Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff
Dr. Pedro Peloso co-authored a publication with colleagues from multiple institutions focused on the evolutionary history and biogeography of the largest genus of Treefrogs in the Americas (Dendropsophus). They also assessed the evolution of egg deposition mode (aquatic vs. terrestrial). The paper was published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
Whitcher, C., Orrico, V. G. D., Ron, S., Lyra, M. L., Cassini, C. S., Ferreira, R. B., Nakamura, D. Y. M., Peloso, P., Rada, M. A., Rivera-Correa, M., Sturaro, M. J., Valdujo, P. H., Haddad, C. F. B., Grant, T., Faivovich, J., Lemmon, A., and Lemmon, E. M. "Phylogenetics, Biogeography, and Life History Evolution in the Broadly Distributed Treefrog Genus Dendropsophus (Anura: Hylidae: Hylinae)." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 204 (2025): 108275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2024.108275.
Dr. Sara K. Sterner was recently chosen to serve on the award selection committee for the Children's Literature Assembly Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts. The seven-member national committee reviews texts written for young people in grades K-8, reading 700-1,000 books annually. Each year the committee selects 30 books that best exemplify the criteria established for the Notables Award. The role is a three-year appointment.
Dr. Loren Cannon (Philosophy), was interviewed and quoted in an NPR article entitled Trump's anti-trans effort is an agenda cornerstone with echoes in history by Odette Yousef. The online version of the article was published on February 6th. Additionally, he was interviewed and quoted by French Journalist, Camille Ribot, for her article L’obsession anti-trans de Donald Trump which was published February 19th in the French publication, “La Croix.” Both journalists contacted Dr. Cannon due to his expertise in analyzing the recent politicization of trans persons and the role the current federal administration is taking in targeting this population. Dr. Cannon’s book, “The Politicization of Trans Identity: An Analysis of Backlash, Scapegoating, and Dog-whistling From Obergefell to Bostock,” published in 2022, serves as the basis of his analysis.
Undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Wildlife at Cal Poly Humboldt were recognized at two recent professional conferences for their academic achievements.
The following students earned recognition and award money for "Best posters":
1st: Destiny Saucedo, graduate student; Cameron Piper, graduate student
2nd: Deirdre Replinger, graduate student
3rd: Sierra Olsen, undergraduate student
The Conclave Team won first place in the Quiz Bowl competition. The team included students Patience Brennan, Joseph Meihak, Daniel Meng, and Sam Strich, with Dee Naranjo as an alternate, and supporting crew BreeLynn Butler and Emma Leininger. Graduate student Alex Lewis also supported the team.
Dr. Rick Golightly received grant funding to support years 31 to 35 of a long-term project aimed at restoring and monitoring vulnerable seabird populations along the central California coast. Human use and disturbance at coastal areas where seabirds establish nests and raise their young has prompted a need for nest and human activity monitoring, which this work will address. Findings will inform programs that can minimize or eliminate disturbance, and ultimately conserve seabirds and their nesting colonies.
James F. Woglom, an instructor in the Art Department and School of Education, developed a comics-based chapter with co-author Stephanie Jones "The Jam: Speculative-Mutant Pedagogies, Aesthetic Education Theory, and Becoming Joy with Children in a What If World", that was published in the most recent issues of Teachers College Record.
Dr. Kimberly Vincent-Layton and Dr. Jeffrey White co-authored a publication with their research team colleagues across all three California public higher education systems in a Special Issue on Online Faculty Professional Development focused on The Humanizing Online STEM Academy program that many Humboldt faculty and CTL staff participated in over the last 6 years. This research highlights faculty experiences in the Academy, its role in promoting humanizing and inclusive teaching, and its impact on teaching.
Yu, D., Liu, Y., Shea, Z.M., Vincent-Layton, K., White, J., & Pacansky-Brock, M. (2025) Humanizing college online instruction: The effects of professional development on faculty perceptions and instructional practices. The Internet and Higher Education, 65, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2025.100998
Faculty Geoffrey Ostrove, Communication
Published the article, Theme parks, labor, and the Dark Lord: A political economic critique of the Walt Disney company’s relationship with the City of Anaheim. International Communication Gazette, 87(1), 60-70. Ostrove, G. (2025)
https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/22JATYHNJKMRRJQMRGAD/full
Professor Pascal Biwole co-authored the following recently published original research papers:
- Hygrothermal performance of wood-cement walls across various climate conditions, by Amer Bakkour, Salah-Eddine Ouldboukhitine, Pascal Biwole, and Sofiane Amziane, Materials and Structures, Volume 58 (8), February 2025.
- Multiple 3D particle tracking velocimetry for measuring airflow and pathogen trajectory in large indoor spaces, by Mohammed Umar Musa, Pascal Henry Biwole, and André Labbé, Building and Environment, Volume 271, 1 March 2025
James Floss, who taught Oral Interpretation of Children’s Literature at HSU for 3 decades recently gave a workshop called “Dynamic Read-Alouds for Children” to future K-3 teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, for the 25th Anniversary of the “Escuela Normal Bilinguae e Intercultural de Oaxaca.”
Kathleen Mercury presented "CreAItivity: The Creative Process, AI, and the Place Between," at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Transformative Play in the Human Computer Interaction Institute. The presentation used hands-on tabletop game design experiences to model the struggle for creativity and the impact of AI on the creative process. Kathleen is a teacher and designer of tabletop and games-based learning experiences.
The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival has recognized multiple students for their work in Voices of a Silent Stage, our Fall 2024 original physical theatre production directed by Michael Thomas. Benji Salisbury won a Meritorious Achievement Award for his work as the Stage Manager. Spooky Rocha, Gerrit Rensink, and Stephan Chittenden were all nominated to participate in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship auditions at the upcoming KCACTF Region conference in Arizona.
The Cal Poly Humboldt Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Dan Aldag was recently awarded Second Prize in the Doug Davis Composition and Performance Endowment 2024 Performance Awards for their recording of Doug Davis's composition "B. and Me". In addition, pianist John Gerving was recognized for an Outstanding Performance on the recording. The Jazz Orchestra's performance was recorded and mixed by Piet Dalmolen, Lecturer in Music and the Music Department's Audio Technician.
Kendall Pargot, Master's student in Biology (advisor Karen Kiemnec-Tyburczy) was awarded a conservation grant from the Northern California Herpetological Society to support her thesis research. The funds will be used to purchase cameras to record the nocturnal behavior of salamanders.
Dr. Sara K. Sterner successfully presented at the 2024 National Council of Teachers of English annual conference in Boston, MA, in November. Presentations included an individual paper entitled Preparing Literacy Educators with Heart: Enacting Ginsberg’s Model for Challenging Traditional Classroom Spaces with YA Literature at the Undergraduate Level, a panel session: Finding Hope in the Nudge: Equity-oriented Consciousness Raising in Teacher Preparation Pedagogies and Literacy Practices with Drs. Megan Van Deventer (Weber State) and Laura Lemanski (MCAD), and the co-facilitation of the Children's Literature Assembly Expert Class with Drs. Mary Ann Cappiello (Leslie) and Kathy Short (University of Arizona).
Coauthored and edited a special issue in Molecular Ecology Resources titled: skúkum tílixam: Uniting to Support Indigenous Contributions to Molecular Ecology
The purpose of the JAMES M. FLOSS SCHOLARSHIP FUND is to support students majoring or minoring in Dance, Music, and Theatre Arts or other performing arts, with a focus on Theatre Arts including acting, directing, and storytelling. A $2,000 award will be given annually for a period of five years. Recipients can receive the award only once. Recipients will be selected by the Department of Dance, Music, and Theatre, and awarded by the Financial Aid office. Donations can be made to the fund at https://giving.humboldt.edu/james-m-floss-theatre-arts-fund-0
Dan Barton (Faculty, Wildlife) chaired the scientific program of an international joint conference between the Pacific Seabird Group and the Waterbird Society, held in San José, Costa Rica, in early January 2025. The bilingual meeting featured over 300 scientific presentations on seabird and waterbird biology and conservation by authors from over 40 countries.
Kamila Larripa and collaborator Anca Radulescu had their paper accepted to the Journal of Theoretical Biology. The paper is titled "A Mathematical Model of Microglia Glucose Metabolism and Lactylation with Positive Feedback" and links cellular metabolism with epigenetic modification. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Barbara Clucas received Bureau of Land Management funding to support collaborative research with Texas A&M that will investigate common raven presence in Gunnison sage grouse (GUSG) habitat in Colorado. The GUSG is listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act, and this project seeks to understand what habitat features influence ravens, which are potential GUSG nest predators. Results of this study will inform more efficient and effective management of GUSG and their predators.
Project collaborators include Israel Parker of Texas A&M and Aaron Facka of Wildlands Network and Cal Poly Humboldt Wildlife graduate student Leah Roll.
Professor Alison Holmes (Politics) has passed the Yurok Bar Exam and was sworn into the Yurok Tribal Court Bar by Chief Judge Abby Abinanti in January. She is now Yurok Bar #97.
Published the chapter, Chapter 33: People of Turkish Culture in Handbook for Culturally Competent Care. 2nd ed. 2024. Ed E. Fenkl, L. Purnell, pp. 445-460.
Mathematics Cheyenne Ty, Amanda Case, Emmanuel Mezzulo, Abigail Penland, and Kamila Larripa had their research paper published in the Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics. The paper is called "An Agent-Based Model of Microglia and Neuron Interaction: Implications in Neurodegenerative Disease" and explores the role of a type of immune cell in the brain through modeling.
Todd Larsen, Senior Executive Director for Enterprise Services, recently passed the Certified Auxiliary Services Professional (CASP) exam through the National Association of College Auxiliary Services (NACAS).
The CASP designation is the only benchmark certification that measures the needed competencies of college and university executives who oversee multiple auxiliary services. CASP provides specialized education and exposure to resources that one can’t gain from a degree or professional experience in one-to-few auxiliary service areas. It provides an accelerated track for a high-performing candidate to obtain the cross-functional knowledge that is necessary to perform at an executive level.
Dr. Alison Holmes (PSCI) served as Vice Chair of International Research on the organizing committee of the CSU International Forum (Dec 12-13) at CSU Chico. She has been instrumental in extending the reach of what has been an annual staff event (hosted by the Chancellor's Office) to now include faculty. The goal is to better connect CSU faculty doing international research as well as staff and faculty supporting students going abroad and international students on our campuses. She also presented a paper on the continuing rise of sub-state/international politics particularly in CA and in the aftermath of the US election.
The CASP designation is the only benchmark certification that measures the competencies needed by college and university executives who oversee multiple auxiliary services. NACAS created CASP so universities can responsibly prepare for leadership succession planning, benefit from operational efficiencies, and stay current in auxiliary-related practices that must adapt to emerging technologies and trends. CASP provides specialized education and exposure to resources that one can’t gain from a degree or professional experience in few auxiliary service areas. It provides an accelerated track for a high-performing candidate to obtain the cross-functional knowledge that is necessary to perform at an executive level.
During finals week, the Opera Workshop class took Bear Hug, a children's opera, on tour to Morris Elementary, Winship Middle , Alice Birney Elementary , Redwood Montessori, and Pacific Union Elementary schools. Professor Elisabeth Harrington led students Ash Quintana (Theatre Arts, '24), Dominic Trezza (Biology, '25), Jei Farmer (Chemistry '28), and Savanna River (Environmental Science, '27) and staff pianist Avery Alexander (Music, '20) in performances that were enthusiastically received by the children. One Alice Birney 3rd grader said "I liked the Spanish Brown Bear because he's hyper like me! And he held the spider."
The Lumberjack nabbed three national awards from the Associated Collegiate Press in November. LJ fall editor-in-chief Griffin Mancuso placed second in the nationwide best illustration category. Investigative reporter Brad Butterfield earned an honorable mention as one of the nation's Reporters of the Year. Spring 2024 co-editor Dezmond Remington won a national honorable mention for his column writing.
ACP Individual Awards honor the nation’s best collegiate journalism. There are 53 contests in eight divisions representing the best of the best from Ivy League schools to scrappy state polytechnics in Northern California.
Dr. Ray joined grief scholars and movement leaders Breeshia Wade, Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz, Myrtle Sodhi, Jennifer England and host Viyda Shah on the podcast, Hospicing Leadership. This episode focused on questions such as "How do leaders create a vision for hospicing grief in the midst of crisis?" You can listen here: https://www.yorku.ca/edu/unleading/podcast-episodes/hospicing-leadershi…
Ecological forecasts can be used to predict changes in ecosystems and subsequent impacts on communities. Scientists at the Ecological Forecasting Initiative are working to advance the field through a process that enables them to continually update model predictions with observed data in order to improve our ability to foresee what may happen in the future. Through a recently published paper in Nature Climate Change Dr. Nievita Bueno Watts, in conjunction with researchers at @eco4cast are calling for greater investment in ecological forecasting to mitigate climate change. Learn more by reading the press release or the Nature Climate Change paper.
In December 2024, Noelani Anderson, Alanna Armstrong-Penney, Maryanne Casas-Perez, Justin Crittenden, Maya Davis, Nauselle Gleglaud, Liam Hodgson, Em Madrid, Nicholas Nielsen, Katy Pate, Marisabel Perez Moreno, Alex Votaw, and Desmond West-Hedlund fulfilled the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA) International Tutor Training Program Certification requirements and are now Level I Certified Tutors. Achieving certification means that tutors and writing consultants have met CRLA’s high standards for participation in training, direct peer support, and evaluation in the Learning Center’s tutoring and writing assistance programs. The Learning Center has been a CRLA-certified program since 1999.
Israel de Souza has recently published a co-authored book, Moral and Intellectual Virtues in Practices: Through the Eyes of Scientists and Musicians, and a co-authored piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education, "Institutions Must Do More to Accommodate Those with Long Covid." She also wrote a policy brief for the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, based on previously funded research, entitled "Learning from Rio's Failed Pacification Initiative."
Michelle Newhart and her coauthor, Nicholas Athey published an article, “Cultivating Choice: Determinants of Home Cannabis Growing Among Legal Users in the United States,” that examines factors influencing the decision to grow cannabis at home by cannabis-consuming residents in legal states. Drawing on a survey of recent cannabis users in cannabis-legal states, they explore four potential explanations for home cultivation: legal access, needs-based motivations, resource-based factors, and identity-based reasons. Their analysis reveals that home growers differ significantly from non-growers across multiple dimensions.
Graduate student Caleb Chen was awarded an $25,000 Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) NEXTGEN Fellowship to support his groundbreaking research on changes in cannabis genetics for his MA in Public Sociology.
Dr. Meenal Rana, along with her colleagues from Virginia State University and the University of Nevada, co-authored the article titled, "Transnational Families in the COVID-19 Era: Health and Well-being of South Asian Older Parents with Adult Children Abroad". Using the backdrop of the global pandemic, globalization, and immigration, the paper focused on the health outcomes of older parents in transnational families. The study used autoethnographic data from the three authors to examine the cultural perception of care, sense of familism, care reciprocity, gendering of care, use of technology, and economic factors relevant to health and wellbeing in transnational families.
Drs. Jeff Kane and Pascal Berrill received a $144,000 grant from the USDA Forest Service to support a study that will examine the effectiveness of variable tree thinning and prescribed burn treatments to promote fire and forest resilience in mixed-conifer forests of California. Research has consistently shown thinned tree stands to be more resilient to drought and wildfires, however, much remains to be learned about tree regeneration and growth in landscapes experiencing frequent low-to-moderate severity fires. This work will help to fill information gaps on interrelationships between prescribed fire dynamics, forest structural diversity, fuels, and vegetation response.
Dr. Meenal Rana and Dr. Mona Abo-Zena completed the special issue of Religions, “Focusing on the Elusive: Centering on Religious and Spiritual Influences within Contexts of Child and Young Adulthood Development” in the fall of 2024. The issue includes 11 articles representing a diversity of sociocultural and religious groups representing different countries of residence (e.g., El Salvador, India, Pakistan, USA), immigrant countries of origin (e.g., Nepal), ethnic and racial groups (e.g., Latinx, Asian, white European/Danish), and religious groups (e.g., Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Later Day Saints, Hindu) on topics such as sexual violence, parent-child relationships, death, LGBTQIA+, and mental health.
Dr. Joshua Frye was recently solicited by the executive leadership of the National Communication Association in Washington D.C. to submit a Case Study for the Association's website. Dr. Frye's Case Study provides public education and advocacy for Communication Departments around the United States who are currently facing or may face in the future, threats to the integrity of the public speaking course at institutions of higher learning.
Child Development and Psychology students, three of whom were part of Dr. Rana's Children & Stress class in fall 2023 co-authored a peer-reviewed article, titled, "Building Resilience during Compassion Fatigue: Autoethnographic Accounts of College Students and Faculty in Education Sciences. The student authors are Riley N Nelson, Amanda Johnson Bertucci, Sara Swenson, and Angel Seguine. Utilizing an autoethnographic approach, this study covers a breadth of compassion fatigue, from predisposition to onset and recovery, and considers alternative strategies for coping, including creating meaning from difficult experiences.
