CSU's Levin College of Public Affairs and Education (Levin) held its inaugural Founding Faculty Research Showcase, highlighting faculty research publications from over the past thirty-six months, recognizing faculty research finalists, and announcing the College's Overall Best Paper Award. Papers featured in the showcase were published in peer-reviewed journals, CSU's Engaged Scholarship, policy briefs, or other related outlets. Levin faculty were invited to submit proposals in four categories:

• Most Impactful for Policy, Practice, Community Change
• Most Impactful for Knowledge-Building/Theory
• Best Student-Engaged Research
• Exemplary Interdisciplinary Research

Finalists were announced in advance and invited to present their research to their colleagues across the College. "The Showcase provided a venue through which faculty learned about the breadth of scholarship going on in the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education,” said Joanna Ganning, Levin's Associate Dean for Faculty Research, Development, and Administration and organizer of the event. "Hopefully the friendly yet competitive event will encourage faculty to collaborate, publish, and share their work as we develop the shared research community of the new college.”

The Levin College of Public Affairs and Education 2022 Founding Faculty Research Showcase Finalists include:

1. Most Impactful for Policy, Practice, Community Change: The award for research that has resulted in a change in policies or professional practices and/or a reformulation of the problem to advance further research was presented to Rachel Lovell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Criminology and Sociology for her research, Examining walking-waiting sexual assaults from previously untested sexual assault kits: The intersection of stranger and outdoor sexual assaults
2. Most Impactful for Knowledge-Building/Theory: The award for research that has resulted in a reformulation of the problem to advance further research was awarded to Meghan Novisky, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Criminology and Sociology for her article, Older adults' perspectives on death and dying in prison.
3. Best Student-Engaged Research: The award for high quality research built on a class project or from student-instructor connections that began with coursework was awarded to Katie Clonan-Roy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Curriculum and Foundations for her paper, Preserving abstinence and preventing rape: How sex education textbooks contribute to rape culture.
4. Exemplary Interdisciplinary Research: The award for research involving co-authors primarily affiliated with degree programs in distinct, different field to discover new insights and use of research evidence generated by youth was awarded to was awarded to Adam Voight, Ph.D., Associate Professor & Director, Curriculum and Foundations, for his paper, Conceptualization and applications in diverse U.S. K-12 educational settings.

The Overall Best Paper Award was chosen from among the four finalists and was announced at the end of the presentations. Congratulations to our 2022 Founding Faculty Research Showcase Winner, Dr. Rachel Lovell, Assistant Professor, Criminology and Sociology for her paper Examining walking-waiting sexual assaults from previously untested sexual assault kits: The intersection of stranger and outdoor sexual assaults.

The following faculty received honorable mentions:

1. Most Impactful for Knowledge-building/theory: Guowei Jian, Professor, School of Communication, for From empathetic leader to empathetic leadership practice: An extension to relational leadership theory.
2. Most Impactful for Policy, Practice, Community Change: Michelle Graff, Assistant Professor, Urban Studies, for Behavioral and financial coping strategies among energy-insecure households.

Members of the Founding Faculty Research Showcase Selection Committee include Joanna Ganning, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Faculty Research, Development, and Administration; Anne Galletta, Ph.D., Chair and Professor, Curriculum and Foundations; Fred Hampton, Ph.D., Interim Chair and Associate Professor, CASAL; Linda Francis, Ph.D., Professor, Criminology and Sociology; and Rick Perloff, Ph.D., Professor, School of Communication.