Current Awards | Colorado Mesa University

Take a look at the sponsored projects that are currently going on at CMU!

Below is a summary of the current awards that OSP is managing, listed by principal investigator, award title, and funding agency:

Andres Aslan - Detrital-sanidine dating studies and landscape evolution of western Colorado (Unconventional Energy Center)
Greg Baker - Application of drone photogrammetry on alluvial fans in the Grand Valley of Colorado for detecting shallowly-buried channel features that may act as groundwater conduits (Hutchins Water Center)
Blake Bickham - Educator Stipend Program and Student Educator Test Stipend Program (Colorado Department of Higher Education, HB22-1220)
Morgan Bridge - Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program (Daniels Fund)
Shelby Burroughs Pryzgoda - TRIO Upward Bound (Department of Education)
Tim Casey - Applying Outcomes Focused Management to Increase Public Benefit with Attention to Diversity and Inclusion (Bureau of Land Management via University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Karl Castleton - Colorado Space Grant Consortium (NASA via the University of Colorado)
Melissa Connor - Expanding and validating the microbiome database for estimating the postmortem interval (National Institute of Justice via Colorado State University)
Cassandra Fenton - Geochronology and Stratigraphy of the Wanakah and Related Formations, Southwest Colorado and Eastern Utah (Unconventional Energy Center)
Lucy Graham - Pathways Family Wellness Center (Health Resources and Services Administration)
Lisa Hughes - State Grants for Libraries (Colorado Department of Education)
Verner Johnson - Geophysical and Geological Study in the Pinon Mesa – Ryan Park Area in the Northwestern Uncompahgre Plateau, Colorado and Utah (Unconventional Energy Center)
Deb Kennard -
- CMU Public Land Corps Individual Placement Program (National Forest Service)
- University/College Partnership on Public Lands (Bureau of Land Management)
Bob Lang - Opioid Crisis Recovery Fund (Mesa County Regional Opioid Governance Board)
Emma Leenerman - Healthcare Workforce Development in Western Colorado Coal-Affected Communities (Economic Development Administration)
Kyle McQuade - Saccomanno Undergraduate Summer Biomedical Research Internship Program (Saccomanno Higher Education Foundation)
Chad Middleton - Colorado Mesa University Maverick Open Resource Educators (Colorado Department of Higher Education)
Rafael Orozco -
- TRIO Student Support Services, Regular (Department of Education)
- TRIO Student Support Services, STEM (Department of Education)
Nathan Perry – The Economic Impact of St. Mary’s Medical Center (St. Mary’s Medical Center)
Jeff Piper - Perkins Basic Grant Funds (Colorado Community College System)
Justin Pomeranz - The influence of temperature and resource supply on community size spectra in streams (National Science Foundation via University of South Dakota)
Sadye Saad - Career Services Career Coaching Coordinator (Mesa County Department of Human Services, HB21-1264)
Jarrod Schiffbauer - Individual and Collective Behavior of Active Colloids in Microgravity (National Science Foundation)
Stacie Schreiner - Colorado Rural Healthcare Workforce Initiative (State of Colorado, SB22-172)
Vail Shoultz-McCole -
- Early Childhood Education Apprenticeship Program (Colorado Department of Early Childhood)
- Elevating the Early Childhood Workforce: Plans, Qualifications, & Pathways (Colorado Department of Early Childhood via University of Colorado Denver)
Brigitte Sundermann -
- Allied Health Care Forward (Colorado Community College System, SB22-226)
- Nondegree Credential Pathways (Colorado Department of Higher Education, SB22-192)
- Mobile Learning Lab for Welding & CDL (Colorado Community College System & Office of Economic Development and International Trade)
Michelle Sunkel - Behavioral Health Incentive Program (Colorado Department of Higher Education, SB21-137)
Javier Tellez - Reservoir Characterization of Sedimentary Strata within the Piceance Basin. Applications for Enhanced Hydrocarbons Recovery and Geothermal Energy Potential Using Abandoned Drilled Wells (Unconventional Energy Center)
Andy Tyler - Community Longitudinal Integrated Clinicals (CLIC): Enhancing Primary Care Training in Rural and Underserved Communities (Health Resources and Services Administration)
Johanna Varner -
- Expanding and Evaluating an Ecological, Networked Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (National Science Foundation)
- Drivers of Welfare in Wild American Pikas (Wild Animal Initiative)
Denita Weeks - Monitoring Amphibians Including Presence of Invasive Bullfrogs and Pathogenic Fungus (Bureau of Land Management)
Freddy Witarsa -
- Addressing Selenium Issues in Grand Valley Waterways (Hutchins Water Center)
- Testing the applicability of microbial source tracking method using dPCR to determine the source of high levels of fecal contamination in local waterways (Hutchins Water Center)

Award breakdown by department:

