Internal Research Support

Faculty Development Awards
The Committee's Mission
The mission of the Faculty Development Committee is to assist in professional growth of faculty members of 猛男情报局. The Faculty Development Committee facilitates professional growth of the faculty members at 猛男情报局 by recommending grant awards, as approved by the Office of the Provost, to faculty engaged in research and scholarship activities.
The Awards
With the assistance of the Faculty Development Committee, the Office of the Provost makes available a limited number of Faculty Development Grants to members of the Faculty (under current contract) to foster the development of research, scholarship, and service. Faculty may apply for a single grant per academic year (September - August). Full-time faculty may request a maximum of $3,000 and part-time faculty may request a maximum of $1,500.

The Goals
Faculty Development Grants are meant to foster the following qualities:
- Development of peer standing
- Development of professional and scholarly excellence
- Contribution to 猛男情报局 scholarly activity
- Contribution to professional and scholarly communities
The Eligibility and Evaluation Criteria
Research and scholarship that follows the rigorous standards appropriate to the faculty鈥檚 respective disciplines are typically eligible for support. Successful applicants present a solid justification for the contribution of the proposed project to his or her professional development and to the 猛男情报局 community at large. See below for a more detailed description of the evaluation criteria.
**The FDC is now accepting applications for the spring 2026 FDG award cycle. To apply, please fill out the following . Applications are due November 3rd, 2025**
Faculty Development Grants will be awarded in two grants cycles: fall (July 1 - December 31) or spring (January 1 - June 30).
The application deadlines are as follows*:
Fall** | April 1st |
Spring*** | November 1st |
*Unless the 1st falls on a weekend, in which case the deadline is the following Monday. This will be communicated in the official CFP for that semester.
**If you intend to work on your project during the fall cycle, applications must be received before April 1st.
***If you intend to work on your project during the spring cycle, applications must be received before November 1st
Applications received after the posted deadlines, will not be reviewed. In this case, applicants should resubmit their application for the next cycle.
IRB:
FDG applicants will require IRB approval prior to submitting their application if their project involves any of the following:
(1) Research that involves human subjects (i.e. interviews, surveys, focus groups, etc.)
(2) Research that involves animal subjects
(3) Secondary analysis of a data set. Projects that use an existing data set, which includes identifiable data may require IRB review.
We encourage applicants to discuss their proposal with the IRB (irb@mercy.edu) to determine if IRB approval is required. If you require IRB approval and your project has been approved, please email the letter to research@mercy.edu who will pass it along to the FDC. PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE IRB APPROVAL BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR FDG APPLICATION.
FUNDING AMOUNTS & ELIGIBILITY
The Office of the Provost determines the total amount of grant money available. The maximum award for an individual Faculty Development Grant is $3,000 (full-time) or $1,500 (adjunct) per grant period. The grant periods are Fall and Spring. An individual grant applicant may submit more than one grant application per grant period, only if the initial grant has not exceeded $3,000 (full-time) or $1,500 (adjunct).
The Faculty Development Committee, at its discretion, may recommend to the Provost that a project be partially funded (that is, the funding awarded should be less than the grant proposal's requested amount).
Grant awardees will be funded once in a 12 month period (e.g. Faculty funded in the fall cycle 2018 can be funded again in fall 2019 or Spring 2020, regardless of the academic or fiscal year)
Stipends for faculty time will be allocated up to 50% of the grant ceiling of $3000; that is, the maximum stipend awarded to faculty will be $1500 provided that the activities covered by the stipend are specifically outlined in the grant.
- Stipends for adjunct faculty time will be allocated up to 50% of the grant ceiling of $1500; that is, the maximum stipend awarded to faculty will be $750 provided that the activities covered by the stipend are specifically outlined in the grant.
All awarded FDG monies fall under one of the following categories.
- STIPENDS - There are two types of stipends: Faculty and Personnel
- Faculty Stipend: $1,500 is the maximum stipend per full-time applicant and $750 per part-time applicant is allowed. Please note that stipends are part of your total award and stipends are taxable income. Payment of your stipend will require submission of a Time and Effort Report and a payment request voucher. Please contact research@mercy.edu.
