2020 FL-DSSG Summer Internship

Beyza Aslan is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and the Director of the Math Center at the University of North Florida. She received her Ph. D in Applied Mathematics from University of Florida. Dr. Aslan’s research focuses on lightning modeling, lightning data analysis, and data analysis and pattern recognition for mitochondrial disorders to improve the diagnostic process.

Dr. Michelle DeDeo is an Associate Professor in UNF’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics and a Research Collaborator with Mayo Clinic - Jacksonville. Dr. DeDeo’s research involves interdisciplinary computational science, which intersects data science, number theory, theoretical physics and chemistry, engineering, and statistics. She is a published author (see ORCID) with a demonstrated history of statistical and data science work with clinicians and researchers. Recent data science projects include analyzing the survivability of patients with glioblastoma, prediction of pediatric seizures, and studying the effects of opioids in Northeast Florida using data science and statistics. Her work has earned her several grants and awards, including a Deans Fellowship, UNF’s Outstanding Teaching Award, a $1.6M DOE Teacher Quality Program grant as a Co-PI, and others. Dr. DeDeo presents nationally on her research and, most recently, has been invited to be a Keynote Speaker at the 3rd Annual Conference on Data Science, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence in Boca Raton, FL.

Dr. Georgette Dumont is an Associate Professor in UNF’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration. Some of the journals Dr. Dumont has published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership, and the American Review of Public Administration. She has also published various book chapters, and currently has a contract with Oxford University Press for a book on nonprofit accountability. She continues to present nationally on her research. Dr. Dumont is active in her community and analyzes how local nonprofits are utilizing new technologies, which has resulted in reports to inform nonprofits in Northeast Florida about how the local sector is using online technologies, specifically social media. Dr. Dumont consults with nonprofits on strategy, technology, leadership, and strategic planning. She served on local nonprofit boards of directors, Jacksonville’s Public Service Grants Council, and is a Community Coach for the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida.

Lakshmi Goel is currently working as a Professor of Information Systems and holds the Coggin Endowed Strategic Professorship at the Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida (UNF). Lakshmi received her PhD in Decision and Information Sciences from the University of Houston. Her research interests lie at the intersection of strategic use of technologies by small and medium enterprises in areas such as social media, business analytics, and innovation networks. Her work within the Jacksonville community has earned her recognition as a Community Scholar, and a High Impact Researcher by UNF, and an Innovator in Education by the Jacksonville Business Journal. Her research works are published in various national and interactional conferences such as International Conference on Information Systems, Americas Conference on Information Systems, Academy of Management, and European Conference on Information Systems; and in top-ranked journals such as Management Information Systems Quarterly, Journal of the Association of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Information and Management, Information and Organization, and Information Systems Journal.

Haiyan Huang received her Ph.D. in Information Sciences and Technology from the Pennsylvania State University. She also earned a M.S. in Ceramic Science and Engineering from New York State College and a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Central South University in China. Before joining Flagler College, Dr. Huang has taught at Michigan Technological University, Purdue University Calumet, and the Pennsylvania State University. Her primary research interests include Web usability and user experiences, IT adoption, diversity of IT workforce, global information systems development, and virtual collaborations. Dr. Huang has published more than 30 journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers. Her research was recognized by a journal publication award and a best conference paper award. Dr. Huang is also in charge of managing and coordinating the Management Information Systems (MIS) programs at Flagler College.

Dr. Xudong Liu is a tenure-track assistant professor in the School of Computing at the University of North Florida, and a visiting researcher at Xerox PARC. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Kentucky in 2016, and his B.Eng. in Software Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2010. Dr. Liu’s research mostly has been about solving both theoretical and practical problems on decision making, using tools and methods found in Artificial Intelligence, Computational Social Science, and Computational Complexity Theory. His research results have been published, or accepted for publication, in premier venues in Artificial intelligence such as the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, and the Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Liu’s Erdős number is 3, and he is an AAAI member.

