Eastern Connecticut State University
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

The institution’s inventory of its sustainability research that includes names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research

BIOLOGY
-Patricia Szczys - Dr. Szczys maintains an active research program focusing the population genetics of endangered and threatened waterbirds. Research interests: Population Genetics, Waterbird Ecology and Evolution. Teaching interests: General Genetics, Tropical Biology, Conservation Biology.
-W. Brett Mattingly - Dr. Mattingly is a community ecologist whose research focuses on the causes and consequences of non-native species invasions. Research interests: Non-native Species Invasions, Plant-Consumer Interactions, Biodiversity and Land-use Legacies. Teaching interests: Biological Invasions, Plant Ecology, Tropical Biology.

BUSINESS
-Niti Pandey - Dr. Pandey teaches and conducts research in the areas of employment relations (human resource management, negotiation, small group dynamics), corporate social responsibility, and labor relations. Research interests: Employment Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability, Early American Labor Relations. Teaching interests: Human Resource Management, Labor Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility.

ECONOMICS
- Jennifer Brown, Economics - Pursued research related to environmental regulations and the existence of race and gender related patterns in major choice among bachelor degree recipients. Research interests: Environmental Economics, Energy Economics, The Economics of Education. Teaching interests: Microeconomic Theory, Environmental Economics, Econometrics.

ENGLISH
- Miriam Chirico - Dr. Chirico is a professor and scholar in dramatic literature, focusing on the 20th century as well as the history of comedic drama. Research interests: Comedy Studies, Dramatic Literature, Modernist Literature. Teaching interests: Comedy Studies, Modern and Contemporary Drama, History of Theater. Often include environmental and social sustainability applied throughout.

ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH SCIENCE
- Meredith Metcalf - Her research interests are in the use of geographic information systems to analyze groundwater sustainability, ground water quality and groundwater flow patterns in fractured rock. Research interests: Natural and anthropogenic contaminants in drinking water, Groundwater flow in fractured rock aquifers, GIS and public health. Teaching interests: Introductory and Advanced GIS, Remote Sensing, Environmental Science and Society.
-Stephen A. Nathan - Dr. Nathan is trained in Paleoceanography, Micropaleontology and Biostratigraphy. His research spans topics ranging from paleoclimate to geothermal energy. Research interests: Historical development of the Western Pacific Warm Pool and the East Asian Monsoon, Geothermal properties of the Hartford Basin bedrock and overburden. Teaching interests: Sustainable Energy (lecture and laboratory), Energy Issues in Geoscience (Tier 3, Writing Intensive), Oceanography and Ancient Environments (lecture and laboratory).
-Bryan Oakley - Dr. Oakley is a broadly trained Quaternary geoscientist with research in glacial, coastal and marine depositional environments. The interdisciplinary nature of research gives him the opportunity to collaborate with other geologists, soil scientists, engineers, managers and biologists. Research interests: Coastal Geology, Marine Geology/Habitat Mapping, Deglacial geology of New England. Teaching interests: Coastal geologic hazards, Glacial Geology, Environmental Geology. https://www.wshu.org/post/connecticut-coastal-research-shows-extreme-weather-bigger-climate-change-threat-sea-rise#stream/0

KINESIOLOGY AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION
-Nanette Tummers - A certified holistic stress management instructor, Tummers has developed and taught traditional and online stress management courses at the university level since 2005. She has taught stress management courses to other populations as well, including high-risk populations, cancer patients, and athletes. Tummers also trains educators in providing stress management activities for K-12 students, and she has developed ancillaries for stress management texts. She remains active in conducting research in positive psychology, peer mentoring, and stress management and has presented on these topics at the national AAHPERD conference. She has authored ""Healthy Choices"" (2019) and among other works. https://www.easternct.edu/news/_stories-and-releases/2019/01-january/nanette-tummers-authors-healthy-choices-book.html

MATHEMATICS
-Anthony Aidoo - He conducts research focused on Mathematical Biology/Physiology and medical imaging. Research interests: Epidemiological Modeling, Medical Imaging, ACh-AChE analysis. Teaching interests: Calculus, Real Analysis, Differential Equations.

