Dr. Cassandra Massey, assistant professor and interim assistant program director, nurse anesthesia, made a successful grant proposal to the Kays Foundation. The program will receive $32,931 for purchasing equipment and supplies that will significantly enhance the simulation experience for nurse anesthesia students. The goal is preparing nurse anesthesia students to enter their clinical training after getting experience with the most current equipment available.

Dr. Cameron Wimpy (left), associate professor of political science, and department chair, and Dr. William McLean (right), associate vice chancellor, faculty relations, recently presented their ongoing work on rural election administration and related challenges at the Election Sciences, Reform and Administration Conference. Recent political science graduate Ellie Foote joined them for one of the presentations. Their work is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bárbara González, clinical professor of biotechnology, Campus Querétaro, is co-author of an article published in Frontiers in Immunology. The researchers investigated a potential bidirectional causality between gut microbiota and celiac disease in individuals with a high genetic risk. González, whose specialty is the study of genomics of complex diseases, is completing her Ph.D. at the University of the Basque Country. The article is available online.

Two journal articles co-authored by Dr. Niamat Hossain, assistant professor of engineering management, have been published recently. In Smart Health, Hossain and his associates examined the application of systems modeling language (SysML) and discrete event simulation to address patient waiting time issues. For Decision Analytics Journal, he presented an integrated convolutional neural network and sorting algorithm for image classification to make flood disaster management more efficient.

Congratulations to Justin Gibson, academic adviser, sociology and criminology, and July recipient of the campus PROPS (Proudly Recognizing Our Pack Staff) award. Gibson, who started as a part-time employee and was promoted to full-time in 2021, was commended for his exceptional support and service to returning students, as well as incoming freshmen and transfer students. He often assists with recruitment events and new student orientations. See his online interview.