Dr. Oné Pagán (Biology)

Parthenolide prevents the expression of cocaine-induced withdrawal behavior in planarians

Planarian flatworms show a lot of promise in neuropharmacological research; they have a well-developed nervous system, including a rudimentary brain, which use every major neurotransmitter system described in mammals, including humans. Additionally, its nervous system shares many structural similarities with vertebrate nervous systems. We use planaria as a model organism to screen for naturally-occurring or synthetic psychoactive compounds. Learn more...

Dr. Kurt Kolasinski (Chemistry)

The study of etching and growth for control of surface structure and porous solid formation

My research focuses on preparation and characterization of surface structures and porous solids. Silicon is one of my favorite materials but we also work on titanium, aluminum and their oxides. By making micro- and nanostructures, we can change the properties of materials. As shown in the figure, we can turn silicon from a reflective silvery looking material into a black material that reflects virtually no sunlight. This is an interesting property for, for example, solar cells. To create black silicon, we use a pulsed laser to etch pillars into the surface of the sample. Learn more...

Dr. Isreal Sanz-Sánchez
(Languages and Cultures)

As a historical linguist, I am interested in the processes that have caused Spanish to be as socially and geographically diverse as it is. I am dissatisfied with the prevalent view in the literature that circumvents this diversity and sweeps it under the rug of dialectal uniformity, especially in the case of Latin American Spanish. In my research, I focus on Spanish in Mexico and the US Southwest, especially New Mexico, by studying the written evidence from the colonial period. I approach this evidence both philologically and linguistically. Learn more...

Dr. Monica Joshi
(Chemistry)

My primary research interest is the application of well-established and novel analytical techniques for the chemical characterization of materials of forensic interest. In the dietary supplements area, my interests are focused on the development of rapid analytical screening methods for the active components present in over-the-counter supplements. Learn more...

Dr Tim Starn
(Chemistry)

I involve students in a variety of research opportunities that are related to Analytical Chemistry. The current directions include analyses that are forensic and ecological in nature. One project entails determining the fatty acid residues on a Native American artifact to illuminate the dietary preferences of the culture that generated the artifact. I am also working with a local company that is investigating improved processing of farm waste, such as agricultural runoff, that affects water quality in the Chesapeake watershed. Learn more...

Dr. Lisa Milhous
(Communication Studies)

I am currently working on two projects that may be of interest to students. The first project looks at what features of mentoring programs help and hinder minority mentees, particularly GLBTQ-identified individuals. A second project explores how turn-taking behavior reveals the cultural values a person holds. As always, I welcome student collaborators who might be interested in working on these projects! Stop in my office and ask me about the "Wawa Door Dance"! Learn more...

Dr Zhen Jiang
(Computer Science)

Dr. Jiang's research focuses on the information modeling in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In every area there is an opportunity for research and improvement with the idea of "Going Green" in mind. By providing green information techniques, Dr. Jiang's goal is to improve the utilization of the resources in WSNs versus replacing the entire network by another deployment or at least extending the lifetime so replacement is needed less often. Sensors are usually tiny devices and cannot get recharged after they are deployed. The power and computational ability in each one is critically limited. An efficient and effective resource management is the key to many applications such as environmental surveillance and target detection. Learn more...

Dr. Hannah M Ashley
(English)

First generation and working-class university students, basic writing, Bakhtinian voicing theory, critical discourse analysis, critical pedagogy, service learning, and community and academic literacies. Learn more...

Dr. Eric Fournier
(History)

Claims of persecution in Late Antiquity, North African Christianity, the role of rhetoric in historiographical representations of "reality", Imperial/Royal courts and residences of the late antique and medieval world, interactions between Church and 'state' in the late Roman world. Learn more...

Professor Stacy Schlau
(Languages and Cultures)

Seventeenth and twentieth century Spanish American women writers (especially narrative), seventeenth century Spanish women writers, Spanish American literature (colonial and contemporary), Women's Studies, Latin@ Studies, Transatlantic Studies, literary theory (especially narrative genres), Caribbean literature, early modern Spanish literature, autobiography. Learn more...

