More than 4.4 million adults in Florida are family caregivers who primarily provide unpaid and unsupported care to older parents, spouses and other relatives. As Florida’s population ages, with one in five residents expected to be 65 or older by 2030, caregivers and families continue to need access to essential resources and information for support more than ever before.

To help address this need, AARP Florida and Florida State University’s Claude Pepper Center organized the inaugural 2025 Florida Caregiving Summit. The event brought together leading policymakers, specialists in aging and disability services, and workforce development professionals to discuss the future of family caregiving in Florida.

Attendees heard from FSU President Richard McCullough and FSU Claude Pepper Center Director Dawn Carr before attending the three panel discussions.

“The variation of what caregiving looks like is really broad,” McCullough said. “The things that are going on here at this summit are very, very important — the policies, the organizations, the policymakers — you are the ones that are helping families to get these resources so they can get the care for their loved ones.”

Held at FSU’s Jim Moran Building in downtown Tallahassee, the Tuesday, Nov. 4 event included discussion panels and a resource fair, recognizing the essential contributions caregivers make to their families and the broader economy. More than 200 people also attended the event virtually.

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National Senior Citizens Day is on Aug. 21, highlighting awareness of the physical and mental challenges experienced by older adults.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced in April that 93% of adults age 65 and older have at least one chronic condition, while 79% have two or more. Senior citizens make up 18% of the current United States population with 62 million people, a number projected to grow to over 88 million by 2050.

Florida State University’s Dawn Carr is a sociology professor and Director of the Claude Pepper Center. Her research identifies and leverages factors that bolster older adults’ ability to remain healthy and active for as long as possible. Carr’s work over the past decade has focused on understanding the complex pathways between health and active engagement during the second half of life.

The Claude Pepper Center aims to identify policy solutions that enhance the financial, psychological, cognitive, physical and social well-being of older adults and their families in the state of Florida and beyond.

Carr has expertise on the stressors and life transitions that affect the elderly population’s health. Some examples include retirement, later life employment, social networks and social relationships, major health events, and critical health setbacks.

Her recent research includes the role of early life experiences and exposures over the course of life, and the ways in which individual psychological resources facilitate resilient outcomes in later life.

Media interested in interviewing Carr about the challenges faced by senior citizens may contact her at dccarr@fsu.edu.

Dawn Carr, Professor and Director of the Claude Pepper Center, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy

How do social connections and community involvement impact the well-being of older adults?

Relative to almost all other lifestyle related behaviors and pharmaceutical interventions, social engagement is among the most important in shaping health outcomes in later life. There are a variety of reasons why we believe that social isolation and loneliness are particularly detrimental to health, especially over long periods of time, but we believe that social engagement and community involvement leads to more physical activity, more cognitive activity, and a stronger sense of meaning, purpose, and connection, and isolation and loneliness does the opposite – leads to more sedentary behavior, less cognitive engagement, and poor mental health. This improves responses to stressors and motivates people to take care of their health and well-being so they can show up for the things that matter in their lives. Perhaps just as important, when we feel like we don’t belong or we aren’t useful to the world, we tend to experience significant mental health problems which accelerates aging processes and contributes to onset of a variety of new health problems, including accelerated mortality. Humans are social beings, and older adults thrive when they are embedded in social environments where they feel connected to others in meaningful ways.

How can families best support aging loved ones while respecting their independence and dignity?

There are a variety of ways that families can support their aging loved ones, but every older adult has different needs. What’s important is to connect with the older adults in your family and meet them where they are. Our goals change as we age, and beyond ensuring that our family members are safe, it’s important to identify what they need to feel like they can thrive and have a good quality of life. Sometimes older adults do not want to leave their homes, but their goals in life are not attainable in the environments in which they are living. Helping family members get their needs met may mean helping them learn about their options for how they can be embedded in the environments that allow them to be as independent as possible and also meet their life goals, and this may include different living situations.

What are the most common physical and mental health challenges faced by seniors today, and how can they be effectively managed?

The most common challenges relate to physical disability and cognitive impairment that make them unable to perform everyday activities that they need to live without the help of others. There are a few different ways to manage these issues. One is to identify options for supplemental help from family or a paid caregiver that comes to the home to cover activities that are a struggle. If that doesn’t work, institutional care may be needed. Another important way to help manage these issues is to engage in physical activities that help improve physical function or prevent decline from occurring in the future. This may require help from a professional for people who have not previously engaged in regular physical activity. Targeted exercise programs can significantly improve mobility.

In terms of cognitive impairment, it is more difficult to address problems once they have occurred. However, we always start by making sure any cognitive problems are not explained by issues that can be addressed in other ways – certain medications, other health problems that are not being addressed and manifesting with cognitive issues (e.g., depression or anxiety). If those issues are addressed and cognitive problems persist, then it may be useful to obtain professional help with assessing and monitoring cognitive changes over time to see if the condition is worsening, and identifying appropriate interventions to slow the decline as much as possible. For many people, however, cognitive losses require support from a caregiver to help ensure that people are able to be safe in navigating everyday activities.

What are some of the latest advances in aging research or technology that show promise for improving quality of life for seniors?

