Fellows' News

July 2019

Dr. Irma Arteaga and others teamed up to publish “Improving Teacher Practices With Children Under Five: Experimental Evidence From the Mississippi Buildings Blocks” on Sage Journals. Its main purpose is to use the theory of action in professional development to create a more enriching classroom for preschoolers and enhance learning and skills.

Dr. Claire E. Altman and others published “The migration decision process among returnees: Assessing the risks and benefits in contemporary Mexico–US migration” through Oxford Academic’s Migration Studies. The article explains how migrants weigh re-emigration decisions based on previous experience working illegally in the US.

Dr. Kim Song and Dr. Sujin Kim with other researcher published “Manifesting multidimensional creativity in a technology-mediated online TESOL practicum course” in the TESOL Journal. Their research examines how creativity presents itself in online courses’ threads and final papers by measuring creativity within collaborative critical reflection, creativity transformed as new pedagogy, and creativity mediated by technology.

Dr. Emily R. Crawford and Dr. Lisa M. Dorner edited together Educational Leadership of Immigrants: Case Studies in Times of Change published by Routledge. This book is meant to prepare current and future educational leaders to evolve with the changing climate of U.S. demographics, education, and immigration policy.

Dr. Gustavo Carlo and others share their work published in Children and Youth Services Review “Children exposed to methamphetamine in settings where the drug is being used”. The article presents a descriptive analysis of children’s exposure in settings where the drug is being used in an effort to educate adults and assess the risks children face living in these environments, serving as a motivator to promote substance abuse treatment.

Dr. Stephen Jeanetta and Dr. María E. Rodríguez-Alcalá worked with another researcher on “The Role of Acculturation and Social Capital in Access to Health Care: A Meta-Study on Hispanics in the U.S.” and published in the Journal of Community Health. This study is meant to enhance the understanding of how acculturation and social capital impact the Hispanic population’s ability to access and navigate health care in the U.S.         

Dr. Gustavo Carlo and another researcher collaborated to give us “Nativity as a Moderator of Familial and Nonfamilial Correlates of Latino/a Youth Prosocial Behaviors” found in the Journal of Research on Adolescence. This article’s findings address nativity as playing a prominent role in familial and nonfamilial relations guidance of youth’s prosocial tendencies.          

Dr. Denice Adkins and another researcher share their work “Information behavior and ICT use of Latina immigrants to the U.S. Midwest” in Information Processing & Management: An International Journal. The article presents foundational research on the complex and interconnected nature of the social environment of Latina immigrants in the U.S. Midwest to better understand information practices. This population is highly vulnerable to marginalization and digital exclusion; this research investigates systematically Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use by immigrant Latinas is the Midwest.

Dr. Gustavo Carlo worked with another researcher to publish “Toward an Integrative Conceptual Model on the Relations Between Discrimination and Prosocial Behaviors in US Latino/Latina Youth” in the Handbook of Children and Prejudice. This article explores theories and research on discriminatory experiences role in US Latino youth prosocial behaviors and the associated risk and protective factors.

Dr. Sujin Kim and Dr. Kim Song wrote the article “Designing a Community Translanguaging Space Within a Family Literacy Project” in the journal The Reading Teacher. This article features a multilingual family literacy project to enhance family engagement in children’s literacy development. This is done by family and community members collaborating to build larger communicative repertoires of multiple languages.

Dr. Denice Adkins, along with two other researchers, share their research “Exploring Reader-Generated Language to Describe Multicultural Literature” in the International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion. In this article, text mining processes, or deriving high-quality information from the text is used to yield reader-generated book reviews, followed by analyzation of the words readers use to describe multicultural fiction with the goal of providing library and information science (LIS) professionals insight into reader’s perspective related to this genre.

Dr. Francisco Palermo and Dr. Gustavo Carlo collaborated with two other researchers on the article “Latina mothers’ mental health and children’s academic readiness: Moderation by maternal education” found in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. This article looks at the association of Latina mothers’ parenting stress and depression to their children’s academic skills years later, if mothers’ positive parenting behaviors and children’s self-regulation mediated those associations, and whether the mediated associations varied based on mothers’ education.

Dr. Lisa Y. Flores and others wrote the article “Evaluating the Scholarly Impact of Vocational Research With Diverse Racial/Ethnic Groups: 1969-2017” in the Journal of Career Development. Through citation analysis, this study evaluates the scholarly impact of career-related articles on diverse racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. from a pool of journal articles published in a variety of journals.

Dr. Gustavo Carlo and others published the article “The quality of mother-adolescent disclosure: Links with predictors and adolescents’ sociomoral outcomes” in the journal Social Development. This article examines the factors that predict the quality of adolescents’ disclosure to their parents, more specifically their mothers, as well as the consequences of quality for adolescent’s outcomes.

April 2019

Dr. Irma Arteaga worked with two other researchers on “Dosage Effects in the Child-Parent Center PreK-to-3rd Grade Program: A Re-analysis in the Chicago Longitudinal Study” in the Children and Youth Services Review. The study investigates the effects of program duration from preschool to 3rd grade on school outcomes and whether the effects differ by gender.

Dr. Stephanie Potochnick and Olivia Piontek collaborated on the policy brief “The Implications of In-State Resident Tuition Policies on Immigrant Health in the U.S.” for the MU Institute of Public Policy. The brief is a first look at how inclusive state in-state resident tuition policies influence the overall health of undocumented high school and college-aged youth.

Dr. Stephanie Potochnick, Dr. Lisa Y. Flores, and Dr. Sarah F. May published in the Harvard Educational Review “In-State Resident Tuition Policies and the Self-Rated Health of High-School-Aged and College-Aged Mexican Noncitizen Immigrants, Their Families, and the Latina/o Community”. The article addresses the gap in research on state-level immigration policies and health in the US by examining the health implications of in-state resident tuition policies and their effects.

Dr. Gustavo Carlo and Dr. Sarah Killoren share their research in “Ethnic Socialization, Identity, and Values Associated with U.S. Latino/a Young Adults' Prosocial Behaviors”, published by the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. The findings highlight the need for more research on gender-based and relation-based patterns of prosocial behaviors in U.S. Latinos/a young adults.

Dr. Sarah Killoren, Sonia Girón and others wrote the article “Adolescent Girls’ Disclosure About Dating and Sexuality”, published in the Journal of Family Issues. The article is about how adolescents disclose information about romantic relationships and sexuality to family members and friends, but little is known about the correlates of the disclosure.

Dr. Corinne Valdivia collaborated with a group a researchers on “Socio-ecological Dimensions of Andean Pastoral Landscape Change: Bridging Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Satellite Image Analysis in Sajama National Park, Bolivia”, an article published in Regional Environmental Change. The article is about assessing land cover change using satellite images, vegetation survey, and local knowledge to reveal the dimensions of bofedal change in Bolivia.

Dr. Gustavo Carlo, Dr. Francisco Palermo, and others wrote the article “Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Young Children’s Cognitive and Social Development”, published in Reviews on Environmental Health. The article is about the role of environmental toxicant exposure on children’s development.

October 2017

Dr. Stephanie Potochnick shares research findings in "Reversing Welfare Reform? Examining the effects of policy changes on Mexican immigrant families" research brief published by the Institute of Public Policy. The brief examines how eligibility expansion for some immigrants to access federal nutrition assistance has affected food insecurity, which is of importance as the expansion may be cut under some 2018 US budget proposals.

"The 2002 Farm Bill reopened access to federal nutrition assistance for nearly two thirds of immigrants who lost eligibility under Welfare Reform in 1996. [...] Eligibility expansion under the 2002 Farm Bill appears to have had real, substantive effects for Mexican mixed-citizen immigrant families in particular. Specifically, more families received food stamps and fewer families were at risk for food insecurity." ... "Research has shown [food insecurity] is associated with poor short- and long-term outcomes for children in development, physical health, psychological health, and academic well-being."

Welcome to New Fellow J.S. Onésimo (Ness) Sandoval, as Associate Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Public and Social Policy Ph.D. program at Saint Louis University. Dr. Sandoval's primary research interests focus on the intersection of Demographic Techniques and Computational Spatial Science to study spatial inequality in American cities. His research projects include Latino Demography projects that study Latino Pueblos and Hyper-Pueblos, the geography of racialized Latinos, and Pan-Latino Populations. The research projects are unified by an underlying theoretical concern with the intersection of inequality, race, and space with a specific focus on how Latinidad shapes urban and rural places. His research projects demonstrate his willingness to foster a methodological pluralism that facilitates the study of time-honored questions in refreshing and innovative ways. He has consciously designed his projects to initiate a dialogue that promotes new directions for scholarship that interrogates the meaning of Latino (e.g., Latinx) as a social and demographic construct.

Welcome to New Student Fellows, Leticia Martinez, a PhD student in Educational, School & Counseling Psychology, MU; and Nancy Muro, a PhD student in Educational, School & Counseling Psychology, MU.

Cambio Fellow and Assistant Professor of Literacy Angie Zapata has received the 2017 Early Career Award from the Children’s Literature Assembly honoring her "extraordinary promise as a researcher and leader."

Student fellow Maria E. Rodriguez-Alcalá will be defending her dissertation, "The Role of Social Capital and Acculturation in Healthcare Access: The Case of Hispanics in Missouri" on Thursday, November 2 at 1pm in 217 Mumford Hall. Her dissertation defense is open to the public. Maria is a PhD student in Rural Sociology and her advisor is Dr. Sandy Rikoon.

