Melanie O'Brien

Leeman receives Fulbright to study sociolinguistics in Spain

Colleen Rich — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:07:30 +0000

Leeman receives Fulbright to study sociolinguistics in Spain Colleen Rich Fri, 04/19/2024 - 15:07

Jennifer Leeman, professor of Spanish linguistics in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at ��ӽ紫ý, has been selected as a recipient of a 2024-25 Fulbright Scholar Award.

Jennifer Leeman. Photo provided

Leeman will spend the fall semester at the Universidad de Murcia in Spain, where she will lecture on topics in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, as well as aid in the supervision of doctoral students. She will also carry out a research project, an empirical study of language attitudes among international university students studying in Murcia, Spain.

“Murcia is a particularly interesting site for this research because the Murcian varieties of Spanish are often stigmatized or considered ‘incorrect,’ but they also convey ‘covert prestige’ and serve as markers of ‘authentic’ local identities,” Leeman said. “A lot of the previous research on Spaniards’ attitudes toward regional varieties of Spanish has been conducted by faculty and doctoral students at the Universidad de Murcia, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with them, while also making connections to my own prior research on attitudes and ideologies in Spanish language teaching and study abroad.”

Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. government. Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that allow scholars to teach and conduct research abroad in order to establish long-term relationships between people and nations.

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Research

Fulbright

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of Modern and Classical Languages

Mason opens new behavioral health facility in Fairfax

Colleen Rich — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 18:28:23 +0000

Mason opens new behavioral health facility in Fairfax Colleen Rich Fri, 10/27/2023 - 14:28

On Friday, Oct. 27, ��ӽ紫ý’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Department of Psychology hosted a grand opening of its new facility for the Center for Community Mental Health and Center for Evidence-Based Behavioral Health, two centers whose research and community services are deeply connected to strengthening our communities.

From left, Keith Renshaw, Fairfax Mayor Catherine Read, center director Robyn Mehlenbeck, and Dean Ann Ardis. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

The new City of Fairfax location at 9900 Main Street is optimally located to enable community members’ easy access to critical mental health services, while also providing space to advance research and train the next generation of behavioral health providers.

The Center for Community Mental Health serves as the main training clinic for Mason doctoral candidates in clinical psychology, as well as students in other behavioral health disciplines such as counseling and social work. The center provides state-of-the-art, accessible, affordable, and culturally sensitive therapy and testing services to those in need, regardless of income. It is one of the only sites in the mid-Atlantic to offer therapies and testing on a sliding scale, which enables access to care for as low as $5 per session. The center sees children as young as age 5, and works with community members across the lifespan, including addressing the mental health needs of veterans.

“At the Center for Community Mental Health, we firmly believe that mental health services should be available to everyone, regardless of ability to pay,” said Robyn Mehlenbeck, the center’s director. “We also believe you should receive help when you need it and not be told you’ll need to wait three or four months.”

To meet community need, the center has expanded staffing for its emotional support lines to 12 hours a day every day in both English and Spanish, Mehlenback said. Three session skills treatment plans are also available with little to no waitlist, as a bridge to longer term services, she added.

Last year, the Center for Community Mental Health provided more than 2,100 therapy sessions, completed 118 evaluations and more than 315 evaluation sessions, and helped train 77 undergraduates and 57 graduate students—all with a commitment to the community.

Mason’s Center for Evidence-Based Behavioral Health is committed to decreasing barriers to accessing high-quality mental health care. Serving as a critical bridge between research on the best therapies and real-life applications, it offers training and consultation to the community’s behavioral health workforce in culturally responsive, research-based, behavioral health treatments. The Center for Evidence-Based Behavioral Health has trained approximately 430 clinicians and clinical supervisors, who represent eight local county-based organizations and 38 private behavioral health organizations, over the last year alone.

“The Center for Evidence-Based Behavioral Health brings together Mason faculty, with different areas of expertise, to partner with and train behavioral health providers in research-based therapies,” said Christy Esposito-Smythers, CEBBH Director. “This helps our current workforce address gaps in training, learn new treatment techniques, and further enhance their ability to effectively treat clients with a variety of behavioral health concerns.”

“Mental health and behavioral health are health care. We need to change the conversation to remove both the stigma and the barriers to these critical services,” said City of Fairfax Mayor and Mason alum Catherine Read. “Mason is taking a leadership role in developing a model for quality affordable mental health services while training the next generation of mental health care providers. Fairfax City is the beneficiary of this groundbreaking effort to invest in the holistic well-being of an entire community. We are fortunate in our proximity and partnership with Mason.”

