Celebration of Faculty and Staff Grants, Awards, and Scholarly and Creative Work from July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024

2023-2024 Grants, Awards, and Scholarly Work

Table of Contents

• Message from UNC Asheville Provost, Yvonne Villanueva-Russell
• A few words from Chief Research Officer, Herman Holt
• Overview of Grants Activity
• Presentation from the Celebration
• Grants Received July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024
• Grants Received by Centers July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024 (NEMAC & NCCHW)
• Large Awards Closed Out July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024
• Scholarly and Creative Work from July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024

Message from UNC Asheville Provost, Yvonne Villanueva-Russell

February 14, 2025

I want to welcome students, faculty, staff, alumni, and guests to our celebration of research and scholarly activity. Thank you to Ramsey Library for hosting this celebration each year. And thank you to Brandy Bourne, Charlotte Smith, and Pat O’Brien for their work to organize and put on this event.

While this celebration has lasted for a week, and today, we saw research in action with the wonderful poster presentations and vibrant conversations, I want to acknowledge the significant impact that research has on our campus, our community, and the larger universe of knowledge and also acknowledge the work it takes to produce such outcomes.

The program, posters, and slideshow provide a visual representation of the research done on our campus in the last year. Having come from a larger doctoral-granting institution with R2 status, I wasn’t sure what I would find at UNC Asheville. I am happy to report that after seeing the data ($4 million in awards with another $13 million pending), seeing the work, and reviewing your Annual Faculty Reviews, I am truly impressed with the scope and volume of work, as well as the impact and prestige of that work.

Whether the work is applied, as in:
● Albert Chow’s research on suicide prevention, or
● Ashley Moraguez’s efforts with the semester of civics
● The excellent work being done in NEMAC and NCCHW

Or, whether the research centers on community partnerships and impact, like:
● The work of the Center for Jewish Studies funded by the Dogwood Health Trust
● Or the AVID partnership with Asheville City Schools,

Or, research at the forefront of science, like:
● Doug Miller’s work in Complex Terrain leveraging
● The NASA Lunabotic Competition in Engineering
● The collaborative research with Furman University sponsored by the NSF
● The integral field spectroscopy work by David Wake, or
● Amanda Wolfe’s research on antibiotic adjuvants to combat pathogenic bacterial infections

The work being done on this campus advances the literature and knowledge of countless disciplines and advances society for the better.

I also want to acknowledge the dozens of artifacts produced by colleagues in every department on campus. The blogs, presentations, book chapters, gallery exhibitions, posters, workshops, books, conference proceedings, newspaper articles, and more are significant, meaningful and contribute to wide audiences.

Many of these efforts are done in the wee hours– after you’ve taught, graded, and served on committees. They are completed during break, or over the summer, or somehow crammed in during semesters of teaching. Some of these research projects are funded generously by grants or departmental funds. Others are completed at your own time and expense. And, you do this not only because it is expected for tenure, but because you want to contribute to something larger: mentoring and sharing your skills with students, sharing your findings in dialogue with colleagues and the larger profession, or because you dare to change the world for the better.

Research is slow, tedious, and fraught with the need for revisions and restarts. It requires time, patience, reflection, and peer feedback, proceeds in fits and starts, hits roadblocks, and accelerates in fits of imagination and genius. But in the end, you hopefully have learned something, shared these results with others, broadened the universe of understanding, and finished with the realization that there is still so much to know and so much MORE work to be done.

So today, in the middle of Homecoming, Valentine’s Day, and a busy semester, I am grateful to take a moment to stop, look up and look around to see and acknowledge the work completed and the work in progress from our colleagues on campus. Thank you for the work you do and the contributions you make.

Yvonne Villanueva-Russell

A few words from Chief Research Officer, Herman Holt

February 10, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

Pursuit of grants has become essential to fund the work we believe is critical for our innovative scholarly endeavors, especially those that include our students. I applaud all of you that have submitted proposals for funding. We all know how time consuming grant writing can be, but the reward at the end of the process is exciting!

The data will show that our campus grant proposal activity is significant for the moment and generates over $4M in awards each year (see tables below). Knowing that the success rate is steep makes the successful ones all the more thrilling to receive. Also, it becomes even more imperative to understand the reality of having to potentially resubmit your ideas in revised and improved versions to have success the next time. This process is challenging, but we have overcome challenges before, and you will have colleagues here that will support and encourage you during this arduous process. Please continue to evolve your work to be at the forefront of innovation on a national and international level.

*at the end of the FY

You can see this year is already consistent with previous years.