I am not someone who knows a lot about specific advances in consumer products at the moment, but some of the most important are addressing hearing loss, which is a significant factor in shaping cognitive health. It is easier than ever to obtain hearing corrective devices, and the earlier people address hearing loss, the better they can avoid long-term cognitive consequences.

In addition, there is a growing number of devices that allow people to monitor their health behaviors and health metrics so they know what kinds of activities they are engaging in and how that may be changing various health metrics (e.g., walking every day may lead to healthier blood pressure levels which can be monitored regularly). Another important technological advancement that shouldn’t be ignored are the variety of products that are being developed for use in home environments that help signal to older people before they experience a health crisis when they may want to engage with a health care provider. Many devices are Bluetooth capable and can be uploaded to devices that collect combined health metrics that can be used to assess well-being and identify patterns that suggest a need for intervention.

What policies or programs do you believe are most important to improve senior care and address the needs of an aging population?

I strongly believe that home and community programs, particularly those associated with the Older American’s Act, are among the most important programs for ensuring that older people can remain active, socially integrated in the community, and have access to basic resources and food. These programs also rely on a strong base of volunteers, many of whom are older people themselves, and volunteering is an especially meaningful and health-promoting activity. The most effective way to ensure that future older adults can remain healthy as long as possible, however, is to expand the scope of aging research and policies to include those who are of younger ages. By the time people reach later life, there is less that can be done to help people improve their health and well-being in a significant way. But, if we have programs that ensure access to good quality medical care during mid-life and make it possible to address problems in their earliest stages, we are more likely to have the ability to remain active and productive into very late life. This is key for quality of life, but it’s also a critical way for us to manage our growing health care burden looking ahead.

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A new study from Florida State University’s Claude Pepper Center and Pepper Institute on Aging & Public Policy has shed new light on the importance of psychological resilience for aging adults experiencing widowhood, including notable gender differences in recovery.

The three-year project, funded by the National Institute on Aging, delves into the complex interplay between stressful exposures and psychological resilience in later life. Director of FSU’s Claude Pepper Center Dawn Carr and FSU Pepper Institute on Aging & Public Policy Director Miles Taylor are co-primary investigators for this project, and FSU Postdoctoral Fellow Shekhar Chauhan serves as first author on a recent study based on this work focusing specifically on widowhood.

“Widowhood is one of the most devastating social events that one can experience in life,” Carr said. “It can happen at any life stage, but it’s more common in later life. If you’re married later in life, you have a 50/50 chance of becoming widowed. The extent to which people prepare for that possibility is crucial.”

The research offers valuable perspectives for public health strategies aimed at promoting sustained mental health among widowed individuals and underscores the importance of further investigation into the protective mechanisms of psychological resilience and the development of resilience interventions throughout the lifespan.

The study explored how pre-widowhood psychological resilience (PR), or the ability to adapt and cope with mental and emotional stressors, affects depressive symptom recovery following spousal loss among older men and women. The team concluded that bolstering PR before spousal loss could provide protective effects against long-term depressive symptoms, particularly for women.

“Identifying ways to improve psychological resilience is a big challenge, but it may be crucial in the context of widowhood.”

– Shekhar Chauhan, FSU postdoctoral fellow and first author on the recent study

The findings showed that both widowed men and women experience increased depressive symptoms immediately following spousal loss, regardless of their PR levels. However, moderate to high levels of PR in men and high PR in women predict a return to pre-widowhood depressive symptom levels two years later. High PR is also associated with fewer depressive symptoms over time among continuously married individuals.

While PR did not predict the initial increase in depressive symptoms after the loss, it significantly influenced recovery. Women with high levels of PR not only fully recovered but also experienced fewer depressive symptoms after the recovery period than they did before the loss. In contrast, women with lower levels of PR did not fully recover and remained more depressed than they were before the loss. For men, recovery to pre-widowhood levels occurred regardless of their PR levels.

“Identifying ways to improve psychological resilience is a big challenge, but it may be crucial in the context of widowhood,” Chauhan said. “If we can identify ways to enhance resilience early in the life course, older adults will be better positioned to tackle adversities like widowhood.”

The findings indicate that providing support to older adults during difficult life events may be affected by PR, which serves as an internal resource facilitating adaptation and coping with adversity in ways that enhance health and well-being.

Researchers are also exploring how psychological resilience could affect a variety of health outcomes in later life, with a focus on strategies to support independence as people age while maintaining healthy lifestyle behaviors.

“For instance, we know that higher resilience is associated with a reduced risk of repeated falls,” Carr said. “Our goal is to help people figure out what they need to get back up and keep going, combining resilience with other interventions to support healthy aging.”

The research comes as Florida State University continues to expand FSU Health, a bold initiative to build a health care ecosystem that will transform health care delivery in North Florida.

The Claude Pepper Center and the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy are part of FSU’s College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. To learn more about the Claude Pepper Center, visit claudepeppercenter.fsu.edu. For more about FSU’s Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, visit cosspp.fsu.edu/pepperinstitute.