- Personnel Stipends (not for faculty): Stipends for research assistants, statisticians, and other staff. Describe staff activities, amount of work hours, and hourly rate (e.g. $15 per/hr x 10hrs = $150). Example: statistician 10 hours @ $15/hr = $150. Payment of personnel stipends will require submission of an invoice or Time and Effort Report and a payment request voucher or authorization form. Please contact research@mercy.edu.
2. MATERIALS or Miscellaneous Costs:
Itemize cost of books, supplies, and materials needed for the study
a) Books
b) Supplies
c) Materials
d) Fees (e.g. entrance cost to archives)
e) External photocopying services
f) Software, if applicable (must contact IT regarding the purchase of any software not currently available at the University)
g) Computer Hardware, if applicable (must contact IT regarding the purchase of any computer hardware not currently available at the University)
h) Other Hardware, if applicable (if equipment cannot be purchase by your department, please submit a notification from your Academic Unit Head)
(i) Gift cards for research participants
3. TRAVEL (Travel is only allowed if it is relevant to your research or project. For travel to present papers or to attend conferences that are not part of a larger research proposal, use the Faculty Travel Fund. For more information about the Faculty Travel Fund, please contact your School Dean's office.)
ITEMIZE all travel expenses
a) Travel mode expenses (e.g. airfare, car mileage)
b) Lodging costs (include rate and # days)
c) Food ()
Payment and Reimbursement
All requests for travel-related reimbursement must be submitted through Chrome River (this can be found in 猛男情报局 Connect) within the following timeline:
- Fall Cycle - December 15
- Spring Cycle - June 10
Requests not submitted by these deadlines will not be processed.
Reimbursement Forms (please attach original documentation to reimbursement forms, including original itemized receipts, boarding passes, etc.)
Intercampus Mileage Reimb Table
Payment Request Vouchers and Time & Effort Reports must be completed for faculty and personnel stipend requests.
For questions regarding payment and reimbursement contact research@mercy.edu.
Grant funds may not be used for:
- Course Development unless the course meets the project requirements stated in 2a, 2b, 2c
- Release time, course reductions or payments equivalent to a course release
- Course release applications are a separate review process
- Equipment purchases, however, if equipment is required for your project
- You should submit a capital funding request to the Dean of your School
- If the department cannot purchase the equipment, provide a letter from the Program Chair stating this cannot be purchased by the department
- Software, however, if software is required for your project, provide the justification for the software.
- Tuition and fees related to any advanced degree study
- Fees related to your discipline (e.g licenses, membership dues)
- Costs related to publication
- Travel for conference presentation (See the Dean of your school for funding)
- Travel for conference attendance unless specifically related to research or project need
Must show in the application how attending the conference meets the needs of the project
After the application deadline, the Faculty Development Committee reviews applications and makes recommendations to the Provost, who makes the final award decisions based on available funding. The Provost鈥檚 Office will then notifies applicants of the final outcome.
Successful grant recipients are required to submit present their project at the Faculty Recognition Ceremony with one year of funding. Monies awarded must be spent within the specified grant period. Fall awards by December 15; Spring awarded by June 10.
Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- The alignment of the project proposal with the Guidelines
- The potential of the project for contributing to the applicant鈥檚 professional development
- The potential of the project for contributing to the knowledge base of the applicant鈥檚 discipline or to the range of pedagogies appropriate for diverse student populations
- The relevance of the project to the 猛男情报局 mission
- The clarity of the project proposal
The feasibility of the project's budget
- Budget items must be detailed and applicants must provide a justification for each item listed in the project's budget
- Budgets that do not clearly itemize expenses or do not add-up to the total requested will delay the review process and jeopardize approval of the project.
- Evidence that the project is well designed with clearly defined outcomes and can be implemented in the grant period specified
- The capacity of the applicant to complete the project, including evidence of the applicant's relevant experience and knowledge
- The applicant's plan for disseminating or institutionalizing the results of the project
- Decisions about funding will be made during closed Faculty Development Committee meetings.
- When appropriate, outside reviewers may be consulted before decisions are made.
- Committee members can submit applications but will recuse themselves from the deliberation process when their application is reviewed.
The Faculty Development Committee, at its discretion, may request additional information or clarification from the applicant; however, the applicant should make every effort to provide detail and clarity prior to submitting the application.
