Contact the CEHS Office of Research Services
2800 Old Main Hill
Logan UT 84322-2800
research.cehs@usu.edu
Phone: 435-797-0565
Fax: 435-797-0200
Location: Education Building 453
Our Staff
Shawn D. Whiteman, PhD
Associate Dean for Research & Innovation, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Email: shawn.whiteman@usu.edu
Location: EDUC 453A and FL 127
Office Phone: 435-797-9184
Shawn joined the Office of Research Services in 2019 and serves as the Associate Dean for Research for the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. He is a member of the faculty in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies since 2016. Broadly, Shawn’s research investigates the connections between family socialization processes and youth’s health and socioemotional adjustment. He is specifically interested in how siblings directly and indirectly act as sources of social influence and social comparison within families and how their family experiences foster similarities and differences in their relationship qualities, attributes, and health-related behaviors. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, as well as private foundations.
Shawn earned his PhD in Human Development and Family Studies with a Graduate Minor in Statistics from The Pennsylvania State University in 2004. He spent the first 11 years of his career in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Purdue University.
Nancy Sassano, PhD
Senior Proposal Development Specialist
Email: nancy.sassano@usu.edu
Location: EDUC 452
Office Phone: 435-797-0904
Nancy joined the Office of Research Services in April 2009 after 12 years as project manager of the USU Center for Epidemiologic Studies where she worked on NIH-funded projects including the Cache County Study on Memory, Health and Aging; Cache County Dementia Progression Study; Utah Child and Family Health Study; and Utah Hip Fracture Study. From 2009-2015 she also served as a staff member of the USU Institutional Review Board office and voting member of the Board.
In addition to her project management and grant proposal experience at USU, she brings to the College nearly 15 years of prior experience in development, management and evaluation of employee wellness programs, secondary health education, and university teaching. Nancy received her Ph.D. in Health Education from The Pennsylvania State University, M.Ed. from Arizona State University, and B.S.E. from SUNY Cortland.
Sarah Schwartz, PhD
Research Assistant Professor and Director of Statistical Consulting Studio
Email: sarah.schwartz@usu.edu
Location: EDUC 455
Office Phone: 435-797-0169
Sarah is a statistician with over eighteen years of statistical consulting/analysis experience on a wide range of applied projects (e.g., dementia/Alzheimer’s, hearing loss, education, eating disorders, ect.). She completed her doctoral degree in Statistics at Utah State University where she is focused on exact methods for bias detection and avoidance in small, sparse, or correlated data. Prior to her current position, Sarah worked as a statistician for the Center for Epidemiologic Studies at USU, with collaborators from the University of Utah, Johns Hopkins, and Duke. In addition to expertise in traditional experimental designs and statistical techniques, Sarah specializes in cutting-edge longitudinal modeling, survival analysis, graphical methods, data programming, computer-adaptive designs, and RCTs. She also has experience in scientific writing, including journal articles and grant applications.
Sarah earned her undergraduate degree from USU in Math Education with a minor in Chemistry Teaching. She taught math and chemistry for five years at both public and private high schools. Sarah has also taught courses at USU, including college algebra (Math 1010, 1050) and introductory statistics (Stat 1040, 2000). Sarah currently teaches graduate-level statistics courses in our college (Educ 6600, Psy 6600, Psy 7650). In her spare time, she enjoys snowboarding and skiing in the winter and wakeboarding in the summer.
Amanda Crosby
Proposal Development Specialist
Email: amanda.crosby@usu.edu
Location: EDUC 456
Office Phone: 435-797-0565
Amanda joined the Office of Research Services in July of 2019. She has nearly 20 years of experience in program and research grant development, non-profit programming and administration, curriculum development, data management, and cultivating K-12 partnerships. She has a love for education, having spent her early career working with students in inner-city and Title 1 classrooms to develop their social-emotional learning, character education, and life skills. Amanda is a graduate of USU, with a bachelor’s degree in Parks and Recreation.
Nancy Sassano, PhD
Senior Proposal Development Specialist
Email: nancy.sassano@usu.edu
Location: EDUC 452
Office Phone: 435-797-0904
Nancy joined the Office of Research Services in April 2009 after 12 years as project manager of the USU Center for Epidemiologic Studies where she worked on NIH-funded projects including the Cache County Study on Memory, Health and Aging; Cache County Dementia Progression Study; Utah Child and Family Health Study; and Utah Hip Fracture Study. From 2009-2015 she also served as a staff member of the USU Institutional Review Board office and voting member of the Board.
In addition to her project management and grant proposal experience at USU, she brings to the College nearly 15 years of prior experience in development, management and evaluation of employee wellness programs, secondary health education, and university teaching. Nancy received her Ph.D. in Health Education from The Pennsylvania State University, M.Ed. from Arizona State University, and B.S.E. from SUNY Cortland.