The WVU Center for Resilient Communities, based in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, is excited to announce it's first annual cohort Community Engaged Research Fellows. The Community Engaged Research Fund supports graduate student researchers and junior scholars in any discipline at West Virginia University who are committed to advancing participatory research and publicly engaged scholarship.
“The depth and sense of purpose in the participatory research projects designed by our graduate students at WVU is truly inspiring,” explains Dr. Bradley Wilson, Executive Director of the Center for Resilient Communities. “Not only will these projects generate new knowledge with our communities in West Virginia and around the world, but they will also result in direct action that benefits those very communities. These scholars represent the very best of what participatory action research can be, and they are doing it right here at West Virginia University.”
The Community Engaged Research Fund (CERF) is sponsored with generous support from the One Foundation and the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. It provides scholarly enrichment awards of up to $1000 to support fieldwork, planning, travel, outreach, materials expenses, and other costs associated with advancing a community-based participatory research project.
The CRC will celebrate the fellows at our annual Spring Symposium on April 24, 2026. Awardees will receive financial support and access critical mentoring and data resources from the CRC to advance their projects in 2026.
For more information about the CERF program of the CRC contact Dr. Bradley Wilson - brwilson@mail.wvu.edu
Ciara Rodriguez
Self-management and the Caught Being Good Game: Reducing Impulsivity and Improving Educational Outcomes
Ciara Rodriguez is currently pursuing a PhD in Psychology: Behavior Analysis at WVU. As part of her research goals, Ciara hopes to utilize support from the CERF program to research programs designed for prevention of the school-to-prison pipeline. Ciara hopes to change the way intervention programs are designed and implemented by researching how certain interventions affect at-risk children. Her research aims to advocate for early intervention techniques and positive reinforcement.
Madison Voinovich
Research Statement- Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing a Mindfulness Program for Kinship Caregivers in West Virginia
Madison Voinovich is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at WVU. Madison hopes to utilize CERF support with her research project surrounding the well-being of kinship caregivers. By investigating the factors that influence the success of mindfulness programs designed for kinship caregivers, Madison’s research hopes to expand understanding of these mindfulness program’s benefits. Through a community-engaged research design, this study aims to inform future implementation of mindfulness programs for kinship caregivers in West Virginia.
Kennedy Otieno Ochieng
Hydrological Resilience in a reshaped world: Modelling Infiltration shifts in Appalachian Mountaintop mining and valley fill landscapes
Kennedy Otieno Ochieng is a PhD student in the department of Geology and Geography at WVU. With the support of the CERF program, Kennedy’s project aims to quantify the rates of change in infiltration in Mountaintop mining and valley fill basins in order to better understand flooding concerns in Southern West Virginia. Kennedy hopes this study can benefit the community by influencing future city planning.
Jose F. Ramirez-Macias
The Pied Piper (de la montaña): A Community-Engaged Latin Music Play for Cultural Understanding and Social Reflection
Jose F. Ramirez-Macias is pursuing a PhD in Higher Education at WVU. With support from the CERF program, Jose’s research will assess how a community-engaged musical play can support a more integrated community. The musical play, The Pied Piper (de la montaña), is a community-engaged research and creative project that investigates how culturally grounded music, storytelling, and participatory arts practices can foster wellbeing, strengthen social cohesion, and promote inclusive cultural dialogue.
Azita Tasnim Ritu
Revival Through Resilience: Community-Driven Regeneration in Post-Mined Appalachian Landscapes
Azita Tasnim Ritu is a Master of Landscape Architecture candidate at West Virginia University. Azita’s research investigates how community-engaged landscape planning can strengthen social wellbeing, restore ecological function, and support economic revitalization in post-mined Appalachian communities. This work builds off of Azita’s current thesis and explores how community-led design and participatory planning can leverage landscape character, cultural heritage, and local knowledge to build more resilient and vibrant community futures.
Leah Peck
ACEs Education for West Virginia Kinship Caregivers
Leah Peck is a licensed social worker and Master of Social Work student at WVU. Leah aims to examine how participation in an evidence-based ACEs training influences kinship caregivers’ understanding of trauma, resilience, and protective factors through her research. This study will generate new knowledge about kinship caregivers’ baseline understanding of childhood trauma and the changes in their insight following evidence-based ACEs training.
John Evans
Cops, Robbers, and Reality: Community Perspectives on Safety & Policing
John Evans is pursuing a PhD in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at WVU. His research focuses on how Morgantown residents perceive public safety, Morgantown Police Department (MPD) practices, and institutional trust, and how these perceptions can inform concrete, community-driven reform. Using a Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) approach, the study seeks to empower residents to co-produce knowledge alongside researchers and local organizations.
Negar Farhang Doost
Microfluidic Dielectrophoresis Platform for Community Centered Tick-Borne Disease Detection
Negar Farhang Doost is in her final year of PhD in Biomedical Engineering at WVU. Negar’s research approaches questions of the possibility of microfluidic DEP engineering into a rapid, low-cost diagnostic tool that improves early detection of tick-borne infections in underserved Appalachian communities. Her approach integrates microfluidics, electrical characterization, and participatory research with local health organizations. This research hopes to contribute to systemic change by enabling earlier diagnosis, reducing treatment delays, and informing policy discussions on rapid diagnostic infrastructure.
