College of Education and Human Development

First-year setter Tuana Ozarpaci is learning fast about the U.S. and Division I volleyball

Sarah Holland — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 19:52:52 +0000

First-year setter Tuana Ozarpaci is learning fast about the U.S. and Division I volleyball Sarah Holland Thu, 08/29/2024 - 15:52

The heavier volleyball used in NCAA Division-I play and the different feel from its international counterpart isn’t the only change to which ��AV’s Tuana Ozarpaci is quickly acclimating herself.

Photo by Rafael Suanes/Mason Athletics

Living in a foreign land, far away from home for the first time, the 18-year-old first-year setter from Istanbul, Republic of Türkiye, is taking a crash course, learning volumes both on the court and off as she settles in at her new home-away-from-home.

“It’s a whole new change, but it’s a good change,” said Ozarpaci, an economics and sports management major. “I just want to focus on my studies, volleyball, and my personal growth.”

Attending a university far from friends and family can have its challenges, but Ozarpaci is adapting well to her new environment and her new volleyball family.

In early spring 2023, Ozarpaci announced her intention to play for George Mason, becoming coach Megan Shifflett Bachman’s first commit for the incoming class of 2024. Ozarpaci chose George Mason over University of Texas, DePaul, and Loyola Marymount, citing the close relationship she had quickly developed with Shifflett Backman and current Patriots players via Zoom and her desire to find a new home preferably on the East Coast.

Ozarpaci had initially drawn the university’s attention with her impressive performance on the Turkish club team Galatasaray Sports Club, where she played in 414 sets across 133 matches and led her team with 1,000+ assists each season as the starting setter for the past three consecutive seasons.

Shifflett Bachman was on maternity leave when she heard of Ozarpaci’s decision to come to George Mason. “She was just one of those athletes who really stood out,” Shifflett Bachman said. “What she could do with the ball was impressive and immediately caught our attention.”

The number of international student-athletes playing Division I women’s volleyball has slowly risen in recent years, but they still comprise just under 6% of all Division I players, according to the latest NCAA statistics.

But Ozarpaci could play a key role for a George Mason team that looks to improve last year’s 9-21 record. Setters are the team’s quarterbacks, meaning they usually touch the ball on every play to set up teammates. Having a keen on-court awareness, knowing her teammates and accurately placing the ball are skills that are imperative for that position.

Ozarpaci will get her opportunity this fall, with the Patriots returning just one setter from last year’s team.

“Being a freshman—especially as an international student—is always going to be hard, no matter what,” Ozarpaci said. “But the coaches are making me feel safe and welcome while pushing me to improve and learn how to do things better.”

She had visited the United States with her parents and older sister before enrolling at George Mason, but the family had never been to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area before arriving in Fairfax on Aug. 1. Now, she is ready to brave this chapter on her own.

A huge basketball fan, Ozarpaci already plans on being a regular at EagleBank Arena this winter, at least when she’s not too busy with classes or sampling American culinary delights, such as Chick-fil-A and Dunkin, both on the Fairfax Campus. Ozarpaci has become a big fan of both.

“I’m loving it here, it’s beautiful, and I feel like I’m going to grow a lot,” Ozarpaci said.

Get the schedule for George Mason's fall sports

See what makes our students All Together Different

Folklore professor traveled around the world in 90 days for research project
September 16, 2024
Bioengineering alumna completes a fun(gal) summer internship with NIH
September 16, 2024
Groundswell partners with Mason LIFE providing scholarships, internships, and career services
September 12, 2024
Rubiera becomes the first ADVANCE MVP student to matriculate to George Mason
September 9, 2024
Bioengineering student went from Patriot to Pilgrim for summer internship 
September 6, 2024

Topics

Students

Mason Athletics

Student Athlete

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

College of Education and Human Development

international students

first year students

George Mason’s College of Education and Human Development expands collaboration with Google on new lab school

Colleen Rich — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 20:15:45 +0000

George Mason’s College of Education and Human Development expands collaboration with Google on new lab school Colleen Rich Mon, 08/19/2024 - 16:15

��AV’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) has received additional support from Google to launch the Accelerated College and Employability Skills (ACCESS) Academy with Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS).

Google provided seed funding last year to begin school planning and also submitted a letter of support to the Virginia Board of Education. Recently, Google doubled their initial commitment, totaling $400,000 investment in the school to date. This additional funding will support research design and evaluation, along with a summer bridge program for the school, scheduled to launch in the 2025-26 school year.

Approved by the Virginia Board of Education earlier this year, the ACCESS Academy lab school for students in grades 9-12 was created by George Mason in partnership with Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) and LCPS. ACCESS Academy will provide students with an alternative education pathway that emphasizes future-ready employability skills, innovative teaching and learning methods, and immersive experiences developed with industry partners, researchers, and instructional faculty.

“Google believed in our vision for ACCESS Academy from the very beginning, and we are now thrilled to collaborate with them to make that vision a reality,” said Dean Ingrid Guerra-López. “This collaboration is pivotal in our mission to equip the future workforce with essential skills and knowledge to excel in high-demand careers. We engaged Google early in the planning process to ensure that the ACCESS vision and plan was well-aligned to the rapidly changing job market, including artificial intelligence (AI).”

“We are proud to be a partner in the ACCESS Lab Academy to expand access to computer science education and tech career pathways,” said Shanika Hope, director of Google’s Education for Social Impact team. “The collaboration across George Mason, NOVA, and LCPS will ensure students are not only equipped with core computing skills but will thrive in high-demand jobs of the future. Together we are working to close equity gaps in computing education and give all students the opportunities they deserve to succeed.”

“NOVA looks forward to partnering with ��AV and Google on the ACCESS Academy to help prepare students for rewarding careers in information technology,” said NOVA President Anne M. Kress.

“ACCESS Academy is an innovative program to help prepare students with workplace skills that will help set them on a pathway for career and educational success,” said Ashley Ellis, chief academic officer, LCPS. “We are grateful for partners like Google that support and reinforce this innovation in education.”

CEHD will also be incorporating AI learning into the ACCESS Academy program, including the self-paced online course Google AI Essentials and Generative AI for Educators training course created with MIT. Google will also be collaborating with CEHD to design hands-on, immersive field experiences for ACCESS Academy students.