Dr. Gabi Kirk has a new peer-reviewed article out in The Journal of Political Ecology. Titled "'A fairly good crop for white men:' The political ecology of agricultural science and settler colonialism between the US and Palestine," it details the connections between the agricultural colonization of California and Zionist agricultural settlement in Mandatory Palestine. This article was the basis of her talk given as part of the Decolonizing Sustainability Speaker Series in the Native American Forum on October 24. It is available free through open access.
Rachel Samet, Conductor of the Cal Poly Humboldt Choirs, has been selected as the 24/25 Music Educator of the Year by the North Coast chapter of the California Music Educators Association. Rachel will receive her award at the All-State Music Educators Conference in January.
Paintings by Assistant Professor Eliseo Casiano are now on view at the Morris Graves Museum Museum of Art in Eureka. The exhibition - How to Draw Fire - will be open until December 15th. The Morris Graves is open Wednesday- Sunday 12:00 pm- 5:00 pm.
Vincent Biondo presented his paper "Baseball Religion in the United States" at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in San Diego on November 23, 2024.
Rose Francia has secured funding to expand on an ongoing, three-year partnership with Blue Lake Rancheria Tribal Education through the Hoopa Pathmakers project. This initiative fosters a college-going culture within schools and between peers by providing direct mentoring and early college experiences. The project has already shown success in helping Hoopa Valley High School (HVHS) students earn early college credits. The new Modern Youth Internship Academies Program will expand direct services and access to paid internships to high school-aged youth in the Humboldt Coast, Del Norte, and the Hoopa Valley, specifically first-generation college-bound students or those from financially under-resourced backgrounds.
The NSF funded ACOSUS project has received another peer reviewed acceptance to present their findings in Phoenix Arizona at the Decision Sciences Institute Annual Conference. This publication includes Kay Vargas, a recent CS graduate now pursuing a PhD at University of California, Santa Cruz and research assistant of Dr. Sherrene Bogle.
The citation is below:
Standfast*, J., Franco*, J., Carabello*, R., Vargas*, K., Wan, Y., Wang, X., Bogle, S., Aggarwal, P., & Rayana, S., (2024) Deciding on a College Transfer: Uncovering Transition Queries and Concerns via Reddit Topic Modeling, DSI Annual Conference November 2024 Status = ACCEPTED
Paintings by Art + Film Lecturer Gina Tuzzi and Assistant Professor Eliseo Casiano are now on view at Lake Tahoe Community College's Haldan Gallery. The exhibition "Troubadours" will be open through December 7th. Go check out these amazing works if you happen to be in the South Lake Tahoe area!
CRGS assistant professor Dr. Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza publishes “Feeling Failure: Appnography and Its Affective Ties to the Ethnographer’s Life" in a special issue of Ethnoscripts. The special issue considers the impact of dating apps beyond dating, moving past the narrow milieu of intimacy to interrogate their impact across other spheres. Atienza reflects on their research among queer Filipino men in Manila and Los Angeles to examine how feelings of failure permeate various aspects of the researcher’s life, influencing writing, thinking, and self-perception, and his study underscores the enduring nature of these emotions. Open Access at https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/ethnoscripts/issue/view/116
Paintings by Assistant Professor Eliseo Casiano are now on view at the Morris Graves Museum Museum of Art in Eureka. Casiano's exhibition "How to Draw Fire" will be on display until December 15th. The Morris Graves is open Wednesday- Sunday 12:00 pm- 5:00 pm.
Two former undergraduate research students, now both in the U. S. Coast Guard, Hanna D. Hobbs and Lowen M. Hobbs, have published a peer-reviewed research article with Professor Emeritus Robert W. Zoellner entitled "The limits of copper oxidation states from density functional theory computations: Fluoro-copper complexes, [CuFn]x+, where n = 1 through 6 and x = 3+ through 5-". The citation is Hanna D. Hobbs, Lowen M. Hobbs, Robert W. Zoellner, Computational and Theoretical Chemistry 2024, 1242, 114942 (12 pages), to be published in December 2024.
Dr. Frye was solicited by the leadership of the National Communication Association in Washington D.C. to provide a case study for the preservation and protection of the foundational course in oral communication in the context of the recent structural and political challenges in California and the CSU for the GE subarea A1 course in the Golden Four statewide requirements. The case study is based on the experience and strategic responses of the Department of Communication at Cal Poly Humboldt and is available on the NCA website as an advocacy resource for disciplinary colleagues across the U.S. facing similar challenges.