Here is recent grant and research news from Illinois State University.

NIH grant funds LVAD study

Dr. Jessie Casida, professor and Margaret Randolph Research and Innovation Scholar in the Mennonite College of Nursing, is part of a research team that has received a two-year $484,537 grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research in the National Institutes of Health to study left-ventricular assist device (LVAD) use.

Cognitive impairment is highly prevalent in patients with advanced heart failure requiring implantation of a mechanical heart referred to as an LVAD. LVADs are the most complex machines ever designed for home use with difficult self-management and high health care use, but little is known about the factors influencing patient outcomes.

Casida is a co-principal investigator for the study along with Dr. Mary Kay Pavol, associate professor at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The researchers seek to understand the relationships among cognition, patient activation, LVAD self-management, and health care utilization to explore patient activation as a mediator of the influence of cognition on outcomes, by studying patients prior to and within 12 months after surgery/hospital discharge.

Movember-funded project to use sports to help men’s mental well-being

Dr. Scott Pierce, associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and Recreation, and his research team received a $123,000, one-year grant last year from Movember, a foundation focused on men’s health.

The Movember: Sport as Engagement project is using recreational sport as a setting to support the psychological and social development of youth and young men in underfunded communities across the United States. Specifically, the project focuses on helping support young men’s mental well-being, healthy and fluid expressions of masculinities, and emotion regulation skills through sport. The pilot project focuses on approximately 200 young men in the summer communities in Chicago and San Diego.

Pierce is collaborating on the project with Dr. Tarkington Newman, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky; Dr. Tony Amorose, a professor at Illinois State University; and Jorge Rodriguez, a graduate research assistant at Illinois State University.

The team is developing partnerships, reviewing existing data, and gathering additional knowledge that will underpin the co-design of effective programs in partnership with Movember and key program stakeholders. The project aims to co-develop a culturally competent, sport-based mental well-being program that responds to the needs of the focus communities. This could provide Movember with a sport-based program that could be scaled to be delivered to communities across the United States.

University Galleries receives Warhol Foundation grant

Illinois State’s University Galleries was one of 51 arts organizations to receive a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

The two-year, $100,000 award will support the galleries’ exhibition program. These projects include solo exhibitions with Dianna Frid and Brittany Nelson, curated by University Galleries Director and Chief Curator Kendra Paitz, the grants principal investigator; a group exhibition co-curated by Paitz and artist Bethany Collins; and a new screening series featuring multiple artists.

Previously published news