Grants and Awards
Thomas Maier, Shivani Shukla and Camille Coley
Thomas Maier, School of Management, Shivani Shukla, School of Management, and Camille Coley, Office of Sponsored Programs, have been awarded $399,576 for a three year project from the National Science Foundation.
Eileen Fry, School of Nursing and Health Professions
Eileen Fry, School of Nursing and Health Professions, has been awarded $999,766 from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Danfeng Soto-Vigil Koon, School of Education
Danfeng Soto-Vigil Koon, School of Education, and colleague, Huriya Jabbar from the University of Southern California, were awarded $375,000 from the Spencer Foundation Large Grants Program for a project titled The Emergence and Consequences of Culture Wars and Curriculum Conflicts in Education.
Sarah Burton and John Paul, College of Arts and Sciences
Sarah Burton and John Paul, College of Arts and Sciences, have been awarded a $25,000 research grant from the State of California through the California Institute for Biodiversity (CIB) in support of saving an at-risk lichen collection. Gathered 50 years ago by University of San Francisco Professor William P. Jordan, the lichen collection of 1,300 specimens represents a continuation of efforts to catalogue the diversity of California lichens since the time of Menzies. Notably, the collection contains a number of the species Edrudia constipans, a lichen authored by USF Prof. Jordan and endemic to San Francisco’s Farallon Islands. Funding for this award will preserve the collection of 1,300 rare lichen specimens for future research in ecology and taxonomy and be shared to a global database (Consortium of Lichen Herbarium). (June 1, 2025)
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law, have been awarded $80,000 from Sonoma County Secure Families Collaborative through Dec. 31, 2025. Funding from this will continue supporting legal representation of immigrants who live in Sonoma County for continued removal of defense actions.
Bill Ong Hing, School of Law
Bill Ong Hing, School of Law, has received renewal awarding $210,000 for 30 new cases for the fourth year of the 5-year renewal from California Department of Social Services. This is a continuing grant to represent Unaccompanied Undocumented Minors (UUM). The legal services include culturally, and linguistically appropriate services provided by attorneys, paralegals, interpreters and other support staff for state court proceedings, federal immigration proceedings, and any appeals arising from those proceedings. This funding is intended to serve individuals who cannot otherwise afford an attorney or legal representation.
Dellanira Garcia & David Martinez, School of Nursing & Health Professions
Dellanira Garcia & David Martinez, School of Nursing & Health Professions, received a $157,900 two year subaward from Ayudando Latinos A Soñar. The award, entitled "Implementation of a Mobile Behavioral Health Service and its Impact on Mental Health Outcomes among Farmworkers in Rural California". The purpose of the project is to: (1) evaluate Mobile Behavioral Health Service implementation and outcomes; (2) support continuous program improvement efforts; and (3) complete annual and final evaluation reports of an innovative behavioral health program for farmworkers in San Mateo County.
Danfeng Koon, School of Education
Danfeng Koon, School of Education, has received a $75,000 Vision research grant from the Spencer Foundation. The grant, entitled "Culture Wars, Curriculum Conflicts & Public Schools" convenes stakeholders to co-design research studies on current educational movements that have gained traction, passing policies that target the teaching of history, inclusion, and controversial topics.
Zifei Fay Chen, College of Arts and Sciences
Zifei Fay Chen, College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $10,000 research grant from the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication. Through case studies and surveys, PI Chen and her colleagues in both the education and private sectors will investigate the roles of emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and listening competencies in organizations to address the rising employee disengagement and discontent in today’s post-COVID era. The project aims to answer pressing questions for today’s leaders and public relations professionals, including: how do we effectively engage employees, build meaningful bridges, and create an inclusive and ethical workplace culture? And how do we cultivate ethical listening competencies in the face of these challenges?
Indre Viskontas, College of Arts and Sciences
Indre Viskontas, College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $2,000 research sub-award from Georgetown University via Templeton World Charity Foundation. This project will compile and prepare admissions data and data from the office of institutional research at University of San Francisco as described in the proposal, entitled “AI Modeling of Character Strengths to Predict Educational and Holistic Outcomes of Human Flourishing” and transfer the data for analysis, as describe in the data management plan for this proposal. (January 13, 2025)
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law, have been awarded $160,000 from Sonoma County Secure Families Collaborative through December 31, 2025. Funding from this will continue supporting legal representation of immigrants who live in Sonoma County for continued removal of defense actions. (January 13, 2025)
Indre Viskontas, College of Arts and Sciences
Indre Viskontas, College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $2,000 research sub-award from Georgetown University via Templeton World Charity Foundation. This project will compile and prepare admissions data and data from the office of institutional research at University of San Francisco as described in the proposal, entitled “AI Modeling of Character Strengths to Predict Educational and Holistic Outcomes of Human Flourishing” and transfer the data for analysis, as describe in the data management plan for this proposal. (January 13, 2025)
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law, have been awarded $160,000 from Sonoma County Secure Families Collaborative through December 31, 2025. Funding from this will continue supporting legal representation of immigrants who live in Sonoma County for continued removal of defense actions. (January 13, 2025)
David Saah, College of Arts and Sciences
David Saah, College of Arts and Sciences, has received a $49,335 subaward research grant from the Spatial Informatics Groups, LLC through United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II. The goal of Phase II project is to scale, improve stability, and enhance features and functionality of the PyreCast platform such that it is marketable to insurance, electric utility, and emergency management sectors accross the US. (December 10, 2024)
Camille Coley, Office of the Provost/Sponsored Programs and External Partnerships
Camille Coley, Office of the Provost/Sponsored Programs and External Partnerships, has received the highest award at USF totaling $2,361,186 for a Collaborative Research Grant: Tri-Alliance for Post-Award Innovation from the National Science Foundation in collaboration with Loyola Marymount University and Santa Clara University. The objective of this project is to advance research administration infrastructure by coordinating collaborative activities and sharing resources among three California-based Association of Jesuit Colleges and University (AJCU) each recognized as an emerging research institution (ERI). Through this collaboration, the project aims to empower faculty and staff to unlock USF’s research potential by strengthening post award research support, training, and compliance areas. (September 5, 2024)
Bill Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law
Bill Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law, have received a $400,814 grant from the City and County of San Francisco, via the Central American Resource Center of Northern California, as part of the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative of more than a dozen agencies. Funding from this award will continue to support legal representation of unaccompanied children, families, and individuals with cases in the Federal Immigration Court in San Francisco.
