Graduate School Dissertation Completion Awards

Rabeeh Azarmehr is a Ph.D. candidate in Human Development and Family Science at the University of Georgia, specializing in neuroscience and substance use research under the advisement of Dr. Assaf Oshri and Dr. Charles Geier. Her research examines how childhood adversity, including family and neighborhood stressors, influences adolescent substance use vulnerability through neural and psychosocial mechanisms.

Specifically, she investigates how regions in the brain related to reward sensitivity and emotional reactivity contribute to positive substance use expectancies. Her dissertation utilizes longitudinal neuroimaging data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.

Azarmehr earned her B.A. in English Language and Literature and her M.S.Ed. in Psychology before joining The University of Georgia in 2021. She chose UGA for its strong interdisciplinary training, access to advanced neuroimaging resources, and the opportunity to work under the mentorship of Dr. Assaf Oshri and Dr. Charles Geier at the Georgia Center for Developmental Science (former YDI). She has also completed a graduate certificate in Quantitative Methodology, enhancing her expertise in advanced statistical modeling.

She has multiple peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. Upon earning her Ph.D. in May 2026, Azarmehr plans to pursue a postdoctoral position. Her long-term goal is to advance understanding of neural and environmental mechanisms underlying substance use and psychopathology to inform prevention strategies that benefit families and communities.

Karrah Bowman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Georgia. Under the advisement of Dr. Ashley J. Harrison, Bowman has polished her research pursuit to focus on bettering the educational environment for students on the autism spectrum.

A Florida native and graduate of Florida State University, Bowman chose to pursue her graduate studies in school psychology at the University of Georgia, as she was drawn by the program’s combined clinical and school emphasis and the shared research interests she holds with her advisor, Dr. Ashley J. Harrison—particularly in the broad exploration of autism disparities. 

She has been honored with several awards and grants throughout her graduate school years, including the college’s Amazing Student Series Award (2023), the program’s Hynd Award for Excellence in Collegiality and Scholarship (2024), and the Graduate School’s Summer Dissertation Research Grant (2025), and she is currently a member in the Center for Teacher and Learning Future Faculty Fellows program.

Bowman is motivated and inspired through interdisciplinary collaboration and aims to utilize her versatile skills in clinical practice, research, and teaching as a tenured-track professor. In this role, Bowman will continue to conduct implementation science research to understand inclusive education barriers and partner with key stakeholders to identify practical solutions.

Kristen Eggler is a Ph.D. candidate in the Industrial Organizational Psychology Program at UGA, studying under Dr. Jeffrey Olenick. Her research examines how organizational practices, employee allyship, and reactions to diversity initiatives and messaging interact to support or inhibit inclusive work environments.

Her research uses multiple methodological approaches including qualitative analysis, experimental designs, computational modeling, and natural language processing. Current projects focus on assessing applicant reactions to DEI messaging in recruitment materials, defining and operationalizing allyship, and designing effective diversity training programs.

Prior to attending UGA, Eggler received her M.S. in Psychology from Old Dominion University and her B.A. in Psychological Science from Gustavus Adolphus College. While at UGA, Eggler has published in the journals Group and Organizational Management and Industrial Organizational Psychology, currently has several first-author manuscripts under review, and presented her work across 23 conferences, symposia, panels, and posters. 

Eggler has received funding for research and conference travel across several small grants and awards including the UGA Graduate School Summer Research Grant, the Dan Mack Graduate Research Grant, the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology Small Grant, and Student Travel Award. Eggler has received awards recognizing her work for its scholarly impact and commitment to diversity including the Dan Mack Fellowship Award, the UGA Psychology Graduate Student Diversity Research Award, and the Minnesota Psychological Association Undergraduate Award.

Upon graduation, Eggler plans to continue her work as a tenure-track professor at a rigorous academic institution.

Carlos Breña Gastañadui is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Violin Performance with a minor in Music Education at the University of Georgia. Working with Dr. Rebecca Atkins and Dr. Jing Xu, he discovered opportunities to pursue music education and interdisciplinary research. 

Gastañadui’s dissertation, “Left-Hand Mechanics in Violin Pedagogy: Historical Perspectives and Injury Prevention,” explores how different left-hand techniques affect comfort, coordination, and long-term physical health in violin playing. His research combines insights from historical pedagogy and biomechanics to better understand finger motion and reduce the risk of injury. Working with the Department of Kinesiology, he is using motion capture technology to study hand mechanics during violin performance and aims to provide practical tools for teachers and students.