Roberto Pamas, CEHD School of Education faculty, will serve as the director of ACCESS Academy. Pamas and the ACCESS Academy leadership team are working with Google and the other lab school partners to develop the curriculum and course offerings and assess staffing requirements and other resource needs.

ACCESS Academy is one of two lab schools launching at George Mason. The Virginia Board of Education also approved funding for George Mason to launch the Shenandoah Valley Rural Regional College Partnership Laboratory School for Data Science, Computing, and Applications (DSCA), a collaborative partnership between the university and Frederick County Public Schools, as well as six rural and rural-fringe school districts in the Shenandoah Valley including Clarke County, Fauquier County, Page County, Shenandoah County, Warren County, and Winchester Public Schools, along with Mountain Vista Governor’s School and Laurel Ridge Community College.

Read the initial announcement of the ACCESS Academy

Topics

Campus News

Lab School

Google

College of Education and Human Development

Northern Virginia Community College

K-12 Partnerships

Strategic Direction

Brianna Alford is August Employee of the Month

Colleen Rich — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 19:51:14 +0000

Brianna Alford is August Employee of the Month Colleen Rich Tue, 07/30/2024 - 15:51

As assistant director for student belonging in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at ��AV, Brianna Alford oversees scholarships and finances in the college’s Student and Academic Affairs (SAA) office. She is also a mentor to student employees. For her dedication and her mentorship, Alford is recognized as August Employee of the Month.

Brianna Alford. Photo by Office of University Branding

“Brianna has been an exceptional member of our team,” said Daniel Minot, CEHD assistant dean for student success. “She has proven herself to be a trusted, reliable, and invaluable resource for so many colleagues. Her dedication, commitment, and willingness to always go 'above and beyond' to support our students, staff, and faculty truly sets her apart from her peers.”

“Brianna is an exemplar of positivity. She is a kind, caring and compassionate colleague who is present for others—always,” Ellen Rodgers, CEHD associate professor, said. “She manifests the highest levels of integrity in all matters—personally and professionally, most especially in her fiduciary responsibilities and maintaining the confidences of Mason community members.”

Several of her colleagues emphasized Alford’s strength as a mentor.

“Brianna is the kind of colleague, mentor, and friend I wish everyone could have,” Caroline Masakayan, CEHD student enrichment coordinator, said. “If I am ever feeling overwhelmed or uncertain, Brianna is my go-to person. There is rarely a question Brianna cannot answer, and I am continuously impressed by her professionalism and expertise. She takes pride in being a mentor and fulfills the role with ease and grace.”

“In addition to being a strong, effective mentor and support for various members of our SAA team, Brianna has stepped into the role of a supervisor in providing direct support and management of CEHD student wage staff, as well as a graduate professional assistant,” said Minot. “She not only effectively manages, supports, and empowers students in this capacity, but led the search, selection, hiring, and onboarding processes for each. Brianna has truly excelled in this leadership role, showcasing strong skills in supervision and management.”

How did you come to Mason:

We relocated from Florida to Virginia when my husband got a job in Washington, D.C. I interviewed at a few universities but something about George Mason just felt right. When I arrived for my on-campus interview, I felt an instant connection with the campus and with the team and left crossing my fingers I got an offer. Thankfully, I did, and I was thrilled to accept it.

Best day on the job:

The 2019 CEHD Student Research Symposium. I watched our students develop their research over the spring semester, and it was such a rewarding experience to see them present at the symposium. They worked so hard and showed up as true professionals committed to contributing to their field. It was a very special evening.

What do you like best about working at Mason:

Being a part of the best team! I’m fortunate to be surrounded by a great group of colleagues who make me laugh every day. They’re committed to our students, they work hard, and they never shy away from helping each other out. Work takes up a large portion of our time and lives—it’s important to me that I enjoy spending time with the people I work with.

What do you like to do when you’re not working:

I love any time spent with my husband and my daughter—especially by the water or downtown at a farmer’s market. When the weather cools down, I enjoy cooking, baking, watching football, and extra time with extended family around the holidays.

Topics

Faculty and Staff News

Employee of the Month

Human Resources

College of Education and Human Development

Behrmanns add to legacy with creation of undergraduate scholarship for special education program

Colleen Rich — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 14:52:21 +0000

Behrmanns add to legacy with creation of undergraduate scholarship for special education program Colleen Rich Fri, 07/26/2024 - 10:52

Year in and year out, ��AV’s special education graduate program ranks as one of the best in the nation.

June and Mike Behrmann. Photo provided

In the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings of online master’s degree programs, George Mason’s special education program ranked eighth in the country. In 2023, the special education graduate program ranked 17th in the country among public institutions and 19th overall.

Pamela Baker, the Special Education Division Director, points to one man for laying the foundation for a program that consistently produces quality teachers—Michael Behrmann.

“He is kind of a legend here,” Baker said. “He built the special education program.”

Seven years after retiring from a nearly 40-year career in the special education program that included serving as division director prior to Baker's tenure in that role, Behrmann, now professor emeritus of special education, continues to add to his legacy.

Behrmann, along with his wife, June, has generously created an undergraduate scholarship for George Mason students in the special education program. The undergraduate special education program, which was created in 2019 along with bachelor’s degrees in elementary education and early childhood education for diverse learners, aims to tighten the nationwide teacher shortage gap.

Students who plan to teach may focus their program on a specific area in the special education field by adding a licensure concentration—K-12 adaptive curriculum, K-12 general curriculum licensure or PK-12 blindness and visual impairments licensure—or pursue a nonlicensure concentration.

“Children with special needs are our most vulnerable students. We need more teachers working with this population of students,” Behrmann said. “Undergraduate programs are one way that can be really addressed and start to bite into that shortage of qualified teachers.”

Behrmann arrived at Mason in 1979 as the coordinator of the special education graduate program, which had just three faculty members and a small handful of graduate students.

Over the next four decades, the program grew as Behrmann secured more than $90 million in external grants and contracts, $30 million in revenue-based projects, and $4.5 million in gifts for special education to the university. In the mid 1980s, he also designed and implemented a master’s and a doctoral program in assistive/special education technology.

The special education program now enrolls more than 1,000 students annually and employs more than 150, which includes faculty, staff, graduate assistants, and student workers.

