Whole Health consortium advances mental, rural, and technology research
Tools to protect older adults from phone-based fraud in real time are moving from concept to reality after new seed funding from the Whole Health Consortium at Virginia Tech.
Led by Katalin Parti, the project will develop a large language model-powered phone scam detection tool alongside an immersive virtual-reality training environment. Together, these tools are designed to improve older adults’ safety, autonomy, and well-being by providing support before and during scam attempts.
“Despite having accurate knowledge about scams, many older adults struggle to apply this knowledge under stress,” said Parti, associate professor of sociology. “By developing a tool that verifies the legitimacy of real-time voice-based communication, the project addresses a critical gap in current scam-prevention resources, which are overwhelmingly text-based and retrospective.”
The phone-based system will analyze conversation dynamics, detect manipulation tactics as they occur, and provide immediate explanatory feedback. The virtual-reality training environment will simulate high-pressure scam scenarios, allowing participants to practice recognizing warning signs and responding calmly and strategically.
Over the next year, Parti, along with team members Na Meng and Christiana Chamon Garcia, will conduct proof-of-concept testing, assess feasibility, and refine both technical and behavioral components in collaboration with older adults. Once testing concludes, the team will use these findings to pursue larger external funding focused on scaling, longitudinal evaluation, and broad dissemination.
Parti’s team is one of six selected for the Whole Health Consortium’s 2025-26 Seed Grant Program, which supports research designed to advance whole health across community, clinical, and systems settings.
“Whole Health requires us to move beyond isolated fixes and address how well-being is shaped across the places people live, learn, and receive care,” said Tina Savla, director of the Whole Health Consortium. “These seed grants will accelerate innovation that begins locally and influence practice at scale.”
Parti’s seed funding comes from one of two tracks offered by the consortium, the Advancing Partnerships track. The award provides up to $40,000 for one year to support multidisciplinary teams in building interconnected, community-engaged projects under a unified Whole Health theme with strong potential for external funding.
The Incubating Emergent Collaborations award provides up to $10,000 for eight months to support early-stage, high-impact projects designed to generate preliminary data, proof- of- concept findings, or prototypes that can evolve into larger initiatives.
This year, funding for two of the four Incubating Emergent Collaborations awards was provided in partnership with Carilion Clinic and the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment.
The 2025-26 Seed Grant awardees
Advancing Partnerships Track
Project: Anti-scam Conversational helper for On-call Resilience (ANCHOR) for older people
Goal: Shift scam prevention from after-the-fact education to proactive, real-time protection by combining real-time verification of voice-based communication with immersive prevention training to reduce scam victimization among older adults
Research team:
- Katalin Parti, associate professor, sociology, Virginia Tech
- Na Meng, associate professor, computer science, Virginia Tech
- Christiana Garcia, assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering, Virginia Tech
Community partners:
- William Lester, president and CEO, Warm Hearth Village
- Sara McCarter, project manager, Warm Hearth Village
Project: Suicide Prevention: Leveraging Episodic Future Thinking with a Community Approach
Goal: Develop a community-engaged intervention based on Episodic Future Thinking to reduce suicidal thinking and build a sustainable, scalable approach to suicide prevention that promotes resilience, empowerment, and long-term well-being
Research team:
- Stephen LaConte, professor, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and interim co-director of the institute's Addiction Recovery Research Center; biomedical engineering
- Michael Wilson, associate professor, emergency medicine, Carilion Clinic
- Anita Kablinger, professor, psychiatry, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Carilion Clinic
- Philip Szeszko, professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Anthony Nist, postdoctoral associate, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
Community partner:
Bailey Medeiros, director, Roanoke Valley Collective Response
Incubating Emergent Collaborations Track
Goal: Explore how shelter rules in domestic violence support centers unintentionally affect residents’ mental health and develop a trauma-informed, empowerment-focused framework that emphasizes connection rather than control, minimizing retraumatization and enhancing care quality
Research team:
- Bernice Owusu-Brown, research scientist, Institute for Policy and Governance, Virginia Tech
- Meagan Brem, assistant professor, psychology, Virginia Tech
- Joanna Collins, assistant professor of practice, School of Education, Virginia Tech
- Mary Beth Dunkenberger, associate director and senior program director, Institute for Policy and Governance, Virginia Tech
Community partner:
- Kelly McCoy, executive director, Women's Resource Center of the New River Valley
Goal: Model the full patient journey from referral to follow-up to identify practical, evidence-based ways to improve access, reliability, and equity in mental-health care for rural communities in Virginia
Research team:
- Esra Buyuktahtakin Toy, professor, industrial and systems engineering, Virginia Tech
- Brooks Casas, professor, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC; psychology
- Anita Kablinger, professor, psychiatry and behavioral medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Carilion Clinic
- Mary Beth Dunkenberger, associate director and senior program director, Institute for Policy and Governance, Virginia Tech
- Aysegul Aydogan, assistant professor and psychiatrist, psychiatry, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Carilion Clinic
- Pearl Chiu, professor, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute; psychology
- Kimiya Mohammadi-Jozani, graduate research assistant, industrial and systems engineering, Virginia Tech
Community partner:
Robert Trestman, professor and chair, psychiatry and behavioral medicine, Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
Project: Soft Robotic Compression Socks for Musculoskeletal Support and Fatigue Reduction in Frontline Nurses
Goal: Develop soft robotic compression socks that provide dynamic, personalized lower-leg support designed specifically for real clinical environments to reduce discomfort, enhance mobility, and support nurses’ physical resilience before injury becomes chronic
Research team:
- Eonyou Shin, associate professor, School of Design, Virginia Tech
- Alan Asbeck, associate professor, mechanical engineering, Virginia Tech
- Robin Queen, L. Preston Wade Professor of Engineering, biomedical engineering, Virginia Tech
- Tyler Willson, associate program director, family medicine, Carilion Clinic
- Jessica Nicholson, director for outreach, community and public health, and preventive medicine, Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine
Community partner:
- Kimberly Carter, Consultant, Carilion Clinic
Goal: Investigate how holistic health services can be integrated into small, rural, independent schools and explore how public-school school-based health center models and independent-school whole-health approaches can inform each other to improve student and family well-being
Research team:
- Katrina Powell, alumni distinguished professor and founding director, Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, Virginia Tech
- Amy Price Azano, director and professor, Virginia Tech Center for Rural Education
Community partners:
- Jenny Finn, executive director, Springhouse School
- Jim Werth, chief executive officer, Tri-Area Community Health