September 2017

Welcome to new fellow Dr. Claire E. Altman, Assistant Professor in Department of Health Sciences and the Truman School of Public Affairs. As a social demographer her work broadly focuses on population health and immigrant well-being. She has done research on topics such as obesity, fertility, weight perceptions, and self-assessed health. Her current research examines the role of legal status on health and life course transitions for young adult unauthorized immigrants.

Fellow Gustavo Carlo's co-written article, "A Model of Maternal and Paternal Ethnic Socialization of Mexican-American Adolescents’ Self-Views", was published in the Child Development journal of the Wiley Online Library last month. The article discusses findings that support ethnic socialization conceptions of how self-views of ethnicity develop from childhood across adolescence in Mexican-American children.

Knight, G. P., Carlo, G., Streit, C. and White, R. M.B. (2017), A Model of Maternal and Paternal Ethnic Socialization of Mexican-American Adolescents’ Self-Views. Child Dev. doi:10.1111/cdev.12939. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.12939/full

Student fellow Isabel Montes presented a paper co-authored with fellow Pilar Mendoza in Santa Fe, Argentina on May 4th.

Montes, I. & Mendoza, P. (2017, May 4). Research and Teaching in Colombian Universities: Two Case Studies from Academic Capitalism and Institutional Change (Spanish). Paper presented at the VIII National Summit and V Latin-American The University as Subject of Study (Spanish). Santa Fe, Argentina.

Congratulations to Fellow Dr. Juanamaría Cordones-Cook for her recent awards and the premiere of her new film!

At the XV Festival “Santiago Alvárez In Memoriam,” in March 2017 in Santiago de Cuba, J. Cordones-Cook received two awards for her documentaries:

• Rogelio Martinez Fure: un griot cubano/ A Cuban Griot (2014), by the Centro Provincial de Casas de Cultura, from Santiago de Cuba
• Alberto Lescay, alma y tierra/ tierra/ Earth and /Soul (2016), by the Centro Provincial del Libro y la Literatura y el Centro de Promoción Literaria Jose Soler Puig, from Santiago de Cuba.

During her research trip to Havana in May 2017, Cordones-Cook completed her film África en la danza moderna cubana: Eduardo Rivero / Africa in the Cuban Modern Dance: Eduardo Rivero, ca. 42 minutes with subtitles in English. This film documents the life history and artistic legacy of Cuba’s great dancer and choreographer Eduardo Rivero Walker (Havana 1936 - Santiago de Cuba 2012) told by himself and by some prominent personalities of Cuban culture who knew him well. Cordones-Cook premiered this film at the international conference Diversidad Cultural en el Caribe. The film will premiere at the University of Missouri on February 15, 2018 (see events below).

August 2017

Welcome to new Fellow Karen Funkenbusch, a State Health and Safety Extension Specialist for University of Missouri Extension in Human Environmental Sciences. Karen’s main outreach, research, and teaching interest include agricultural health, safety, wellness and quality of life issues for Spanish speaking and other underserved populations who are farmers and ranchers or who want to become self-employed as a farmer or rancher in an agricultural sector. She co-developed the “Let's Talk About Arthritis” (Hablemos sobre artritis) train-the-trainer program with the National Center for Farmworker Health, Missouri Arthritis, Research and Training Center, and Missouri AgrAbility Project.  

Fellow Dr. Nadia Navarrete-Tindall, previously Research Associate at the University of Missouri and Extension Native Plants Specialist at Lincoln University Cooperative Extension, is now an Independent Consultant. She writes grants and offers education and consultation on native plants for conservation and as specialty crops.

She is seeking for opportunities to collaborate with agencies and institutions in topics related to sustainable agriculture and native plants. She writes a monthly column on native edible plants for the Jefferson City News Tribune. She may be contacted by email (NativePlantsandMore@gmail.com) and through her Facebook page.

Additionally, Dr. Navarrete-Tindall's latest article "Dining Wild: Prairie onions add excitement to your garden" was published in the Jefferson City News Tribune earlier this month.

Navarrete-Tindall, N. (2017, August 16). Dining Wild: Prairie onions add excitement to your garden. Retrieved from http://www.newstribune.com/news/features/story/2017/aug/16/prairie-onions-add-excitement-to-your-garden/686592/.

Fellow Dr. Emily Crawford's case study includes six activities for the classroom to facilitate leaders' learning on access and educational opportunities for undocumented students, connecting to Supreme Court decision and other resources.

Crawford, E. R., & Hairston, S. L. (2017). He Could Be Undocumented: Striving to Be Sensitive to Student Documentation Status in a Rural Community. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 1555458917718008.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1555458917718008

July 2017

Fellow Sarah E. Killoren was a co-author on a published piece titled "Mexican American College Students’ Perceived Experiences of Discrimination, Ethnic Identity, and Adjustment: The Protective Role of Sibling Support." It can be found here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2167696817711606

Jones, S. K., Killoren, S. E., Alfaro, E. C., & Gonzales-Backen, M. A. (2017). Mexican American College Students’ Perceived Experiences of Discrimination, Ethnic Identity, and Adjustment: The Protective Role of Sibling Support. Emerging Adulthood, 2167696817711606.

Fellow Denice Adkins's piece titled "Information Sources of Latin American Immigrants in the Rural Midwest in the Trump Era" was published in The Library Quarterly. It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1086/692301

Adkins, D., Sandy, H. M., & Derpic, J. (2017). Information Sources of Latin American Immigrants in the Rural Midwest in the Trump Era. The Library Quarterly, 87(3), 243-256.

Fellow Emily Crawford-Rossi has had her recent piece "We don't Talk about Undocumented Status…We Talk about Helping Children”: How School Leaders Shape School Climate for Undocumented Immigrants" published. It can be found here: http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/ijelm.2017.2840

Crawford, E. (2017). “We don't talk about undocumented status… We talk about helping children”: How School Leaders Shape School Climate for Undocumented Immigrants. International Journal of Educational Leadership and Management, 5(2), 116-147.

Fellows Lisa M. Dorner and Emily Crawford-Rossi had here piece "I Think Immigrants “Kind of Fall Into Two Camps”: Boundary Work by U.S.-Born Community Members in St. Louis, Missouri" published. It can be found here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0895904817719529

Dorner, L. M., Crawford, E. R., Jennings, J., Sandoval, J. O., & Hager, E. (2017). I Think Immigrants “Kind of Fall Into Two Camps”: Boundary Work by US-Born Community Members in St. Louis, Missouri. Educational Policy, 0895904817719529.

May 2017

Fellow Dr. Sarah Killoren received a HES Distinguished Research Award at the HES Week Awards Reception.

Dr. Kate Olson, a Cambio Center student fellow, successfully defended her dissertation and received her doctorate from the Truman School of Public Affairs.

Student fellow Dr. Cara Streit also received her doctorate from the MU Department of Human Development and Family Science and will be a professor at the University of New Mexico - Albuquerque.

Spring and Summer 2017

Welcome to the new Cambio Center Fellows and Student Fellows, joining this Spring 2017 Semester: 

Fellows
Ryan Barker - Missouri Foundation for Health
Miriam M. Martinez - Assistant Research Professor, Human Development and Family Science, MU
Donette Alonzo, Global Service Learning Coordinator, Office of Service Learning, MU 
Student Fellows
Edwin Bonney - Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis
Chad Christensen - Rural Sociology
Amy Dwiggins - Math Education
Isabel Montes Gutierrez - Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis
Alex Smith - Special Education PhD student
Cara Streit - Human Development and Family Studies
Han Na Suh – Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

April 2017

Fellow Dr. Zandra de Araujo and colleagues' article "Eliciting and Analyzing Preservice Teachers' Mathematical Noticing" was published in Mathematics Teacher Educator in March. The article describes an experiment that was implemented at six universities in an effort to elicit elementary preservice teachers' mathematical noticing.

Another article by Dr. Araujo and colleagues, "Preservice teachers’ articulated noticing through pedagogies of practice," was recently published in the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education.

Julie M. Amador, Anne Estapa, Zandra de Araujo, Karl W. Kosko, & Tracy L. Weston. (2017). Eliciting and Analyzing Preservice Teachers' Mathematical Noticing. Mathematics Teacher Educator, 5(2), 158-177. doi:10.5951/mathteaceduc.5.2.0158

Estapa, A. T., Amador, J., Kosko, K. W., Weston, T., de Araujo, Z., & Aming-Attai, R. Preservice teachers’ articulated noticing through pedagogies of practice. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 1-29.

An article by fellows Dr. Irma Arteaga andDr. Stephanie R. Potochnick, along with another colleague, was recently published in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. The article examines changes in food insecurity for Hispanic kindergarteners between 1998 and 2011, a time period of rapid immigration and political/socio-economic changes.

Arteaga, I., Potochnick, S. & Parsons, S. Decomposing the Household Food Insecurity Gap for Children of U.S.-Born and Foreign-Born Hispanics: Evidence from 1998 to 2011. Journal of Immigrant Minority Health (2017). doi:10.1007/s10903-017-0561-0

Fellows Cara Streit, Dr. Gustavo Carlo, and Dr. Francisco Palermo andacolleague recently had an article published in the journal Developmental Psychology. The article presents a study examined the early parenting and temperament determinants of children's antisocial and positive behaviors in a low-income, diverse ethno-racial sample.

Streit C, Carlo G, Ispa JM, Palermo F. Negative emotionality and discipline as long-term predictors of behavioral outcomes in African American and European American children. Developmental Psychology. 2017; ePub.

February 2017

Fellow Dr. Juanamaria Cordones-Cook has directed and produced a new documentary film, "Una ruta afro-cubana: Zuleica Romay / An Afro-Cuban Journey: Zuleica Romay,"

Student fellow Aaron Arredondo is spearheading the Cambio de Colores' Student Gathering organization and networking. Subscribe to the Student Group low-traffic newsletter to stay up-to-date on the Student Gathering, which will take place the morning of June 14 prior to the conference.

Fellow Dr. Emily R. Crawford's article "When Boundaries Around the "Secret" are Tested: A School Community Response to the Policing of Undocumented Immigrants" was recently published. The article explores how educators’ roles within a school shaped their access to information and subsequent sensemaking about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Crawford, E. R. (2017). When Boundaries Around the “Secret” are Tested: A School Community Response to the Policing of Undocumented Immigrants. Education and Urban Society, 0013124517690227.

A research article by fellow Dr. Gustavo Carlo and colleagues was recently published on Wiley Online Library. The article, titled "Longitudinal Relations Among Parenting Styles, Prosocial Behaviors, and Academic Outcomes in U.S. Mexican Adolescents," examines parenting styles and prosocial behaviors as longitudinal predictors of academic outcomes in U.S. Mexican youth.

Carlo, G., White, R. M. B., Streit, C., Knight, G. P. and Zeiders, K. H. (2017), Longitudinal Relations Among Parenting Styles, Prosocial Behaviors, and Academic Outcomes in U.S. Mexican Adolescents. Child Dev. doi:10.1111/cdev.12761.

Fellow Dr. Lisa Y. Flores and colleague's article "Overview of Career and Workforce Profiles among Diverse US Racial/Ethnic Groups" was published in The Handbook of Career and Workforce. The article explores how people of color in the US experience institutional barriers within the settings of work and school that prevent them from achieving their educational and occupational goals.

Flores, Lisa Y., Feihan Li, and Sarah F. May. "Overview of Career and Workforce Profiles among Diverse US Racial/Ethnic Groups." The Handbook of Career and Workforce Development: Research, Practice, and Policy (2017).

January 2017

Fellow Dr. Zandra de Araujo and colleagues shared research on the flipped instruction of mathematics classes as well as the mathematics education of English learners. She also worked with student fellow Erin Smith on a study that examined how teachers modified cognitively demanding mathematics tasks for use with teaching English language learners.

Otten, S., Webel, C., & de Araujo, Z. (2017). Inspecting the foundations of claims about cognitive demand and student learning: A citation analysis of Stein and Lane (1996). The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 45, 111-120.

de Araujo, Z., Otten, S., & Birisci, S. (2017). Mathematics teachers' motivations for, conceptions of, and experiences with flipped instruction. Teaching and Teacher Education, 62, 60-70.

Sakow, M., Smith, E., & de Araujo, Z. Examining Preservice Teacher Task Modifications for English Language Learners.

de Araujo, Z., Civil, M., Fernandes, A., Moschkovich, J., Roberts, S., Willey, C., & Zahner, W. Mathematics Education and English Learners.

Fellow Dr. Denice Adkins recently had an essay published in Volume 42 of Advances in Librarianship. Her chapter provides a review of diversity management as framed in business and organizational management literature, and relates that literature to the current state of diversity theory development in library and information science (LIS).

Adkins, D. (2016) Diversity management and the organizational perspective, Celebrating the James Partridge Award: Essays Toward the Development of a More Diverse, Inclusive, and Equitable Field of Library and Information Science. Emerald, pp. 131–141.

Fellows Dr. Gustavo Carlo and Dr. Sarah Killoren and colleagues recently had a paper published in a Journal of Family Issues on SAGE Journals. In this paper, the team continue their research on prosocial behaviors as it relates to the quality of relationships with family members for U.S. Mexican young adults.

Streit, C., Carlo, G., Killoren, S. E., & Alfaro, E. C. (2017). Family Members’ Relationship Qualities and Prosocial Behaviors in US Mexican Young Adults: The Roles of Familism and Ethnic Identity Resolution. Journal of Family Issues, 0192513X16686134.

A recently published article by fellow Dr. Emily R. Crawford-Rossi examines how a school leader and personnel perceived the impact that ICE activity in their community had on students and families, whether school personnel incorporated community concerns in their response, and if they exhibited an “ethic of community."

Crawford, E. R. (2017). The Ethic of Community and Incorporating Undocumented Immigrant Concerns Into Ethical School Leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 0013161X16687005.

December 2016

Fellow Dr. Lina Trigos-Carrillo co-authored an article with other colleagues at UMSL that was published earlier this month in the Review of Educational Research (a top journal in education). The reference citation and a link to the article are listed below:

Rogers, R., Schaenen, I., Schott, C., O’Brien, K., Trigos-Carrillo, L., Starkey, K., Chasteen, C. (2016). Critical discourse analysis in educational research: A review of the literature, 2004-2012. Review of Educational Research, 86 (4), pp. 1192  –1226. 
 

Fellow Dr. Lisa Flores and colleagues’ research on Latino engineering students’ persistence was presented at the Frontiers in Education Conference.

Hunt, H. K., Flores, L. Y., Navarro, R. L., & Lee, H. S. (2016, December). Increasing diverse students' persistence in engineering: A social cognitive perspective. In Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2016 IEEE (pp. 1-6). IEEE. 

November 2016

October 2016

Welcome to new student fellows: Adriana Boersner Herrera, a doctoral candidate in Political Science whose studies include comparative Latin American politics; Aaron Padgett, a doctoral student in Sociology who is researching Micronesian immigrant communities in Missouri; and Layla Padgett, who is pursuing her masters of Social Work and focuses on housing policy, rights and resources for refugees and immigrants.

Dr. Stephen Christ joined UMKC this fall as Assistant Teaching Professor of Social/Behavorial Science in the UMKC Honors College, and is affiliated with the UMKC Latina/Latino Studies program. He continues his research agenda:

"In his research, Dr. Christ examines the everyday experiences of Mexican immigrants in the United States that contribute to Mexican-American identity formation. More specifically, how Mexican Americans experience daily life at home, at work, in public life and in how these experiences impact their sense of personal identity, their relationships with natives, their interactions with their families and community, and the identity work that goes into producing such categories and social worlds."

Dr. Emily Crawford-Rossi is helping to build a more inclusive environment for international students, as a panelist in the Oct 7th discussion Building and Nurturing Mutual Connections: Mizzou Ed International Students, Faculty and Professional Staff. Program details:

"How international students interact with faculty and professional staff can vary significantly from one country to another. The transition can be stressful for international students who are still learning to navigate academia in the United States. On the other hand, faculty members and professional staff are not always aware of these differences and do not always know how to best engage and support international students so that they can have a successful educational experience in the United States.

"Join a conversation with our panelists Dr. Crawford-Rossi (ELPA faculty), Dr. Wang (ESCP faculty) and Isabel Montes (ELPA Ph.D. student) for an opportunity to learn different strategies of facilitating and nurturing strong cross-cultural connections between students, faculty and professional staff. We anticipate initiating mutual cultural understanding to learn how we can best engage and support scholarly growth in our global education community."

Dr. Eleazar Gonzalez is the co-program director of a recently award grant from the USDA to support efforts to help veterans, Latinos, women and socially disadvantaged persons to farm or go into agribusiness. Eleazar has worked for many years with beginning Latino farmers and ranchers, and will lead four workshops in Spanish in areas with large Latino populations.

"The grant comes at a critical time, said Funkenbusch. 'Returning veterans and Latinos represent the fastest-growing groups of beginning farmers and ranchers in Missouri.' "

Learn more here.

September 2016

Dr. Stephanie Potochnick shared her research findings in “Local-level immigration enforcement and food insecurity risk among Hispanic immigrant families with children: national-level evidence,” an article recently published in the Journal of Immigrant Minority Health. From the MU News Bureau's release:

“This research provides the first national-level evidence that local immigration laws negatively influence the health and well-being of immigrant families, specifically Mexican non-citizen families,” Potochnick said. “Evidence suggests that local-level immigration enforcement can generate fear and reduce social service use among Hispanic immigrant families who often live in the shadows, making it difficult to understand the health impacts of such policies.”

Fellow Dr. Daisy Collins was recently hired to be the Abstinence-based Education Program (AEP) Program Coordinator in the School of Social Work. Dr. Collins will lead the Latino Parent Education program, Let’s Talk- Hablemos, and the community-based Making A Difference sexual health and wellness program for youth between 11-14 years of age.  For further information, please contact Dr. Susan Dollar at susandollar@missouristate.edu or Dr. Daisy Collins at DaisyBCollins@missouristate.edu

Dr. Collins also recently hosted a NCERA 216 webinar on her research: "The Brown Glass Ceiling? A Qualitative Study of Hispanic Women/Latinas Leaders in Higher Education", that can be watched here.

Congratulations to Georgina Herrera, and our talented fellows Dr. Juanamaria Cordones-Cook and Maria Rodriguez-Alcala for their work on the award-winning book, Always Rebellious/Cimarroneando: Selected poems by Georgina Herrera. The book won the first place award in the category "Best Poetry Book - One Author - Bilingual" in The 2016 International Latino Book Awards. Dr. Cordones-Cook wrote the introduction and notes for the book, and she and Rodriguez-Alcala worked on the translation. Always Rebellious/Cimarroneando is available for purchase on Amazon.

Cambio Fellow Alejandra Gudiño continues to demonstrate leadership from University of Missouri Extension on a national and regional level to promote inclusion and equity. Alejandra has been named a leader in the area of Reaching New Audiences in the eXtension Community of Practice on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She also continues to lead the Webinar series through the regional North Central Education/Extension and Research Activity NCERA 216: "Latinos and Immigrants in Midwestern Communities".

Alejandra was recently selected as a Champion for Immigrant Youth by the State 4-H Program Leaders. She also serves as a member of the Vulnerable Populations Working Group, a 4-H project supported by a grant from CYFAR - the Children, Youth and Families at Risk Program. This working group has been developing a program for the populations which comprise a large and growing percentage of our country’s young people who disproportionately contend with conditions that often compromise healthy development and access to support for it, even as they carry rich cultural resources and cultivate strength and insight through adversity.

August 2016

Dr. Francisco Palermo's research findings on Spanish-speaking preschoolers were recently published and provide key information to parents and teachers of preschoolers. See Education Week's blog post on his findings.

“Cross-language associations and changes in Spanish-speaking preschoolers’ English and Spanish academic abilities,” was published in Applied Psycholinguistics (linked here). This research found that when the preschoolers had a solid foundation in letters-words and math skills in Spanish, that those skills transferred and supported those skills in their English classroom. Which suggests to Spanish-speaking parents that they can focus on math and letter-word skills in Spanish, as those skills in Spanish associate with their English academic readiness.

“Self-Regulation Abilities and Spanish-Speaking Preschoolers’ Vocabulary and Letter-Word Skills in Spanish and English,” was published in Early Education and Development (linked here). This article examines the factors that support Spanish-speaking preschoolers' readiness for school, including the role of executive function and effortful control.

May 2016

Dr. Eleazar Gonzalez's "Manual para Desarrollar la Capacidad Financiera de Granjeros y Rancheros Latinos Principiantes" is now available on the USDA-NIFA's Farm Answers - the largest source of information for beginning farmers. The manual is summarized:

This manual curriculum seeks to help limited-English-proficiency new and beginning Latino farmers to increase their financial and management skills, as well as to understand and access community resources. This curriculum was developed under the program and helped to train a reached audience of Latino farmers and ranchers during a 3 year period. Those producers trained were either beginning Latino farmers and ranchers in Missouri and Nebraska who have recently (within 10 years) started their farming or ranching operations or they were aspiring new Latino farmers and ranchers in Missouri and Nebraska who have not started their farming or ranching activities but were planning to do so in the next production season.

It is available here: https://farmanswers.org/Library/Record/manual_para_desarrollar_la_capacidad_financie

March 2016

Dr. Kathryn Chval (a Cambio Center Fellow in Math Education) has been named dean of the College of Education, effective July 1. “We are very fortunate to have a great leader already in position to lead the College of Education,” Interim Chancellor Hank Foley said. “In her short time as acting dean, Kathryn Chval has proven that she has the leadership qualities and vision needed to guide the College of Education into the future. Her scholarship and record of embracing diversity comes at a critical time at Mizzou. We look forward to working with her as the college educates the future professionals in education, information and intervention sciences of our state and country.” Learn more here.

January 2016

Dr. Denice Adkins (Information Science and Learning Technology) was awarded a research grant from The Online Computer Library Center and ALISE to develop profiles of Latino communities' information practices in the US. These profiles will describe how Latinos use social media and mobile technologies to seek, access, and use information online. The profiles can help libraries to tailor their efforts to support Latino communities' access to reliable information and library resources.

 

Dr. Juanamaria Cordones-Cook (Romance Languages and Literature) is a professor, writer, documentary filmmaker, and conference-organizer extraordinaire. She works on projects related to postcolonial theories and issues of identity, race, and gender as they relate to the Afro-Latin American Diaspora.

Dr. Cordones-Cook is leading the organizing of a conference titled Afro-Cuban Artists: A Renaissance on April 27-30. Three leading contemporary Afro-Cuban artists will be in attendance and have exhibits or performances. Keynote lectures will include premiere Afro-Cuban scholars.

October 2015

Fellow Dr. Stephen Christ was featured in the Academic Minute: Authenticity of Mexican Restaurants.

 

 

 

Dr. Nadia Navarrete-Tindall, a State Extension Specialist focused on Native Plants at Lincoln University in Missouri, has been supporting the creation of a Finca in Haywood City, Missouri. The finca was featured in Acres USA magazine.

"The project, which is funded by a grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, also uses the Spanish word 'finca' as an acronym to express the project's goal - Families Integrating Nature, Conservation and Agriculture. The finca in Haywood City is meant to model a more human-scaled and eco-friendly form of agriculture that strengthens communities by putting small, non-productive plots of land to use. Unlike agriculture that succeeds at the expense of the environment, the finca uses no chemicals, and its native plants support biodiversity within the local environment." From the October 2015 article "A Missouri Finca"

 

Dr. Mary Leuci (Rural Sociology and Community Development Extension) was recently inducted into the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship at the annual meeting of Engagement Scholarship Consortium. She is the first MU faculty or staff member to be included in the academy.