“I consider the faculty who are at George Mason now as my legacy,” Behrmann said. “Master’s and doctoral students who are now faculty members. They are such great researchers and trainers. Pam and that whole crew of special educators are just tremendous.”

Behrmann wants the scholarship to support special education undergraduate students who are working with the Mason LIFE Program, a four-year postsecondary comprehensive transition program for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who desire a university experience in a supportive academic environment.

When Behrmann founded the Mason LIFE program in 2005, his vision was twofold. He wanted to provide an educational, on-campus experience for students with disabilities. But he also wanted to offer Mason graduate and doctoral students—and now undergraduate students—working in the Mason LIFE program an opportunity to attain hands-on special education experience while also pursuing their degree.

The Mason LIFE program, currently led by director Linn Jorgenson, enrolls around 50 students every year, with 18 freshmen admitted for the 2024-25 school year.

“At the time, it was one of only one or two programs in the whole United States,” Behrmann said. “They have spun off, with federal support, and are much more common across the country. Seeing that program continue to be supported, within the diversity of the university, really makes me proud. All the university presidents from Alan Merten to current president Gregory Washington have been great supporters of the Mason LIFE Program.”

“It is a program that affirms our mission,” Baker said. “We are here to make a positive impact on the lives of people who have disabilities. These young adults are integrated into the fabric of the university. They come back as alumni. Our Mason LIFE students have been in the Green Machine band. They have been cheerleaders. They are all over the campus. Mike had the vision.”

The Behrmanns met when they were both teaching in Cincinnati. June then spent more than 20 years as a writer specializing in special education issues before returning to the classroom as a special education teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools. Now they want to help ensure that George Mason’s undergraduate program shapes the next generation of special education teachers.

“If we can give this [undergraduate] program the kind of marketing it needs, support more students, it has real potential to grow into a large scholarship program,” Behrmann said. “The special education program is one of the strongest programs in the university, and I’m excited to see it continue to grow.”

The Behrmanns encourage graduates of the special education programs and certificate programs to get involved personally and give back to the scholarship fund. To make a gift, click here.

“He is kind of a legend here,” Baker said. “He built the special education program.”

Learn more about George Mason's Special Education Graduate Program

Topics

Campus News

Mason Now: Power the Possible

College of Education and Human Development

Mason LIFE Program

Scholarships

George Mason launches literacy project to support Virginia families

Colleen Rich — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 18:01:30 +0000

George Mason launches literacy project to support Virginia families Colleen Rich Mon, 07/22/2024 - 14:01

A statewide literacy project designed to counteract the educational impacts of the pandemic is now in full swing, thanks to the efforts of educators in ��AV’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD).

Allison Ward Parsons. Photo by Office of University Branding

Called the Literacy Engagement Action Project (LEAP) and designed to build literacy skills in K-12 students with a scalable, comprehensive program for teachers, students, and their families, the program is run by the Elizabeth G. Sturtevant, PhD, Center for Literacy at George Mason with center director Allison Ward Parsons serving as the principal investigator.

Funding for this project through a U.S. Department of Education grant was made possible by the efforts of Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, who secured a $1.83 million designated spending provision as part of the Fiscal Year 2022 federal government appropriations bill.

The LEAP project addresses the needs of families, children, and teachers resulting from the negative impacts that the pandemic has had on K-12 learners, particularly those from marginalized or economically disadvantaged populations. “The project overall is geared toward post-COVID support, recognizing that many families know that their students need additional help,” said Ward Parsons, an associate professor of the literacy program in CEHD’s School of Education.

The need for this support is reflected in testing data collected by the state. Ward Parsons and her team members analyzed reading test scores compiled by the Virginia Department of Education and found significant gaps between students of wealthier backgrounds compared with those from economically disadvantaged communities, English language learners, and students from Black and Hispanic populations.

The main components of the LEAP project include:

Community outreach and support where families are provided with free access to books and other literacy resources that include workshops, podcasts, read-aloud events at public libraries, and other venues;
A website, leap.cehd.gmu.edu, developed by the Sturtevant Center for Literacy, that is accessible on its own as a stand-alone site as well as through the main Literacy Center home page (the LEAP website provides tools such as video modules offered in English and Spanish that explore different topics in literacy, activity links supporting various aspects of literacy development across grade levels, and interactive reading guides for literary genres that include comprehension tips applicable to specific age groups);
Tutoring of K-12 learners given by George Mason students who must successfully complete a series of LEAP training modules and pass required background checks conducted by partnering schools (once approved, tutors are provided with lesson plans and tutoring support materials developed by the LEAP team and which are available on the Literacy Center’s website); and
Asynchronous online teacher professional learning modules (now under development), which include content that meets teacher needs assessment and enhances teacher engagement (once finalized, these materials will be housed on the LEAP website).

LEAP bookshelf at Fair Lakes Barnes and Noble. Photo provided

As part of the LEAP project, book bins are being installed in various locations throughout Northern Virginia stocked with a curated set of books available for sharing with students and families.

Ward Parsons explains that this LEAP feature is patterned after the “take a book, leave a book” free mini-library movement that has become popular in many neighborhoods in cities across the United States. However, she adds that there is one distinguishing feature that makes the book sharing component unique: Each book contains a QR code linking back to an interactive reading guide that is accessible on the LEAP website.

These reading guides, formatted as PDF documents, contain conversation prompts, questions, vocabulary support, and suggested discussion topics related to the characters and plot of the book that families and tutors can use when they are reading and talking about the books with children.

“We want to go beyond a passive read-aloud where the student just sits and listens as the book is being read to them,” Ward Parsons said. “We want children to be thinking about the text and to interact with the adult so that there is more opportunity for fluency and comprehension development in reading.”

She points out that the reading guides encourage families and children to read together and that this can help support literacy development in young learners.

The sites being chosen for the book bins are places where families bring their children in accessing needed services, such as medical clinics, food banks, and homeless shelters. Families can engage their children in an interactive read-aloud of the books provided at these locations. They can also sign up on the LEAP website to receive their own copies of the books with more book sharing support. Book bins are also being placed at schools which have partnered with LEAP to provide spaces where tutors can work with children who have been identified as needing additional help with reading comprehension and literacy.

