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When COVID hit, theaters around the country scrambled to find a way to continue operating. Like many other industries, some theaters began creating online performances that could be viewed from the safety of the home, with varying degrees of success.     “It’s so tough to make the transition from live theater,” said Ken Weitzman, an associate professor in the Department of English and affiliated faculty with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, “But what struck me is that the one-person play, where you’re looking at just one face… was much better suited to that format.”     Where many saw a challenge, Weitzman saw an opportunity. His play, Fire in the Garden, was originally written in 2011 and performed live that same year. However, the one-man piece not only seemed like it would translate well to the new format, but also seemed very pertinent to current moment.     Fire in the Garden tells the story of a new father who has become obsessed with Norman Morrison, a devout Quaker from Baltimore who, in 1965, drove to the Pentagon and lit himself on fire with his one-year-old daughter in his arms in protest of the U.S. policy in Vietnam. The play’s narrator, struggling with the challenges of modern fatherhood, finds himself haunted by Morrison’s act, and with questions of what it means to be a father in what increasingly feels like a mad world.     “The play, in a way describes its own artistic process,” Weitzman said of his inspiration. When he wrote the play his wife was pregnant with their first child, and he was struggling with some of the same questions as the play’s narrator. “I was figuring out what I thought it meant to be a father. What are the moral imperatives that come along with it? What are the responsibilities? What’s different about being a father now than it used to be?”     The original stage play, which ran 90 minutes, was condensed down to a 50-minute video in deference to the shorter attention spans that many people have for online performances. The new format, which gives the impression that the narrator is creating a video for his son, creates an intimacy that brings the narrator’s heartfelt questions about fatherhood, and the horror of Morrison’s actions, into sharp relief.     “The play ultimately is a call to action as related to activism in general, but climate change in particular, especially for parents,” Weitzman said.     Rendered beautifully by Lord of the Rings actor Sean Astin — who came onto the project at the behest of Jim Glassman, who directed the play for the New Jersey Repertory Theater Company — the play was recently chosen for the United Solo Festival, an annual international festival for solo performances and the world’s largest solo theatre festival. It presents a selection of local and international solo performance productions in a wide variety of styles, including puppetry, dance, improv, musical, and drama. The festival has featured more than 1,000 productions from all over the world since it began in 2010, and this year launched a new virtual platform to present shows and masterclasses for its global audience and theatre enthusiasts online.     Fire in the Garden was selected for the festival in the summer of 2021 and should run on the festival’s online platform for at least a year.     In the meantime, Weitzman is focusing on his work with students at Stony Brook as well as working on a new play. Much like Fire, his upcoming play will also pull a bit from both history and issues that have been in the news currently. It will explore the founding of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which was one of the first Native American boarding schools in the United States, telling the story of the school and of a historic football game that took place there in 1912, where the Native American team from Carlisle faced off against U.S. Army students from West Point.     The story was particularly on his mind because of the recent discovery of unmarked graves found on the grounds of such schools in both Canada and the U.S., and because of the overlooked significance of those two schools playing each other at that particular moment in history.     “It’s barely twenty years since [the massacre at] Wounded Knee,” Weitzman explained, “so some of these students’ fathers and grandfathers had actually fought each other on the battlefield, and now here they are in this football game where the lead player for West Point is Dwight Eisenhower, a future president, and the lead player for Carlisle is Jim Thorpe, the most famous athlete of his era.”     Weitzman is also spending a lot of his energy as a staunch advocate on campus for the theater department and the importance of the arts in general, particularly in trying times. “I think a lot of my work with students right now is using theater as a way for them to process this insane time that we’re all living through.”     — Lynn Brown

As an educator, Caitlin Franco ’04 has never been afraid to overcome boundaries to go far beyond for her students. So when early experiences in her career didn’t sit well with her, she didn’t hesitate to do something about it.      Working with a large population of students with disabilities, the 40 Under Forty alumna quickly learned that many of her students were not receiving all of the necessary tools for success. Franco made it her mission to ensure that all students were given an equal opportunity to excel. With this goal in mind, she opened a school of her own, with equality at the core of the school’s philosophy.     Thirteen years later, Franco’s work as executive director and founder of Equality Charter School is more important than ever. And while COVID-19 has challenged normal operations, she is more motivated than ever to continue her mission to support all students’ success — whatever that may look like.     Tell us about your journey from Stony Brook University to becoming the founder and executive director of the Equality Charter School.     After I graduated from Stony Brook with a Bachelor’s in English and education, I received my Master’s in education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I then started teaching at a charter school in Harlem before moving to a public school in the Bronx. My experiences teaching motivated me to start my own school, so I got together with two other educators and opened Equality Charter School in 2009.      Why did you decide to open a charter school?      When I first started teaching, I taught in a school where 60% of the population was students with disabilities. I hadn’t had much experience in this area, but I could see that the school had low expectations for those students, which didn’t sit well with me. In many cases, I felt those students deserved a lot better than what they were getting. This was one of the driving factors for creating the Equality Charter School, where we believe that it is not our role to decide what our students are capable of, but instead to give everyone the opportunity to excel.      What was the process like to get things started?     It was long. We had to put together a curriculum and essentially build our school’s philosophy and culture. Being a charter school, we also had to create a board and apply for grants to get started. So there was a lot of learning involved. It was a pretty extensive process that pushed me beyond being an English teacher.     On what principles was the Equality Charter School founded?     