Evelyn Ho, College of Arts and Sciences
Evelyn Ho, College of Arts and Sciences, has received a $52,000 subaward research grant from the Mount Zion Health Fund through the Regents of the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) in partnership with On Lok. Their portion of study will focus on integrative approaches to healthy aging. The community-based research will partner academic and community partners to work together to support the sustainable delivery of taichi, acupuncture and integrative approaches to nutrition in On Lok’s PACE (aging at home) program.
Michael Stevenson, College of Arts and Sciences
Michael Stevenson, College of Arts and Sciences, has received a $179,218 research grant from the National Science Foundation in a collaborative proposal with San Francisco State University (SF State). The objective of this project is to adapt, implement, and assess the Scientist Spotlights intervention to chemistry courses as a way to increase science identity, science belonging, and possible science selves of undergraduate students. This project aims to improve STEM student engagement and mitigate disparities in undergraduate STEM students’ success.
Angela Banks, School of Nursing and Health Professions
Angela Banks, School of Nursing and Health Professions, has received a $630,000 grant from the Department of Health Care Access and Information. The University of San Francisco's Song Brown RN Program strives to increase education opportunities for ethnic minorities, such as Hispanic/Latina/os, underrepresented in the nursing field. This grant supports USF’s partnership with Immaculate Conception Academy to identify potential Hispanic/Latina/o nursing students, and the training and retention activities of the nursing program. (July 23, 2024)
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law, have been awarded $80,000 from Sonoma County Secure Families Collaborative through December 31, 2024. Funding from this will continue supporting legal representation of immigrants who live in Sonoma County for continued removal of defense actions. (July 5, 2024)
Indre Viskontas, College of Arts and Sciences
Indre Viskontas, College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $139,000 research sub-award from the National Science Foundation through Georgetown University. This project aims to longitudinally test both novel and established computational approaches to core dimensions of creative ability to predict STEM success during and after college. Overall, this project aims to test how four basic components of creative cognition (visual, verbal, generative, and evaluative) relate to future STEM success, including testing human evaluation of AI-generated ideas. (June 21, 2024)
Annette Regan, School of Nursing and Health Professions
Annette Regan, School of Nursing and Health Professions, has been awarded $334,873 in research funding from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. The two-year study aims to identify the extent to which viral co-infections increase the severity of infection with SARS-CoV-2 among children with and without underlying health conditions. Dr. Regan and colleagues will then evaluate whether COVID-19 vaccination reduces the severity of viral co-infections associated with SARS-CoV-2 in young children. Ultimately the project will be useful to parents/caregivers of young children and their healthcare provider(s) in understanding the risks and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in healthy and high-risk children. (June 13, 2024)
Mustafa Hajij, College of Arts and Sciences
Mustafa Hajij, College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $341,229 subaward from the Federal Highway Administration through the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. This project seeks to employ real-time detection, classification and tracking of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) using advanced sensing technologies and artificial intelligence algorithms to significantly improve traffic safety at intersections. This project also aims to develop a precise and reliable class perception mechanism utilizing innovative sensor calibration and fusion techniques. (February 29, 2024)
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law
Bill Ong Hing and Jacqueline Brown, School of Law, have been awarded $80,000 from Sonoma County Secure Families Collaborative through June 30, 2024. Funding from this will continue supporting legal representation of immigrants who live in Sonoma County for continued removal of defense actions.
Melissa Canlas and Christine Yeh, School of Education
School of Education faculty Melissa Canlas (IME) and Christine Yeh (CPSY) (Principal Investigators) have been awarded a U.S. Department of Education Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) program grant titled “Building Institutional Capacity through an Integrated AAPI Center for Educational Success (ACES).” AANAPISI grants support efforts by Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions to improve and expand services for Asian Americans and Native American Pacific Islanders and low-income individuals. Dr. Hsiu-Lan Cheng (CPSY) will work as the program evaluator for this project. The grant will provide USF with $1.4 million from 2023–27 for a range of programs to support our AAPI students. This new initiative includes four university-wide components: a dedicated center for AAPI students; faculty learning communities; staff and leadership learning communities; and student leadership development communities.