Blacksburg campus institute names liaison in D.C. area
Shalini Misra has been named an administrative fellow for the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment.
The Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE) welcomes Shalini Misra as its new administrative fellow. Misra is an associate professor of urban affairs and planning in the School of Public and International Affairs, which is located in the Virginia Tech Research Center — Arlington.
“We are very excited to have Shalini with us this academic year,” said Karen Roberto, University Distinguished Professor and executive director of ISCE. “Her leadership and experience with cross-disciplinary teams will help us continue our support for innovative social science research that will positively impact society and the environment.”
For the academic year 2022-23, Misra will serve as a liaison between the institute and the greater Washington, D.C., metro area. This connection is integral to ISCE’s goal of supporting innovative, interdisciplinary, and translational research that addresses critical human and societal concerns impacting the lives of people and places.
This is not the institute's first administrative fellowship. Isabel Bradburn, in human development and family services in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, served as a fellow for the institute, and she is currently serving as the associate director of strategic and faculty initiatives for ISCE.
“I have benefited immensely from ISCE's support and mentorship over the years. I also understand the challenges of building connections and collaborations across campuses,” said Misra. “As ISCE's D.C. area liaison, I want to help colleagues build richer connections across campuses, leverage the unique opportunities the D.C. region provides for generating cutting edge translational and cross-sectoral research, and mentor junior scholars across all of Virginia Tech’s campuses in the extramural proposal development process.”
In addition to serving as a representative for the institute in Northern Virginia, Misra will also help develop and implement team science workshops. “I hope to be able to share my expertise in leading, participating in, and studying cross-disciplinary scientific teams to further ISCE's mission of catalyzing creative interdisciplinary and translational research at Virginia Tech,” said Misra.
Misra also will serve as an occasional reviewer for research funding applications and faculty proposals. “I am keenly interested in the contextual systems that facilitate team science endeavors,” said Misra. “I look forward to helping colleagues ease some of the challenges of building and sustaining effective teams and generating integrative knowledge across disciplines.”
ISCE leverages university funds to increase sponsored research and scholarship with a focus on issues of importance in the social sciences. The ability to maintain a presence in the Northern Virginia region is vital to ensuring the institute enables competitive research and facilitates collaborations, not only across disciplines but also across regions in the state, that have potential for extramural funding.