Dr. Angela Mann is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Florida and a school psychologist, licensed child psychologist, and behavior analyst by training. She serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and the Florida Association of School Psychologists (FASP). She is currently the Southeastern Delegate Representative and the Florida Delegate for NASP. Dr. Mann’s research centers upon issues of social justice related to disparities in access to education for children with challenging behaviors and developmental disabilities. This includes identifying and disseminating strategies for the implementation of evidence-based practice for addressing challenging behaviors in schools. Her most recent projects include collaborations with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Teaching Tolerance to advocate for the limiting and eventually abolishing out-of-school suspensions, examining the implementation of restorative justice and associated outcomes in a large, urban district, and examining staffing of school-based mental health professionals across the country in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Julie Merten is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and directs the Public Health Internship. Her research involves behavioral cancer prevention, specifically in the areas of skin cancer (the most common cancer in the US) and tobacco control (the leading cause of preventable deaths in the US). She has evaluated the effectiveness of school-based sun safety education, analyzed how people utilize the Internet and social media for cancer information, surveyed children, adolescents and young adults on their skin cancer prevention behaviors, and assessed cancer prevention programs among special populations. She oversees the Our Campus, Our Health student health behavior survey at UNF, chairs the Northeast Florida Cancer Control Collaborative Sun Safety workgroup, and is involved with the strategic planning of the Florida State Cancer Plan. Currently, she is working on a funded project with Baptist Healthy Living Centers to pilot test a brief skin cancer risk assessment and referral intervention.

Dr. Jody Nicholson-Bell gained training in community-based teaching and learning at the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame, during her doctorate program. Dr. Nicholson-Bell’s community training and experience inform her teaching and research. Dr. Nicholson-Bell’s research on community-based learning ensures her pedagogical approach for developing coursework is most effective in helping students learn and change. Dr. Nicholson-Bell’s perspective as a developmental psychologist helps with recognizing the importance of transformational learning opportunities through the community-based format for University student growth, both in maturation and career achievement potential. Dr. Nicholson-Bell has expanded her research on the integration of CBTL into courses to a university-wide, interdisciplinary investigation of the impact of community-engaged assignments on UNF students.

Dr. Amanda Blakewood Pascale is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration within the College of Education and Human Services at the University of North Florida. Dr. Pascale holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration as well as a graduate certificate in Quantitative Methods in Education from the University of Tennessee. Her research examines cultures conducive to success in higher education milieus and the praxis of ideas that promote university community success particularly for those who are underrepresented or in transition. Dr. Pascale routinely teaches graduate level courses in quantitative and qualitative methods as well as assessment in higher education. She is an advocate of the use of data and assessment to inform decisions, practice, and policy in educational settings.

Gordon F.M. Rakita is a bioarchaeologist and Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Social Work. He also serves as Director of Academic Technology at UNF. Prior to joining the faculty at UNF he was Principal Investigator and Analytical Director for SWCA Environmental Consultants of Flagstaff, Arizona. He is Associate Editor for the journal Bioarchaeology International. He earned his B.A. in Anthropology from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico. In 2016 he was named the junior laureate of the Lloyd Cotsen Prize for Lifetime Achievement in World Archaeology. His areas of expertise include bioarchaeology, anthropological approaches to mortuary and other ritual behavior, analytical data management and statistical analyses, emergent social inequality and complexity, and evolutionary theory.

Sandeep Reddivari is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing at the University of North Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Mississippi State University. Dr. Reddivari's research interests include software engineering, visual analytics, information retrieval, data mining, text mining, healthcare data analytics, and visualization and virtual reality in healthcare. Dr. Reddivari’s expertise is in data pre-processing, clustering, summarization, visualization, and outlier detection.

Lauri Wright is an assistant professor at the University of North Florida, co-director of the Doctorate in Clinical Nutrition, director of the Center for Nutrition and Food Insecurity, and Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics. Through her research and with the Center, she develops programs for food insecure individuals in the community, works globally with malnutrition, and directs nutrition programming for people with AIDS. Wright has developed a food recovering and meal distribution model that serves the food insecure (Food Fighters) and seniors (Meals on Wings) in the community. She formerly worked as a clinical dietitian for the Veterans Administration, providing medical nutrition therapy for veterans with chronic disease. Wright is past-president of the Florida Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, member of the Academy’s Legislative and Public Policy Committee and is Speaker-Elect to the Academy’s House of Delegates. Wright earned an undergraduate degree in nutrition from Ohio State University, a master's degree from Case Western Reserve University and a doctorate from University of South Florida.