As the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its independence July 4, Florida State University’s Institute for Governance and Civics is making experts available to discuss the nation’s history, constitutional traditions, civic culture and future challenges.

The institute has four faculty members available for interviews on topics ranging from the U.S. Supreme Court and constitutional government to education policy, free speech and the role of states in American democracy.

The available experts include:

Ryan Owens, IGC Director

• Email: owens@fsu.edu
• Areas of expertise: Civics and higher education; law and courts; U.S. Supreme Court; judicial behavior.
• Story angles:
  • How has America thrived for 250 years?
  • What does the Supreme Court need to do to ensure another 250 years?
  • What does higher education need to do to sustain America for another 250 years?
  • Is patriotism bipartisan?
  • What trends do we see regarding upcoming generations of Americans?

James Strickland, Constitutional Liberty Branch Head; Associate Professor of Political Science

• Email: jms25s@fsu.edu
• Areas of expertise: Interest groups; legislatures and subnational politics in the United States.
• Story angles:
  • He can discuss the recent student-run constitutional convention.
  • Was James Madison correct about interest groups?
  • What is the role of states today versus states earlier in America’s 250 years?

James V. Shuls, Educational Liberty Branch Head

• Email: jvs24b@fsu.edu
• Areas of expertise: K-12 finance; teacher policy; education reform.
• Story angles:
  • How has the “right to learn” issue evolved over time?
  • How does education today compare to education at earlier times in America?
  • What does K-12 education need to do to sustain America for another 250 years?

Denise Harle, Conscience Liberty Branch Head, First Amendment Clinic Director

• Email: dharle@law.fsu.edu
• Areas of expertise: Constitutional law; appellate practice; First Amendment rights.
• Story angles:
  • Why is the First Amendment so important to America’s 250th?
  • What do free speech and religious liberty mean for Americans today versus 250 years ago?
  • How can we create a culture that respects individual rights to expression and thought?

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As Father’s Day approaches on June 21, a Florida State University licensed marriage and family therapist is examining how cultural and societal changes have reshaped modern fatherhood.

Long viewed as the “helper” or “secondary parent” in raising children, fathers are increasingly taking on a more central role in family caregiving. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, most Americans (57%) say it’s extremely or very acceptable for men to take care of the home and children while their wife works for pay.

Jamila Holcomb, an associate teaching professor at the FSU Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, teaches students about the complexity of family life. As a therapist, she helps support individuals and families as they heal from trauma and navigate mental health and relationship challenges.

Holcomb says that fatherhood has evolved from a provider-focused role to a relationship-focused one.

“The definition of a ‘good father’ has transformed significantly over the last 25 years,” Holcomb said. “We have moved away from viewing fatherhood primarily through the lens of financial provision or discipline and toward a broader understanding of fathers as active caregivers, co-parents and emotional supports within the family system. Today, fatherhood often includes being involved in daily childrearing, contributing to household responsibilities and creating secure, emotionally connected relationships with children.”

Holcomb believes that research highlighting the benefits of involved fathers is helping drive this shift.

“One important shift is that research has increasingly demonstrated that fathers play a meaningful role in children’s social, emotional and behavioral development,” Holcomb added. “Studies examining father involvement have found that engaged fathering is associated with positive developmental outcomes, including improved social and psychological outcomes for children. Validating the importance of the fatherhood role has led to greater societal awareness and psychoeducation, and an increased interest in fathers adapting to this evolving role.”

Media interested in discussing the evolving role of fathers may contact Holcomb via email at jholcomb@fsu.edu.

Jamila Holcomb, associate teaching professor, FSU Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences

What is another big reason behind the role of fatherhood changing over time?

One major factor is the changing landscape of families and gender roles. As more women pursue higher education and build careers, many families require a more equitable division of household and caregiving responsibilities. We also now have a greater understanding of the “invisible labor” or “mental load” involved in maintaining a household. This involves the planning, anticipating, organizing and emotional management that often goes unnoticed and unrewarded. Research and public discourse have highlighted how this invisible labor can disproportionately fall on mothers and contribute to stress and burnout (Ciciolla & Luthar, 2019). This creates an even greater need for fathers to participate not only in completing tasks, but in sharing responsibility for managing family life.

Do present-day fathers face more societal pressure to be around and active compared to the fathers of previous generations?

I think there is more societal pressure on fathers to be more present and active, but I don’t view that pressure as inherently negative. Much of this shift is coming from our evolving understanding of child development, our expanding ideas about masculinity and a recognition that nurturing and emotional connection are important aspects of fatherhood. For many generations, traditional gender roles limited fathers’ identities to being providers or authority figures, while caregiving and emotional expression were often assigned primarily to mothers. As those expectations change, fathers have more opportunities to develop and express qualities like nurturance, vulnerability and emotional availability. These are all qualities that will greatly improve their own health and well-being, as well as their relationships with their children. 

Now that fathers are increasingly encouraged and expected to take on more active parenting roles, it is important that we collectively continue to support fathers in doing that. We should all be advocating for changes in workplace policies, greater community support and continued expansion of cultural norms that value involved fatherhood.

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June marks Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, an opportunity to foster public understanding for the most proactive brain health habits. A Florida State University Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine professor is reframing the way we look at brain health, helping individuals form a whole-body approach to reduce dementia risk.

