Office of Research, Scholarship, and Sponsored Programs

A New Name for a Merged Office

The Office of Research and Scholarship on the main campus and the Office of Sponsored Programs on the Health Science Center campus have merged administratively under the new name: Office of Research, Scholarship, and Sponsored Programs (ORSSP). Faculty, staff, and students on the main campus who would like to seek external funding should contact the ORSSP by calling 903.565.5858 or emailing research@uttyler.edu.  Faculty, staff, and students on the Health Science Center campus should contact the ORSSP by calling 903.877.7392 or emailing grants@uthct.edu. ORSSP staff are located in Room 360 of Stewart Hall on the main campus and in Room 124 of the Biomedical Research Building at the Health Science Center campus.

Upcoming Workshops

The Office of Research, Scholarship, and Sponsored Programs has assembled a slate of workshops on topics including finding funding, proposal development, and grant management. Visit the ORSSP Faculty Development Workshops webpage to see a complete list of AY 22-23 workshops and registration links and to view videos and presentations from past workshops.

Upcoming Changes to Time and Effort Reporting on the Main Campus

Beginning September 1, 2022, the UT Tyler main campus will move to a quarterly time and effort certification process. Certifiers will receive an email from our time and effort electronic system, eCRT when certifications are due.  Please contact Angela Nunez, if you have any questions.

Congratulations

The UT Tyler Health Science Center (The UT Health Science Center at Tyler) has been awarded $997,120 from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) for a project entitled DEFEAT (Delivering Education, Focused Navigation, and Equitable Access throughout East Texas). The project will be led by Paul McGaha, DO, MPH, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Population Health in the School of Medicine as primary investigator, and Carlton Allen, MS as program manager. DEFEAT will focus on increasing access to breast cancer screenings and education for uninsured and underserved women between 40 to 75 years of age, mostly from rural populations. It aims to reach women from African American and Black populations that have statistically shown greater incidence rates of breast cancer in the Northeast Texas region. The three-year award will begin September 1, 2022 and end August 31, 2025.

The UT Tyler Health Science Center has also been awarded another CPRIT grant of $2,482,127 for a project led by Paul McGaha, DO, and managed by Carlton Allen, MS, entitled Screening to Optimize Prevention of CRC in East Texas (STOP CRC ET). This funding will allow the HSC’s CPRIT screening project to reach 38 counties in the East Texas region by adding six more counties to the existing 32-county service area. The funding will continue support for the program’s efforts to provide no cost colorectal cancer screening for uninsured and underinsured East Texans. This award will begin September 1, 2022 and end February 28, 2025.

 

The UT Tyler Health Science Center has been awarded a National Institutes of Health R33 continuation grant of $440,243 for a project entitled Optimization of a Rabbit Retained Hemothorax Model for Evidence-Based Pharmacologic Interventions. Steven Idell, MD, PhD, Galina Florova, PhD, and Andrey Komissarov, PhD, are the principal investigators for this research that will test new therapeutics for hemothorax (blood that undergoes scarring in the space around the lung, causing lung dysfunction and shortness of breath). The project period began August 15, 2020 and ends July 31, 2023 and has a total award of $881,243.

 

The UT Tyler School of Nursing has been awarded a Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) Nurse Faculty Loan Program grant of $323,208. Jenifer Chilton, PhD, RN, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the School of Nursing will serve as the project director for the program that began July 1, 2022 and will end June 30, 2023. The award supports the establishment and operation of a loan fund at UT Tyler for making loans to eligible nursing students who indicate their intent to become nursing faculty.

 

 

The UT Tyler Health Science Center received a $1 million Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant to help combat the opioid and drug abuse crisis in Anderson and Cherokee counties. The funding will support the ANCHOR project, led by Harrison Ndetan, MD, PhD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Medicine. ANCHOR seeks to build, strengthen, and sustain access to evidence-based and linguistically tailored opioid and substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery services in the community. The project will begin September 1, 2022 and end August 31, 2025.

 

The UT Tyler Health Science Center has been awarded a National Institutes of Health R56 award of $370,700. Maolin Lu, PhD is the principal investigator for the project entitled Probing Conformational Dynamics of HIV-1 Env in Real Time and in situ during Virus Entry which began August 1, 2022 and ends July 31, 2023. The research will enhance understanding about how the HIV-1 virus enters host target cells and facilitate rational design of interventions, such as vaccines and small molecule inhibitors, to block virus entry.

 

The UT Tyler Health Science Center received a one-year noncompeting continuation award of $695,140 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for a project entitled Innate Immune Response of LTBI+HIV+ Children. Raman (Krishna) Vankayalapati, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Center for Biomedical Research in the School of Medicine is the principal investigator for the project that began September 14, 2020 and ends August 31, 2024. The project has a total federal award of $2,108,920.