“The behavioral health needs in our community are acute, as are the behavioral health workforce development needs in the region,” said Ann Ardis, College of Humanities and Social Sciences dean. “This new facility will provide Mason faculty and students with a state-of-the-art environment in which to pursue research-to-practice activities in service to our communities.”

The Center for Community Mental Health’s Emotional Help Line provides free, anonymous, confidential support in both English (703-215-1898) and Spanish (703-914-3878). The line is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

See what Mason is doing for Community Mental Health

Delve into Behavioral Health Research

Mason faculty awarded three NEH grants

Colleen Rich — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 17:27:36 +0000

Mason faculty awarded three NEH grants Colleen Rich Mon, 08/21/2023 - 13:27

��ӽ紫ý is proud to announce that four faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences have been awarded grant awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Three grants, totaling more than $600,000, were awarded to faculty conducting research in Mason’s Higher Education Program, the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), and the Department of History and Art History.

“It is wonderful to see so many of our faculty being recognized with prestigious NEH awards,” said Michele Schwietz, the college’s associate dean for research. “Receiving multiple peer-reviewed NEH grants is truly a testament to the influential humanities work that our faculty conduct throughout the college.”

Unpacking the History of Higher Education in the United States

Kelly Schrum, professor of higher education, and Nate Sleeter, research assistant professor and RRCHNM’s director of educational projects, received a $220,000 Institutes for Higher Education Faculty award for the project, “Unpacking the History of Higher Education in the United States.” The grant will fund a four-week institute for 25 higher education faculty about the history of U.S. higher education. Read more about the project.

Mathematical Humanists

Together with the University of California, Los Angeles, Jessica Otis, assistant professor of history and the director of public projects at RRCHNM, received a $240,787 Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities award for the project, “Mathematical Humanists.” Otis will co-direct the project, which includes a series of in-person, online, and asynchronous professional development workshops on statistics, graphs and networks, linear algebra, and discrete mathematics methods that inform computational humanities methodologies such as network analysis, and text mining and analysis. The workshops will be hosted by Mason and University of California, Los Angeles.

La Sefra (The Globe): A Late Medieval World of Merchants, Maps, and Manuscripts

Mason is a sub-recipient on a $150,000 Scholarly Editions and Translations grant awarded to the New College of Florida for the project, “La Sefra (The Globe): A Late Medieval World of Merchants, Maps, and Manuscripts.” Amanda Madden, assistant professor of history and director of geospatial history at RRCHNM, is Mason’s lead on the project, which will prepare an interactive digital edition of the 15th-century Florentine geographic textbook called La Sfera. Madden and the RRCHNM team will develop the project’s website, which will include a crowd-sourcing feature. Read more about the project.

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Research

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Strategic Direction

Mason research on supportive decision making could help people living with dementia

Colleen Rich — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 17:24:59 +0000

Mason research on supportive decision making could help people living with dementia Colleen Rich Fri, 07/21/2023 - 13:24

Guardianship has long been the traditional way to support decision-making for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, but recent research conducted by ��ӽ紫ý philosophy professor Andrew Peterson investigates an alternative that allows for more autonomy and a greater sense of dignity.

Andrew Peterson. Photo provided

The approach is called supported decision making, and Peterson and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have received a $3.1 million grant funded by the National Institute on Aging to investigate how it can improve health outcomes for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. The research is being conducted at the Penn Memory Center, an internationally recognized facility for diagnosis and care for persons living with dementia, where Peterson is an affiliate researcher.

“Dementia is a disease that robs people of their autonomy,” said Peterson, an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy. “A serious challenge for people in the early stages of disease is that they usually have mild impairments in only one aspect of decision making. This doesn’t mean that they can’t make decisions, as guardianship would suggest. Rather they just need support from trusted others: if they can’t remember facts from a doctor’s appointment, a care partner can attend and take notes; if they have difficulty deliberating between choices, a care partner can talk them over during morning coffee.”

In a New York Times opinion piece about Britney Spears’ high-profile court-appointed guardianship, Peterson and his fellow researchers wrote that the difference between guardianship and supported decision-making is analogous to the difference between a dictatorship and self-rule. “Unlike guardianship, which creates an all-powerful guardian and strips the subject of the right to make decisions, in supported decision-making, the individual retains final control over key decisions,” they said.

