Latest Achievements

Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff

Submit an Achievement

Humnath Panta, Business

Published an article entitled "Exports and Imports-Led Growth: Evidence from a Small Developing Economy" on Journal of Risk and Financial Management 2022, 15(1), 11.

Panta, Humnath, Mitra L. Devkota, and Dhruba Banjade. 2022. "Exports and Imports-Led Growth: Evidence from a Small Developing Economy" Journal of Risk and Financial Management 15, no. 1: 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm15010011

Ho Yi Wan and Danial Nayeri, Wildlife

Dr. Ho Yi Wan and his MS student, Danial Nayeri, published the article, "Comparison of habitat suitability and connectivity modelling for three carnivores of conservation concern in an Iranian montane landscape" in Landscape Ecology. Other authors of the article include Alireza Mohammadi, Kamran Almasieh, and Mohammad Ali Adibi. This study increases our understanding of the efficacy of protected areas in protecting corridors and connectivity for carnivores in Iran.

The article is available here:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01386-5

Seafha Ramos, Wildlife

Dr. Seafha Ramos, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Biology, hosted in the Wildlife Department, published an article, "Understanding Yurok traditional ecological knowledge and wildlife management" the Journal of Wildlife Management.

The paper can be found at https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.22140.

A media story by The Wildlife Society can be found at: https://wildlife.org/jwm-integrating-yurok-knowledge-and-wildlife-management/?fbclid=IwAR2QwFZq9PPjyE2ZyGI4JlDW7P41_IMw2QhKCLlr-Q1Fgjf

Liza Boyle, Sonja Manor, Bori Mazzag, Mathematics

Dr. Liza Boyle (Environmental Resources Engineering), Sonja Manor and Dr. Bori Mazzag (Mathematics) presented a workshop entitled "Humboldt Solar Panel Projects". The workshop was held on Feb. 1 in the Mathematical Association of America "Curriculum Renewal Across the First Two Years" workshop series. The workshop showcased course materials developed for Math 109 Calculus I and Math 101T Trigonometry that connect mathematical content to solar energy production. Projects explore local data and discuss broader social implications of the use of solar energy and highlight applications of math to local issues.

Kushal Adhikari, Environmental Resources Engineering

Dr. Kushal Adhikari, Faculty and Research Associate-Environmental Resources Engineering, along with four other speakers served as a panelist in Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium 2022.

Dr. Adhikari shared his opinion on how the academic research and knowledge can be transformed and implemented at policy level. Also, he shared his thoughts on how the networking can serve as a platform for knowledge transformation. Attached is the link for the session led by Dr. Adhikari and the group.

https://www.tipconsortium.net/session/knowledge-infrastructure-for-tran…

Kushal Adhikari, Environmental Resources Engineering

Dr. Kushal Adhikari, Faculty and Research Associate-Environmental Resources Engineering, in collaboration with Texas Tech University recently published the article, "Minimizing Errors in the Prediction of Water Levels Using Kriging Technique in Residuals of the Groundwater Model" in Water journal.

The article presents the water community with a new and integrated approach for improved monitoring of groundwater resources. The prediction error was reduced from ~31 m to less than 5 m after the application of integrated approach. This will lead to sustainable use of groundwater resources while also aiding in efficient and effective conjunctive management of surface and groundwater resources.

View the article here: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/3/426

Hunter Harrill, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Dr. Hunter Harrill (Forestry) was recently appointed by the New Zealand Crown Agency of Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) as the first advisor of North American Forestry.

Meenal Rana & Kishan Lara-Cooper, Child Development

Dr. Meenal Rana and Dr. Kishan Lara-Cooper, faculty Child Development, have recently published the article, "Identity, Relationships, and Community as Antidotes for Historic and Race-Based Trauma" in Adversity and Resilience Science.

They will present the article in the Diversity Science Initiative panel, at the Society of Study in Human Development Conference (Feb 7th-8th, 2022). Additionally, they will present two different papers at the Symposium, "Family Cultural Values and Practices: Reflecting on Religious and Spiritual Influences in Sikh, Muslim, and Indigenous Communities".

Yolexiz Camacho and Taylor Jones, two undergraduate students, are co-authors of the symposium.

Tani Sebro, Politics

Tani Sebro recently published the article "Surplus precaritization: Supply chain capitalism and the geoeconomics of hope in Myanmar's borderlands" in the journal Political Geography.

