Faculty members representing six of the college’s academic units were selected based on their proposals for interdisciplinary research to address major policy or community challenges.

By Danielle Hendrix ’15

J. Richelle Joe stands at the front of a room and speaks, using her hands for emphasis, to an audience not pictured.

Associate Professor J. Richelle Joe is one of the 2024-25 CCIE Faculty Research Fellows.

Now in its second year, the College of Community Innovation and Education’s Faculty Research Fellows program is welcoming its newest class of six faculty members.

The program promotes collaboration between faculty members from various disciplines within the college as they engage with interdisciplinary research projects that address major policy or practical needs in the community. Last year’s class was comprised of eight faculty fellows, who were tasked with developing large-scale research grant proposals that support the college’s centers and institutes.

Each fellow was selected through a competitive application process gauging their community-based research framework and emphasizing policy-relevant interdisciplinary research. Throughout the 2024-25 academic year, the fellows will meet regularly to develop specific deliverables based on their collective expertise, interests and goals. They’ll also provide advisory support to graduate research associates and postdoctoral scholars.

For Pegasus Professor and Interim Associate Dean for Research and Innovation Naim Kapucu, the program is about creating an engaged and collaborative faculty community that emphasizes high-impact and community-centric interdisciplinary research.

“I look forward working with this year’s fellows cohort to foster a robust interdisciplinary research collaboration within the college,” Kapucu says. “I am sure that the program will contribute substantially to college’s research enterprise.”

Daniel Eadens, Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education

Associate Professor Daniel Eadens is passionate about research involving the most critical issues in education. His research agenda focuses on critical issues that improve educational leadership, specifically in the areas of school safety and social justice, school finance, and training and evaluation — all of which align with the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education’s mission to prepare well-rounded school administrators. He is active in various professional associations, scholarship and peer-reviewed publishing.

Richelle Joe, Department of Counselor Education and School Psychology

Associate Professor J. Richelle Joe’s research and service prioritize cultural responsiveness and health equity for historically marginalized and underserved communities, with a focus on the mental health implications of HIV. She has led the HIV Education, Awareness, and Research Team (HEART) — which partners with university and community organizations to support research, outreach and service efforts at the intersection of HIV and mental health — since 2015. Joe is active in multiple professional counseling organizations and currently serves as the editor for the National Board for Certified Counselors’ academic journal, The Professional Counselor.

William Moreto, Department of Criminal Justice

Associate Professor William Moreto serves as graduate programs director in the Department of Criminal Justice. His research revolves around the application of criminal justice concepts to understand the human dimensions of conservation science and policy, including the workplace climate and environment of conservation rangers and ranger-community relations. He also conducts research on the dynamics and prevention of wildlife crime, as well as the intersection of the illegal wildlife trade with other criminal activities and entities.

Jae Park, School of Global Health Management and Informatics

Assistant Professor Jaeyoung “Jae” Park’s research centers on enhancing care strategies by developing predictive machine-learning models and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions. He aims to improve healthcare delivery and achieve better health outcomes. Through the CCIE Faculty Research Fellows program, Park plans to broaden his research scope from evaluating the effectiveness of telehealth to developing telehealth education programs. His goal with this comprehensive research is to help educate people about the advantages of telehealth.

Soyoung Park, School of Teacher Education

Assistant Professor Soyoung Park’s research centers on developing evidence-based mathematics interventions to identify effective instructional strategies for students with learning disabilities. Park also focuses on providing high-quality guidelines to both pre-service and in-service teachers to enhance their expertise in data-based individualization for mathematics intervention. Park aims to bridge the research-to-practice gap by integrating AI and virtual simulation to support personalized learning, creating innovative and interdisciplinary research programs.

Andrew Sullivan, School of Public Administration

Assistant Professor Andrew Sullivan serves as director of UCF’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Management. His research focuses on both the effectiveness and efficiency of communities’ strategies to address homelessness. He plans to partner with fellow CCIE faculty to bring an interdisciplinary focus to issues surrounding homelessness and identify how housing insecurity and public finance intersects with their interests. He also plans to identify opportunities to connect CCIE faculty and students with local nonprofits to create service-learning opportunities and sponsored research.