- If the Committee requires further clarification about the proposal, the applicant will be contacted to provide the additional information.
- Incomplete applications jeopardize approval for the grant period requested
- Only completed applications will be forwarded to the Provost for final review and approval.
Name | Title | Affiliation | Role |
John Power | Assistant Professor | School of Business | Secretary |
Victoria Nunez | Assistant Professor | School of Education | Co-chair |
JungKang Miller | Professor | School of Education | |
Oren Abramowitz | Assistant Professor | School of Health and Natural Sciences | |
Lisa Schenkel | Assistant Professor | School of Health and Natural Sciences | |
Sisi Li | Associate Professor | School of Liberal Arts | |
Zhixiong Chen | Professor | School of Liberal Arts | Co-chair |
Shakuntala (Melissa) Ramdas | Assistant Professor | School of Social and Behavioral Sciences | |
Peter Shute | Instructor | School of Nursing | |
Yvette Page | Assistant Professor | Libraries | |
Saul Fisher | Associate Provost for Research, Grants and Academic Initiatives | Office of the Provost | Ex-Officio |
Recent Faculty Development Grant Awardees
- Dr. Nancy Beverly: Developing Publication Expertise
- Dr. Cheng Chang and Dr. Sanjeevani Vaidya: Bounds for Kulli-Basava Indices of Graphs
- Dr. Carolyn Cullen: Vitalization in Couples Therapy: A Trauma-Informed Approach
- Steven DeRosa: Beneath the Masks: Love, Identity, and Class Divide in Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief
- Dr. Douglas Evans: Assessing the Impact of Clean Slate Notification Policies
- Dr. James Gurley: Exploring the Impact of Learning Techniques on Academic Success in Doctor of Physical Therapy Students
- Dr. Barbara Keckler: Using Translanguaging Pedagogy to Support Multilingual Learners and Promote Community and Belonging in Gateway English and Gen Ed Courses
- Dr. Khaled Qanud: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing Nursing Practice and Patient Care
- Dr. Tianyu Wang: Advancing Cybersecurity Education through Agentic AI workflows
- Dr. Helge Wasmuth: International Collaborations and Research Projects Between 猛男情报局, the University of Paderborn, Germany, and the University of Erfurt, Germany
- Dr. Amanda Col贸n, Dr. Sandra Bertholf, and Dr. Lisa Schenkel: Mental Toughness Assessment as a Predictor of Student Success
- Dr. Oren Abramowitz: Processing Speed and its Effect on Pragmatics after Traumatic Brain Injury
- Dr. Saliha Bava: Constructing What鈥檚 Human: Systematic Review Synthesis of AI Literature
- Dr. Shari Berkowitz: The Science of Selective Eating: Pilot Study on Typical Young Adults
- Dr. Amanda Col贸n, Dr. Sandra Bertholf, and Dr. Lisa Schenkel: Mental Toughness Assessment as a Predictor of Student Success
- Dr. Terrence Calistro: The Association Between Delayed Enrollment, Self-Regulated Learning, and Academic Achievement among College Students
- Dr. Anthony Canger: Evaluating the Expression of Zyxin, Moesin, and Paxillin During Eye Development
- Dr. Devdutta Deb: Role of Effector Proteins from the Plant Pathogen, Hyaloperonospora Arabidopsidis, in Causing Pathogenesis in Host Plants
- Dr. Douglas Evans: The Impact of Incarceration on Formerly Incarcerated People
- Dr. Ren茅e Haskew-Layton: Role of LRRC8A in Mitigating Neurotoxicity of A1 Reactive Astrocytes
- Dr. Nancy Heilbronner: Understanding Academic and Social-Emotional Characteristics of First-Generation Gifted Students
- Dr. Jeong Kim and Dr. Illya Lichtenberg: Gender Disparities in Occupational Stress Among South Korean Police Officers: A Path Analysis
- Dr. Alberto Manzi: Time-Series Analysis in the Study of Parent-Child Play
- Dr. Meghan Marrero: 鈥淏ut Your Husband Makes a Good Salary:鈥 Stories from Women in Academia
- Dr. Susan Moscou and Dr. Patricia Sutton: Belongingness in an Undergraduate Nursing Class: Does a Health Equity Assignment Make a Difference?
