WHO GAVE IT: The New York State Department of Health
WHO GOT IT: Edward Dubrovsky, PhD, professor of biology
HOW MUCH: $77,005
WHAT FOR: A grant to explore the role of mutations in a gene called ELAC2 in prostate cancer

Orthodox Christian Studies

WHO GAVE IT: The Carpenter Foundation combined with a Fordham Faculty Fellowship
WHO GOT IT: George Demacopoulos, PhD, the Fr. John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies
HOW MUCH: $30,000
WHAT FOR: A yearlong sabbatical for his project, “Colonizing Christianity: Prejudice and Sex in the Crusader East”

Art History

WHO GAVE IT: National Endowment for the Humanities
WHO GOT IT: Nina Rowe, PhD, associate professor of art history
HOW MUCH: $50,400
WHAT FOR: To complete a book on late medieval illuminated World Chronicle manuscripts

Arts and Sciences

WHO GAVE IT: Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities
WHO GOT IT: Eva Badowska, PhD, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and doctoral candidate in philosophy Joseph Vukov
HOW MUCH: $2,000
WHAT FOR: A grant to study how Fordham graduate students perceive their education in the context of the University’s mission

Graduate School of Education

WHO GAVE IT:  Marie Noelle Chynn, GSS ’60 and Kuo York Chynn, M.D
WHO GOT IT: Graduate School of Education
HOW MUCH: $104,000
WHAT FOR: Dr. J.T. Vincent Lou Memorial Endowed Fellowship

Irish Studies

WHO GAVE IT:  Mary Brautigam, TMC ’74, and Richard Brautigam, FCRH ’73
WHO GOT IT: Irish Studies
HOW MUCH: $6,000
WHAT FOR: Four Irish Cultural Events in the Spring of 2016

Engineers Without Borders

WHO GAVE IT:  Mary Jane McCartney, TMC’ 68 and George McCartney, FCRH ’68, LAW ’72
WHO GOT IT: Engineers Without Borders
HOW MUCH: $13,000 challenge grant
WHAT FOR: A challenge grant that raised $27,000 to support EWB’s trip to Uganda to build fish farms

Physics

WHO GAVE IT:  Christa and John Reddy, FCRH ’77
WHO GOT IT: Department of Physics and Engineering Physics
HOW MUCH: $10,000
WHAT FOR: Supplies for Experiments

Other major grant-winners last year included:

• Yilu Zhou, PhD, professor of information sciences, who received a National Science Foundation grant to research age recommendations on mobile apps;
• Winnie Kung, PhD, associate professor of social work, who received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the impact among Asian survivors and rescuers exposed to the World Trade Center attack; and
• Lise Schreier, PhD, associate professor of French, who won a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for her research on the 18th-century practice of “child-gifting.”

In the weeks and months following Sept. 11, 2001, there was plenty of media coverage about the effects that events would have on nearby Chinatown’s population. With its economy based largely on tourism and restaurants, the once-bustling area came to a standstill.

Politicians and urban planners stressed the need to incorporate the neighborhood in the massive rebuilding effort. And while One World Trade now looms above, the lingering effects on Chinatown have dropped from the media spotlight.

Nevertheless, the World Trade Center Health Registry under the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene continued to monitor the health and mental health effects and service use among those in the community exposed to the attack. The grant, awarded through the Center for Disease Control’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, will allow Kung and two co-investigators from Columbia University to analyze data collected from more than 4,800 Asians who were affected.

Kung said the data from the World Trade Center Health Registry represents a very rare opportunity to gauge the impact on those Asians and Asian Americans and the extent to which they seek mental health treatment. One reason for that is that both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers helped gather the registry information.

“Because of language barriers, the Asian American population is, in general, an underresearched group,” said Kung.

Kung said that historically, Asian Americans demonstrate a dramatic underuse of mental health services, making them the least likely among all racial groups to use services. The registry will provide Kung with three waves of data that she said could define their help-seeking patterns. Data analysis will also help with outreach in Chinese communities beyond Chinatown and beyond those affected by the 9/11 attacks.

