CBSHS welcomes 17 new faculty members

The College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences is excited to welcome 17 new faculty members across four departments, who will enable student learning and contribute to the planned growth of the college.

Meet the college’s newest faculty members by department:

Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management

Matthew Browning is an assistant professor in the parks, recreation and tourism management department. He studies people’s connections and interactions with the natural world. His research focuses on ways to evaluate and ultimately enhance the frequency, richness, and meaningfulness of nature-based connections and interactions. Browning will be bringing his Virtual Reality & Nature Lab from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to Clemson. He uses the lab to conduct basic and applied research on the therapeutic effects of simulated natural environments on human health and well-being. Browning is currently studying how the duration, frequency and intensity of watching 360-degree nature videos in virtual reality could improve mental health in students suffering from high levels of anxiety or depression, as well as patient experiences in physician waiting rooms during primary care appointments. Browning earned his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, and is both a former Park Break fellow and a 2012 US Play Coalition research seed grant recipient. He’s also currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Leisure Research.

Corliss Outley will serve as a professor in the parks, recreation and tourism management department beginning in January and is bringing her lab and research program in social justice, cultural competency and youth development with her from Texas A&M University. She is also an alumna from Texas A&M University, having earned her doctorate in recreation and resources development. She is a community engaged scholar, focusing on improving sociopolitical systems and environments to reduce inequalities through the application of strengths-based empowerment approaches to youth development. Corliss has conducted a series of investigations in the areas of positive youth development outcomes outside of school hours, with a particular focus on racial/ethnic identity and cultural behaviors, health disparities, social justice and built and physical environmental influences. Outley believes that working side-by-side with community members helps those involved become fully represented and active participants in social, environmental, economic and educational institutions.

Iryna Sharaievska is an assistant professor in the parks, recreation and tourism management department. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her Master and Bachelor’s at Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University in Ukraine.  Prior to joining Clemson, she worked in the Department of Recreation Management at Appalachian State University. She studies family leisure among contemporary families, or families that include members from different cultural or racial backgrounds, blended families and those who live apart. Her research focus includes technology-based leisure and its impact on family relationships. Her research has been published in journals such as Leisure Sciences, Leisure Studies, Journal of Leisure Research, International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure and Therapeutic Recreation Journal. Sharajevska is a guest editor for SCHOLE: A Journal of Leisure Studies and Recreation Education and serves on the board of The Academy of Leisure Sciences.

Lauren Stephens, is a lecturer for the Youth Development Studies program in the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management department. She is an alumna of Clemson, having earned her Ph.D. in Youth Development Leadership. Her research explores the ways contextual factors, such as relationships and social media, influence student-athletes’ perceptions of body image, eating behaviors, and related symptoms.

 

 

Jeff Townsend is a lecturer in the parks, recreation and tourism management department. He earned his undergraduate degree in May 2004 and a Master’s degree in Recreation, Sport and Tourism with an emphasis in Sport Management in 2006, both from the University of Illinois. Prior to coming to Clemson, Townsend worked in the athletic department of both Brigham Young University and the University of Mississippi. He has also worked as an accessibility specialist for the National Center on Accessibility, which is nationally renowned for its expertise and personalized technical assistance on a broad range of issues related to compliance with disability legislation and accessibility standards. Townsend has more than 25 years of experience in adapted sport and recreation. During the past two decades he has had the opportunity to travel all over the United States and the world, playing as well as coaching younger players at camps in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Mongolia, Spain, Mexico, Australia and El Salvador. He also played wheelchair basketball professionally in Australia in 2004 and in Spain in 2009.

Deborah Tysor is a  lecturer in the parks, recreation and tourism management department. She recently completed her Ph.D. at the University of Utah in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. As a recreational therapist, Tysor’s research focuses on the mental health benefits of nature-based interventions for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder, with a particular focus on cultivating social support. When teaching, her favorite topics include understanding and preventing non-suicidal self-injury, bridging the gap between research and practice, and enhancing cultural competence in clinical practice. She currently serves as the chair of the Veteran and Military Section for the American Therapeutic Recreation Association and is a Veterans Affairs Section Editorial Board Member for the American Journal of Recreation Therapy.

Political Science

Christina Bambrick is an assistant professor in the political science department. She studies constitutional theory and development, American and comparative constitutionalism, and the history of political thought. She is currently writing a book manuscript on the horizontal application of rights to non-state actors in comparative context. She received her doctorate in Government from the University of Texas in 2019 and has a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and legal studies from Scripps College in Claremont, California.

Tara Trask is a lecturer in the political science department. Her research interests include the intersection of political violence and international organizations. Most of her research builds off of her master’s thesis on the European Union and dissent groups’ tactics, to more broadly understand how dissent groups change their behavior when certain institutions or circumstances change. Prior to Clemson, she taught at University of Georgia (UGA) and for Duke’s Talent Identification Program for exceptional high school students. She is also an alumna of UGA, having earned a Master’s degree in Political Science and International Affairs from in 2015. She then continued at UGA to pursue her Ph.D. and is working on the completion of her dissertation.

Josh King and Kevin Vance are two new post-doctoral fellows in the political science department.

