Professors Gashaw Abeza and Saradha Ananthakrishnan are just two of the provost research fellows at TU conducting exemplary research in the field of health professions, with goals to fill in critical information gaps.

Through the Provost Research Fellows program, the two College of Health Professions professors utilized research stipends to further their research efforts in sports sponsorship and audiology, respectively.

The program is one example of TU’s commitment to its investment in faculty-led research. It encourages outstanding scholarship by awarding merit-based grants to tenured and tenure-track faculty members, through a one-month stipend, to provide time for research in the summer.

Sports sponsorship value beyond monetary gain

Abeza is focused on how sponsorship agreements with well-known brands in the sports industry can enhance the credibility, visibility and overall reputation of smaller sports leagues and teams.

When exploring the topic, he found that while there is substantial research focused on financial benefits in sponsorships, there is limited exploration into how small sport organizations benefit from the positive image transfer associated with well-known brands.

When I publish my research, I am telling a story to others—part of how I tell that story is by sharing the research with my students.

Gashaw Abeza

When Abeza first learned about the PRFP, he was looking for funding that would help him achieve more, including working with external partners like FIFA to gather important data.

After collecting the final data in early September, he is eager to interpret and discuss it with his students this fall.

“When I publish my research, I am telling a story to others—part of how I tell that story is by sharing the research with my students,” says Abeza.

For a career researcher like Abeza, who has published six books, 26 book chapters and 33 journal articles since he began teaching at TU in 2018, there is nowhere better to teach and research.

“TU is a place where researchers can truly shine. TU created an enabling and nurturing environment for me to excel,” says Abeza. “The PRF program is a strong testament to TU’s commitment to investing in its faculty research.”

Lisa Ann Plowfield, Dean of the College of Health Professions shares in Abeza's sentiment.

“The Provost Research Fellows Program highlights Towson University's unwavering commitment to advancing faculty-led research," says Plowfield. "By investing in our faculty’s innovative research, we are empowering them to explore new ideas and solve critical problems that have real-world applications, ultimately benefiting the health and well-being of the communities we serve.”

The Provost Research Fellows Program highlights Towson University's unwavering commitment to advancing faculty-led research.

Lisa Plowfield, Dean of the College of Heal Professions

Impacting the future of audiology

Ananthakrishnan also carries a true passion for her research, and learning about the PRFP couldn’t have come at a better time in her research journey.

After seven years of focusing primarily on auditory electrophysiology—a method of testing the hearing system through measuring electrical activity in the brain—she reached a point where it made increasing sense to expand her research goals.

Her long-term goal? To understand how deficits in speech understanding, like speech perception impairments, relate to processes in the brain, and improve auditory rehabilitation and habilitation programs for older adults and adults with auditory processing deficits.

In her research, Ananthakrishnan assessed brain activity and the accuracy of brain–behavior correlations, which she feels is essential to the future of developing rehabilitation and habilitation programs and technological devices like hearing aids that lessen hearing impairments.

Now in her 12th academic year with TU, Ananthakrishnan leveraged the dedicated research time the fellowship provided to analyze the data she collected throughout 2023 with her clinical doctoral student Rory Donahue ’24.

It feels rewarding to work with a student and take a project beyond a thesis and onward to publication—to aim for higher fruit.

Saradha Ananthakrishnan

“I am able to collaborate with a student who is a coauthor and now an alum, which I value highly,” says Ananthakrishnan. “It feels rewarding to work with a student and take a project beyond a thesis and onward to publication—to aim for higher fruit.”

With this data, and as part of the fellowship program, Ananthakrishnan has nearly completed a manuscript with the data interpretations and will eventually present her findings in a higher education public forum.

“Our Provost Research Fellows work exemplifies our faculty’s dedication to innovation and moving the needle in critical research areas. When we invest in our faculty members, we invest in the rich education our students receive at TU,” says Provost Melanie Perreault.

With the investment the Office of the Provost makes in faculty research, professors can contribute to conversations about the greater implications of critical issues on a national and global scale.

“Fields like sports management are well known around the world. When others see that researchers in their focus area and at a university like TU are exploring this kind of research, the research serves as a dot in that bigger effort,” says Abeza