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Florida State University’s faculty and staff are central to its mission and the key to its countless accomplishments.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

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HONORS AND AWARDS

Kari Lien, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) was accepted into the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Lessons for Success Program, an intensive training program for early career scientists.

Wen Zhu, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) was awarded Best Oral Presentation in the Big Data for Biomedical Research Breakout Session for her invited talk “Conformational Assembly of a Tunnel Gating Residue in Human Asparagine Synthetase,” delivered at the 6th National Big Data Health Science Conference at the University of South Carolina.

Eugenia Flores Millender, Ph.D., RN, MS, PMHNP-BC, FAAN (College of Nursing) has been selected as a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) Class of 2025.

Charles Upchurch, Ph.D. (Department of History) has been awarded a monthlong residency fellowship at the Lewis Walpole Library. His latest project commemorates the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and examines the role of queer and trans inclusion within the ideologies that influenced the revolution.

Katie Redd (Student Union) was honored by the Young Actors Theatre Board of Directors at the Tallahassee Leading Ladies Breakfast in March for her contributions to the performing arts.

Rachel Blakesley, Ed.D. (University Housing) received an Outstanding Contributions to Research Award by the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers for contributing to the advancement of knowledge of the housing profession.

Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, CNE, DipACLM, PHNA-BC, FAAN (College of Nursing) was honored with the DAISY Award for Advancing Health Equity. This award recognizes nurses whose work advances health equity by addressing and mitigating health disparities caused by social determinants of health.

Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) received the DAISY Award for Nursing Ethics. Developed with the ANA’s Center for Ethics and Human Rights, the award honors nurses whose leadership and compassion highlight the importance of ethics and human values in care.

LeeAnn H. Barfield, Ph.D., DNP, APRN-BC, CNE, FACHE (College of Nursing) received the DAISY Award for Nurse Leader. This award honors leaders who may not provide direct patient care but create environments where compassionate, skillful care thrives.

Jolynn Greenhalgh, DNP, APRN (College of Nursing) received the DAISY Award for Lifetime Achievement. This award honors nurses who have devoted their life’s work to compassionate care through mentoring, advocacy, and the promotion of a positive image of nursing.

Amy Magnuson, Ph.D., RD, LD/N (University Health Services) received the Charles F. Bohmann Award from the Southern College Health Association in March for her dedication to college health and service to SCHA.

Cameron Beatty, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) received the award for Distinguished Support for Graduate Students from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) faculty council at the NASPA Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Sherry Southerland, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) received the Distinguished Contributions to Science Education through Research Award from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.

Rima Nathan, JD (College of Law) was selected as a recipient of the 2024-25 University Teaching Award for Community-Engaged Teaching.

Kat Klepfer, JD (College of Law) won the Service to SEAALL Award, which recognizes and honors a member of the Southeastern Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries (SEAALL) who has made special, significant and sustained contributions to the chapter.

Terry Londy, MA (Department of Interior Architecture & Design) received an Emerging Scholar Award from the Design Principles & Practices Research Network.

GRANTS

Candace Ward, Ph.D. (Department of English) received a Curran Fellowship grant of $5,000 from the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals to support research for her project “Printing the Cosmopolis: The Colonial Caribbean Press and the Circulation of Pan-Caribbean Identities.” The award will fund a research trip to the National Library of Jamaica this fall.

Daejin Kim, Ph.D. (Department of Interior Architecture & Design) and his research team have been awarded a research grant from The American Occupational Therapy Foundation for the project “Using Virtual Reality Technology to Increase Acceptance of Home Modifications for People with Multiple Sclerosis: A Pilot Study.” The funded project aims to explore the potential of virtual reality in enhancing the adoption of home modifications for individuals with multiple sclerosis.

BYLINES

Jacob Eisler, Ph.D., JD (College of Law) authored “Discrimination, Private Liberty and Public Accommodation,” published in the Texas A&M Law Review.

Don Compton, Ph.D. (Department of Psychology) published his work “Achievement Goal Profiles and Reading-Related Outcomes in Elementary Students with and without Reading Difficulties” in the Learning and Individual Differences Journal.

Sonia Cabell, Ph.D. and Arzu Güngör Leushuis, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-published “The Frequency of Informational Text Read-Alouds in Kindergarten and its Association with Students’ Vocabulary and Knowledge Development” in the Early Childhood Education Journal.

Remy E. Jennings, Ph.D. (College of Business) published “When You Can’t Get Power Off Your Mind: The Countervailing Effects of Workplace Power on At-Home Rumination” in the Personnel Psychology journal.

Amy L. Ai, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and Wenyi Li (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) coauthored an article, “When State Rescuing Systems were Paralyzed: Post-Hurricane Depression, Hope, and Spirituality of Black and White Student Volunteers,” published in the Journal of American College Health.

Christopher Lonigan, Ph.D. (Department of Psychology) and doctoral students Christopher DeCamp and Sarah Alfonso co-published “Performance- and Report-Based Measures of Executive Function as Predictors of Children’s Academic Skills” in the journal Neuropsychology.

Brian Inouye, Ph.D. (Department of Biological Science) authored “Butterfly Populations Flutter Bye,” published in the peer-reviewed journal Science.

