The Division of Research is pleased to announce the 2024 Faculty Opportunity Award (FOA) recipients. This year’s winning proposals include a principal investigator (PI), co-principal investigator(s) (co-PI), and collaborators from ten colleges or schools at UNLV and represent a range of different disciplinary areas of expertise within those colleges/schools. The 28 team members selected are from Urban Affairs, Liberal Arts, Hospitality, Nursing, Public Health, Business, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medicine, and Education. 

The awards were generously funded by the UNLV Foundation, the UNLV Research Foundation, and the Division of Research.  

The total amount awarded for this cycle of FOAs is: $218,622.05.

2024 Faculty Opportunity Awards – Interdisciplinary Teams

• PI, Kavita Batra, Medical School Research, Co-PI, Jennifer Pharr, Global & Environmental Health“Persistent Racism In Sexual Minorities (PRISM): A two-pronged approach to understand intersecting axes of inequality in healthcare”
  $30,092.50

• PI, Drew Blasco, Social & Behavioral Health, Co-PIs, Chia-Liang Dai, Teaching & Learning, Ching-Chen Chen, Counselor Education, School Psychology, and Human Services, and Asma Awan, Social and Behavioral Health“Theory-based correlates of help-seeking behavior”
  $35,000
• PI, Chad Cross, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Co-PIs, Louisa Messenger, Environmental & Occupational Health, and Sean Neiswenter, Biology“Emerging Parasitic & Vector-Borne Diseases: Disease Ecology from a One Health Perspective”
  $34,930

• PI, Alexandra Slemaker, Criminal Justice, Co-PI, Jacob Erickson, Sociology
  “How do we keep public places and spaces safe? Lessons learned from Las Vegas”
  $34,990.05
• PI, Jennifer Vanderlaan, Nursing Research, Co-PIs, Jay Shen, Public Health, Ian McDonough, Economics, and Kazem Taghva, Computer Science
  “Pilot Testing an All-Payer Claims Database for improving the study of Maternal Risk-Appropriate Care”
  $35,000
• PI, Zuobin Xiong, Computer Science, Co-PIs, Ying Guo, Environmental & Occupational Health, and Nicole Short, Psychology
  “Are You Ready for College? An Explainable AI-Supported Efficient Solution for College Students Mental Health Condition Detection and Beyond”
  $34,842
• PI, Ileana Jara Yupanqui, World Languages & Cultures, Co-PI, Miriam Melton-Villanueva, History, and Blanca Rincon, Educational Psychology & Higher Education
  “A Planning Grant for NEH: Mural of Knowledges”
  $13,767.50

The awards start on July 1, 2024, for a two-year performance period. The FOA program is for interdisciplinary teams who want to develop projects yielding research, scholarship, and/or creative activities and target specified funding proposals.