When we opened, we were different from many other charters in that we had restorative practices ingrained in our school culture. Out of the gate, we focused on educating students with positive reinforcements, rather than relying on a disciplinarian, consequence-based system. We wanted to be a school for any student , whether they were high-performing or struggling. That remains true to this day.     There are a lot of small schools in the city that cater to one type of student or program. One thing that sets us apart is that both our high school and middle  school are open to whoever comes to our doors. We have an adaptive program that meets all academic needs, and we prioritize social-emotional learning.      Why is it important to have charter schools like yours? What do you believe has been the biggest impact since you opened your doors?     Charter schools like ours provide choice. No one school is going to meet the needs of all students, so charter schools allow families to find school models that align with their values and support the strengths of their children.      When I think of the impact of our schools, I think of individual students. There are a lot of students who come in our doors who would do well wherever they went, but there are also many who get something unique at our schools, whether it’s a program we have or a staff member who really helps them. We’re proud of those situations. Some of our students have taken alternative pathways, and we have supported them and consider them successes because they’re on the path to where they need to go.     What can other schools and educators learn from Equality Charter School?     We accept all students as they come to us, and we adjust our program to meet their needs. People hear charter and think that means we don’t accept challenging students, but that’s just not the case. We’ve been able to show some real success over time with the most challenging students. We’ve had students who start with us in sixth grade and academically, they don’t look good on paper, and then in high school, we’re able to close the gap and get them across the finish line before they go off to college. Sometimes you don’t see the results for six or seven years, so it’s about keeping the long game in focus. That’s something our school model has really shown. Sticking with kids for the long haul has really paid off and I think that’s something special about us.     Can you share with us some of the most interesting moments in your career?     There’s never a dull moment. The thing that stands out to me the most is our staff members going above and beyond, especially during the pandemic. For example, our middle school principal drove to students’ houses during the pandemic just to give them chargers for their Chromebooks. We also had the social worker and assistant principal of our high school do home visits for some families. These are things that they don’t even mention because they think they’re part of their jobs, but I believe they are the unsung heroes.     How has your job evolved in the face of a global pandemic?     The job has evolved a lot. We spend a lot of time addressing changes related to COVID, and it has created a huge workload for us. We had to figure out how to teach in a different way while continuing to prioritize our scholars above everything else. First, we moved strictly to remote instruction and had to get up and running quickly. Then, we moved to concurrent teaching, with students both at home and at school. We felt that was the best model, but it’s been taxing on our staff. We’ve also done a lot of work to support the emotional well-being of our staff and our scholars. It’s a whole different world now.     What advice would you give to parents whose children are struggling in school due to the pandemic?     From an academic standpoint, it’s important not to focus on catching our kids up. The social-emotional needs of our children are so great right now that focusing on catching up is an unhealthy mindset. I would advise parents to create a new baseline for their kids, based on where they are now, and build on that, rather than focusing on where they think their children should be.      From a social-emotional standpoint, it’s important for parents to work with their schools to get as many resources for their kids as they can. There’s a lot of federal funding coming out now, so many schools have added social-emotional support staff. I think sometimes parents don’t know they have access to those services for their children.      If you could have a conversation with yourself when you were a student at Stony Brook, what advice would you give?     As a student, I was focused on the content that I would be teaching. I wish I understood back then that teaching is so much more than that. It’s really about raising young people and their social-emotional needs. While I knew it on some level, I didn’t understand how much of an influence you end up having on kids’ lives. I think I could have gotten more out of my program back then if I had known that.     -Kristen Brennan

From a very early age, Erica Cirino ’14, ’15 has felt a strong connection to nature.     “Nature was my refuge,” said Cirino, who grew up in Huntington, N.Y., near Caumsett State Park. “There was a wildlife hospital there, so when I was 15 and needed to fulfill community service hours, I went to the park and asked if I could work with wildlife and rehabilitation.”     That volunteering opportunity led to a paid position and later, a license as a New York state wildlife rehabilitator.     “I loved it so much, but it was very hard work, not only physically and mentally, but also emotionally,” she said. “I witnessed so much death and sadness, and I became very aware of the impacts that humans were having on wildlife. Most animals that came into our care were there because people had done something that harmed them, either intentionally or unintentionally. People can be terrible for various reasons, and our prolific use of plastic is one of those reasons.”     She saw birds with fishing line wrapped around their wings, animals with fishing lures down their throats, and other wildlife entangled in balloon strings.     “I realized that plastic was a terrible problem,” she said. “I saw it in increasing amounts in nature and I was aware of it, but it wasn’t apparent to me why this was happening.”     After years of working with and writing about wildlife, Cirino investigates how plastic has become a global threat in her first book, Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis, which was published on October 7 (Island Press). Cirino worked on the book for the better part of five years, including spending three years conducting research in Copenhagen, Denmark.             In it, Cirino takes readers on an international journey to meet the scientists and activists telling the story of the plastic crisis and actively seeking solutions. She discusses how plastic pollution threatens wildlife and human health, and explores the deeper environmental injustices plastic’s production and disposal forces on communities of color.     “I’m grateful to the people who shared their stories with me while I was researching my book because some of it’s really ugly,” she said. “Plastic is a scourge. It’s an amazing material, but look how it’s been weaponized against society. I dove in innocently and now I can’t stop swimming because there are so many nuances and layers, and it’s a crisis that I believe we can fundamentally address.”     