Project Investigators: Tracy Benson
The Engagement Cluster works to increase community interactions grounded in resiliency within both the region and Lamar University, developing the next generation of thought leaders, and connecting area resources to make Southeast Texas more resilient. For example, the Hurricane Preparedness initiative works with Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM), Jefferson County Long Term Recovery Group, and Orange County Disaster Rebuild to ensure citizens are prepared for major weather events.
TBA
Project Investigators: Brielle Frost (Lead PI),Stephan Malick
Dr. Jose Valentino is a four-time Latin Grammy Award winner who is versatile in the realms of jazz, business, communications, recording, and entrepreneurship. Brielle Frost and Stephan Malick will work in collaboration to bring Jose Valentino to Lamar University for a guest artist residency during the 2025 spring semester. This multi-disciplinary initiative will engage students, faculty, and organizations across campus to explore crucial roles of resilient communication, media, business, and the arts in supporting community recovery following mass trauma events.
As an emerging Hispanic serving institution, Lamar University is committed to fostering an environment where students feel represented and included. This artist residency will help reinforce cultural identity by offering students an opportunity to see themselves reflected in an artist while helping them cultivate a resilient mindset.
Artistic musical performances and experiences such as this are important to our culture and society. They sustain us through difficult times and crises and give us an opportunity to come together as a community. Southeast Texas has endured significant trauma from environmental crises and natural disasters, leading to economic and social hardships. In moments of adversity, people seek to be entertained and uplifted, finding resiliency and solace in the shared experience of music.
Project Investigators: Dr. Anna M. Jilla, Dr. Laura Coco, Dr. Yangyang Deng, Dr. Connie Howard, Dr. Peter Z. Hansen, Dr. Carole E. Johnson
Hearing loss is a recognized disability under educational and civil law, affecting nearly 3,000,000 Texans. Timely access to hearing healthcare is crucial for mitigating the insidious effects of untreated hearing loss in children and adults. However, the licensed Texas audiology workforce of 1,000 in Texas is insufficient for meeting Texas’s growing hearing healthcare needs, particularly for vulnerable, low income populations served through state-coordinated Medicaid health plans. Anecdotal reports suggest declining audiologist networks in Texas Medicaid programs, limiting access for beneficiaries who may already face barriers such as cost and transportation.
The present investigation aims to promote resiliency of vulnerable low-income Texans with hearing loss by: (1) characterizing the geographic dispersion of Medicaid-enrolled audiology providers in Texas, considering service regions, rurality, and US-Mexico Border Health Initiative designations, and (2) evaluating the longitudinal participation trends of Medicaid-enrolled audiology providers in Texas. This investigation will explore strategies to enhance resiliency, such as telehealth services and community advocacy for improved healthcare policies. This state-level analysis is essential for informing future health policy, public health interventions, and supporting access to hearing healthcare services among vulnerable low-income populations in Texas with co-occurring hearing disabilities.
Project Investigators: Dr. Stacey Knight and Dr. J. T. Seaman
Background/Significance: During times of crisis or disaster, online courses provide a forum for students to continue in their academic endeavors. Presently, a little over half of all college students take online courses (Digest of Education Statistics, 2023). Online education also provides an opportunity for students who may have challenges with work schedules, family responsibilities, transportation issues, financial constraints, or health concerns that prevent them from attending traditional courses.
Unfortunately, with the increase in online education, students are impacted by issues such as social isolation, anxiety, and feelings of loneliness. Unlike traditional classrooms that provide face-to-face and social interaction, online students may have difficulty feeling they are part of a community and lack connectedness with other online students and faculty. Online students who have mental health concerns and need support may not fully understand that resources are available or where to access the resources (Cody et al., 2024).
Methodology: An exploratory descriptive study will be conducted to describe students’ mental health concerns and knowledge of available resources for those taking 100% online courses. A Principal Investigator (PI) developed survey instrument will be distributed through LU learn courses, email, and a variety of Facebook groups including but not limited to psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner groups and other special interest groups. Participation in the survey is voluntary. Both qualitative and quantitative data, as well as demographic information, will be collected from the survey. All study subject data will be anonymous; therefore, coding of participants will not be necessary. Internet Protocol (IP) addresses will not be stored using the Qualtrics program to protect participants' anonymity.
Student Involvement/Benefit to Students: Undergraduate research assistants will assist in data entry, flyer development, and distribution of survey links and QR codes for survey completion under the supervision of the PIs. Including student research assistants will provide an opportunity to collaborate with faculty in an engaged learning experience while exploring the research process (Knight et al., 2021). Students will also be encouraged to assist in the preparation of a manuscript and opportunities for dissemination after the conclusion of the project.
Expected Follow-up Plans:
The survey will facilitate the dissemination of data concerning students’ mental health needs and their knowledge of resources to administrative bodies and faculty for the development of appropriate resources for online students. Promoting a sense of caring and providing needed resources may help alleviate any feelings of isolation and anxiety while providing an inclusive and supportive online environment (Liu et al., 2022).
Project Investigators: Dr. Raouth R. Kostandy
One of the most vulnerable populations affected by the substance abuse crisis is neonates. Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) is a withdrawal syndrome that occurs due to the abrupt discontinuation of fetal exposure to substances that were used by the mother during pregnancy. Symptoms of NAS begin within the first 36-48 hours after birth and range from feeding difficulty to seizures. One neonate with NAS is born every 24 minutes in the United States. NAS has increased by 82% nationally from 2010 to 2017 and still on the rise due to the continued substance use crisis. This led to higher healthcare costs as many neonates experience withdrawal symptoms severe enough to require neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission and medications to reduce severity of symptoms and prevent seizures.
In addition, all neonates, healthy full-term and pre-term, are exposed to painful procedures within 24 hours after birth as part of their care. Neonates can perceive and respond to pain because by 20 weeks of gestation, they have formed the structural and functional development of cortical and subcortical networks that constitute the brain’s pain connectome. These painful procedures include injections, blood sampling, screening tests, and insertion of intravenous lines. Unmanaged painful experiences have led to short- and long-term negative consequences ranging from irregular vital signs and crying to long term neurological negative effects.
Non-pharmacological interventions use is recommended and considered the first line of management for both NAS and painful procedures. Research has shown the effectiveness of these interventions in managing both conditions. Examples of non-pharmacological interventions are breastfeeding, skin-to-skin contact, sucrose, music, and non-nutritive suckling. However, caregivers are underutilizing non-pharmacological interventions and/or under-documenting their use. Non-pharmacological interventions are mainly provided by nurses, and it is the nurse’s responsibility to provide optimal care for these neonates. Nurses play a special role in the lives of all neonates; they are their first care providers during a critical time at the beginning of these neonates’ lives. Nurses, by providing best care, can ensure a resilient and strong start for these neonates. Nurses also play a key role in educating mothers on the use of non-pharm interventions. Research reports that education and encouragement by the nurse increases the mother’s use of non-pharm interventions.
Thus, this observational mixed method study aims to survey nurses who are working in Labor & Delivery, postpartum, and NICU units to identify their actual use of these interventions in managing NAS and neonatal procedural pain. A secondary aim of this study is to identify barriers of using non-pharmacological intervention on these units. A “dedicated blast” will be sent out to all nurses who are members of a national professional nursing organization and a local Texas hospital with the study survey link. A reminder emails will be sent out twice after the original email (every two weeks) to encourage participation. After three weeks from the final reminder email data collection will end. Quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive and correlational statistics. Qualitative data will be analyzed to identify common themes.
Project Investigators: Dr. Xingya Liu, Dr. Yan Yan,Dr. Lucy Tsado
Children’s cybersecurity awareness has become a rapidly expanding topic due to the increased internet access for children and their heightened exposure to various online risks. For example, cyber-bully, online fraud, racial abuse, pornography, gambling due to the lack of cybersecurity awareness, careless or erroneous operation through parents’ account. This study aims to investigate and increase the cybersecurity awareness for children, teacher, and parents among 14 campuses with early childhood programs in Beaumont Independent School District (BISD), TX. This aim leads to five research questions, including 1) What cybersecurity risks and cybersecurity awareness are encountered in current early childhood education for children? 2) What are the approaches used in raising children cybersecurity awareness for teachers at school? 3) What are the teachers’ professional development program (e.g., training center) for increasing cybersecurity awareness in early childhood education? 4) What are the digital parenting attitudes and cybersecurity awareness of parents? 5) Is there any correlationship of cybersecurity awareness between teachers and children, as well as between parents and their children?
A pilot study will be conducted for children in one local BISD school during May of 2025. This study will implement three intervention sessions to engage Pre-K children of early childhood program, such as 1) Using cybersecurity awareness games/apps, 2) Using cybersecurity awareness comic book, 3) Presenting cybersecurity awareness course project (e.g., presentation, poster).
For data collection and analysis, this mixed-method study will utilize a designed gram/apps, comic book, and course projects during intervention sessions. Meanwhile, a pre-post survey will be provided to children participants before and after interventions as data collection. In relation to teacher participants’ perceptions on cyber security awareness, a designed survey will be provided before all intervention sessions. Using a developed scale of Digital Data Security Awareness Scale (DDSAS) to explore parents participants’ perceptions on cyber security awareness will also be conducted before all intervention sessions. In order to increase cybersecurity awareness for early childhood education and facilitate teachers to be more knowledgeable and qualified to teach cybersecurity awareness, the investigators will establish and organize a professional development program as well as the training center located in Lamar University for early childhood cybersecurity awareness. The investigators will also provide community workshops to parents who are interested in early childhood cybersecurity awareness for reach out purposes. For future research directions, the trained teachers’ readiness and effectiveness of helping early childhood as well as their cybersecurity awareness teaching strategies will be investigated as a longitudinal study.
Project Investigators: Sujing Wang, Lucy Tsado, Raymond Doe.
This non-residential multidisciplinary arts and sciences summer camp aims to provide a unique
and enriching experience for middle school and high school students in the Southeast Texas
region to foster youth resilience. By integrating various fields of arts and sciences, we seek to
expose students to diverse disciplines and foster creativity, critical thinking, and interests in arts
and sciences in a supportive and engaging environment. We plan to host a one-week summer
camp in Summer 2025. The following activities will be included:
This summer camp is designed to inspire and educate middle school and high school students in
various areas of arts and sciences by providing a comprehensive and stimulating learning
experience to foster youth resilience. This program also allows them to engage with potential
students early in their academic journey, showcase university resources and facilities, highlight
academic programs and faculty in COAS, and establish a connection to Lamar University. This
summer program can strategically engage with potential students and may boost university
recruitment efforts.