Elizabeth Ray, Ph.D., Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication) and doctoral student Kaylin Lane published the paper “Generating Credibility in Crisis: Will an AI-Scripted Response Be Accepted?” in the International Journal of Strategic Communication.

Zilong Xie, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) published

“Effects of Age, Stimulus Degradation, and Sentence Context on Auditory Temporal Processing” in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) was a contributor to the book “The Bloomsbury Handbook of Method in Comparative and International Education,” launched at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Nathan Line, Ph.D., Lydia Hanks, Ph.D., and Milly Njeri, Ph.D. (Dedman College of Hospitality) coauthored the research article “Expanding the Domain of Hospitality Research: the Hospitality Virtue Scale“ in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Danielle Park, Ph.D., and Sean McGinley, Ph.D. (Dedman College of Hospitality) coauthored the article “Navigating the Digital Hospitality Frontier: Unravelling the Intricacies Between Technology Adoption Level and Tech-Induced Role Ambiguity,” published in the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research.

Abhinav Sharma, Ph.D. (Dedman College of Hospitality), coauthored the article “Transformative Outcomes of Workcation: Satisfaction, Place Attachment, and Behavioral Intentions” in the Journal of Travel Research.

Tarik Dogru, Ph.D. (Dedman College of Hospitality) coauthored an article titled “Guiding the Path to Sustainable Tourism Development: Investigating the Role of Tour Guides within a Social Exchange Theory Paradigm“ in the scholarly journal Tourism Management.

Woody Kim, Ph.D. (Dedman College of Hospitality) coauthored the research article “Towards a greener bite: unraveling consumer intentions to embrace sustainable online food delivery services” in the Journal of Foodservice Business Research.

Brittany Devies, Ph.D. (Fraternity and Sorority Life) authored “Sound Leadership: Harnessing the Power of Podcasts in Leadership Development” and “Celebrity as Catalyst: Connecting Leadership Development to Pop Culture” in New Directions for Student Leadership.

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) coauthored “Lived Experiences of Stress and the Coping Mechanisms of Assistant Coaches in the National Basketball Association (NBA),” published in Quest.

Ravinder Nagpal, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and graduate students Gwoncheol Park, Katelyn Johnson, Katelyn Miller, Saurabh Kadyan, and Cole Patoine coauthored “Almond Snacking Modulates Gut Microbiome and Metabolome in Association with Improved Cardiometabolic and Inflammatory Markers” published in Nature’s The Science of Food.

Jenny Root, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) authored the open-access article “Mixed Methods: Opportunities and Challenges for Special Education Research” in Focus on Research published by the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Research. She also coauthored “Prioritizing Preregistration in Special Education,” published in the journal Research in Special Education.

Gashaye Tefera, Ph.D., Amy L. Ai, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Sabrina L. Dickey, Ph.D., MSN, RN (College of Nursing)  and College of Social Work doctoral student Ponsiano Ngondwe coauthored “Post-Traumatic Growth Following a Category-5 Hurricane: An Exploratory Study of Black Communities in Florida, United States” published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life.

Doctoral student Ponsiano Ngondwe and Gashaye Tefera, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) coauthored “Barriers and Facilitators of Access to Healthcare Among Immigrants with Disabilities: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis,” published in the journal Healthcare.

Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) authored the article “Introduction: Special Issue on Experimental Social Work Outcomes Studies from China,” published in the journal Research on Social Work Practice. He also authored the article “Mandated Ideologies are Harmful to Social Work Practice and Research,” published in the Journal of Teaching in Social Work.

Monika Gossman, MA (School of Theatre) authored “The Emotional Toll of Performance: Supporting Mental Health in Theater and Film” for World Media Festivals.

Shawn Bayern, JD (College of Law) published his book “Principles and Possibilities in Common Law: Torts, Contracts, and Property.”

Meghan Mick, MLA (Department of Interior Architecture & Design) authored “Designing Ecotones: Engaging Liminal Space in the Built Environment,” published in Ekistics and the New Habitat.

Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Dawn Carr, Ph.D. (Claude Pepper Center) and Miles Taylor, Ph.D. (Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy) coauthored “Education, Occupational Environment, and Cognitive Function in Later Life” published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.

Lauren Stanley, Ph.D., Melissa Radey, Ph.D., Lisa Magruder, Ph.D. and Dina Wilke, Ph.D. (College of Social Work, Florida Institute for Child Welfare) coauthored the article “Predictor Importance of Organizational Factors of Burnout in Child Welfare Workers” published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

Holly Hunt, Ph.D., Yanyu Pan, Ph.D. and Jack Krebs, MS (Academic Center for Excellence) presented “Streamlining Dual Enrollment Processes Using Various Technology Platforms” at the Florida Alliance of Dual Enrollment Partnerships conference in Leesburg, Fla.

Subhasree Sengupta, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Educating an Algorithmic World: Innovation, Ideologies and Curriculum Development” at the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education Conference in Orlando.

Justin Kennemur, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) presented an invited talk, “The Juice is Worth the Squeeze: Transforming Stubborn Monomers to Sustainable Materials, Advanced Architectures, Fuel Cell Membranes, and Beyond,” at the University of New Haven’s Department of Chemistry in West Haven, Connecticut.

