College of Science and Health

• The College of Science and Health takes a multidisciplinary approach to preparing students for careers in the science and health care fields.
• CSH has enrolled 861 graduate students and 2,365 undergraduates for the 2018-19 academic year.
• Over 250 students enrolled in the college's Pathways Honor Program for highly qualified and motivated undergraduate students pursuing a health career. 

Grant Highlights

• Dr. Elizabeth LeClair, Biological Sciences, was awarded $443,089 by the National Institutes of Health for Follow That Cell: Motility Analysis of L-Plastin Mutant Zebrafish. Cell motility is a common aspect of both health and disease. Motile cells are critical for the immune system, which protects us. Conversely, aberrant cell motility is a hallmark of malignant tumors, which can be lethal. This study will explore the genetics of cell motility by experimentally manipulating in zebrafish a key component of the cytoskeleton: the actin-bundling protein L-plastin.
• Dr. Douglas Bruce, Health Sciences, was awarded $313,184 by The National Institutes of Health for a project entitled Motives for Heavy Cannabis Use among Young Men who have Sex with Men Living with HIV/AIDS. This study will investigate the range of motives (recreational, therapeutic or medical, and stress-related) associated with heavy cannabis use among young men who have sex with men living with HIV/AIDS. An ecological approach will assess individual, interpersonal, community-level, and societal factors associated with cannabis use among this group and estimate associations between heavy cannabis use and a range of HIV care continuum outcomes.
• Dr. Gabriela González-Aviles, Physics, was awarded $252,921 from the National Science Foundation via a sub-award from Northwestern University for MRSEC: Center for Multifunctional Materials. The goals are to advance world-class materials research, education, and outreach via internal and external interdisciplinary collaborations with academia, industry, national laboratories, and museums.
• Dr. Jalene LaMontagne, Biological Sciences, was awarded $200,000 from The National Science Foundation for Individual Variation in Mast Seeding Patterns. Individual variation provides the raw material for natural selection but is often ignored in ecological studies. This project will test hypotheses regarding the costs or benefits of individuals deviating from population-level patterns. Field data on annual cone production from 949 individual White Spruce trees will be collected, extending an existing dataset to 8 years, and various consequences of asynchrony for individuals producing different patterns of mast seeding from their populations will be examined.  
• Dr. Kathryn Grant, Psychology, received two sub-awards as part of a $1,500,000 grant from the National Heart, Lung, & Blood Health Institute to investigate the role of interpersonal relationships in improving the cardiovascular health of youths.
• Dr. Orson Morrison, Family and Community Services, was awarded $225,000 from the Chicago Board of Education for Healing Trauma Together.  This project involved DePaul University providing experienced therapists to provide trauma-informed counseling services in ten schools. 

Department and Faculty Honors and National/International Reach

• CSH created a new Faculty Mentorship Fellowship in collaboration with the McNair Scholars program. This fellowship will support CSH faculty to mentor McNair Scholars in research. 
• The Department of Environmental Sciences and Studies launched a new graduate program, a Master of Science in Environmental Science. 
• The Family and Community Services Center achieved Strategic Vendor Status with Chicago Public Schools to provide Social Emotional Learning Services across the CPS district through June 30, 2020.  
• Dr. Jess Vogt, Environmental Science and Studies, served as a Visiting Foreign Expert in the International Lab of Henan Provincial Landscape Architecture in the College of Forestry at Henan Agricultural University in Zhengzhou, China. During her visit, Dr. Vogt gave talks on climate change and urban forests, and trans disciplinary research.  
• Dr. Bala Chaudhary, Environmental Science and Studies, participated in the Second Symposium on Global Sustainability. Dr. Chaudhary was invited to speak at the Symposium and meet with officials from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. 
• Dr. Suzanne Bell, Psychology, presented in Moscow to collaborators and space scientists at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in the Russian Academy of Science. Dr. Bell is the PI on a NASA-funded US-Russian Collaboration on researching and managing space crews. In addition, Dr. Bell’s research was featured in the APA’s Monitor on Psychology.
• Dr. Susan McMahon, Psychology, was a featured International Speaker at the 7th International Community Psychology Conference in Santiago, Chile. With over 800 global attendees, the conference focused on social justice, community intervention, and collective action. Dr. McMahon also shared her expertise as an invited keynote speaker at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India and Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
• Dr. Bernadette Sánchez, Psychology, joined the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Community Psychology. She also served as a reviewer for the Ford Foundation Fellowship program, along with Dr. Antonio Polo.
• Dr. Kimberly Quinn, Psychology, was appointed Associate Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 
• Iu-Luen Jeng, LCPC, ATR, art therapist at Family and Community Services, was elected as the President of Illinois Art Therapy Association, a chapter of American Art Therapy Association.
• Drs. Windsor Aguirre and Jalene LaMontagne, Biological Sciences, are collaborating on a global project called the Global Urban Evolution (GLUE) project, run by the University of Toronto Mississauga. They will study the frequency of variation in hydrogen cyanide production in white clover along urban to rural transects in cities across the globe. 
• Dr. Jingjing Kipp, Biological Sciences, served on the Scientific Research Conferences (SRC) Advisory Committee of Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and evaluated proposals for FASEB sponsored scientific research conferences.
• Dr. Christopher Drupieski, Mathematical Sciences, joined the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, CA as part of their program on Group Representation Theory and Applications. MSRI is recognized as the world’s premier center for collaborative mathematics research spanning all branches of the mathematical sciences.
• Dr. Ahmed Zayed, Mathematical Sciences, became a member of the editorial board for the Canadian Journal of Applied Mathematics (CJAM), an international journal dedicated to the publication of high-quality original and review articles on rigorous methods and results in applied and computational mathematics.
• Dr. Joseph Tariman, Nursing, served as guest editor for the supplement to the October 2018 issue of the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, an official publication of the Oncology Nursing Society. 

Student Opportunities 

• The CSH undergraduate research journal DePaul Discoveries, with seven published volumes containing over 100 articles, showcases DePaul student research and has amassed over 20,500 downloads from 156 countries around the world. 
• Now in its 16th year, the Annual Science and Mathematics Undergraduate Research Showcase provides a venue to highlight and disseminate student research. Since 2003, over 1,000 undergraduate students have participated in presenting over 900 posters and 50 oral presentations.. 
• The Graduate Research Fund (GRF) supports DePaul College of Science and Health graduate students in their research as well as presenting at regional and national academic conferences.  
• The Undergraduate Summer Research Program of the College of Science and Health grants financial awards to undergraduate students in the support of summer research projects undertaken in collaboration with a faculty member.
• The Pre-Health Program is a pre-professional program designed to help students identify which health career is the best fit and prepare them to become a competitive applicant to professional school.
• The Pathways Honors program is a rigorous and selective program that allows students the option to participate in the Early Opportunity Program for entrance into one of six professional programs at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS), as soon as the end of their first year at DePaul University.
• The Undergraduate Research Assistantship Program (URAP) provides valuable learning opportunities and financial support for CSH undergraduate students to assist and collaborate with faculty members who conduct research projects and are engaged in scientific activities.
• The Dean’s Undergraduate Fellowship, a 10-week donor-funded summer internship program, provides opportunities for CSH students to engage in research projects at organizations throughout the Chicago area.
• The DePaul/Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science Summer Research Program provides a funded opportunity for CSH students to conduct biomedical science research with Rosalind Franklin faculty in areas such as virology, microbiology, and neuroscience

DePaul’s College of Science and Health (CSH), strives to provide the highest-quality, personalized and accessible education available in the fields of science and health, serving society by advancing knowledge through teaching and research.

CSH offers rigorous undergraduate and graduate programs that prepare students to meet the demands of fast-growing fields such as actuarial science, biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, data science, neuroscience, environmental science, health science, mathematics, nursing, physics, psychology, pre-health, and science education.  

• Undergraduate degrees are offered by seven departments, and one program (neuroscience) 
• Grad degrees offered by six departments and one school  
• CSH houses several centers, including the Family and Community Services, the Institute for Nature and Culture, the Center for Community Research, the STEM Center, Quantitative Reasoning Center, and Statistical Consulting Center.

Dr. Dorothy Kozlowski began serving as interim dean of the College of Science and Health in September 2018.

Dr. Kozlowski is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, served as the founding Chair of the Department of Health Sciences from 2011-2013, and served as the Director of the new Neuroscience Program in the College of Science and Health. 

She received her B.A. in Psychology from Knox College, M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, and completed postdoctoral fellowships in Neurosurgery at UCLA and Neurobiology at Northwestern University. 

Her teaching and research focus is in neuroscience. Specifically, Dr. Kozlowski is interested in how the brain tries to repair itself following traumatic brain injury through neuroplasticity. She, her students, and collaborators also study how to enhance brain repair through therapeutic approaches such as physical rehabilitation, stem cell transplantation or pharmacological agents. Her lab is also interested in understanding why repeat concussions result in long-term neurological deficits. Her research has been published in a variety of journals and book chapters, and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the United States Department of Defense.

Dr. Kozlowski teaches courses in neuroscience in the Biology Department, Neuroscience Program and liberal arts program. She received the Excellence in Teaching Award from DePaul in 2010 and the “Educator of the Year” award from the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, an international organization, in 2011. In addition to teaching and research Dr. Kozlowski works with DePaul students and the Concussion Legacy Foundation to offer concussion education presentations to youth in the Chicago area. These presentations are designed to teach youth about the symptoms of concussion and how to play sports safely. She is also actively working on bringing attention to the role concussions play in victims of domestic and interpersonal violence.

Kozlowski is the daughter of Polish immigrants and the first in her family to attend college. DePaul’s Vincentian mission is one that resonates with her on an incredibly personal level. In 2014, she was selected to join the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Professors, a faculty organization at DePaul whose goal is to enhance the educational mission of the university in ways consistent with its distinctive values. Since 2017, she has been participating in the Vincentian Mission Institute to deepen her understanding of what it means to be a vibrant Catholic, Vincentian University.