E. Chavez Blvd.

San Antonio, TX 78207 Main campus

UTSA's Todić joins prestigious cohort of social work health futures fellows............................................ 16 UTSA alumna earns scholarship to practice medicine in underserved communities .......................................................................... 17 Public administration alumnus pursues law career ............................................................................... 18 Researchers pool resources to launch national survey on pandemic’s effects ................................... 19

Engage staff

Faculty in criminology and criminal justice earn two grants totaling more than $2,600,000................................................................... 21

Writers: Amanda Cody, Shea Conner, Valerie Bustamante, Jordan Allen Editors: Amanda Cody, Lynne Cossman, Shannon Keen, Julia Wolf Designers: Peggy Lo, Gregory Schneider, Christian Jensen

Roadrunner pantry obtains dairy cooler to further serve community .................................................... 24

Individual photos seen in alumni profiles have been supplied courtesy of the respective alumni

Class notes ............................................................................. 25

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy 1 UTSA Circle San Antonio, TX 78249

NEWS

HCaP in the News

MILESTONES

Faculty members from all HCaP departments have made headlines this year – from appearing in videos for KSAT, to authoring Op-Eds for Express News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and more.

Professors were quoted as subject matter experts in local and national news outlets on topics such as police brutality, youth homelessness, immigration, COVID-19, domestic violence, the 2020 election and much more.

Although the College for Health, Community and Policy is brand new, the programs within it are not. Two HCaP programs hit significant milestones this year.

In addition, faculty members earned awards from various academic and community organizations.

Finally, HCaP faculty members have been busy publishing their research in a wide range of academic journals, magazines, and websites.

For a look at all of the news outlets and academic publications our faculty have contributed to, please visit hcap.utsa.edu.

DEMOGRAPHY

PSYCHOLOGY

This year, the Ph.D. program in Applied Demography—the first social science doctoral program at UTSA—celebrated 15 years.

This year, the Master of Science in Psychology program celebrated 25 years at UTSA.

In that time, the program has generated over 60 new Ph.D.s working in local and federal government, private sector data analytics, higher education, social media and healthcare.

The Ph.D. program is designed to provide students with a strong basis in social research and the application of statistical and demographic analysis tools so the students can pursue research careers in a wide variety of settings.

In the last 25 years, more than 200 students received degrees and are working in fields like private practice, human resources, education, and more.

The M.S. program is designed to provide students with the statistical and methodological background to go on to a Ph.D. program in traditionally researchoriented areas or to obtain MS-level jobs in applied research settings.

In Memoriam Gidget Vasquez, office manager in the Department of Demography, passed away on November 29, 2020.

Gidget was born in Austin, Texas on January 15, 1970; along with her twin sister Geneva Vasquez Garcia, to Beatrice Loera and Antonio Vasquez. Gidget attended the University of Texas at San Antonio, then went onto work for UTSA in the Demography department.

She enjoyed the culture and festivities that San Antonio offered, such as annual Fiestas, Jamaicas, and the Poteet Strawberry Festival.

She and her husband made roots in Poteet and enjoyed the small-town feel.

Gidget was known for her funny, bubbly, outgoing personality. Her smile was contagious and she knew how to make anyone laugh. Her love was unconditional and fierce. She would help any and all who were in need. She loved to celebrate holidays and milestones with all, from co-workers to family.

As a devout Catholic and was a member of San Jose Catholic Church in Austin, Texas where she dedicated over 10 years to the youth program, helping children come to God. She took children to the Marion Conference during Pope John Paul II’s First Marion Youth Day in

Colorado. Gidget made pilgrimages to many holy places to pay tribute to her faith.

“In chatting with members of the department, it became clear Gidget was so much more than an administrative assistant,” said Lynne Cossman, dean of the College for Health, Community and Policy. “She was the glue for the department—she celebrated its members’ successes and milestones with them. Faculty birthdays were celebrated with cake. Holidays were honored with door decorations. She coordinated a department Thanksgiving lunch every year.

“Graduate student defenses were as nerveracking for her as they were for the students.

“She did these things because she cared deeply for the demography faculty and students as a part of her family.”

The College for Health, Community and Policy supports memorial scholarships or in memoriam gifts. If you would like to start a memorial fund, please contact Lisa Hernandez, Chief Development Officer, at lisa.hernandez2@utsa.edu.

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 4

Student-veteran devotes herself to community service and health Vanessa Cardenas Tilton ’20 will proudly tell you she was raised to give back to her community. Hailing from Del Rio, it’s a passion she’s sustained through serving in Alaska and Afghanistan as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army, through her ongoing education at UTSA, and will continue through a career in the field of nutrition and dietetics.

“No matter what I’m doing or where I am, I’m going to give back. That’s just who I am,” she said. “Those little things you do can have a huge impact on someone later on in their lives.”

Tilton has made quite the impact everywhere she has gone. When she wasn’t briefing commanders or honing her combat skills while stationed at Fort Wainwright in Alaska from 2010 to 2014, she committed herself to community service efforts across the city of Fairbanks. She helped prepare meals for delivery and clean the kitchen while volunteering for Meals on Wheels. She worked with Mothers Against Drunk Drivers at various health fairs. During her daily lunch hours, she’d leave the military base to visit her little sister as part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program—playing games and giving her a space to vent about her home life.

Some of her fondest volunteering memories come from a JROTC camp where she was a mentor and camp counselor for young cadets from Lathrop and North Pole high schools. Teaching them about marching and the importance of leadership qualities, Tilton admits she was a little more forgiving than her male military counterparts. She felt as if she made a great connection with many of the teens, and it was reciprocated when she was forced to leave camp before its conclusion when her grandmother passed away.

“I got all these pictures that were sent to me and messages that said ‘We miss Specialist Cardenas’ and ‘We wish you were here,’” Tilton recalled. “It definitely made me emotional.”

Tilton’s community service efforts were so great and numerous while stationed at Fort

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Wainwright that she was awarded the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, an honor in which she takes great pride. “That medal meant a lot to me,” she said. “It’s a different kind of medal than the ones I earned in Afghanistan. It was more personal.

It was more about self-motivation.”

She also found motivation for her college education and a potential career during her military service—although it certainly wasn’t by choice. “I realized nutrition was so important when I was eating cereal or MREs (meals ready to eat) in Afghanistan for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Tilton remembered. “I desperately wanted fresh food, but that’s incredibly difficult in the middle of Afghanistan. I looked forward to the days when I could eat a piece of watermelon or any kind of fruit.” Because of a poor diet largely based in heavily processed meals, she reached the end of her military service with gastrointestinal issues and a newly developed lactose intolerance. The experience inspired Tilton to educate herself and others about proper nutrition.

Upon return to South Texas in 2016, Tilton attended UTSA with eyes on a double-major in kinesiology and nutrition & dietetics.

She continued to devote countless hours to volunteering, although her efforts were now focused on improving community health. She joined the Dietetic and Nutrition Student Association to speak with prospective students interested in studying nutrition and health fields. She also volunteered for Project Power, a youth camp initiative of the American Diabetes Association that intends to slow the trajectory of childhood obesity through exercise and nutrition education. Tilton mentored the campers, many of whom were

Vanessa Cardenas Tilton

at high risk of developing diabetes, about limiting media use and eating better.

She also volunteered and then interned for the San Antonio Food Bank and Texas A&M AgrilLife Extension, where she assisted in the production of healthy meals for the Pre-K 4 SA afterschool program, helped create a school garden, and prepped healthy snack recipes for children. Tilton said it was especially meaningful to her because she wished she and her loved ones had been given the same kind of opportunities during her childhood. “A lot of us don’t get proper nutritional education, especially those of us who come from poor border towns like Del Rio where there isn’t a lot of money for public schools,” she said.