Fanny Caroline Liu, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) delivered her invited talk “Probing the Conformational Landscape of Monoclonal Antibodies by Tandem-Trapped Ion Mobility Spectrometry” at the Field and Franklin Award session honoring University of California professor of biological chemistry Joseph A. Loo at the American Chemical Society Spring 2025 Meeting in San Diego, Calif., and virtually.

Celia Reddick, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Toward Inclusive Refugee Education? Host Country Teachers, Refugee Students, and the Limits of Global Policy” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Subhasree Sengupta, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) and Yin Yang, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) co-presented “Narratives for Healing: An Exploration of Interactions Within an Online Community on Navigating Bullying Trauma” at iConference 2025.

Matthew Goff, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) gave the presidential address “Apocalypse Now and Then: Biblical Studies, QAnon and Conspiracy Theories” at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) annual conference at Florida Memorial University as the previous president of the AAR southeast regional branch.

Rick Burnette, Ph.D. (Office of the Provost) presented “Evolution of Institutional Research” as part of the plenary panel discussion at the annual meeting of the Florida Association for Institutional Research 2025.

Kate Schell, Ph.D., Brenda Aromu Wawire, Ph.D. and Jai Bum Koo (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Pre-Service Teacher Education Through the Prism: Highlighting Grassroots Perspectives from Malawi and Rwanda” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Shuyuan Ho Metcalfe, Ph.D. (School of Information) and doctoral student Ghazal Hussain co-presented “Managing Anxiety and Uncertainty: The Information-Seeking Behaviors of IT Managers in Turbulent Times” at the Southern Association for Information Systems conference in Tampa, Fla.

Marion Fesmire, Ed.D. and Ana H. Marty, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-presented “Can Adding a Fourth Year to Preservice Teacher Education Close the Teacher Training Divide in Rwanda?” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented her essay “Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity: Henry David Thoreau and the Politics of Solitude” during an invited lecture at Georgia State University.

Nicole Patton Terry, Ph.D. (Florida Center for Reading Research) presented “Leadership Matters to Implementing Evidence-Based Reading and Literacy Practices in Schools” at the AIM Institute for Learning and Research’s 13th Annual Symposium.

Nilay Özok-Gündoğan, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented “Forging Empire: Mining, State Making, and Ottoman Extractive Colonialism in Kurdistan” at the Ohio State University’s Department of History Lecture Series in Ottoman and Turkish History. She also presented the virtual book talk “Kurdish Nobility in the Ottoman Empire: Loyalty, Autonomy, and Privilege” at Koc University’s History Department Talks in Istanbul, Turkey.

Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D., Jennie Robinette, M.Ed. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “How Do We Handle All the Children? Understanding Pedagogies for Overcrowded Classrooms in Malawi” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Heather Bishop, Ph.D., Brandon Saridjo, MSW and Christina Hanna, MS (Transfer Student Services) co-presented “SPEAR: Supporting, Preparing, and Empowering Academic Resilience for Florida State Transfer Students” at the 2025 National Student Success Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Flavia Ramos-Mattoussi, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Examining Inclusion, School Climate, and Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Decolonial Perspectives” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Emaly Hall, MSW and Olivia Saunders, MS (Advising First) presented a poster session, “Decision Fatigue: A College Student’s Experience,” at the National Academic Advising Association: The Global Community for Academic Advising Region 4 Conference in Jacksonville, Fla.

Lee Howell, MBA, Heather Epstein-Diaz and Andrew Brady (Office of Institutional Research) presented “Bridging Gaps: Data Catalogs as Catalysts for Data Literacy” at the 2025 FAIR Annual Conference.

Zilong Xie, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) delivered the podium presentation “Subcortical Responses to Continuous Speech under Crossmodal Divided Attention” at the 48th Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology in Orlando, Fla. Additionally, Xie and partners from his lab presented two posters: “Neural Tracking of Hierarchical Linguistic Structures in Second Language Acquisition,” in collaboration with Zhiying Qian (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) and “Effects of Binaural Unmasking on Subcortical and Cortical Responses to Continuous Speech.”

Grace Fennema, M.Ed. and Brittany Stover (Department of Student Engagement) presented “Illustrating the Past, Designing the Future: Art as a Tool for Student Empowerment” at the 2025 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Annual Conference.

Rolando Torres, M.S., Corbin Nall, M.A. and Anthony Kurza (Advising First) presented “Transformative Potential of Tabletop Role Playing Games in Higher Education” at the National Academic Advising Association: The Global Community for Academic Advising Region 4 Conference in Jacksonville, Fla.

Kian Mapp, MSCID and Alexa Sikora, M.S. (Advising First) presented “Sailing Through the Office Waves with Your First Mate, Power Automate” at the National Academic Advising Association: The Global Community for Academic Advising Region 4 Conference in Jacksonville, Fla.

Erin Sylvester Philpot, Ed.D. (Center for Leadership and Service) presented as the opening speaker for the statewide senior leaders and managers meeting of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and presented “The Leadership Toolkit.”