Cirino completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies at Stony Brook, earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies in 2014, and a master’s in science communication in 2015. She initially considered wildlife rehabilitation as a career, perhaps becoming a field biologist, but her outlook changed when she took a freshman year course on environmental literature and film taught by Heidi Hutner, an associate professor of English and sustainability.     “Dr. Hutner was the first person to inspire me to take a creative approach to communicating what I felt and what I observed,” she said.     Hutner also introduced her to Carl Safina, an endowed professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, which opened some critical doors.     “He takes a literary approach to discussing the fundamental ways we could change in order to benefit wildlife and the planet,” she said. “I wanted to put my love of writing to use. My whole mission was to write a book about plastic.”     Cirino erica v     After graduating, Cirino went to work for the Safina Center to manage its outreach campaigns and media. She also began writing professionally. “I started freelance writing because I’m a very restless person and I believe in seeing things for myself,” she said. “I just have to go and figure it out. There’s a Jacques Cousteau quote, ‘We must go and see for ourselves,’  that speaks volumes to me.”     Cirino reported on various stories, including the persecution of endangered Mexican gray wolves and failure to protect endangered killer whales in the Salish Sea, before returning her sights to plastic.     “We’ve been kind of brainwashed by the corporations that make money off of our ignorance of plastic, literally,” she said. “For them, plastic is the perfect consumable; people just throw it away so they have to keep buying more and more, it makes corporations huge amounts of money, and for the most part consumers don’t think about any of this.”     In 2016, Safina was invited to go sailing on a research trip with Chris Jordan, an internationally known artist whose works depict mass consumption and plastic pollution, including a well-known photograph depicting an albatross cut open to reveal plastic inside its body. Safina was unable to go because of prior commitments, so Cirino was offered the opportunity in his place.     It proved to be a life-changing trip.     “I went on a boat with Jordan and seven Danish researchers,” she said. “It was the simplest possible boat you could imagine. We didn’t have a working refrigerator, shower or even a toilet. We had to eat food out of cans and bags.”     On that journey, the group conducted some of the earliest research in the Pacific that explored below the ocean’s surface.     “Even as late as 2016, it was not well-known that plastic completely permeates the oceans,” said Cirino. “It was unbelievable to see what the garbage patch actually looks like.”             The group was on the boat for 24 days, traveling more than 3,000 nautical miles from Los Angeles, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, with no electronics except for the emergency satellite phone. No TV, no cell service — no distractions. “It was literally the fundamentals of living,” Cirino said. “I saw what really mattered, and that was the message I wanted to come across in my writing and in my book. What do we need to live? What can we live without?”     In the end, Cirino is trying to do all she can to support a healthy planet. Nothing illustrates her unflinching dedication to the cause more than her current undertaking — building a sustainable house in Connecticut that uses absolutely no plastic.     “It’s quite a challenge, but I want to walk the walk if I talk the talk,” she said. “I don’t want to be in the same place years from now; I want to be more knowledgeable, more empathetic and more understanding, hopefully in a world that has also gone through its own metamorphosis and is more accountable. There’s a lot of reporting about division, but I’ve worked with a lot of people that care, too, and that has given me hope.”     — Robert Emproto

Stony Brook University Hospital has received the American Heart Association’s Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines® Heart Failure Quality Achievement Award. The Gold Plus award, which Stony Brook has received for the third consecutive year, recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring heart failure patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines grounded in the latest scientific evidence. The goal is speeding recovery and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients.      “The award is a reflection of Stony Brook University Hospital’s commitment to excellence in heart failure care,” said Marc Goldschmidt, MD, director, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center and medical director, Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Program at the Stony Brook University Heart Institute.      Cardiology Front Row: Hal Skopicki, MD, PhD; Anne Marie Berggren, RDN, MS, CDN, CNSC; Lauren Weiss, RN; Monica Fox, RN; Lauren Pilato, NP; Ann Marie, Schneider, Social Services; Edlira Tam, DO, Associate Medical Director, VAD Program; Michelle Weisfelner Bloom, MD, Director, Outpatient Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center; Marc Goldschmidt, MD, Director, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center and Medical Director, VAD Program; Allison J. McLarty, MD, Surgical Director, VAD Program; Terri Springer, NP. Back Row: Philip Travaglia, RN, Clinical Documentation Specialist; Caitlin Borriello, NP; Jillian Fitzgerald, RN, VAD Coordinator; Nancy Utano, RN; Omar Blagrove, VAD Program Administrator; Peter Reilly, NP, VAD Coordinator; Stephen Handzel, RN, MS, Assistant Director, Nursing, Noninvasive Cardiology; Melissa Goldstein, RN “Research has shown that by adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative, we can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates,” added Edlira Tam, DO, associate director of the VAD Program at the Stony Brook University Heart Institute.     More than 6.5 million adults in the United States are living with heart failure. Many heart failure patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their condition is managed with proper medications or devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.     “Being part of this initiative means that we continuously track our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines — all with the ultimate goal of delivering optimal outcomes for our patients,” said Hal Skopicki, MD, PhD, co-director, Stony Brook University Heart Institute and the Ambassador Charles A. Gargano Chief of Cardiology.      Michelle Bloom, MD, director, Cardio-Oncology Program and director, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center at the Stony Brook University Heart Institute, added “Comprehensive care of our heart failure patients requires an entire team including specialized nurses, nurse practitioners, coordinators, physicians and researchers who can not only diagnose advanced cardiology disease but are experts at determining its cause and providing cutting-edge care.”     Stony Brook University Hospital’s Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines®– Heart Failure Quality Achievement Award is significant as it is the highest of six levels of achievement – Gold Plus, Gold, Silver Plus, Silver, Bronze and Participating.