Originally from Peru, he holds a Bachelor of Music from the Conservatorio Nacional de Música del Perú and a Master of Music from the University of North Dakota. He chose UGA to study under Regents and Franklin Professor Dr. Levon Ambartsumian and perform with the ARCO Chamber Orchestra. 

Gastañadui has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Peru and abroad and served as concertmaster of the UGA Symphony Orchestra. He has taught at both university and pre-college levels and is passionate about developing techniques that support physical well-being over time through individualized instruction. He was selected to play with the Youth Ibero-American Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel in 2009 and received a full scholarship to the Fontainebleau Schools of Music and Fine Arts in France in 2011. 

After graduation in May 2026, Gastañadui plans to pursue a career combining professional orchestral performance with university teaching and research-informed pedagogy.

Stephanie Hanus-Knapp is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology, where she is advised by Dr. Leslie Gordon Simons. Her research interests are in the areas of family, life-course, and aging. Specifically, her work is concerned with experiences of romantic relationships, as well as well-being, across the life course. 

Her dissertation, “Testing a Comprehensive Model of Adult Romantic Relationships at Mid-Late Life,” examines the influence of romantic relationships, holistically, on various outcomes of health and well-being, including depressive symptoms, self-reported health, and measures of epigenetic aging. Hanus-Knapp’s other research has been published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Journal of Family Issues, Social Science and Medicine, and Media, Culture, and Society. 

When not working on research, Hanus-Knapp uses her research to inform her teaching, having taught over 400 students across five courses at the University of Georgia. Her teaching efforts have been recognized by the University of Georgia’s Graduate School and Center for Teaching and Learning by receiving the 2025 Excellence in Teaching Award.

Kristen Morrow is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology and Center for Integrative Conservation Research at the University of Georgia. While working under Dr. Roberta Salmi, Morrow examined the importance of unprotected peat swamp forests for local livelihoods and primate conservation in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Her project uses participant observation, semi-structured interviews, participatory mapping, and passive acoustic monitoring to examine how national-level forest management, local-scale land use practices, and climate change impact local livelihoods and the primate populations that inhabit the region. In partnership with Universitas Gadjah Mada and Borneo Nature Foundation, Morrow’s research aims to help guide equitable conservation planning that will support local communities while protecting the orangutans, gibbons, red langurs, proboscis monkeys, long tailed macaques, pig tailed macaques, lorises, and tarsiers that inhabit the region.

Morrow completed her B.A. in Anthropology at the University of Georgia in 2014 and then completed her M.A. in Anthropology at San Diego State University before beginning her doctoral training in the Integrative Conservation (ICON) program at UGA. She chose to return to UGA because the interdisciplinary training provided by the ICON program allowed her to bring together her research interests in wildlife conservation, human-primate relationships, and anthropology.

She is a PEO Scholar Award recipient and received the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad award to support her research. Morrow is grateful to various entities that have supported her research, including the UGA Department of Anthropology, the UGA Center for Integrative Conservation Research, the UGA Graduate School, the UGA Office of Global Engagement, the American-Indonesian Exchange Foundation, the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, and IDEA Wild.

Matthew Nyaaba is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia. While working under Dr. Xiaoming Zhai, Nyaaba’s research addressed a critical challenge in STEM education: the lack of assessment grounded in students’ cultural and contextual realities, which has discouraged many K-12 students, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, from pursuing STEM- related programs.

Before his doctoral studies, Nyaaba taught science and ICT in Grades 4–9 in both international and public schools in Ghana. He later transitioned to higher education as a teacher educator, where he taught science, inclusive and differentiated instructional courses. At UGA, he was a Teaching Assistant and Field Supervisor, mentoring teacher candidates in coursework and clinical practice. He has led cross-cultural GenAI webinars, facilitated GenAI workshops, and presented at national and international conferences.

While conducting his research, Nyaaba developed a Generative AI framework for culturally responsive science assessment (CRSciA) to support prompt engineering and the development of GenAI tools. Building on this framework, Nyaaba has developed a prototype GenAI-based tool to assist teachers in generating CRSciA. He is currently exploring how STEM teachers can use his theoretically informed GenAI tool to co-design CRSciAs that promote student learning.

His dissertation proposal earned second place in the 2025 AACTE Dissertation Funding Competition. He was the winner of the 2024 Saeeda Peermahomed Award for Outstanding International Student, UGA, and was named an Amazing Student by the Mary Frances College of Education, UGA.

