2023 Accelerator Cohort
Catherine Brix
Visiting Professor, Hispanic Studies
"The accelerator would provide critical funding for more supplies for the (a)bordando comunidad project. I hope to grow my network of connections to nurture the expansion of the Conmigo Program and strengthen community engagement as a whole."
Haipeng Chen
Assistant Professor, Data Science
Post-accelerator update: "I am now working with Carrie on a grant proposal for the Gates foundation, where we aim to use data science and optimization methods to promote timeliness of vaccines in Kenya.
On another collaboration that was also initiated via the W&M Civic & Community Engagement Workshop, I am now actively working with Lackey clinic where we use data science methods to predict and intervene patients from Lackey with hypertension."
From his proposal: "The goal of my community-engaged work is to advance my AI for social good research, where enhancing justice and equity is a major theme."
Carrie Dolan
Associate Professor, Kinesiology
Post-accelerator update:" I am working with Haipeng on a proposal that expands our community based research in Kenya to include a spatial optimization model for vaccine delivery. We plan to submit to the Gates Foundation (October) as well as to NSF (January).
In addition, I am quite busy learning to conjugate verbs in Catherine’s [fellow cohort member] Spanish class. By having the skill of a new language I can expand my research agenda into central and south America. I’m only on week 4 of class and my ambitions are quite high. Fingers crossed I can keep up with them!"
From her proposal: "I will collaborate with Community Health Partners (CHP) to implement a rapid assessment tool to monitor and improve vaccination coverage within Narok County, Kenya. I want to be part of the accelerator to learn how to better integrate this community-based research into my teaching during the traditional semester."
Alex Joosse
Senior Lecturer, Public Policy
Post-accelerator update: "Thanks to W&M Civic & Community Engagement’s promotion of the cohort, my relationship with Network Peninsula really took off and we are actively engaged in a project right now to use Social Network Analysis to map out the collaboration network between local nonprofits. I am overseeing the project, but three MPP grad students are doing the work as part of their “PRS” project (client facing projects)."
From her proposal: "I would love to have students work all semester long with one nonprofit, even possibly 'embed' in a nonprofit, to better apply course concepts in real time. This requires establishing better relationships with nonprofits that would be a good fit."
Janise Parker
Assistant Professor, School Psychology
Post-accelerator update: "My team facilitated a presentation/orientation for community members at the beginning of the academic year outlining the program, with an expected start day of October 1 for program implementation. I have also added Project Empower (another established School of Education community mentoring program) to my portfolio as a “sister” initiative. As such, I now have 5 GAs, including one doc student; and we are in the process of advertising for a post-doc assistant to help with layered supervision—the extra help is AMAZING!"
From her proposal: "I plan to use these 10 weeks to refine the focus and develop/purchase readily available intervention guides to facilitate a better learning experience for the graduate interventionists. This accelerated experience can help me learn how to develop more focused structure within the SOS program by connecting with other thought partners."
