quest magazine
TRANSCRIPT
Pursuing Innovation Through Research ISSUE 1 F15
Clients at the Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center shared messages and drawings about what inspires, challenges or encourage them. Their messages were displayed in the waiting area.
Moving Beyond Trauma
BANAFSHEH BEHZAD (College of Business Administration)
Turtle TaleCHRISTOPHER LOWE (College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics)
Contents
07
25
08
28
29
32
Design Life
2015 F Y Summary
President
Jane Close Conoley
Interim Provost & Senior Vice President
David Dowell
Interim Associate Vice President Research & Sponsored Programs
Simon Kim
Grant Development SpecialistResearch & Sponsored ProgramsJacqueline Wilvers
Associate Vice President University Relations & Communications
Andy Hoang
EditorSylvia Rodemeyer
WritersAnne AmbroseSharon Hong
Designer
Anna Hovhannisyan
PhotographersJoseph PhilipsonManfong Ieong
Videographer
Michael Sullivan
Web Programmers
Frederick Camba Jazon Yamamoto
WESLEY WOELFEL (College of the Arts)
Quake-AwareNATE ONDERDONK (College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics)LISA STAR (College of Engineering)
17Working to Break BarriersCOURTNEY AHRENS (College of Liberal Arts)
Health and WellnessCHRISTINE GALVAN (College of Health and Human Services)
22
23
Practice Makes Perfect
Expanding Our Reach
NANCY MEYER-ADAMS (College of Health and Human Services)JAMES FERREIRA (College of Health and Human Services)
RAFAEL TOPETE (College Assistance Migrant Program)
Quest is a publication of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at California State University, Long Beach
Questions or comments should be directed to [email protected] or (562)985-8147 csulb.edu/research
Improving Lives from Beginning to EndJOY GOEBEL (College of Health and Human Services)
16
Power UpTHOMAS GREDIG (College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics)MATTHEW BECKER (College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics)
09
11
Sustainability in MotionTED YU (College of Engineering)MOHAMMAD MOZUMDAR (College of Engineering)
When Data Can Save Lives: Obesity And Seat Belt Usage
04
12 Moving Beyond Trauma
Land, Air and Sea
From treating victims of trauma to providing end-of-life care, three CSULB professors are using research to help people in pain.
Faculty are using technology for everything from transportation automation to tracking sea turtles.
19 Meeting the Needs of the Community
Pulling double duty: a community clinic provides vital educational and psychological services and serves as a clinical training site for CSULB students.
KIM-PHUONG VU (College of Liberal Arts)
KRISTIN POWERS (College of Education) KRISTIN HAGANS (College of Education)
BITA GHAFOORI (College of Education)
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Quest, our first publication
dedicated to showcasing the exciting research, scholarly and creative ac-tivities of California State University, Long Beach faculty and students.
Universities play a key role in society by preserving evidence-based historical knowledge, generating new knowledge (and creating new things) and—perhaps
most importantly—preparing the next generation to do the same. Scholarly activity is fundamental to these goals. Beach faculty’s wide-ranging research expertise adds to our university’s suc-cess, helps develop our region, and ad-vances our world.
From earthquake prediction tech-nology to product design, the articles in Quest offer a fascinating look at the varied and thought-provoking work being done by our faculty, often in col-laboration with graduate and under-graduate students.
I am impressed by the breadth and quality of research, scholarly and cre-ative activities highlighted in this issue—each one of our colleges is represented—and proud of the significant amount of external funding faculty received. The included works address compelling problems facing the world and add to the cultural capital of our society. In sum, Quest makes me (once again!) grateful to lead this outstanding university.
Enjoy your exploration and be sure to let us know what you think.
Go Beach!
PresidentCalifornia State University, Long Beach
Jane Close Conoley
Simon KimInterim Associate Vice President2ԀFH�RI�5HVHDUFK��6SRQVRUHG�3URJUDPV
Quest is the first of its kind at Cal-ifornia State University, Long
Beach, and highlights the wide range of research, scholarly, and creative en-deavors conducted by our faculty on and off campus across all disciplines.
With a primary emphasis on facul-ty-student research engagement, facul-ty research provides our students with relevant knowledge and cutting-edge skills that are important for regional economic and workforce development.
Quest was designed to highlight the people and innovations surrounding re-search conducted across the university. This new publication is a celebration of the institution’s research achievements and recognition of the exceptional work conducted by our faculty and students.
Faculty were awarded over $65 mil-lion in external funding this past year, allowing them to conduct research in critical areas, including trauma recov-ery, health, sustainability, technology, arts and education.
Quest is the result of a close collab-oration between the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs and University Marketing & Communications. It will serve as a wonderful method of promot-
ing faculty and student research to the campus community and beyond.
I hope you enjoy reading more about our quest for knowledge at California State University, Long Beach, and the exceptional work being conducted here every day.
Land, Air and SeaWORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS by Anne Ambrose and Joseph Philipson
can provide assistance when needed,” and support multiple pilots at once, she explained. However, it’s essential that both pilots fully know what each other is doing and how to handle emergencies.
“It’s a groundbreaking area,” Vu said. Students work in the CHAAT lab during the academic year and some of them then go to NASA Ames in summer. They’re so well prepared that NASA pre-sented CSULB’s 2014 student interns with certificates of achievement.