Yucheng Shi is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at the University of Georgia, where he is advised by Dr. Ninghao Liu. His research focuses on large language models (LLMs), multi-modal learning, and trustworthy AI. He specializes in developing responsible AI systems, with extensive experience in foundation model post-training, synthetic data generation, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Shi chose the University of Georgia for its strong research program and the opportunity to work with leading faculty in his field. Throughout his doctoral studies, he has published multiple papers in top-tier conferences, including ICML, ICLR, NeurIPS, and AMIA. He is the recipient of several awards, including the AMIA 2024 Distinguished Paper Award, the NeurIPS 2023 Scholar Award, and the University of Georgia’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award.

He has gained valuable research experience as an intern at Tencent AI Lab and a student researcher at Harvard Medical School. In the coming semester, Shi will be joining Netflix as a Research Scientist Intern. He is eager to continue his work in advancing the frontiers of responsible and trustworthy AI in his future career.

Jiyue Zhao is a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia. While working under Dr. Rosanna Rivero, Zhao specialized in investigating the co-evolution of urban morphology and landscape ecology to enhance coastal resilience and climate adaptation. 

Her academic foundation in urban planning and landscape architecture, combined with four years of experience as a professional urban planner on over 20 projects, provided critical insight into how planning decisions impact communities. This practical work ignited her interest in leveraging spatial data and modeling to inform more effective conservation strategies.

Zhao chose the University of Georgia for its renowned program integrating geographic information science with community-focused research. A primary factor in her decision was the opportunity to work under the mentorship of her advisor, Dr. Rosanna Rivero, a leading expert in geospatial technologies for environmental and land use planning. Her dedication at UGA has been recognized with honors including the 2021 Digital Landscape Architecture Conference poster prize, the Sisson Community Leadership Development Award, and the University’s Student Employee of the Year Award. This recognition validates her commitment and supports the final stages of her dissertation.

Upon graduation, Zhao plans to secure a tenure-track faculty position to continue her research and mentor the next generation of planners. Her ultimate ambition is to bridge the gap between science and practice by developing policy-relevant recommendations that support climate adaptation strategies for vulnerable coastal communities.

Wenqing Zhao is a Ph.D. candidate in Mass Communication at Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, advised by Dr. Yan Jin. Her research focuses on strategic communication, public relations, crisis communication, strategic conflict management, and psychophysiological methods. Specifically, her work has examined strategies to manage organizational crisis, political crisis, and informational conflicts.

Before joining The University of Georgia, she received her M.A. in Communication at Washington State University and B.A. in Journalism at Shanghai University, China. Zhao has published 11 peer-reviewed journal articles and contributed to 17 presentations at peer-reviewed conferences during her time at UGA. Her work has been published in Human Communication Research, Public Relations Review, Communication Monographs, Journal of Applied Communication Research, etc.

At UGA, Zhao is the lab manager for the Brain, Body, and Media (BBAM) Lab and the research coordinator for CIA (Crisis Insights and Analytics) Lab affiliated with Crisis Communication Think Tank (CCTT). She was selected as a Future Faculty Fellow in 2024. 

After graduation, she aims to continue pursuing her research journey in crisis communication and strategic conflict management through an assistant professor position at a higher education institution.

Jaminque Adams
Department of Educational Theory and Practice, Mary Frances Early College of Education

Jaminque Adams is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia. Her research pursuits are situated at the nexus of critical Black educational studies, radical Black feminist qualitative inquiry, and teacher education rooted in abolitionist principles.

Adams’ research passion stems from her own journey as a student in Detroit Public Schools and a former public-charter school teacher in the College Initiatives program at Yes Prep in Houston. As a product of Black women teachers’ labor of love, she specifically centers her research on Black women teachers’ historical and present-day labor, interiority, wholeness, and healing praxis.

Adams earned her bachelor’s in English from Spelman College followed by a master’s in African American Studies from The Ohio State University.

Her commitment to honoring the stories of Black women teachers shines through her scholarly work. In summer 2023, Adams was a summer research fellow and later selected as a graduate research assistant for the groundbreaking Black Teacher Archive Project at Harvard University where she continued to develop her knowledge about the legacy of Black women teachers. Her dissertation project specifically examines the impact of antiblack racism on Black women teachers’ labor and well-being in the K-12 teaching profession as well as their refusal and radical healing praxis.

Upon graduating, Adams will continue to celebrate and advocate for the well being and healing of Black women educators through her roles as an educational researcher, budding scholar activist, and teacher educator.

