UMass Amherst Center for Research on Families announces Family Research Scholars

Since 2003, The Center for Research on Families has offered the groundbreaking Family Research Scholars Program since 2003. This year-long interdisciplinary seminar for faculty in various stages of research provides the opportunity for peer mentorship and national expert consultation in order to prepare a large grant proposal.

Six faculty members in various stages in their research were chosen to participate in this year-long interdisciplinary research support program. The program serves to build lasting and productive connections among researchers of varying disciplines by providing concrete skills for successful grant submission, peer and faculty feedback on their developing proposals, individualized methodology consultation with CRF faculty and renown experts, and guidance on funding sources.

The seventeenth cohort of the Family Research Scholars Program were selected based on their promising work in family-related research. The 2020-21 cohort represents a wide range of disciplines and research interests, including scholars from three schools and colleges across campus—Engineering; Natural Sciences; and Public Health and Health Sciences in the departments of biology; civil and environmental health sciences; environmental engineering; health policy and management; and psychological and brain sciences.

The Family Research Scholars Programs serves as the cornerstone of how the center carries out its fundamental mission of “advancing research for the health and well-being of all families.”

Alicia Timme-Laragy

Associate professor

School of Public Health and Health Sciences

Environmental health sciences

Research Topic: oxidative stress, an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants within a body and the impacts it has on embryonic development

Bruna Martins-Klein

Assistant professor

College of Natural Sciences

Psychological and brain sciences

Research Topic: how emotion and cognition interact in the brain to manage distress

Sarah Goff

Associate professor

Public Health and Health Sciences

Health policy and management

Research Topic: maternal-child health care quality, organizational behavior, communication in health care, implementation science, and healthcare equity

Emily Kumpel

Assistant professor

College of Engineering

Civil and environmental engineering

Research Topic: intermittent water supply, water quality in distribution systems, water access and equity, water quality monitoring, and use of information and communication technologies in water delivery systems

Stephanie Padilla

Assistant professor

College of Natural Sciences

Biology

Research Topic: neural basis of behavior and physiology using a combination of mouse and viral reagents

Tara Mandalaywala

Assistant professor, director cognition across development

College of Natural Sciences

Psychological and brain sciences

Research Topic: examine how young individuals make sense of and cope with the complex social world around them across human and nonhuman primates by exploring developmental social cognition