Psychology Professor Kim-Phuong Vu, associate director of CSULB’s Cen-ter for Human Factors and Advanced Aeronautics Technology (CHAAT), is trying to understand how humans and increasingly complex transportation automation can be successfully inte-grated into a system.
One of her projects is a four-year NASA award through the firm Rockwell Collins to study a new aviation concept called Reduced Crew Operations in col-laboration with the NASA Ames Flight Deck Display Research Laboratory.
“With the automation technology that’s been developed over the years, now we’re looking at whether it’s pos-sible to reduce the crew members on-board and have ground support — may-be an operator in a ground station who
Everything from planes to sea creatures and even the earth moves, and it’s how these things move that interest CSULB faculty.
6 QUEST MAGAZINE
“We are proud that we have 100 percent placement rates for our human factors program graduates within six months of graduation.”
Quake-Aware$FFXUDWHO\�SUHGLFWLQJ�earthquakes remains elusive, but under-standing quake history LV�KHOSIXO�
That’s why geological sciences As-sociate Professor Nate Onderdonk is looking at two areas of the San Jacinto Fault in Riverside County, a branch of the San Andreas Fault zone. At the first site, he’s focusing on past quakes and now has an idea of what happened over approximately 3,500 years.
He determined that San Jacinto quakes occur on average about every 180 years, and the last was around 1812. He also found that over approximately 1,500 years, more than half the quakes on San Jacinto occurred around the same time as San Andreas jolts. Howev-er, he cautions that scientists cannot yet precisely determine the timing between related prehistoric quakes.
Estimating prehistoric quake magni-tudes and how fast stress is building are different processes, so his second San Jacinto location is better for this. “We’ve been really lucky that we’ve been able to get these different pieces of the prob-lem on the same fault,” he said.
This field experience is helping his students get geotechnical consulting jobs or enter grad school, Onderdonk said. He also works with the Southern California Earthquake Center and its in-ternship program that includes students from across the nation.
Geologists’ data also helps geotech-nical engineers like Assistant Professor Lisa Star in CSULB’s Civil Engineering and Construction Engineering Manage-ment Department prepare buildings to withstand quakes.
Her particular interest is in how soils and the buildings on top of them behave during shaking. Much of her work is analyzing earthquake records and recordings from the shaking of test structures. The data from real buildings helps to improve the models that are used to design new structures. “Over time, records are getting better,” she said, as quake-prone nations like the U.S., Japan and Chile improve their seis-mic data networks.
Although most of her students will work for engineering firms, “This work gives students a taste of what is cut-ting-edge research in the field and to possibly consider a Ph.D.,” she noted.
QUEST MAGAZINE 7
OPPOSITE: Prof. KimPhuong Vu, standing, works on f light management technology in CSULB’s CHAAT lab.
COVER: One of the FAA’s goals is to improve flight management.
ABOVE: Professor Nate Onderdonk and his students are learning more about the San Jacinto Fault. Courtesy of Nate Onderdonk.
traveled to Anaheim Bay and even into Long Beach’s Alamitos Bay in the sum-mer, but in winter, they all returned to the warmer river, Lowe explained.
However, he said their future here is uncertain, as the power plants will stop using seawater for cooling in a few years. “A lot of the turtles we find in the river are juveniles, so once that thermal refuge is gone, we don’t really know where they’ll go.”
Users of the San Gabriel 5LYHU�7UDLO�EHWZHHQ�/RQJ�Beach and Seal Beach, and Anaheim Bay near the Seal Beach Naval :HDSRQV�6WDWLRQ�DUH�delighted to see an un-XVXDO�VLJKW�LQ�WKH�ZDWHU�HDVWHUQ�3DFLӾF�JUHHQ�VHD�turtles, a federally listed HQGDQJHUHG�VSHFLHV�
Marine biology Professor Chris-topher Lowe studies a variety of sea creatures and is an expert in underwa-ter tracking technologies. NOAA Fish-eries approached him to help study turtle movements, so he and his grad-uate student, Dan Crear, working with NOAA researchers who hold capture and tagging permits, applied acoustic transmitters onto 18 turtle shells.
They examined how anthropogenic (human) effects on water temperature may influence turtle distribution and residency. “There are several power plants in the river that discharge sea-water used to cool the generators,” Lowe said. Turtles like the warm out-flow water, so Lowe’s group put acous-tic listening stations and water tem-perature loggers along a section of the river and in Anaheim Bay.
“Most of the turtles tagged in the river stayed in the river,” while some
Turtle Tale
8 QUEST MAGAZINE
OPPOSITE: Electric and batterypowered vehicles are growing in importance.
ABOVE: An acoustic transmitterattached to a green turtle’s shell in the San Gabriel River is helping Professor Chris-topher Lowe and graduate student Dan Crear understand its movements.
Photograph by Michael Sullivan. Photographed under NMFS Permit #16803.
Sustainability in Motion
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS by Anne Ambrose and Joseph Philipson
CSULB faculty are tapping creative ways to use natural resources more efficiently.
“I have a battery lab that can do pretty much everything that a small battery startup company can do.”
10 QUEST MAGAZINE
Making alternative powered vehi-cles less expensive and more appealing to buyers remains a challenge, so chem-ical engineering Assistant Professor Ted Yu is focusing on improving vehicle bat-teries and fuel cell efficiency and costs.