She is a proud native of Detroit as well as a lover of hot wings, all things yellow, and her family!

Donald Dunagan
Department of Linguistics, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Donald Dunagan is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Linguistics at UGA, working under Dr. John Hale. Dunagan’s research interests are in computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics: language in computers, the human mind, and the human brain, respectively.

Dunagan’s research leverages artificial intelligence and computational modeling to investigate language processing in both humans and machines. His work in these domains has led him to realize the importance of the individual in language.

Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., he received an M.S. in artificial intelligence from the University of Georgia.

After finishing his Ph.D., Dunagan will pursue a postdoctoral research position in a clinical setting. He aims to apply his (research) skills and knowledge in computational techniques, artificial intelligence, linguistics, and neuroimaging to working with e.g., populations with post-stroke language disorder. Following this additional, specialized training, he plans to pursue a position as either a staff research scientist or a tenure track faculty member.

Molly E. Hale
Department of Psychology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Molly Hale is a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Psychology program at UGA, studying under Dr. Cindy Suveg. Her research examines how intra- and inter-personal factors can be leveraged to buffer against the development of internalizing symptoms and improve socioemotional adjustment for all youth.

Internalizing symptoms (i.e., anxious, depressive, somatic) pose the biggest burden to the current mental health crisis for youth across the United States. Youth who struggle with internalizing symptoms face significant long-term challenges, however, those who engage in adaptive self-regulation and maintain supportive relationships notably decrease their risk for developing clinical symptoms. Using the biopsychosocial model (BPS), Hale accomplishes the goal of decreasing this risk through the examination of three key factors: 1) adaptive self-regulation, 2) close interpersonal relationships, and 3) synchrony.

Hale came to UGA with an M.S. in Experimental Psychology from William & Mary. Given her interest in the intersection of behavioral and biological factors using multilevel data, she completed the Quantitative Methodology in Family Sciences Certificate where she learned how to employ advanced statistical modeling techniques to answer research questions.

Her work at UGA has culminated in thirteen peer-reviewed publications (nine first-author), with four more under review, six publications in preparation (four first-author), and 37 conference/symposia presentations.

Upon graduation, Hale plans to continue her work as a tenure-track principal investigator at a rigorous, academic institution.

Yuchen Song
Department of Educational Psychology, Mary Frances Early College of Education

Yuchen Song is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Educational Psychology at UGA, working under Dr. Emily Rosenzweig. His research seeks to gauge the source of academic motivation, and to sustain motivation in STEM fields through intervention programs.

In the past few years, his research agenda centers around the question of where academic motivation comes from. Following this train of thought, his most recent work examines the moment-to-moment dyadic interaction in the context of early math learning through an observational approach. Song plans to use latent class analysis to explore the heterogeneous patterns in parenting behaviors when they interact with children on math tasks, and how these behavioral patterns influence children’s subsequent emotional affect and engagement in math learning. This line of work has long-term implications in that it can directly speak to parenting behaviors that are motivating or demotivating to children’s early motivation in math.

Prior to coming to UGA, Song received an M.A in Experimental Psychology from Brandeis University.

Chris Smaga
Odum School of Ecology

Chris Smaga is a Ph.D. candidate in the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia. His research is focused on understanding how the environment experienced during development has lasting effects on organisms later in life.

Using American alligators as a model, he is exploring the ecological and evolutionary consequences of temperature-dependent sex determination, including how it is disrupted by anthropogenic contaminants.

Smaga received his B.S. in zoology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he studied Snake Fungal Disease. During his final year as an undergrad, he began exploring graduate school opportunities and came across the Parrott Lab at the Savannah River Ecology Lab (SREL) in UGA’s Odum School of Ecology. The reputation of SREL for reptile research and the integrative nature of the Parrott Lab’s work on alligators intrigued him to pursue a Ph.D. in ecology at UGA.

During his time at UGA, Smaga has published 6 papers, two as first author, and has presented his work at regional, national and international conferences, where he has won several awards for best talks. He has secured funding for both research and conference travel from UGA and the Odum School and was recently awarded the Sharitz-Hatfield fellowship.

After graduating, Smaga plans to work at a university where he can split his time between teaching, mentoring students and conducting research on reptile ecology and life history.

De Yang
Department of Philosophy, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

De Yang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Georgia, working under the supervision of Dr. René Jagnow. Yang’s research interests lie in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of cognitive science, with a specific focus on understanding social bias and its manifestation in various aspects of human cognition.

