Book publication: Dr. Eileen M. Ahlin, assistant professor of criminal justice, co-authored a book published by Routledge titled "The Veterans Treatment Court Movement: Striving to Serve Those Who Served." This book demonstrates an understanding of the military experience and how society approaches those who have served and have experienced the criminal justice system. The text provides a comprehensive, empirical analysis of the burgeoning veterans court movement from genesis through to operation. “Beginning with the unlikely convergence of therapeutic jurisprudence with the oft-misunderstood warrior ethos that undergirds the entire movement, the text examines every component of veterans courts, weighing the cultural, legal, and practical strengths and limitations of these programs.”
Fellowship: Dr. Daniel Mallinson, assistant professor of public policy and administration, received the 40-for-40 Early Career Researcher Fellowship from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. The program provides funding for 40 outstanding early career research professionals to attend the Fall Research Conference, which attracts high-quality work on a variety of current and emerging policy and management issues. Mallinson is also the principal investigator on a project that was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania titled “Attitudinal Survey of Rural Pennsylvanians.” The survey will sample Pennsylvanians on their views of their community, the state, local and state government, and current pressing policy topics (e.g., opioids, fracking, broadband, and more).
Book publication: Dr. Xenia Hadjioannou, associate professor of language and literacy education, published a book titled “Translanguaging for Emergent Bilinguals.” The book is intended for a teacher audience and uses reader-friendly vignettes to illustrate and analyze the educational experience of emergent bilinguals/English learners in U.S. schools and offer practical recommendations.
National committee member: Dr. Shirley Clark, professor of environmental engineering, served on a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine panel on "Improving the Next-Generation EPA Multi-Sector General Permit for Industrial Stormwater Discharges." As part of its work under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversees a permit program -- the Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) -- that requires industries to manage onsite stormwater to minimize discharges of pollutants to the environment. The report was released in February and offers guidance to inform the next revision of the MSGP, expected in 2020.
Paper publication: Dr. Reuben Asempapa, assistant professor of mathematics education, published a paper titled “Development and initial psychometric properties of the mathematical modeling attitude scale.” This article describes the development, initial validation, and psychometric evaluation of the mathematical modeling attitude scale (MMAS). The MMAS assesses K–12 teachers’ attitude toward mathematical modeling and examines their experiences with modeling practices.
Paper publication: Dr. Stephanie Winkeljohn Black, assistant professor of psychology, published a paper titled “Religious, Spiritual and Secular Identities: Forgotten Components of Multicultural Training.” Black and co-author Amanda Gold, a graduate student in the Applied Clinical Psychology program, suggest that a major inhibitor to working alongside minority religions in our communities to respond to increasing hate and bias toward these groups (Per Research Center, 2016) is the field’s propensity to exclude religious, spiritual and secular (RSS) identities from multicultural identity discussions and training. A lab at Penn State Harrisburg, and DIRECT Interventions (Diversity in Religion-Spirituality-Secularism and College Students), explores how counseling and clinical psychology students engage RSS identities and how this affects the state of RSS-responsive psychotherapy.