Students get hands-on experience working with battery materials and gain theoretical and computer simulation knowledge on converting chemistry to electricity, which underlie both batter-ies and fuel cells. One study, funded by the South Coast Air Quality Manage-ment District allowed his lab to examine potentially less expensive but efficient fuel cell catalysts for fuel cells.
In another lab, electrical engineer-ing Assistant Professor Mohammad Mo-zumdar, an expert in wireless sensor networks, is trying to help policymakers know what kind of vehicles are passing on the freeways so that they can make better transportation-related decisions.
Current road sensor systems are large and costly, so he’s looking at a cheaper, more efficient idea. His work is funded by Caltrans through the ME-TRANS Transportation Center, a col-laboration between CSULB and USC to solve metropolitan transportation prob-lems through research and training.
He and several students are testing microsensors about the size of a cred-
it card that could be implanted under highway surfaces to collect real-time data on the size and general type of passing vehicles.
Powering these small sensors would be difficult, so he’s trying to get power from the vehicles themselves, he con-
tinued. “When a vehicle passes on the road, it creates pressure, so we’re trying to convert that pressure into electrical energy to the system we’re going to im-plant so that we don’t have to change the batteries very often,” perhaps not for a decade.
Power Up
QUEST MAGAZINE 11
He’s examining a new technolo-gy called enhanced geothermal ener-gy that involves breaking up deep hot rock to improve water permeability, but “It’s hard to break the rock in a way that causes water to sweep out in large volumes. It tends to follow narrow pathways and channel from one well to another — not connect the two wells or short-circuit the two wells,” he said. “We’re developing methods by which, after you put in a well, you can interro-gate the formation and find out what it’s permeability looks like and what sort of efficiency you can expect from the cur-rent wells and where you might put in another well.”
Geothermal fields can be demand-ing places to study, so he and five grad-uate students have been working at non-geothermal sites in New York and New Hampshire with similar fractured terrain. Three students have graduated — two are earning Ph.D.s and one works for an environmental consulting firm, while two others continue the work.
In Becker’s opinion, “The potential for geothermal energy swamps solar and wind if we make this enhanced geo-thermal work.”
Gredig is studying organic mole-cules including the phthalocyanine family that can be integrated into pho-tovoltaic cells to harvest and convert sun energy into electricity. “The ad-vantage of this material is that it’s very thin and absorbs light very strongly,” he explained. “If we compare it to, say, sili-con, which is commonly used, the thick-ness is about a thousand times smaller.”
The molecules can be applied to substrates that are low cost, flexible and have low toxicity, but disadvantag-es are lower efficiency and shorter ma-terial lifespan, so, “Part of our research endeavor is to explore exactly how these materials can be optimized,” he said.
Another source of electricity lies deep in the earth where hot rock turns underground water into steam that can be harnessed to drive turbines.
With grants from the U.S. Depart-ment of Energy, Professor Matthew Becker, Conrey Endowed Chair in Hy-drogeology, is helping take advantage of new geothermal resource locations. Although hot rock is relatively common, “it’s rare to find that kind of rock perme-ability at great depths so that the water can flow,” he explained.
3K\VLFV� $VVRFLDWH� 3URIHVVRU� 7KRPDV� *UHGLJ� LV�DPRQJ�&68/%·V�H[SHUWV�LQ�FUHDWLQJ�WKLQ�ӾOPV�WKDW�FDQ�EH�XVHG�IRU�D�KRVW�RI�VFLHQWLӾF�DQG�FRPPHUFLDO�DSSOLFDWLRQV�� +H� LV� DOVR� RQH� RI� ӾYH� LQYHVWLJDWRUV�LQ�WKH�XQLYHUVLW\·V����������.HFN�(QHUJ\�0DWHULDOV�5HVHDUFK�3URJUDP��.(03��JUDQW�WKDW�LV�DGYDQFLQJ�NQRZOHGJH�DQG�SUHSDULQJ�VWXGHQWV� IRU�FDUHHUV� LQ�WKLV�HPHUJLQJ�ӾHOG�
ABOVE: Students in Professor Ted Yu’s lab use a glove box to build a lithium watch battery.
Moving Beyond Trauma
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS by Sharon Hong and Joseph Philipson
the LBTRC is the second trauma recov-ery center to be established in the state. The first trauma recovery center, start-ed by the University of California, San Francisco in 2001 has been recognized nationally for helping to treat trauma victims from some of northern Califor-nia’s most vulnerable populations.
The goal of these centers is to create models for effective trauma and mental health care for victims and their fami-lies, specifically from underserved pop-ulations. Researchers at each center fo-
cus on therapy, mental health services, outreach, advocacy and education. Gha-foori, who teaches counseling and ther-apy and is the principal investigator of
the project, is hoping to replicate the success of the S.F. Trauma Center, while tailoring it for the diverse Long Beach population, which includes using evi-dence-based therapies to gauge cultural responsiveness to traditional therapeu-tic methods. Based on the numbers, Ghafoori may not be far off the mark.
Within one year of launch, nearly 400 people-mainly victims of sexual assault and domestic violence-have been treat-ed at the LBTRC. It’s also received grants from the California Endowment and Cal-Grip program since opening its doors.
