The following scholars at Chapman University are available to offer expert commentary on a variety of topics related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and its effects.
Also see our Newsroom’s COVID-19–related news.
Find experts by category in the lists below:
Pharmacy and Medicine | Public Health | Psychology and Mental Health | Technology | Food Safety | Culture and Humanities | K-12 Education and Higher Education | Law, Political Science and Economics
Pharmacy and Medicine
JEFF GOAD, professor of pharmacy, chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice
Expertise: Travel Medicine; Vaccines or Immunizations; Public Health; Epidemiology
KARL HESS, associate professor of pharmacy, director of Community Pharmacy Practice Innovations
Expertise: Community Pharmacy Practice; Travel Medicine; Vaccines; Self-Care Therapeutics
JERIKA LAM, associate professor of pharmacy practice
As the only infectious diseases pharmacist on the Patient Safety Movement Foundation COVID-19 Task Force, Dr. Lam provides updates about drug treatments and management strategies against COVID-19.
STEPHANIE SALDIVAR, assistant professor of physician assistant studies, MICHAEL BURNEY, associate professor and chair of physician assistant studies
Expertise: Both are working on the frontlines in the caring for COVID-19 patients
Public Health
ALEXANDER BAY, associate professor of history
Expertise: Historian of Health Medicine
JASON DOUGLAS, assistant professor of health sciences
Expertise: Messaging of public health issues using health indicators; how unequal access to health promoting resources could contribute to increased disease prevalence in disadvantaged communities.
Dr. Douglas is currently collecting data in the cities of New York and Los Angeles with the aims of developing a Viral Pandemic Risk Index based on neighborhood characteristics.
TARA GRUENEWALD, associate professor of psychology
Expertise: Human behavior and health messaging
Dr. Gruenewald is currently investigating whether greater prosociality predicts better mental, social and physical well-being.
HILLARD KAPLAN, professor of health economics and anthropology
Dr. Kaplan and his team are currently engaged in mitigation efforts of COVID-19 effects on tribal populations in lowland Bolivia. This is 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.
ASHLEY KRANJAC, assistant professor of sociology
Expertise: Health disparities; health behaviors; social determinants of health; population health; neighborhood effects
Dr. Kranjac can speak to the meaning and experience of health as shaped by cultural and social systems and has written about how county-level factors influence the trajectory of COVID-19.
URI MAOZ, assistant professor of psychology and computational neuroscience and member of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences
Expertise: Population compliance with social distancing; Understanding relations between emotional biases, decision-making and behavior in the COVID-19 pandemic through a national sample
Psychology and Mental Health
DAVID FREDERICK, associate professor of health psychology
Expertise: How stay-at-home orders, increased social distancing, and the rapid increase of COVID-19 infections in the United States are impacting mental health, physical health, health behaviors and social relationships.
Dr. Frederick led an all-Chapman team of researchers to conduct a national COVID-19 and mental health survey (spring 2019), where the experiences of 4149 people living in the United States were examined.
MICHAEL HASS, professor of school psychology
Expertise: Mental health; resilience; crisis and trauma; mindfulness
Dr. Hass can speak to how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting school-based mental health as well as crisis and trauma in school-age youth.
NAVEEN JONATHAN, associate professor and chair of marriage and family therapy
Expertise: Family and couple relationships amidst COVID-19; Mental Health; Online Therapy
KELLY KENNEDY, associate professor and director of school counseling and school psychology programs
Expertise: School-based mental health; school-based counseling; LGBTQ youth
Dr. Kennedy can speak to how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting school-based mental health and delivery of school-based mental health services.
JAY KUMAR, instructor of contemplative studies, Director of Contemplative Practice and Wellbeing
Expertise: Staying positive during the spread of coronavirus; science and spirituality of happiness
GAIL STEARNS, associate professor of religious studies and Irvin C. and Edy Chapman Dean of the Wallace All Faiths Chapel
Expertise: Interfaith, mindfulness, spirituality, gender issues, Christianity
Technology
HESHAM EL-ASKARY, professor of computational and data science
Expertise: Modeling the reduction of emissions due to quarantine strategies.
