Vice President for Research Thomas Piechota will be hosting the next Ask the Experts COVID-19 Virtual Town Hall on Monday, April 27, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. All the Chapman community are welcome to join with this link and learn more about the fascinating work of our Chapman experts and ask questions. A Q & A follows each brief presentation, moderated by Tom Piechota.

Faculty Experts:

Jim Doti, Ph.D. is president emeritus and professor of economics.  He founded the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research and has presented the Chapman Economic Forecast for 42 consecutive years.  Dr. Doti will be providing analyses relating to when and how the California economy should hit the restart button.

Jennifer D. Keene, Ph.D. is a professor of history and dean of the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. She is a well-published expert on World War I. She has been involved in numerous public history projects that underscore the relevance of the World War I-era to the present day. She has served as an historical advisor to the World War I Centennial Commission, an historical consultant for numerous exhibits and films, and was recently featured in the PBS documentary mini-series, The Great War. She will speak about the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and how learning about this pandemic of a century ago may give us a clearer perspective on today’s COVID-19 crisis.

Jason Douglas, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Department of Health Sciences, Crean College of Health and Behavioral Science. Guided by the principles and practice of community-based participatory research, Dr. Douglas works with disadvantaged communities to investigate social and environmental determinants of public health disparities. Dr. Douglas is collaborating with Drs. Lawrence Brown, Angel Miles Nash, Emmanuel John, and Georgiana Bostean in an interdisciplinary context to examine the extent to which ethnocultural minority groups in the cities of New York and Los Angeles may be at higher risk for COVID-19 morbidity and mortality than non-minority groups. By examining COVID-19 impacts in these distinct geographies, this collaborative research seeks to: (1) identify social and environmental factors that may manifest in COVID-19 health disparities, and (2) develop a Viral Pandemic Risk Index based on study results.

 Gregory Goldsmith, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of biology and the director of the Grand Challenges Initiative. Dr. Goldsmith will present preliminary results from a project that is building a comprehensive database of the response of U.S. colleges and universities to the emergence of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2). Working with a team of 10 Chapman University undergraduates, Goldsmith and his collaborators have collected data on when higher education institutions transitioned to online learning, closed residence halls, and instituted remote work for faculty and staff. The results have the potential to improve epidemiological models of disease transmission, inform policy developed by public health officials, and provide insights for decision makers within the higher education community.

 Erik Linstead, Ph.D. is associate professor and the associate dean of academic programs and faculty development in the Fowler School of Engineering. He is the principal investigator of the Machine Learning and Affiliated Technologies (MLAT) lab. Prior to his current role, he spent 12 years at Boeing as an embedded software engineer and currently serves as a consulting senior engineering specialist for the Aerospace Corporation in the areas of deep learning and computer vision. He will be sharing how students and faculty at Chapman have leveraged curriculum related to 3D printing and modeling to manufacture face shields as a response to PPE shortages arising from COVID-19. To date, over 2,000 units have been donated.

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 link above, 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).

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.