IBUKUNOLUWA ABIGAIL OLAOSEBIKAN
You Are What You Eat: A Community Nutrition Awareness Project in West Virginia
Ibukunoluwa Abigail Olaosebikan is a graduate researcher in Chemistry at WVU. Her research focuses on how biochemistry-based nutrition education can improve community understanding of food labels, additives, and metabolic health, and support healthier living in Appalachian communities. The project aims to generate community-informed insights on nutritional challenges, educational materials explaining metabolism and additives, a user-friendly nutrition literacy toolkit, and a better understanding of local food practices. This would support schools seeking better nutrition curricula, parents seeking healthier food options for their children, and community health workers providing dietary education.
Amarachi Nina Uma Mba
When Silence Speaks: Improving Aging Patients’ Communication Experience in Rural Appalachian Healthcare
Amarachi Nina Uma Mba is a PhD student in Health Communication at WVU. Amarachi’s research focuses on how older adults in rural Appalachia experience and interpret silence during clinical consultations, and how this silence influences their understanding, trust, and participation in care.This project uses a participatory approach in which community members guide the interpretation of findings and help shape the recommendations that emerge. The work hopes to contribute to rural health by generating new knowledge about how silence functions in clinical encounters and by identifying strategies that support older adults in communicating more confidently.
Gabrielle Frazier
Confronting Housing Challenge in WV with Community Based Approaches
Gabrielle Frazier is a masters student in Geography at WVU. Gabrielle’s project confronts housing challenges in West Virginia with community-based approaches. This research will develop a localized, community-based housing assessment model that will establish a pathway for West Virginian housing and community development work to be executed through a participatory action model. This project will answer how community-based housing solutions reveal and respond to the spatial, political-economic, and historical processes that produce housing challenges across West Virginia and how the creation of community based solutions generate new capacities within young people for housing development in West Virginia.
Community Engaged Research Fellows 2024
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Madison Martin, Ph.D. Student, Communication Studies |
Community organizations that promote connection between and among older adults offer synergistic community benefits. Communities benefit from the inclusion of older adults as much as older adults benefit from inclusion within the community. In order to participate in such organizations, older adults may have to overcome stereotypes about aging that wrongfully suggest that one’s ability to have positive interactions and impact on a community declines with age. The proposed study seeks to empower older adults’ engagement in community organizations by drawing on narrative theory to create storytelling programming with the broad goals of (1) improving older adult individual and relational well-being and (2) engaging older adults in the process of recruitment and retention for a local community organization. To engage with older adults in the process of intrapersonal meaning-making and forging interpersonal connections through storytelling, the proposed study would involve workshops of about 8-10 older adults in which open prompts for individual reflection on one’s experiences in Osher Life Long Learning, and how one’s participation in OLLI aligns with past educational goals/experiences and/or deviates from past goals/experiences. |
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For many, the COVID-19 pandemic graphically illustrated the illusory security provided by a dominant global economic system. The precarity produced by the pandemic encouraged individuals and communities to consider alternative ways of relating to one another and the planet. Many communities throughout the majority world, those in the Global South and at the margins of the Global North, have maintained practices of economic solidarity spanning generations, far before the pandemic. My research seeks to understand and make visible the cultures, institutions and systems developed and developing within particular urban neighborhoods and rural communities that foster economies of solidarity and cooperation in the face of crisis. To do this, I am building multiple case studies with community partners in the United States as well as in the Global South, particularly Colombia and Nepal. In 2024 I will develop case studies on cooperative development initiatives in the US focused on banking, housing and food enterprises in neighborhoods in rustbelt neighborhoods of West Virginia and Ohio, and lay the groundwork for studying such initiatives through translational case studies in Colombia, Nepal and other countries. |
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PhD Student, Civil Engineering |
My research project aims to address the complex challenge of school bus routing (SBR) optimization, with a focus on reducing environmental impact and enhancing community well-being. The overarching research question is: How can we develop an easy-to-use, cost-effective solution to optimize school bus routes, thereby minimizing transportation costs, reducing air pollution, and improving the overall well-being of students and communities? The approach involves designing a user-friendly web-based platform that leverages data-driven optimization algorithms, aligning with principles of environmental justice and community well-being. We are leading this research project in collaboration with local school districts, and community stakeholders, emphasizing community engagement, participatory research, and a commitment to social action for positive policy changes. |
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The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Education Program (SNAP-Ed) is an evidence-based program that helps people make their food assistance dollars stretch, teaches people how to shop for and cook healthy meals, and leads physically active lifestyles. In addition to providing nutrition education, the program also expands SNAP access by involving populations who are not aware of the program. In January 2024, a new structure was introduced to report SNAP-Ed progress. This reporting framework is titled National PEARS, and provides facilitators with specific measures to track progress being made in their communities, but there is not an organized way for local SNAP-Ed agencies to report The goal of my project is to create a framework that allows those conducting SNAP-Ed outreach programs in West Virginia to easily track their goals and progress in real time through the use of a variety of surveys. The final result of the project will combine geospatial tools with other data visualization tools to provide educators, as well as national stakeholders and the general public with information allowing them to see and understand the progress at a variety of different scales. |