 

The Fisch College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Outcomes received a subaward from Kansas State University for $13,438 funded by the National Science Foundation. Santosh Aryal, PhD, Associate Professor will serve as the UT Tyler principal investigator for the project entitled, RAPID - Impact of Coronaviridae Lipid, Protein and RNA Interaction on Copper, Zinc, and Their Derivatives Coated Personal Protective Equipment Surfaces and Viral Infectivity that began June 1, 2022 and ends December 31, 2022.

 

UT Tyler received a $50,000 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, as part of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to plan for development or expansion of innovative programs and initiatives that accelerate student success by positively impacting access, persistence, completion, and workforce transitions. Colleen Swain, PhD, Associate Provost for Undergraduate and Online Education is the project director and is leading a planning committee made up of faculty and staff that will develop a comprehensive plan to guide UT Tyler in its efforts to increase student retention and completion and improve student transitions into graduate studies or careers. The project period began in July and ends September 30, 2022.

 

UT Tyler also received a $50,000 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, as part of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to develop innovative solutions to address critical teacher shortages that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated. Frank Dykes, Ed.D. Director of the School of Education, is the project director. He is leading a planning team made up of faculty and staff that will help develop a comprehensive plan to enhance or develop innovative teacher credentialing programs aimed at increasing the number of certified teachers in East Texas and strengthening the educator training pipeline. The project period began in August and ends September 30, 2022.

Zishu Cao, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Jasper Department of  Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering received a Rising STARs award of $150,000 from The University of Texas System. The STARs  program was established by the Board of Regents to help recruit and retain highly qualified research faculty at UT  System institutions. 

 

Woohyoung Jeon, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology in the School of Health Professions received a $50,000 Rising STARs award from The University of Texas System. STARs awards are funded from Permanent University Fund bond proceeds and expenditures are limited to equipment, repair, and renovations.

 

Carlton Allen, MS, Program Director for Community Health in the Department of Public Health in the School of Health Professions, received American Cancer Society’s Volunteer Staff Partnership Award. For the past six years, Carlton and his team continue to find innovative ways to educate and screen individuals in Northeast Texas and promote the (Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)-funded Screening to Optimize Prevention of CRC in East Texas (STOP CRC ET) project. Over the project’s lifetime: 10,113 colorectal screenings have been completed (8,314 FIT & 1,799 colonoscopies), educated over 1,600 health professionals, and provided outreach to over 16,000 individuals using an inflatable colon to bring awareness to the community on the importance of colorectal screenings.

Faculty Development Leave Program Awardees

The Faculty Development Leave awards in the form of release time are granted through a peer-reviewed, competitive process. Eight applications were received for faculty development leave to be taken in AY 22-23 and five were awarded for the Spring 2023 semester.

Awardee	Position	Department	College/School
Josh Banta	Professor	Biology Department	College of Arts and Sciences
Mohammad Biswas	Associate Professor	Department of Mechanical Engineering	College of Engineering
X. Neil Dong	Professor	Department of Health and Kinesiology	School of Health Professions
Anett Jessop	Assistant Professor	Department of Literature and Languages	College of Arts and Sciences
Sooah Park	Associate Professor	School of Performing Arts	College of Arts and Sciences

New Hires in the ORSSP

Jessica Hernandez, who goes by “Jess”, joined the ORSSP on the HSC campus in June as a Post Award Account Analyst. She has extensive experience in management, administration, and bookkeeping.  She is a recent graduate of Western Governor’s University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and is currently working on earning her MBA at Western Governor’s University.  Jess can be reached by email at Jessica.Hernandez@uthct.edu or by phone at 903.877.7755.

Angela Fazarro is a native Texan, raised in Austin. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Huston-Tillotson University, and a Master of Science degree in Industrial Management from the University of Central Missouri. Angela joined the Office of Research, Scholarship, and Sponsored Programs in mid-July as a Grants and Contracts Specialist on the HSC campus where she provides pre-award services. Angela can be reached by email at Angela.Fazarro@uthct.edu or by phone at 903.877.7910.

Staff Designated Certified Research Administrators

Dr. Carla Reichard and Kay Jenkins were designated Certified Research Administrators (CRAs) in June by the Research Administrators Certification Council (RACC), an independent non-profit organization. The designation certifies that an individual, through experience and testing, has the fundamental knowledge necessary to be a professional research or sponsored programs administrator.  Dr. Reichard wears two crowns, one as a recently designated CRA, and a second as a previously designated Certified Pre-Award Research Administrator (CPRA).

 

Carla, Kay, and Panda Powell, Director of ORSSP, who is also a CRA participate in continuing education events to maintain their certifications.