The Trauma Recovery Center is locat-ed in St. Mary Medical Center on Long Beach’s Atlantic Avenue. It’s a key part-nership with a local hospital that Gha-foori says was intentional for its strategic location in a zip code that is home to a
It takes an average of six traumatic experiences before a person will receive treatment. It often begins with child-hood abuse and then takes six addition-al traumatic events before it progresses into something that prompts a person to get or need help. That’s what Profes-sor Bita Ghafoori has discovered since launching the Long Beach Trauma Re-covery Center (LBTRC) in April 2014.
Funded by a $1.9 million grant from the State of California Victim Compen-sation and Government Claim Board,
From treating victims of trauma to providingend-of-life care, three CSULB professors are using research to help people in pain.
14 QUEST MAGAZINE
“The average income for most of our clients is under $12K a year, so the students often-times have to help with shelter and medical appointments...”
QUEST MAGAZINE 15
lot of crime victims. The area also offers easy access to public transportation.
In addition to providing therapies for trauma victims throughout the com-munity, the LBTRC is providing key re-search opportunities for Ghafoori and her team to assess the efficacy of out-reach efforts and therapeutic methods and test training for graduate students who are studying counseling and social work at CSULB.
As an approved fieldwork site for the Marriage and Family Therapy and Mas-ter’s in Social Work programs, students can apply to work at the Center where they will keep a caseload of 8-10 clients and are responsible for providing thera-py and case management.
“Our clients are predominantly very poor. The average income for most of our clients is under $12K a year, so the stu-dents oftentimes have to help with shel-ter and medical appointments,” Gha-foori said, adding that the LBTRC has already built collaborative relationships with over 100 agencies in town. Students are also involved in giving presenta-tions at local schools and to community groups to help educate people on what trauma is and reduce cultural stigma to seeking treatment.
A number of community agencies, including the Long Beach City Prosecu-tor’s Office and Police Department, have
COVER: Clients at the Long Beach Trauma Recovery Story shared messages and drawings about what inspires, challenges or encourages them. Their messages were displayed in the waiting area.
LEFT: LBTRC Director Bita Ghafoori is professor of counseling and a licensed clinical psychologist.
recognized the importance of the LBTRC and have signed on as partners. This academic year, Ghafoori is conducting a specialized training with LBPD to talk about the dangers and signs of vicar-ious trauma for first responders. “This is a unique and exciting project that is bringing together different colleges in the university, and providing com-prehensive training and a multi-disci-plinary approach to be able to provide the most effective treatment. I feel so blessed and so proud that this center is up and we’re able to operate it.”
32% SEXUAL ASSAULT
8% OTHER CRIME
28% DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
6% SHOOTING
10% PHYSICAL ASSAULT
2% OTHER TRAUMA
1% STABBING
1% VEHICULAR ASSAULT
14% FAMILY MEMBER OF
CRIME VICTIM/
TRAUMATIC LOSS
Trauma Data of Individuals Served by LBTRC
32%
28% 10%
6%
1%
2%
8%
1%
14%
16 QUEST MAGAZINE
policies and systems that need to be in place to improve the field.
In addition to doing research and teaching nursing, Goebel has been fund-ed by university President Jane Conoley as faculty director and campus liaison for the newly established CSU Institute for Palliative Care. The institute aims to look at how to improve entry workforce for the field of palliative care using re-sources from all the CSU schools. Goeb-el is tasked with identifying resources within all the departments on campus and system-wide to contribute to edu-cating and improving the workforce.
“We all want to just pass away quickly, but the reality is the vast ma-jority of us are going to have a long peri-od of frailty,” Goebel says. “That whole period of frailty is one really big area of palliative care we’re working on to im-prove quality of life.”
ventions that is currently under review at the Journal of Palliative Medicine.
Palliative care involves a team of professionals who can help people deal with physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual issues they may be experi-encing. Teams often include physicians, nurses, social workers and chaplains. Funded by a $15,000 grant from the Hos-pice and Palliative Nurses Association, Goebel surveyed palliative care provid-ers to find out how they perceived the teams they worked on and how they thought it affected the quality of care patients and their families received.
“Intuitively, palliative care provid-ers know what makes a good team, but we have to start looking at what inter-ventions we can develop to improve the quality of care,” Goebel says.
The survey results can be support-ing evidence for how resources should be allocated in the field, as well as other
“I remember caring for a child who was about 8- or 9-years-old and dying of cystic fibrosis. He was very sick and he asked me, ‘Am I dying?” Goebel re-counts this story with her eyes closed as if replaying the moment in her mind. It was hospital policy, she says, that staff were not allowed to talk to children about dying for fear of upsetting them.
“I was 19 or 20 years old and I was just flabbergasted. I remember being very, very sad that I couldn’t really talk to him about what he was facing.” Three days later the child died, and it was then that Goebel thought: “There’s got to be another way.”
Fast forward through years of expe-rience working in acute care and home care settings and Goebel is now doing research on palliative care – care for people and their families who are fac-ing and dealing with late life issues. Along with extensive first-hand knowl-edge of providing care, Goebel has an impressive macro-level grasp of the field, including how big organizations interact, what research has been done and where there are gaps, where mon-ey comes from, and what direction the field is going in.