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My project seeks to assess and prioritize the most pressing needs of the community in Taylor County West Virginia through information gathering from key stakeholders within various agencies and areas of social engagement, including government and community advocates. I also intend to fully include them in the formation of the research question and the implementation of interventions. I aim to build a robust community-based approach to needs assessment. The key questions for this project is: From the experience of those stakeholders on the ground, what are the most pressing social, systemic, and/or structural issues facing the greater Grafton, WV and Taylor County community that hinder residents’ ability to live a just, equitable, and vibrant life in their communities? What current resources and partners are available to work on these issues? What are possible solutions? |
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The WVU Canady School of Music and Creative Arts maintains an expansive network of alumni and other school based partners across WV. In this project I will do research and conduct outreach through individual or group presentations on music education core curriculum, careers in music, collaborative music making, ensemble coaching, and brief performances, designed to fit within the schedule of a class period at various schools. The goal is to learn more about the needs of music programs in WV and provide much needed educational opportunities for hard-working West Virginia music educators and their students. |
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There is a need for community-based physical activity programs that are tailored to adults with intellectual disabilities. The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of an evidence-based fitness program adapted for adults with intellectual disabilities, using a CBPR approach. This program, Kicking Off Community Partnerships to Promote Physical Activity and Motor Competency in Adults with Intellectual Disabilities, is an adapted version of Silver Sneakers, a health and fitness program designed for older adults (65+ years) is centered around functional exercises that will ultimately help participants with activities of daily living. Sessions will occur twice a week, and include exercises that target to improve endurance, strength, flexibility, and balance, while having fun in a safe and supportive environment. |
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Policing, law enforcement, and public safety are issues of great importance. Vulnerable populations (including, but not limited to, those with a mental health or substance use challenge, racial or ethnic minorities, people who are unhoused or unsheltered, and the LGBTQ+ community, among others) face systemic marginalization by law enforcement Practices. The Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board (CPRAB) was created by the Morgantown City Council in 2022 to address these disproportionate issues faced by vulnerable populations in our city. The CPRAB is embarking on a community-engaged research project to address community perceptions of police and safety in Morgantown, WV. How do vulnerable populations in Morgantown perceive the effectiveness of local law enforcement in ensuring community safety? |
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West Virginia has the highest rate of inland flooding in the US. Between 1991 and 2016 all 55 counties of WV had reported the occurrence of at least 14 floods. Ensuring West Virginians have increased capacities to face future flood risks and recover in their aftermath is central to building more resilient communities across the state. To foster wider participation in preparation, planning and recovery we need an approach to flood planning that incorporates community members’ knowledge, experiences, and insights into flood risk. In this project I will study youth perceptions of flood risk and their confidence to engage in flood preparation through participatory research with Monongalia High School students. Building upon a NOAA Environmental Literacy Grant, I will accompany a group of 25 youth from three Mon County High Schools to learn how to map vulnerabilities and create their own community flood planning maps and documents. |
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Exercise, and Performance Psychology |
Substance use, overdose deaths, and substance use disorders have continued to rise across the nation and, specifically, in West Virginia. While current treatment exists, there is a need for further advancement of care and integration of new evidence-based practices. Adjunct forms of care such as physical activity, mindfulness, and yoga – all found to be beneficial for SUD – should not be isolated to high-end detox and residential facilities. All treatment centers, especially treatment centers that serve minorities and low SES individuals also deserve to offer these forms of adjunct care. This study seeks to assess the feasibility, accessibility, program integration, and outcomes of an adjunct four-week, trauma-informed yoga (TIY) intervention in addition to treatment as usual (TAU) within inpatient substance use disorder (SUD) treatment through a partnership with Wise Path Recovery Center. |
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West Virginia is a predominantly white state that is located in the Appalachian region. However, West Virginia has a black population that is dispersed across the state which has contributed important history, instrumental to the black community on a global level. The Black Church is an integral component of black culture. Churches act as a hub that provide different resources and services to the community. Churches also host events that help bring the community together. The Black Church is the outcome of racial segregation in the United States which dates to the slavery period. Many Black people use their faith to cope with the racial disparities and oppressive systems that they face. Faith invokes hope into something that is larger than present circumstances. As a person that does not have roots in West Virginia or the Appalachian region, I am interested in understanding the experiences of Black people in this area and how they create and maintain community throughout the years. |
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The goal of this community-based collaborative research project is to build a sustainable network of service providers across disciplines who are trained in culturally sensitive trauma-informed care practices. To begin to understand the current state of the organizations who serve youth with traumatic event histories, we seek to implement this pilot study with The Resilience After Complex Trauma (ReACT) Clinic within the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry at WVU Medicine where we will survey staff in the systems that commonly refer youth to the Clinic about their attitudes toward trauma-informed care. |