Chad Middleton - Colorado Mesa University Maverick Open Resource Educators (Colorado Department of Higher Education)
- This grant provides funds for faculty stipends to develop open educational resources

Kyle McQuade - Saccomanno Undergraduate Summer Biomedical Research Internship Program (Saccomanno Higher Education Foundation)
- This grant supports student research internships in the biological sciences
Johanna Varner -
- Expanding and Evaluating an Ecological, Networked Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (National Science Foundation)
  - This project aims to disseminate and support a set of broadly transferable teaching modules and toolkits to allow instructors to easily embed field-based, behavioral ecology Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) within courses; and to assess how networked modules impact student gains.
- Drivers of Welfare in Wild American Pikas (Wild Animal Initiative)
  - This is a comprehensive study of the welfare of American pikas in the La Sal mountains of Southeastern Utah, through examining patterns of survival, population demographics, stress, and other metrics of physiological condition.
Denita Weeks - Monitoring Amphibians Including Presence of Invasive Bullfrogs and Pathogenic Fungus (Bureau of Land Management)
- This project continues surveys in collaboration with BLM and USGS for the presence and abundance of amphibians in the riparian and canyon habitats of McInnis Canyon National Conservation Area, as well as to monitor the prevalence of the Bd fungus among observed species.

Morgan Bridge - Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program (Daniels Fund)
- This award funds a principle-based ethics program to strengthen ethics education for participants.

Karl Castleton - Colorado Space Grant Consortium (NASA via the University of Colorado)
- This project encourages student participation in space sciences research and projects, through work on wearable technologies, robotics, and more.

Lucy Graham - Pathways Family Wellness Center (Health Resources and Services Administration)
- This grant funds a nurse-led integrated primary care team housed at a trauma-informed wellness center located in a newly constructed homeless shelter in Mesa County.
Stacie Schreiner - Colorado Rural Healthcare Workforce Initiative (State of Colorado, SB22-172)
- This grant provides funding for the development of a rural track within the nursing program, as well as scholarships for students participating in the rural track.

Emma Leenerman - Healthcare Workforce Development in Western Colorado Coal-Affected Communities (Economic Development Administration)
- This project has helped to fund equipment for the PA, PT and OT programs, in order to strengthen the workforce in coal-affected communities of Western Colorado by offering training programs that equip trainees with skills to be competent healthcare providers.
Andy Tyler - Community Longitudinal Integrated Clinicals (CLIC): Enhancing Primary Care Training in Rural and Underserved Communities (Health Resources and Services Administration)
- The CLIC project provides an evidence-based approach to clinical training to increase the pipeline of quality primary care graduates and transform PA training in rural and underserved settings.

Lisa Hughes - State Grants for Libraries (Colorado Department of Education)
- This grant is to help the library obtain eligible educational resources that the library would otherwise be unable to afford, in order to support a better educated and informed population.

Andres Aslan - Detrital-sanidine dating studies and landscape evolution of western Colorado (Unconventional Energy Center)
- This project uses a novel technique called detrital-sanidine dating, to help produce a better understanding of the landscape evolution of western Colorado.
Greg Baker - Application of drone photogrammetry on alluvial fans in the Grand Valley of Colorado for detecting shallowly-buried channel features that may act as groundwater conduits (Hutchins Water Center)
- This is a student research project to assess feasibility of detecting buried paleochannels, which is critical in clean & contaminated water studies.
Cassandra Fenton - Geochronology and Stratigraphy of the Wanakah and Related Formations, Southwest Colorado and Eastern Utah (Unconventional Energy Center)
- This project combines recent advances in radiometric ³⁹Ar/⁴⁰Ar dating and geochemical analyses with standard geologic field methods to clarify stratigraphic relationships and better interpret the sedimentology and stratigraphy of the middle Jurassic Wanakah Formation and correlative units in southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah.
Verner Johnson - Geophysical and Geological Study in the Pinon Mesa – Ryan Park Area in the Northwestern Uncompahgre Plateau, Colorado and Utah (Unconventional Energy Center)
- This project is investigating the geologic mechanisms historically present in the Pinon Mesa - Ryan Park area, to create a better understanding of the processes that assisted in the formation of the Uncompahgre Plateau and the associated mineralized hydrothermal veins in the area.
Deb Kennard -
- CMU Public Land Corps Individual Placement Program (National Forest Service)
  - This program places CMU students in internships with the U.S. Forest Service, where they will gain hands-on experience in environmental education, community service and natural and cultural conservation resource management.
- University/College Partnership on Public Lands (Bureau of Land Management)
  - This program funds opportunities for students to perform stewardship, research, recreation management, and natural resources management on public lands administered by the BLM Grand Junction Field Office.
Justin Pomeranz - The influence of temperature and resource supply on community size spectra in streams (National Science Foundation via University of South Dakota)
- This award funds a collaboration between Dr. Pomeranz and the University of South Dakota, to develop a mechanistic understanding of how key environmental drivers and their interactions affect community biomass distributions.
Jarrod Schiffbauer -
- Individual and Collective Behavior of Active Colloids in Microgravity (National Science Foundation)
  - This project involves microgravity experiments on the International Space Station, complemented with terrestrial experiments and theoretical/numerical modeling to advance a comprehensive understanding of fundamental mechanisms of active colloid transport.
Javier Tellez - Reservoir Characterization of Sedimentary Strata within the Piceance Basin. Applications for Enhanced Hydrocarbons Recovery and Geothermal Energy Potential Using Abandoned Drilled Wells (Unconventional Energy Center)
- This project explores workflows to integrate multiple data sources to model the most prospective reservoirs for hydrocarbon recovery and geothermal applications.
Freddy Witarsa -
- Addressing Selenium Issues in Grand Valley Waterways (Hutchins Water Center)
  - This is a student research project which addresses a research gap in the use of algal turf scrubbers to remove selenium from water, focused on waterways in the Upper Colorado Basin.
- Testing the applicability of microbial source tracking method using dPCR to determine the source of high levels of fecal contamination in local waterways (Hutchins Water Center)
  - This is a student research project which aims to test a digital PCR test for its specificity in determining fecal contamination of local waterways from different animals as well as humans.