“Asians are notorious for not seeking help,” said Kung. “It’s the issue of stigma and the issue of saving face. With this study we can find ways to reach out to them more effectively.”

Kung said she received a cold call about the potential grant from a colleague who read about her extensive research on Asians seeking mental health services, and on their mental health awareness. She said that she personally was not affected by the events of Sept. 11, and came to realize just how longstanding the effects were in Chinatown when she began to read the literature in preparation for the proposal.

She said she was particularly struck by the amount of and duration of unemployment, which lasted for years. She said the impact was related to the immigrant culture.

“While many people help each other out within the Asian community, they weren’t very well nested within the larger community. If you’re nested into the rest of the community and there’s unemployment, you can find other friends to help you out,” she said. “The Chinese community was so insulated that they were not able to access the other resources to find their way out economically, so the impact was much deeper and longer lasting.”

Kung said that the depth and breadth of the data should help create suggestions for preparing for future events.

“Forty-eight-hundred is a very good sample size, so we can analyze with many variables,” she said. “This really provides an ability for more sophisticated analysis.”

As the World Trade Center Health Registry is an ongoing study, it will continue to make a difference in the years to come, she said.

Winnie Kung, Ph.D., associate professor of social work in the Graduate School of Social Service, has been awarded more than $600,000 to study the mental health of the Asian community working or living in the vicinity of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks.

In the weeks and months following Sept. 11, 2001, there was plenty of media coverage about the effects that events would have on nearby Chinatown’s population. With its economy based largely on tourism and restaurants, the once-bustling area came to a standstill.

Politicians and urban planners stressed the need to incorporate the neighborhood in the massive rebuilding effort. And while One World Trade now looms above, the lingering effects on Chinatown have dropped from the media spotlight.

Nevertheless, the World Trade Center Health Registry under the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene continued to monitor the health and mental health effects and service use among those in the community exposed to the attack. The grant, awarded through the Center for Disease Control’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, will allow Kung and two co-investigators from Columbia University to analyze data collected from more than 4,800 Asians who were affected.

Kung said the data from the World Trade Center Health Registry represents a very rare opportunity to gauge the impact on those Asians and Asian Americans and the extent to which they seek mental health treatment. One reason for that is that both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers helped gather the registry information.

“Because of language barriers, the Asian American population is, in general, an underresearched group,” said Kung.

Kung said that historically, Asian Americans demonstrate a dramatic underuse of mental health services, making them the least likely among all racial groups to use services. The registry will provide Kung with three waves of data that she said could define their help-seeking patterns. Data analysis will also help with outreach in Chinese communities beyond Chinatown and beyond those affected by the 9/11 attacks.

“Asians are notorious for not seeking help,” said Kung. “It’s the issue of stigma and the issue of saving face. With this study we can find ways to reach out to them more effectively.”

Kung said she received a cold call about the potential grant from a colleague who read about her extensive research on Asians seeking mental health services, and on their mental health awareness. She said that she personally was not affected by the events of Sept. 11, and came to realize just how longstanding the effects were in Chinatown when she began to read the literature in preparation for the proposal.

She said she was particularly struck by the amount of and duration of unemployment, which lasted for years. She said the impact was related to the immigrant culture.

“While many people help each other out within the Asian community, they weren’t very well nested within the larger community. If you’re nested into the rest of the community and there’s unemployment, you can find other friends to help you out,” she said. “The Chinese community was so insulated that they were not able to access the other resources to find their way out economically, so the impact was much deeper and longer lasting.”

Kung said that the depth and breadth of the data should help create suggestions for preparing for future events.

“Forty-eight-hundred is a very good sample size, so we can analyze with many variables,” she said. “This really provides an ability for more sophisticated analysis.”

As the World Trade Center Health Registry is an ongoing study, it will continue to make a difference in the years to come, she said.