Trailblazers

Aerospace

Mason Trailblazer: Nikyatu Jusu

Colleen Rich — Mon, 02 May 2022 17:25:40 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Nikyatu Jusu Colleen Rich Mon, 05/02/2022 - 13:25

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Nikyatu Jusu

Mason professor and filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu. Photo provided

��AV professor and filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu has had a busy 2022.

In January, Jusu, assistant professor of directing and screenwriting in Mason’s Film and Video Studies Program, had her first feature film, “Nanny,” premier at the Sundance Film Festival, where she was awarded the Grand Jury Prize. Jusu is only the second Black woman director to win the prize, and the first horror director to do so.

In March, “Nanny,” which follows a undocumented West African nanny taking care of a privileged child on the New York’s Upper West Side, was acquired by Blumhouse and Prime Video for worldwide distribution.

But before she got to Sundance, Jusu was already creating a buzz. Variety named her to its “Directors to Watch” list, and IndieWire included her on its “22 Rising Female Filmmakers to Watch in 2022” list. She was also awarded the inaugural MPA Creator Award from the Motion Picture Association.

This was Jusu’s second time at Sundance. In 2019, her short vampire film “Suicide By Sunlight,” a project funded by the production grant "Through Her Lens" sponsored by the Tribeca Film Institute and Chanel, made its debut at the film festival.

Jusu's films have played at festivals nationally and internationally garnering her laurels and awards including a Directors Guild of America Honorable Mention. Three of her short films were acquired by and aired on HBO, her most recent being “Flowers.” This project was also awarded a Rooftop Films/Adrienne Shelly Foundation Short Film Grant.

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts Film and Video Studies

Mason Trailblazer: Germán Perilla

Colleen Rich — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 17:07:38 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Germán Perilla Colleen Rich Mon, 04/25/2022 - 13:07

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For the past decade, Mason alum Germán Perilla, MAIS ’12, has led ��AV’s honey bee efforts.

Perilla is cofounder and director of Mason’s Honey Bee Initiative (HBI), a program supported by Mason’s School of Business and operated by Business for a Better World Center to empower communities through sustainable beekeeping. Students from across campus, regardless of major, have a hands-on opportunity to explore their interest in apiculture.

As an adjunct faculty member, Perilla has created and taught experiential learning courses involving bees, including the popular Environmental Science and Policy course Beekeeping and Sustainability, In Search of the Perfect Queen, and the study-abroad course The Importance of the Amazon in the Modern World.

Perilla has been instrumental in helping HBI develop science-based and sustainable practices relating to beehive maintenance, hive splitting, queen rearing, and disease management. The initiative currently maintains hive clusters on Mason’s Fairfax and Science and Technology Campuses, at the Route 95 Landfill in Lorton, and at the Manassas Airport.

HBI also operates in Perú and Perilla’s native Colombia, where he has been working with community beekeepers to establish hives and create a market for honey and bee-related products since he was a graduate student.

“I’m most excited about the fact that the Maijuna can use the beekeeping project for income, but still maintain their traditional lifestyle,” Perilla said in a 2011 interview about his work with the indigenous people in Perú. “The bees will provide an economic means to these communities without causing any environmental destruction.”

In 2020, HBI’s work in Colombia was selected as the 15th best overall social and environmental project in Latin America and the Caribbean by the Latinoamérica Verde Awards. The project was selected due to the results it has achieved in promoting sustainable development and the conservation of bee biodiversity.

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Costello College of Business

Alumni

Honey Bee Initiative

Costello College of Business News

Mason Trailblazer: Charniele L. Herring

Colleen Rich — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 17:33:05 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Charniele L. Herring Colleen Rich Mon, 04/18/2022 - 13:33

Mason alum Charniele Herring served as host of ceremonies for President Gregory Washington's Investiture in October 2021. Photo by Creative Services

��AV alum Charniele L. Herring has made history with her barrier-breaking career in Virginia state politics.