The article draws on multi-sited ethnographic research carried out in Myanmar's borderlands and along the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor and examines how humanitarian aid for displaced ethnic minority populations is supplanted by the widespread exploitation of precarious migrant laborers. The article is co-authored with Mary Mostafanezhad, Elliott Prasse-Freeman, and Roger Norum.

The open-access version is available at this link:
https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0962-6298(21)00221-3

Brandilynn Villarreal, Kimberly Vincent-Layton, Edelmira Reynoso, Kayla Begay, and Kimberly N. White,

Published a recent paper, "Using Professional Development to Increase Faculty Perceptions of Responsibility for Implementing Highly Equitable Classroom Practices" that was selected by the Journal of Faculty Development (JFD) January 2022 issue's Featured Article.

The article can be found at: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/magna/jfd/2022/00000036/00000001/art00002

Zachary Gigone, Andrew Stubblefield, Joseph Wagenbrenner (USFS), Hunter Harrill, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Zachary Gigone (Forestry) gave a presentation entitled "Erosion rates from forest roads affected by the August Complex fire in Northern California," at the Western Region Council on Forest Engineering (WR.COFE) meeting in Lebanon, Oregon on January 13th, 2022. Zach is supervised by Dr. Andrew Stubblefield (Forestry), and co-supervised by Joeseph Wagenbrenner (USFS), and Dr. Hunter Harrill (Forestry), who also served on the WR.COFE Conference Organizing Committee.

Cutcha Risling Baldy, Native American Studies

Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy received a $199,000 grant from the Native American Agriculture Fund to support the Native American Studies Food Sovereignty Lab and Cultural Workspace. The project will build new market opportunities for current and future Native farmers, producers, gardeners and practitioners, implement an internship program, and develop resources for Native farmers and gardeners. The project will establish an Indigenous Food Festival and build an Indigenous Food Guide for California as well as documentary short films. Project collaborators include Dr. Kaitlin Reed (co-director), numerous tribal representatives, and students who are part of the Food Sovereignty Lab Steering Committe

Brandilynn Villarreal, Psychology

Brandilynn Villarreal, Psychology, was featured in an article on “Increasing the Diversity of CSU Faculty” as an alumna of the CSU Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program. This program prepares future faculty to teach the diverse students of the CSU.
https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/news/Pages/increasing-the-diversity…

Katie Koscielak, Sustainability Office

HSU was included as one of five group finalists for AASHE’s newest award category 'Racial Equity and Sustainability Collaborations'. The submission was entitled 'California State University System-wide Climate Justice and Intersectional Sustainability Speaker Series', which was a partnership between sustainability officers across the CSU system to amplify themes of climate justice, environmental racism, & intersectional sustainability.

Read more at:
Meet the finalists press announcement: https://www.aashe.org/news/meet-the-2021-sustainability-award-finalists/

Read detailed description of the project: https://hub.aashe.org/browse/casestudy/24678/California-State-University-S

Josh Meisel, Dominic Corva, Whitney Ogle, Erin Kelly, Kaitlin Reed, Joshua Zender, Tony Silvaggio, Sociology

Josh Meisel and Dominic Corva (CCRP), co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Post-Prohibition Cannabis Research (2022). Authors explore the landscapes of cannabis research under the intersecting conditions of legalization and continued prohibition: "post-prohibition." The writing is organized around five multidisciplinary themes: Governance, Public Health, Markets and Society, Ecology and the Environment, and Culture and Social Change. The book includes five chapters authored by HSU faculty members: Erin Kelly, FOR; Whitney Ogle, KNRS; Katilin Reed, NAS; Tony Silvaggio, SOC; and Joshua Zender, BUS. The HSU library holds both hard copy and unlimited eBook access to the handbook.

Hunter Harrill & Karolyn Fagundes, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Hunter Harrill (Forestry) delivered a one day workshop titled "Understanding Tethered Operations" on January 7th to over 60 local forestry professionals from various agencies. The workshop was hosted by Green Diamond Resource Company and HSU Master's Student Karolyn Fagundes also presented preliminary results from her study of soil disturbance caused by tethered machines on their property.

