Achievements

Kishan Lara-Cooper, Kayla Begay, Cutcha Risling Baldy, Adrienne Colegrove Raymond,

Child Development

We are thrilled to announce that Ka’m-t’em: A Journey Toward Healing by Kishan Lara-Cooper & Walter J. Lara Sr. has been awarded a SILVER medal in the 2026 Living Now Book Awards!

Selected from hundreds of entries, Ka’m-t’em: A Journey Toward Healing was recognized for its quality, creativity, and powerful impact. The Living Now Book Awards celebrate books that inspire readers and make life better. This remarkable work is a testament to resistance, renewal, advocacy, resilience, beauty, and awakening.

Through the voices of Indigenous storytellers, scholars, language keepers, artists, advocates, and community members, Ka’m-t’em explores the journey toward healing and the reclamation of identity, culture, language, spirituality, and connection to the natural world.

The book features the experiences and knowledge of 27 contributing authors, offering readers a deeply meaningful opportunity to listen, learn, and reflect on the strength and beauty found within Indigenous communities and their stories.

7

Psychology

Gregg J. Gold and Gianna Giacomotto, who is currently in the MA program at Long Beach State, along with DGSOM faculty Dr. Jennifer Lucero, Dr. Gerardo Moreno, and Dr. Eraka Bath, with DGSOM staff Ricardo Antillon and Esmeralda Trejo, recently published Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Pre-Medical Pathway Program Containing Strengths-Based Innovations. Perspectives on Medical Education. 2026; 15(1): 697–704. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/pme.2330

Dr. Meenal Rana & Dr. Susan Bennett

Child Development

Springer Nature recently published the edited volume Mentoring Relationships in Academia: Narratives from the Margins, featuring 23 chapters in which scholars share personal experiences and explore how mentoring has shaped their academic journeys and their own mentoring practices.

Of the book’s 32 authors, 11 are affiliated with Cal Poly Humboldt: one undergraduate student, one graduate student, three emeritus faculty members, five current faculty members, and one administrator. Dr. Meenal Rana (Professor, Child Development) and Dr. Susan Bennett (Faculty Emerita, English) are the book’s co-editors.

With support from an OEDI grant and the CTL, a book circle will meet four times during Fall 2026. Each participant will receive a free copy of the book. Look for a flyer with additional details in the coming weeks.

Gregg J. Gold, Gianna Giacomotto

Psychology

Gregg J. Gold and Gianna Giacomotto who is currently in the MA program at Long Beach State, along with DGSOM faculty Dr. Jennifer Lucero, Dr. Gerardo Moreno, and DGSOM staff Ricardo Antillon, and Esmeralda Trejo recently had the paper "Lessons Learned from the David Geffen School of Medicine-UCLA Clinical Clerkship Psychology of Bias Seminar" accepted for publication in the Journal of the National Medical Association.

Humnath Panta, and Co-authors from University of Texas at Arlington

Business

I’m pleased to share a recent research contribution representing Cal Poly Humboldt. My paper, “CEO Compensation and the Political Environment,” has been accepted for publication in the *Journal of Business Research (A)*. This work is co-authored with faculty at University of Texas at Arlington.

The study examines how U.S. political leadership shapes executive compensation. Using a large sample of 32,222 firm-year observations from 1992 through 2022, we find that CEO pay tends to be higher under Republican presidential administrations and Republican-controlled Congresses. We also find stronger pay-for-performance sensitivity during these periods.

These results point to a nuanced effect: higher compensation may reflect rent extraction, while stronger pay-for-performance alignment suggests more efficient contracting. Overall, the findings highlight how the political environment, a non-financial factor, plays a meaningful role in corporate decision-making.

This publication contributes to ongoing research on executive compensation and governance, and reflects the strong research engagement at Cal Poly Humboldt.

Gregg J. Gold and Gianna Giacomotto

Psychology

In an invited presentation at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM), Dr. Gregg J. Gold and former Cal Poly Humboldt psychology student Gianna Giacomotto shared the data and findings from the 2022 to 2024 DGSOM Premedical Enrichment Program (PREP) evaluation study with the staff of the DGSOM Center of Excellence responsible for the planning and implementation of PREP.  This 90-minute presentation included a lively discussion of the findings and their application to future PREP cohorts and the DGSOM California Medical Scholars program. 

Benny Anjewierden and Dr. Amber Gaffney

Psychology

Benny Anjewierden and Dr. Amber Gaffney in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Alberta have a forthcoming book chapter, "Uncertainty and social identity", in K. Vail, D. Van Tongeren, B. Schlegel, J. Greenberg, L. King, & R. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of the Science of Existential Psychology.

Chris Walmsley, Ph.D.

Psychology

In the fall 2025 semester, Dr. Walmsley was invited by the editor of Operants magazine to write a gerontology piece. The article is entitled "Using Behavior Analysis To Help Evaluate Social Outcomes in a Nutrition Program for Older Adults". It details some community-based ABA research conducted by Dr. Walmsley and his research lab in collaboration with a local agency providing services to older adults.

Mikhail Vasenin, Savva Shanaev, Humnath Panta, Binam Ghimire

Business

Humnath Panta, faculty at the School of Business, co-authored the article “ESG Ratings in Motion: The Global Market Response to Upgrades and Downgrades,” published in the Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment (Taylor & Francis, January 7, 2026). The study analyzes 2,841 MSCI-rated global stocks (2017–2021) using a calendar-time portfolio approach and finds that ESG rating upgrades (downgrades) generate statistically and economically significant abnormal returns of about +1% (–1%) per month. The effects are robust across models, holding periods, sectors, and regions, with stronger impacts for large and growth firms and in low power-distance countries, and increased synchronization post-COVID-19. The findings advance understanding of ESG information efficiency and its implications for global asset pricing and investment strategy.

Amber Gaffney, Benny Anjewierden

Psychology

Benny Anjewierden and Amber Gaffney co-Chaired a symposium with Professor Dominic Abrams at the Society of Experimental Social Psychology in Lisbon, Portugal (Praise some, punish others: When and why deviance is embraced or erased within groups). They then presented at the University of Porto, Portugal, for invited talks. Anjewierden presented some of their joint work on the polarizing nature of criticizing political leaders. Gaffney presented some of their work detailing how motives for social identity can differentially predict political extremism.