Public Health Sciences

Kathleen Cartmell is an associate professor in the public health sciences department. Cartmell is a health services researcher, with a focus on dissemination and implementation of evidence-based strategies for cancer prevention and control. She received her Ph.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and her Master of Public Health Degree from the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. Most of her research focuses on developing and testing interventions to optimize the delivery of HPV vaccination and tobacco cessation at the health system and community levels. Cartmell also conducts research in India and Kenya, designed to optimize the delivery of palliative care in low resource settings. As a teacher, Cartmell has previously taught doctoral level courses in research design and methods, measurement and instrumentation in research, scientific writing and applied epidemiology and biostatistics. At Clemson, she is teaching courses focused in the areas of healthcare delivery and public health.

Xia Jing is an assistant professor of public health services in the public health sciences department. She earned her master’s degree in Medical Library and Information Sciences from China Medical University. She then earned her Ph.D. in Health Informatics from the University of Salford in England. Her postdoctoral training in clinical informatics was at the National Institutes of Health. She has extensive experience in teaching, research and service in health informatics, specifically in knowledge representation, data-driven hypothesis generation, and providing computable and machine-interpretable information in clinical settings. She has experience in developing analytic tools to analyze hierarchical data sets, such as ICD codes, which can be used for post-market drug comparisons, facilitating decision making by clinical researchers, clinicians and healthcare administrators. She also has the experience to conduct utility and usability studies for Health IT applications.  Jing serves as the PI of an NIH R15 project from 2018-2021, and several Ohio University internal funded projects. She also served as a co-investigator of an Ohio regional funding from 2017-2018. Prior to her appointment at Clemson University, she was an assistant professor of clinical informatics/health services administration at Ohio University from 2014-2019.

Corey Kalbaugh is an assistant professor in the public health sciences department. He has 17 years of experience in health services research related to vascular diseases. The objective of his current research is to provide clinicians with the best evidence to support the care of patients with peripheral artery disease. His work broadly aims to reduce racial disparities in peripheral artery disease-related treatment and outcomes. Kalbaugh earned a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina and a Master of Arts degree in Medicine, Health, and Society from Vanderbilt University. He also earned a Master of Science degree in Bioengineering from Clemson University, which he obtained while starting his professional career as the first embedded scholar in the Department of Surgery at Greenville Hospital System, now Prisma Health, University Medical Center. Prior to teaching at Clemson, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina.

Lu Zhang is an assistant professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health Sciences.  She has experience in population-based cancer registry data and has participated in several national funded cancer epidemiological studies. Her research interests include the epidemiology, treatment, and survival of breast and prostate cancer, as well as health disparity in other chronic diseases. Zhang earned her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.

 

 

School of Nursing

Casey Hopkins is an assistant professor in the School of Nursing. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Clemson University, a Master of Science degree in Nursing from Emory University and a Ph.D. in Nursing from Mercer University. She is a certified women’s health nurse practitioner and has a clinical practice in pediatric and adolescent gynecology with Prisma Health in Greenville, South Carolina. Hopkins has served as associate professor of nursing at Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina for the past seven years where she taught in both undergraduate and graduate courses. Hopkins is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the Southern Nursing Research Society, and the Council for Advancement in Nursing Science.  Her clinical and research interests are in the area of female adolescent health.

Anne Koci is a named professor of nursing, has more than 45 years of experience as a registered nurse and 38 years of experience as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). Having earned a Ph.D. from Emory University, her dissertation work focused on health outcomes of women with a history of abuse and involved development of a measure of marginality. Some of her recent research has focused on the psychometric properties of the Koci Marginality Index (KMI) and translating the instrument into several foreign languages for use in international research. Her research has resulted in many peer reviewed publications and national and international presentations.

 

Angela Newton is a lecturer in the School of Nursing. She is a 2018 graduate of the Family Nurse Practitioner program at Clemson University.  She has been a nurse for 14 years . Her background is in Med-Surg and Home Health. She worked for 12 years on the Med-Surg floor at Oconee Memorial Hospital and during this time she picked up a PRN weekend job with Interim Healthcare. It was then that she realized how much she loved home health care and the community health side of nursing. In 2016, she transferred to a full-time position with home health care at Oconee Memorial Hospital. Her teaching background consists of clinical instruction with the Med-Surg II class for the past three years. She says it was an honor to share her work experience with these students on the floor where her career started. This semester is teaching NURS 4150 Community Health and working with the clinical coordination.

Erin Shepherd is a lecturer in the School of Nursing. She earned her BSN from The College of New Jersey in 2011, after which she worked on a high-risk labor and delivery unit. After five years, she relocated to South Carolina with her family, where she has continued to care for women in diverse environments including the LDRP care model and birth center settings. This past year she earned her Master’s in Nursing with a Clinical Nurse Educator concentration from Jacksonville University and became a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. She was able to share my experience and knowledge with students in the clinical environment this summer, and now joins the Clemson faculty teaching in the Women’s Health/OB classroom and Simulation Lab.

Janice Withycombe is an associate professor in the School of Nursing. She previously served as an assistant professor in Office of Academic Advancement at Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. A nursing Ph.D. graduate from the University of Arizona, Withycombe is a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program at Winship Cancer Institute and is also an active member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). Within COG she has led nursing research teams to develop and complete evidence-based practice projects. She also serves on the COG Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) committee which advocates for the use of PROs in clinical trials.