Her current research involves a sys-tematic review of palliative care inter-
Improving Lives from Beginning to End:KHQ�-R\�*RHEHO�ZDV�D�\RXQJ�QXUVH�DLGH��RQH�LQFLGHQW�OHIW�D�JLDQW�LPSUHVVLRQ�WKDW�VKDSHG�WKH�ZRUN�VKH�GRHV�WRGD\�
“I remember caring for a child who was about 8- or 9-years-old and dying of cystic fibrosis. He was very sick and he asked me, ‘Am I dying?”
serve a high proportion of women from each ethnic group. Clinic staff who’ve established relationships with women are trained to inform them about the research project and assure them of confidentiality. Interviews are then set up as appointments at the clinic to not trigger any alarms if a patient is still with the abuser.
Students are involved heavily in the research project from conducting inter-views to analyzing the results, Ahrens says. The interviews are conducted in English or in the native language of the participant. Ahrens recruits and trains students in her research lab on intimate partner violence – what it is, how com-mon it is, what services are available and what barriers exist. She also spends a lot of time training in how to conduct interviews, review transcripts, translate interviews and code narratives. There are currently about 20 students of all grade levels working on this project.
The interview phase of the project is currently underway using questions that have been pilot-tested to make sure the wording of each question is culturally appropriate, such as language that is too informal or could be considered rude. Ahrens anticipates another year’s worth of data collection and a year’s worth of
qualitative analysis. They have an exten-sive dissemination plan to make the re-sults widely available to national organi-zations like the national chiefs of police, clinics and domestic violence groups.
The project is already being used as an informal pilot study for part of a Blue Shield grant that is trying to create a countywide response to women’s health issues. Ahrens’ research will be used to figure out how to create a universal screening process at hospitals and clin-ics throughout Orange County.
“So much of my own motivation for research is research in the name of public good,” she says. To be able to do something as practical as this and con-duct research that is actually going to be implemented is pretty exciting.”
0HDQZKLOH��LQ�2UDQJH�&RXQW\��WKH�1DWLRQDO�,QVWL-tute of Justice – the research branch of the DOJ – KDV�WDSSHG�SV\FKRORJ\�SURIHVVRU�&RXUWQH\�$KUHQV�WR�KHOS�LGHQWLI\�EDUULHUV�WKDW�GHWHU�VRPH�PLQRULW\�ZRPHQ�IURP�UHSRUWLQJ�LQWLPDWH�SDUWQHU�YLROHQFH��
Ahrens and Dr. Mindy Mechanic at California State University, Fullerton obtained a $925,000 grant from the NIJ to research the influence of culture on intimate partner violence.
“Do women from different cultures experience different forms of domestic violence? Do women from different cul-tures define domestic violence different-ly? How do victims choose to respond to that violence in their relationships, and who are they choosing to reach out to for help? That’s what we’re interested in looking at,” says Ahrens.
The hope is that the findings will help agencies and law enforcement to know what needs to be in place in order to encourage and empower women to re-port domestic violence.
The project focuses on four specific ethnic groups: Mexican American, Ko-rean American, Vietnamese American and European American. Ahrens and Mechanic aim to conduct 75 interviews with women from each ethnic group – 300 total – to get a large enough sample group with which to make assessments.
In order to execute this project and maintain safety for these women, they have partnered with the Orange County Coalition of Community Health Provid-ers to identify four health clinics that
Working to Break Barriers
QUEST MAGAZINE 17
Meeting the Needs of the Community
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHSby Sylvia Rodemeyer and Joseph Philipson
vides comprehensive educational and psychological services for members of the community at a low cost, and it dou-bles as the clinical training site for the School Psychology, Marriage and Fami-ly Therapy, and Mathematics Education master’s degree programs.
In late July, the Community Clinic held the Summer Math Clinic, under the supervision of clinic director and Professor of Advanced Studies in Edu-cation and Counseling Kristin Powers. The two-week intensive intervention brought 10 students from the ages of 6 to 17 to participate in daily individual-ized instruction on either fractions or algebra, two common stumbling blocks in mathematics.
This clinic and others like it are made possible through $1.25 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs to recruit, retain, and gradu-ate 21 high achieving individuals, in-
cluding members of historically under-represented groups, to the field of school psychology who are highly qualified to develop and support culturally relevant, evidence-based interventions in a multi-tiered system of services (MTSS) to im-prove the outcomes of students, includ-ing students with disabilities and those at-risk of developing disabilities.
“The intensive, evidence-based in-terventions are necessary because it is
Some of the research impacting the next generation of potential CSULB stu-dents and local movers and shakers is work coming out of the Community Clin-ic for Counseling & Educational Services.
The clinic, formerly Educational Psychology Clinic, has been the setting for affordable counseling, academic in-tervention, and psychoeducational as-sessment services for over 40 years. The Community Clinic serves two primary functions for the community: It pro-
California State University, Long Beach infamous-ly exists encased within its own zip code, near the city limits of the diverse metropolis it takes its name from. With over 35,000 students and hun-dreds of staff and faculty, it is effectively a city within city. It would be an easy assumption that the state school exists in isolation.
The work coming out of CSULB tells a very differ-ent story about the university’s relationship with the community it intersects.
The intensive, evi-dence-based inter-ventions are nec-essary because it is not available at this affordable price in the larger community...”
20 QUEST MAGAZINE
“
not available at this affordable price in the larger community and we receive many more referrals than we can handle at the moment,” Powers says of the need for the clinic.
Marielena martinez’s 13 year old son, came to the clinic to get assistance with 7th grade algebra. He was referred to the clinic after his family had exhausted all options provided through his school.
“Coming to the clinic has made me
QUEST MAGAZINE 21
COVER: A graduate student ob-serves clinic participants through a one-way mirror.
Photograph by Manfong Ieong
ABOVE: Martinez’s son works with a clinic tutor to improve hismath skills.
feel more secure about the help I’m able to find him. His motivation has im-proved and the clinic helps me find oth-er services for him.” Martinez says of the results she has seen.
provides new tools for training social work interns. The simulated home is a laboratory where faculty can collabo-rate with consultants and other experts to help train the next generation of so-cial workers.
“It’s a different world than sitting in a classroom pretending to be doing a visit.” Nancy Meyer-Adams, director of the School of Social Work, says of the lab. “It is a safe space for students and to practice their skills before meeting with families that may need their help.”
Meyer-Adams went on to say, “The very act of knocking on a door and not knowing who or what scenario is behind the door is something students bene-fit from. When students are in the lab, there’s always a coach or mentor within the scene who is able to provide imme-diate feedback about the scene and the intern’s actions.”
“The safety of our students is par-amount. As an intern or social worker, every situation is unique and we want everyone to have the right tools to be as safe as possible and the lab adds to that,” James Ferreira, director of the Child Welfare Training Center says.
Part of this extra level of attention and preparedness comes through the stability that grants and stipends pro-vide. The California Social Work Educa-tion Center (CalSWEC), awards stipends to undergraduate and graduate social work students in exchange for a com-mitment to work in a public child wel-fare agency. The federal funds are pro-vided through Title IV-E specifically for child welfare training. Since the incep-tion of the program in 1993, CSULB has provided over $16 million in financial support for social work students.
Another aspect of preparedness includes a unique simulation lab that
Practice Makes Perfect6RFLDO�ZRUNHUV�DUH�RIWHQ�WKH�XQVXQJ�KHURHV�RI�RXU�FRPPXQLWLHV��7LUHOHVV�KRXUV�LQ�XQNQRZQ�HQYLURQ-PHQWV�DUH� MXVW�SDUW�RI� WKHLU�GD\�WR�GD\��&68/%·V�School of Social Work is looking to make those that HPHUJH�IURP�WKH�SURJUDP�HTXLSSHG�IRU�DQ\�VFH-QDULR�WKDW�FRPHV�WKHLU�ZD\�
22 QUEST MAGAZINE
LEFT: The simulation lab allows social work interns the chance to practice their skills.
OPPOSITE: PATHS participants collaborate on timed challenge to build team and communica-tion skills.
An exercise in resources, teamwork, engineering and geometry marches on. When the buzzer marks the end of the allotted time, neither group has any-thing resembling a functional house, but both teams are beaming and near-ly giddy with the rush of adrenaline from the test. These groups are part of
Expanding Our Reach2Q�D�KRW�VXPPHU�GD\��JURXSV�RI����WHHQV�ZRUN�DJDLQVW�WKH�FORFN�WR�FUHDWH�D�VWDQG�DORQH�SDSHU�KRXVH�ZLWK�EDVLF�PDWHULDOV��PDVNLQJ�WDSH�DQG�QHZVSDSHU��:LWKRXW�VFLVVRUV�KDQGV�DQG�WHHWK�IXULRXVO\�ULS�VWULSV�RI�DGKHVLYH�WKDW�DUH�TXLFNO\�VQDSSHG�XS�E\�WKHLU�WHDPPDWHV�
QUEST MAGAZINE 23
a week of learning under the PATHS program-Pursuing Academics Through Higher Educational Studies-that hosts about 120 children of migrant workers, introducing them to campus life and hopefully sparking a desire for college.
The CSULB College Assistance Mi-grant Program, which helps first-time
24 QUEST MAGAZINE
freshmen from migrant backgrounds transition from high school to the college campus, oversees the week of activities.
“It’s amazing what youth can do when they’re allowed to be creative and fully be themselves. We try to give them the tools and the confidence, they do the rest.” PATHS volunteer Melissa Chavez, child and human development major, says of her experience with the camp.
Francisco De La Paz, 17, still de-ciding between theater arts or film as a major, hopes to attend college in the fall. “This week has made me more out-going and definitely more of a team player. I think it has prepared us for the
college experience.” And how does he like the dorms the campers have been staying. “It’s a lot of fun, but the beds are pretty hard.”
“We already have had several stu-dents submit their intent to apply to CSULB, asking for assistance with the CSU Mentor application, as well as with the financial aid process,” director Ra-fael Topete says.
Topete says that the value of the PATHS program is wide reaching.
“By becoming aware of the struggles of some of our students, faculty and staff become more empathetic and will-ing to assist,” Topete says.
This week has made me more outgoing and definitely more of a team player. I think it has prepared us for the col-lege experience.”
“
BELOW: PATHS students create their own working batteries in a science workshop.
“
OPPOSITE: A CSULB student teaches Zumba at Houghton Park.
