Faculty Research Interests

My research interests include organizational context issues, trauma, field supervision, and issues of deviance and stigma in mental health.

Can we predict to what extent consumers sanction brands for their transgressions? There are many factors that mediate the consumer-brand relationship before, during, and after a brand's transgression. A brand transgression is defined as a violation of consumer-brand relationship norms. This breach of trust can have serious implications for a brand.

In my research, I examine the effect of variables such as brand personality, product category, ethnocentrism, and brand-country associations on consumer response to a brand transgression. I also conduct research on automatic consumer behavior. I use implicit and indirect consumer attitude instruments to measure attitudes outside of conscious awareness. In this secondary research area, I examine the automatic components of brand relationship, brand identification, cultural identity, and consumer decision making.

• Juvenile justice
• Gangs
• Youth violence
• Gender & crime
• Technology-facilitated violence & victimization

My research interests are in radio-frequency (RF) systems for communications and sensing.  I'm also interested in the physical principles underlying the design of these systems.

I primarily research and write about retirement and pension planning topics. I have over 100 published articles. An article I authored on calculating retirement needs helped to change how people determine the amount they need to retire.

• Sustainable infrastructure materials
• Beneficial reuse of industrial byproducts and wastes
• Geotechnical engineering
• Pavement design and analysis
• Instrumentation and monitoring of infrastructure

• Building confidence in struggling math students 
• Confidence supports learning in underserved populations

My research interests include fiction writing and narrative theory. In addition, I hear the cases of juvenile offenders in Chester, and I taught one class a day at Chester High School for the school year. I am concerned about the school-to-prison pipeline, juvenile sentencing practices, and mass incarceration.

My overarching research interest concerns the nature of comprehension in general, which underlies my interests in reading comprehension and developmental psycholinguistics. My teaching duties continually push me to study current literature in educational psychology, research methods, and statistics. Misunderstanding and misuse of brain research in educational settings has led me to study brain research that is enhancing our understanding of language and reading difficulties so that my students will develop a higher level of sophistication with that literature.

My research interests include control, nonlinear systems, state estimation, system modeling, electric power systems, and microgrid power systems. I am particularly interested in the control applications in microgrid power systems, including power system modeling, power quality control, fault analysis, power data analysis, and power consumption evaluation and prediction.

My main research interests include bioheat transfer, biofluid mechanics and thermal energy storage systems.

My research interests focus on decolonial and indigenous knowledges and practices, and sexualities through languages.  

I am trained in comparative literature and specialize in Argentine cinema produced since the late 1990s. I am particularly interested in representations of social justice, gender issues, sustainability, and the environmental humanities. I have also published pieces related to global education. I organize transdisciplinary symposia in Latin America that bring together faculty from a variety of fields to make connections with one another and work around themes of sustainability.

My area of expertise is in environmental analysis and instrumentation used for chemical analysis. As a result, my research projects cover a wide range of applications. Most recently I have focused on applications of mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy - two techniques for detecting and identifying chemicals. I am also actively engaged in the scholarship of teaching - focusing on new teaching strategies and the development of more effective ways to engage students in learning.

My research interests are eclectic and include investigation of microclimates and tree phenology in the Peruvian Amazon and the influence of environmental pollutants on aquatic organisms. I am also interested in understanding the physiology and behavior of Diamondback terrapins in order to contribute to their conservation in the salt marshes of New Jersey. I am collaborating with colleagues at Widener, The Wetlands Institute in NJ, and the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina

My research interests are literature of the Middle Ages, particularly Arthurian Literature, 19th-century writers, and the correlation between literature and popular fiction and film.

My current research interests spread across the disparate fields of bureaucratic politics and political engagement. My work on bureaucratic politics focuses on examining the extent of political influence on the regulatory scope and enforcement outputs of federal and state-level regulatory agencies.

My work on political engagement focuses on isolating key factors for promoting political engagement among young citizens without simultaneously triggering partisan polarization and uncivil discourse.

My research interests include practice evaluation, integrated care and the treatment of trauma, and social work and chronic health care.

Engineering and Technology Management 

My research interests includes two major areas. The first one is the development and validation of measurement instruments, including student assessments and survey instruments. My work in this area has been published in the most respected scholarly journals and presented at national and international conferences. 

The second area is applications of research methodology into broader areas in educational practices, such as design and scoring mathematics performance assessment, developing and validating social and emotional learning survey instrument, assessing non-cognitive skills, and evaluating educational curricula and instructional programs. My work in this area is reflected in my numerous refereed publications and presentations at national and international organizations, scholarly collaboration with other faculty members within and outside of Widener, and doctoral students. 

The highlights of my research are: (1) a prestigious research grant (Co-PI with professors from the University of Delaware and Marquette University, $1.5 million) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2010-2015; (2) a research grant funded by the Lindback Foundation, and (3) my leadership role and long-term research activities in the development of the Widener Emotional Learning Survey and in the promotion of student social and emotional learning. I have also been invited to serve as a psychometric/statistical consultant for a number of national and international research projects.