James Mc Laughlin
(Mathematics)

My present interests are in the area of basic hypergeometric series and related areas. I am currently also working on various problems related to continued fractions. I have also investigated various convergence problems for q-continued fractions, and I and my thesis adviser, Douglas Bowman, recently partially settled a long-standing open problem on the convergence of the Rogers-Ramanujan continued fraction on the unit circle. Learn more...

Dr. Anthony J. Nicastro
(Physics)

There are on-going studies of the mechanics of animal life, including the aerial maneuvers of spinner dolphins [Image credit: Bob Pitman] and death rolls in alligators. Also, investigating the long-term survival of bacteria trapped in geological formations whose genetic material is subject to damage from ambient ionizing radiation. This work is being done as part of the Ancient Biomaterials Institute at West Chester University. Learn more...

Dr Cheryl Gunter
(Communicative Disorder)

Dr. Gunter addresses issues related to clinical education, with specific attention to how clinical students, fellows, practitioners, instructors, and administrators develop as critical thinkers in each dimension of the clinical service delivery continuum. She also addresses issues related to the evaluation of language, with specific attention to enhancement of the reliability and validity of methods to describe aspects of language pragmatics. Furthermore she explores the scholar-practitioner model for clinical practice and its implications for clinical education and clinical service delivery, as well as for professional development for speech-language pathologists. Learn more...

Dr Ellie Brown (Psychology)

I am a clinical psychologist with a focus on children's learning and emotions. I am particularly interested in how poverty and oppression influence children and families, and how we might best help individuals, as well as work for social change.

Nearly a quarter of children in the United States live below or near poverty thresholds. The risks are clear. Poverty relates to negative outcomes, including emotional difficulties, and school failures. What is not clear is how to conceptualize relations between poverty and child outcomes.Learn more...

Karyn M. Usher, Ph.D. (Chemistry)

My research group typically consists of two to four undergraduate students and myself. I train these students in chromatographic techniques such as High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Gas Chromatography (GC) and sample preparation techniques such as Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) and QuEChERS. I supervise undergraduate research projects that utilize these techniques in ways that are interesting to students and also give useful solutions to analytical problems. Since 2005, our research projects have varied from those focusing on liquid chromatographic theory to those focusing on nutrition and food safety.
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Angela T. Clarke, Ph. D. (Psychology)

My research focuses on the use of community partnership approaches for developing sustainable, community-based interventions to prevent mental health disorders among youth living in poverty. A current project involves the use of action research to adapt an evidence-based depression prevention program for African American adolescents exposed to the chronic stress of urban poverty and to evaluate its effectiveness when delivered in the novel setting of neighborhood after-school programs.
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Dr Gary W Coutu (Geography and Planning)

Research projects included the Watershed and Sub-watershed Delineation Projects for Texas to update and delineate 11 and 14 digit watershed boundaries. This project examined GIS-based methods to automate watershed delineation processes. Methods were evaluated based upon editing/accuracy requirements, field verification and interfaces with hydrologic models.
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Nadine Bean (Social Work)

My research/scholarly interests over the last few years have been in disaster mental health and resilience in those experiencing disaster, trauma, and/or war. One endeavor that I am particularly proud of and which has been "performed" all over the country is a narrative/oral history research project that is ongoing in its development: "Women of NOLA: Voices of Resilience Before, during and After Katrina." Most recently this multi-media production was performed in New York City at the International, "Performing the World" conference. The theme of the conference is "Can Performance Change the World?" I believe it can.
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Jane Kenney (Professional and Secondary Education)

Dr. Kenney teaches educational psychology at West Chester University and also has taught courses in development, psychology, and personal career development at other institutions. Dr. Kenney's current research interests are in the area of adult learning and how to use technology to increase student engagement and participation. Dr. Kenney co-founded a research and evaluation organization to assist local school districts and non-profit organizations measure and evaluate program outcomes and she continues to provide consultation services.
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Monica Lepore (Kinesiology)