The Career Center’s annual Diversity Recruitment Networking Event attracted a record number of students as well as employers on Nov. 5, providing students a valuable opportunity to build connections with employers who are focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.     “The Career Center has been developing diversity recruitment initiatives and programs for twenty years,” said Director of Employer Engagement and Diversity Recruitment Kimberly Joy Dixon. “That is what makes this event so special, the opportunity for students to connect with companies and organizations who are dedicated to these efforts and who are building a space this generation is excited to work in.”     The event, now in its 14th year, had been traditionally held in person with about 25-30 employers, but the switch to virtual last year — combined with the increased focus on diversity and inclusion among companies and organizations who value diversity —  has led to a dramatic increase in participation. Close to 90 employers took part in the event this year, and all employers who attended have a diversity mission statement and ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts in the workplace and recruiting strategies.             Student attendance for the Diversity Recruitment Panel more than doubled last year’s total, with 157. Companies including Stony Brook University Hospital, Henry Schein, Moody’s, Societe Generale, Amazon, and PSEG spoke about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how each of their companies create spaces for conversations around this topic. The panel was co-hosted by several student groups, including ColorStack, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Women in Computer Science (WiCS), C-STEP Club, Society for Women Engineers (SWE), Delta Sigma Pi, Latin American Student Organization (LASO) and Jubilé Latino.     The panel was followed by the Diversity Recruitment Job and Internship Fair, where students met with recruiters from more than 80 companies looking to hire Stony Brook talent; each company attending the fair has demonstrated a commitment to diversity. Students met one-on-one or in group virtual sessions with companies like GEICO, Canon USA, Northwell Health, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Moody’s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and many more.     Angel Velazquez ’22 “had a fantastic experience” attending the event. “I loved how employers were able to communicate how important diversity and inclusion are to them and how different perspectives have helped define their strategies in hiring equitably, and ensuring that their company provides an environment where people from all different backgrounds can be successful.”             “The Diversity Recruitment event opened my eyes to the progress companies are taking to make the workplace more diverse and inclusive,” said Destiny Dialene ’23.     Added Amaya McDonald ’22, “I realized the importance of diversity in the workplace and having an employer who values people’s differences.”     Employers who participated in the recruitment panel explained the importance of diversity to their companies.     “Part of diversity is bringing your whole self to work and being able to be welcomed in the totality of your experience,” said Irene Muldowney of PSEG. “There is a two-fold thing that needs to happen: Absolutely, we want the best of the best out there, that’s why we want to reach as many pools of talent as possible. But the second part of that is, once we get folks in, how do they feel? Are they going to stay? Do they want to stay?”     Added Dave Rodriguez of Henry Shein, “One of the important things is to be curious. Being curious drives learning. If we’re curious in our careers, it will be a healthy, long, successful one.”

The genomic revolution has enabled researchers to assess cell-by-cell genetic variations, but very few techniques exist to measure cell-by-cell metabolic variations, a more powerful way to understand cell responses to changing environmental conditions. Researchers from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), led by Professor Gordon T. Taylor, demonstrated that Raman microspectroscopy can accurately measure cell-by-cell variations in growth rates of the bacterium E. coli grown in a broth medium. They validated the Raman-based technique against independent traditional population-based spectroscopic and mass spectrometric measurements.     This montage, which is displayed on the cover of “Applied and Environmental Biology,” shows a bacterial cell population by way of a Raman microspectrophotometer and a measurement assimilation of carbon-13 of the population’s proteins. Detection of the carbon-13 enrichment in individual bacterial cells helps to calculate microbial growth rates at the single-cell level. Credit: T. Zaliznyak “The technique emerging from our laboratory can be applied to the study of free-living and host-associated microbiomes, which could prove crucial in understanding more about their functional responses to stressors,” said Taylor, director of the NAno Raman Molecular Laboratory (NARMIL) at SoMAS. “We also believe this is an enabling technology to examine individuality in cell populations and could have broad applications in microbiology, cell biology and biomedicine.”     Details of the technique and results are published in the American Society of Microbiology’s Applied and Environmental Microbiology. A visual of the technique is also highlighted on the cover of the journal edition.

