2025 Research Fellows
Zack Ahonle
Dr. Zaccheus J. Ahonle is an associate professor and program coordinator of the Rehabilitation Counseling program and doctoral coordinator of the Counselor Education and Supervision program at MSU. His scholarship centers on vocational rehabilitation, community integration, and health equity and he has a major grant from the US Department of Education for a competitive integrated employment (CIE) demonstration project studying employment outcomes for Mississippians with acquired disabilities due to Long COVID. Dr. Ahonle collaborates with the on projects to advance health resources for the aging population of Mississippi, including the recent MS AFFIRM resource maps project.
Zhiqian Chen
Zhiqian Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at MSU, where he leads research on graph learning, network science, and dynamics in complex systems. His work spans theory and applications, with contributions to spectral graph analysis, higher-order structures, and machine learning models for transportation, epidemiology, and brain networks. His work focuses on advancing explainable AI methods for analyzing interdependent networks and spatiotemporal processes. Dr. Chen partners with the DS3 lab to conduct network analyses of large-scale data and to advance the identification of speech detection using LLMs for English and Spanish languages.
Renee Clary
Renee Clary is a Professor of Geology and Director of the Dunn-Seiler Museum in MSU’s Department of Geosciences. For over 20 years, Renee has studied interdisciplinary geoscience-bioscience learning within formal, online, and informal educational settings. Her most recent collaborations with SSRC investigated whether student examination of the history of resource extraction stimulated interest in the geosciences and developed a science identity.
Richard Dembo
Richard Dembo is a Professor of Criminology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida and an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow who has a long-term interest in developing, implementing, and evaluating intervention programs for at risk and high-risk youth. Dr. Dembo partners with the SSRC on federally funded projects related to juvenile justice and programs that reduce justice involvement for youth in Mississippi.
Lori Elmore-Staton
Dr. Lori Elmore-Staton is a professor and graduate coordinator for Human Development and Family Studies in the School of Human Sciences at MSU. She partners with the SSRC early childhood education and outreach initiatives, including the Early Childhood ECHO professional development model. Dr. Elmore-Staton’s work focuses on integrating biophysiological health research into trauma-responsive outreach programs for parents, youth, and professionals working with children and families.
Stephen France
Dr. Stephen L. France is the Charles and Jane Jordan Fellow and Associate Professor of Business Quantitative Analysis at Mississippi State University. His areas of research include marketing analytics and research methodology, multidimensional scaling, dimensionality reduction, information visualization, and document clustering. He is a methodologist who works at the boundaries of marketing, psychometrics, applied statistics, and data mining. He integrates knowledge from all of these areas in order to make sense of complex marketing data and to find solutions to real world problems found in industry. He is a partner collaborating with the DS3 lab at the SSRC.
Clay Hardwick
Clay Hardwick is the assistant director of the Center for Cyber Innovation (CCI) at Mississippi State University (MSU), where his research focuses on the application of open-source intelligence to address pressing national security challenges. Clay is a retired Army officer who spent his career as an intelligence officer and a Middle East and North Africa foreign area officer (FAO). He partners with the SSRC on open-source intelligence (OSINT) and AI related research projects, such as the compilation of 100 computational social science tools for OSINT researchers.
Kristin Javorsky
Dr. Javorsky’s research focuses on effective practices in early literacy, particularly as they pertain to teacher preparation, public policy, and building a love for reading within all learners. Dr. Javorsky is a key partner for the SSRC Early Childhood ECHO project, providing online professional development for early childhood educators and families and collaborating on research about the impact of the ECHO model.
Brenna Jungers
Brenna Jungers is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at MSU and an environmental and natural resource economist whose research is motivated by questions of natural resource management in an era of unprecedented environmental change. Her current projects include an impact analysis of an incentive-based mechanism for invasive species control, as well as an investigation of nonprofit sector resilience in the wake of climate disasters. Dr. Jungers is partnering with the SSRC on projects related to natural resource management.
Shelly Keith
Shelley Keith is a Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Memphis. Her research focuses on the social-psychological causes of crime, with particular emphasis on the roles of strain, identity, and emotion. In addition, her work examines the operation and effectiveness of Restorative Justice approaches. She began her academic career at Mississippi State University in the Department of Sociology, where she established numerous ongoing collaborations with the SSRC.