Health and WellnessWORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS by Sharon Hong and Joseph Philipson
and nutrition program for underserved adults in the community called the Beach Community Wellness Program (BCWP). This includes an hour of fit-ness, like circuit training, yoga or kickboxing, followed by an hour of nutrition instruction.
BCWP began in the spring of 2014 as a collaboration with the City of Long Beach’s Department of Health and Hu-man Services. Funded by two grants from the Miller Foundation totaling $140,000, the aim of the program is to provide health and fitness classes for adults in the community. Kinesiology Associate Professor Christine Galvan, who is founder and co-director of the program, says they chose Houghton Park as the site of the program because the area is home to a large population of underserved Latino and African-Ameri-cans who, historically, have the highest rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
“In many cases, members of these populations lack education about what it takes to be physically fit or they might not have a safe place to participate in physical activity which deters them from going outside,” Galvan explains. Lack of financial resources also limits access to gyms or healthy foods.
To gauge community interest in health classes, Galvan launched a five-week pilot program shortly after meeting with the city. When 20 people showed up on the first day of classes and 20 to 30 continued to show up for
It’s 9 a.m. on a Friday and 65-year-old Lydia Ortiz has traveled from El Se-gundo to North Long Beach to get her Zumba on with her friends at the Hough-ton Park Community Recreation Center.
“I’m so happy and blessed to see all these people trying to help us,” Ortiz says. “When I see the people screaming, jumping and dancing, it motivates me, and that’s what we need.”
The people Ortiz is referring to is a team of CSULB faculty, staff and stu-dents who are providing a free fitness
“When I see the people scream-ing, jumping and dancing, it motivates me, and that’s what we need.”
26 QUEST MAGAZINE
the rest of the program, she knew they were on the right track.
After completing the pilot, Galvan enlisted Ayla Donlin, who heads up CSULB’s LifeFit Center, to co-direct the program, and they surveyed community members to find out what other health services they wanted. When partici-pants asked for more information on how to eat healthier, Galvan and Donlin reached out to the Nutrition Department and found Professor Virginia Gray. Early this year, armed with a slew of under-graduate and graduate students in Ki-nesiology and Nutrition, the directors launched a 10-week program that com-bined exercise with field trips to grocery stores and classes on how to prepare vegetables for meals.
“The more we were available to the community members and asking them what they need from us, they began to open up,” Galvan said. “It’s to the point now where we’re almost like social workers, and they ask us where to get dental appointments and reach out with other health concerns.”
Galvan has her sights set on addi-tional campus collaborators to meet
Christine Galvan has spent much of her career providing programs for at-risk and underserved youth. Now she’s reaching underserved adults in the community and she aims to bring the whole university along with her.
ABOVE: Community members get one hour of free fitness instruc-tion through the CSULB Beach Community Wellness Program.
Photograph by Manfong Ieong
OPPOSITE: Lydia Ortiz weighed 315 pounds and used a walker. Now she exercises every morning.
Photograph by Manfong Ieong
QUEST MAGAZINE 27
more community needs – from Child and Family Services students who can put on a program for toddlers accompa-nying their mothers to classes to Social Work students who can help give access to other services. This semester, nursing students will provide free services and a health fair.
In its first year, the program saw 79 participants, but the largest class at any one time was about 35 people, says Donlin. They hope to get 100 people by the end of this academic year, with reg-ular attendance of about 50. Student in-volvement, she says, is key.
“One of the biggest pieces of the program is the reciprocity between the students and the community members,” says Donlin. “Students are getting to put into practice what they’re learning in the classroom and the community mem-bers are benefiting from free fitness and
nutrition services.” Galvan adds, “This is service learning at its best!”
With each session, faculty members are collecting data to assess the suc-cess of the program in order to optimize learning for both community members and students. So far, data findings highlight some of the positive program effects. Results from the spring 2015 ses-sion showed a 75 percent improvement in upper and lower body strength, and an average improvement of 17 percent in body weight.
Ortiz says she’s eager to learn how to eat better, and that she specifically told her husband not to deter her from going to class. “Now that we are old, this is something different to do instead of staying home, watching T.V. and sleeping,” she says. “I feel grateful they are motivating us to do exercise.”
gathered data from 2006-2011 regarding obesity levels, seatbelt usage, and seat-belt laws in each state of the U.S.
While compiling data, Behzad learned that there are two types of seat-belt laws in the United States. Primary seatbelt laws allow law enforcement to pull people over if they are not wearing a seatbelt. Secondary seatbelt laws re-quire a traffic violation to have occurred in order for law enforcement to issue a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt.
Through her research, Behzad found that there is a positive relationship be-tween obesity and seatbelt usage – the more obese people are, the less likely they are to use a seatbelt. However, the relationship is dependent on the seat-belt law of the state. If the state has a primary seatbelt law, then the relation-ship becomes weaker, meaning that in states where seatbelt use is required by law, obese people will wear their seat-belts more often to avoid citation. In states where only secondary seatbelt laws are in place, obese people take more chances.
Currently, 16 states still don’t have primary seatbelt laws. Behzad, who published these results in the Journal
of Public Health, says she hopes her paper can be a recommendation to law enforcement to help save lives.
“If people are taking advantage of not having that law, it could be enact-ed so that more people wear seatbelts,” she said.