Supported decision making was originally developed for persons living with intellectual and developmental disabilities, but Peterson said the framework holds great promise for people with neurodegenerative disease. The advantage of supported decision making, Peterson said, is its familiarity.

“We often, if not always, make decisions with the advice and support of trusted others, such as friends, family, mentors, and work colleagues,” he said. “This makes our decisions better, even for people with no cognitive problems. Supported decision making formalizes this process so expectations and roles are explicit, and persons living with dementia can maintain their independence for as long as possible.”

Peterson and his colleagues will develop best practices for supported decision making in memory care facilities. Although supported decision making is rapidly gaining traction in the law, there is a paucity of data about the benefits of this approach. Does supported decision making resolve decision making conflict? Do persons living with dementia show improvements in quality of life when using supported decision making? And what role should geriatricians play in facilitating this decision-making process? Peterson and his colleagues aim to answer these questions.

The research team is taking a phased approach. First, they will develop a supported decision-making toolkit. To do this, Peterson and his colleagues are interviewing patients and their care partners, memory care physicians, and law and bioethics experts. From these interviews and consensus process, they will develop a list of needs and plausible best practices for supporting decision making.

In the second phase of the study, the team will conduct a clinical trial, in which some patients and care partners will be encouraged to use supported decision making while others are not. They will compare these groups with outcome measures related to quality of life, life satisfaction, sense of dignity and agency, and decision-making conflict.

By the end of the study, Peterson said they aim to have a supported decision-making guide that can be scaled to other memory centers nationwide, as well as an evidence base that can justify changes to guardianship law.

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College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Research

Alzheimer's Disease

New psychology special topics course puts theory into practice around campus

Colleen Rich — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 16:31:58 +0000

New psychology special topics course puts theory into practice around campus Colleen Rich Mon, 07/17/2023 - 12:31

From better cell phones to safer cars, the study of human factors—how people interact with technology—improves our lives every day. It’s a rapidly growing field, and while PSYC 340 Human Factors Psychology provides a solid foundation on the subject, ��ӽ紫ý psychology professor Yi-Ching Lee saw a need for a more advanced course at the undergraduate level, particularly for students considering human factors as a profession.

Psychology professor Yi-Ching Lee. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Lee designed PSYC 461 Advanced Topics in Human Factors, an interactive, hands-on curriculum that challenges students to solve real-life issues, with those students in mind. It was offered for the first time in the spring 2023 semester.

The course started with the study of advanced human factors principles before progressing to a series of projects that gave students the opportunity to apply those principles to human factors projects on campus.

“Knowing the theory is one thing, but using it to make a human interaction more enjoyable is another,” said Lee, who is an associate professor of psychology.

Collaboration with University Libraries and University Sustainability

The timing of the course was just right for students to apply human factors principles to assist Mason’s University Libraries with a website improvement project. After meeting with a library consultant on the goals of the project, students analyzed the requirements and developed recommendations to help improve the user experience. They presented their solutions to University Libraries staff.

The course culminated with a project that examined the Bigbelly smart waste bins located outside of the Starbucks on the northern side of campus. To start, University Sustainability staff briefed students on the “behind-the-scenes" technology of the smart bins, as well as campus guidelines that must be adhered to.

One group of students analyzed the design of the bins and made recommendations to optimize their design, function, and accessibility, with a focus on making the differences between recycle and compost bins more intuitive.

The second group studied the app and website dashboard that alerts the pickup crew when bins are full and made recommendations to optimize design, features, and function. Students presented their ideas to members of Mason’s University Sustainability staff.

Greg Farley, director of University Sustainability, was impressed with the students’ work. “The students brought forward some very good ideas and strong recommendations for improvement,” he said.

Getting the hands-on experience employers demand

Students worked with University Sustainability to improve the use of the bins on campus. Photo by Evan Cantwell/OUB

“Watching the students’ presentation was like watching a consultant firm pitch a solution to a client—it was hard to remember these were undergraduate students,” said Mason psychology professor Keith Renshaw, the former Department of Psychology chair, who also attended the presentations.

Renshaw, who will transition to become Mason’s associate provost for undergraduate education in August, said he is excited that undergraduate students had this experience. “This type of course is precisely what our students need, and future employers are demanding—strong coverage of relevant knowledge, and then hands-on experience in applying that knowledge to real-world problems.”