Yang’s work integrates insights from empirical research in psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence to develop a comprehensive understanding of social bias. Currently, he is engaged in three primary projects: the first investigates how visual perception can exhibit bias; the second examines biases inherent in machine learning algorithms; and the third explores the connection between social bias and the emerging philosophical topic of epistemic injustice. The overarching aim of his research is to deepen our understanding of the formation of social bias and its broader influence on society.

Before pursuing a Ph.D. at UGA, Yang earned an M.A. in Philosophy from Georgia State University and a B.A. in Political Science from the China University of Political Science and Law.

Upon graduation, Yang aspires to continue this research, seeking a position as a postdoctoral researcher or a tenure-track faculty member at an academic institution.

Linhao Zhang
Department of Human Development and Family Science, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Linhao Zhang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at the University of Georgia.

Her research focuses on studying how child adversity influences youth development and psychopathology and how psychophysiological and neurological mechanisms impact these associations. She is particularly interested in how sleep can impact the parent-child relationship and risk and resilience behaviors.

Zhang received her B.A. in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and her M.S. Ed in Counseling from the University of Georgia. She joined UGA in 2020 and works with Dr. Assaf Oshri and Dr. Charles Geier at the Youth Development Institute.

After earning a Ph.D. degree, Zhang plans to secure a postdoctoral fellowship followed by a tenure-track research professor position. She would like to continue contributing to the growing body of developmental neuroscience research on the role of sleep in adolescent adjustment.

Miranda Arnold
Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, Office of Research

Miranda Arnold is a 5th year Interdisciplinary Neuroscience PhD candidate. She received a B.S. in Biology at Agnes Scott College, and a M.S. in Integrative Biology at Kennesaw State University. Her dissertation work, under Dr. Jesse Schank, revolves around sex differences in compulsive alcohol use studying the neuronal mechanisms and hormonal influences on this behavior. Throughout her time at UGA, Miranda has had the opportunity to present her work a local and national conferences, have a role as a teaching assistant in veterinary neuroanatomy courses, and mentor graduate and undergraduate students in her lab.

Other than lab work, Miranda served as President of the Neuroscience Graduate Student Association for the past three years, where she obtained speakers for the neuroscience monthly seminar series, host question and answer sessions during the graduate student recruitment weekend, and provide mentorship to other neuroscience PhD students.  After completion of her PhD, Miranda’s goal is to continue research through a postdoctoral position, leading to teaching at the collegiate level. Her ultimate goal would be to run my own research lab and to mentor other scientists through their academic careers.

Daniel Hartman
Department of Mathematics, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Daniel is currently a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Mathematics at UGA. His research interest centers around low-dimensional topology with an emphasis on smooth 4-manifold topology. Daniel is an active member of the research community, having been invited to speak at several international conferences, including the BIRS Workshop – Topology in Dimensions 4.5 and the Winter School in Singularities and Low-Dimensional Topology. His research focuses on diffeomorphisms groups of 4-manifolds, 2-knots, and codimension 1 embeddings.

When Daniel is not actively engaged in research, he helps foster interest in mathematics. He has participated in the Mathematics Department’s Directed Reading Program every year, working with six different undergraduates to date. He has organized both the Graduate Student Topology Seminar and the more general Graduate Student Seminar during his time at UGA. During graduate student visitation day and new student orientation, Daniel helps run and interact with the new students. He has served as a peer mentor for new students and has assisted with the high school mathematics competition held at UGA. After he graduates in spring 2024, Daniel plans to continue his research by pursuing postdoctoral positions and tenure-track faculty positions at various research institutions.

Shannon Perry
Learning, Leadership, and Organization Development, Mary Frances Early College of Education

Shannon Perry is a PhD candidate in Learning, Leadership, and Organization Development and also pursuing UGA’s graduate certificate in Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies. She earned dual Bachelor’s degrees in English and English Education (2007) from the University of Georgia before earning an MA in Appalachian Studies (2011) from Appalachian State University with a thesis focused on learning in a DIY community of experimental music practice. 

Her doctoral research focuses on the phenomenon of felt sense and how this capacity for affective embodied knowing can support transformative learning processes. The first article in her article-format dissertation, “Participatory feeling: Re-visioning transformative learning theory through Heron’s whole person perspective,” published in Adult Education Quarterly, argues for an understanding of feeling as a boundless aspect of affect that produces the expanded relational subjectivities required for interacting across vast differences. She is currently undertaking a collaborative inquiry into how felt senses affect learning through creative sound practice. This artful action research explores the aurality and multi-layered nature of creative practice and of all experiencing. Using sonopoetic methods, autoethnographic writing, and thinking with critical posthuman/feminist new materialist concepts, she extends collaborative inquiry’s potential as a generative structure wherein more creative and response-able ways of knowing and doing can come into being.