Julia Sheffler is the director of the Integrative Science for Healthy Aging research program in the FSU College of Medicine. Her research focuses on improving scientific understanding of risk and resiliency factors related to late-life health and cognitive functioning.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 55 million people live with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias worldwide. In the United States, approximately 7.4 million people aged 65 and older live with Alzheimer’s — an irreversible brain disorder that erodes memory and thinking skills.

Sheffler helps people build the knowledge, skills and confidence to make changes that are scientifically supported in combatting cognitive decline; while also paying attention to their own health, preferences, values and daily life to find an approach they can maintain over time.

“The best lifestyle change is often the one a person can realistically sustain,” Sheffler said of how individuals can best prevent cognitive decline through changes of their own. “For some people, improving diet may be the most impactful starting point. For others, it may be quitting tobacco, reducing alcohol use, increasing movement, improving sleep, or spending more time with friends and family. The reality is that even very healthy dietary patterns may not work the same way for everyone, in part because individuals differ in how their bodies metabolize and respond to nutrients.”

Sheffler’s research allows her to develop personalized strategies for individuals that integrate important factors such as nutrition, movement, mental health and social connection. By forming healthy habits that benefit the whole body, individuals are supporting their own brain health.

“The message I most want people to know is that brain health is not something we should only think about after memory problems begin,” Sheffler added. “Many of the same behaviors that support the heart, blood vessels, metabolism, mood, and sleep also support the brain. Even small, sustainable changes can be meaningful when they become part of a person’s everyday life.”

Media interested in understanding Julia Sheffler’s critical research and practical habits for promoting brain health may reach out to her via email at julia.sheffler@med.fsu.edu.

Julia Sheffler, assistant professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine

Based on your research and understanding, how much does a person’s background dictate their lifetime risk for dementia?

A person’s background can play a meaningful role in dementia risk, but I would not say it “dictates” their future. Dementia risk is shaped by a combination of factors, including genetics, medical history, education, socioeconomic context, neighborhood resources, access to healthcare, stress exposure and lifestyle factors. Some of these begin very early in life and can accumulate over time. For example, opportunities for high-quality education, access to nutritious foods, safe places to be physically active and good preventive healthcare can all influence brain health across the lifespan.

At the same time, one of the most important messages is that dementia risk is not fixed. Even for individuals who may be at higher risk because of family history, vascular risk factors, or social and environmental barriers, there are still meaningful opportunities to support brain health. My work focuses on identifying realistic, accessible ways to help people make and sustain changes that may reduce risk, especially in communities where those resources have not always been easy to access.

You’ve done a lot of research on nutrition as it relates to Alzheimer’s and dementia. Would you consider nutrition the single-most important lifestyle change someone can make to help prevent cognitive decline in the future?

I would say nutrition is one of the most important lifestyle factors for brain health, but I would be cautious about calling it the single most important one for everyone. Brain health is influenced by many interconnected behaviors and health conditions, including diet, physical activity, sleep, stress, social connection, blood pressure, diabetes, heart health, and mental health. Nutrition is powerful because it touches many of those systems at once. What we eat can affect inflammation, vascular health, metabolism, gut health, and other biological pathways that are highly relevant to cognitive aging. We are not yet at the point where we can provide precise, individualized nutrition recommendations for brain health on a large scale.

Since establishing the Integrative Science for Healthy Aging Program, has there been an “a-ha” moment in your research? Something you’ve stumbled upon that you feel is most important for people to know when it comes to dementia and brain health?

One of the biggest “a-ha” moments for me has been appreciating just how closely brain health is connected to the rest of the body, especially metabolism. We often think about memory and thinking abilities as being separate from physical health, but the brain is an extremely energy-demanding organ. It depends on healthy blood vessels, stable metabolic function, and a steady supply of fuel to work well. When systems like blood sugar regulation, cardiovascular health, inflammation, or lipid metabolism are disrupted, those changes can also affect the brain over time.

That connection has shaped much of my work. I have become increasingly interested in how nutrition and other lifestyle behaviors may support brain health by influencing multiple systems at once, including vascular and metabolic health, inflammation, sleep, mood, and daily functioning. It has also made me think about dementia prevention as something that needs to be practical and whole-person focused. It is not enough to tell people that a certain diet or exercise routine may be good for the brain; we need to help them understand why these changes matter and support them in making changes they can actually sustain. The “best” intervention for one person may actually be very different for someone else. 

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A promising new pancreatic cancer drug that nearly doubled survival times in a recent clinical trial is drawing attention not only for its potential impact on patients, but also for the university research that helped make it possible.

In recent clinical trials by oncology company Revolution Medicines, patients who received daraxonrasib live an average of 13.2 months. The rate nearly doubled the average of 6.7 months for patients in the study who received standard chemotherapy.

Pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of about 3% once it spreads to other parts of the body. Daraxonrasib targets the KRAS gene, which was once deemed “undruggable.” Breakthroughs by university scientists helped lay the foundation for collaboration between universities and biotech companies that led to the drug’s development.

Florida State University chemist James Frederich is the Werner Herz Associate Professor and head of The Frederich Laboratory in the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He focuses on developing new strategies and tactics to prepare architecturally complex natural products that exhibit important biological activity in living systems. Frederich’s research specialties include chemical biology, synthesis and catalysis.