“That’s something I really want to change.”

Tilton earned her B.S. in kinesiology earlier this year and is now in the Coordinated Program for Dietetics working toward both a B.S. in nutrition & dietetics and a Master of Dietetic Studies (M.D.S.) in 2021. She’s currently in the throes of a demanding four-days-a-week clinical rotation and aims to complete the national exam to become a registered dietitian. From there, she’ll have plenty of career paths to choose from.

She initially attended UTSA with hopes of becoming a sports dietitian, but Tilton now envisions herself beginning her professional journey in a clinical setting.

“The reason I want to start off in a clinical setting when I graduate is because I want to challenge myself. For me, a challenge is a patient with renal disease, diabetes, liver disease, heart failure, or a complex patient who has many of those conditions and is resistant to change. It’s not simple,” she explained. “You have to figure out how to best help that person in that small amount of time that you get to see them—and I like that. I’ve always liked that.”

— Shea Conner | UTSA Today

Dean’s Community Lecture Series Our students make up 20% of the total UTSA enrollment and each one brings a diversity of backgrounds and experiences to their discipline. The College is creating multiple platforms to engage every student in its mission and community. One particular program – the Dean’s Community Lecture Series – will provide valuable opportunities for current students to become connected with the leaders of today.

The vision of the Dean’s Community Lecture Series is to engage students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners in developing future leaders in our community. Our lecture series will bring leaders from San Antonio and beyond to campus to talk about the latest developments in their fields, traits for success and how to make a meaningful impact in today’s community.

Roadrunner pantry obtains dairy cooler to further serve community Thanks to an award from Dairy Max, the Roadrunner Food Pantry has received a dairy cooler to offer milk, yogurt and cheese to our Roadrunners.

The overall mission of the Lecture Series aims to foster the natural leadership abilities of students while discussing critical topics in our community. The one-hour lecture sessions will include brief remarks from an invited speaker with a distinguished career. The series provides an opportunity for engagement with CEO, VP’s, founders, activists, government, non-profit and community leaders at least 8 times each year.

“During this pandemic, it was essential for the Student Union to keep the Roadrunner Pantry open five days a week,” said Nikki Lee, Senior Associate Director of the UTSA Student Union.

“Milk continues to be the most requested item, and this cooler from Dairy Max allows us to provide a constant source.”

After learning about the speaker’s professional pathway and the traits that allowed them to succeed, an interactive session will follow for the audience to ask questions and discuss topics. The goals are to create career preparedness, critical thinking and funding pathways for the college and beyond.

The Roadrunner Pantry is open to all students in need with a valid UTSA ID. The UTSA Student Union, realizing the true need to provide the basic necessity of nutritious food to students struggling with food access and insecurity, and through rigorous research of current higher education practices, established the Roadrunner Pantry in 2017. By providing access to healthy and nutritious foods, the food pantry helps students reach their full academic and personal potential.

The Series will be offered monthly. If you have a suggested topic or would like be to be involved in future lectures, please contact Lisa Hernandez at lisa.hernandez2@utsa.edu.

Knowing what a critical feature it would be – especially during the times of COVID-19, Lee and the Director of the Coordinated Program in Dietetics at UTSA, Liset Vasquez, partnered to write the grant proposal to obtain the dairy cooler.

“Dairy foods provide important nutrients and can be easily incorporated into many dishes,” said Vasquez.

The Roadrunner Pantry relies on the support of our campus community for food and toiletries.

Items can be dropped off at the Roadrunner Pantry Donation Station located in UTSA Student Union North (across from the Bookstore). The pantry also accepts monetary donations to ensure food is always available. Our partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank helps us use these funds to purchase food for stocking the pantry for students in need.

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 6

MEET THE COLLEGE The College for Health, Community and Policy (HCaP) contains nine academic disciplines, all of which inform each other. The College was created exactly because these important areas directly affect one another – you can’t examine public policy, for example, without considering public health, criminology and criminal justice, psychology, nutrition, sociology, and more.

Our mission is to develop solutions to affect change for complex social issues to improve the well-being of communities and the world. We aim to accomplish this mission through exceptional education, creation and dissemination of knowledge and partnership with diverse communities and institutions from local to global with an emphasis on equity and inclusion.

Lynne Cossman, Ph.D. Mark G. Yudof Dean’s Endowed Professorship Professor, Sociology and Demography Dean, College for Health, Community and Policy Medical sociologist and demographer Jeralynn “Lynne” Sittig Cossman joined UTSA in May 2020 as founding dean of UTSA’s College for Health, Community and Policy (HCaP) and Mark G. Yudof Endowed Professor. As she leads the development of UTSA’s newest college, Cossman plans to build interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs that are designed to send UTSA students out into the community in health-related capacities—and from many perspectives.

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ENGAGE | UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy

Prior to UTSA, Cossman served as chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University, an R1 researchintensive university, where she oversaw curriculum and program development in a department of 1,000 students in criminology, sociology and anthropology. Notably, she spearheaded the design and implementation of the university’s doctoral program in sociology.

Additionally, she led the expansion of the department’s research infrastructure, including affiliating with multiple health science research centers, to support and provide funding opportunities for all doctoral students.

Cossman’s own research focuses on community health and health professionals. She has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, among others. She is the author of approximately 70 peer-reviewed publications and has published in several sociology and interdisciplinary journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, Social Problems, Health and Place, Population

Research and Policy Review, Sociological Inquiry and The Journal of Rural Health.

Her current research focuses on spatial concentrations of mortality and morbidity, particularly as they relate to COVID-19.

Cossman and her team are transferring the Data HEART (Health Engagement and Research Team) of West Virginia to Texas this summer. The Data HEART of Texas will be focused on improving access to county-level, nationwide data for local governments and non-profits.

Prior to her time at WVU, Cossman worked from 2001 to 2014 at Mississippi State University, where she earned tenure and later promotion to full professor. She served in several administrative roles, including head of the Department of Sociology, graduate program coordinator and director of the Women/Gender Studies program.

For a full list of faculty, staff, and researchers of HCaP, please visit hcap.utsa.edu.

Ways to Engage with HCaP • Become an HCaP Leadership Circle member: join our distinguished

alumni group and find ways to interact with students and faculty • Attend a Dean’s Community Lecture Series Event virtually or in-person • Create a scholarship or memorial fund in honor of you or someone else

By Check: To make a gift by check, please make it payable to UTSA Gift Services, and mail it to the address below. Be sure to include a note that your donation is to support the College for Health, Community and Policy (HCaP) or list one of our many departments, programs, projects or scholarships you would like to support.

• Share, like and follow us on social media @hcaputsa

UTSA Gift Services The University of Texas at San Antonio One UTSA Circle San Antonio, TX 78249

• Visit the campus

Other areas of consideration:

• Become an HCaP 'K' Club Member • Become a mentor, create an internship or guest lecture

Support Your generous gift makes a significant difference today to support our students, leaders and the change they will bring tomorrow. Whether you are alumni, parent or friend, you can give today and support exceptional education, creation and dissemination of knowledge, and partnership with diverse communities and institutions.

Ways to give Online: Make a gift online through our secure giving site. You can make a pledge, donate any amount, or set up a monthly recurring donation. giving.utsa.edu/hcap

HCaP by the Numbers

iHCaP

housing five centers and institutes

• Stocks and Bonds • In-Kind Donation • Corporate and Foundation Support • Payroll Deduction

Get involved today, contact Lisa at lisa.hernandez2@utsa.edu for more information.