Throughout the semester, Lee invited guest speakers from the field to the class, providing valuable insight on potential career paths.

Psychology major Thema Green, who took the class as a sophomore, said the guest speakers and the opportunity to build her professional portfolio were highlights of the class. She is already putting skills she learned into practice as a paid intern working on 3D programming and virtual reality development at the University of Massachusetts Amherst this summer.

“I would recommend that everyone interested in psychology or design take this course,” Green said. “Your contribution is greater than you know because, in the world of human factors and applied cognition, diversity is a necessity. Varying backgrounds offer new insights, which often improve project outcomes.”

Lee said she hopes to teach the special topic course again in spring 2024 semester and wants to find similar opportunities for the next group of students.

“One of the reasons why I collaborated with the University Libraries and University Sustainability was that I wanted students to do something that would benefit the entire university community,” she said. “The implications of this class go beyond this semester. They are making the university better for the next generation of students.”

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innovative classes

Mason as a Living Lab

Students

Department of Psychology

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Mason’s AI Strategies team holds inaugural summer institute

Colleen Rich — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 16:35:48 +0000

Mason’s AI Strategies team holds inaugural summer institute Colleen Rich Thu, 06/22/2023 - 12:35

In This Story

J.P. Singh

Amarda Shehu

Jesse Kirkpatrick

Antonios Anastasopoulos

Michael Hunzeker

The transdisciplinary AI Strategies team examines how cultural values and institutional polices shape AI infrastructures in national and global contexts.

From left, the AI Strategies team: Antonios Anastasopoulous, Manpriya Dua, Jesse L. Kirkpatrick, Caroline Wesson, Vasilii Nosov, Amarda Shehu, Michael Hunzeker, and J. P. Singh/ (Not pictured: William “Webby” Applegate) Photo by Melanie O'Brien/CHSS

In May, a cohort of 20 selected AI and Tech fellows gathered at Mason Square for ��ӽ紫ý’s AI Strategies first AI and Tech Policy Summer Institute. The event, which was also sponsored by Mason’s Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, the Schar School of Policy and Government, the Institute for Digital Innovation, and the Center for Advancing Human-Machine Partnership, brought together scholars, industry experts, government officials, and civil society activists from multiple academic disciplines, backgrounds, and research interests.

The cohort convened to introduce Mason master’s and doctoral students in the social sciences, humanities, and select professional schools to the fundamental engineering concepts about how artificial intelligence (AI) works, policy and regulatory frameworks that are evolving to govern AI, debates on AI ethics, and issues surrounding security, economic, and human rights concerns from local to global levels.

"AI now impacts every kind of work and even play, from writing an email to ordering a book,” said Schar School of Policy and Government Distinguished University Professor J. P. Singh, who leads the AI Strategies team. "The knowledge from the summer institute is important for students who will eventually be responsible for using and controlling AI, which is already considered an existential threat in some quarters.

"The institute demystified how AI works, whether in 'recommender systems' that prompt words in emails, or algorithms that drive users on social media,” Singh continued. “The interdisciplinary work in this field is just beginning."

AI Strategies is funded by a three-year, $1.39 million Department of Defense grant to study the economic and cultural determinants for global artificial intelligence infrastructures—and describe their implications for national and international security. The grant was awarded by the DoD’s Minerva Research Initiative, a joint program of the Office of Basic Research and the Office of Policy that supports social science research focused on expanding basic understanding of security.

Researchers from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy (i3p) played a key role in the project, from the pre-proposal stage to the present, providing insight on the ethical, social, and policy implications of emerging technologies. At the institute, i3p Acting Director Jesse Kirkpatrick, a member of the AI Strategies team, presented “Responsible Innovation and National Security,” which addressed existing efforts, challenges, and opportunities in responsible AI, and drew on his involvement in responsible AI research, policy, and practice across such sectors as academia, industry, and government.

“It’s no secret that there is a vital need for transdisciplinary mentorship and training in AI for our graduate students. What may be less obvious is that this [training] must occur across disciplines,” said Kirkpatrick, who is a research associate professor of philosophy. “By engaging nearly 30 speakers and faculty, our 20 AI & Tech fellows got just that—a broad and deep look at the cutting-edge of AI, inclusive of numerous perspectives.”