Herring, BA Economics ’93, was the first African American woman from Northern Virginia to be elected to the state legislature when she won her seat in 2009. She later became the first African American to lead a major political party in the state when she served as chair of the Democratic Party. In 2020 Herring became the first woman and the first African American to be named majority leader of the House of Delegates and as chair of Courts of Justice.

Representing the 46th House District, in the Alexandria area, Herring has introduced or guided legislation related to social justice, education, small businesses, the environment, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and other issues. She also founded the Virginia Legislative Reproductive Health Caucus.

Prior to her becoming a member of the House of Delegates, Herring was twice appointed by former governor Tim Kaine to the Council of the Status of Women, a role she had to give up once elected.

Born in the Dominican Republic, Herring was first exposed to public service at age 13 when she testified before a presidential committee about the need for continued health care coverage for military dependent children, which she was at the time. Issues facing young people continue to be high among her priorities.

“I believe that if your child gets an early and strong start in their education, they are going to succeed in school and go on to get a degree or degrees, which is important for our economy and Virginia,” she told the Mason Spirit in 2012.

Virginia delegate Charniele Herring met with Mason students during Mason Lobbies in 2020. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Strategic Communications

Herring, who for a time in high school lived at a Northern Virginia homeless shelter, participated in Mason’s Student Transition Empowerment Program (STEP), which recruits and retains talented students from underserved backgrounds.

“It is such an important program to me personally,” she said of STEP. “The program provided me with the opportunity to demonstrate that I could do college-level work, which I did during that summer at Mason, and that was how I got admitted.”

After completing her bachelor’s degree at Mason, Herring went on to earn a juris doctor from the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University.

She continues to advocate for STEP and shared her Mason experience with the university as the Winter Commencement speaker in 2020.

Herring also served as host of ceremonies at Mason President Gregory Washington's Investiture in October 2021. More recently, she was on campus to join in celebrating Mason's 50^th anniversary on April 7.

“Mason gave me a great foundation, and it is wonderful that a state school did that,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons I feel obligated to give back to the state.”

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Mason Trailblazer: Edward Maibach

Colleen Rich — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 18:02:29 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Edward Maibach Colleen Rich Mon, 04/11/2022 - 14:02

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Edward Maibach

Edward Maibach is one of the most influential scientists working on climate change. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

��AV’s Edward Maibach is one of the most influential scientists working on climate change.

In 2021, Maibach, the director of Mason's Center for Climate Change Communication, ranked 7th overall in the Reuters Hot List identifying and ranking the world’s top 1,000 climate scientists. Only two other American scientists finished above him, including his research partner Anthony Leiserowitz of Yale University, who was identified as #2.

Also in 2021, the organization Climate One honored Maibach and Leiserowitz with its Stephen H. Schneider Award, which is given to a natural or social scientist who has made “extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to a broad public in a clear and compelling fashion,” according to the press release.

In 2018, he was appointed a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2020 the university recognized Maibach with one of its Presidential Awards for Faculty Excellence, the Beck Family Medal for Excellence in Research and Scholarship. A member of Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth and University Professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Maibach is an expert in the use of strategic communication and social marketing to address climate change and related public health challenges. His research has primarily focused on public understanding of climate change and clean energy, the psychological factors that influence public engagement, and the cultivation of trusted voices such as TV weathercasters and health professionals as effective climate educators.

Maibach came to Mason in 2007 to create the Center for Climate Change Communication. Now in its 15th year, the center has been studying public perceptions of climate change issues and identifying effective ways to engage the public and other stakeholders on those issues. The center's national public opinion polls conducted with Yale have consistently been featured in major media outlets throughout the country and have helped monitor attitudes and awareness about the climate crisis for more than a decade.

Maibach has also teamed with Mason colleague Mona Sarfaty to create the Medical Society Consortium on Climate Health to organize, empower and amplify the voices of America’s doctors about the dangers of climate change to our health and climate solutions that can improve it.