POLITICAL SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY & GEOGRAPHY
-Christopher Vasillopulos - He has published articles in a variety of professional journals and presented papers at international conferences in Europe and the Middle East. Vasillopulos' new book is titled “Aristotle’s Ghost: How Good Free Men Built Good Free America” (2021). ""The author discusses his work with his alter ego, Aristotle, often by comparing Ancient Greece with American history from Plymouth Rock to Black Lives Matter. (The book’s) dialogic structure invites the reader to come to his or her own conclusions about the complexities of the American experience.”
-Patrick Vitale - Patrick Vitale is an urban, economic and historical geographer. His research examines the effects of suburbanization, science and technology, and war on North American cities. Research interests: Growth and decline of industrial cities, Science and technology; scientists and engineers, Suburbs. Teaching interests: Geographies of settler colonialism, class, patriarchy and racism in the United States, Food insecurity, Social justice and activist research.

PSYCHOLOGY
-James Diller - Dr. Diller is a behavior analyst whose research focuses on maladaptive choice, radical behaviorism and the training of behavior analysts. Research interests: Maladaptive choice, Radical behaviorism, Training of behavior analysts. Teaching interests: Behavior Analysis, Research Methods.
-Carlos Escoto - His teaching focuses on his research interests (Research Methods, Human Sexuality and Health Psychology). Research interests: Human Sexuality, HIV/AIDS, Psychoneuroimmunology. Teaching interests: Research Methods, Human Sexuality, Health Psychology.
-Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault - Dr. Salters-Pedneault is a licensed clinical psychologist who studies the mechanisms of fear learning in anxiety and trauma-related disorders. Research interests: Experimental Psychopathology of Fear, Treatment of Anxiety and Trauma-Related Disorders, Acceptance-Based Therapies. Teaching interests: Clinical Psychology, Psychology Internship, Clinical Research Methods

SOCIOLOGY
-Dennis Canterbury - Dr. Canterbury is an accomplished scholar with specializations in the Sociology of Development and the Sociology of Labor. Research interests: The extractive industries, Caribbean development, Financialization, migration and trade. Teaching interests: Sociology of Globalization, Sociology of Development, Sociology of Labor. https://www.easternct.edu/news/_stories-and-releases/2021/09-september/4-faculty-authors-publish-new-books.html
-Mary Kenny - Her research focuses on Afro-Brazilian culture and politics, child labor, migration and public health (community health assessments, reproductive rights). Research interests: Heritage, Brazil, Identity. Teaching interests: Research Methods (ethnography, community health), Medical Anthropology, Anthropology of Violence.
-Nicholas Parsons - His specialization areas include drugs and drug policy, survey research methodology, and sociology of sport. Research interests: Media coverage of drugs, Drug policy, Prescription drugs and the pharmaceutical industry. Teaching interests: Statistics for Social Research, Drugs & Society, Deviance.
-Ricardo Perez - Dr. Pérez is a cultural anthropologist whose research agenda focuses on state-led development processes in the present context of cultural and economic globalization. Research interests: Globalization, Transnational Migration, Sustainable Development. Teaching interests: Cultural, Economic, and Urban Anthropology, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, U.S. Latino Studies.

Department Chairs and individual faculty were contacted in order to compile the above list. A review of their Eastern biographies was also used. Currently, only full time faculty and staff are considered for this inventory.
Total number of employees who conduct research was an estimate based on the previous submission.
The definition of "sustainability" can be found here: https://www.easternct.edu/sustainable-energy-studies/educationandresearch.html In addition, the three pillars of sustainability--Environmental Sustainability (planet), Economic Sustainability (prosperity), and Social Sustainability (people)--were also considered for this inventory.

Information for this credit provided by Steve Nathan, Associate Professor and Department Chair of the Environmental Earth Science Department.