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Biological Sciences

During Fall 2020, Wendy Schluchter (Eurofins Professor of Molecular Biology & Department Chair) taught "Virology" (BIOS 4723/5723) which included discussions of the pandemic.  Dr. Schluchter is teaching "Medical Microbiology" (BIOS 6713) during Spring 2021 where students will read and discuss COVID-19 research papers.

Joel Atallah (Assistant Professor) included pandemic-related material in three of his Fall 2020 courses:

In his in-person Undergraduate Seminar course (BIOS 3091), students read original papers and documents relevant to the pandemic and discussed them in class. The assigned readings included review articles on coronaviruses, meta-analyses of the effects of social-distancing and mask-wearing, and the full protocol of the Phase 3 Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine trial.

In "Genomics & Bioinformatics" (BIOS 4454/5454), which had a hybrid format and was co-taught with Dr. Nicola Anthony, a computer lab session was devoted to a comparison of the genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) and other pathogens.

A student taking an independent study course (BIOS 3092) with Dr. Atallah wrote a short review paper on the incidental effects of Covid-19 restrictions on other diseases. She found evidence from the literature that in some countries cases of influenza, mumps, pertussis and other illnesses declined sharply in 2020, possibly in response to the restrictions.
 

History & Philosophy

In Fall 2020, Marc Landry (Assistant Professor, Associate Director of ) offered two courses with content significant to the study of the current pandemic: 

"World History since 1600" (HIST 1002) pays special attention to pandemics such as the 1918/1919 influenza.

"Environmental History" (HIST 2000) looks at the history of the relationship between humans and the environment, including the history of disease and epidemics. This course also considers the history of so-called "natural" disasters and explore what exactly is natural and what is human about these catastrophes. 

In Fall 2022, Prof. Landry offered HIST 4991/5991, a special topics course called "Plagues and Pandemics in History." The course explores the impact of infectious diseases in world history from prehistory to the present.

Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Administration

During Summer Session A (2020), Assistant Professor Han Chen taught HRT 6495 "Special Topics in Hospitality & Tourism - Event Impact Analysis" which has students conduct a COVID-19 impact analysis on the New Orleans hotel market using real-world industry data.

Planning and Urban Studies

The Master of Science in Transportation (MST) Capstone project for the summer and fall (Capstone I and II) of 2020 was the impact of COVID -19 on New Orleans’ transportation system.

Jean Brainard Boebel Endowed Professor of Historic Preservation Fallon Aidoo’s course “Urbanism and Urban Design” (MURP 6710) in Fall 2020  continued the work that peers conducted with Propeller the previous fall with a new focus on how to design for pandemics.

Chemistry & Computer Science

University Research Professor Steve Rick (Chemistry) and Associate Professor Chris Summa (Computer Science) are part of a global research consortium studying ways to inhibit the virus that causes COVID-19. Learn more in the UNO Press Release. 

Economics & Finance

Gregory Price (Professor and faculty affiliate of Urban Entrepreneurship and Policy Institute) served as a guest editor and wrote an introduction for a special issue of the Journal of Economics, Race and Policy on

Dr. Price also published an article in January 2021 titled  in the Journal of Economic Studies.

Educational Leadership, Counseling, Health Promotion & Human Performance

Assistant Professor Christopher Belser published an article, "Conceptualizing COVID-19-Related Career Concerns Using Bioecological Systems: Implications for Career Practice," in the Special Issue: COVID-19 Impact on Career Development of The Career Development Quarterly. 

Assistant Professor Marc Bonis published an article in the Biomedical Journal of Scientific and Technical Research entitled

Associate Professor Carlen McLin has submitted an article to the Southern African Institute of International Affairs and the Centre for International Governance, titled “Africa and COVID-19: An Interdisciplinary Literature Review and Policy Recommendations.” 

History and Philosophy

The Midlo Center New Orleans has partnered with Arizona State University to create , a publicly sourced digital global COVID-19 archive. Midlo's Co-Directors, Professor Mary Niall Mitchell and Associate Professor Connie Atkinson, are curators along with colleagues from other universities on the project.  Find information specific to the New Orleans collection .

Marc Landry, Associate Director of and Assistant Professor of history, reports that Center Austria’s academic journal, , will devote volume 31 (due out in 2022) to the theme of "Disasters and Catastrophes in Austria" as a way to gain historical perspective on the current pandemic.  

Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Administration

Assistant Professor Han Chen has two research projects related to COVID-19 currently underway: one is about restaurant consumers' dining behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the other is on restaurant employees' fear of COVID-19 and their emotional exhaustion. Both projects are still in progress and will be submitted for journal publication later this summer.

Management and Marketing

Associate Professor of Marketing Elyria Kemp, Professor of Economics Gregory Price, and Assistant Professor of Management Nicole Fuller co-authored a paper, exploring the attitudes of African Americans in New Orleans toward COVID-19, social and normative conditions which affect individual behaviors, as well as access to healthcare services and COVID-19 testing. The work has been published in the International Journal of Healthcare Management and can be read .

Associate Professor of Marketing Elyria Kemp examined the unique emotional distress experienced during the coronavirus outbreak by consumers and its impact on consumption behavior.  This research resulted in an article, "Preparing for a crisis: examining the influence of fear and anxiety on consumption compliance," published in the

Associate Professor of Marketing Elyria Kemp and Assistant Professor of Marketing Dong-Jun Min partnered to examine the role that feelings of gratitude play in the emotional health and well-being of individuals during the coronavirus outbreak. Their project investigates how efforts to manage anxiety can influence prosocial behavior and the social marketing efforts of the federal government in controlling the spread of the virus, as well as the implications for addressing mental health issues and social marketing messaging during catastrophic occurrences. The resultant article was published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing and can be found .

Planning and Urban Studies

Jean Brainard Boebel Endowed Professor of Historic Preservation Fallon Aidoo is leading a Working Group of the Natural Hazards Center that is researching Commercial Anchors of Majority-Minority Communities and advising funders of business relief and commercial revitalizations. The Working Group is supported with a seed grant/sub-grant of the NSF-funded Social Science Extreme Events Research Network (administered at UC Boulder’s Natural Hazards Center).

Associate Professor Michelle Thompson is working with the “Data for Good” program of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth on a project that entails evaluating the impacts of COVID-19 on “New Orleans Main Streets and Economic Corridors.” 

Professor of Research and Director of UNO-CHART Monica Farris is a member of a working group funded by CONVERGE called “Operational, Ethical, and Situational Research Challenges in COVID-19.” This group is focused on the “doing” of research during COVID-19. It will examine the operational, ethical, and situational challenges faced by researchers in times of pandemic. Due to COVID-19, new takes on old challenges of quick-response disaster social science research are emerging. The group will identify novel unanticipated challenges related to working in a societal setting interrupted by COVID-19 and explore strategies to overcome such challenges.

Associate Professor of Research Pam Jenkins is a lead on the CONVERGE-funded working group “Living Pandemic Life on the Margins of Society: Voices from the Field.” This working group will collect stories from a diverse people who live on the margins of market-based society, including Native Americans and African Americans. For them, fashioning meaningful lives amidst this malevolent disordering must occur absent many of the securities of middle-class life. This group seeks to examine how these groups are coping with a new normal of day-to-day anguish.

Hoang Tao, a CHART Graduate Research Assistant and PhD student in Urban Studies, is volunteering with the City-Assisted Evacuation program. As a former Evacuteer Evacuspot captain, Hoang will assist in preventing the spreading of COVID-19 during the potential evacuation of an estimated of 35,000 New Orleans residents ahead of dangerous hurricanes. He is currently being trained to assist with the implementation of new COVID-19 protocols related to distributing personal protective equipment (e.g., N95 masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, etc.), social distancing evacuees, disinfecting fomite surfaces and other preventative procedures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. 

Political Science

Assistant Professor Steven Mumford worked with the Greater New Orleans Foundation (GNOF) during Spring 2020 on a survey of nonprofit leaders in the region on how their organizations are impacted by the pandemic, primarily in finances and services. It was adapted into an article for the International Journal of Public Administration discussing nonprofit resilience to compound hurricane-pandemic threat. Dr. Mumford also worked with the Greater New Orleans Funders Network in Spring 2020 on a follow up survey of major foundations in the area on how they are impacted.  For more information, check out the UNO Press Release.  

In Spring 2021, Dr. Mumford is conducting another survey of regional nonprofits on behalf of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. This survey is a roughly one year follow up of how the sector is exhibiting resilience to the pandemic and other changes over the past year, and also examines racial and gender equity in the sector’s leadership. This work will result in a report by May 2021, as well as additional journal articles.

Psychology

Department Chair and Associate Professor Elliott Beaton and Assistant Professor Sarah Black are seeking studying the impacts of COVID19 on parents and children in New Orleans. They made for participants.

Yulia Kotelnikova (Assistant Professor) and Matt Scalco (Assistant Professor) conducted a study on the impact of the pandemic stay-at-home order on mental health and have collected data from over 1000 participants. The goal of this study is to examine the impact of isolation due to federally mandated measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We are focusing on the most affected states that have been under the stay-at-home order since the middle of March, 2020. 

Urban Entrepreneurship & Policy Institute

Chris W. Surprenant, co-authored with Jason Brennan (Georgetown) and Eric Winsberg (South Florida), Kennedy Institute Journal of Ethics (September 2020). 

Chris W. Surprenant, Mercatus Center Policy Brief, published online 3/30/2020.

co-authored by institute faculty Eric van Holm, Jake Monaghan, Dan Shahar and J.P. Messina, and Chris W. Surprenant, currently under review.

co-authored by institute faculty Gregory Price and Eric van Holm, currently under review.

Eric van Holm, co-authored with Christopher Wyczalkowski (Georgia State) and Prentiss Dantzler (Georgia State).


 

Alumni Affairs

As part of their weekly webinar series, Alumni Affairs has  offered two sessions focused on managing some of the impacts of COVID-19. Both were recorded and are available for viewing at the links included below.

was hosted by the Chris Surprenant (Director of the Urban Entrepreneurship and Policy Institute) and Lynette White Colin (Vice President, Small Business Ecosystem Development NOLA Business Alliance) on April 22. 

was hosted by Kimberly Hill Putman on May 20. 

Chemistry

Assistant Professor Phoebe Zito and Assistant Professor David Podgorski are working with local distilleries to test distillery-made hand sanitizer for compliance with FDA criteria. 

Computer Science

Associate Professor N. Adlai A. DePano is the Coordinator of Filipino Catholic Ministry for the Archdiocese of New Orleans and has been involved in assisting nearly 100 Filipino interns in the New Orleans hotel/restaurant industry who were terminated from their jobs due to COVID-19 business closures. The effort, which includes providing donated food and financial assistance, is the brainchild of the Consulate of the Philippines, led by Consul Robert Romero.

Economics and Finance

Assistant Professor Luca Pezzo is offering a free course, "Introducing ALPHABETA for High Schoolers," for high school students in the light of the COVID-19 shutdown. Financial support is provided by ALPHABETA and GNO, Inc.

Educational Leadership, Counseling, & Foundations

In his role of Chair of the Board of Directors of the School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans, Brian Beabout (Associate Professor) helped the Executive Director and Board manage the response to the pandemic. This has included supporting an application for a PPP loan to keep staff on payroll, rethinking their relationship with the landlord, and revising programs and services in order to continue to meet their mission while respecting the need of schools and staffs to minimize contact. The Center has maintained its staffing and kept the majority of its contracts while expanding video services and distance consulting.
 

Management and Marketing

Assistant Professor of Healthcare Management Randy Kearns is a member of the committee for the Organization and Delivery of Burn Care (ODBC) with the American Burn Association (ABA) which leads the . Dr. Kearns designed a survey tool for all member burn centers, assists in collecting and reviewing the data, and adjusting disaster planning activities relevant to the number of available burn beds during disasters. This international committee continues to meet monthly to discuss ever-evolving strategies to assure burn care is available while meeting the demand for a surge of COVID patients. Read Dr. Kearns' most recent paper on disaster preparedness in burn care .

Dr. Kearns also serves as a Regional Coordinator for the Louisiana Department of Health, working with the Nursing Homes and other Congregate Care Facilities to provide testing teams, infection control expertise, personal protective equipment, and testing supplies to identify and eliminate COVID19 in their facilities. This work requires coordination among the local Office of Public Health, the State Department of Public Health, State Emergency Management, Louisiana National Guard, and the 32 Nursing Homes in the greater New Orleans Region. 

Music

Stephen Masakowski, Coca-Cola Endowed Chair of Jazz Studies and Professor of Music, and the Masakowski Family produced a tribute to the late Ellis Marsalis, who lost his life to COVID-19, through the Snug Harbor Jazz Facebook page.  A recording of the concert can be viewed .

Planning and Urban Studies

Associate Director of CHART Carol Short and Professor Bethany Stich serve on the Louisiana Supply Chain Transportation Committee for COVID 19 response.

Professor Bethany Stich serves on the Board for , and her work includes delivering meals to the house bound (seniors, those with underlying conditions and those with COVID) on Mondays and Thursdays in Orleans Parish (with United Way and World Central Kitchen).

Political Science

Assistant Professor Eric van Holm is working as part of the Governor’s Health Equity Task Force, acting as co-chair of the Regulatory and Policy Subcommittee, and working on drafting a report with recommendations for the state legislature.

Psychology

Department Chair and Associate Professor Elliott Beaton and Assistant Professor Sarah Black led an information session on Zoom for UNO alumni where they spoke about family stress related to quarantine. The event was organized and recorded by UNO Alumni Affairs and is available for viewing on .

Urban Entrepreneurship Institute

A full listing of the Institute's extensive COVID-19-related activities can be found on their website.