Translating Research into Action Center (TRAC)

A transformative initiative accelerating American University’s impact on society. TRAC strengthens the university’s institutional capacity to support research translation for societal impact through research, training, and support for faculty and students.

Request for Proposals

2025-2026 Signature Research Initiatives Cohort 2: Research Informed Civic Engagement

The SRI RICE Cohort projects will align with President Alger’s commitment to advancing Research Informed Civic Engagement (RICE) and research translation for societal impact, the focus of our National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Translating Research into Action Center (TRAC) , housed in the AU Office of Research as the newest university-wide center. Projects selected for the SRI RICE Cohort will further university efforts to mobilize institution-wide research activity with specific emphasis on strengthening AU’s position as a leader in translating research into action for societal impact.

Cohort 2: Request for Proposals

What is TRAC?

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program “seeks to increase the scale and pace of advancing discoveries made while conducting academic research into tangible solutions that benefit the public.” In September 2023, American University was awarded $5.7M to establish the Translating Research into Action Center (TRAC).*

Launched TRAC in February 2024, TRAC is strengthening the university’s institutional capacity to support research translation for societal impact through research, training, and support - financial and operational, for faculty and students.

AU TRAC is proud to partner with colleagues from the University of Michigan, Pew Charitable Trust, University of Denver, Penn State University, and more to leverage research and innovation for positive societal impact.

TRACs Component Project Areas

TRAC has a comprehensive and multifaceted approach to support the societal impact of AU research comprised of three component project areas: training for faculty, post-doctoral scholars, and PhD students, supporting faculty research, and conducting research on research translation.

*TRAC is funded, in part, through a $5.7M grant from the National Science Foundation Accelerating Research Translation (ART) Program under award #2331399. The views expressed herein are attributed to TRAC and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Meet the TRAC Team

Diana Burley

Dr. Burley is a global cybersecurity expert with more than 30 years of experience driving digital transformation, implementing cybersecurity workforce initiatives, and promoting an equitable global technology community. As both the university’s chief research officer and chief innovation officer, Diana oversees the university-wide R&D portfolio, research partnerships, and strategic initiatives to catalyze discovery. She advises government officials and regularly offers thought leadership at executive forums. She earned her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.

Raychelle Burks

After working in a crime lab, Dr. Burks returned to academia, teaching, and forensic science research. An analytical chemist, she enjoys the challenge developing detection methods for a wide-variety of compounds. Her research team is focused on the development of colorimetric and luminescent sensor arrays for the detection of analytes of mainly forensic and national security interests with accompanying image and chemometric analysis.

Susanna Campbell

Susanna P. Campbell is an Associate Professor at the School of International Service, the Director of the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab (RIPIL) at AU, and a current Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Her research examines interactions between international and domestic actors in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, addressing debates in the statebuilding, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, international aid, and global governance literatures.

Jordan Tama

Dr. Jordan Tama specializes in the politics, institutions, and tools of U.S. foreign and national security policy making. His research has investigated polarization and bipartisanship in US foreign policy, presidential-congressional relations, the use of economic sanctions, public and elite attitudes on foreign policy, national security strategic planning, independent commissions, and efforts to connect research and policy making on international issues.

Bei Xiao

Dr. Bei Xiao's research focuses on how the human visual system estimate physical and functional properties of objects in our surroundings. Another focus of her research is to apply results from human perception and cognition to develop robust computer vision algorithms. Specifically, she studies perception and recognition of material properties, intuitive physics, estimation of 3D shape, perception of multi-sensory properties of objects in dynamic scenes.

Rachel Borchardt

Rachel Borchardt is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at American University. Her professional research focuses on equitable models of research dissemination and evaluation, including diverse models for measuring scholarly and non-scholarly research impact and the use of open access as an equitable publication model. She has written and presented on the topic in many venues.