TCP AFFILIATES
TCP Affiliates are UC College of Arts & Sciences faculty and graduate students who are meaningfully engaged with the core mission of The Cincinnati Project through community-based research, the annual symposium, or training for collaboration. Affiliates are partners in TCP’s mission to conduct research that promotes equity and directly benefits marginalized communities in Cincinnati.
Shaonta' Allen, Sociology
Shaonta’ Allen is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. She received her B.A. in Sociology and American Ethnic Studies from the University of Washington in 2009 and her M.A. in Sociology and a Graduate Certificate in Women & Gender Studies from Middle Tennessee State University in 2013. Shay's research examines perceptions and responses to racial inequality. She draws on a variety of sub-disciplines such as racial & ethnic relations, religion, collective behavior & social movements, gender, education, pop-culture, and sport to examine how Black resistance to racial inequality varies across social and institutional contexts. She has been named a University of Cincinnati Graduate Excellence Scholar and Albert C. Yates Fellow and has also been awarded the Southern Regional Education Board Doctoral Scholar Fellowship and the African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Research Fellowship.
Brandi Blessett, Public Administration
Brandi Blessett is an associate professor and Director of the Masters of Public Administration program at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Blessett’s research focuses on administrative responsibility, disenfranchisement, and social equity. Her research interests offer insight into the effects of institutional injustice and their implications for underrepresented communities. Much of her recent work acknowledges the disproportionate effects the criminal legal system has on people and communities of color. Dr. Blessett’s research agenda advocates for ethical practices, professional standards, and accountability measures to promote equity, justice, and fairness to all factions of U.S. society.
Jeffrey Layne Blevins, Journalism
Dr. Jeffrey Layne Blevins is an associate professor and Head of the Journalism Department at UC, where he also hold affiliate appointments in the Department of Political Science and Department of Communication. His research examines the political economy of media industries, and was supported by a TCP Fellowship in 2016-17. Dr. Blevins previously served as a federal grant reviewer for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The $4.7 billion dollar grant program targeted "unserved and underserved areas of the U.S., such as rural and minority communities.
Brian Calfano, Political Science
Brian Robert Calfano (Ph.D., University of North Texas) has a joint appointment in the Departments of Political Science and Journalism at UC, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in experimental design, research methods, political reporting, and politics and media. He conducts research on marginalized groups, political information use, religion and politics, and journalistic coverage of political events. Brian's experience in applied politics includes serving as policy advisor for the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission. He works with the Cincinnati Black United Front on its community relations surveys and outreach, and has performed similar research work for the City of Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission.
Anjali Dutt, Psychology
Anjali Dutt is an assistant professor of community psychology. Her research focuses on psychological processes that are associated with resistance to oppression and increasing the realization of human rights in different contexts. She collaborate with grassroots community organizations to conduct mixed-methods research. Her current projects involve (a) participatory research with refugees in Cincinnati (b) exploring the impact of neoliberal ideology on various attitudes, beliefs, and in/actions, and (c) exploring feminist processes of community building with disenfrachised populations.
Stacie Furst Holloway, Psychology
Stacie Furst-Holloway, PhD., is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology’s Community and Organizational Research for Action (CORA) focus area. She currently serves as the Director of the MA Psychology program as well as Director of the CORA emphasis area in the doctoral program. Dr. Holloway has worked for more than 25 years in the areas of human resource management and organizational development and has led large-scale organizational change efforts in the private and public sectors. As a scholar, her interests center on how organizations can create healthy work environments for employees through the use of strategic HR systems, effective leadership, and equitable and inclusive policies and practices. This work has been funded by a number of federal agencies and private foundations. At UC, Dr. Holloway teaches courses in Program Evaluation, Organization Development and Change, Organizational Behavior, and Foundations of Leadership. In these classes, as well as in her Psychology of Work (POWER) lab, she engages students in community-engaged projects to teach principles of program evaluation, organization development, and leadership development. She is a past recipient of the A.B. “Dolly” Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Bob Hyland, English
Bob Hyland is an associate professor educator in the Department of English’s Rhetoric and Professional Writing Program. He currently serves as lead on the Interdisciplinary Faculty Team Project to develop Environmental Justice and Advocacy curriculum for undergrads in the College of Arts and Sciences. Partnering with local nonprofits and community groups, Hyland uses experiential learning, including service learning and undergraduate research, to optimize student learning outcomes, transferrable skills development, and to address exigencies such as the substance use disorder epidemic and inequities in access to greenspace. He teaches Scientific Writing in the Behavioral Sciences, Environmental Writing, and Writing for Justice. Visit www.newgreenuptown.org to view examples of undergraduate student research and service projects.
Farrah Jacquez, Psychology
Dr. Farrah Jacquez is a Professor and Assistant Head of the Psychology Department at the University of Cincinnati. Her work focuses on community-engaged approaches to health equity and broadening participation in science and research. Since joining the UC faculty in 2008, Dr. Jacquez has been working directly with community members to develop evidence-based, contextually appropriate intervention programs. She currently has several funded projects working with communities to address health disparities. She is the PI of an NIH-funded Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) that engages adolescents in rural Appalachia and urban Cincinnati in community-based participatory research on drug abuse and addiction in local communities. She also serves as the co-PI of a Community Conversations grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service that partners with refugees as co-researchers to improve civic engagement of refugee populations in Cincinnati. Dr. Jacquez facilitates regional community-engaged research for health efforts through her role as Co-Director of Community Engagement for the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training (CCTST). On a national level, she serves on the Board of Directors for Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH).