Marrese Whitsett (University Housing) presented “Fusing the Future: Successful Strategies for Thriving in a Multigenerational Housing Department at the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers regional conference.

Alice Maxwell (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) co-presented “Growing Pains: Is Your Division’s Marketing Strategy and Structure Stuck in the Past?” at the 2025 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Motoko Akiba, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) presented “Publishing Your Research in AERJ: A Guide for International Scholars,” a webinar as editor-in-chief of the American Educational Research Journal.

Veronica Fleury, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) delivered the spotlight session for the Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities at the 2025 Council for Exceptional Children Annual Convention in Baltimore. Her lecture was titled “Pre-bunking and Debunking Autism Misinformation.”

Dana Auvil, Ed.S., MS (Advising First) presented “Micromessages Matter: Understanding the Small Signals that Speak Volumes” at the National Academic Advising Association: The Global Community for Academic Advising Region 4 Conference in Jacksonville, Fla.

Bret Keating, M.S., Adam Gabrini, M.A. and Shawn Winship, M.S., Ed.S. (Advising First) presented a poster session titled “From Island to Mainland: Redefining the Role of Universities in the 21st Century” at the National Academic Advising Association: The Global Community for Academic Advising Region 4 Conference in Jacksonville, Fla.

Amy Hecht, Ed.D. (Vice President for Student Affairs) and Brittany Devies, Ph.D. (Fraternity and Sorority Life) co-presented “Telling Time: Time Management of Women in Senior Student Affairs Roles” at a pre-conference presentation at the 2025 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Delaney Sills, MS (Housing) presented “From Boring to Board Games: Enhancing Student Staff Activities through Gamification” at the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers regional conference.

Sarah Butler, MEd and Delaney Sills, MS (Housing) presented “Commitment to Curriculum: Generating Buy In” at the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers regional conference.

Alycia Malicz, Alice Maxwell (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications), Allison B. Peters, Ph.D. (Division of Undergraduate Studies) and David Peters (Campus Recreation) co-presented “Cutting Through the Noise: Collaborative Approaches to Student Communication, Engagement, and Retention” at the 2025 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Sarah Butler, MEd (Housing) was a panelist for “Empowered Leadership” at the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers regional conference. 

Lauren Gillis, MFA (School of Theatre) presented “An Introduction to Swing Pedagogy” at the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance Conference in NYC.

Kristin Dowell, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) presented “Fite Fuaite (Interwoven): Relationality, Land, and Language within Irish Art” at the American Conference for Irish Studies in Savannah, GA.

Michael Buchler, Ph.D. (College of Music) delivered the keynote address “(Non) Semper Idem: Some Challenges to ‘All er Nuthin’’ Approaches to Methodology, Hierarchy, Register, and Cadence” at the 2025 Music Theory Southeast Conference in Greenville, SC.

Freddy Juarez, Jarred Pernier, Brittany Devies, Ph.D. (Fraternity and Sorority Life) and Zduy Chu, Ed.D. (Office of Vice President of Student Affairs) co-presented “Foundational Leadership and Organizational Wellness (FLOW) Model: Designing Leadership Learning for Individuals and Organizations” at the NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Meghan Mick, MLA (Department of Interior Architecture & Design) co-presented research titled “Rewilding Interiors” at the Biophilia Symposium at Penn State University.

Stephanie Tillman and Danielle Porter (University Housing) co-presented “Innovating First-Year Experience Courses Through Connection and Collaborative Partnership” at the First-Year Experience Conference in New Orleans.

Jessica Bahorski, Ph.D., APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP (College of Nursing) presented “A Mixed-Methods Study to Understand Differences in Responsive Infant Feeding” at the Southeast Regional Clinical & Translational Science Conference.

Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) presented “Supporting Health in Rural Veterans with Heart Failure: CARE-HF Protocol” at the 39th Annual Southern Nursing Research Society Conference in Memphis, Tennessee. The research team includes co-Investigator Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN, doctoral student Josef Hodgkins (College of Nursing) and co-Investigator Tom Ledermann, Ph.D., (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences).

PERFORMANCES AND EXHIBITIONS

Katie Kehoe, MFA (Department of Art) had her work “Time is of the Essence” featured in “Eyes on the South”, Oxford American’s online series highlighting photography and visual art.

Panayotis (Paddy) League, Ph.D. (College of Music) traveled to Athens, Greece to present a lecture and performance “Crete: Music of Resistance” at the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. 

Wellington (Wells) Gordon, MM (College of Music) recorded 26 film cues with an orchestra for the film “Granite Rapids Moon” produced by John Charles Meyer. The movie is being released nationwide this year with a viewing in Tallahassee later in the year.

SERVICE

Celia Reddick, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) chaired a business meeting for Language Issues SIG at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Kate Schell, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) chaired “Can Adding a Fourth Year to Preservice Teacher Education Close the Teacher Training Divide in Rwanda?” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Ana H. Marty, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) chaired “Pre-Service Teacher Education through the Prism: Highlighting Grassroots Perspectives from Malawi and Rwanda” and “Integrated Approaches in ECD” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Shuyuan Ho Metcalfe, Ph.D. (School of Information) served on the panel “Defending Reality: Human-AI Collaboration to Unveil Deepfake Information Manipulation” at the Southern Association for Information Systems conference in Tampa, Fla.