But beyond obesity-related conditions like heart disease and diabetes, what other day-to-day health risks are in-volved with obesity? That is the ques-tion Banafsheh Behzad, assistant pro-fessor of Information Systems, asked as a Ph.D. student in Industrial En-gineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne.
“I like to use mathematical ap-proaches to do practical things,” said Behzad, who set out to find if there was a relationship between obesity and seatbelt use.
Behzad hypothesized that because of comfort issues, obese people might not wear their seatbelts as often. She
When Data Can Save Lives: Obesity And Seat Belt Usage 2EHVLW\�LV�RQH�RI�WKH�PRVW�FRPPRQ�SXEOLF�KHDOWK�LVVXHV�LQ�WKH�8QLWHG�6WDWHV��0RUH�WKDQ�RQH�WKLUG�RI�8�6��DGXOWV�DUH�REHVH��OHDGLQJ�WR�VHULRXV�KHDOWK�risks and medical costs, according to the Centers IRU�'LVHDVH�&RQWURO�DQG�3UHYHQWLRQ�
ABOVE: Assistant Professor Banafsheh Behzad.
OPPOSITE: Mannequin on display at Greneker’s office.
28 QUEST MAGAZINE
Design LifeWORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHSby Sylvia Rodemeyer and Joseph Philipson
What is your creative process like?
For typical projects I start by learning the objectives and budget we have for a project, and then I figure out the meth-ods that I think will work best to reach them. Many of the projects I work on are with an interdisciplinary team. De-pending upon the appropriate methods selected, I will start with quick gestural sketches, crisp illustrator orthographic renderings, 3D modeling, or 3D mock-ups. Sometimes I pick the wrong meth-od at first! Many times I recall situations from past projects to help decide how to shepherd the creative process and ap-proach for a project. That’s what makes the creative process fun and meaningful for me, overcoming new challenges, and problem solving.
How has CSULB made your work pos-
sible? CSULB makes me a better teach-
Five questions with College of the Arts Associate Professor Wesley Woelfel on the life of a professional designer for Greneker in Los Angeles.
What shaped your path in design?
My path as a designer and educator was shaped and paved by all of the mentors I’ve had throughout my career and while still in school. I like variety in what I do. Working as an associate professor and working on professional projects as a part of my creative activity concurrently just about guarantees that every single day will be very different!
What other roles do you work with?
I typically work on thematic and retail oriented projects for clients. The major-ity of the projects I work on are devel-oped in teams with other interdisciplin-ary experts and creatives. I work with sculptors, carpenters, artists, interior designers, production designers, pro-duction managers, etc., to make these ideas happen!
30 QUEST MAGAZINE
LEFT: Wesley Woelfel at his work station.
OPPOSITE: An in progess view of the robot now on display at TFAW comics at Universal Studios CityWalk.
er, designer, and advocate for design. The faculty and staff throughout the College of the Arts, and especially the Department of Design, are supportive, and a source of learning and valuable mentorship for me. My work improves the relevancy of my course content, my students inspire me, and my course content makes me a better designer. At CSULB I am able to balance professional creative activity projects with teaching and service in a synergistic way that benefits all areas.
What’s next? I really can’t predict what the next project will be, and that makes it fun and interesting. It seems like ev-ery project is something new, fresh, and a challenge. The more experience I gain, the better I become and the more re-sources I have, so it’s a good thing to not know sometimes. Currently, I am work-ing with teams and clients on a few the-matic retail oriented projects for a theme park and am wrapping up a fiberglass photo-op project to be showcased at toy stores throughout the United States.
Wesley teaches in the Industrial De-
sign program within the Department of
Design. His research is focused upon
design methodology and sustainability
while his creative activity is typically
exhibit and/or retail oriented design.
269
$83.7M
158
$65.4M
$25.7M
Proposals Submitted
Funds Requested
Proposals Awarded
Funds Awarded
Total Expenditures
32 QUEST MAGAZINE
California State University, Long Beach serves the university community by creating a cam-pus environment that is conducive to promot-ing research and other scholarly activities that contribute to the mission of the university.
With a primary emphasis on faculty-student research engagement, the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs provides leadership, information, direction, resources, training and technical assistance to faculty and stu-dents engaged in externally funded research, instruction, community service and other scholarly activities.
2015Fiscal Year Summary
75%
6%
15%
8%
4%
62% DHHS-NIH 3% OTHER-FEDERAL
18% DEPT OF EDUCATION 2% DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION
8% DHHS - OTHERS 2% DHHS-SAMSHA
4% NSF 1% DEPT OF DEFENSE62%
4%
18% 1%
2% 3%
2%
FY 2015 TOTAL SPONSORED AWARDS BY SOURCE�727$/�$02817������0�
75% FEDERAL 6% INDUSTRY
15% STATE 4% LOCAL
FY 2015FEDERAL AWARDS BY SOURCE�727$/�$02817������0�
QUEST MAGAZINE 33
Off ice of Research & Sponsored Programs (MS-4509)1250 Bellf lower Boulvard Long Beach, CA 90840-0116
More in depth coverage at csulb.edu/questSee exclusive images and videos only available online.
0QPRTQƂV1TICPK\CVKQP7�5��2QUVCIG
2#+&.QPI�$GCEJ��%#2GTOKV�0Q�����