Research Collaborators
We have been working with different collaborators across the campus on various research and grant projects. Follow the links below to see who we have been collaborating with!
Tina Abbate
Clinical Assistant Professor
Tina Abbate, PhD, MPA, MS, RN is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Nursing. Dr. Abbate completed her PhD in Nursing, a Master of Science in Nursing, Master of Public Administration and Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Binghamton University. Dr. Abbate began her teaching career at Binghamton University and recently joined the faculty at Stony Brook in 2015. She currently teaches in the Undergraduate Studies department in both the live and online class environments. Dr. Abbate’s focus of research encompasses academic science, specifically, active learning strategies and retention of information.
Guleed Ali
IDEA Fellow
Guleed studies how water availability changed during past intervals of global warming. To reveal these changes in past hydroclimate, he reconstructs the evolution of landscapes and pairs these data with absolute dating methods to determine the ages, rates, and sizes of change. Guleed is collaborating with CELT on developing virtual reality modules to improve in-class instruction and the accessibility of the geosciences.
Sharon Cuff
Clinical Associate Professor
Professor Cuff joined the Health Science faculty within the School of Health Professions in 2004 bringing 15 years of experience in not-for-profit administration, vocational rehabilitation, mental health and housing agencies to the department.
Professor Cuff is an advocate for people with disabilities and remains committed to delivering social justice content within the curriculum in the Children with Disabilities coursework. She frequently draws upon her experience in working with people with disabilities to find employment, participating in the building of new consumer-run mental health agency, and developing innovative programs while teaching. Professor Cuff has led the initiative to develop sites for the student internship of the Disability Studies and Human Development concentration. Professor Cuff teaches Scholarly Writing in the fall semester.
Professor Cuff is involved in several research projects in collaboration with other faculty and has led students through the process to develop their own studies. Her particular area of focus surrounds sharenting, the sharing of parents on social media, regarding their children with disability. There are several ongoing projects within this area. Additionally, Professor Cuff is involved in an active learning research project and an adaptive soccer team for children with autism.
Professor Cuff recently completed SUNY's Designing Courses for Social Justice Frameworks, and earlier earned a master's degree in social work and a master's degree in liberal studies from Stony Brook University. Prior to completing her graduate studies, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Stony Brook and studied at the Faculté des Lettres in Avignon, France.
KRISTEN PAGANO
Lecturer, Mathematics
Kristen Pagano is a NYS certified secondary math teacher and a Lecturer in the Mathematics Department at Stony Brook University. She worked at a high needs public high school in New York with the highest homeless population of the county. At the time, 26 percent of the student body were English Language Learners with the number growing each year.
Equity and access in education were natural curiosities for Kristen. Kristen now searches for ways to provide access for all students while maintaining high expectations. She is focused on student-centered instruction layered with discussion, active classrooms, lesson design, technology, motivating the students internally through the mathematics, and how to teach critical thinking and logic to all students to achieve this work. She uses cross curricular activities to help students to transfer and deepen their conceptual understanding. Kristen believes instruction should be delivered with the whole student in mind and often includes neuroscience, psychology, and sociology research based techniques. Kristen believes that social emotional learning concepts help provide access to all students and especially those from low income homes. She believes that this is important equity work for all teachers to be doing in their classrooms.
Kristen Pagano graduated from Stony Brook University with a B.S. in Mathematics in 2005, a M.A. in Secondary Mathematics Education in 2016, a post-Master's Certificate in Educational Leadership almost completed, and starting a doctoral program in STEM education at Stony Brook University in the fall.
Richard Tomczak
Director of Faculty Engagement, Undergraduate Education
Research Assistant Professor, History
Richard Tomczak is the Director of Faculty Engagement and Lecturer in the History Department at Stony Brook University, where he received his PhD in History. His upcoming monograph, Workers of War & Empire from New France to British America, 1688-1783, under contract by McGill-Queen’s University Press, chronicles the transformation of corvée over nine decades in French and British North America. While a major focus of this project is unraveling the labour arrangements that propped up the Canadian colonial state, it also sheds light on the evolution of French Canadians’ work routines, the rhythms of their agricultural lives, and their responses to corvée policy.
His research primarily focuses on faculty-led high impact pedagogical practices in the classroom. In his role as Director of Faculty Engagement, Tomczak works with professors to develop and implement creative, innovative, and/or experimental teaching strategies at Stony Brook. Importantly, his research examines teaching strategies that are designed to increase educational equity, through fairness and inclusion, across Stony Brook's diverse undergraduate student body.