Tim Casey - Applying Outcomes Focused Management to Increase Public Benefit with Attention to Diversity and Inclusion (Bureau of Land Management via University of Alaska Fairbanks)
- This is a grant to conduct research on Outcomes-Focused Management of public lands via surveys and focus groups. Specifically, this grant encompasses studies on the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, Upper Colorado River, Grand Staircase of the Escalante National Monument, Butte Field Office, Dalton Highway Corridor, Bears Ears National Monument, Rio Grand Del Norte National Monument, and Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area.
Melissa Connor - Expanding and validating the microbiome database for estimating the postmortem interval (National Institute of Justice via Colorado State University)
- This award will provide an independent test set of skin and grave soil microbes collected longitudinally to validate a machine learning model that predicts the postmortem interval.
Bob Lang - Opioid Crisis Recovery Fund (Mesa County Regional Opioid Governance Board)
- This award funds curriculum approvals, instructor approvals and training fees to meet new Addiction Certification licensure laws and updated curriculum changes.
Michelle Sunkel - Behavioral Health Incentive Program (Colorado Department of Higher Education, SB21-137)
- This funding provides financial support to rural and low-income Colorado students to obtain a credential in qualified behavioral health programs of study.

Shelby Burroughs Pryzgoda - TRIO Upward Bound (Department of Education)
- TRIO Upward Bound is a college-preparatory program designed to support local first-generation, income-eligible students at Central High School and Grand Junction High School as they prepare to enter and succeed in college.
Rafael Orozco -
- TRIO Student Support Services, Regular (Department of Education)
- TRIO Student Support Services, STEM (Department of Education)
  - TRIO Student Support Services serves as a “one-stop shop” for eligible student participants as they navigate their college career. The program provides academic and personal support for students throughout their academic journey at CMU.
Sadye Saad - Career Services Career Coaching Coordinator (Mesa County Department of Human Services, HB21-1264)
- This award funds the hiring of a full-time Career Coaching Coordinator in CMU Career Services, who will provide essential career navigation and coaching to students, alumni and job seekers.

Blake Bickham - Educator Stipend Program and Student Educator Test Stipend Program (Colorado Department of Higher Education, HB22-1220)
- This funding provides stipends for teacher education candidates who are completing their student teaching, as well as funding to pay for the required Praxis exams for teacher education candidates.

Jeff Piper - Perkins Basic Grant Funds (Colorado Community College System)
- Perkins basic grant funds are provided to community colleges to support and improve workforce education.
Vail Shoultz-McCole -
- Early Childhood Education Apprenticeship Program (Colorado Department of Early Childhood)
  - This project helps to grow the early childhood workforce through use of the apprenticeship model and supporting child care facilities via coaching and funding for staff career development, including a the creation of a network of Mentor Teachers who will guide apprentices towards successful completion of the program.
- Elevating the Early Childhood Workforce: Plans, Qualifications, & Pathways (Colorado Department of Early Childhood via University of Colorado Denver)
  - This project is working on developing prior learning assessments for early childhood education courses.
Brigitte Sundermann -
- Allied Health Care Forward (Colorado Community College System, SB22-226)
  - This funding provides financial assistance to students enrolled in eligible allied health programs, to support the health-care workforce in Colorado.
- Colorado Credential Pathways (Colorado Department of Higher Education, SB22-192)
  - This funding assists CMU Tech to develop stackable credential pathways.
- Mobile Learning Lab (Colorado Community College System & Office of Economic Development and International Trade)
  - Funds to build out a mobile learning lab focused on welding and CDL.