Stephen Cunha, Geography

Emeritus Professor Stephen Cunha’s: A Narrow Escape from the Tajik Pamir (Geographical Bulletin 62A, Iss. 2), documents surviving attempted murder and gunshot wounds incurred during 1992 geographical fieldwork in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan. Trauma aside, the decade-long project resulted in the Tajik National Park in 1992 (enlarged in 2005) and the Mountains of the Pamir World Heritage Site in 2013. The Postscript presents lessons learned that apply to field work everywhere.

Gregg J. Gold, Psychology

Gregg Gold along with co-authors from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and the UCSF School of Medicine published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) titled “Calling Out Aversive Racism in Academic Medicine.” The NEJM (impact factor 91.245) is “the most widely read, cited, and influential general medical periodical in the world. More than a million people from nearly every country read NEJM in print and online each week.” The online version with a link to a podcast with the corresponding author and the editor of the journal can be found here: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2112913, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2112913.

James F. Woglom, Art + Film

Jim Woglom and his longtime collaborator, Stephanie Jones, have a new comic-based article regarding persistence in creative, justice-oriented teacher preparation during tough times, titled "The Pep Talk: Today We Do The Work" in the Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, available here:
https://b3ca520d-1d69-43db-b4c9-e10c44db287f.filesusr.com/ugd/fc8af1_f0…

Nicole Jean Hill, Art + Film

"Lora Webb Nichols-Encampment, Wyoming"
2021
Edited by Nicole Jean Hill / Texts by Nancy F. Anderson, Nicole Jean Hill / Design Hans Gremmen /

Shortlist Rencontres D’arles Book Awards 2021, Historical Book Award / Time Magazine Book of the Year / Best of 2021 El País / The Guardian best of the Year / Honorable Mention 2020 Favorite Books PhotoEye (Awoiska vd Molen) / Best of 2020 Photobookstore (Emilie Lauriola + Martin Amis) / Best of 2020 Deadbeat Club (Chris McCall) / Best Dutch Book Design / Favorite Book of 2021 PhotoEye (Ed Templeton + Kim Beil) / Best of 2021 Photobookstore (11 nominations) Best of 2021 Deadbeat Club (4 nominations)
https://time.com/6130685/best-photobooks-2021/

Nicole Jean Hill, Art + Film

Nicole Jean Hill's book that she curated and edited made the best 2021 Photography books of 2021 for these three publications:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/22/pandemic-park-life…

https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-photography-books-2021/

https://time.com/6130685/best-photobooks-2021/

Diana Oliver,

Bird house

Dr. Hunter Harrill, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Hunter Harrill (Forestry) was part of an international team of authors who recently published and article "Advances in Cable Yarding: A Review of Recent Developments in Skyline Carriage Technology," in the Journal of Current Forestry Reports.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-021-00150-x

Allison Huysman and Matt Johnson, Wildlife

Former graduate student Allison Huysman and advisor Matt Johnson (wildlife) published a paper in Ecology & Evolution. The paper documents how barn owls responded to wildfires in Napa Valley.
https://wildlife.humboldt.edu/sites/default/files/johnson/pdf/huysman_j…

Emily Ord, Physics & Astronomy

Emily Ord ('21) was presented with the "Best Poster Award" by the American Physical Society (APS) for a presentation given at the 2021 APS Far West Section Meeting that was held in October. Emily presented research work done in collaboration with our partner institution IUPUI that focuses on developing an experiment to measure the Newtonian gravitational constant, G, at the 2ppm level (G is the least well-known fundamental constant of nature).

Loren Collins, Center for Community Based Learning

Loren Collins, Faculty Support Coordinator for the Center for Community Based Learning, successfully earned a credential in Supporting Engaged Faculty Development through Campus Compact's Community Engagement Professional Credentialing Program. He earned this distinction by demonstrating your competency to effectively support and facilitate professional development related to community-engaged learning and research.

Mark Hemphill-Haley, Geology

Mark Hemphill-Haley is a co-author of an article in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics (Morris et al., 2021, Evaluating 9 m of near-surface transpressional displacement during the Mw 7.8 2016 Kaikōura earthquake: re-excavation of a pre-earthquake paleoseismic trench, Kekerengu Fault, New
Zealand). https://doi.org/10.1080/00288306.2021.1954958

Jeff Kane, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Jeff Kane (Forestry and Wildland Resources) received the "Most Outstanding Associate Editor" award for his work with the international journal "Fire Ecology". The award was presented during the 9th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress held last week.

