Research Office News

Assistant Professor Ashley Cureton has received a 2021 Diversity Recognition Award from the Johns Hopkins Diversity Leadership Council. The award recognizes outstanding accomplishments of faculty, staff, students and alumni whose demonstrable efforts advance diversity and inclusion at Johns Hopkins University. “I am so honored to receive this award. My postdoc and lectureship at Johns Hopkins overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic and a heightened awareness of the systemic racism and racial inequities in higher education and across the U.S., so I was adamant about developing effective strategies to create equitable outcomes for underrepresented populations by engaging in DEI initiatives. I hope to continue to engage in DEI work as a new faculty member at the University of Michigan.”

Lisa Wexler’s new research “A New Strength-Focused Framework to Prevent American Indian and Alaska Native Youth Suicide” is featured in this month’s National Institute’s of Health research highlights. Wexler’s research centers around Indigenous culture, knowledge, beliefs, and community collaboration.

Associate Professor Kristin Seefeldt was featured in an NPR article that analyzes the decrease of Michigan residents living in poverty as a result of financial aid assistance. Seefeldt discusses how pandemic stimulus checks and expanded unemployment benefits are helping families.

Professor Robert Joseph Taylor’s study on the inner workings of Black extended family networks is featured in the Brooking Institute’s “Class Notes.” Taylor’s research shows how younger Black women serve as crucial pillars in their families due to their high levels of involvement both within their family networks.

Professor Brad Zebrack has been awarded a 5-year R01 from the National Cancer Institute for the project "Social genomic mechanisms of health disparities among adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors." The grant will allow study of molecular pathways that represent potential targets for interventions to protect AYA survivors against the adverse biological effects of social isolation, socioeconomic disadvantage, and other psychological and social determinants of health in the highly stressful context of cancer. The study’s intent is to identify functional genomic pathways through which social and psychological factors influence gene regulation and alter health outcomes in AYAs, and to define the role of such effects in structuring health disparities in post-treatment survivorship.

Professor Trina Shanks is quoted in a Washington Post article about how federal relief programs initiated during the pandemic have been surprisingly effective at lifting people and families out of poverty.  President Biden’s “Build Back Better” proposal would continue some of these  financial supports, which could potentially cut childhood poverty rates in half. “The whole point of the child tax credit is, if a family is working at all, it pushes the family above the poverty line so their children aren’t suffering,” said Shanks.

Professor Luke Shaefer spoke with the New York Times about how the stimulus checks issued during the pandemic brought an immediate reduction in food insecurity, which, he says, continues to fall. “We could potentially be at the lowest level of food insecurity ever recorded, because of the government transfers,” said Shaefer.

Associate Professor Shawna Lee and Joyce Lee, PhD ‘21, are coauthors of “Longitudinal relations between coparenting and father engagement in low-income residential and nonresidential father families”, published in the Journal of Family Psychology. Their paper was awarded the Diversity and Inclusion in Men in Families Research Article Award from the National Council on Family Relations and was recognized for its contribution to advancing the science on the role of men in families.