The LEAP project has made significant gains in its book distribution endeavors over the past year. Some of the most recently installed book bins include: the installation of community book bins with reading guides at General Heiser Boys and Girls Club in Dumfries; a community book bin at Ivy Rehab for Kids in Falls Church that will be available to families in the waiting room and used by staff speech-language pathologists and therapists during speech therapy visits; and, a community book bin at Fort Belvoir to support military-connected families.

In addition to establishing the book bins, LEAP faculty and staff are collaborating with communities in Northern Virginia as they launch initiatives in support of children’s literacy. For example, in March and April this year, LEAP representatives organized four family workshops in the Georgetown South Community of Manassas, Virginia. These workshops were conducted in Spanish and included interactive read-alouds, as well as other activities designed to build vocabulary, background knowledge, and reading comprehension in children.

LEAP also hosted a two-week summer camp for elementary students in the Georgetown South community during which George Mason students provided daily literacy tutoring. The camp's theme centered on science and included experiments and other activities performed by the children who attended the camp which provided them with the opportunity to learn more about science while improving their reading comprehension skills.

Representatives of LEAP continued their work with members of the Georgetown South community with the introduction of a summer book club and lending library for students. In describing this initiative, Ward Parsons stated, “Our goal is to support summer reading and offer students opportunities to talk about their reading, get help as needed, and build a community of readers.”

Other LEAP projects include:

A bookshelf at Fair Lakes Barnes & Noble bookstore;
A family/student literacy workshop and summer STEM read-aloud that was held at the Fort Belvoir military base in Northern Virginia;
A series of three children’s events at the Fairfax City branch of the Fairfax County Public Libraries (following one of these events the library requested a full set of printed reading guides, which are now compiled and displayed in the children’s section for easy patron access);
A partnership with the Fair Lakes Barnes & Noble bookstore where the QR codes linking to the LEAP reading guides are posted throughout the children’s section so that a reader browsing the shelves will see the content developed by LEAP alongside the corresponding books;
A Back-to-School Book Fair to be held Aug. 17 at the Fair Lakes Barnes and Noble bookstore through which a portion of the proceeds from the sale of books will go to the Sturtevant Center for Literacy to purchase books that will be shared with community partners; and,
A back-to-school event sponsored by Micron and Barbershop Books.

Because the literacy resources and tutor training materials accessible on the LEAP website will continue to be maintained by the Sturtevant Center for Literacy beyond the life of the project, Ward Parsons and her team members are confident that this initiative will create a sustainable, practical model for literacy support in Virginia.

“These materials become a durable commodity, something that we can provide throughout Virginia and something that any school can use because it is all made available through federal funding that is specifically dedicated to the support of literacy,” said Ward Parsons.

Visit the Project's Website

Support George Mason

Topics

Campus News

Community Engagement

College of Education and Human Development

literacy

K-12 Partnerships

Counseling graduate student awarded fine arts fellowship

Colleen Rich — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 12:50:29 +0000

Counseling graduate student awarded fine arts fellowship Colleen Rich Tue, 06/11/2024 - 08:50

��AV graduate student Truman Deree is one of 20 students (one of five graduate fellows) awarded a 2024-25 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Visual Arts Fellowship. He received the award for his photography, which he also shares at TrumanDereePhotography on Instagram.

Truman Deree. Photo provided

The fellowship comes with a $6,000 scholarship paid throughout the 2024-25 academic year and the opportunity to have his art placed throughout Richmond in locations such as VMFA’s Amuse Restaurant and Claiborne Robertson Room, VMFA’s Pauley Center Galleries, and Richmond International Airport. I caught up with Deree to learn more about his work and his experience at Mason.

What inspires you?

I always, even as a kid, liked doing photography for fun. I really got into it in high school. I took photography classes all four years. I had a really great teacher, Ms. Davidson, and I won my first awards at that point. That inspired me to be more proactive in taking photos and submitting them and sharing them. It’s continued to be something that I like to do as a hobby throughout my education.

Could you tell me more about what you do at Mason?

I am a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling. I am two years into my program with one year left, attending full-time. I decided I wanted to be a counselor in undergrad (psychology at James Madison University) because I had had positive experiences with counselors and wanted to do that for other people.

I have two student jobs, one as a graduate researcher for the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, and one as a clerk for the Faculty Senate. My photography is more of a hobby, although I do also use the editing and planning skills I use with it in my work and academic career.

What led you to ��AV?

I had a friend who was attending undergraduate here and heard that Mason offered a good community. I went to high school in Arlington, so I liked the Northern Virginia region, and I knew that I wanted to become licensed in Virginia. There are good options for my line of work in the Northern Virginia/D.C. region.

As Above, So Below, a photo by Truman Deree

What do you do at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media?

I am part of a team researching the U.S. census on religious bodies from 1926. We look at photos of the actual census forms and are digitizing information from those forms so that we can gain a better understanding of America’s religious institutions at the time and map it out. I have been working on that project for about 2.5 semesters now. It’s a large ongoing project, called American Religious Ecologies.

What are your future plans, and how will the VMFA scholarship impact those?

I’m hoping to graduate next May. Right now, I’m doing my practicum, and I have two semesters of internship left. After that, my plan is to become a licensed counselor. The fellowship will be helpful to me by giving me some added stability to pay for all of my needs through graduate school. I’m very thankful in that regard.

Did you have any advice to share with other students?

First, I would say that for any creative project, practice and submit. There are so many places to share your art if you look. I think Mason is really great in this regard because there are so many student publications for most types of writing or art you can think of. I personally have been published in the Hispanic Culture Review, and that was super cool, so I encourage Mason students to explore the list of student publications and see if any of them correspond with what you’re into.

Topics

Students

Fellowships

College of Education and Human Development

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

A sport for everyone: George Mason Ice Hockey Club builds lasting connections with the community

Sarah Holland — Wed, 15 May 2024 15:05:14 +0000

A sport for everyone: George Mason Ice Hockey Club builds lasting connections with the community Sarah Holland Wed, 05/15/2024 - 11:05

Andrew Nash, BS in Sports Management ’17, MS in Sports Management ’18, has played a lot of sports in his lifetime. Nothing, he says, is like hockey.

Andrew Nash, left, on the ice at the annual charity game. Photo by Matt Ricciardi

“Maybe it’s the travel, or the difficulty of the sport, but it really bonds you together like no other sport I’ve played,” Nash said. “The sense of community is stronger than I ever felt.”

