Office of Media Relations at the University of San Diego
October 12, 2021 | View in web browser

USD News Connect: Connecting Expert Voices to the Stories Impacting Our Community

October 12, 2021

Good morning newsrooms!

Here's your USD News Connect — where each week the University of San Diego media relations team offers expert voices to speak on stories impacting our community. If you're interested in the stories below, or need experts for any other topic you might be working on, don't hesitate to reach out to us at press@sandiego.edu.*

Supply Chain Issues Affecting Consumers Ahead of the Holidays

Shipping issues are having a big impact on consumers. With Halloween just around the corner, many stores are lacking costumes and decor, and the problem could last through Christmas. Simon Croom, professor of supply chain management, can explain how these delays are impacting local economies and tips for shoppers this holiday season.

First of Its Kind Roadmap for Preserving the California Coast

The San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative (SDRCC) at USD was awarded a $600,000 grant from the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) to design a Coastal Resilience Roadmap for our region. This project will be the first of its kind in California, with a goal of designing a guide that other California cities can use to prioritize projects that contribute to building a greener and more equitable coastal community. Darbi Berry, Program Manager of the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative, can provide insight on how this project will pioneer a new way of collaborating and thinking of protecting our coastline from climate change.

Parasocial Relationships and Covid-19

A new study by chair and associate professor of communication studies, Bradley Bond, found that people were able to maintain their friendships during COVID-19 social distancing by using social media and new technology. Those same individuals' perceived connections to fictional characters and celebrities grew stronger as they spent more time indoors and online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since media figures became more socially important during the pandemic, one useful application of these new findings could be implementing pro-social health campaigns through celebrities or entertainment television.

For all media inquiries, email our team at

press@sandiego.edu.

* Please note that times of availability will vary according to professors' schedules.

USD Expert Spotlight

“This program is designed to think deeply about how we gather in the future, how we bring people together, to build peace.”

-Andrew Blum, Executive Director of Kroc IPJ

The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (Kroc IPJ) at USD’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies was awarded a $500,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. As part of the grant, Kroc IPJ will lead a two-year project focused on understanding the future of convening and collaboration in the peace and security space. The project will establish a Peace Design Hub which will generate, test, and disseminate a core set of learnings regarding when activities focused on building peace should be in-person, hybrid, or virtual and how to maximize impact in each of these modalities. The model could be utilized by any industry looking to solve the dilemma of convening and collaborating in a post-pandemic work space.