Stefanie Becerril, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Current research and teaching interests include cultural and linguistic diversity, fluency disorders, counseling in communication disorders, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Title of her paper: "Beyond Fluency: Bibliotherapy as a Tool for Communication Resilience, Identity, and Advocacy for People Who Stutter", and grant: "Preparing Graduate Speech-Language Pathology Students to Provide Person-Centered, Counseling-Informed Care for People Who Stutter Through a Structured Guided Bibliotherapy Intervention" for the National Stuttering Association's NSA CASE Research Grant.

Dr. Stacey Knight is an Associate Professor in the JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Her scholarship program centers on community resilience and student well-being in higher education. Dr. Knight’s recent research examines mental health among online learners, reducing stigma, and increasing awareness of resources for faculty and students in higher education. She submitted an external grant for assessing Mental Health Services, and on Stigma and Awareness Impact Utilization of Campus Resources.

Ricardo Tovar-Silos, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Statistics in the Department of Information Systems and Analysis, College of Business at Lamar University. His research interests include applied econometrics, regional economic development, and economic resilience. As part of the Center for Resiliency (CfR) Summer 2026 project, he worked on the paper “A Historical Economic Resilience Index for Southeast Texas: Applications for Business and Policymaking” and the external grant proposal “Economic Resilience Index for Southeast Texas.”

JT Seaman DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC is an Assistant Professor at the Joann Dishman Gay School of Nursing which resides in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. His main research interest is mental health and the physical, psychological, and social challenges that affect the lives of individuals who suffer with mental health conditions. In the summer of 2026, work was begun on the second stage of a multiple phase project concerning the mental health of students and the effects of stigma. The impetus for this work is the ability provide education to individuals who are in a situation to provide intervention and safety. The paper Reducing Stigma and Strengthening Faculty and Staff Response to Students Mental Health Needs: A Systems-Level Approach for Higher Education in Southeast Texas was the culmination of the summer's work. An outside grant application will be submitted to the Sigma Nursing Honor Society as well as one that was submitted to the College of Nursing and Health Professionals.

Millicent M Musyoka, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Deaf Education in the College of Education and Human Development. Her primary research interest is in multilingual Deaf learners and their teachers in K-12 programs. At CfR this summer, my research focused on “Understanding the Demographics of Multilingual Deaf Learners in K-12: Implications for Pre- and In-Service Deaf Teacher Education.” She sought research funding from the William T. Grant Foundation focused on reducing inequality in youth outcomes.

Kelly Weeks, Ph.D., is Professor of Operations Management in the College of Business at Lamar University. His work focuses on operations management, supply chain management, logistics, business strategy, process improvement, and emerging technologies. His early research is on production mix, product-route efficiency, reverse logistics, and profitability. During this Summer Project at CfR he worked on project titled “Governing Human-AI Decision Authority for Supply Chain Resilience”.

Yan Yan, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education and Human Development. Her main research interests focus on AI-supported early literacy, AI-generated visual support, and equitable literacy education for young children, particularly Pre-K children from underserved communities. During this summer’s CfR project she worked on Leveraging AI-Generated Visual Supports to Improve Early Literacy and Educational Resilience Among At-Risk Pre-Kindergarten Children in Southeast Texas., and submitted an external submitted grant Reimagining Equitable Early Literacy Systems for At-Risk Pre-K Children Through AI-Generated Visual Supports.

Hassan Zargarzadeh, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor in the Philip M. Drayer Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Lamar University. His recent work focused on explainable deep learning for weld-defect detection, ultrasonic and radiographic inspection, multivariate time-series defect classification, and industrial process-quality assessment. Funded by CfR, in summer 2026, he further advanced this research direction by preparing an expert-insight paper on intelligent automated defect detection and developing an NSF CMMI/GOALI proposal on predictive weld-quality optimization through AI, linking his prior work in post-process inspection to a broader process-to-quality learning framework with industrial validation.