Community is the foundation of the ��AV Ice Hockey Club, a philosophy that extends beyond the barriers of the rink and past the stadium’s aluminum bleachers. In partnership with the Washington Capitals and Prince William County, George Mason Ice Hockey is working to expand access to hockey through an outdoor ball hockey rink right next to their home ice in Prince William Ice Center.

While a fantastic sport, ice hockey can be inaccessible. Players need access to an ice rink and need to be able to skate adeptly; they need full-body padding and a means to transport and care for that equipment; they need to be able to pay club fees, rink fees, and travel fees.

However, ball hockey—also called street hockey—opens the door to opportunity. Players only need sneakers, a stick, and a ball, and you’re ready to play.

“Ball hockey is a fantastic way to expand access to ice hockey,” said Steve Hyjek, former head coach of the George Mason Hockey Club. “It gives more people the opportunity to try the sport, to love the sport, and to become future players or fans.”

Hyjek, who retired from his role as head coach this year at the team’s 2024 charity game, wanted his players to be active and engaged citizens, giving back to their communities long after their time at George Mason has ended.

The annual charity game is one component of that. Prior to the game, for example, players meet with the people for whom they’re fundraising. “I want them to understand who they’re helping, and why we’re helping them,” Hyjek said. “It makes them feel more connected to the cause, and to the community that supports them, but it also makes this act of giving back almost like a muscle memory. So when they graduate, they keep doing it.”

This philosophy is one that has shaped his players’ careers.

During his junior year, Nash got an internship at the Washington Capitals thanks to Hyjek and the other coaches’ connections. Nash has worked for the Capitals ever since, now as the manager for youth hockey development. His job is expanding accessibility of hockey to the Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland community, through off-ice clinics in the form of ball and inline hockey.

“There will always be people who can’t afford to play ice hockey, or for whom an ice rink is too far from them to make regular games and practices feasible, but we don’t want to push them aside and say, ‘you can’t afford it, you’re not close to a rink, so you don’t matter,’ ” Nash said. “The hope with these workshops is that we show kids and families that there are alternatives, and further develop a community for the Capitals through increased interest in the sport.

“Without the community,’ Nash said, “there is no team.”

Steve Hyjek at his final charity game as head coach. Photo by Matt Ricciardi

Mae Whitesides, BA Criminology, Law and Society ’19, managed the team’s social media and website during her time at George Mason. Like Nash, her time in George Mason hockey opened the doors for a career in sports with the Washington Capitals marketing department and, more recently, social media for MLB Network and NHL Network. The dedication to supporting each other and the community was, she said, one of her fondest memories from her time at George Mason.

“The charity game my senior year was standing room only,” she said. “We would not be who we are today if not for that support from the community, and the work people like Steve put into building up our team.”

Hyjek agreed. “When you expand the community of folks who are playing the game or who are interested in the game, it helps the sport. For us, we hope that our work brings more players interested in George Mason and Mason Hockey, or even just more fans.”

This hypothesis has already proven to be true: After spending the day at a local elementary school, teaching kids how to play ball hockey, he’s seen some of those students in the stands of their games, as well as at Learn to Skate clinics. With the new ball hockey rink, he hopes that interest will continue to grow, not just in hockey but in George Mason as well.

“You’re planting seeds,” Hyjek said. “Planting seeds so that George Mason can be on their list when the time comes.”

Hit the ice with George Mason Ice Hockey Club

Find your team with George Mason club sports

Topics

Alumni

George Mason Ice Hockey Club

School of Sport Recreation and Tourism Management

College of Education and Human Development

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

club sports

inclusive excellence

Mason researchers support local school communities through decade-long collaboration

Sarah Holland — Mon, 06 May 2024 14:34:49 +0000

Mason researchers support local school communities through decade-long collaboration Sarah Holland Mon, 05/06/2024 - 10:34

An old African proverb says, “it takes a village to raise a child.” But when that village faces structural and systemic barriers, perhaps it takes a little more. A research team, for example, dedicated to community-based participatory action research.

Photo by Getty Images

For the past decade, a team of researchers from ��AV’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) has worked with mothers from Latine immigrant communities in Alexandria to help define specific structural and systemic barriers faced by caregivers and children in school and find solutions that meet community expectations and needs. Using an approach to research called community-based participatory action research (CBPAR), this team is helping transform how Alexandria public schools supports its immigrant students and their parents.

“CBPAR flips the script of traditional research,” explained Colleen Vesely, associate professor of early childhood education and member of the research team. “We partner directly with communities, often those which have been pushed to the margins, to do research with them, as opposed to research on them.”

A key part of CBPAR work is the formation of an advisory board. Amigas de la Comunidad—the board formed as part of this project—brings Latine mothers from Alexandria together to act as the liaison between researchers and the Latine immigrant community, as well as the Latine immigrant community and children- and family-serving organizations, institutions, and systems. They serve as co-researchers, directing the Mason team and helping them connect with local schools and community leaders, so together, Amigas and the research team can understand which projects will directly benefit the community.

“‘The spirit of a fighter’: Mixed-status Latine immigrant families' experiences during COVID” is their most recent publication: A study formed as a direct result of the advisory board’s concerns around how COVID-19 lockdown was impacting families and children. The paper details two years’ worth of interviews with families throughout the lockdown.

“We’re hearing and seeing concerns in local schools around bullying, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation in the aftermath of lockdown,” said associate professor of counseling Rachael Goodman, another member of the research team. “We’re hoping the data we gathered from these conversations during lockdown can help contextualize why this is happening, and how we might be able to mitigate some of that trauma.”

Because CBPAR is responsive to a community’s needs, this means outcomes of the research can lead to more immediate solutions. After hearing a need for support in the COVID-19 study, the team has worked with the advisory board and the school system to develop parent support groups. The team also had a hand in improving food distribution systems during lockdown, when the school meal distribution system wasn’t aligning with the needs of the community.

“Our project on mixed-status Latine families during the COVID-19 lockdowns was just one of many projects we’ve done with this group,” explained Vesely.

Bethany Letiecq, associate professor of research methodology and one of the researchers, noted that over the years of this work, the Alexandria school system has learned the role Amigas de la Comunidad plays in building bridges between the immigrant community and the surrounding systems and structures.