Jeff has served as an Associate Editor for the journal "Fire Ecology" since 2015.

Madeleine Lopez, Sean Lindley, Heather Rickard, and Kelsey Fletterick, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Graduate students Madeleine Lopez, Sean Lindley, and Heather Rickard (Forestry and Wildland Resources) and undergraduate student Kelsey Fletterick (Environmental Science and Management) all presented research at the 9th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress that was held virtually Nov. 30th-Dec. 3rd, 2021.

David Greene and Jeff Kane (Forestry and Wildland Resources) organized and presented their research as part of a special session entitled "Frontiers of post-fire regeneration in a rapidly changing landscape".

Hunter Harrill, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Dr. Hunter Harrill (Forestry) was invited to the USFS Rogue River-Siskiyou Forest Leadership Team meeting, on November 23rd to give a guest presentation entitled "An Introduction to Tethered Harvesting Systems."

Loren Cannon, Philosophy

Dr. Loren Cannon's book, "The Politicization of Trans Identity: An Analysis of Backlash, Scapegoating, and Dog-Whistling from Obergefell to Bostock," will soon be available from Rowman and Littlefield Press.

From a reviewer, "Cannon’s writing is lucid, passionate, and politically grounded. And the book is a glowing example of engaged philosophy at its finest."

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793623812/The-Politicization-of-Trans-Ident…

AmyK Conley, Education

Dr. AmyK Conley published "Imagining the Future of California Literacy Instruction " in the September issue of California English.

Sara K Sterner, Education

Sara K. Sterner (Education) was recently elected to serve a three-year term on the Children's Literature Assembly Board. The Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) of the National Council of Teachers of English is a professional community of children’s literature enthusiasts who advocate the centrality of literature in children’s academic and personal lives.

Brian Buchanan and Jo Archibald, Environmental Resources Engineering

ERE lecturers Dr. Brian Buchanan and Dr. Jo Archibald, along with colleagues working in the New York Hudson River watershed, published a paper on using machine learning to identify stream barriers.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479721020144

Chris Aberson, Psychology

Chris Aberson, along with Academic Research M.A. graduates Latisha Jett-Dias and James Clifton recently published a paper titled Contact, Threat, and Attitudes toward Same-sex Marriage and its Beneficiaries in the Journal of GLBT Family Studies. The work addresses how well Intergroup Contact Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory, two theories primarily based in race and ethnicity, predict attitudes toward Gay and Lesbian people. A preprint of the paper can be found here https://osf.io/ygrkq/

Brooks Estes, Matt Johnson, Wildlife

Former Environment & Community Master's student Brooks Estes and her advisor Dr. Matt Johnson (Wildlife) recently published a paper in the journal California Fish and Wildlife about winegrape growers' environmental values. URL: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=195584&inline

Mindy Fattig, Education

https://hcoe.org/2021/11/selpa-administrator-accepts-statewide-position/

Current HSU Faculty Mindy Fattig and HSU Alumni ( previous name- Melinda DeSchryver Class of ‘95).

Zachary Erickson, Kevin Boston, Pascal Berrill, Mike Dockry (UMN), Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Forestry MS student Zack Erickson gave an oral presentation at the prestigeous National Conference for the Society of American Foresters, entitled "Integrating Ways of Knowing: Utilizing Tribal Management Perspective to Guide Modern Silvicultural Methods in Cooperative Forest Management." His thesis committee co-authored the talk: HSU faculty Prof. Pascal Berrill, Dr. Kevin Boston, and UMN professor of Tribal and Indigenous Natural Resource Management Dr. Michael Dockry.

Dr. Hunter Harrill, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Dr. Hunter Harrill was the moderator of a panel session entitled "What We Will Be Building With In The Future," at the 112th Annual Pacific Logging Congress, held in Indian Wells, CA from November 8-10th, 2021.

Sara Jaye Hart, Religious Studies

Dr. Hart's new article "This Veterans Day, the Centennial of the Unknown Soldier, Skip the Platitudes and Talk to a Veteran," is the lead story this week on Religion Dispatches: .

Mark Henderson / Andre Buchheister, Fisheries Biology

Dr. Mark Henderson and Dr. Andre Buchheister received a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to support research into deep-sea corals and sponges (DSCS). The project will compare species distribution models for DSCS that are associated with commercially important fishes, and assess suitable DSCS habitat inside and outside protected waters in southern California. Results will provide information on where DSCS may be occurring, and may point to areas that are important to fisheries and the greater ecosystem due to the known connection between DSCS and commercial fish.