Kirkpatrick said that from the composition of the research team to the design and structure of the project and its research outputs, the people, process, and products have been thoroughly transdisciplinary. “This is a testimony to the team’s leadership; the support we have from our respective academic units, schools, and colleges; and the wonderful constellation of research centers and institutes,” Kirkpatrick said.

The cohort of fellows will participate in a year-long fellowship through Mason’s Center for Advancing Human Machine Partnership.

Buzz McClain contributed to this story.

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Mason Square

Artifical Intelligence

AI Strategies

Research

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Schar School News June 2023

Lavender and Women and Gender Studies graduation ceremony celebrates LGBTQ+ community

Colleen Rich — Tue, 09 May 2023 14:43:10 +0000

Lavender and Women and Gender Studies graduation ceremony celebrates LGBTQ+ community Colleen Rich Tue, 05/09/2023 - 10:43

On April 26, 25 ��ӽ紫ý graduates were celebrated for their accomplishments and contributions to the university community at the 2023 Lavender and Women and Gender Studies Graduation, held in the Johnson Center Bistro.

Mason’s Vice President for University Life Rose Pascarell delivers opening remarks at Mason’s 2023 Lavender and Women and Gender Studies Graduation. Photo by Sarah Holland/Strategic Communications

Each year, the Women and Gender Studies (WGST) Program and the LGBTQ+ Resources Center collaborate on this event to celebrate the lives and accomplishments of Mason’s LGBTQ+ students, their allies, and WGST grads. “This year’s event was a joyful and uplifting celebration of our diversity,” said Anu Aneja, WGST director. “This was my second Lav Grad event since I joined Mason, and I loved being a part of the vibrant purple, lavender, and rainbow spectrum that reflects the plural identities of our students, staff, and faculty.”

Aneja added that she was delighted by the support of many of Mason’s senior leadership in attendance. Vice President of University Life Rose Pascarell gave opening remarks, and College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Ann Ardis gave concluding remarks.

Lavender graduation ceremonies originated at the University of Michigan in 1995 and are now held by more than 200 colleges and universities nationwide. Mason’s first Lavender graduation ceremony was celebrated by the LGBTQ+ Resources Center in 2009 and it has welcomed the collaboration with WGST since 2015.

Integrative studies major Reagan Emmerling was awarded the Feminist Leadership Award. Photo by Sarah Holland/Strategic Communications

Josh Kinchen, director of the LGBTQ+ Resources Center, said the Lavender and WGST Graduation is always a highlight of the year. “We are so excited about our partnership with Women and Gender Studies to celebrate our best and brightest queer student graduates!” he said. “Onward to another year of student and colleagues' excellence at Mason!"

Holly Mason Badra, MFA '17, associate director of Women and Gender Studies, said the ceremony was a meaningful event full of joy and celebration. “It is an emotional event for many—students, faculty, staff, family, and friends—as many of us find ourselves feeling moved by the sense of belonging and support,” Badra said. “I am grateful that spaces and events like this exist to validate LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff existence as well as our contributions to the Mason community.”

Congratulations to all the students, faculty, and staff who were recognized with awards, including:

Reagan Emmerling, BA in Integrative Studies concentrating in Women and Gender Studies with minors in Criminology and Anthropology, was awarded the Feminist Leadership Award, given to a graduating senior who demonstrates scholarly excellence and activist leadership in the WGST program.
Sarah Holland received the Rose Pascarell and Ric Chollar Professional Service Award, which honors staff and administrative faculty who work to advance the well-being of Mason’s LGBTQ+ community. Holland is a communications officer in the Office of University Branding and also completed a graduate certificate in Folklore Studies at Mason.
Ricardo F. Vivancos-Pérez, associate professor in Modern and Classical Languages and Spanish Program coordinator, received the Dr. David Powers Corwin Scholarship and Teaching Award, which recognizes an instructional faculty member whose teaching and/or scholarship centers the experiences of LGBTQ+ people and communities, with a focus on gender and sexuality, and a grounding in queerness, justice, and liberation.

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Unexpected path leads Mason grad to academic excellence and a new perspective

Colleen Rich — Mon, 08 May 2023 13:41:08 +0000

Unexpected path leads Mason grad to academic excellence and a new perspective Colleen Rich Mon, 05/08/2023 - 09:41

��ӽ紫ý has been part of Heather Moss’ life for as long as she can remember—she even has pictures of herself on campus at only a few weeks old. Growing up, Moss watched as Mason expanded, becoming the vibrant and diverse community it is today.