As a crescent moon rose above the campus on November 8, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) at Stony Brook hosted its fourth annual Light the Brook event, continuing a tradition of lighting the Academic Mall as the fall semester winds down.     On a stage set by the fountain, several student and university leaders addressed a large group of attendees who were treated to brownies and hot chocolate, all gathered to celebrate the Seawolf community.     Light the night group All photos by John Griffin Anne Green ‘22, an environmental design major in the Honors College and chief of staff of the USG, welcomed the crowd and kicked off the event.     “Light the Brook instills a sense of community and belonging,” she said. “How different this semester has been with the vibrant energy that comes with being back in person. We aim to connect the ties of diversity among the student body and represent how we are all connected every day.”     Stony Brook President Maurie McInnis, accompanied by her Labradoodle, Angus, took the podium next.     “Last year Light the Brook was one of the few in-person events we had,” said President McInnis. “I can’t tell you how great it feels to see so many students gathered here tonight to honor the spirit of Stony Brook. Tonight we celebrate being Seawolves and being together.”     “This is the largest crowd we’ve had since this event began,” added Rick Gatteau, vice president for student affairs. “It’s a pleasure being here with you as we bring life and Stony Brook pride back to campus.”     USG President Manjot Singh, civil engineering ’22, described the event as “encompassing the essence of Stony Brook at this time of year,” noting that it was expanded this year.     “Light the Brook provides a sense of reflection on how we have all shined and persevered through the last two years,” said Singh. “This year is extremely special, because we expanded it to include a total of 75 trees and light posts throughout the Academic Mall, many more than in previous years. And we included sustainable solar options as well.”     Attendees were also treated to performances by the Stony Brook Vocalists, a co-ed a cappella group; Jubilé Latino, a Latinx-Afro-infused dance team; and the Seawolves Marching Band.     Cheryl Chambers, associate dean of students/director of multicultural affairs, described the event as a time to recognize our diversity and remember all that unites us.     “Tonight is a testament to how the Stony Brook community has endured,” she said. “As we light the brook, we should also remember to be a light to each other.”     — Robert Emproto

The Stony Brook University Program in Public Health presents a conversation to answer your questions and learn about updates for both COVID and flu vaccines.     Register now for this free Zoom webinar on Tuesday, November 16, at 7 pm, featuring Gregson Pigott, MD, MPH, Commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, and Lawrence E. Eisenstein, MD, MPH, FACP, Commissioner of the Nassau County Department of Health.     Moderator Lisa Benz Scott, PhD, Director of the Program in Public Health at Stony Brook University     Translator Héctor E. Alcalá, PhD, MPH, Core Faculty, Program in Public Health; Assistant Professor,     Dr. Lawrence E. Eisenstein Dr. Lawrence E. Eisenstein Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine, Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University     Co-Sponsors Suffolk County Department of Health Services Nassau County Department of Health Stony Brook Program in Public Health Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University     With support from the Stony Brook University Alumni Association

More than 70 million people worldwide suffer from stuttering. Without intervention, many of these individuals endure this communication disorder for their entire lives. Even so, intervention therapies may not be accessible as they can be considered out-of-pocket expenses and not always covered by insurance. In a lifetime, the stuttering population is disproportionately at risk for heightened anxiety, insecurity and isolation. This life-long speech disorder stigmatizes its victims as socially inept. Personally and professionally, these individuals are limited by a fluency issue that is out of their control.     Today, thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Stony Brook University faculty, people who stutter have the opportunity to build confidence through speech improvement.     Stony Brook University PhD candidate Bhavya Ghai and Professor Klaus Mueller from the Department of Computer Science, have proposed an AI-based script-writing tool: Fluent.     Fluent is the first of its kind. Much of the literature that addresses the intersection of stuttering and AI focuses on a singular facet — stuttering detection. While there is no cure to stuttering, only intervention, this literature looks at diagnosis, not solutions. Fluent addresses the latter.     Through the use of AI, the smart writing tool leverages speech patterns of people that stutter, specifically substitution tendencies. Through this, Fluent creates AI-driven inroads for continuous speech.     Those that stutter engage in many practices to conceal their disfluent speech such as avoiding communication altogether, the use of fillers (“um,” “like,” “so”) and substitution. Speakers enact substitution to replace trigger words with appropriate synonyms. These phonological patterns do not quell stuttering, but they mask inconsistencies in speech. Fluent strives to make these substitutions easier.     Fluent is powered by Active learning (AL), a specialized branch of machine learning (ML). AL is responsible for training ML models through user feedback. Queries prompted by AL aptly determine phonetic sequences that induce stuttering episodes.     “In our context, active learning expedites the process of learning an individual’s unique condition, i.e., the phonetic pattern they might struggle to pronounce,” said Ghai.     Upon starting up Fluent, users are asked to tap into their challenges with stuttering. Fluent immediately asks for user feedback by prompting the user to annotate at minimum five words with their level of difficulty to pronounce through a binary: “easy” or “difficult.” As the inventory of words increases, with the corresponding personalized-annotations, Fluent better adapts to specific user needs.     Through these inquiries, Fluent posits trigger words and replaces them. Synonyms are harnessed from an online database that covers multiple online dictionaries: DataMuse. Accessing a single online thesaurus is reputably unreliable, especially in the case of people who stutter, where certain words are discarded for their pronunciation limitations. The variable index of synonyms provides an expansive phonetic opportunity for Fluent users. These replacements appear in a drop-down list when the user hovers over a highlighted word (which indicates possible difficulty in pronunciation). Users then click on the word that best befits their speech.     