Five BU Wheelock faculty members were recently honored for their scholarly contributions and excellence.

Edward H. Ladd Award for Academic Excellence & Service: Amie Grills

Amie Grills, associate dean of faculty affairs & research, and professor of counseling psychology & applied human development, received the Edward H. Ladd Award for Academic Excellence and Service, which recognizes an outstanding member of the BU Wheelock faculty.

Grills focuses on anxiety, trauma, depression, and behavioral difficulties, especially in children. She also studies the development and evaluation of cognitive behavioral assessments and intervention, including those in web-based platforms. Her work has examined the role of peer, familial, and academic variables on the development of youth internalizing difficulties. As associate dean, Grills has been instrumental in developing and strengthening the processes that are regularly employed by BU Wheelock faculty in their teaching, research, and administrative functions.

Gordon L. Marshall Fellowship: Tina Durand and Laura Jiménez

Tina Durand and Laura Jiménez each received a Gordon L. Marshall Fellowship. The fellowship, which is named for a former president of Wheelock College, supports full-time faculty engaging in scholarship while also teaching full time.

Durand, clinical associate professor of psychology & human development will use this award to support her scholarship in school transition experiences of ethnic minority children and adolescents. Her project will examine ethnic-racial variability in early adolescents’ experiences with school context in key domains, along with their ethnic-racial identity (ERI) beliefs, and their relation to academic efficacy and socioemotional well-being, respectively.

Laura Jiménez, lecturer of literacy education was awarded the fellowship to support her work with teachers to center in their instruction children’s literature that more closely reflects the changing population of this country; including the stories, voices, and histories of marginalized individuals and communities written by members of those communities. Using this model, she will also examine whether teachers’ participation in this project will lead to changes in their teaching practices and students’ engagement and literacy outcomes.

Faculty Large Research Award: Melissa Holt

Melissa Holt, associate professor of counseling psychology & applied human development received the Faculty Large Research Award, which supports a faculty member who is engaging in original and potentially groundbreaking work with the goal of utilizing their findings to pursue subsequent external funding. Dr. Holt’s study, Pilot Testing a Novel Online Recruitment Strategy for Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adolescents, is exploring how to better support the well-being of transgender and non-conforming youth to ensure that they experience optimal learning and thrive psychologically and academically.

Seed Grant Award: Elena Forzani

Elena Forzani, assistant professor of language & literacy, received the Seed Grant Award, which provides funding for pilot research studies that have the potential to attract subsequent external funding. Forzani’s study, What Do We Mean By Online Evaluation?: A Critical Review of Research Across Disciplinary Contexts and Age Groups, will undertake a systematic literature review on the evaluation of online information, pulling together research across different disciplines.

Faculty Proposal Writing Awards

Finally, four faculty members received Faculty Proposal Writing Awards, which support faculty’s additional time (1-course reduction) during the semester preceding their grant submission to facilitate their successful proposal completion and grant submission.

• Jerry Whitmore, clinical assistant professor of educational leadership & policy studies: Innovating dynamic STEM pedagogy: The Engineering-Education Collaborative Laboratory (NSF, submitted Feb 2020)
• Elena Forzani: Critical Positioning within Online Science Inquiry(NSF, submitted Nov 2019)
• Detris Adelabu, clinical professor of counseling psychology & applied human development: REU in Education and Human Development at Boston University: The Emerging Scholars Program (NSF, submitted August 2020)
• Zachary Rossetti, assistant professor of teaching & learning: Examination of an Innovative Engagement Program for Parents of Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Spencer/Tower, Fall 2020)