- Sanjeev Pathak: From Chaos to Cryogenics: Project Management in the Post Enron Landscape
- Michael Perrota: The 1-Hour Podcast
- Dr. Shakuntala (Melissa) Ramdas: Simulation Training in Counseling Education for Risk Assessment in Telehealth
- Dr. Alexander Root: Simulation Training in Counseling Education for Risk Assessment in Telehealth
- Dr. Joseph Rugutt and Dr. G. Lee Warren: 猛男情报局-Kenya International Student Research (IRES) Project
- Dr. Boria Sax: The Man Who Dreamed He Was a Butterfly: Metamorphoses, Entomological and Human
- Dr. Robert Thompson: Undergraduate Biochemistry Research: Chemical Synthesis and Biocatalysis
- Dr. Cheng Chang and Dr. Sanju Vaidya: Modeling the US-China Trade Conflict via Game Theory, Part 2 鈥 Technology War
- Dr. Kimberly Rapoza, Dr. M. Allison Murphy, and Dr. Emily Murphy: Validation of the New Emerging Adult Trauma Questionnaire
- Paul Carlon: Recife '24
- Dr. Rebecca Trenz, Dr. Julia Zavala, and Dr. Jacqueline Fisher: A Descriptive Look at Mothers in College, Their Well Being, and Academic Achievement
- Dr. Soonyi Lee: Expertocracy in China during the 1930s: Conservative Turn in Chinese Liberalism
- Dr. Tharushi Perera: Harnessing Solar Energy with Metal Complexes: From Light Absorption to Small Molecule Activation
- Dr. Helge Wasmuth: Friedrich Fr枚bel's time in Switzerland and How His Closest Associates and Family Reacted to His Personal Crisis
- Dr. Oren Abramowitz: The Relationship Between Affective Theory and Quality of Life after TBI
- Dr. Saliha Bava: AI-Assisted Academic Research Tools: Capacity-Building for Deep Insights
- Dr. Shari Berkowitz: The Science of Selective Eating
- Dr. Moddie Breland: Making a Difference: Trends and Best Practices for Effective Peer Mentoring in Academic Libraries
- Dr. Zhixiong Chen: AI Powered Agent Specialized in Cybersecurity
- Sally-Ann Del Vino: Translation as an Essential Learning Tool for Door-Opening Knowledge in Language Acquisition
- Dr. Massimo Di Gioacchino: An Anti-Protestant 'International': Strategies, Networks, and Actors of Transnational Catholic anti-Protestantism (1898-1958)
- Dr. Lisa Ecklund-Flores and Dr. Julia Zavala: The Mediating Effect of Fetal Movement on Heart Rate Response to Sound in the Context of Maternal Depression
- Dr. Doug Evans: The Impact of Incarceration on Relationships of Formerly Incarcerated People
- Dr. Jacqueline Fisher: The Influence of Childhood Trauma on Academic and Mental Health Trajectories Among College Students
- Dr. Beth Gersh-Nesic: Andr茅 Salmon and Amedeo Modigliani: Translation and Research in Paris
- Dr. Amanda Gunning: Examining Physics Teacher Development in the Context of Culturally Responsive Teaching Methods Courses
- Dr. David Kilpatrick: Sport and the Mimetic Impulse
- Dr. Jeong Lim Kim and Dr. Illya Lichtenberg: Police Officers' Attitude Toward the Use of Excessive Force: Mediation by Culture and Discipline
- Dr. Christopher Loots: Cyberpsychosis in Cyberculture & Cyberpunk; or, the Affects of Humanness Being Phased Out by Posthuman Transitioning
- Dr. Alberto Manzi: Parent-Child Play in Preschoolers
- Dr. Meghan Marrero: Stewardship of Our Ocean: Student Perspectives
- Dr. Kristen Napolitano: An Ambassadorship for Inclusive Computer Science and Engineering and School Change
- Dr. Victoria N煤帽ez: Puerto Ricans' Educational Activism in Postwar New York City
Dr. Khaled Qanud: Utilizing Virtual Reality (VR) for Alzheimer's Disease Therapy
- Dr. Jack Simons: Supporting Gender Diverse Youth in Schools
- Dr. Robert Thompson: Undergraduate Biochemistry Research: Photocaging and Biocatalysis