Frederich said the success of daraxonrasib reflects the vital role universities play in advancing high-risk scientific discoveries. FSU has its own history of innovation, including chemist Robert Holton’s pioneering work on the cancer drug Taxol in the late 1980s.

“This is a wonderful example of the impact of translational academic research,” Frederich said of the recent pancreatic cancer treatment. “Revolution Medicines started as an academic startup seeking to explore a high-risk, high-reward mechanism for cancer therapy. Academia uniquely provides the freedom to pursue such risky ventures. When they succeed, the results are often paradigm-shifting.”

Frederich said the value of academic research is often overlooked once groundbreaking treatments reach patients.

“It is sometimes easy to forget that academic research can change the world,” Frederich added. “Daraxonrasib, and the mechanism underlying its action, serves as an excellent reminder of the long-term return on investing in academic science.”

Media interested in interviewing James Frederich about the role of universities in developing cancer-treating drugs may reach out to him via email at jfrederich@fsu.edu.

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As the job market for recent graduates becomes more competitive, a Florida State University career preparation expert offers timely perspective on how students can break through, and what employers are really seeking.

FSU Career Services Assistant Vice President Rob Liddell emphasizes that opportunity still exists for those who are prepared despite flattening hiring demand. Employers are increasingly filling roles through internship conversions and alternative pathways, including project-based and hybrid positions, placing a premium on candidates who can demonstrate real-world experience and professional maturity.

“Graduates who engage deeply and consistently through internships, research, leadership and skill building are standing out from the competition surrounding entry-level hiring,” Liddell said, noting that today’s market rewards tangible evidence of readiness.

He also highlights a persistent challenge: employers often struggle to assess communication and leadership skills. At FSU, more than 95% of students complete a foundational career-readiness course that helps them build portfolios and document competencies through hands-on experiences.

As artificial intelligence reshapes industries, Liddell underscores that human-centered skills are becoming even more valuable. Creativity, adaptability, ethical judgment and emotional intelligence are increasingly essential in a workforce where technology handles routine tasks.

Liddell is available to discuss how students can navigate a shifting workforce, and why preparation, not panic, is the defining factor for success. Media can reach out to Liddell for interviews by emailing him at rll18l@fsu.edu.

Rob Liddell, assistant vice president, Florida State University Career Services

In your experience of being involved in career preparation, how do you best sum up the current climate we’re living in with college graduates entering the work force?

While the early career landscape is evolving, it is far from discouraging. It stands to reason that for well-prepared graduates and for institutions, like Florida State, that intentionally align education, experience and workforce demand, this is a moment of strategic advantage. Hiring organizations are prioritizing candidates who demonstrate applied experience, transferrable competencies and professional maturity. College graduates are entering a more selective market that rewards preparedness. Adjacent to tradition hiring, career entry points are expanding into project-based work, rotational or hybrid roles, contract and post-baccalaureate internships, and entrepreneurial pathways.

With AI weighing so heavily on several industries, what do you believe are the irreplaceable human competencies that they need to excel in the work force?

Many have approached AI-generated content with suspicion as they might have experienced occasional hallucinations, surface-level syntax or incoherent logic. Routine and technical tasks are becoming increasingly automated within the workplace. This development has placed premium value on distinctly human capabilities — the competencies that are difficult to replicate, scale, or substitute and that drive value, trust and impact for others. Among these irreplaceable human competencies are initiative and agency; creativity and innovation; ethical judgment and values-based decision-making; adaptability and intellectual agility; emotional intelligence and relational acumen; leadership and informal influence; integrative critical thinking; and persuasive communication.

In a world of abundant tools, the differentiator is not access; it is an ability to take action across novel and ambiguous situations. Taking action in this type of environment highlights the need for meaningful human connection across team collaboration, client relationships and navigating human dynamics (resolving conflict) in complex organizations. Further, as AI fetches and creates more content and information, human competencies will add important clarity and credibility by telling compelling stories, influencing complexity into alignment and action, and in communicating nuance.

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As the summer travel season gets underway, strong domestic travel numbers may look like a sign of economic strength. But a Florida State University hospitality expert says they could also point to something more complicated: consumers choosing shorter, cheaper trips as inflation and high interest rates continue to squeeze household budgets.

Tarik Dogru, an associate professor at Florida State University’s Dedman College of Hospitality, is available to discuss what this summer’s travel patterns may reveal about consumer behavior. His research examines how travelers adjust vacation spending during economic shocks, including shifts toward lower-cost lodging, shorter trips and domestic destinations.

According to Dogru, high domestic travel numbers do not always tell the full story. Some households may still prioritize travel, but they may be trading international trips or luxury vacations for more affordable domestic options. That shift can make tourism numbers look strong while masking pressure on consumers’ real spending power.

Dogru can also discuss how economic uncertainty affects different segments of the hospitality industry, including independent hotels, economy-tier properties and peer-to-peer rentals, which may benefit when travelers trade down.

Media interested in contacting Dogru for an interview may reach out to him via email at tdogru@dedman.fsu.edu.

Tarik Dogru, associate professor, Dedman College of Hospitality at Florida State University

As the summer travel season approaches, economic instability is at the forefront. How can individuals’ financial instability actually accelerate travel and tourism?

The motivation to escape, socialize and/or experience nostalgia doesn’t disappear when during a pandemic or a period of economic uncertainty and geopolitical stress; rather, it becomes a crucial coping mechanism. For some people, macro-level economic goals, such as buying a home, might already feel unattainable due to high interest rates and high elevated prices in general and so consumers are likely to be redirecting their capital toward short-term subjective well-being, feeling good: travel/tourism/experience economy. They need the vacation to cope with the economic uncertainty. Therefore, travel demand remains highly resilient, not because consumers are wealthy necessarily, but because travel serves as a psychological necessity in an uncertain world especially after the post-pandemic era where travel/vacation has become a necessity for many. Revenge travel might have become a permanent way of life.

There is a chance that domestic tourism could increase this summer or stay at a strong level. But does a surge in domestic tourism always indicate a positive economic outlook?

During the pandemic, our research showed that the hotel industry is not a rigid industry that works in tandem within. That is, the pandemic shock adversely affected the luxury hotel chains, while economy, midscale and independent hotels were highly resilient during this time.

Look at how financial stress plays out in real life: a family facing a tight budget in 2026 doesn’t just stay home. Instead, they swap a $5,000 trip to Europe for a $2,000 domestic road trip. Economists call this the substitution effect wherein the travel plan stays, but the budget shrinks.

A surge in domestic tourism demand driven by inflation means consumers might be trading down. Our earlier research (again in the context of pandemic) showed that independent properties, economy tiers and peer-to-peer accommodations (Airbnbs) capture this downgraded demand. Therefore, in this context, high domestic tourism demand is likely to mask a broader macroeconomic contraction in consumer spending power in travel and tourism context.

How might the “migration effect” not always give an accurate portrayal of tourism numbers?

Raw tourist arrival numbers can be deeply misleading without examining per-tourist spending, destination quality and the reason for arrival.

An increase in domestic travel might sound great. But if that increase is mainly due to travelers who originally planned international trips but have migrated to domestic options due to financial uncertainty or geopolitical stress, then the increase in domestic tourism does not represent new demand entering the tourism economy. They represent displaced demand, recirculated domestically at lower per-trip values. Accordingly, in this context, both the inflation effect and the substitution effect operate simultaneously, inflating nominal spending numbers while the actual experience of economic benefit at the destination level might be declining.

When an American who would have gone to Paris, for example, instead takes a road trip to Miami, that substitution increases domestic tourism (and contributes to Miami’s economy to some extent), but removes the overall international travel impact in the global tourism economy. Therefore, this substitution generates significantly less total economic activity in the overall global tourism economy.

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As Memorial Day approaches, recent research shows many younger Americans are disconnected from the holiday’s meaning. To help bridge that divide, the Florida State University Institute for Governance and Civics (IGC) is incorporating immersive teaching methods to better engage this audience. 

According to 2,000 Americans surveyed by Talker Research, only 48% of respondents knew that Memorial Day is a holiday honoring military personnel who died in service to their country. Just 27% of Generation Z respondents and 38% of millennials selected the correct response.  

Leaders at FSU’s IGC say that gap also presents an opportunity to rethink how civics is taught. Aimed at becoming the nation’s premier policy institute, the IGC advances conscience, economic, constitutional and educational liberty through bold research and transformative teaching.  

Ryan Owens is the director of the IGC, a professor of political science at the FSU College of Social Sciences and Public Policy and affiliate faculty at the FSU College of Law. One of his institute’s signature initiatives is the Founding Voices program, an immersive and interactive learning experience that brings America’s founding era to life through engaging, in-school seminars designed specifically for middle school students. 

Owens said immersive learning can help students connect more deeply with history and America’s founding principles. 

“A student who studies the Battle of Little Round Top through maps and lectures may learn what happened,” Owens said. “But a student who must assume the role of Joshua Chamberlain, confronts impossible choices and understands what was at stake begins to grasp why courage, duty and sacrifice mattered. The lesson becomes not simply historical, but civic and moral.”   

Owens is available for interviews on how civics institutions like the IGC can help younger audiences reconnect with the meaning of Memorial Day. He can be reached via email at Ryan.Owens@fsu.edu.  

Ryan Owens, director, Florida State University Institute for Governance and Civics 

In what ways does modern civics education help connect and deepen students’ understanding of Memorial Day?  

Benjamin Franklin famously said we have “A Republic, if [we] can keep it.” Memorial Day reminds us that many Americans gave their lives to keep that republic. Modern civics education should ensure the next generation understands both the cost of that inheritance and their responsibility to carry it forward. 

In that vein, civics education should transfer information and cultivate gratitude, responsibility and citizenship. Students should understand not only how American government works, but why generations of Americans believed it was worth defending with their lives. 

At the IGC, we want students to understand that freedom is not self-sustaining. Every generation inherits it, but every generation must also preserve it. Memorial Day becomes deeper and more meaningful when students understand the ideals behind the sacrifice so many have made: constitutional liberty, freedom of conscience, self-government and the responsibilities that come with citizenship. 

How can presenting civics history in both an immersive and interactive form allow students to better understand the cost of liberty and military sacrifice? 

We believe students better understand the cost of liberty and military sacrifice when they are not merely passive recipients of information, but active participants in historical inquiry and civic reflection. For example, when students debate the Constitutional Convention, reenact the arguments between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, analyze battlefield decisions at Gettysburg, simulate Supreme Court arguments or wrestle with the moral and political dilemmas faced by prior generations, history becomes more tangible. Students learn liberty was not — and is not — inevitable. It is contested, defended and often purchased at extraordinary human cost. 

Through interactive civics education, students will come to appreciate what Lincoln once told us at Gettysburg, that “From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion.” 

While tough to predict, could this type of enhanced civics education (such as the Founding Voices program) create a new wave of patriotism in the younger generation? 

We hope it builds a reflective patriotism — a form of love of country grounded in thoughtfulness, honesty and civic responsibility rather than blind loyalty or reflexive nationalism. Reflective patriotism asks citizens to appreciate their nation’s principles and achievements while also recognizing its imperfections and working to improve them. 

A reflective patriot does not believe the country is flawless. Nor does he or she believe the country is irredeemable. Instead, a reflective patriot understands the American experiment as an ongoing project — one built on enduring ideals like liberty, equality before the law, constitutional government and self-rule, but one that has always required correction, debate, sacrifice and renewal. 

The Founding Voices program will deliver 100 in-school seminars over three years, reach approximately 40,000 students and teachers, use live and AI-generated historical interpreters and integrate primary-source instruction. Our goal is to determine whether students who are exposed to the civics-in-real-life approach become more excited to learn. And if we can create more reflective patriots, all the better. 

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Mental Health Awareness Month is recognized each May to provide education and reduce the stigma of several disorders. One lesser-known term gaining attention is high-functioning anxiety, which describes people who appear successful and composed while privately struggling with chronic stress, worry and self-doubt.

According to the Mayo Clinic, high-functioning anxiety is associated with generalized anxiety disorder and often goes unnoticed because individuals continue to perform well at work, school or in relationships despite significant internal stress. Florida State University’s Brad Schmidt is the director of the Anxiety & Behavioral Health Clinic, which develops state-of-the-art treatments for individuals suffering from anxiety-related problems. Schmidt’s translational research lab also focuses on the nature, causes, treatment and prevention of anxiety and associated forms of psychopathology, including PTSD, substance use and suicide.

Schmidt says high-functioning anxiety can be difficult to recognize because many people who experience it appear highly capable on the surface.

“One important thing to clarify is that high-functioning anxiety is not a formal diagnosis. It is a way of describing people whose anxiety is largely hidden by outward competence,” Schmidt said. “These individuals may look successful, organized and driven, but internally they experience chronic worry, self-doubt, anticipatory fear, and a persistent sense that they are one mistake away from failure. Basically, it is a term for people who experience anxiety while still appearing outwardly successful or composed.”

Today’s culture often celebrates people who push themselves to succeed, even when that success comes at the expense of their mental health. Schmidt said social media can amplify behaviors commonly associated with anxiety.

“Social media does not typically celebrate anxiety itself, but it does celebrate behaviors that can be anxiety-driven — extreme productivity, relentless ambition and the idea that rest is weakness,” Schmidt added. “The danger is that we confuse high output with psychological health. A person can be achieving at a high level and still be chronically dysregulated, sleep-deprived and unhappy and anxious. In an anxiety clinic, we would ask not only ‘Is the person functioning?’ but ‘What is the cost of them functioning in this way?’

Schmidt is available for interviews on high-functioning anxiety and can be reached via email at schmidt@psy.fsu.edu. As an experienced and highly responsive media subject, Schmidt has appeared in National Geographic, Us Weekly  and other large outlets recently.

Brad Schmidt, director, FSU Anxiety and Behavioral Health Clinic

High-functioning anxiety can be masked easily, especially by individuals who are seen as successful and rewarded in corporate culture. But what are some of the internal dilemmas these individuals experience?

A common dilemma is that the very behaviors that make them look successful —overpreparing, saying yes to everything, working late, being hyperresponsive —may actually be anxiety-management strategies. They reduce anxiety in the short term because the person feels temporarily more in control, but they can reinforce the belief that “I only succeed because I never let up.”

So, the internal conflict is: “I’m being rewarded for the same behaviors that are exhausting me.” The person may receive praise for being dependable or high achieving, while privately experiencing sleep disturbance, muscle tension, irritability, difficulty relaxing, and a narrowed life organized around preventing failure.

How normalized is high-functioning anxiety becoming in today’s competitive landscape?

I would be cautious about saying that high-functioning anxiety itself is becoming normalized, because we don’t really have good research tracking HFA to know how common it is. Anxiety itself is very common. Epidemiological estimates suggest that clinically significant anxiety is one of the most common mental illnesses, and so it would follow that many people with significant anxiety are also outwardly successful.

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Even during a hurricane season expected to be less active, Florida State University experts say Floridians should prepare early, stay alert and avoid focusing too narrowly on storm categories or forecast cones.

During a media briefing Wednesday ahead of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, FSU researchers and emergency management specialists discussed the issues communities continue to face, from rapid coastal growth and rising insurance pressures to the expanding role of artificial intelligence in disaster response.

Here are five key takeaways from the discussion:

1. It only takes one storm

Several experts cautioned against letting seasonal forecasts create a false sense of security.

“It’s the landfalling hurricanes that matter, not the number of hurricanes per season, in terms of human impacts, for the most part,” said Mark Bourassa, a professor in FSU’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science and associate director of the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies. “If it hits you, it’s bad. It’s something that you do have to be aware of the whole time.”

David Merrick, director of FSU’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program and the Center for Disaster Risk Policy, said one quiet season does not eliminate the risk of a devastating storm, pointing to the destruction left by Hurricane Andrew when it made landfall in South Florida in 1992.

“Hurricane Andrew was the first storm of that season,” Merrick said. “It does not take 20 storms. It just takes the one.”

2. Being outside the forecast cone does not guarantee safety

Experts also warned residents not to focus too narrowly on a storm’s forecast track.

Merrick noted that dangerous impacts such as tornadoes, flooding and wind damage can occur far outside the center of a storm.

“Those impacts can go a long way inland,” he said. “They can go left and right of the cone.”

He emphasized that communities outside the projected path can still experience significant damage and disruptions. And as a hurricane develops, the forecast track can move, bringing the center of the storm to communities that only expected minor impacts. Bourassa also pointed to warming ocean temperatures as an area researchers are watching closely, particularly along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

“We’re a little bit more nervous about the temperatures rising and seeing intensity changes as the hurricanes come right onshore,” Bourassa said.

3. Florida’s rapid coastal growth is increasing risk

Dennis Smith, planner in residence in FSU’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, said Florida’s population growth continues to place more people and property in vulnerable coastal areas.

“The issue hasn’t gotten better in the last 30 years,” Smith said. “We have more people who are living in areas that are at the highest risk.”

Smith said communities are increasingly being forced to think beyond individual homes and consider broader infrastructure needs such as drainage systems, roads and public facilities.

“We have a lot more in our built environment than simply our residential structures,” he said.

The discussion also highlighted how insurance availability is intertwined with planning and development decisions.

“Insurance drives housing availability, and so it becomes a planning issue,” Smith said.

4. Resilient construction and mitigation efforts can make a difference

Patricia Born, the Payne H. and Charlotte Hodges Midyette Eminent Scholar in Risk Management and Insurance at FSU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Business, said Florida’s insurance market appears stronger than it did several years ago, partly because of a quieter storm season and improving reinsurance conditions.

But she said long-term stability will depend on reducing losses through mitigation and resilience efforts.

“One way to control insurance costs is to try to control the losses themselves,” Born said.

Newer buildings are often more resilient than older structures, but insurers still face challenges gathering accurate information about homes and upgrades.

“Some houses that are very old have had roofs replaced two or three times, and they may be much more resilient than an insurance company thinks,” Born said.

She said improving data about construction quality, inspections and mitigation measures could help insurers better understand risk and expand coverage options across the state.

5. Artificial intelligence is beginning to change disaster response

FSU researchers also discussed how artificial intelligence and remote sensing technology are beginning to reshape emergency management and disaster recovery efforts.

Merrick said researchers are exploring how AI tools can help emergency managers make faster decisions, improve damage assessments and allocate resources more efficiently after disasters.

“Emergency managers almost universally are like, yes, we want this tool,” Merrick said.

Still, he said the technology remains in an early stage and raises important questions about accuracy and ethics.

“There’s also an almost universal concern about what happens when the answer that the algorithm or the AI gives is wrong,” Merrick said.

Smith said researchers are also studying how drones, LiDAR imagery and AI analysis could help communities identify infrastructure weaknesses before storms strike.

“I think we’re going to see a trend to begin to integrate that into risk assessment and mitigation planning on the front end,” Smith said.

Visit the FSU News website for a full list of FSU hurricane experts who are available to speak with the media.

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The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through Nov. 30, bringing increased potential for destructive storms.

Florida State University faculty are leaders in the study of forecasting, evacuation, insurance and building resilience against hurricanes. They are available to speak with media through the 2026 hurricane season and beyond.

Four faculty members answered questions during a virtual media briefing.

Forecasting, Formation and Tracking

Mark Bourassa, professor, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, and associate director of the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies
mbourassa@fsu.edu , (850) 644-6923
Bourassa uses on-site and remote (aircraft and satellite-based) observations as well as meteorological models to research air-sea interactions and how satellites measure what is happening on Earth’s surface. He is an expert on the network of global meteorological and oceanographic observations that inform forecasts, and the identification of tropical disturbances, which are possible precursors to tropical cyclones. Bourassa is also a team leader for the NASA Ocean Vector Wind Science Team.

Chelsea Nam, assistant professor, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science
ccnam@fsu.edu, (850) 644-1787
Nam researches formations and intensification of tropical cyclones and the hazards brought by these storms. She uses radar data from airborne, shipborne and land-based sources to develop high-resolution models tracking cyclones. Nam is a member of the American Meteorological Society Scientific and Technological Activities Commission Committee on Radar Meteorology.

Emily Powell, assistant state climatologist, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies
epowell@coaps.fsu.edu, (850) 644-0719
Powell provides information about the historical and current climate and weather of Florida for application across a range of sectors and industries. Her expertise includes understanding the drivers of seasonal hurricane forecasts, such as the EL Niño/La Niña cycle, providing historical context, and investigating community risks associated with tropical cyclones. Recent projects have focused on historical climate trends and variability, natural hazards and public health risks, and strategies for building community resilience. She also coordinates the Florida Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network (CoCoRaHS), a voluntary-based network of citizen scientists measuring and reporting precipitation from their own backyards.

Community Resilience

Pedro L. Fernández-Cabán, assistant professor, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center
plfernandez@eng.famu.fsu.edu , (850) 410-6251
Fernández-Cabán’s research couples laboratory and field experiments to assess the structural performance of civil infrastructure during windstorm events. His recent work focuses on developing state-of-the-art AI and machine learning models to predict hurricane wind fields and their interaction with coastal landscapes. Fernández-Cabán’s research leverages ground-level anemometric datasets collected during landfalling hurricanes and advanced wind tunnel techniques to better model the impact of coastal storms on civil infrastructure.

Katie Kehoe, assistant professor, College of Fine Arts
mkk22f@fsu.edu
Kehoe primarily works in performance and site-specific installations with a focus on natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes. She led a 2024 project that honored the resilience of the rural Florida community of Steinhatchee in the aftermath of hurricanes Idalia and Debby. The project, “Learning from Local Experience to Strengthen Disaster Resilience,” was part of a pilot research initiative that examines how rural communities recover from extreme weather events such as hurricanes.

Paul Niell, associate professor, Department of Art History, College of Fine Arts
pniell@fsu.edu
Niell’s research focuses on the architectural history and cultural landscapes of the Caribbean. Through his scholarship, he has worked closely with indigenous communities to foster conversation about their traditional architecture and construction methods, designed to be resilient against the region’s intense storms. He has taught courses on Caribbean architecture and culture and is available to discuss how historic building practices helped ensure survival for the region’s Native peoples and how we might be able to apply their knowledge to make our communities more resilient to hurricanes today.

Emergency Management

David Merrick, director of the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program; director of the Center for Disaster Risk Policy
dmerrick@fsu.edu , Office: (850) 644-9961, Cell: (850) 980-7098
Merrick has worked in state emergency management for more than 21 years in roles including planning, external affairs and air operations. He developed and oversees the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program’s Disaster Incident Research Team, which deploys to disaster impact areas to perform field research on disaster and emergency management. This team has deployed to disasters such as hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Michael, Ian, and Helene to support federal, state and local agencies. His research interests include emergency management planning and policy, remote sensing and unmanned aircraft systems, and information technology in emergency management.

Environmental Law

Shi-Ling Hsu, D’Alemberte Professor, College of Law
shsu@law.fsu.edu , (850) 644-0726
Hsu is an expert in the areas of environmental and natural resource law, economics and property. He has published in a variety of legal journals, co-authored the casebook Ocean and Coastal Resources Law and has appeared on the American Public Media radio show “Marketplace.” Before entering academia, he was a senior attorney and economist for the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C.

Evacuation

Eren Ozguven, associate professor, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, director of the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center
eozguven@eng.famu.fsu.edu , (850) 410-6146
Ozguven directs the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response Center, which improves the quality of life in Florida and the Southeast by identifying disaster vulnerability, improving infrastructure and investigating ways to minimize negative impacts of natural disasters. His research interests include transportation accessibility, modeling of emergency evacuation operations, artificial intelligence and the simulation of transportation networks. Recent scholarship focuses on the relationships among different infrastructure networks in Florida and how that contributes to disaster preparation.

Maxim A. Dulebenets, associate professor and graduate program director, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
mdulebenets@eng.famu.fsu.edu , (850) 410-6621
Dulebenets’ research mainly focuses on operations and optimization. His research group has developed efficient algorithms that can be used to schedule large-scale evacuations in preparation for major natural hazards. His models capture realistic features of emergency evacuation planning, including potential impacts of evacuation settings on evacuees themselves. His recent studies propose new types of optimization models and solution algorithms for emergency evacuation planning under pandemic settings, considering a higher risk of virus spread in overcrowded emergency shelters. 

Risk and Insurance

Patricia Born, Payne H. & Charlotte Hodges Midyette Eminent Scholar in Risk Management & Insurance, Herbert Wertheim College of Business
pborn@wertheim.fsu.edu, (850) 644-7884
Born studies the insurance market structure and performance, professional liability, health insurance and the management of catastrophic risks, such as hurricanes and other natural disasters. She is a past president of the American Risk and Insurance Association and the Risk Theory Society.

Charles Nyce, Dr. William T. Hold Professor of Risk Management and Insurance and chair of the Risk Management/Insurance, Real Estate & Legal Studies Department, Herbert Wertheim College of Business
cnyce@wertheim.fsu.edu , (850) 645-8392
Nyce’s research focuses on catastrophic risk financing. He has written numerous articles on risk management and insurance topics, including title insurance, enterprise risk management, predictive analytics and natural hazards.

Public Health

Chris Uejio, professor, Department of Geography, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
cuejio@fsu.edu
Uejio studies how the physical environment influences human health and well-being. His recent research includes investigations of tropical cyclones, extreme heat and health. Uejio has been quoted in the Orlando Sentinel, Tampa Bay Times, Wall Street Journal, Science Friday and other news outlets about public health issues, including heat waves and hurricanes.

Urban Planning

Dennis Smith, planner in residence, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
djsmith3@fsu.edu
Smith is the director of the Mark & Marianne Barnebey Planning & Development Lab, which uses the academic and professional resources of Florida State University to connect with public and private partners to provide capacity and innovative planning for the sustainable growth and long-term viability of Florida communities. His work has focused on risks to the built environment, including projects for resiliency, transportation modeling, evacuation planning for high-risk areas and vulnerability assessment. He has extensive experience managing state and federal programs and a thorough knowledge of laws relating to land use, transportation and disaster recovery.