Former graduate student Nissa Kreidler will be a project collaborator.

Pascal Berrill, Christa Dagley, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Dr. J-Pascal Berrill and Dr. Christa Dagley have received a $227,000 grant from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, CAL FIRE to support Phase I of a collaborative “pyrosilviculture” research project between HSU, UC Berkeley, and UC Cooperative Extension. The prescribed burning fuels reduction project on Jackson Demonstration State Forest will demonstrate and compare various approaches designed to help timberland owners be proactive in reducing potential impact (severity) of future wildfires. HSU undergraduate and graduate students working on this large-scale wildfire risk mitigation project will collaborate with forestry and fire management practitioners, researchers,

Taylor Team, Susan Cashman, Melanie Michalak, Geology

Taylor Team (MS student, Geology), Melanie Michalak (Geology) and Susan Cashman (Geology) co-authored a conference presentation at the annual Geological Society of America meeting held in Portland, OR, entitled, Neogene-Quaternary faulting in the Klamath Mountains Province, California and Oregon: evidence from geology and thermochronology. Their work addresses newly identified or constrained crustal faults in the Klamath Mountains.

Samuel Bold, Geology

Samuel Bold (MS student, Geology) was selected for a prestigious $4,000 American Federation of Mineralogical Society scholarship from the California Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies. Sam's MS thesis work uses geochronological methods to date timing of uplift and faulting along the Van Duzen River.

Tyler Ladinsky, Harvey Kelsey, Melanie Michalak, Geology

Tyler Ladinsky (Geology M.S. '12), Harvey Kelsey (Geology) and Melanie Michalak (Geology) published their Final Technical Report in collaboration with USGS scientists, from their paleoseismic studies on the Little Salmon and Goose Lake faults near Hydesville, CA, funded by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. The report is entitled, In Southern Cascadia, do upper plate faults rupture in concert with subduction zone earthquakes: a paleoseismic investigation of the Little Salmon fault zone. The work helps to quantify earthquake hazards in northern California. The full report is available at this link: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/cfusion/external_grants/reports/G19AP00046.pdf

Lonny Grafman, Environmental Resources Engineering

Lonny Grafman co-authored a new book with Dr. Joshua Pearce on how communities come together to harness the power of the sun and how other people can do it as well.

Thanks to a partnership with Humboldt State Press and the Appropedia Foundation with the backing of a very successful Kickstarter campaign, this book is available free to all that need it.

Interested in renewable energy, solar power, photovoltaics, community-based projects, DIY, or preparing for a zombie apocalypse (or Public Safety Power Shutoffs)? You can find out more and get your copy at https://www.tocatchthesun.com

Dan Barton, Wildlife

A new cooperative grant from the Bureau of Land Management to HSU will support graduate students working with Wildlife faculty member Dan Barton to study conservation of seabirds and the Trinidad Seabird Protection Network around Trinidad Head and Sue-Meg over the next three years.

Dan Barton, Wildlife

Working with colleagues from four other institutions around the country, Wildlife faculty member Dan Barton co-organized and facilitated a workshop "Active Learning in the Wildlife Classroom: Engaging students beyond the field" with 30 participants at the annual meeting of The Wildlife Society in early November 2021.

Nievita Bueno Watts, INRSEP+ Diversity in STEM

INRSEP+ was recognized at the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) 20 years + recognition ceremony for continued excellence in mentoring. INRSEP was originally honored in the PAESMEM class of 2000.

A recording of the event can be seen here: https://paemst.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6880153236f96abb2f9e1d566&id=62477548be&e=5bd7670971

INRSEP is at 36.38.

Janelle Chojnacki, Wildlife

Wildlife graduate student Janelle Chojnacki has received a grant from The Nuttall Ornithological Club to fund her research into the foraging behavior of common ravens, and their predator impact on the western snowy plover, a federally threatened bird. The project aims to address the causal factors related to increased raven abundance and proximity to plover nesting areas to provide conservation practitioners with useful information for identifying key areas to focus mitigation efforts. Results will be applicable to other prey species throughout ravens’ range in North America.

Chojnacki received the award working in collaboration with her graduate advisor, Dr. Barbara Clucas.