Dr. Lepore has been a dedicated member of the Kinesiology Department for 26 years. "Doc" Lepore is a Certified Adapted Physical Educator that teaches Health and Physical Education Teacher Certification (HPETC) majors how to include children with disabilities into physical education and health classes as well as after school sports and aquatics programs. She developed the Physical Education for Individuals with Disabilities Minor Program, which was implemented in 2006.
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Jean-Christophe Dobrzelewski (Applied Music)

An active soloist and clinician, Jean-Christophe Dobrzelewski has given recitals and masterclasses across the United States, Europe and Latin America. He played as guest artist at the 2010 Romantic Trumpet Festival in Russia, the 2010 South Carolina Trumpet Festival, the 2011 Indiana University of Pennsylvania Trumpet Festival and the 2011 International Trumpet Guild Conference in Minneapolis. A founding member of the Tromba Mundi trumpet ensemble, The Tryptique Ensemble and the West Texas Brass Project, Dobrzelewski performs extensively as a chamber musician. He also plans performance tours and educational opportunities for his WCU students and travels with them both locally and abroad. A believer that music is for everyone, he is very active in bringing music to the masses, performing in schools, churches, hospitals, prisons, nursing homes and retirement communities.
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Scott Leslie Balthazar (Music History)

Scott Balthazar studied music history with Lawrence Bernstein, Norman Smith, Gary Tomlinson and Eugene K. Wolf, and music theory with Leonard Meyer and Eugene Narmour. He has lectured and published on stylistic aspects of nineteenth-century Italian opera and on contemporary theories of instrumental form in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Dr. Balthazar is a contributor to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and his articles and reviews have appeared in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Journal of Musicological Research, Journal of Musicology, Opera Journal, Cambridge Opera Journal, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Current Musicology, Opera Quarterly, Music and Letters, and Music Library Association Notes. He won the scholarly essay contest of the National Opera Association in 1994. He edited and contributed two chapters for the Cambridge Companion to Verdi for Cambridge University Press (2004). Dr. Balthazar is writing the Historical Dictionary of Opera for Scarecrow Press. Learn more...

Dr. Ali Naggar (Accounting)

Dr. Naggar has worked for with foreign governments and international organizations for twenty years. His research interests lie in the areas of accounting for the oil and gas industry, international accounting issues and international economic issues. He has published in the International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines, The Southwestern Journal of Economics, The Academy of Business Disciplines, and the American Economist. Ali has been an instrumental figure in creating the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) Chapter of West Chester. Under his leadership, the West Chester Chapter of has flourished and won first place in the Warner Division (for smaller chapters) two years in a row (2009 and 2010) competing against approximately one hundred other chapters. Due to this success, the West Chester chapter and Dr. Naggar have been recognized by Dean Fiorentino, Provost Lawmers, and President Weisenstein at a number of functions. Learn more...

Dr. Jeffrey L. Osgood Jnr. (Political Science)

Dr. Osgood has extensive experience in working with state and local governments through a variety of positions over the last ten years. His areas of expertise include local economic development and policy analysis and program evaluation. He has previously worked at the Center for Local Governments at Western Kentucky University, and currently serves as Associate Director of the Center for Social & Economic Policy Research at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. In his time with the Center for Local Governments, Dr. Osgood worked on projects ranging from wage and benefit studies to pay classification analyses. Currently, as Associate Director, Dr. Osgood has been involved with a number of studies ranging from health needs analyses to program evaluations for both public and private organizations, as well as nonprofit foundations. Learn more...

Paul Stoller (Anthropology and Sociology)

Paul Stoller has been conducting anthropological research for 30 years. His early work concerned the religion of the Songhay people who live in the Republics of Niger and Mali in West Africa. In that work, he focused primarily on magic, sorcery and spirit possession practices. Since 1992, Stoller has pursued studies of West African immigrants in New York City. Those studies have concerned such topics as the cultural dynamics of informal market economies and the politics of immigration. The results of this ongoing research has led Stoller to the study of the anthropology of religion, visual anthropology, the anthropology of senses and economic anthropology. Stoller's work has resulted in the publication of 11 books, including ethnographies, biographies, memoirs as well as two novels. His work is widely read and recognized. In 1994 he was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. Learn more...

Dr. Giovanni Casotti (Biology)

Dr. Casotti's research examines how birds osmoregulate in different environments. His research focuses on the functional morphology and physiology of the avian kidney and the lower gastrointestinal tract. He has conducted research in arid and mesic environments on different bird species, and is particularly interested in how birds handle nitrogenous waste. Dr. Casotti uses the techniques of transmission and scanning electron microscopy and light histology.
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Anita Foeman Ph.D (Communication Studies)

Anita Foeman, Ph.D. is the head researcher of the DNA Discussion Project. Dr. Foeman holds the rank of Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. Dr. Foeman is a scholar of intercultural and organizational communication. She holds a B.A. from Defiance College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Temple University. Dr. Foeman joined the faculty of West Chester University in 1982. The DNA Discussion Project is integrated into courses shes teaches in intercultural communication.
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Monica Zimmerman (Management)

Monica Zimmerman, PhD, CPA teaches entrepreneurship, business policy/strategic management at the graduate and undergraduate levels. She has published and presented many studies addressing the management teams, legitimacy, and initial public offerings (IPOs) of early stage companies. Her research has been published in top academic journals including the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Small Business Management, and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Dr. Zimmerman also serves as the Director of the Dr. Edwin Cottrell Entrepreneurial Leadership Center at West Chester University. The Cottrell Center promotes entrepreneurship literacy and provides experiential learning opportunities for West Chester University students by assisting Pennsylvania based early stage and small companies.
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Eleanor F. Shevlin. (English)

Research interests include British literature and culture in the 18th century, history of the book/print culture studies, postcolonial fiction, genre theory, the "novel," fiction and law, technology and digital culture, and the institutional history of English as a discipline
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Xiaowei (Linda) Zhu (Management)

Dr. Xiaowei Zhu received her PhD in Production Operations Management from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and M.A. in Management Information Systems from the University of Iowa. Her research interests include supply chain management, outsourcing, quality management and mixed channel. Dr. Zhu has several papers published in leading journals, including Journal of Business Research, Production and Operations Management, International Journal of Production Economics and others. Dr. Zhu is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science and Decision Science Institute.
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Dr. Linda S. Stevenson (Political Science)

My primary areas of teaching and research specialization are in comparative politics and international relations, with a focus in the region of Latin America, on topics related to democracy, equality, development and gender politics. In the 1980s I traveled to Haiti, Kenya, the former Soviet Union (Russia, Ukraine and Latvia), and Mexico for short periods, but long enough to observe and formulate questions about poverty, inequalities and how transitions to democracy can occur?! These questions and the myriad of answers continue to drive me as a global citizen and as a political scientist.
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Marc Gagne, Ph.D (Geology and Astronomy)

Dr. Gagné and his students study young stars and star formation, primarily through their x-ray and infrared emission. Students in his research group analyze data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope to identify newborn stars in molecular clouds, star clusters, and OB associations. With his collaborators at Swarthmore College, Penn State and the University of Delaware, his research seeks to understand the mechanisms which produce the x-rays seen from the most massive young stars. Dr. Gagné also studies glaciers via passive microwave remote sensing in collaboration with colleagues at Lehigh University. For more information regarding Dr. Gagné's research, please visit 'Astronomy Research'.
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Dr. Lisa A. Kirschenbaum (History)

As a cultural historian of the Soviet Union, I'm interested in how people come to represent and understand their life stories as part of history. I focus on the linkages between individual, private lives and the momentous, often traumatic events of Russia's twentieth century. My research examines both in the political uses of gender and family, and in the ways culture and social organization shape and define the individual's sense of self. My current project, tentatively titled "A World to Win: The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Culture of International Communism," examines international communism from the perspective of those who embraced it.
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