Bart Moffatt
As a philosopher of biology, Dr. Moffatt studies informational representations of biological function and the relationship between epistemological and metaphysical claims. Dr. Moffatt also partners with the SSRC to apply research ethics to social media databases or open-source intelligence procedures alongside developing guidelines for the use of AI on open-source datasets.
Jean Mohammadi-Aragh
Jean Mohammadi-Aragh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Interim Head of the ECE Department, and the Director of the Bagley College of Engineering Office of Inclusive Excellence at Mississippi State University. Dr. Mohammadi-Aragh’s scholarly work focuses on Engineering Education research. She partners with the SSRC on projects funded by the National Science Foundation related to the success of rural students in post-secondary STEM degree programs.
Danielle Nadorff
Dr. Danielle K. Nadorff is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator in the Department of Psychology at Mississippi State University. Her research integrates clinical and developmental psychology to address the needs of grandfamilies, exploring the impact of kinship care on outcomes such as child safety, mental health, and well-being. Dr. Nadorff's work seeks to provide evidence-based insights and interventions to improve the lives of children and grandparents in these families. She partners with the SSRC on projects related to health equity resources and resources for the aging population of Mississippi.
Patti Permenter
Patti Permenter, a graduate of both Mississippi State University and William Carey University, brings 37 years of combined experience in Mississippi’s pk–12 schools and Institutions of Higher Learning. She currently serves as an Associate Professor in the School of Education at William Carey University – Tradition Campus, where she helps prepare future teachers. In addition, she serves as Associate Director of the Program of Research and Evaluation for Public Schools (PREPS) and Co-Director of the Mississippi Rural Education Association, a partnership with the SSRC, where she leads initiatives to support teacher retention and support school administrators.
Mary Nelson Robertson
Mary Nelson Robertson is an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Nutrition, and Health Promotion at MSU, where she also serves as Health Specialist for the Extension Service. Her research focuses on rural health, with emphasis on farm stress, family resilience, mental health, food security, and opioid misuse prevention. Robertson collaborates with the SSRC on health-related projects such as developing opioid misuse prevention messaging with The Message Laboratory, partnering on a vaccine education project and conducting a regional farm stress pulse survey
Meagan Rosenthal
Meagen M. Rosenthal currently serves as an Associate Professor and Research Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Administration and is Director of the Community First Research Center for Wellbeing and Creative Achievement at the University of Mississippi (U of M CREW). Her research is aimed at enhancing community health initiatives and promoting access to care, including research on pharmacy practice advancement and chronic disease management. Dr. Rosenthal partners with the SSRC on projects and proposals related to rural health and well-being, including, most recently, a proposal to develop a statewide Rural Illicit Drug Collaborative.
Katerina Sergi
Dr. Katerina Sergi is an Assistant Research Professor at SSRC where she works on a variety of research and evaluation projects including early childhood education, mental health awareness and prevention services, tobacco surveillance and evaluation and artificial intelligence. Dr. Sergi is an educational psychologist with a research focus on metacognitive development, self-regulated learning, and motivation.
Jason Wallace
Dr. Jason K. Wallace serves as assistant professor of higher education leadership in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education Leadership, Educational Psychology, and Foundations (CHEF) at MSU. Prior to joining the professoriate, Dr. Wallace worked in student affairs, primarily in multicultural services. His scholarship identifies and addresses issues of equity and inclusion in higher education, with emphasis on Black and first-generation college students, and he partners with the SSRC on NSF-funded research capacity building for STEM faculty focusing on rural students’ success in higher education
Sheila Williamson
Sheila Williamson is a Clinical Psychologist and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral Level (BCBA-D). For over 35 years, Dr. Williamson has worked with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, emotional concerns, severe behavioral concerns, and developmental disabilities. Dr. Williamson’s journey led her to the TK Martin Center of Technology and Disabilities at MSU where she provides comprehensive psychological assessments and therapeutic interventions and skills training for individual across the lifespan. Dr. Williamson collaborates as a content area specialists on the Project ECHO Early Childhood ECHO Program.
Christa Winkler
Dr. Christa E. Winkler is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Mississippi State University. Her research focuses on the measurement and assessment of college student outcomes, with particular attention to emerging trends in quantitative educational research and training. Dr. Winkler partners with the SSRC on a National Science Foundation grant building capacity among STEM faculty to conduct research related to rural students’ success in post-secondary education.