FACULTY DEVELOPMENT FUND
Created by the Class of 2013, this fund recognizes one faculty member from each college who distinguishes him or herself in student mentoring and service to the campus community.
College of Natural & Behavioral Sciences Dr. Kelly Cartwright, Psychology
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long with students in her research lab, Cartwright has extended her work in reading comprehension to health literacy, a measure of an individual’s knowledge of health-related information, terms and ability to understand medical documents, information and instructions. Cartwright says a greater understanding of health literacy is important because it predicts long-term health outcomes, health-related behavior and the ability to cope with various diseases. “The goal in the research is to better understand
the mental processes involved in health literacy so interventions in future work can be developed,” she says. For the current project, Cartwright relies on a group of student research assistants who administer neuropsychological assessments of executive functioning, reading and cognitive skills to participants. She plans to use the funds from the award to support these students as they conduct this applied research – an experience that will aid them in their chosen fields or graduate school. “Student mentoring has always been an essential part of what I do,” Cartwright says. “With commitment, and sideby-side work, my students and I can make real contributions to knowledge about the neurocognitive bases of reading comprehension processes.”
College of Social Sciences Dr. Michaela D.E. Meyer, Communication
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eyer is currently working on two projects with student researchers and will use the award to defray the cost of travel to two conferences where they will present their papers. Both projects examine emerging adulthood (ages 1825), theorized as a time of individual exploration and identity construction when committed relationships/marriage and
parenthood are delayed. In the first, the researchers will examine over 30 narratives from emerging adult parents about their transition to parenthood and their identity development. “Many emerging adults still become parents,” says Meyer. “There is a large gap in current research the project seeks to fill.” The second studies focus-group data of emerging adults and their response to the film “Easy A.” It explains how emerging adult audiences interpret the process of identity as represented in the film. “We explain how the respondents mark identity as a process of image management, and how they link that process to ownership, control and prostitution,” Meyer says.
College of Arts & Humanities Dr. Laura Puaca, History
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uaca directs the Hampton project originally built in Newport News for defense workers Roads Oral History Project, during World War II. Puaca says that although Newsome which chronicles the lives of Park was one of the largest projects of its kind, there has been Newport News residents in their little written about it. own words as they experienced “This research will help fill an important oversight significant historical events, such in the scholarly literature, restore local history, meet an as the civil rights era. The project important community need and assist the Hampton Roads will get a boost this fall as the Oral History Project launch a new phase of its work,” she award enables her to support notes. “It will not only document an important part of local an undergraduate research history and help forge closer ties between the University assistant and pay for expenses and the Hampton Roads community, but it will also and conference travel. provide an exceptional student the opportunity to prepare Their work includes conducting research and interviews further for graduate study by carrying out and presenting relating to the history of Newsome Park, a federal housing innovative research.”
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FALL 2015
CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT