Chapman University’s Vice President for Research, Thomas Piechota, hosts the next Ask the Experts – COVID-19 Research Town Hall on Thursday, April 16, 2020, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., featuring several Chapman faculty who are already working on COVID-19-related research and outreach. The entire Chapman community (staff, faculty, and students) and the broader community are welcome to join using this link. A Q & A follows each brief presentation, moderated by Tom Piechota.

Featuring Chapman Experts:

Steven Gjerstad will be joining us for his regular update. Dr. Gejerstad is a Presidential Fellow in the Economic Science Institute and the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University. He will be providing the latest COVID-19 numbers for the local community, State of California, nation and world.

Stephanie Saldivar, MS, PA-C is a Clinical Assistant Professor and the Director of Clinical Education for the PA Studies Program within Crean College. She is a certified Physician Assistant (PA) and specializes in Emergency Medicine. Stephanie currently practices medicine in a local Orange County Emergency room and has been on the front lines as a healthcare provider during the COVID-19 pandemic. She will be sharing how her workplace is currently preparing for and managing suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients, how medical education has been affected, and how PAs are responding to the pandemic.

Dr. Hillard Kaplan is Professor of Health Economics and Anthropology in the Economic Science Institute within the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University. He is the principal investigator on a collaborative and multi-disciplinary research program studying cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease among two tribal populations in lowland Bolivia. However, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the team has paused their research and are now redirecting their efforts to mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 on the tribal populations with whom they work. They are currently engaged in a collaborative effort with the tribal leadership and government authorities responsible for responding to the pandemic engaging in a collective decision-making process to determine the response needed to combat the epidemic. They hope to create an approach that can be adapted more generally for global tribal and aboriginal populations.

Shenyue Jia, Ph.D. along with her colleagues in the Center of Excellence in Earth Systems Modeling and Observations (CEESMO) within the Schmid College of Science and Technology at Chapman University are working on identifying at-risk communities for COVID-19 using crowdsourced connectivity data. The team’s research focuses on rural and relatively isolated communities of the hardest-hit states in the U.S. by the COVID-19 pandemic. She will share how information from crowdsourced connectivity data from Facebook Disaster Maps and the CDC’s vulnerability index can help decision making in vulnerable communities as cases surge. Team members include Drs. Seung Hee Kim and Menas Kafatos from CEESMO at Chapman, Dr. Son V. Nghiem from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Dr. Andrew Schroeder from Direct Relief.
Recent media coverage of work by Dr. Shenyue Jia can be found here.
Shenyue Virtual Town Hall Presentation

INSTRUCTIONS TO JOIN THE WEBCAST:  Please join the live event with your computer-attached speakers or with your mobile device (with Teams app).  When you click on the below link, you will choose one of two options:  to watch within the Teams App or to watch within your web browser (Note:  Safari is not supported at this time).

https://chapma.nu/AskTheExpertsCovid19

For Chapman Staff and Faculty

To ensure the best internet performance, please disconnect from VPN and close any unnecessary applications.   You may also join on your phone over mobile data using the Teams app.  A recording will be made available after the event.

For more information about this Town Hall, contact:

The Office of Research: Thomas Piechota, Vice President for Research, piechota@chapman.edu or (714) 628-2897.
Media Contact: Amy Stevens, Director of Public Relations, amstevens@chapman.edu or (714) 289-3143.