College of Science and Mathematics

College of Education and Human Services

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

College of the Arts

Center for Community Engagement

Research Academy for University Learning

Health Promotion

Provost’s 2016 Grant Recognition Award

‌Meiyin Wu, Director of the Passaic River Institute, was recognized by the Provost for her consistent efforts in seeking and receiving sustained funding, since her appointment in 2009, from many public and private sources. Examples include: the National Science Foundation, Department of the Interior, NJ Department of Environmental Protection, National Park Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Lake Hopatcong Foundation, and the Victoria Foundation, totaling more than $1.5M over 7 years. In addition to her own grant and research productivity, Dr. Wu advises and mentors junior faculty in their grant seeking activities, and advises students, advancing their research and efforts in applying for grants. Meiyin is always willing to collaborate with others, promoting the reputation of MSU’s research.

Largest New One-Year Grant Awardees

Robert Cart (Director of the John J. Cali School of Music, CART) received recognition for his $40,000 award from the Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation, in support of the “Graduate String Quartet.” The quartet members, mentored by the Shanghai Quartet, are the lead recruiting agents for the Cali School, providing a mobile ensemble exemplifying the School’s excellent quality to draw the highest-caliber players from major performing arts high schools and ensembles in the tri-state area. The Julius Quartet joined the graduate program for the 2015-16 academic year and represented the Cali School at Carnegie Hall with a performance of works by Mendelssohn, Bartók, and Beethoven.‌‌

Zoe Burkholder (Educational Foundations, CEHS) was recognized for her $50,000 award from the Spencer Foundation. Her grant, “An African American Dilemma: The Problem of School Integration and Civil Rights in the North,” will support the research and writing of an upcoming book–a social history of northern black debates over school integration.

Fran Prezant (Communication Sciences and Disorders, CHSS) received recognition for her $20,000 award from the Kessler Foundation, for her grant supporting the “Montclair ReelAbilities Film Festival.” The NJ ReelAbilities Film Festival is dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with disabilities. The festival provides opportunities to access film media focusing on, or merely including people with disabilities as part of the landscape of humanity while challenging stereotypic notions about disability and providing forums for post-film discussions with filmmakers, actors, and others.

David Talaga (Chemistry and Biochemistry, CSAM) (not pictured) was recognized for his $283,164 award from the National Institutes of Health, for his grant titled, “Interfacially activated aggregation of alpha-synuclein,” which will investigate the progression of Parkinson’s Disease in order to evaluate drugs, promotors, or genetic causes of Parkinson’s Disease. His Dean, Dr. Robert Prezant, accepted the award on Dr. Talaga’s behalf.

Steven Shapiro (Library Services) and Sandra Passchier (Earth and Environmental Studies, CSAM) were recognized for their $20,000 award from the N.J. Council for the Humanities for “Rising Tide: What We Can Learn From the Dutch and their Relationship with Water,” which consisted of a series of lectures, film screenings and discussions exploring the Dutch, their uneasy relationship with water, and what New Jersey can learn in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. It also addressed related themes such as the Dutch Republic and its legacy in New Jersey and New York, and the history of human understanding regarding the sea and natural disasters from a local and global perspective.

Largest New Multi-Year Grant Awardees

Jennifer Urban and Miriam Linver (Family and Child Studies, CEHS) were recognized for their $1,796,560 award from the John Templeton Foundation for “Inspiring Youth Purpose through Reflection on the Laws of Life: Improving, Implementing, Evaluating & Researching the Inspire>Aspire Poster Program.” The program seeks to help youth identify and reflect on positive values and transform these into meaningful sustained actions that hold promise for helping youth thrive in today’s world.

Christopher Matthews and Katherine McCaffrey (Anthropology, CHSS) received recognition for their $26,096 subaward from ValleyArts for the ArtPlace America-funded “Unearthing the Future: the Art of Reverse Archaeology – Interstate 280 in Orange, NJ.” The project will uncover lost knowledge about the City of Orange, and the City of Orange and ValleyArts will link that knowledge to a new counter-narrative for Orange through a series of arts interventions.

Jorge Lorenzo Trueba (Earth and Environmental Studies, CSAM) was recognized for his $365,594 subaward from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The National Science Foundation-funded project “Coastal Processes and Human Response to Shoreline Change” will investigate the interactions between the natural processes that sculpt the shore with human measures adopted locally in response to shoreline change. NJ and Massachusetts are test cases.

����vlog’s Third Annual Grant Recognition Reception. Nearly one hundred University faculty and staff were in attendance, joined by the Deans of each College, Provost Willard Gingerich, and Vice President for University Advancement Jack Shannon. The event spotlighted the efforts of Montclair State’s faculty and staff in securing external sponsorship for their research and other service and scholarly programs in 2014.

The event, jointly organized by ORSP and University Advancement and in its third year, was held in the Periodicals Reading Room of the Harry A. Sprague Library. Representatives from across the University were on-hand to recognize a strong year of grants and gifts: over 95 awards were received, totaling more than $9.7 million.

Grant Recognition Awards

The Provost’s 2015 Grant Recognition Award went to Bryan Murdock, Director of the Center for Community Engagement, in recognition of his success in securing nearly $1.7 million in ongoing funding since 2012, including a recent $2.5 million, five-year U.S. Department of Education award. The Provost also commended Bryan for his efforts in leading ����vlog’s application and selection as a Community Engaged Campus by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He was joined by CCE staff and Dr. Frederick Bonato, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs.

‌Dennis Bone (Director, Mimi & Edwin Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship) received recognition for the project “Pitch Competition,” which was awarded $120,000 by the TeleBrands Corporation. He was joined by Kimberly Hollister, Acting Dean of the School of Business.

Julian Brash (Anthropology, CHSS) was recognized for “Research at Undergraduate Institutions: The High Line: Public Space in the Contemporary City,” which has been funded by the National Science Foundation for two years for a total of $250,000. He was joined by Luis Montesinos, Acting Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

‌Jason Dickinson (Director, Robert D. McCormick Center for Child Advocacy and Policy) was recognized for a $700,000 subaward from Rutgers University in support of the “NJ Child Welfare Training Partnership 2014-2015,” sponsored by the NJ Department of Children and Families. Dr. Dickinson accepted his award along with staff members Gloria Rodriguez and Adrienne Millican. They were joined by Luis Montesinos, Acting Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Deborah Galant and Ju-Don Marshall Roberts (School of Communication and Media, CART) received recognition for their $125,000 award from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Inc., in support of the “New Jersey Commons 2014.” Their award was accepted on their behalf by Joe Amditis, Coordinator of the Center for Cooperative Media.

Jennifer Robinson (Director, Center of Pedagogy) and Susan Wrey (Early Childhood, Elementary Education, and Literacy Education, CEHS) were recognized for “Newark Montclair Urban Teacher Residency,” which was awarded $937,381 by the U.S. Department of Education, and is expected to total $6.2 million over the next five years. They are joined by Tamara Lucas, Acting Dean of the College of Education and Human Services.

David Rotella and John Siekierka (Chemistry & Biochemistry, CSAM) were recognized for “Development of Medical Countermeasures for Botulinum Neurotoxin Intoxication Focused on Therapeutics and Neuroregenerative Medicines,” which was awarded Year 1 funding of $423,000 of a five-year, $2.5 million contract from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Robert Prezant, Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, accepted Dr. Rotella’s award on his behalf.

Grant Recognition Awards

Gerard Costa (Director, Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health, CEHS) received the Provost’s Grant Recognition award for “Sustained External Sponsorship in Support of Research, Scholarship and Service Activities” at ����vlog.  Since 2012, Dr. Costa has received over $2.2M from the New Jersey Governor’s Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism, in carrying out the Center’s state designated New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) Coordinating Center, overseeing several clinical research sites in the state of New Jersey.  In addition, in 2013, Dr. Costa and CAECMH also received Year 1 funding of $360,000 from the New Jersey Department of Children and Families for a two-year project entitled “Promoting Early Childhood Mental Health in Counties Affected by Superstorm Sandy.”

On behalf of the late Dr. Robert McCormick (Robert D. McCormick Center for Child Advocacy, CHSS), Hunter Jones (Library Public Services, Harry A. Sprague Library) accepted a Special Grant Recognition for “Sustained External Sponsorship in Support of Research, Scholarship and Service Activities” at ����vlog. Since 2003, Dr. McCormick and the Center have received over $11.3M from several state and local agencies and entities.  Joining Provost Gingerich and Vice-President Shannon is Associate Dean of CHSS, Luis Montesinos.

Sandra Adams (Biology and Molecular Biology, CSAM) and Douglas Larkin (Secondary and Special Education, CEHS) were recognized for their $1.44M project “����vlog Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program,” awarded by the National Science Foundation. They were joined by Dean Robert Prezant (CSAM) and Associate Dean Tamara Lucas (CEHS).

Anna Feldman (Linguistics, CHSS) and Jing Peng (not pictured, Computer Science, CSAM) were recognized for their $177,000 National Science Foundation award “Research at Undergraduate Institutions: Automatic Idiom Recognition.” They were accompanied by Dean Robert Prezant (CSAM) and Associate Dean Luis Montesinos.

Jennifer Robison (not pictured, Center of Pedagogy, CEHS) was recognized for her project “Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Competition. Year 5 funding of $860,289 was awarded by the U.S. Department of Education. The award was accepted on behalf of Dr. Robinson by Joanne Matkowski, Assistant Director of Grants Administration and Special Projects, Center of Pedagogy (CEHS), and was joined by Associate Dean Tamara Lucas (CEHS).

Jedediah Wheeler (Executive Director, Arts and Cultural Programming, CART) was recognized for his $450,000 project “Dance for Film on Location at ����vlog,” awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Dean Daniel Gurskis (CART) was on-hand to celebrate this achievement.

Bryan Murdock (Director, Service-Learning and Community Engagement, Academic Affairs) was recognized for a $260,347 award entitled “EECO AmeriCorps Program,” awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service.