SHENYUE JIA, postdoctoral researcher
Expertise: Researching how Facebook data can help measure social distancing
HELEN NORRIS, vice president and chief information officer
Expertise: Transitioning a university to remote teaching/working
Food Safety
ANURADHA PRAKASH, professor and director of food science
Expertise: food processing and preservation; product development
Culture and Humanities
MICHAEL ASHLEY, adjunct professor of screenwriting
Expertise: entertainment; emotional intelligence; messaging; storytelling; media; public relations; thought leadership. He is a screenwriter and a columnist with Forbes and Entrepreneur, and has wrote about remote teaching.
IAN BARNARD, professor of English, director of LGBTQ Studies Program
Expertise: Comparisons and Differences on Coronavirus to the AIDS Crisis; How the spread of diseases motivate rhetoric that threaten human rights
RACHEL GOLDBERG, assistant professor of film and media arts
Her pilot production was shut down due to COVID-19, and she can speak on her experience and COVID-19’s impact on the film industry.
CLAUDINE JAENICHEN, associate professor of art
Expertise: Effectiveness of information and visual communication distributed to the public on COVID-19
JENNIFER KEENE, dean of Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
ROBERT SLAYTON, Henry Salvatori professor of American values and traditions
Expertise: 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.
ANNA LEAHY, professor of English and director of creative writing program
Expertise: Ways that writers have been affected by and are responding to the global pandemic; importance of individuals documenting their experiences of this historical moment of change.
LINDSAY SHEN, director of Art Collections
Expertise: Museum Management; Coronavirus’ Impact on Museums; Future of Museums; Museums’ Move to Online Engagement
PETER SIMI, associate professor of sociology
Expertise: Hate crimes and hate incidents related to COVID-19; online activity among white supremacists and their use of different social media platforms
K-12 Education And Higher Education
QUAYLAN ALLEN, associate professor of integrated educational studies and director of First-Generation Programs
Expertise: Equity/inequity in K-12 learning; first-generation students in higher education; educational policy
Dr. Allen can speak to how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting equity in access to K-12 education and higher ed, particularly for first-generation students.
MICHELLE HALL, Attallah College director of Program Assessment and Improvement
Expertise: Educational policy and politics; school-community relationships.
Hall can speak to how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting teacher credentialing programs in California and the state teacher shortage.
KEITH HOWARD, associate professor of teacher education
Expertise: K-12 computer science; career and technical education
Dr. Howard can speak to how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting equity in access to STEM education.
AMY-JANE GRIFFITHS, NCSP, licensed psychologist PSY 2453, assistant professor of clinical counseling, coordinator of school counseling and licensed professional clinical counselor programs
Expertise: Autism and employment; STEM education for youth with disabilities; future of education.
Dr. Griffiths can speak to how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting and will continue to impact the future of education.
Law, Political Science & Economics
GORDON BABST, associate professor of political science
Expertise: religion and politics, issues of ideology and diversity and inclusion. Dr. Babst can speak on First Amendment rights and freedom of religion.
JIM DOTI, president emeritus and professor of economics
Dr. Doti founded the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research and has presented the Chapman Economic Forecast for 42 consecutive years. He can provide analyses relating to when and how the California economy should hit the restart button.
STEVEN GJERSTAD, Presidential Fellow in the Economic Science Institute
ANDREA MOLLE, assistant professor of political science
Gjerstad and Molle have published a note that considers whether age is an independent factor that contributes to COVID-19 mortalities, or whether co-morbidity factors such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension are the major contributors to mortality.
Dr. Molle is also working with American and Italian analytical social scientists to address social factors that affect the spread of COVID-19, and is co-leading a research group on “COVID-19 and Social Vulnerability: Computational Modeling, Data Analytics, and System Interoperability.”
KYNDRA ROTUNDA, professor and executive director of Military and Veterans Law
Expertise: Legal issues related to military service and activations, particularly during wars or national emergencies
MARC WEIDENMIER, professor of economics and finance
Expertise: Impacts of COVID-19 on consumer confidence as measured from the Chapman–CMC Orange County Consumer Sentiment Index