Post-evaluation, Fluent expresses a positive trend of accuracy. Fluent’s classifier reports an 80 percent accuracy with limited user interactions. As these interactions increase, so does its accuracy.     Design advancements can be employed to address more subtle and nuanced speech disfluencies. AL has a technological edge because the consistent retraining of the ML model allows for more refined feedback. However, detecting trigger words is not the only solution Fluent provides. Stuttering episodes are not only produced by specific phonological patterns, but also situations, speakers and so on. Future endeavors with Fluent set out to explore the intricacies of situations that can spur a stuttering episode in longitudinal and situational contexts.     “In the long run, we hope that technologies such as Fluent might be integrated as an accessibility feature into popular tools like MS PowerPoint, MS Word, Google Sheets, etc. for a broader impact,” said Ghai.     — Alyssa Dey

The State University of New York (SUNY) system recognized Stony Brook’s Division of Student Affairs with three Outstanding Student Affairs Program awards. The Chief Student Affairs Officers organization from state-operated campuses appoints a panel to review nominations, and this year Stony Brook’s Student Affairs was recognized for its innovative programs and initiatives that have demonstrated a positive impact on students’ development and serve to better student life with unique and practical solutions to common issues.     Students in the award-winning Seawolf Outdoor Adventure Program (SOAP) enjoyed a day of fun kayaking in Southampton. Students in the award-winning Seawolf Outdoor Adventure Program (SOAP) enjoyed a day of fun kayaking in Southampton. Student Accessibility Support Center (SASC) was recognized for its Virtual Proctoring Program: Making Online Exams Accessible, in the International, Multicultural, Cultural, Gender, LGBTQ, Spirituality, Disability, and related category. As classes moved to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this change had a significant impact on testing for students with accommodations. The various software used for virtual exam proctoring did not leave room for several types of student accommodations, and to overcome this challenge, SASC implemented a Virtual Proctoring program, using widely available tools such as Zoom and Google Calendar, establishing clear protocols for test-takers and training for virtual proctors, as well as developing a close working relationship with faculty and teaching assistants.      Through this plan, SASC was able to proctor almost 900 exams for students with disabilities since the program was first piloted in Summer 2020. This Virtual Proctoring program showcases the ingenuity of the team who, in this challenging situation, was able to find a solution to successfully administer exams utilizing existing tools to ensure academic integrity and benefit both students and faculty.     Next to shine was the Spring Brook Staycation Program for winning the award category, Student Health, Wellness, Counseling, and related category. When SUNY schools made the difficult decision to cancel the traditional Spring Break week due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Stony Brook implemented Spring Brook Staycation as a way to give students outlets to destress and unwind. Spearheaded by the Center for Prevention and Outreach in collaboration with many other Student Affairs departments, Spring Brook Staycation was a series of fun and engaging activities during the last week of March where students on campus could connect and appreciate what the local community had to offer. Sixty in-person, virtual and hybrid activities were offered the week of March 29, 2021.      Inspired by the vacation packages offered by travel agencies, students were free to choose to participate in as many activities as they desired from the following “staycation packages”: Artsy Adventures, Active Escapes, Entertainment Escapades, Foodie Fun, Environmental Energizers, Games and Playcation, and Relationship Refreshers. Spring Brook Staycation was a huge success with more than 90 percent registered attendance for all 60 activities. Students were able to relax and connect with each other in real time and virtually, all while following health and safety protocols.     Lastly, the Seawolves Outdoor Adventure Program (SOAP) was recognized in the Enrollment Management, Financial Aid, Orientation, Parents, First-year, Other-year, and related category. SOAP was developed by Recreation and Wellness with the goal to increase first-year students’ sense of belonging and connection to the university and support their successful transition into college life. After an initial brainstorming session, SOAP began in Fall 2021 as a pilot program aided by the generous support of two Stony Brook alumni, introducing six outdoor activities from which students could choose to participate: Kayak Adventure, Scenic Boat Tour, Horseback Riding, Outdoor Adventure Course, Yoga and Meditation, and Hiking.     The three-day program was an opportunity to create safe, small and supportive groups of new Seawolves focused on learning about Stony Brook, to participate in team-building activities, and to have the opportunity to go off-campus and experience the beauty of Long Island. In total, more than 400 new students expressed interest in participating in the SOAP program and 60 first-year students — from various backgrounds, majors and geographic locations — were selected to participate. Based on the post-event assessment, the program was highly successful and attained the goals of making students feel more equipped to transition to and navigate their new college environment, engage with a diverse group of students, and build friendships. For instance, 73 percent of participating students said they felt a greater sense of belonging after having gone through the program and that many have found friends and lasting connections.     “These awards reflect the student-centered efforts of our entire team, and I am honored that so many colleagues in the Division of Student Affairs were recognized at the SUNY level for their hard work, creativity and initiative,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Richard Gatteau. “I am immensely proud of the tremendous work done by Student Affairs and their commitment to our students,” he continued.

The last drug designed to more effectively treat dangerous systemic fungal infections, most often affecting immunocompromised patients, was developed more than 20 years ago. Now an interdisciplinary team of investigators from Stony Brook University believe they have identified what may be a new approach toward developing another class of better antifungal agents. By inhibiting an enzyme called sterylglucosidase 1 (Sgl1) in a model of Cryptococcosis, the researchers found infection did not spread. They believe this enzyme can be a target for a new class of antifungal drugs. The research findings are published in Nature Communications.     Current antifungals have many drawbacks for patients, including high toxicity and many drug interactions, so the need for new antifungals remains high. Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungal pathogen that, upon entering the lung and moving into the bloodstream, causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis in susceptible patients and is life-threatening.     The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a sharp lens on the dangers of infections that spread, particularly to the lungs. Cancer patients and other immunocompromised individuals with chronic conditions are much more susceptible to systemic fungal infections such as Cryptococcosis.     Cryptoimage A scanned electron microscopy of a cell of Cryptococcus neoformans showing the “hairs” within the fungal cell that cause disease. Credit: Jeehyun Karen You “Essentially by identifying selective small molecule inhibitors of Sgl1 in an experimental model, we found that the infection failed to spread to the brain and began to be cleared from the lungs within two weeks,” summarized Mike Airola, senior author and assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.     “We believe based on our experimentation that by targeting Sgl1, we can create a new class of antifungal agents against this and possibly other fungal pathogens in order to prevent both primary and secondary infections,” said Nivea Pereira de Sa, first author of the manuscript and post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Del Poeta. “We are taking the next steps to test this approach.”     Airola says that the research team involves a collaboration of scientists at Stony Brook through the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery. The team includes microbiologists, cell biologists, immunologists and chemists. Additionally, the groundwork to this finding was led by co-senior author and SUNY Distinguished Professor Dr. Maurizio Del Poeta, an internationally recognized expert in fungal disease. His lab demonstrated that Sgl1 is a fungal specific protein, and when mutated, the fungus is non-pathogenic.     The research team presented co-crystal structures of Sgl1 with two inhibitors. By combining traditional medicinal chemistry with computational approaches, they were able to unravel how these anti-Sgl1 compounds interact with the enzyme.     In future research, they expect to develop new derivatives of these inhibitors to see if a complete clearance of infection can occur.

Lia Strait — the URECA researcher of the month for November 2021 — is a senior majoring in biomedical engineering who has been doing research since freshman year under the mentorship of Mei Lin (Ete) Chan and Clinton Rubin from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Biotechnology. Earlier this year, Strait also began working on a collaborative mechanobiology research project with Chan, Rubin and Stella Tsirka, from the Department of Pharmacological Sciences, on “The Effect of Low-intensity Vibration Therapy Decreases Levels of Inflammatory Proteins in the Brain in Mouse Model.” Her work on this project was supported this past summer through the URECA Summer – PSEG Explorations in STEM programs, and was presented at the virtual 2021 Summer Symposium. This research will be the basis of her senior departmental honors thesis. Strait plans to pursue a PhD in bioengineering, focusing on mechanobiology.      Strait also worked as a research assistant for Lahara Bio, a start-up biotechnology company, and was involved in her sophomore year in a Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) team, where she worked on designing and developing Roflex, a motion sensing athletic smartwatch, which she presented at Stony Brook’s WolfieTank pitch competition in 2020. Strait has served as a teaching assistant for BME 205: Clinical Challenges of the 21st Century in Spring 2020 and as a peer tutor for the Academic Success and Tutoring Center in 2021. She also dedicates much of her time to the Stony Brook Equestrian Team, serving currently as president (and formerly as secretary); and is an avid cyclist. She is from Salt Point, NY.

Stony Brook’s annual One Book, One Community program is a fun and innovative way to unite the university and neighboring communities through shared reading and conversation. 2021’s reading is Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu.      Kara Wang Actress Kara Wang Join the panelists in a moderated conversation — Why Representation Matters: Panel Discussion Featuring Actress Kara Wang — based on their expertise and experiences that are tied to themes in the book. The event will be held on Wednesday, November 10, at 6 pm in the Student Activities Center Auditorium. Topics may include race, identity, immigration, inclusivity, representation in pop culture and a variety of fields, and racialized experiences. Judi Brown Clarke, vice president for equity & inclusion and chief diversity officer, will present opening remarks.     This event is free and open to the public.     Register today     Panelists include:     Dr. Edward Sun is a gastroenterologist at Stony Brook Hospital who also researches ways to improve patient access to as well as quality of care.  Dr. Amy Lu is a scientist who studies the relationship between hormones and behavior in non-human primates. Rev. Steven Kim is the pastor at Setauket Methodist.  Kara Wang is a bilingual Chinese American actress who has returned to Los Angeles after five years of working in Asia. She can currently be seen recurring on Freeform’s Good Trouble and Amazon’s Goliath. She will next be seen on the big screen in the highly anticipated sequel Top Gun: Maverick. A pre-event reception with hors d’oeuvres will be held from 5 pm to 6 pm in the Student Activities Center Sculpture Garden (Rain location: Student Activities Center, Room 169).      For more information about the program, schedule of events and how to obtain a free copy of Interior Chinatown, please visit stonybrook.edu/onebook.

Stony Brook University Hospital received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Award with Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll. Stony Brook Southampton Hospital received the Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Quality Achievement Award with Honor Roll Elite and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll. These awards recognize Stony Brook Medicine’s commitment to ensuring that stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.     Stony Brook University Hospital and Southampton Hospital each earned these awards by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing mortality and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, scheduling a follow-up visit, as well as other care transition interventions. For recognition criteria visit this link.     “I am proud to join a healthcare system worthy of the American Heart and Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® award,” said Dr. Hal Paz, executive vice president, Health Sciences, Stony Brook University. “These designations show Stony Brook Medicine’s commitment to delivering the best possible care to stroke patients across Long Island.”     Stony brook university hospital“We’re proud to have received these awards for so many consecutive years and glad to have helped improve the health outcomes of thousands of stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Dr. Michael Guido, director of the Stony Brook Neurology Stroke Program and co-director of the Stony Brook Cerebrovascular and Stroke Center at Stony Brook Medicine. “Our success is a result of Stony Brook Medicine’s dedicated team of nurses, technicians, radiology staff and physicians, mobile stroke unit EMTs, and other medical specialists in addition to neurologists and neurosurgeons.”           In May 2018, Stony Brook University Hospital became the first hospital in Suffolk County to achieve Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) certification by The Joint Commission — the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in healthcare. This is the highest level a stroke center can achieve, and involves a rigorous screening process. The advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center designation indicates the hospital’s ability to receive and treat the most complex stroke cases. As a certified comprehensive stroke center, Stony Brook provides nationally recognized best practices and a level of care few hospitals anywhere can match.      The following year, Stony Brook Medicine launched Long Island’s first and only Mobile Stroke Unit Program designed to provide specialized, life-saving care to people within the critical moments of stroke before they even get to the hospital. This allows for time-sensitive stroke therapies to be administered earlier and allows for the transport of stroke patients directly to the most appropriate hospital for the level of care they require.     Stony Brook University Hospital was also named as one of America’s 100 Best HospitalsTM by Healthgrades for stroke care for the past seven years, from 2016 to 2022.     The Southampton Hospital Stroke Team, from left: (First row) Monina Baldo, RN; Lisa Dellipizzi, RN; Deborah O’Brien, RN; Samantha Pullium, RN (Second Row) Rose Paul, RN; Dr. Darin Wiggins, MD; Janet Woo, RN; Catherine Baccelliere, RN; Olga McAbee, MD The Southampton Hospital Stroke Team, from left: (First row) Monina Baldo, RN; Lisa Dellipizzi, RN; Deborah O’Brien, RN; Samantha Pullium, RN (Second Row) Rose Paul, RN; Dr. Darin Wiggins, MD; Janet Woo, RN; Catherine Baccelliere, RN; Olga McAbee, MD Stony Brook Southampton Hospital has met specific guidelines set by the New York State Stroke Designation Program to be recognized as a Primary Stroke Center. The Audrey and Martin Gruss Heart & Stroke Center is capable of treating acute ischemic stroke with IV t-PA and provides patients comprehensive supportive care.     “We are dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Dr. Fredric I. Weinbaum, chief medical officer and chief operating officer, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. “The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”      “We are pleased to recognize Stony Brook Southampton Hospital for their commitment to stroke care,” said Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, national chairperson of the American Heart Association’s Quality Oversight Committee and executive vice chair of neurology, director of Acute Stroke Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. “Research has shown that hospitals adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates.”     According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

In a study that used inorganic, physical and analytical chemistry to mimic respiratory droplets that can carry viruses, researchers demonstrated a mechanism that enables multiple mask materials to be protective. Led by Stony Brook University Professor Amy Marschilok, the study findings suggest that adsorptivity of mask materials is an important feature in providing protection from viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. The paper is published in Applied Materials & Interfaces, a journal of the American Chemical Society.     Studies evaluating dry measurements of particles to test mask breakthrough have been conducted during the 2020-21 pandemic. In contrast, researchers in this investigation used a novel method that involved creating a virus nanoparticle mimic, using functionalized nanoparticles suspended in artificial saliva, then spraying the suspension and providing scientists with a unique wet characterization approach to compare the effectiveness of potential mask materials. Thus, rather than viewing the mask as a simple screen, the study tests the adsorptive properties of the mask materials for trapping virus in saliva droplets.     Masktestingvisual This visual of the mask material testing shows the spray simulation process (top graphic), and implementation of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to further measure nanoparticle spread and reach (bottom graphic). Credit: Yelena Belyavina “We recognized the precious nature of the N95 respirators, and therefore decided to compare mask materials that are broadly available and represented a range of technology and manufacturing readiness using the evaluation methodology that we developed,” said Marschilok, co-director of the Institute for Electrochemically Stored Energy, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and adjunct faculty member, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering. She also has a joint appointment with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), of which Stony Brook is part of the management team.     The masks ranged from a commercialized N95 product, to a commercially available mask material, and a potential future mask material prepared by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility. Each material was characterized using a variety of methods including scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy at BNL’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN).     Wetting properties of the mask materials were quantified by measurements of the contact angle with an artificial saliva. The surface functionalized metal oxide nanoparticle suspension in artificial saliva was sprayed with an airbrush device through the mask material onto a target. The amount of suspension reaching the target was measured using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy at BNL’s National Synchrotron Light Source-II (NSLS-II).     “Our goal was to develop new approaches to characterize mask materials, investigate the adsorptive properties of the mask and consider dispersion of droplets containing the virus. The mechanism investigated adsorbing or trapping the suspended virus mimic rather than blocking it,” summarized Marschilok.     Marschilok and colleagues found that multiple types of mask materials functioned effectively under the test conditions. When the researchers conducted the same experiments to a target without the use of mask protection even at longer distances, much less protection occurred from the viral particles than in the presence of mask materials — a result that further points toward the protective value of masks against virus exposure.     The authors say further investigation is necessary to determine the stability of mask materials over time and extended use as a protection against viral particles.     The DOE’s Office of Science supported the study, with funding provided by the Coronavirus CARES Act, and method development for preparation of the functionalized COVID-19 virion mimic supported as part of the Center for Mesoscale Transport Properties. The CFN and NSLS-II are both DOE Office of Science User Facilities. The National Institutes of Health funded New York Consortium for the Advancement of Postdoctoral Scholars (IRACDA-NYCAPS) provided additional staff support.