Sponsored Research

Empowering HRD Excellence:
Fueling Innovation Through Sponsored Research 

Sponsoring research projects with our world-class faculty in the School of Leadership & Human Resource Development fosters invaluable benefits for both academia and industry.

It empowers faculty members to conduct rigorous and relevant studies, generating new knowledge and insights that shape Human Resource Development (HRD) theory and practice. Additionally, sponsored research enables collaboration between academia and industry, facilitating the application of research findings to real-world organizational challenges, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and impact of HRD strategies and interventions.

Ultimately, investing in research with SLHRD faculty paves the way for evidence-based decision-making, innovation, and continuous improvement in workforce development and organizational performance.

Over $20 Million

In Sponsored Research Funding

- Since 2018

50+ Investors

in SLHRD Research

Some of Our Research Partners & Sponsors

Academic Partnerships

Black Hills State University

Bossier Parish C.C.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

City of BR / Parish of East Baton Rouge

EBR Parish District Attorney's Office

EBR Parish Sheriff's Office

Instructional Connections

LA Board of Regents

LA Department of Children & Family Services

LA Department of Health 

LA Economic Development

Local Initiatives Support Corporation 

LSU Agricultural Center

National Science Foundation 

Negotiation & Team Resources

Northwestern State University 

University of Houston 

US Department of Justice

Woman's Hospital Foundation

Ongoing Sponsored Research 

Oliver "Ozzie" Crocco, Ed.D. - Assistant Professor

$99,869 - Summer Institute for STEM Teachers & Curriculum Development

Most recently, Dr. Crocco and Dr. Erin Richard served as evaluators on a National Science Foundation (NSF) Workshop Proposal to Develop a Summer Institute for STEM Teachers and Curriculum Development for a Novel 6-12 Grade STEM Program. They examined the effectiveness of a professional development workshop for 6th grade teachers at a new School of Environmental and Coastal Studies. 

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)

Tyree Mitchell, Ph.D. - Associate Professor

$855,760 - Empowering & Enhancing Offshore Workers' SWA, UWA, Reporting Unsafe Conditions, & Employee Participation

Tyree Mitchell, PhD, Associate Professor at SHLRD, and Changwon Son, PhD, CSP, Assistant Professor of Industrial, Manufacturing & Systems Engineering at Texas Tech University, will serve as co-principal investigators on a grant totaling $855,760 to conduct groundbreaking research titled "Empowering and Enhancing Offshore Workers’ SWA, UWA, Reporting Unsafe Conditions, and Employee Participation." The project seeks to address challenges faced by offshore workers in implementing critical safety protocols by investigating the effects of leadership and organizational factors that contribute to offshore energy workers’ perceptions that they are empowered to and safe to stop work when they notice conditions are unsafe.

Funded by the Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)

$2,000,000 - International Research Experience & Professional Development in Built Environment Sustainability

Drs. Tracey Rizzuto & Tyree Mitchell are currently co-principal investigators on a 5-year National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant for a Center of Leadership Development in Built Environment Sustainability (cldbes.org). Specifically, graduate students in STEM disciplines (e.g., engineering, architecture) complete a 9-month program that involves completing a research project focused on built environment sustainability in a different country (i.e., Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan).

Students complete a self-paced leadership training program prior to traveling to the destination, then spend 4 weeks working on their research project and with a mentor from their host country during their visit, and then present their research at an academic conference after their visit. Throughout the 9 months, students learn and develop leadership and teamwork skills as well as cultural intelligence.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)

tyree mitchell in classroom

 

group of grant researchers

 

 

Erin Richard, Ph.D. - Associate Professor

$715,521 - Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division

Dr. Richard, serving as co-principal investigator, and colleagues conducted a cognitive task analysis and mapped the coordination structure of a multi-team system of Naval warfighters toward the objective of improving training and performance measurement.

$5,000 - Educational Testing Service

Dr. Richard, as principal investigator, collaborated with other faculty members and with a research and development team from ETS to examine relationships among measures of executive functioning, trait self-control, and interpersonal skills. 

Tracey Rizzuto, Ph.D. - Professor

$4,500,000 - Identifying & Eliminating Systematic Racism in Promotion & Tenure Processes

This grant aims to examine how, when, and why promotion and tenure decision-making processes disadvantage underrepresented minority URM faculty and to create interventions to address systemic inequities that currently impact promotion and tenure decision-making for URM faculty.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Division Of Graduate Education

$720,000 - Collaborative Research: Wearable Safety Sensing & Assistive Worker-Robot Collaboration for an Augmented Workforce

The objective of this FW-HTF research project is to develop wearable safety sensing and assistive robot-worker collaboration for an augmented workforce, thereby improving worker retention and attracting women and young workers to construction careers. The researchers will also develop a number of integrated research and education programs to attract students from underrepresented groups into engineering and involve undergraduate students in research.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)

$2,671,471 - External Review Letters in Promotion and Tenure Decision Making

The academic community is not representative of the society it serves. In the USA, of the 840,000 full-time faculty at degree-granting postsecondary institutions, academics are disproportionately white or Asian (82%) relative to the US population (66%). This overrepresentation corresponds to a staggering underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic individuals, who make up 31% of the US population but only a tenth of faculty appointments at institutions of higher education. The goal of this research is to identify the barriers and challenges underrepresented minority (URM) faculty face in the many domains of academia, from university admissions to grant applications, and also examine whether this translates to promotion and tenure (P&T) decisions. 

To read the results of this research project: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01977-7

$177,000 Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

$2,494,471 Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)

$818,156 - Learning from Social Network Systems to Predict Performance Behavior

The goal of this research is to understand how inter-personal relationships within social and organizational systems can be used to strengthen the development of new skills, healthful mindsets and pro-social behaviors, and how those same social network systems can be used to disrupt and dismantle harmful behaviors that affect community wellbeing and safety.

Funded by the Department of Justice and the National Science Foundation (NSF)

$1,540,000 - Learning from Technological Systems to Predict Performance Behavior

The goal of this line of research is to explore innovative ways technological systems (e.g., immersive virtual technologies; wearable technologies; enterprise resource systems) within workplace environments can improve occupational health outcomes, performance outcomes, and sustainable design for build occupant environments.

Funded by the National Science Foundation of China and the National Science Foundation (NSF)

$5,171,470 - Learning from Social Network and Technical Systems to Improve DEI Outcomes

The goal of this line of research is to understand how the intersection of social and technical systems can be employed to strengthen and improve professional development and advancement outcomes for traditionally marginalized groups in the STEM workforce and in higher education.

Funded by Alfred P. Sloan and the National Science Foundation (NSF)

tracey rizzuto at factory in china

 

tracey rizzuto in group picture