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As the global film industry descends on the 79th Cannes Film Festival beginning May 12, it does so at a pivotal moment: Cinema is redefining who, or what, gets to be considered a creator.  

The rise of generative AI has ignited one of the most consequential debates the industry has faced since the transition from film to digital: Is storytelling still a fundamentally human act?  

The festival recently ruled that any film where generative AI serves as the “principal authoring tool” is ineligible for the Palme d’Or, the highest prize awarded to the director of the best feature film at Cannes. This includes AI-driven scripts, visual generation and principal performance synthesis.   

Jason Maurer, Head of Animation at the Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts, is exploring how AI can be used ethically in creative spaces, with a strong focus on storytelling, filmmaking and animation production pipelines.   

One of his guiding principles for navigating AI and filmmaking is Wharton Associate Professor Ethan Mollick’s four basic rules: Be the human in the loop, invite AI to the table, treat AI like a person and assume this is the worst AI you’ll ever use. Maurer believes that Cannes’ push toward human-centric filmmaking is less a rejection of technology than a defense of authorship.  

“AI is a collaborator, not a creator,” Maurer said. “The ethics around how it’s built are non-negotiable, and the real threat isn’t the tool — it’s the humans wielding it without accountability.”   

Jason Maurer is available to speak with media on these angles that intersect AI and the film industry. He can be reached via email at jmaurer@fsu.edu.   

• Authorship and accountability still belong to humans: AI can speed up production, but it can’t take responsibility for a story. The real debate isn’t about banning AI — it’s about keeping humans accountable for what ends up on screen. 

• Audience trust will hinge on transparency, not technology: Viewers are open to AI-assisted films if the story resonates, but they want honesty about how it was made. The industry’s challenge isn’t AI itself — it’s clearly labeling and owning the creative process. 

• AI is expanding access while raising real ethical risks: The technology is lowering costs and giving indie filmmakers new creative power, but many tools are built on legally and ethically uncertain foundations. The opportunity is huge, but how the industry addresses those risks will define its future. 

Jason Maurer, Head of Animation, FSU College of Motion Picture Arts 

To the average film viewer, much of the AI-generated content might be indistinguishable to actual human content. Are these human-centric stances like what Cannes is doing good for the industry, or are we at a point where we’ve lost the audience’s trust for what is real on the screen? 

Whether it’s good for the industry depends on what we mean by “human centric.” If the standard is that a human directed the work, made the choices and bears the artistic responsibility, then a filmmaker using an ethically sourced AI tool is still making a human-centric film. The human is still in the loop — to borrow Ethan Mollick’s framing, which I apply to my own creative process. We didn’t stop telling stories around the campfire when the printing press arrived. Portrait painting didn’t disappear because of the photograph. Tools change. Authorship doesn’t.  

The animation industry has already lived through this. When CG arrived, the field declared 2D dead — and it nearly was, commercially, in the U.S. for most of the 2000s. Hundreds of traditional animators lost careers in that transition. We should be honest about that. But 2D didn’t die. It evolved, and the medium today is richer for having both languages available. 

Proponents of human-centric cinema endorse its authentic storytelling as one of the standards of film. While generative AI can perhaps maximize efficiencies in film, what makes the human element more important? 

The reframe I’d offer is this: The question isn’t really whether AI can be human-centric. It’s whether humans using AI are operating in good faith.  

Iris Knobloch, the Cannes president, said when announcing the 2026 selection that “AI knows how to imitate very well, but it will never know how to feel.” I’d sharpen that. AI doesn’t need to feel. The humans making the work need to. The humans watching it need to. That’s where the human element actually lives — not in the tool, but in the people on either side of it.  

The deeper case for human-centric storytelling is responsibility. Films are made by people. People can be questioned, credited, sued, hired or fired. Models can’t. As long as humans are answerable for what shows up on screen, we have an industry that can correct itself when something goes wrong. And here’s why that matters for the aesthetic question, not just the legal one: a story someone is staking themselves on is a story that carries weight. Audiences can feel the difference between work someone is answerable for and work that’s been generated to fill a slot. That stake is what authenticity actually is. 

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With the United Arab Emirates (UAE) officially withdrawing from OPEC, the global energy market could enter uncharted territory.

To understand the potential seismic shift from cartel-controlled pricing to a competitive price war landscape, Florida State University DeVoe L. Moore Professor of Economics Randall Holcombe is available for interviews on the possible long-term implications for global energy markets. He can be reached via email at holcombe@fsu.edu.

As a leading authority on market processes and public policy, Holcombe can provide critical analysis on why this move could signal the structural weakening of OPEC’s half-century reign if more members decide to defect. Holcombe can discuss:

• Exit motives: The reasons for the UAE to leave OPEC.
• Potential outcomes: The possibility of long-term ripple effects on oil prices and global energy markets if more OPEC members leave.

Holcombe is the author of more than 15 books, including “Political Capitalism,” “Entrepreneurship and Economic Progress,” and “Producing Prosperity: An Inquiry into the Operation of the Market Process.” He is a former member of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, former president of the Public Choice Society, former president of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, and a Senior Fellow with the James Madison Institute.

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