Patriot father and daughter duo: Bennett Crandall and Heather Moss. Photo by Sarah Holland/Office of University Branding

Her father, Bennett Crandall, BIS ’06, worked on campus as a bookstore manager in the 1980s when Moss was a baby. When Moss was in high school, her father enrolled in classes at Mason to complete his degree through Mason’s Bachelor of Individualized Study (BIS) Program.

Now, Moss is about to graduate from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ BIS Program herself, with a 4.0 GPA and as the recipient of two prestigious academic awards. The BIS faculty and staff nominated Moss for the School of Integrative Studies (SIS) Outstanding Graduate Award, an award given to graduating students who have greatly contributed to the life of the college and university. Recipients of this award embody the values and teachings of SIS and show the promise of using what they’ve learned to make the world a better place. Because she is graduating with one of the top GPAs in the BIS program, Moss will also receive an SIS Academic Excellence Award.

Given her Mason roots, it might seem like following in her father’s footsteps was something she always planned, but her journey—one of determination, hard work, and grit—was not one she had predicted. When asked about the accomplishment she is most proud of as a student, she said earning and keeping her 4.0, adding, “Never in my life did I think those words would ever come out of my mouth.”

Immediately following high school, Moss attended Radford University. She left before completing her degree, returning home to Northern Virginia uncertain of her next move. She started working at Mason part-time at the Aquatic and Fitness Center on the Fairfax Campus, picking up any shifts that she could.

Eventually, she got a full-time position working at the front desk of Mason’s Office of University Events, where she was promoted to a student scheduler position. Moss loved it, but she couldn’t shake a nagging feeling about not completing her degree.

Moss recalls the pivotal moment when her husband, whom she was dating at the time, asked what her long-term goals were. Without hesitation, she said she needed to complete her degree. He replied with an enthusiastic, “What are we waiting for; let’s do it!” That was just the encouragement and support she needed.

Heather Moss and her father, Bennett Crandall, outside The Hub. Photo provided

Moss signed up for classes at Northern Virginia Community College to raise her GPA, applied to Mason’s BIS program, and started classes in Fall 2020.

“I was not a good student in high school,” she said. “In my first go-round in college, I was a terrible student, terrible. I hated school. But I thrived in this program. I've found what I'm passionate about.”

Her father is immensely proud of her academic achievement. “I know from experience the challenges involved with deciding to go back to school later in life and while raising a family,” Crandall said. “Heather deserves all the credit in the world for making that decision. Thanks to the BIS program, we are a proud Mason family.”

Designed for adult learners, Mason’s BIS Program allows students to create interdisciplinary concentrations to meet their own educational needs for professional advancement, career change, preparation for graduate school, and personal satisfaction.

“CHSS changed my life,” Moss said. “It changed so many things for me, but mainly how I look at myself.”

One of the first classes BIS students take is BIS 301 Adult Learner Transition, a class designed to help adult learners develop skills and plans to overcome challenges of completing a bachelor's degree as an adult. Moss credits this class, taught and developed by Janet Ha Poirot, term assistant professor and associate director of academic services in BIS, for setting the tone for her education at Mason.

“Janet taught us how to re-evaluate ourselves, and that you are not less valuable because you don’t have a degree. It totally changed the way I looked at myself,” she said. “I never put myself out there because I was really scared of being rejected because I didn't have my degree. Just working toward it gave me all this confidence that I didn’t have before.”

Poirot served as Moss’s faculty mentor for her senior capstone research project, for which she conducted interdisciplinary research on the important issue of teacher burnout and how the pandemic has added layers of additional stress on elementary school teachers. She said Moss’s positivity has been an inspiration.

“Heather is a wonderful student, dedicated to academic excellence and has been such a champion of BIS, uplifting many students in the classroom as well,” Poirot said. “I’ve been impressed with her excellent research work, diligence, and commitment and I am excited for her bright future.”

As far as what’s next for Heather, she plans to continue working for CHSS, where she is the assistant director of Events and Community Engagement. She's eager to foster relationships with BIS alumni and grow the BIS alumni chapter. Eventually, she’d like to get her master’s degree. On graduation day, she’ll walk away with two prestigious academic awards as her husband, parents, and almost-2-year-old daughter cheer her on.

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Leeman receives Fulbright to study sociolinguistics in Spain

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Mason research on supportive decision making could help people living with dementia

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New psychology special topics course puts theory into practice around campus

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