“Amigas has become their go-to group to make sure they’re aligning their services to the needs of the Latine immigrant community,” she said. “They’re sitting with the superintendent and other school leaders, they’re able to directly ask for needed resources, and the school system administrators value their knowledge and expertise. That’s huge.”

While their work with Amigas de la Comunidad continues, the researchers hope that by publishing this particular study this approach will become a model for family engagement and community work to change systems one step at a time.

“There are so many communities in this country where families feel marginalized and who don’t feel that they have a say in their communities,” said Professor Emerita of Education and research team member Betsy DeMulder. “We want to change that.”

“Ultimately,” Goodman said, “the goal of this kind of work is to change structures and systems to better support and serve marginalized communities.”

This mission extends to the academy as well. Amigas de la Comunidad is included in the author line of the team’s published works. DeMulder said that doesn’t happen in other forms of research, “but these women are involved in every step. They have their own expertise that is critical to our work. We wouldn’t be able to do this without their support and trust.”

That same trust and support is apparent among the team members as well. “It’s deeply collaborative research, and it requires a very high level of trust and teamwork between us in order to be successful,” said Vesely. “Including how we position each other at different stages of our careers and highlight each person’s role in the work. This collaboration and partnership has been incredibly important and meaningful to me.”

“We learn from and rely on one another,” Letiecq said. “To form a partnership with other women who are committed to supporting each other's liberation and empowerment, to resisting further marginalization and overcoming those barriers, has been so rewarding.”

“These are long-term commitments and therefore long-term relationships, both amongst us as the research team and with the community. It’ll be a decade this year that we’ve sat around the table with these women, and that’s a radical difference from the ways research is traditionally done,” said Goodman. “It makes our work better, and the impact of our research more sustainable.”

Explore the College of Education and Human Development

Topics

Research

Community-Based Research

College of Education and Human Development

Latine Communities

Strategic Direction

��AV’s College of Education and Human Development partners with NOVA and Loudoun County Public Schools on new Lab School

Colleen Rich — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 19:32:59 +0000

��AV’s College of Education and Human Development partners with NOVA and Loudoun County Public Schools on new Lab School Colleen Rich Mon, 04/29/2024 - 15:32

The Virginia Board of Education has approved funding for ��AV to launch the Accelerated College and Employability Skills (ACCESS) Academy, a collaborative partnership with Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) and Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). This lab school will be based inside K-12 public schools as part of shared goals to increase pathways for students from high school to college and on to high-demand careers.

Photo provided

“George Mason is making bold steps toward creating different pathways for all students through these partnerships with K-12 and community colleges to ensure access to higher education and high-demand, well-compensated careers,” said Dean Ingrid Guerra-López of George Mason’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD). “Our focus on innovative, problem-based learning and skills needed for the future workforce will ensure students have robust wrap-around supports all the way through their education and early careers to build a better future for themselves and their communities.”

Based in Loudoun County Public Schools supporting 9th-12th grades, ACCESS Academy will incorporate employability skills, innovative teaching and learning methods, and experiences co-designed with industry partners, researchers, and instructional faculty. ACCESS Academy will have direct on-ramps for 11th and 12th grade students, and phased-in lab school preparation during 9th and 10th grades.

“We’re excited to partner with George Mason and NOVA to increase access to unique learning opportunities for our students,” said LCPS Superintendent Aaron Spence. “ACCESS Academy will provide innovative educational experiences for students that will lead to certifications and two- and four-year degrees, as well as support students with access to high-demand and well-compensated jobs in the information technology fields. We have heard loud and clear from our community that our students need alternative pathways to college. And this is just one way we are getting them there."

Academy students in grades 9 and 10 will focus on completion of high school graduation requirements including English, social studies, math, and science. They will begin to develop employability skills through teaching, learning, and curriculum innovations that leverage other existing programs in students’ base schools. They also will be introduced to problem-based learning through focused activities that include guided practice and support the development of problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, systems thinking, and research skills.

ACCESS Academy is rooted in transdisciplinary collaboration harnessing a broad range of faculty expertise to design and deliver the curriculum. This learning ecosystem of faculty from George Mason’s CEHD and Information Technology Program, NOVA, and LCPS, as well as business and industry leaders, will create a replicable model for student success.

Researchers and industry partners will also work side by side with ACCESS students as part of a new Learning Innovation Lab, where teaching and learning innovations will be applied, evaluated, adapted, and disseminated. The Learning Innovation Lab will become a training ground for current and future educators as teacher candidates, in-service teachers, and faculty across a wide range of disciplines, including Information Technology. It will also expand evidence-based education research and talent development best practices for educational leaders, instructional systems designers, and policymakers, as well as industry and community partners.

NOVA Vice President of Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer Eun-Woo Chang said, “NOVA is excited to join this partnership to help students develop employability skills through an innovative curriculum that leverages our extensive dual enrollment program with high schools in the Northern Virginia region, especially with LCPS. Students will be immersed in activities designed to cultivate essential skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, and research skills.”

The expanded partnership with NOVA is part of the Mason Virginia Promise, which helps create a pathway to a bachelor’s degree for every Virginian who wants one. George Mason and NOVA’s flagship ADVANCE Program is designed to augment the transfer experience for community college students pursuing a bachelor's degree by removing common barriers and providing early support in their educational journey.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed the partnership agreements with colleges and universities to establish K-12 lab schools in January 2022.

Topics

Campus News

College of Education and Human Development

Mason Virginia Promise

ADVANCE

Announcing the recipients of the 2024 Presidential Faculty Excellence Awards

Melanie Balog — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 18:58:04 +0000

Announcing the recipients of the 2024 Presidential Faculty Excellence Awards Melanie Balog Fri, 04/12/2024 - 14:58

��AV President Gregory Washington has announced the recipients of the 2024 Presidential Awards for Faculty Excellence, honoring 13 Mason faculty members for their work on behalf of the university, students, and the broader community.

This is the eighth year for the Presidential Awards for Faculty Excellence, selected by a review committee that includes prior award recipients and senior leaders from relevant areas. Recipients will be honored at a reception May 7.

The awards honor faculty with up to six years of service, six to 12 years of service, and more than 12 years of service.

