It’s been said that life is about the journey, not the destination.  For Claire Foley, her doctoral path at Cleveland State University (CSU) is deeply grounded in both. A doctoral student in Urban Studies and Public Affairs at the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs within the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education, Claire’s work centers on how emerging technologies intersect with public systems, policy, and experience in urban communities. 

A Cleveland native, Claire returned home to Northeast Ohio to pursue her doctorate part time while working as a program manager for CSU’s Center for Educational Leadership. Her trajectory shifted when she received funding through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Traineeship Program, which allowed her to transition into the program full time and engage more deeply in interdisciplinary, applied, assistive technology research. While the traineeship includes technical innovation, Claire’s focus lies in understanding how such technologies function within public institutions, how they are implemented within health systems, and how they are experienced by people with disabilities.

Through the NSF traineeship, Claire collaborates with a transdisciplinary team spanning engineering, health sciences and urban studies in partnership with MetroHealth. Together, they are developing a robotic-assisted feeding arm designed to help individuals with disabilities who are unable to feed themselves independently. The work goes far beyond technical innovation for Claire.

“We’re studying the implications of robotic-assisted feeding through lived experience as well as at an institutional level,” Claire said. “This is more than just an engineering problem - it’s a holistic research challenge. The goal is to help people gain independence.” 

That human-centered, systems-oriented approach is also central to Claire’s dissertation, which examines the broader social systems and phenomena at play in transdisciplinary research. Her research is a case study of a diverse team exploring the transfer of touch sensations between robots and humans through the emotional and neurological dimensions of touch. She studies how transdisciplinarity helps them understand what those factors mean in haptic robotics, where the goal is for a human hand to feel what a teleoperated robotic hand feels. 

“It’s a complex issue because touch is more than physical,” Claire said. “It’s a complex scientific problem, requiring people of different backgrounds and disciplines to collaborate in entirely new ways. Through my study, I hope to better understand how the social systems in transdisciplinary research shape the knowledge that comes out of these collaborations. Entering the Ph.D. program full time at Levin has afforded me the opportunity to engage in multiple research opportunities and it’s been wonderful.” 

“Claire is a truly standout doctoral student and one of the most rewarding collaborators I’ve worked with in recent years,” said Dr. Nicholas Zingale, Associate Professor at CSU, and Visiting Professor and Co-Director of the Human Fusions Institute at Case Western Reserve University.  “In just two years, we have co-taught and built two new courses, received research grants, and engaged in intensive projects exploring the human–technology relationship. We are currently finalizing three journal articles while consistently pushing one another to integrate ideas across disciplines. Her intellectual drive is matched by her collegiality and warmth.  She is, quite simply, a pleasure to work with.”

Claire attended the Human Machine Systems Summit at CSU in 2023 where Dr. Zingale spoke about his transdisciplinary research experience.  You can read more about the Human Machine Systems Summit here. 

Claire credits much of her positive experience to the people and the intentional design of the Ph.D. program itself.

“The intentionality of the Ph.D. curriculum at Levin is really beautiful,” Claire noted. “It fosters subject area expertise and gets students to think critically, thus understanding research at a much deeper level.” 

Equally important to Claire is CSU’s strong connection to the city it serves. As a scholar committed to applied research and real-world impact, she values Levin College’s emphasis on community-engaged scholarship and its long-standing partnerships across Cleveland.

“Levin College and CSU as a whole are so deeply engaged in Cleveland,” Claire said. “There’s a strong commitment to community-engaged learning, and you see that in the Ph.D. program. There are research initiatives that put theory into practice. I’m grateful for the wonderful opportunities at Levin.” 

Claire earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The Ohio State University and holds two master’s degrees in public administration and environmental sciences from the University of Montana. That interdisciplinary academic background informs her doctoral work, which bridges technology, public policy, and urban systems.

As she continues her doctoral studies at CSU, Claire’s experience reflects the broader mission of the Urban Studies doctoral program at Levin which is to prepare scholars to tackle complex urban challenges through interdisciplinary research, critical inquiry and meaningful community partnerships.