Dean’s Message – Fall 2023

Dean Audrey ShillingtonThe core of our mission here at the College of Health and Human Sciences is addressing health equity and critical social issues. You will see in the following articles the outstanding efforts being made by our faculty, students, staff.

The deep commitment of CHHS to this mission is evidenced by partnerships with our community agencies and industry. These partnerships focus on knowledge creation, new technologies, and student clinical and practice work that contribute to the health and well-being of vulnerable populations. Such social issues include food insecurity, addictions, patient-centered interprofessional care, underinsured, and other health and mental health disparities.

You will also read about our faculty and students being recognized for their innovation and leadership by their professional organizations as well as competitive local and federal grant funders.

I am excited to share all these efforts with you. I know you will see by these highlights that our faculty, students, and staff are making incredible contributions and changing the world.

Sincerely,

Audrey M. Shillington
Dean
College of Health and Human Sciences

Celebrating Kinesiology Faculty Achievements in 2023

  • On August 2023, Martin Bilello (Handball Instructor) served as the Head Coach of the USA Team Handball Youth (U19) Men’s National Team that competed at the IHF Youth World Championships in Croatia. This was the first time a USA team competed at this age category. Four Bay Area players were on the roster, and the team got the first win ever in this age category.
  • Dr. Seung Ho Chang has been elected as an editor for “Research into Practice” in the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (JOPERD).
  • Dr. Seung Ho Chang was invited to a special session as an invited speaker to deliver a presentation entitled “The Role of Motor Development in Sports Psychology” for graduate students majoring in motor behavior and sports psychology at Seoul National University.
  • Dr. Michael Dao was named the new Director of the San José State University Human Rights Institute. As the director, he will focus on health and healthcare as human rights in the future.
  • Dr. Li Jin received the University Grants Academy Summer 2023 Award for a project entitled “Optimization of Footwear Design on Improving Running Gait Biomechanics among Recreational Runners.”
  • Dr. Jihyun Lee’s article, “Parental Support and Concerns About Physical Activities of Their Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder During COVID-19,” published in Recreation, Dance and Physical Education Volume 6, Issue 2, received the Best Research Award for 2022. This news was announced this fall semester.

Celebrating Achievements of the Occupational Therapy Faculty and Students in 2023

The Occupational Therapy Department has a lot to be proud of in 2023. The following are a list of faculty achievements:

  • Dr. Deborah Bolding published an article entitled “An exploratory survey of incivility experienced by novice occupational therapists educated using a servant leadership model” in the Journal of Occupational Therapy Education.
  • Dr. Chiao-Ju Fang received the 2023 SJSU RSCA Seed Grant Program Award and was also awarded the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) 2- year implementation grant on her research project entitled “Implementation of App-Based Coaching Intervention (Social Participation and Navigation; SPAN) to Promote Participation of Young adults with autism spectrum disorders ASD).”
  • Dr. Lynne Andonian is now a Fulbright Specialist and was recently appointed to the California Board of Occupational Therapy (CBOT) Practice Committee.
  • Dr. Megan Chang and Dr. Katrina Long were invited guests by the AOTF at their 61st Annual Corporate Meeting in San Francisco where they took part in reviewing the status of the 2023-2025 strategic plan, presented committee reports and voted on the AOTF Slate of Elections. In addition, Dr. Long’s proposal for the AOTA INSPIRE 2024 conference in Orlando, FL, was accepted as a poster with the topic entitled “Design and baseline characteristics of PreActive-PD telehealth coaching to increase physical activity in early-stage Parkinson’s Disease.”
  • Dr. Cesar Arada is the newly elected OTAC Region 3 Director-Elect. He was also reappointed to serve a second term as National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) Ambassador for California.
  • Dr. Hiral Katri presented at the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy’s Global Initiative Group, where she shared her experiences as an OT working in India.
  • Dr. Luis Arabit was the recipient of the 2023 Luella Grangaard Political Action Award from the OTAC at their annual conference in Pasadena. In addition, his podium proposal to speak at the AOTA INSPIRE 2024 in Orlando, FL was accepted with the topic entitled “AOTPAC and AOTPAC Ambassadors: Partners in Advocacy for the Future of Occupational Therapy.”

Skyler Trezona has been awarded the Evelyn Jaffe Scholarship from CFOT.

Kiana Shibata has been awarded the Lisa Test Endowed Scholarship from CFOT.

Dr. Courtney Boitano has been awarded the Lisa Test Endowed Research Award combined with the CFOT Research Grant Award.

Ciara Stewart has been awarded the Wilma West Scholarship from CFOT.

Spotlight on Audiology Faculty Research

Dr. Anusha Yellamsetty’s recent focus addresses a critical concern: tinnitus resulting from COVID-19. Collaborating across the country, she aims to unravel the prevalence of COVID-19-induced tinnitus and its impact on speech perception. Dr. Yellamsetty is also actively involved in empowering accessibility through assistive listening device technology and the development of reliable self-fitting hearing aids. Aligned with the recent Over the Counter (OTC) Act, which aims to expand accessibility and enable users to achieve clinical-standard fitting from the comfort of their homes, Dr. Yellamsetty has successfully secured two grants through industrial collaborations. These include one from Whisper.ai ($31,426) and another from Concha Labs ($16,158). This grants supported three graduate assistants.

Dr. Adam Svec is currently exploring psychoacoustics, particularly delving into the intriguing phenomenon of forward masking. His research aims to unravel the mysteries surrounding auditory perception and the impacts of age and hearing loss on an individual’s ability to recover from a noisy background over time. Dr. Svec has successfully secured a grant from the Hearing Industry Research Consortium for the project titled “Assessing the Role of Envelope Fluctuations on Communication Difficulties for Individuals with Minimal Hearing Loss,” with a grant amount of $150,000, which supports a graduate assistant and an ongoing collaboration with the lab of Dr. Marc Brennan at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

We commend Dr. Anusha Yellamsetty, Dr. Adam Svec, and their teams for their tireless dedication to advancing audiology research and education. Their contributions are shaping the future of audiology and hearing health.

For more information or to get involved in our research initiatives, please visit our website (sjsu.edu/aud) or contact our program office (408.924.1754).

Public Health Faculty Awarded a NIH Grant

Dr. Chulwoo ‘Charles’ Park has been awarded the National Institutes of Health (NIH) SuRE-First Award (R16) for a 4-year research period from August 2023 to June 2027. In his research, the population is on Asian/Asian American immigrant young adults learn multiple languages, being exposed to English as an additional language (L2) in the United States after mainly using a first language (L1) from their country of origin. The study population is also multilingual 1.5 generation Asian/Asian American immigrant young adults aged 18-25 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this grant, Dr. Park is investigating the impact of learning an additional language, namely, the dominant language of the community, on the mental health and psychological well-being of Asian/Asian American immigrant young adults. The study also explores its influence on their sense of acceptance, inclusion, and ethnic identity in the United States. This study will provide suggestions to address the structural drivers of mental health disparities among immigrant populations, such as results of the experience of racism, discrimination, and anti-Asian hate crime, which are linked to individual’s own multilingual language identity and skills.