“Engagement is really about how the University engages with the community for mutually beneficial reasons and it’s not just about how we go to work for communities or do things to them,” says who serves as an assistant dean for community development within CAFNR and has been involved in collaborative and interdisciplinary initiatives in various capacities at MU since 1986. “We work with them and it’s mutual learning… We bring our research and our skills and experience to it. There is knowledge in a community that is a different kind of knowledge that is equally as important and it’s why we together to advance mutual knowledge.” Read more about this recognition.

 

Dr. Sarah Killoren (Human Development and Family Studies) recently published findings from a multi-year study of Mexican American sibling relationships and how early adolescence siblings relationships related to the siblings' mental health and risk behaviors in late adolescence.

“Similar to work with European-American and African-American families, we found adolescents with sibling relationships characterized as positive or negative, and we also found a group that we labeled ‘affect-intense’ because siblings in this group experienced moderate levels of intimacy and negativity,” said Sarah Killoren, an assistant professor of human development and family science at MU. “An important difference, however, is that we didn’t find an ‘uninvolved’ group among Mexican-origin siblings in which siblings have low levels of intimacy and low levels of conflict. This may be due to the cultural emphasis Latino families place on family interdependence. Research shows Mexican-origin siblings spend more time with their brothers and sisters than with their parents and their peers during adolescence.” From MU News release.

The article, “Profiles of Sibling Relationship Quality: Links to Familism Values and Adjustment,” will be published in the International Journal of Behavioral Development.

September 2015

Dr. Eleazar U. Gonzalez (Community Development) was recently awarded a two year grant from NCR SARE Research and Education Grant program. He is the PI for a project titled “On-farm and ranch education for new and beginning Latino producers in Missouri”. This “On-Farm and Ranch Educational Project” seeks to guide and inform new and beginning Latino producers on sustainable production practices taught on site and supported by community resources. Producers in the program will have direct contact with successful sustainable farms and production resource networks to help sustain their operations. Panel workshops and on-site farm workshops will build their skills and knowledge capacities, so that they will become adept in sustainable production methods. See the full list of funded projects.

Dr. Francisco Palermo, a fellow in Human Development and Family Studies, was awarded a 24-month grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the nation's leading philanthropy on health and health care. The grant will allow Palermo to examine how early childhood adversity, mothers' mental health, and parenting behavior affect Latino children's socio-behavioral health and educational well-being. This research will inform programs and policies designed to strengthen Latino families and children’s healthy development.

“I am honored to receive the New Connections grant from the Foundation to pursue my research interests,” says Palermo. “I look forward to meeting and collaborating with Foundation experts to advance my research program focused on empowering Latino families and children and to enhance the Foundation’s mission to support children’s healthy development and quality of life, even in the face of adversity.”   

This grant is part of the RWJF New Connections program: http://www.rwjf-newconnections.org.

July 2015

Dr. Pilar Mendoza, a fellow from Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, recently completed work to form a Colombia-U.S. Human Rights Law School Partnership. The partnership program was launched in 2012 with support from the US Agency for International Development and managed by Higher Education for Development. The program aims to improve human rights education and build human rights culture in Colombia. There are three partnerships in the program: the Antioquia Partnership, the Valle del Cauca Partnership and the Caribbean Coast Partnership.

Dr. Mendoza has worked with the Caribbean Coast Partnership since she was a faculty member at the University of Florida. The Caribbean Coast Partnership has established the Colombian Caribbean Human Rights Center at the Universidad del Norte and the Universidad del Magdalena. The Center develops, coordinates, and applies academic research, community outreach, advocacy activities, and policy with the goal of defending human rights in the Colombian Caribbean region.

May 2015

Cultural Awareness Training for Disability Services Agencies
This school year, Cambio board member and fellow Kay Conklin and coordinator Lindsey Saunders worked with TIPS for Kids intern Sarah Wehmeyer and Peace Corps Fellow and Services for Independent Learning’s Michael Hendricks in a project to improve the Boone County Latino population’s access and use of disability services. Their project included working with Cambio Center Fellows Alejandra Gudiño and Megan Carney to create a cultural awareness training specifically for employees of disability services agencies. Alejandra and Megan led the training for Boone County agencies on May 19th with over 25 participants. Thank you to these fellows for their hard work and service!

May 2015

Alejandra Gudiño – FNEP Cultural Inclusion & Diversity Coordinator
Alejandra received the 2015 Mizzou Inclusive Excellence Award for her work done with 4H Latino Youth Future in Columbia. Congratulations!