“��AV faculty are at the forefront of their fields and their work is an overarching reason why Mason is considered one of the country’s top 50 public universities,” Mason President Gregory Washington said. “We take great pride in honoring our faculty for their transcendent work and impact in teaching, research, social impact, and diversity and inclusion here at the largest public research university in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

The John Toups Presidential Medal for Excellence in Teaching is presented to a faculty member whose teaching inspires and stimulates students in the finest tradition of higher education.

The Beck Family Presidential Medal for Excellence in Research recognizes extraordinary contributions by members of the Mason faculty to consequential research of high impact. The award is presented annually to a Mason faculty member whose research represents groundbreaking advances in their field.

The United Bank Presidential Medal for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion recognizes extraordinary contributions in teaching, research, scholarship, creative works, or service that directly advances diversity and inclusion inside and outside the Mason community.

The Earle C. Williams Presidential Medal for Excellence in Social Impact is presented to a faculty member in any discipline who makes extraordinary efforts to use their scholarship to solve real-world problems.

The complete list of 2024 honorees is below. See prior recipients for 2017 to 2023.

Faculty Excellence in Teaching

Dominic White is an instructional assistant professor in the Department of Computational and Data Sciences in the College of Science. A computational paleontologist, White joined the Mason faculty in 2019 and serves as the course coordinator for CDS 101 and 102 Introduction to Computational and Data Sciences, a Mason Core course in the natural sciences. As course coordinator, he leads and supports a team of 15 faculty and teaching assistants who teach the course.

White has led a number of successful pedagogical experiments that have changed his approach to the introductory course. In particular, he has taken advantage of the capabilities of online learning platforms to make the course more interactive to encourage student engagement. Enrollments for the course have tripled in the four years White has been teaching it.

White also developed an innovative course, CDS 490 Data Science in Practice, in which undergraduate students worked with the U.S. Census Bureau on semester-long projects using census data, which they then presented at a Census Bureau conference.

Rachel Lewis is an instructional associate professor in Women and Gender Studies and director of undergraduate and graduate programs. She joined the faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) in 2012.

Lewis has taken an outsized role in curricular development for the Women and Gender Studies Program and has designed and taught 17 different courses over the past 10 years. Given the small number of program faculty members, her initiative has been crucial to the program’s ability to offer a wide array of courses. Lewis’s courses are interdisciplinary and transnational in scope, focusing on issues relating to sexuality, race, immigration, human and animal rights, ecology, and disability.

Lewis is extraordinarily active as a mentor to both graduate and undergraduate students. She has chaired 25 master’s degree student committees in five different programs and has served on the committees for nearly 30 more students at either the master’s degree or doctoral level. Lewis plays a central role in graduate mentorship across many humanities and social science fields, particularly for students whose research relates to issues of gender and sexuality.

Lisa Gring-Pemble an associate professor in the Costello College of Business, is the recipient of The John Toups Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Teaching. Her teaching fields include innovation and entrepreneurship, rhetoric, political communication, and public policy.

Every semester, Gring-Pemble meets with each of her students individually, building various in-term assessments and check-ins into her courses so that she can monitor their engagement and adapt accordingly, and guides each student toward their goals. She also creates new learning opportunities for her students, usually in the form of experiential learning. She has taken her students to New Hampshire to meet presidential candidates and observe the electoral process in person, organized study-abroad trips, and brought students with her to sit in on congressional debates and U.S. Supreme Court hearings.

Gring-Pemble’s innovative contributions often serve Mason’s goals of sustainability and inclusive excellence. She was cofounder of Mason’s Honey Bee Initiative and the founding co-executive director of the Business for a Better World Center. She is a board member of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth and serves on the advisory board of UndocuMason.

In 2020, Gring-Pemble codeveloped the Impact Fellows Program, a two-year cohort-based program for first-time, first-year students from groups underrepresented in the business world.

Faculty Excellence in Research

Antonios Anastasopoulos is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Computing. His research is in the field of natural language processing, which seeks to enable computers to understand text and spoken words.

Anastasopoulos has led projects that aim to make language technologies work for populations that are underserved by currently available tools—for example, by enabling computers to handle input from non-native language speakers or nonstandard dialects. He also has led interdisciplinary projects with humanists that seek to document endangered languages. He has, for example, developed tools that can perform optical character recognition on endangered languages so that currently inaccessible texts will be made available for scholarly analysis.

Since joining Mason in 2020, his publications have been cited more than 2,700 times. The interdisciplinary nature of his research is reflected in the diverse range of grants he has received, from the National Science Foundation to the National Endowment for the Humanities, Google, Amazon, Meta (Facebook), the Virginia Research Investment Fund, and the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative.

Rémi Veneziano is an assistant professor in Department of Bioengineering, having joined the College of Engineering and Computing in 2018. Much of his research has been in DNA origami, which involves the folding of DNA to create 2D and 3D objects at nanoscale, thus enabling the construction of functional nanomaterials. Veneziano has also led the effort to apply this research to the creation of new technologies. In recognition of his innovative approaches, he received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Trailblazer Award.

Veneziano has 10 patents or patent applications, including one that has been licensed, and he received seed funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation to start a new venture to commercialize technologies developed from his research. He has published his research widely, with 32 refereed publications, including one in the prestigious journal Science. His research has been supported by eight grants, from agencies such as NSF, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Lincoln Mullen is an associate professor in the Department of History and Art History in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He joined the Mason faculty in 2014.

As a historian of American religion and the 19th-century United States, his first book, The Chance of Salvation: A History of Conversion in America, published by Harvard University Press in 2017, won a Best Book prize from the American Academy of Religion. His second major project in this field was America’s Public Bible, published by Stanford University Press in 2023. This interactive scholarly work uncovers the history of the Bible in the 19th- and early 20th-century United States using computational methods.

Mullen is also executive director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media[PAW4] , the oldest and largest digital humanities center in the country. He has directed nine major collaborative digital projects and created several new software tools to examine or visualize historical datasets. One example is Mapping Early American Elections, which turned electoral returns from the first several decades of U.S. history into a dataset that could be analyzed and mapped using data visualization tools.

Rainald Löhner, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Science and director of the Center for Computational Fluid Dynamics, is the recipient of The Beck Family Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Research.

He has been a pioneer in developing computational models for solving fluid flow problems. His algorithms and techniques have been applied to solve such challenges as air and underwater explosions, ship and submarine hydrodynamics, hemodynamics of vascular diseases, contaminant and pathogen transport, and pedestrian movement and crowd control. Löhner’s recent efforts to apply his work in computational fluid dynamics to the problem of COVID-19 transport received national attention from major media outlets.

Löhner has nearly 900 research publications, including around 200 peer-reviewed articles in journals from a variety of disciplines. He is also the author of a textbook on applied computational fluid dynamics.

Löhner has given more than 150 invited talks, many of them abroad, and serves on the editorial board of six international journals. He has secured grants from several major organizations, including NASA, NSF, NIH, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. In 2023, he was recognized by Stanford University as one of the world's top 2% of scientists.

Faculty Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion

Gabrielle Tayac is an associate professor and public historian who joined the faculty in the Department of History and Art History in CHSS in 2020. Prior to that, she served as an educator, historian, and curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, where she became a leading figure in the development of community curation, a new inclusive methodology for studying and representing the history of underrepresented groups. This methodology combines archival research with oral history and other forms of community engagement.

Tayac has created six new courses that teach community-engaged public history methods to undergraduate and graduate students. In each course, she builds in experiential learning opportunities in which her students interact with knowledge holders from the marginalized communities whose history they are studying.

With funding from the Virginia Humanities Foundation, Tayac led doctoral students in an oral history project with Barrios Unidos, a grassroots anti-violence organization in Northern Virginia that developed Indigenous cultural practices as a healing modality for gang-involved youth.

Kelly Knight joined the Department of Forensic Science in 2013 as an instructional associate professor in the College of Science. Prior to Mason, she worked as a forensic scientist, first as a research associate and laboratory manager, and then as a forensic DNA analyst for several years with the Maryland State Police’s Forensic Sciences Division.

In 2019, Knight led the effort to create the first forensic DNA laboratory on campus, where she is the principal investigator, in part based on the goal of providing hands-on learning to erase gender and ethnic gaps in STEM degree achievement. In 2021, she participated in an NSF-funded eight-week course called the Inclusive STEM Teaching Project. She and two other Mason faculty members completed the facilitator workshop training necessary to lead a group of Mason STEM faculty through the same course.

Knight also serves as the faculty advisor for several student groups, including the Women of Color in STEM. More than a decade ago, she cofounded the Females of Color and those Underrepresented in STEM (FOCUS) middle school camp and the FOCUS High School Academy.

Xiaomei Cai, associate chair and associate professor in the Department of Communication in CHSS, is the recipient of The United Bank Presidential Medal for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion. At Mason since 2006, her research and scholarship focus on the well-being of vulnerable populations, especially with respect to children’s privacy on the internet and health prevention among adolescents.

Cai’s leadership of inclusive excellence causes was motivated, in part, by the surge of anti-Asian discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cai played a lead role in developing the CHSS Network, a faculty mentoring program that reaches all faculty but was created in part to ensure that underrepresented faculty members receive adequate guidance and support.

Cai has also been instrumental in the development of the college’s inclusive faculty search protocol, which resulted in a significant increase in the number of minoritized faculty at the college, as well as in the number of faculty whose scholarly expertise and research reflects broader, more diverse interests. Within the Department of Communication, she has aligned the departmental goals with college-wide inclusive excellence efforts.

Cai has recently taken on the program coordinator role for the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander Affinity Group . She has partnered with organizations such as the Chinese American Parents Association of Northern Virginia to advance justice-related causes.

Faculty Excellence in Social Impact

Melissa Ainsworth is an instructional assistant professor in the field of special education in the College of Education and Human Development. She taught K-12 students with severe disabilities in Fairfax County Public Schools for many years and she continued to do so while earning her doctorate at Mason in 2014 and teaching part-time at the university level. She began her full-time faculty appointment in 2019.

Ainsworth’s social impact is evidenced through her deep commitment to her students, who are themselves teachers in the field of special education, and how she provides guidance and support for teachers of students with severe disabilities. Motivated by her own research findings that such teachers often feel isolated within their schools and experience high levels of burnout and turnover, she has created a community of practice group, REFLECT GMU, for Mason alumni who teach students with severe disabilities. She has also formed an online community, KEEP GMU, that serves as a discussion group and resource repository for program alumni who work with students with severe disabilities.

Eunmee Lee joined Mason as a full-time faculty member for the INTO Mason program in 2015. In 2016, she joined the faculty at Mason Korea, where she is currently an instructional associate professor and teaches English for academic purposes[PAW8] . Lee is also the founder and director of Mason Korea’s Academic Resource Center.

Lee has led two major initiatives that have had a substantial impact upon the Incheon community and its relationship with Mason and other universities located at Incheon Global Campus. The first is Korea’s Citizen Life College, a program that offers Incheon citizens free, noncredit lifelong learning courses taught mostly by Mason Korea faculty. The program is designed to reach the people of “Old Incheon,” a mainly working-class community. The program provides access to a Mason education to people who could not otherwise afford it.

Lee has also led a project to support Incheon’s K-12 school system by creating programs for Mason Korea students and faculty to teach and mentor local middle and high school students. She has also organized in-service training programs for K-12 schools and teachers in the city.

Shane Caswell, professor of athletic training in the School of Kinesiology in CEHD and founding director of the Sports Medicine Assessment Research and Testing Laboratory, is the recipient of The Earle C. Williams Presidential Medal for Excellence in Social Impact. Caswell focuses on the practical implementation of research around critical health care and safety initiatives, particularly around brain health and concussion management. Since joining the Mason faculty, he has used his research findings to improve the health of student-athletes in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Over a decade ago, Caswell created the ACHIEVES Project, which stands for AdvanCing Healthcare Initiatives for undErserVEd Students to improve concussion education, diagnosis, and management within Prince William County Public Schools. The project has added new dimensions over the years, including increasing the number of athletic trainers in middle schools and preparing them to diagnose and treat concussions on site.

The Virginia Concussion Initiative (VCI) brought together health care providers, school personnel, and researchers to develop electronic resources relating to concussions for schools and parents, including the Neurodiversity Toolkit, which provides guidance about how to address the unique needs of neurodivergent individuals during concussion care. It has been adopted by the Centers for Disease Control as the first toolkit nationally and internationally to address the needs of this specific population.