Recently, he began working with Mason colleagues, including Jim Kinter, director of the Mason's Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, to help the university stand up the new Virginia Climate Center, which will serve as a climate extension service for communities in the commonwealth to increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Listen to Maibach discuss the climate change misinformation war with President Gregory Washington on the Access to Excellence podcast

Topics

Center for Climate Change Communication

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Mason Trailblazer: Jagadish Shukla

Colleen Rich — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 18:53:18 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Jagadish Shukla Colleen Rich Mon, 04/04/2022 - 14:53

Distinguished University Professor Jagadish Shukla speaks about climate change science during the "Climate 3.0: the Science, the Politics, and the Policy Agenda" panel. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Strategic Communications

A remarkable journey has brought ��AV Professor Jagadish Shukla from his childhood in rural India to world prominence as a climate researcher.

Shukla, a professor since 1994 and founder of the university’s Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences (AOES), has gained international recognition for Mason in that field. He established the Climate Dynamics PhD program at Mason—first in the country—which has produced 50 PhDs.

In 1979, Shukla joined the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, becoming head of the climate modeling group. There he pioneered an influential insight, an exception to the famed “butterfly effect,” which describes the unpredictable nature of long-term weather conditions.

Using early versions of climate models, Shukla demonstrated that phenomena such as seasonal mean temperature and rainfall, especially in tropical regions, were more predictable than previously understood—what he called “predictability in the midst of chaos.”

In 1984, Shukla co-founded the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA), then at the University of Maryland. Later, he and his colleagues began collaborating with Mason students and researchers. In 2014, COLA officially became a center in Mason's College of Science.

Along the way, Shukla’s reputation grew. The author or coauthor of more than 250 scientific papers, he received the International Meteorological Organization Prize, the field’s highest honor. He modernized India’s weather enterprise by helping the establishment of a center for numerical weather prediction and monsoon forecasting on India’s first supercomputer in New Delhi.

Education has always been a priority for Shukla. Growing up in a village without roads or electricity, Shukla attended a school started by his father, the only person in the village who could read. For the past 40 years, he has returned to India each year, visiting his home village of Mirdha, where he and his wife, Anastasia, fund education and women’s empowerment programs. In 1999, he founded Gandhi College, which has about 800 students, the majority women.

The Shuklas have also created the Jagadish and Anastasia Shukla AOES Fellowship Endowment in the College of Science, which will support graduate students pursuing the PhD in climate dynamics, a degree he helped establish. Theirs is among the largest philanthropic commitments ever from a Mason faculty member.

Topics

Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA)

Mason Trailblazer: Dacheka Kolcum

Colleen Rich — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 16:35:14 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Dacheka Kolcum Colleen Rich Mon, 03/28/2022 - 12:35

When the ��AV senior Dacheka Kolcum heard about the August 2021 earthquake that devastated Haiti, she immediately jumped into action to help by creating a GoFundMe page that raised $5,000 to help provide basic necessities for those most adversely impacted by quake.

The women’s soccer standout from Leesburg, Virginia, was born and raised in Haiti until being adopted by an American family at age 6. She’s since reconnected with her biological family and wasted no time in lending a helping hand after the earthquake.

“It was really hard [hearing the news],” said Kolcum, who is a sport management major. “The first thing I wanted to do was call my family. When I knew they were OK, then I knew how to do something. I knew this was a calling for me to step forward and take some action.”

The earthquake killed more than 2,000 people and injured more than 12,000 others. More than 136,000 of the nation’s buildings were either damaged or destroyed. Working through the nonprofit organization An'n Met Me (Let's Join Hands), Kolcum raised money for necessities, including clean water, clothes, food, and toiletries, for those directly impacted.

Kolcum said she was struck by the overwhelming generosity of the Mason community and others. Patriots coach Manya Puppione said she was happy to help when Kolcum first approached her about contributing to people in need.

“I am just in awe of Dacheka's leadership, empathy, and her willingness to take action,” Puppione said. “I know that she wants to be there to help out with her feet on the Haitian ground, and I know she will get there when she can.”

In November, Kolcum was recognized with Mason OrthoVirginia Student Achiever Award, which honors outstanding student-athletes for their efforts in the classroom and out in the community, for her Haiti work.

“Haiti is my roots, Haiti is my family, Haiti is what I wake up every day to work toward,” Kolcum said. “I think I’ve been put on this Earth to give back to my home country. Haiti is my motivator.”