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) was a panelist on “The Impact of the Trump Administration’s Foreign Policy on International Education” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Flavia Ramos-Mattoussi, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) chaired the workshop “Arts-Based Research for Global Community Engagement: Showcasing the Development and Application of the FotoDialogo Method” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Marcia A. Mardis, Ph.D. (School of Information) led “PLAN Jam,” a workshop designed to empower public library professionals to enhance their disaster preparedness and community engagement strategies during and outside of natural disasters at Wakulla County Public Library.

Lee Howell, MBA, Heather Epstein-Diaz and Eclipse Ramsey, MS (Office of Institutional Research) led the session “HR Compensation Dashboard: A Tool for Pay Equity and Retention” at the 2025 FAIR Annual Conference.

Brenda Aromu Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) was a discussant on the presentation “How Do We Handle All the Children? Understanding Pedagogies for Overcrowded Classrooms in Malawi” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Grace Ali, MFA (Department of Art) was selected as the Keynote Speaker of RAW 2025, a graduate student conference organized by the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Jai Bum Koo (Learning Systems Institute) chaired “How Do We Handle All the Children? Understanding Pedagogies for Overcrowded Classrooms in Malawi” at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Chicago.

Ebrahim Randeree, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) led a team of student volunteers of the STARS Alliance at the SciGirls at Montford Middle School annual STEM night to provide STEM outreach to K-12 students. The student team included Bella Bozied, Andrea Colon-De-Feria, Ava Downes, Sophia Ferraro, Maggie Martin-McKinnie, Leah Pagan, Orion Qualls, Tanya Raphael, Vedant Satwik, Jennifer Sterling, Khylle Valle, Owen Van Lenten and Elyse Walcott.

Jenny Root, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was named associate editor of Teacher Education and Special Education, the journal of the teacher education division of the Council for Exceptional Children.

Tracey Dowling, Ed.D. (Career Center) was elected to serve as the Executive Vice President/President Elect Cooperative Education & Internship Association (CEIA) Board for 2025-26. Dowling has served on the CEIA Board since 2015, most recently as Vice President for Professional Development.

Daniel Smith, MME (School of Dance) served as an adjudicator for The Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States 2025 National Conference at Purdue University.

Phil Hiver, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was named associate editor of “System.” Doctoral candidate Joseph Yamazaki is also a member of the student editorial board for “System.”

Veronica Fleury, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was appointed associate editor for the Journal of Early Intervention.

 NOTABLE

Brian Graves, Ph.D. (School of Communication) attended the Broadcast Education Association Convention 2025 in Las Vegas.

Carrie Meyers, Jim Reynolds, Ashley French, and Heather French (Learning Systems Institute) conducted a workshop with Florida’s educators to write test items for the Florida Department of Education’s FAST Assessment, which aligns with the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking Standard.

Kristina Hakansson, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) and Ryan Rogers (National High Magnetic Field Laboratory) co-organized the 14th North American FT-MS Conference in Tahoe City, Calif.

Michael Shatruk, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) and Stephen Hill, Ph.D. (Department of Physics) co-organized MAGNA-2025, the 4th Conference on Molecular Magnetism in North America at Florida State University.

Yan Zeng, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) organized the symposium “S14 AI in Materials Research: from Data Analysis; Autonomous Experimentation to Human AI Cooperation” for the 2025 Electronic Materials and Applications conference in Denver, Colorado.

Donna M. Johnson-Byrd, DNP, RN, NCSN, CNE (College of Nursing) has been selected by the National League for Nursing as a Certified Nurse Educator exam item writer. The CNE examination is a benchmark of excellence, assessing the knowledge and competencies essential for nurse educators.

Nina Davis, MS (College of Nursing) was invited to join the Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honor Society.

Jennifer Gillette, MFA (School of Theatre) was named Associate Costume Designer for Semele at the Atlanta Opera 2025.

Suzan Kurdak (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) was a panelist presenter on “Memoir Writing: Processes and Pitfalls” at the Tallahassee Writers Association general meeting in March.

Carol Burns (University Health Services) passed the National Certification Exam and is now a Certified Medical Administrative Assistant.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to aprentiss@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs March 2025 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s Claude Pepper Center has launched the Translational Data Platform, an innovative digital tool designed to provide interactive maps and dashboards that integrate data on behavior, occupation, health and economy across Florida’s aging populations.

After a year-long soft launch to gather feedback and refine its features, the platform is now available to the public and will continue to grow.

“The Translational Data Platform is revolutionizing how we understand and address the needs of older adults, providing unprecedented access to real-time data and insights that empower policymakers, researchers, and families to make informed decisions,” said Dawn Carr, director of the Claude Pepper Center.

The platform allows users to explore data in real-time to provide insights into matters specific to Florida. The state’s demographics — home to one of the largest concentrations of older adults in the U.S. — make Florida a key focus for studying national aging trends.

