Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute

06/20/2026

Get a free indoor air quality assessment on your home!

Contribute to research while learning more about your home’s indoor air quality and ways to improve it.

Community-Academic Scholar Jaritzi Villegas is working with Department of Health and Kinesiology at Illinois Prof. Sheena Martenies and IHSI Affiliate Paul Francisco from the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission's Indoor Climate Research and Training Division (ICRT) to evaluate a platform that senses indoor air quality problems in your home and offers actionable guidance to address these problems.

There is no cost to participate. Home wi-fi is required. The entire study lasts 2-3 months and includes three visits. Participants may withdraw at anytime. Those who continue will receive $25 gift cards after visits 2 and 3.

Swipe through to learn more about the visits.

View the research flyer: https://ws.engr.illinois.edu/sitemanager/getfile.asp?id=9216

Sign up to participate: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfeWxaFkgxK5715KPXAJPg0GFHVmOOOa50v_d9YRjhsxFcJag/viewform

06/17/2026

Thank you, Michael and family at Neil St. Blues, for your great food and hospitality! Thanks also to Chancellor Isbell and campus leadership for participating in tours to learn more about the Black history of Champaign County.

We're also grateful to Champaign County African American Heritage Trail's Dr. Barbara Suggs-Mason and Angela Rivers as well Prof. Kevin Tan and the University of Illinois School of Social Work for educating faculty and staff on this rich cultural history and how it has shaped our community. We hope these tours empower faculty and staff to approach community partnerships with humility and curiosity.

What an incredible honor it was to welcome University of Illinois Chancellor Charles Isbell, Provost John Coleman, and members of the university's senior leadership team to Neil St. Blues this afternoon.

As a locally owned Champaign restaurant, we are deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve the leaders helping shape the future of our university and community. It was truly a pleasure meeting Chancellor Isbell and hosting such a distinguished group.

Thank you to the University of Illinois leadership team for choosing Neil St. Blues for your gathering. We hope you enjoyed your time with us as much as we enjoyed having you.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back again soon!

06/10/2026

IHSI Affiliate Catalina Alzate and the Anatomies Lab invite you to participate in a community dialogue this summer on AI and community health.

The first dialogue--inviting graduate student voices--occurs TOMORROW 10 a.m. - noon.

Faculty and staff are invited to join the dialogue on Thursday, June 18.

Campus members passionate about health equity are encouraged to attend these dialogues. You do NOT need to be AI-literate to participate.

Participants will identify and map key areas of research at the intersection of AI & Community Health, centering lived experience, joy, and well being.

Breakfast will be provided, and participants will have opportunities to connect with colleagues across disciplines.

Learn more and express your interest: https://www.criticalanatomies.com/-ai-and-community-health

06/09/2026

Linguistics Prof. Anna Mendoza's work with The Refugee Center and 2025 Community-Academic Scholars Asal Amiri and Joel Diaz was recently published!

Last summer, the team worked with a small group of Afghan women immigrants, to see if offering learner biographies presented “Rosetta Stone” style in Dari, Pashto, and English in the Latin alphabet could improve their reading skills. Dari is the dominant language in Afghanistan, and Pashto is more dominant among speakers from the mountainous regions of Afghanistan.

The project empowered a small group of language learners to engage with the materials and discussions in new ways, shed light on the the role that bringing learners' first languages into the classroom can play in second language acquisition (SLA), and resulted in publication including Amiri and Diaz as co-authors!

Learn more about about Prof. Mendoza's research on teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) in her IHSI affiliate spotlight: https://healthinstitute.illinois.edu/news-events/news/ihsi-affiliate-spotlight-anna-mendoza

Check out the recent publication, Teaching reading to Afghan women with emergent textual literacy: A plurilingual approach

https://lesllasp.journals.publicknowledgeproject.org/index.php/lesllasp/article/view/11412

05/28/2026

We are continuing to spotlight a few IHSI Affiliates who are serving as mentors to Community-Academic Scholars this summer.

IHSI Affiliate Anuj Tiwari is a Senior Research Associate at the Discovery Partners Institute. He uses satellite images, remote sensors, AI, and more to improve community health.

Dr. Tiwari is working with Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD)to help the helpers. He has invited scholars Aman Saji and Mahn Nguyen to to design and evaluate an AI-supported system that automates evidence-grounded drafting for public health accreditation.

Learn more about Dr. Tiwari, and his passion for using geospatial science and AI to improve community health!

https://healthinstitute.illinois.edu/news-events/news/ihsi-affiliate-spotlight-anuj-tiwari

05/28/2026

🧡💙🧡💙

05/27/2026

With summer undergraduate research programs kicking off this week, it seems fitting to highlight some of the faculty who provide mentorship in these programs. First up is Catalina Alzate.

In the Critical Anatomies Lab, IHSI Affiliate Catalina Alzate, professor of design in the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Illinois, invites collaboration from campus researchers and community organizations interested in exploring topics such as health equity, community-based health care, and emerging technologies.

Most recently, the lab has initiated a new research cluster to critically examining how AI is shaping community-based health care delivery models.

Prof. Alzate has invited Community-Academic Scholar Zoe Rains to join her collaboration with the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District's Great Start program better understand how AI technologies specifically impact maternal health and doula care providers and the communities they serve. The team is using equity-centered research and participatory design to explore the impacts of AI and to envision future care practices grounded in social justice.

Check out the full spotlight to learn more about Prof. Alzate's research program, future directions, and an invitation to visit the Critical Anatomies lab: https://healthinstitute.illinois.edu/news-events/news/ihsi-affiliate-spotlight-catalina-alzate

05/21/2026

🧡💙“How can we help?” 💙🧡

According to Speech & Hearing Science Professor Laura Mattie, that could easily be the unofficial motto of the Emerging Research Leaders Academy (ERLA).

ERLA builds more than leadership skills—it creates a community of peers, mentors, and program leaders invested in participants’ success.

“Every interaction leaves me confident that I can reach out with any question, knowing they will guide me or connect me to the right resources,” said Prof. Mattie, whose research in the UIUC Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab focuses on supporting positive development among children with neurogenetic disabilities like Down syndrome.

And you don’t need to conduct health-related research to participate!

ERLA alumni span fields from atmospheric science and crop science to advertising, linguistics, labor relations, and recreation, sport & tourism.

🔸🔸Nominations are DUE May 29, 2026🔸🔸

Submit a nomination: https://redcap.healthinstitute.illinois.edu/surveys/?s=CCYHYMM8FL93FYJ4

View details and eligibility: https://healthinstitute.illinois.edu/education-training/emerging-research-leaders-academy

The Emerging Research Leaders Academy is facilitated by IHSI in partnership with Beckman Institute at Illinois, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois, The Grainger College of Engineering, and Research's Office of Proposal Development.

05/13/2026

Congratulations to Deborah Miller on receiving a 2026 Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Award! 🎉

As IHSI Director of Partnerships and Translation and Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance Program Manager, Deborah helps bring people together to advance health innovation and turn research ideas into real-world impact.

We’re grateful for her leadership and dedication to addressing today’s biggest health challenges.

Read more: https://news.illinois.edu/fifteen-employees-honored-with-2025-chancellors-staff-excellence-award/