Heidi Kloos, Psychology
Dr. Heidi Kloos is an Associate Professor in UC's Department of Psychology. Her field of study is children's learning, and she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in developmental psychology, learning science, and cognitive development. Community partnerships are an important part of her work, especially when tackling the challenges of math learning, science learning, and reading. Competence in these subjects is crucial for children's long-term success and well-being. It requires for communities to come together for this competence to develop, especially for children who are economically disadvantaged. Dr. Kloos has partnered with non-profit and for-profit organizations, as well as with schools that serve families faced with economical hardship. Her research is published in journal in education and psychology, partially supported by funding from the National Science Foundation.
Katelyn Lusher, English
Katelyn Lusher is a PhD student in the Rhetoric & Composition program in the English & Comparative Literature Department. She is currently working as a volunteer with the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and is creating a digital archive for their street paper, Streetvibes. Her research brings together digital circulation, homeless advocacy, and activist rhetoric.
Carolette Norwood, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Carolette Norwood is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She earned a PhD in Sociology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Université de Montréal in African Demography. Dr. Norwood’s current research interest includes exploring the simultaneity and particularities of feminism(s) in the African Diaspora within and across geographical and glocal context; Reproductive Justice and Sexual Health Disparities; Gendered Violence; Stress, Trauma and Mental Health; and Spatial Distribution of STIs and HIV across the Cincinnati MSA. Dr. Norwood is finalizing a book project tentatively entitled Jim Crow Geographies: Mapping the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Cincinnati Urban Space.
Erica Page, Psychology
Erica is a doctoral candidate in the Community, Organizational and Research for Action program at the University of Cincinnati. She has a master of science degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Northern Kentucky University and obtained a bachelor's in Psychology from Wright State University. Her research interests include diversity and inclusion in the workplace as well as organizational development topics. Erica conducts program evaluations for area organizations and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her 18-month old son named Easton.
Anne Runyan, Political Science
Anne Sisson Runyan, PhD in International Relations, is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and a faculty affiliate of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at the University of Cincinnati (UC). She founded and coordinates the Political Science doctoral concentration in Feminist Comparative and International Politics and the Political Science undergraduate concentration in Gender and Multicultural Politics, formerly headed and directed graduate studies for the Department of Women’s Studies, and served as the Interim Faculty Chair and Director of the Taft Research Center at UC. She previously founded and directed women’s studies programs at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam and at Wright State University (WSU) where she held tenured appointments in political science and chaired the SUNY Potsdam Politics Department. She has also taught in Canada and Europe, including serving as a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in North American Integration at York University in Toronto and a visiting scholar and fellow at the University of Amsterdam, and studied and guest-lectured in many parts of the world. A pioneer in the field of feminist international relations, a recipient of the Eminent Scholar Award from the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA), and currently Vice President-Elect of ISA, her books include Global Gender Politics, Global Gender Issues (4 editions), Gender and Global Restructuring (2 editions, third in progress), and Feminist (Im)Mobilities in Fortress(ing) North America and she has published widely in journals and edited volumes on feminist world politics and transnational feminism topics. Among her current projects include co-leading and completing the final report for a 2-year gender study of the City of Cincinnati government arising from the national Cities for CEDAW (UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) initiative (having also co-led a study of the status of women in Montgomery County, Ohio) and writing a book on the politics of nuclear colonialism and waste in Canada from indigenous, feminist, and transnational perspectives.
Stephanie Sadre-Orafai, Anthropology
Dr. Stephanie Sadre-Orafai is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology. Her research focuses on transformations in contemporary racial thinking and visual culture in the United States. She co-founded and co-directs the Critical Visions certificate program, which teaches students how to effectively combine critical theory and social analysis with art, media, and design practice.
Carlie Trott, Psychology
Carlie D. Trott, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in UC’s Department of Psychology where she heads the Collaborative Sustainability lab. Her research employs community-engaged, participatory, and action research methodologies to promote agency and collaborative action around local environmental problems--particularly those rooted in climate change. Dr. Trott’s research emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and integrated, arts-based, and action-oriented engagement methods towards addressing sustainability challenges and climate injustice, while strengthening civic and science engagement by marginalized groups. Dr. Trott teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in social and community psychology and advises students in the Community and Organizational Research for Action (CORA) doctoral program.
Guy-Lucien Whemboula, Africana Studies
Dr. Whembolua is an Associate professor in the department of Africana Studies and an affiliate in the College of Medicine. He is a health behavior expert with a focus on how socio-cultural factors affects health outcomes in populations from African descent worldwide. He currently serves as the director of the Global Health Studies certificate and the Africana Health Institute.
Heather Zoller, Communication
Heather M. Zoller is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati. She earned her Ph.D. from Purdue University. Her research investigates organizing and the politics of public health with an emphasis on understanding the implications of illness attributions. She has examined the ideology of prevention discourses used by public health agencies, community organizations, and workplace health initiatives. She also studies health activism and corporate issue management, including advocacy for global justice and alternative economies, environmental health, occupational safety, and food activism. She has published in outlets such as Communication Monographs, Communication Theory, and Journal of Applied Communication Research, and she coedited the volume “Emerging Perspectives in Health Communication” with M.J. Dutta. She has conducted engaged research and teaching with the Coalition for a Humane Economy, Beyond Civility, Co-op Cincy, Apple Street Market, Ohio Citizen Action , and others.