- Dr. Eduardo Albrecht: Political Automation: An Introduction to AI in Policing, National Security, and Peacekeeping
- Dr. Cheng Chang: Modelling the US-China Trade Conflict Using Game Theory
- Steven DeRosa: Hitchcockian Shell Games: Unreliable Narrators, False Flashbacks and Cinematic Cheats
- Dr. Sarah Hahn: What Does it Mean to Rest? A Phenomenological study of Caregivers Caring for a Person with Dementia
- Dr. Soonyi Lee: Democracy and Dictatorship at the Time of National Emergency: Rationality, Efficiency, and Nation-Building in 1930s China
- Dr. Roseanne Vallice Levy: Improving Special Education Teacher Self-Efficacy on Reading Instruction for Students with Disabilities Through Training on Direct Instruction Reading Curricula
- Dr. Maureen MacLeod: Le Bel Esprit: Creating Female Independence and Education in Early Nineteenth-Century France and A Curious Case of Marriage, Divorce, and Custody during the French Revolution, Napoleonic Empire, and Bourbon Restoration
- Daniel Nieves: Exploring Afro-Latin American Resistance Movements
- Dr. Sudha Ramaswamy: Improving Special Education Teacher Self-Efficacy on Reading Instruction for Students with Disabilities Through Training on Direct Instruction Reading Curricula
- Dr. Helge Wasmuth: Traces of Children - How Teacher Education Programs Can Help Aspiring Professionals to Make Young Children's Learning Visible
- Dr. Oren Abramowitz: Why/How Timings for the TBI Population
- Dr. Elise Arnold-Levene: Digital Pedagogies and Podcasting the Latinx Experience
- Dr. Narasimhaswamy Banavara, Dr. Patrick McCabe, and Dr. Lisa Martin: Integrating Multicultural Biographies into Stem Subjects
- Dr. Saliha Bava: Play and Justice
- Dr. Moddie Breland and Miranda Montez: Where Do We Start? Building a Library Mentorship Program for Undergraduate Students
- Dr. Douglas Evans: Vignette Study of the Effect of Criminal Records on Dating Interest
- Dr. Jos茅 Luis Fern谩ndez: Kant's Philosophy of History: The World Well-Hoped
- Dr. Jeong Lim Kim and Dr. Charles Lieberman: Sources and Assessment of Occupational Stress in South Korean Police Officers
- Dr. Taryn Malcolm: Cross-linguistic Morphosyntactic Influence in Bilingual Jamaican Creole-English Speakers
- Dr. Alberto Manzi: Parent-Child Play in Preschoolers
- Dr. JungKang Miller and Dr. Bahar Octu-Grillman: Mentoring and Professional Development for ESOL Teachers
- Dr. Patricio Mujica-Urz煤a: Control of Endothelial Barrier Function by Molecular Movement
- Dr. N.A. Tharushi Perera: Modeling the Photophysical Properties of Light Harvesting Photosynthetic Organometallic Molecules
- Teresa Quackenbush: Undergraduate Mentoring Program for 5-Year Education Students
- Dr. Kimberly Rapoza: Health, Attitudes, Identity, and Resilience in Transgender and Gender Non-Binary (TGNB) People Across the Lifespan
- Dr. Jack Simons: Health, Attitudes, Identity, and Resilience in Transgender and Gender Non-Binary (TGNB) People Across the Lifespan
- Amber Snider: Spiritual Awakenings: Beyond Myth and Magic
- Dr. Geetha Surendran: In Search of Broad Spectrum Non-Toxic UV Filters For Sunscreens
- Dr. Robert Thompson: The Biocatalysis of 4-Hydroxytamoxifen
- Dr. Rebecca Trenz: (1) College Women鈥檚 Narratives of Negative Alcohol Related Events, and (2) Social Media Self-Presentation and Identity Development among Emerging Adults
- Dr. Renu Varughese: Setting up a Simulation-Based Learning Lab in an Assisted Living Facility in India
Contact Information & Applications
Please contact the Faculty Development Committee Co-Chairs or the Research and Grants Manager with any questions: