BUILD PODER and HERE Center Faculty win grants and strengthen community research

Dr. Patchareeya Kwan

Department of Health Sciences

Dr. Patchareeya Kwan’s research project, SEA US, HEAR US, was funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) from 2022-23 as part of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx®) initiative designed to speed innovation in the development, commercialization, and implementation of technologies for COVID-19 testing.

Kwan is a member of the Department of Health Sciences and is one of the directors of the HERE Center.

Housed at CSUN, the goal of SEA US, HEAR US, “Southeast Asians in the U.S.: Health Equity And Research to Understand COVID-19 Stories”, is to understand and address multi-level social, ethical, and behavioral implications of COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and its sequelae among Cambodians, Filipinos, Thais, and Vietnamese Americans in the Greater Los Angeles area through a community-based, mixed-methods approach.

Kwan and her team said they are very proud to be given this opportunity to work with various community-based organizations and join a consortium of distinguished researchers representing prestigious academic institutions, health care settings, and community-based groups.  

Dr. Jonathan Martinez

Department of Psychology

Dr. Jonathan Martinez, in collaboration with Santa Barbara County Department of Behavioral Wellness, received a 4-year $725,000 NIH R16 SuRE-First Award.

Martinez is a member of the Department of Psychology and a HERE Center Faculty Partner.

The grant, mentored by Saetermoe, has a goal of achieving health equity for underserved families by co-developing an evidence-based, culturally responsive Psychoeducation Toolkit with community stakeholders and Our House Productions.

The toolkit will assist providers in increasing mental health literacy, reducing stigma, and enhancing help-seeking for underserved families navigating the mental healthcare system.

Dr. Jimmy Xie

Department of Recreation and Tourism Management

Dr. Jimmy Xiewas also awarded the NIH SuRE-First grant in July 2022. This was to fund his four-year study, “Senior Centers and Older Adults’ Health Outcomes.”

Xie is from the Department of Recreation and Tourism Management and a HERE Center Faculty Partner.

The study aims to examine how physical/social environment and activity participation at senior centers affect older adults’ health and well-being. Collaborators include Dr. Deborah Cohen and Dr. Bing Han from Southern California Kaiser Permanente.

Dr. Claudia Toledo-Corral

Department of Health Sciences

Dr. Claudia Toledo-Corral from the Department of Health Sciences was awarded the NIH SuRE-First grant of $738,000 in August 2022. This grant will be used to fund her project, “Allostatic Load in Latino Youth (ALLY) study: The Role of Discrimination and Environmental Racism.”

Toledo-Corral is a cluster faculty member of the HERE Center.

The study aims to characterize allostatic load in a population of young adult who identify as Latino/a/x and to examine how perceived discrimination and living in environmentally hazardous regions may influence allostatic load.

In this effort, the team is working in collaboration with Dr. Marc Weigensberg, Professor of Pediatrics at the USC Keck School of Medicine.

Dr. Kacie Blackman

Department of Health Sciences

Blackman was also awarded several other grants and funding for her projects. 

She was awarded the Charles R. Drew University Black Maternal Health Center of Excellence Biddy Mason Fellowship. This will be used to fund her project, “Technology and Breast Milk,” where she serves as the principal investigator.

Blackman is also principal investigator the following projects, all of which have been awarded grants: “Augmenting Milk Output Realities” and “Thriving While Black: Black Birth Equity Workers Glowing."

Additionally, she was also an evaluator for the following grant-funded projects: “Black Mamas Glowing -Pregnancy Peer Support Experience,” “Pilot to Support Black Maternal Health Community Mentors” and “Improving Perinatal Mental Health Outcomes Amongst Pregnant and Postpartum Black Women Project.”

Dr. Thomas Chan

Department of Psychology

Chan was also awarded $788,192 to fund his project, “Improving motor learning and rehabilitation via experimental bidirectional dynamic human-virtual reality interaction system.”

The project’s goal is to determine the feasibility of adaptive virtual environments to drive learning and real-world transfer of two rehabilitative skills: 1) a locomotor obstacle negotiation task and 2) a custom-designed forearm and hand prosthesis control task.

Saetermoe is excited to see these projects come to fruition. She is deeply proud of the scholars who have been funded at CSUN with the support of a rich community and the generosity of the NIH and the resulting grants that create a ripple effect for student, faculty, and community collaborations that make a real-world difference locally.

Each of the scholars has benefited from NIH programs that supported their topical interests, research skills, grant-writing, and community-building. More than that, the HERE Center strives to include scholars who are traditionally underfunded or whose work is marginalized in favor of “hard” and typically more basic sciences.

“As founder of the HERE Center, I hope that the university can see that excellence in research exists throughout our campus, that we have fully-funded scholars conducting top-notch research in CHHD and CSBS, and are ready to make change,” Saetermoe said.