AWARDED

IN GRANTS

an umbrella research center

• Real Estate and Appreciated Assets

More than 90,000 hours of internship hours completed by students

$5.4M Established iHCaP

• Planned and Estate Gifts

SOCIAL WORK 38,819 hours (June-December 2020)

ACROSS 16 PROJECTS KINESIOLOGY 21,200 hours (fall & spring 2020)

2,132 Degrees awarded in 2020 1,901 undergraduate 218 masters 13 doctorate

More than 28,000 alumni 6,812 students enrolled

PUBLIC HEALTH 13,800 hours (spring, summer, fall 2020)

NUTRITION AND DIETETICS 11,850 hours (spring and fall 2020) CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE 6,317 hours (spring & fall 2020)

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 8

Katie Vela ’14 leads South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH) When Katie Vela was completing her Master of Public Administration degree at UTSA in 2014, she never thought she would end up leading one of the most impactful non-profits in San Antonio a few years later.

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In October of 2020, Vela was named executive director of the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH) and launched a movement to end youth homelessness – the #WESAY Movement to House All Youth and young adults.

“I definitely can’t take credit for developing the movement, because it was really something that a collaborative group developed,” Vela said.

“We have our Youth Action board, which are youth and young adults who have experienced homelessness, and they guide all of our policy decisions.” In addition to the board, SARAH works to bring together many youth homeless service providers and stakeholders.

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 10

In October of 2020, SARAH was awarded a $6.88 million demonstration program grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This flexible funding allows SARAH to decide how to build a system that prevents and ends youth homelessness. During the eight month planning process, the team designed an ideal system, and then decided how to allocate the funds locally.

“Part of what we learned is that it is difficult for youth and young adults to know where to access services easily, and also just that there wasn’t awareness,” Vela said. Thus, the

that helped me figure out the lay of the land of the public sector in San Antonio,” Vela said. “I ended up completing the nonprofit management and leadership concentration, which helped me realize the nonprofit sector was the best fit for what I was interested in.”

Vela has worked for SARAH since its founding in 2015. She says the time has flown by and she loves the impactful, meaningful work she gets to be a part of.

“I love getting to work with different partners, all with different perspectives, and building a consensus around a way to move forward

“ It is really exciting and unique that UTSA is going to be a housing provider, I think that has the potential to be a national model.”

WESAY Movement became part funding, part awareness campaign.

Vela’s path to SARAH wasn’t straightforward.

As a student at UTSA, she wasn’t sure what her career path should be. “I knew kind of broadly that I wanted to help the community, but I wasn’t sure in what way,” Vela said.

She credits the MPA program with connecting her to opportunities she otherwise wouldn’t know about.

“I made connections in the community that were really helpful, with the local HUD field office, management analysts at the City of San Antonio and people who worked in nonprofits

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where we can make an impact,” Vela said.

“What I’ve learned about homelessness is you need partners providing high quality services, but you also all have to work together to make it an easy system for the people that need help.”

A rewarding connection between Vela’s work at SARAH and her education at UTSA is that UTSA is a part of SARAH’s stakeholder and planning groups. The university, through a HUD grant of $1.22 million, has partnered with SARAH to launch a rapid rehousing program to support youth and young adults with a history of foster care who are pursuing post-secondary education and are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

“It is really exciting and unique that UTSA is going to be a housing provider,” Vela said.“I think that has the potential to be a national model.”

UTSA is the first university in the nation to receive such a grant. The innovative rapidrehousing model aims to address critical housing needs for at least 25 students each year who are pursuing a college degree at one of the three public postsecondary institutions in Bexar County—UTSA, Texas A&M University-San Antonio or the Alamo Colleges District. Coupled with the coaching and resources of existing campus-based support program staff and community partners, the BCFES Housing First Project will assist students with rental assistance and wraparound support for 12-24 months to support their ability to complete a college degree. This scattered-sites, rapid-rehousing model includes peer advocacy, supportive case management, assistance with moving costs, rent and utility deposits, childcare, mental health services, legal services and life skill development.

“We are thrilled that UTSA and the Bexar County Fostering Educational Success Pilot Project are leading this collaborative effort.

Housing is a critical need for so many students with a history of foster care, and this program will provide the holistic support they need to pursue their dreams of a higher education,” said Taylor and Peggy Eighmy, president and first lady of UTSA, in a joint statement.

UTSA Assistant Professor of Social Work and Principal Investigator for the grant, Megan Piel, believes this funding will have an incredible impact on the university and the surrounding community.

STUDENTS stereotypes; fatherless, broken home, and a product of an ‘angry Black woman.’ Instead of acknowledging discontent, I repurposed these attributes as my testimony. I will break those generational curses to help everyone in need, despite any social, racial, economic and/or political affiliation.”

“This collaborative effort to address youth and young adult homelessness will have a collective impact on our community and improve outcomes by addressing a critical housing need that influences educational and long-term success,” Piel said.

With so many moving parts to all of these projects, it might be easy to feel overwhelmed. As executive director of SARAH, Vela often has to make difficult decisions that will have a lasting effect on the community of San Antonio. But she feels prepared, thanks to her studies at UTSA. She recalls one memorable experience right before her thesis.

Before defending her thesis, Vela had the opportunity to sit in on Professor Heywood Sanders’ class to hear examples of past presentations. Always wanting to be prepared, Vela took a seat in the back and was ready to take notes on how to present her thesis perfectly.

“Dr. Sanders was talking about past thesis presentations, and he said ‘Well, we have someone here that’s going to be presenting pretty soon. Why don’t you come up here and do it for the whole class?’”

Vela laughs now as she recalls the thrill that shot through her. “I wasn’t prepared.

I wasn’t ready. But I just did it,” she said.

“I draw from that experience all the time when I’m faced with something that’s unexpected, or I suddenly have to give a presentation or talk to the media. It was an impactful life moment for me.”

Sociology Student Named Outstanding Black Student Leader To finish off UTSA’s inspiring Black History Month celebration that featured renowned speakers and impactful conversations, the university’s Multicultural Student Center for Equity & Justice selected a recipient for the Outstanding Black Student Leadership Award.

Senior sociology major Chriara Stevenson was named this year’s recipient.

“Chriara was selected because of her multiple years of leadership in student organizations, including president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and vice president of the Black Law Student Association,” said Vincent Perez,

UTSA created the Outstanding Black Student Leadership Award to honor Black students who have excelled in the classroom and developed a better sense of community on campus across cultural and ethnic lines through campus involvement and leadership activities.

“Students can self-nominate or be nominated by faculty, staff or students. Applications are sent to a selection committee who use a rubric review and score each application and select the award recipient,” Perez explained.

“This year we received multiple nominations, highlighting the plethora of student leaders we have at UTSA.” Stevenson, who will graduate with her B.A. in sociology, strives to obtain a Master of Social Work and a Juris Doctorate degree.

“Having had experience with social workers first hand, I understand the importance of this role in society,” she said. “My goal, ever since I can remember, has been to help others who have been in similar situations as I have growing up.”

“ Both degrees will equip me with the tools to save families prior to monumental decisions that affect their livelihoods." program manager of the Multicultural Student Center for Equity & Justice. “Chriara’s nomination showcased her leadership abilities, service to the community and dedication and commitment to serving and helping others.”

A Houston native and first-generation college student, Stevenson believes this award solidifies that she is on the path to breaking the barriers she has seen growing up.

“As an African American woman, we are faced with two barriers: being Black in a predominately white society and being a woman in a patriarchal system of oppression,” Stevenson said. “Often forgotten in the rage of Black male injustice, our frustrations are often ignored. In the past, I struggled with bitterness because I fit into all the Black

She’s specifically invigorated to help families continuously torn apart by mass incarceration in the United States — especially those in the African American community. Stevenson said many of these cases result in child protective services barging in with little regard for what is best for the families in question.

“Both degrees will equip me with the tools to save families prior to monumental decisions that affect their livelihoods,” she said.

- Valerie Bustamante | UTSA Today

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 12

Taking

COVID to the

Classroom

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, faculty and students were forced to adjust quickly to a new world and a new way of learning. Two faculty members in HCaP took the changes as an opportunity to provide students with hands-on experiences addressing real world problems and being part of the solution.

DEMOGRAPHY

Kara Joyner, department chair and professor in the Department of Demography, developed a course for undergraduate students that used the pandemic as a laboratory for research.

Prior to joining UTSA, Joyner knew there was great potential for a COVID-19 related course. In her previous position at Bowling Green State University, Joyner had conducted a survey of students in her demography course about their interest in working on a COVID-19 project and they seized the opportunity.

Kara Joyner

“I was struck by how engaged students were in the project and how well they worked together, despite their anxiety and physical isolation,” Joyner said. “This made me realize the COVID-19 pandemic offers a great laboratory for learning and applying demographic methods.”

When she joined the UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy faculty last summer, she found a home for the course as part of UTSA’s Honors College curriculum.

Demographers have gravitated toward COVID-19 data because they have the tools to locate hot spots for the virus, identify groups that are more exposed and vulnerable to it and track its change over time.

13 ENGAGE | UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy

The course exposed students to evidence from the “natural experiments” that were created when states and counties began implementing social distance measures in March and April of 2020. These experiments have allowed researchers to infer the causal effects of these measures on COVID-19 cases.

“News stories have suggested that young adults were driving the surge in COVID-19 cases in states like Texas last summer,” Joyner said.

“Now stories are intensely focused on the spread of COVID-19 cases at different colleges and universities across the country.”

In the course, students had the opportunity to observe what is happening around them using a scientific lens.

“What we learned in the class was not only how to dissect the data of COVID-19 and present it in a factual matter, but as we looked through the data, the story of the pandemic was pretty clear,” said Scott Koonce, a junior psychology major. “We never know what to believe in the news and having the data to interpret from the CDC and other government agencies allowed us, as students, to form factual based assessments.”

The course had more than a dozen students enrolled and covered research from multiple disciplines taking place across the world on the ever-changing virus. It covered topics that helped students navigate the sea of data on COVID-19.

“It addressed why charts on change in the number of daily confirmed COVID-19 cases over time present estimates based on the natural logarithm of cases,” Joyner said. “It also covered some common pitfalls in interpreting COVID-19 data and statistics.”

Other topics included how COVID-19 compares to the Spanish flu; how various types of COVID-19 rates, such as the case fatality rates, are calculated; how COVID-19 rates differ by age, gender and race/ ethnicity; the role of demographic composition (for example, age structure) in explaining variation in rates across counties, states and countries; the effect of social distancing policies on the rate at which COVID-19 cases are changing; and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on life expectancy, fertility, migration and unemployment.

“Over the span of the class, we learned about various demographic concepts under the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as how to calculate and interpret excess deaths and case-fatality rates,” said Andreina Ahrens ’20, a biology major. “This class will benefit me going forward because in addition to being pre-med, I am interested in becoming involved with public health research and health policy implementation. Demographic techniques/tools will be important in my future career endeavors because through data, public health measures can be evaluated for their efficiency, and researchers can ascertain numerically where certain issues prevail most in society.”

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 14

Joyner has been teaching courses on demographic methods for almost two decades and has enjoyed seeing the surge in interest.

Public Health students to provide contact tracing and public health outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I myself was not sure exactly what demography was when I entered a doctoral program in sociology and out of curiosity ended up taking an Introduction to Population course in my first semester,” she said. “I have heard scholars from the Baby Boom generation say that concerns about population growth in the 1960s helped attract top young scholars to the field of population science.”

“Contact tracing is an integral part of stopping the spread of COVID-19 infection by quickly identifying and quarantining those who may have been exposed to COVID-19,” said UTSA’s Chief Medical Officer, Beth Wichman. “This allows the exposed individual to be aware of the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 while being sequestered for a defined period of time to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to others. We are fortunate to have Dr. Sosa’s expertise and the dedication of her students to this endeavor.”

The current pandemic, Joyner said, could spark a similar interest in demography for Generation Z. While demography of COVID-19 is an important course in the current climate of the pandemic, Joyner knows that its effects will reach far beyond the end of the virus.

“Students will be able to expand their methodological tool kit to include methods that are widely used in research and industry,” she said.

Erica Sosa “They will also learn the steps involved in conducting a research project, which include identifying a research question that can be addressed with existing data, conducting a review of the literature on the topic, formulating a central research hypothesis, compiling and analyzing data, and drafting a research brief with findings and recommendations.”

Research projects were collaborative, and as such, students continued to refine their skills working with others virtually.

The program’s aim was for students to learn to become contact tracers and extend the work of the professionals in the local health department, Metro Health. Sosa consulted with Metro Health to develop the materials for the class. The contact tracers played a critical role in UTSA’s operations to address COVID-19 and minimize its impact on members of the Roadrunner family.

The program started in fall 2020 before vaccinations were available.

“There are a lot of preventive measures we can take to make sure that we don’t allow the disease to spread further,” said Sosa.

“We’re following up with the people who are potentially exposed and letting them know so they can go get tested themselves,” Sosa said.

The students provided information to contacts regarding testing, quarantining and support services. The contact tracers also served as public health ambassadors continuing to check in on people who were quarantining to provide additional resources and support.

As vaccinations have become more widely available, the contact tracers are providing

“ I was struck by how engaged students were in the project and how well they worked together, despite their anxiety and physical isolation.”

“Ultimately,” Joyner said, “students not only gained a better understand of the COVID-19 pandemic surrounding them but also cultivated some skills that can improve their career prospects.”

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND CONTACT TRACING

As part of a new program developed by Erica Sosa, associate professor of Public Health, the course trained and engaged undergraduate

15 ENGAGE | UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy

information on what implications vaccinations have on quarantining and testing protocols.

“As we were building the College for Health, Community and Policy throughout the COVID pandemic, it became clear that there would not be a better experiential learning opportunity than to partner with Metro Health and to train our students to become contact tracers for the Roadrunner Family,” said HCaP’s Founding Dean, Lynne Cossman.

“Thankfully, cases throughout the academic year have been relatively low for students, staff and faculty associated with UTSA; however, students were still trained as contact tracers and now understand that process more thoroughly than they ever could have by simply reading about it in textbooks and hearing about it from their professor.”

Last fall, 20 seniors participated as contact tracers, and 15 more students enrolled for the spring semester. Most of the students were public health majors and were familiar with epidemiology and diseases. “This was really their experiential learning opportunity to kind of put it all into play,” Sosa said.

Although the program was a success, it wasn’t without its challenges.

“One thing that makes contact tracing difficult is a lot of people don’t understand what it is, and when somebody does contact them to talk about the potential exposure, they may be a little bit leery of it,” Sosa said.

“So we’re doing a lot of education outreach to the UTSA community to really let them know about this.”

As the fall approaches and UTSA plans to have extensive, in-person classes, the program may remain in place.

“Dr. Sosa’s contact tracing class is an integral part of UTSA’s Pandemic Management Plan,” said Assistant Vice President for Administration and Operations Mary Hernandez. “The class has allowed us to significantly augment our contact tracing resources and provide timely response to mitigate the spread of COVID. In addition, Dr. Sosa has been a delight to work with and has provided significant contributions to shape the contact tracing resources on our campus.”

FACULTY

UTSA’s Todić joins prestigious cohort of Social Work Health Futures fellows UTSA Assistant Professor of Social Work Jelena Todic' has been accepted into a cohort of social work experts from the U.S. and Canada.

Jelena Todic'

The Social Work Health Futures Lab is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and hosted by the Portland State University School of Social Work. The 26-member cohort will spend the next 18 months learning about how to apply a “futures” lens to some of the most challenging problems of society.

The fellows will work together on pertinent research, studying topics such as the relationship of technology and human well-being, geopolitical issues shifting the nature of place and identity, and the relationship between climate justice and health.

“I am grateful to have been selected as a Lab member,” Todić said.

“The Lab will be a generative space that will nurture my imagination and courage to think big. I look forward to bringing that energy to my work at UTSA.” This cohort’s project builds upon ongoing work that Laura Nissen, principal investigator, the lab director and a research fellow at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California, has been engaged in exploring and inviting social workers nationally to consider foresight methods in their practice.

Even before learning of the project, Todić had developed a course for UTSA master’s students called Social Determinants of Health.

The overarching theme for the course came from an essay written by Arundhati Roy, asking readers to imagine the pandemic as a portal to a better world. This forward-thinking viewpoint fits in harmoniously with the theme of the Health Futures Lab. “In the course, we were looking at health inequities in San Antonio and the U.S. We examined research evidence that can inform our thinking about how to eliminate health inequities,” Todić explained.

“We also studied transformative frameworks like prison industrial complex abolition and solidarity economy to help us see what’s happening to us right now as an opportunity to arrive somewhere else: a post-pandemic world that is healthier for all of us. So when the call came out, I was ready. We were already experimenting with the future.”

“We examined research evidence that can inform our thinking about how to eliminate health inequities.”

The project will also shine a light on the ways the future might impact social workers who work with social determinants of health.

The fellows will explore the ways that social work roles, tools and methods may expand and become even more interdisciplinary and more technological in the coming years. These explorations may lead to a host of new ideas about how to best teach and prepare the next generation for effective leadership and practice in a changing world.

“The transdisciplinary and solutions-focused Lab orientation mirrors the college’s vision for the role we want to play in San Antonio and beyond,” Todić said. “I am also looking forward to bringing the innovative work we are doing to the national conversation.”

Todić sees the fellowship as a chance to bring back exciting new ideas and practices into the classroom, but also as a way to frame her research and advance the goals of the UTSA Department of Social Work.

“I think this will be really exciting for my research because it is interdisciplinary and does not neatly fit into traditional research topics,” Todić said. “Sometimes it’s really hard to find a home for it.”

Todić’s work in the Health Futures Lab will also advance the missions of the UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy and the Department of Social Work. While the fellowship seems tailor-made for Todić and her research, she gives equal credit to the students in her Social Determinants of Health course.

“It was such a generative, vibrant environment, even in the midst of the pandemic,” she said. “Every time I think about the students, I tear up. It’s been truly an incredible experience with them for the past 15 weeks.”

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 16

ALUMNI

UTSA alumna earns scholarship to practice medicine in underserved communities Jordan Minugh ’20 has always loved medicine and knew she would pursue it as a career.

What she didn’t know upon enrolling at UTSA is that she would find an unorthodox path to medicine – and earn a major scholarship along the way.

Minugh didn’t discover the field of public health until her second year at UTSA, but once she did, it put everything together for her.

Jordan Minugh

“Public health is not just the straight science part of medical studies,” she said. “It includes things like sociology, and you learn about all the disparities happening in the world right now. Having a public health background made me a better provider overall.”

That’s not to say there was no practice for medical studies. In her third year, Minugh conducted an independent study, guided by professor Erica Wallace, on vaccine-preventable diseases.

“Jordan was truly one of the brightest and most empathetic students I’ve worked with at UTSA,” Wallace said. “She was earnest in her desire to prepare herself to be a great physician assistant, and I am very proud of her and everything she will accomplish.”

Minugh is now pursuing Physician Assistant studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Because of her dedication to serving communities in need and her academic achievements, her education is being funded entirely by the National Health Service Corps (NHSC).

The NHSC Scholarship Program awards scholarships to students pursuing eligible primary care health professions training. In return, scholars commit to provide primary health care services in Health Professional Shortage Areas.

17 ENGAGE | UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy

“To me, as a Public Health major, that’s my dream,” Minugh said.

“It was a win-win, because I want to do that anyway.”

Minugh will pick her service area next year before she enters her clinicals. She’s looking forward to serving those in need, especially if her service area is local to the city she was born and raised in.

“Medicine is great in a lot of ways, there’s a lot of potential for making a high salary,” she said. “But you shouldn’t be in medicine if you don’t want to help people. I want to provide access to care to people who need it most.”

Her physician assistant studies are demanding, but she credits her time at UTSA for giving her a solid foundation. “If anyone is wanting to be a PA, I would highly recommend majoring in Public Health,” Minugh said. “It’s going to make you a better provider in the long run.

You’ll have a more well-rounded education and will understand the communities that are really needing this healthcare. You’re going to be able to understand all the disparities. You’re going to have a deeper understanding of the people you’ll be treating.”

And to Minugh, that’s what really counts – and that’s what medicine is all about. “If I can actually help people and make a difference in these communities, there’s no price on that. That’s what has always kept me motivated even when it’s hard – knowing that I’m going to be able to help people that truly need it one day.”

ALUMNI

Public administration alumnus pursues law career Anyone traveling through UTSA’s campuses is sure to notice the blue street signs, with Rowdy helpfully pointing the way. Those signs were created as part of an initiative started by then-Councilman Nirenberg and UTSA’s Student Government Association.

Conor Harvey

Conor Harvey ’15 was at the helm of that initiative – one of the highlights of three and a half years as an undergraduate. During his time at UTSA, he not only spearheaded several projects with SGA, but was also awarded the Jane Findling Award for students committed to the excellence of UTSA, earned an Archer Fellowship, and completed several internships even after he had hit his credit maximum.

Throughout all of this, Harvey never really thought of practicing law for a living. He knew he loved government work, and enjoyed learning about policy and practices in his undergraduate courses with public administration, but it was only when he decided on a legal studies minor that the thought blossomed into a potential career.

That decision ultimately brought him to the University of Chicago Law School, and to the opportunity to clerk for Justice Jimmy Blacklock of the Supreme Court of Texas.

As part of his job, Harvey assists Justice Blacklock with legal research, making legal determinations, and opinion drafting. “My courses in administration at UTSA helped me prepare for this,” Harvey said.

Although “the heavy law school stuff” applies directly to his job, Harvey thinks understanding the intricacies of government administration is just as important.

The Supreme Court of Texas hears a variety of state-related litigation, including suits concerning various public agencies and officials. “You need to understand Texas government and how things work,” Harvey said. “What’s the regulatory scheme here, what is the most efficient outcome. There’s so much state litigation, and the public administration program helped me understand that side.”

Harvey also credits the faculty and the opportunities UTSA offers for his success. “Professor Jaramillo was always very supportive of internships and was kind of my informal advisor,” he said. His professors also encouraged him to apply for the Archer Fellowship, which enabled him to spend three months in Washington, D.C., learning about policymaking and government.

“Conor was an extremely hard-working and impressive student, able to speak and write about complex legal concepts in a sophisticated way even as an undergraduate,” said Francine Romero, Chair of Public Administration. “I am not at all surprised with his success in a very competitive law school program. I look forward to seeing how he makes his mark in the legal arena in years to come.”

Harvey encourages anyone interested in law to consider public administration – especially if one is not interested in the criminal justice aspect of law. “So much of law is not criminal in nature,” he said. “For example, Texas has two highest courts. Only one hears criminal proceedings.”

“I remember debating between political science and public administration when I was a freshman,” Harvey recalled. “I think public administration was a little more practical. I got a lot of more of the classes about management, and strategic planning, and all these other skills that you would employ in your day-to-day job.”

But in the end, Harvey says your interests matter more than the major you choose. “I think people thinking about law should study whatever interests them the most – whatever they’re going to do well in and succeed.”

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 18

Researchers pool resources to launch national survey on pandemic’s effects When new faculty members arrive at UTSA, they are granted research accounts with startup money to help fund their research programs. Sociology Professor Terrence Hill arrived in the fall of 2019 with an idea—why not have faculty pool their startup money together to create a bigger research project?

19 ENGAGE | UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy

After approaching the Dean of the College for Health, Community and Policy (HCaP), Lynne Cossman, the question grew. What started with an idea for new sociology faculty blossomed into a research project spanning five departments, one research center, and new and tenured faculty alike. Together, the researchers pooled more than $100,000 to fund a national survey on health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS).

“The CHAPS survey is an excellent opportunity for HCaP faculty to rally around a single collaborative research project,” Cossman said. “The survey results will drive many research articles, but also may lead to preliminary results that can be used to apply for research grants for further exploration. I appreciate professor Hill’s coordination and leadership on this project and I’m excited to see it come to fruition.”

HCaP departments represented in the CHAPS project include Criminology and Criminal Justice, Demography, Public Health, Social Work, Sociology, and the Institute for Health Disparities Research. Faculty from Baylor University and Florida State University are also participating.“As the new chair of Sociology, I am very enthusiastic about the CHAPS study that Professor Hill organized with other

methodology be used to present the survey, but it will also ensure that the data are highquality and truly representative of the U.S. adult population.

Given the interdisciplinary nature of the project, the survey will cover several themes related to health and well-being. Topics include loneliness and social isolation, police interactions, religion, political attitudes, pandemic behaviors, sexual behaviors, intimate partner violence, food insecurity and more.

“The survey covers a wide range of important social problems to better understand the U.S. population during a pandemic,” Hill said.

Data collected from this survey can help inform policy. Questions about access to diabetes care, or any condition in which one needs to regularly see a doctor, are included in the survey. Questions about the vaccinations are also included to identify which subgroups might be more or less resistant to getting the vaccine.

The questions about suicidal ideation can also inform policy—because this is a nationally representative study of the U.S. population, the data collected from the survey is critically important to handling the downswing of the pandemic and reducing suffering of the population.

John Bartkowski, Department of Sociology, UTSA Amy Burdette, Department of Sociology, Florida State University Lynne Cossman, Dean of HCaP, Departments of Sociology and Demography, UTSA Christopher Ellison, Department of Sociology, UTSA Chantal Fahmy, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, UTSA Ginny Garcia, Department of Sociology, UTSA Richard Hartley, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, UTSA Terrence Hill, Department of Sociology, UTSA Emily Nicklett, Department of Social Work, UTSA Andrea Ruiz, Department of Sociology, UTSA

“The survey covers a wide range of important social problems to better understand the U.S. population during a pandemic.”

Bonita Sharma, Department of Social Work, UTSA

faculty,” said UTSA Professor Ray Swisher.

“This will be a wonderful source of novel data and will foster many collaborations in HCaP. I am particularly interested in working with colleagues on research into how COVID-related attitudes and behavior varied by socioeconomic status, neighborhood poverty, race and ethnicity and inequalities in life expectancy.”

Katelyn Sileo, Department of Public Health, UTSA

The overall aim of CHAPS is to conduct cutting-edge research on the health and well-being of the U.S. population during the Coronavirus pandemic. The survey will be conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.

Data collection will begin later this month.

The survey will employ the most advanced techniques in survey research. Because of NORC’s prestige and history in data collection, not only will cutting-edge

“There is so much suffering, so much misery that we can hardly comprehend what’s going on,” Hill said. “All the loss that people are experiencing—the loss of jobs or loss of loved ones, the loss of their futures, their plans. A lot of that could be reflected in this survey.”

In addition to learning more about the farreaching effects of the pandemic, the data from the survey can be pulled in specific directions to help UTSA faculty further their own research. With the amount of data collected, there is a potential for faculty to publish research for years.

“We expect a lot of impact across all the researchers, and there are so many possibilities for collaboration across the disciplines and the College,” Hill said. “It’s an innovative way to capitalize on the resources provided

by UTSA.”

Eric Shattuck, Institute for Health Disparities Research, UTSA

Raymond Swisher, Department of Sociology, UTSA Alexander Testa, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, UTSA Jelena Todic, Department of Social Work, UTSA Laura Upenieks, Department of Sociology, Baylor University

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 20

Faculty in criminology and criminal justice earn two grants totaling more than $2,600,000

Megan Augustyn Principal Investigator

Kellie Lynch

Marie Tillyer

The Cumulative Financial Costs of Victimization among College Students at Minority Serving Institutions

With these parameters in place, the grant was proposed: follow a cohort of first year students from two universities, both of which are minorityserving institutions and have over 40% first-generation students.

Two-year project - $745,679 Principal Investigator: Megan Augustyn Co-PIs: Kellie Lynch, Marie Tillyer and Gillian Pinchevsky (UNLV)

"This student population has often been ignored both in the existing body of empirical research on this issue and in national conversations surrounding college victimization,” said Lynch. “Therefore, it is critical to ask if and how students…experience consequences of crime victimization differently. This study will expand and diversify our understanding of the impact of victimization on college students with the ultimate goal of improving the response to crime victims and preventing future victimization from occurring."

In many ways, this project has been years in the making. Beginning in, 2017, Dr. Megan Augustyn joined the Multi-College Bystander Efficacy Evaluation (McBee) mentorship program. The program recruits junior scholars from across the country and partners them with full professors who have done research on violence against women, genderbased violence, and victimization.

“The ultimate goal is to look at how these financial consequences of victimization at any point in life may accumulate, but then ultimately does that affect financial status later on?” Augustyn said. Another key part of the study is that students don't have to continue to be enrolled.

If a study participant drops out, they would still be in the study – a critical piece to the study in order to follow the financial effects.

Dr. Kellie Lynch, in UTSA’s department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, was also part of this mentorship project. With the support of McBee, Augustyn partnered with Dr. Lynch, Dr. Nicole Beebe (UTSA Information Systems and Cyber Security) and Dr. Marie Tillyer to apply for a GREAT Grant at UTSA. The $20,000 grant gives initial funds to start up a research project in the hopes that it will be expanded in the future with grant money.

Augustyn hopes that as soon as the first data collection, the researchers can gather some good ideas of how students access services, how these might vary by student characteristics, and to also get an idea of the immediate financial consequences. “Whether it's a matter of adding new resources on campus, or doing a better job of advertising current resources…you don't just have to be victimized on campus to utilize campus resources,” Augustyn said. “The counseling center, the Peace Center- they will help you regardless of those things.”

The three researchers conducted a student survey about different types of victimization – where they occur, services used afterwards, and more.

“If you've been a victim of sexual assault, but it occurs off campus, do you know you can get resources on campus for being a victim?”

Augustyn asked.

The initial data was promising for hopes of a longer study. “We found the majority of assaults are off campus…and we found that over 50% are not even UTSA affiliates,” Augustyn said.

With the initial data in hand, Augustyn and her co-PIs were ready to follow it up with a longitudinal study to examine these experiences over time. She discovered a solicitation from the National Institute of Justice under the Office of Justice Programs at the US Department of Justice. “They're particularly interested in the financial consequences,” Augustyn explained. “So I thought that would be a really good way to extend this initial pilot data.”

There are several foci of the second study: do the financial consequences vary if it happens on campus or off campus? Secondly, how is victimization affecting employment, which in turn might undermine their ability to stay in school?

“A lot of UTSA students work either part time or full time,” Augustyn said. “If they're not generating income that they need to pay for school, they might not stay in school.”

The final point of interest is to compare the experiences of firstgeneration students vs. continuing-generation students. “A lot of this came from anecdotal experiences that I've had with my students when they've been victimized and they disclose it,” Augustyn said. “It could be that the financial consequences of victimization are going to vary across first-generation and continuing-generation students.”

In addition to providing valuable data for the UTSA community to identify gaps in service, it can also strengthen the community as a whole. “If we can empirically show that victimization is linked to dropping classes and dropping out overall, that's important for the university, because we can have a better idea of how to retain students,” Augustyn said. “There are also policymakers and stakeholders in the community who are interested in this in communities across the country. When we increase the college graduation rates, we're actually increasing the prosperity of the community.”

“With these recent awards, our faculty are not only advancing knowledge in these topical areas, but are also putting UTSA on the map as a preeminent tier one research institution. The National Institute of Justice is the premier funding agency for justice related research with successful award rates below 10 percent. Only the discipline's best scholars receive NIJ awards and to receive two in the same year is almost unheard of. These are also some of the largest awards that NIJ typically makes; clearly national experts believe that our faculty and these projects are going to have a large impact in the field and community.”

– Richard Hartley, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 22

Life course and intergenerational effects of criminal justice involvement: Identifying risks, the search for resilience, and the impact of rise in opioid misuse and the COVID-19 pandemic 5-year project - $1,881,736 Principal Investigator: Megan Augustyn Co-PIs: Megan Kurlychek (Pennsylvania State University) and Kimberly L. Henry (Colorado State University) This project found its roots in a study which began in 1988: the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS). Originally funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, with Dr. Terrence Thornberry as the PI, the study followed a birth cohort (called Generation 2) who were at the time seventh and eighth grade students representative of the public school system in Rochester, New York.

The cohort was followed for four years and they were interviewed every six months.

The second phase of data collection began after a two-year gap. Now in the age range of 19-21, the subjects underwent three annual interviews, and then returned for more interviews at ages 29-31.

From there, researchers identified a need to continue this longitudinal study. By 1999, the intergenerational extension of RYDS was born as the Rochester Intergenerational Study. Researchers conducted annual interviews with G2s and other primary caregiver of G3 through G3 age of 17. G3s were interviewed annually beginning at age 8. The last year of data collection was 2019.

As a graduate student working with Thornberry, Dr. Megan Augustyn became involved in the Rochester projects in 2009.

She didn’t imagine that she’d end up on the research side of things after graduate school. “I thought I would be a practitioner,” she said. “But as I went through graduate school and got involved in the Rochester project, I realized I actually loved doing this type of work.”

Augustyn joined UTSA in 2013, continuing her work with Rochester studies as she taught courses. The original PIs for the project retired, and data collection was set to end, in 2019. “I thought it would be great if we could go back and contact the G2s and follow up with them, continuing the work of the original PIs,” Augustyn said. “They’re in their late 40s now, and we don’t have a lot of great data on offending behaviors in that time period.”

Augustyn secured the grant with PIs from other universities, and the plan is to extend RYDS and RIGS simultaneously. “The difference from this data collection and that of the past 15 years is that G2 interviews will not be focused on their relationship with G3, but about how their life has unfolded over time,” Augustyn said.

The overall aim of the research is to link life outcomes assessed in this new data collection with early life risk factors. “We know their

23 ENGAGE | UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy

childhood risk factors, but we want to see how their life has of unfolded and if we can relate child and adolescent risks to that,” Augustyn said.

“We also want to look at how their patterns of offending.”

The COVID-19 Pandemic is also playing a role in this research. The sample population for the study includes a disproportionate number of individuals who have been incarcerated at some point in their lives. The researchers will aim to uncover if these individuals have been more negatively affected by COVID than those that haven't been incarcerated. “Is it possible, because of their record and their involvement in the justice system, that they were the first ones to be unemployed?” Augustyn asked. “Or, because of their types of jobs, were they impacted more negatively by the pandemic or more likely to get COVID because of the jobs that they did have?”

For the G3s, the questions will be similar, but the researchers are also hoping to address the opioid epidemic and how young adults today are impacted by this epidemic. “We want to see if they’ve been affected by it and in what ways,” Augustyn said.

Augustyn and her co-PIs are hoping to continue to follow these individuals beyond the scope of the current project as their lives continue to unfold. This grant will fund Phase 4 of the RYDS and consist of the waves 15 and 16 interviews in Year 1 and Year 3 of the funding period.

“We hope we can secure funding to continue to study the focal participants of the RYDS, G2s, in the future,” Augustyn said. “We will continue to focus on different topics that are relevant at different phases of the life course.”

With such a tremendous amount of data, it’s common to wonder where it will go, and how it can help. To date, the results from RYDS and RIGS have influenced programs to reduce delinquency and youth violence at the national, state, and local levels. Presentations have been made to many organizations in Rochester, including the Schools, the YMCA, the Mayor’s Commission Against Violence and Social Services. The information gathered by RYDS and RIGS has helped all these groups make better decisions on how to help the youth of the community. In addition, presentations have been made across the country to inform other local and national programs that assist youth and young adults. In particular, findings from RYDS and RIGS have been used to inform prevention programming and provide targets for intervention for adolescent health-risk behavior and gang membership, as well as programming that seeks to address poor parent-child relationships and adult mental health and substance abuse.

These projects are supported by Award Number respectively (2020-MUMU-0017 and 2020-V3-GX-0075) awarded by the National Institute of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.

CLASS NOTES 1988 Tod Thrasher (Criminology & Criminal Justice) is celebrating 30 years of marriage to his wonderful wife Jennifer this June.

1992

New College, Same Roadrunner The formation of a new College can be a substantial undertaking. To date, the departments within HCaP have nearly 29,000 ’Runners among their alumni base.

The future of how and when we engage will be what sets us apart. As a Roadrunner graduate, you are forever integral to the mission of the College.

This Fall, the College will launch the HCaP Leadership Circle (HLC) which will be composed of distinguished alumni to foster goodwill and be advocates for the College through their active involvement, advocacy and financial resources. HLC members will assist in maintaining strong awareness of education and funding priorities while providing counsel to build a stronger, efficient and effective College.

By engaging in the HLC, alumni will have the ability to help the College build its foundation by applying its teaching, research and service in the communities in which they live and work. In giving of time and resources, alumni help our students receive a unique education that shapes their lives and helps them shape the lives of others.

On behalf of our students, faculty and staff, I invite you to join us in coming together to make a lasting difference in the lives of many.

Together, we are a force for the future.

To learn more about how to join HLC and become part of an involved alumni base, reach out to Lisa Hernandez at lisa.hernandez2@utsa.edu.

Jose L. Galvan Jr. (Political Science, Criminology & Criminal Justice ’94) joined the Roadrunner Army ROTC unit in 1992 and was commissioned in the Aviation Branch as a 2LT. Galvin has three children with his wife Sandy. Son Joseph A. Galvan is set to graduate from UTSA in the summer of 2021 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and a minor in computer science. Son Christian attends Central Texas College and is working towards his associate in IT. Daughter Sarah is a sophomore at Holy Trinity Catholic High School. While in the Army, Galvan and his family lived in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Kansas, and California. The Army also sent Galvan to South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan. During his time in the Army, Galvan completed the following milestones: Became a Pilot in the U.S. Army flying the TH-67, OH-58 A/C, AH-64A and the AH64D; retired from the U.S. Army as an LTC in 2015 serving just over 20 years; obtained his PMP Certification in 2019. He continued his education and completed a master of science in project management in 2020; Galvan has continued with running since his days on the track and field team at UTSA, and in 2017 competed in the U.S. Obstacle Course Racing Championships in Texas. “I was just happy to complete the course at the age of 47,” he says.