“The Translational Data Platform is revolutionizing how we understand and address the needs of older adults, providing unprecedented access to real-time data and insights that empower policymakers, researchers, and families to make informed decisions.”

– Dawn Carr, director of FSU’s Claude Pepper Center

“We’ve reached out to various stakeholders to find out what we could do to best support those making decisions about older adults and their well-being, but also families of older people in Florida,” Carr said.

The Translational Data Platform has been used to create a map focused on social isolation risk in adults over 65 to identify hotspots across the state which require attention. The map has already been presented to organizations such as the Florida Department of Elder Affairs to help policymakers focus their work.

“The main focus of our work is age and aging, and how they interact with health and policy,” said Fabio Correa, a research engineer at the Pepper Center. “Our maps and dashboards are constantly updated with the latest public data from authoritative sources, including our own peer-reviewed research.”

Built using Esri ArcGIS and Microsoft Power BI, the platform simplifies complex datasets. The state’s supportive legislative climate has allowed the Claude Pepper Center to utilize data from agencies across Florida.

The post FSU’s Claude Pepper Center launches data platform to address aging challenges in Florida appeared first on Florida State University News.

A team of researchers at Florida State University has received a $1 million grant to develop a tool to help older patients better understand the results of medical lab health tests.

“LabGenie” will use artificial intelligence to provide contextualized information about lab test results and to generate questions patients can use to discuss their results with their doctors.

Led by two researchers from the College of Communication and Information’s School of Information — Associate Professor Zhe He and Professor Mia Lustria — the interdisciplinary team includes experts in computational sciences, electronic health (eHealth) and mobile health (mHealth), human-computer interaction (HCI), large language models, geriatric medicine and implementation science.

“I am beyond pleased that Dr. He and Dr. Lustria are leading this interdisciplinary research that has been supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,” said Michelle Kazmer, dean of the College of Communication and Information. “This generous funding will allow the important research being conducted as part of the LabGenie project to have a substantially increased impact on patient involvement in health care decisions and how health care can be improved through information and communication technology incorporating AI. The College of Communication and Information is fortunate to have researchers such as Dr. He and Dr. Lustria on our faculty.”

The project, funded by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration that aims to improve patients’ ability to understand their test results and participate in shared decision-making with their doctors.

“We believe this project can be a demonstration project for FSU-TMH research collaboration which has been significantly pushed by the planned FSU Health Tallahassee Center funded by a $125 million appropriation from the Florida Legislature.”

– Dr. Dean Watson, vice president and chief integration officer at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare

He, Lustria and the research team are excited about the practical applications of the project, particularly for vulnerable and at-risk populations like older adults with multiple chronic conditions.

“We want to be able to empower older adult patients to be able to better understand their test results and participate in more informed decision-making surrounding their health,” said Lustria.

According to He, “The project addresses a critical need for better patient engagement by building a patient-facing decision aid that will provide informative visual representations of lab results and tailored question prompts for patients to discuss with their providers.”

The project will take place in two phases. The first will focus on designing and developing a prototype of LabGenie. This will involve evaluating different ways to visualize lab test results and testing how to use generative AI and large language models to create tailored information and question prompts for patients.

The goal is to have a functional prototype that can pull medical data directly from an electronic medical records system which can then be used to provide more contextualized insights about a patient’s lab test results.

“We want to test what works and what doesn’t work for older adult populations in terms of visualizing and presenting lab test results more effectively,” Lustria said. “We also want to provide patients with more actionable insights about their lab test results by linking them with other personal health information in their electronic health record.”

The second phase will evaluate the effectiveness of the tool in improving patient engagement and behavioral intentions to participate in shared decision-making. To do this, the team will conduct a randomized control trial and a mixed-method study to evaluate the tool with about 100 older adult patients in Florida.

As a partner of this grant, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare’s Vice President and Chief Integration Officer Dr. Dean Watson is looking forward to the collaboration.

“We believe this project can be a demonstration project for FSU-TMH research collaboration which has been significantly pushed by the planned FSU Health Tallahassee Center funded by a $125 million appropriation from the Florida Legislature,” Watson said.

Other team members include:

Zhan Zhang, associate professor at Pace University (co-investigator); Xiao Luo, associate professor at Oklahoma State University (co-investigator); Michael Killian, associate professor at FSU College of Social Work (co-investigator/biostatistician); Henna Budhwani, professor at FSU College of Nursing (co-investigator/implementation scientist); Balu Bhasuran, postdoctoral scholar (data scientist); Dhruv Kale (application developer); Xiaoyu Wang (research assistant); Yashas Nagesh Gowda (research assistant); Dr. Lisa Granville, professor of geriatrics and interim chair of the Department of Geriatrics at FSU’s College of Medicine (consultant); Neil Charness, professor of psychology and director of the Institute for Successful Longevity (advisory panel); Jing Wang, dean and professor at FSU’s College of Nursing (advisory panel); and Dawn Carr, professor at FSU’s College of Social Sciences and Public Policy (advisory panel).

For more information, visit isl.fsu.edu and sites.google.com/view/labgeniefsu.

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