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Mason Trailblazer: Katherine Scafide

Colleen Rich — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 13:27:43 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Katherine Scafide Colleen Rich Mon, 03/21/2022 - 09:27

In This Story

Katherine Scafide, PhD, RN, FAAN

As a forensic nurse and former death investigator for the State of Maryland’s medical examiner’s office, ��AV researcher Katherine Scafide has long served people who fell victim to violence.

“One of the challenges I would face much of the time was examining injuries on victims of violence who have darker skin," said Scafide, who is a professor in the School of Nursing in Mason's College of Health and Human Services. “If we can't see the injury, then we can't document it. That documentation serves as really important evidence in court.”

Since 2017, Scafide has been experimenting with "seeing" bruises using alternate light sources, such as UV light, which are already widely used in forensics to find evidence like blood or hair fibers. With grant support from the U.S. Department of Justice, she conducted a study and discovered that using alternate light was five times better at detecting bruises on victims across a variety of skin tones than white light. Results of the study were published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Her work has received national attention from people such as filmmaker and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, who came to Mason to meet with Scafide and learn more about her research. In her work on reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, Jolie is advocating for more funding and training for technologies like the one that Scafide has created.

In November 2021, Scafide, who is known as the “paintball lady” for her unique method of creating bruises, was appointed to a three-year term on the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC), where she will assist in drafting the national standards for forensic nursing and medical practice.

Topics

College of Health and Human Services

Mason Momentum

Mason Trailblazer: Charlotte Woodward

Colleen Rich — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:27:50 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Charlotte Woodward Colleen Rich Mon, 03/14/2022 - 12:27

Charlotte Woodward. Photo provided

��AV sociology major Charlotte Woodward has tirelessly advocated for the rights of people with disabilities—and she is being recognized for her efforts.

In December 2021, U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a federal legislation named for her: the Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act (S.3301), designed to prevent discrimination by health care providers against people with disabilities who need organ transplants.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: In their statement, the senators noted, “The bill is named after Charlotte Woodward, an advocate with Down syndrome who received a heart transplant nine years ago and has fought to raise the issue of organ transplant discrimination in various states, including her home state of Virginia.”

FACING THE CHALLENGE: More than 25 states currently prohibit organ transplantation discrimination, but discrepancies exist across state laws, and delays in delivering relief to patients has made enforcement difficult. Woodward's February 2020 testimony before the Virginia General Assembly was an important step in seeing state legislation passed—unanimously—that prevents disability-based discrimination against people who need life-saving organ transplants.

Charlotte Woodward after appearing before with General Assembly with Virginia Senator Todd Pillion and NDSS colleagues Matteo Lieb and Ashley Helsing. Photo provided

QUEEN OF HEARTS: Born with Down syndrome and a congenital heart defect, Woodward underwent four surgeries as a child and received a heart transplant in 2012. She celebrated her 10-year “Heartiversy” in January of this year. Since her lifesaving heart transplant, she has advocated for persons with disabilities to receive equal access to similar opportunities. “I’ve been an advocate my entire life, and I’m always looking for the opportunity to help other people.”

NOW IT'S HER JOB: The Fairfax, Virginia, native works for the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), a human rights organization that supports and advocates for the Down syndrome community. As the community outreach associate, Woodward has met with legislators, taken part in numerous advocacy events, served as editor in chief for an upcoming NDSS magazine, and has starred in several TikTok videos, one of which has had 4.4 million views.

ON A MISSION: In her advocacy for equal rights for the disabled community, Woodward is working on issues ranging from helping people with disabilities move into community employment settings to protection of federal benefits for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities who wish to marry. “I want society to be aware of the lived experiences of people with disabilities, as well as the abilities that they bring to the world, even though they were born into a world that wasn't made for them.”

WHAT SHE DOES FOR FUN: An enthusiastic baseball fan, Woodward enjoys following the Washington Nationals. She is learning how to play electric guitar and has participated in the Global Down Syndrome Foundation fashion show, Be Beautiful Be Yourself.

Topics

Students

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Advocacy