Galvan and his family have settled just outside of Fort Hood, Texas. “It was great to be a part of UTSA and to also have my son graduate from UTSA. Birds Up!” 1993 Pacharee Klaisakul-Giaccardo (Sociology) works for Broadway Bank and enjoys meditation, yoga, and travel. Her son, Anek Adhihetty, is also an alumnus of UTSA, having graduated in 2019.

1996 Noel Garcia (Criminology & Criminal Justice) says that although he has made a career in promotional marketing, not criminal justice, he attributes his ability to manage client relationships with the skills he learned from his major. “I’ve been recognized twice as a finalist for Account Executive of the Year in

the 25 billion promotional marketing industry (source: Advantages Magazine, www. asicentral.com). I am a founding member and managing director for Boundless, a 100 million dollar distributor in the promotional marketing industry (www.boundlessnetwork. com).” [photo caption: Garcia with wife, Tracy, and daughters Ally (20), Annabelle (17) and Arianna (14)] 1997 Michelle Tucker Renfrow, MA, PLC (Psychology, MS Counseling ’99) began her own part-time private practice focusing on the use of art and play therapy techniques. “I held a summer art camp for all ages and have transitioned for the fall into private online and in person art classes. Some of my activities are therapeutic in scope but all of them are fun and engaging!”

1998 Ruben Covarrubias (Kinesiology; MA Educational Leadership ’13) is in his 23rd year in education as a heath education teacher at John Jay High School in NISD. He is currently the head baseball coach and a lifetime member of UTSA’s Alumni Association. He has been a season football ticket holder from day one and has attended both Bowl game appearances to date.

2003 Nicholas Macis (Kinesiology) is working as a Special Education Facilitator for El Paso Independent School District.

2010 Sgt. Bernadette Gomez (Criminology & Criminal Justice) began her career as a patrol officer at Fair Oaks Ranch Police Department. She then served for seven years at Trinity University as a patrol officer with two promotions during her nine year career as a Corporal/Investigator. She is now currently a Patrol Sergeant. Gomez has recently obtained her Master Peace Officer Certification. “I believe that persistence and

UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy | ENGAGE 24

CLASS NOTES hard work pay off,” she says. Her awards include: President’s List honor recipient (2010); Alpha Chi National College Honor Society; Employee of the Year- Trinity University Police Department (2016); Leadership Service Award- Trinity University Police Department (2016, 2018).

2013 Dilip Gokhale (Master of Public Administration) was recently promoted from Supervisory Investigator in the Charge Receipt/ Technical Information Unit at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Philadelphia District Office to Enforcement Manager at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Cleveland Field Office. He is now a 3L evening student at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, PA. 2016 Mauricio Rodríguez-Abreu, (Ph.D. Applied Demography) moved back to Mexico for a two-year postdoc appointment (2016-18). Following that, he was offered a full time Professor position at Universidad de las Américas Puebla. In May of 2019 he was named Academic Director of the Department of Actuarial Sciences, Physics and Mathematics.

2018 Maverick Crawford III (Criminal Justice, Public Administration) graduated with a master of social work from the University of Texas at Arlington in Fall 2020.

Daniela Figueroa (Public Health, Sociology) graduated from the University of North Texas Health Science Center with a master of health administration in June of 2020. She has secured employment

25 ENGAGE | UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy

with the State of Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment as an Epidemiologist. “I currently work with data management on COVID-19 outbreaks that occur in Colorado Springs and am a subject matter expert on COVID-19.”

Michael Ramos (Kinesiology) started his doctoral program in physical therapy at the UIW School of Physical Therapy in August 2020.

Emily Rodriguez (Public Administration) is a Certified Advisor at San Antonio College and is currently enrolled in UTSA’s graduate school. She is halfway through her master of higher education administration and is projected to graduate in Fall 2021.

Enrique A. Trevino (Master of Public Administration) was nominated by the Mayor of San Antonio and the Bexar County Judge to be a member of the Census 2020 Committee. He also volunteered in humanitarian work giving aid for migrants at the City of San Antonio Migrant Center. Enrique is currently working as a City Council Administrative Aid in San Antonio. “The most enriching and rewarding part of my work is to provide assistance to constituents with Covid-19 vaccines during this unprecedented time,” Enrique says. “I owe so much gratitude to UTSA and my professors of public administration for the education readiness of public service and social justice because my reward is seeing the growth of betterment and merriment in my community.”

Veronica Zapata (Sociology) purchased her first home as she neared graduation.

“This, other than my two children, is one of my greatest milestone achievements that has sheltered my family and I through the juggles of COVID and this recent winter storm,” she says. In addition, Zapata was accepted into graduate school at UTSA and is pursuing a master of science in sociology.

“I am thankful for being a Roadrunner in my past and present educational career and hope to see more success in the future as a graduate alumna in 2022!”

2019 Gabriel Alvarez (Criminology & Criminal Justice, Psychology) was nominated as an Interdisciplinary Fellow, which allows him to be fully funded at Arizona State University to pursue a concurrent M.S. in criminology & criminal justice and an MPP in public policy. “A huge thank you to Dr. Kellie Lynch and Dr. Patricia Jaramillo for being my biggest supporters during my time in HCaP!” Aubrey Hilliker (Psychology) plans to come back to UTSA in the fall as part of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling graduate program to continue to improve the San Antonio community.

Marisol Lopez (Public Administration) left two weeks after her graduation to lead a healthcare project in China for seven months. She is now working for the state of Texas.

2020 Nazanin Setareh Zarei-Chalshotory (Psychology) is working as a Human Resources Assistant while pursuing an M.B.A. and conducting research at UT El Paso. “I am happy to have graduated from UTSA and have many opportunities because of my education!”

G

loria Glenn Reedy was a dedicated and loving mother who found great passion in her career as a social worker. To Gloria, social work was more than a job, it was her calling. She provided for her family and gave everything she could to ensure her children would be able to attend college while she continued to achieve her goal of making a differences in the lives of others.

To honor Gloria, her three children, Robert, Ann, and Joe created the Gloria Glenn Reedy Endowed Scholarship for Social Work at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).

“She was incredibly passionate about her job and truly believed that she was doing good in the community… The fact that she was a social worker, it wasn’t just a job for her.

She always said that she felt like she made a difference,” said Robert.

Robert, Ann and Joe all received bachelor’s degrees from The University of Texas at Austin. Joe and Ann went on to receive their MBAs from UT Austin and Robert received his J.D. from the law school at the university.

Gloria remained in her children’s hometown of San Antonio. Grateful for their educational journeys and experiences, they agreed that a gift to UTSA would be a perfect and impactful way to reach students in the city where they were raised. The endowed scholarship is awarded to students studying social work with a 3.0 grade point average in the College for Health, Community and Policy (HCaP).

Gloria Glenn Reedy

A CARING MOTHER’S LEGACY OF CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE LIVES ON

“When we came upon this incredible program for social work at UTSA, we were all impressed. We all realized that the College and UTSA as a school just continue to expand and become more prevalent in the community. Being raised in San Antonio, we decided what better way to create a scholarship in social work and I know that our mother would be thrilled. It truly meant a lot to her,” Robert expressed.

Through their generosity, Robert, Ann and Joe have ensured that their mother’s legacy will live on. They hope that students will enjoy the field of social work and create positive changes in the lives of others just as their beloved mother, Gloria.

To learn more about impacting student success through a scholarship, visit utsa.edu/giving.

501 W. César E. Chávez Blvd. | San Antonio, Texas 78207