Karen Ramirez Quintero
Department of Chemistry, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Karen is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Chemistry of UGA.  She earned her bachelor’s degree in Biological Engineering at The National University of Colombia in 2016. She worked for nearly three years in industry before joining UGA in 2019 in pursuit of a doctoral degree in Chemistry. Karen joined the Urbauer lab, where she studies protein-protein interactions using diverse physical techniques. Her research focuses on the complex regulation of G-protein signaling and calcium signaling by RGS10, a member of the RGS (Regulator of G-protein Signaling) family of proteins, and the ubiquitous calcium signaling and master regulator protein calmodulin. Her findings should have a broad impact given the importance of these proteins in different signaling pathways and their involvement in different diseases, including neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases.

Karen is an active member of the Chemistry Graduate Student Organization (CGSO), where she had served as Networking Chair, organizing different events that included a Mental Health Day. Karen will graduate in the spring of 2023 and to continue the study of proteins related to diseases, contributing to the design of new drugs. 

Cydney Seigerman
Anthropology and Integrative Conservation (ICON), Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Cydney K. Seigerman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Integrative Conservation & Anthropology program at the University of Georgia, where they work with Dr. Don Nelson and are a member of the Human Environmental Change Lab (HECL). Cydney is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a research scholar at the Research Institute of Meteorology and Water Resources (FUNCEME) in Ceará, Brazil. Cydney’s research incorporates methods from the critical social sciences, natural sciences, and theatre/performance studies to explore human-technology-environment relations. Their dissertation work explores how socionatural (i.e., interrelated sociopolitical, environmental, and technological) processes shape and are shaped by the lived experience of water insecurity in Ceará, Northeast Brazil. Before pursuing their PhD, Cydney studied Chemistry and Spanish language and literature at the University of Michigan, graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the Residential College and Honors College. They then relocated to Madrid, Spain, where they served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, studied acting at the theater school La Lavandería, and ran competitively.

Briana Spivey
Department of Psychology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Briana Spivey, M.S., is a rising 5th-year doctoral candidate in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Georgia and a graduate of Spelman College. Briana’s research examines Black womanhood across the lifespan by examining the implications of cultural constructs (i.e., the Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema) on Black women’s mental health. Also, Briana has an interest in developing culturally relevant interventions for Black women as a means to reduce mental health disparities. Briana believes in me-search being research and hopes to use her voice in the academy to highlight the experiences of Black women. With her passion about mental health within the Black community, Briana plans to continue on her path to serve as a licensed clinical psychologist and tenure-track professor to nurture the next generation of Black psychologists.

Aarum Youn-Heil
Entertainment Media Studies, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication

Born and raised in Tallahassee, FL as a Seminoles fan, Aarum Youn-Heil stayed in Florida and received her bachelor’s degree in 2017 at the University of South Florida. She made her way to Athens, GA in 2018 for graduate school with her husband, Austin (fellow UGA grad!) and their two pets, Roommate the dog and Willow Feral the cat. Aarum earned her master’s in 2020 and is now a PhD candidate at the College of Journalism and Mass Communication here at UGA.

Her research interest is in interracial communication and how it relates to entertainment media. Specifically, interracial communication in and about media. Through a critical lens, she focuses on how mediated racial representations impact racial identities and interracial communication. A lot of her research inquiries came from questions and conversations from her daily interactions. Why is watching television so simple and fun but having conversations about what we see on screen so difficult even with those close to you? With this award, Aarum seeks to address these questions and focus on her dissertation which examines racial stereotyping as a practice of narrativization in film and push into reconceptualizing stereotyping.

Active on campus, Aarum was communications consultant for the Division of Academic Enhancement’s Presentation Collaboratory and assisted students’ public speaking and presentation skills. Additionally, she spends her summers as International Student Life’s doctoral intern facilitating workshops for international doctoral students practicing communicating about their research interculturally.

Aarum is an avid watcher of TV and enjoys new adventures with old friends.

Jean Costa-Silva
Department of Linguistics, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Jean Costa-Silva is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Georgia. Jean’s primary interests pertain to Second Language Acquisition and Cognitive Linguistics. He is interested in how learners employ different linguistic strategies to describe reality.

Costa-Silva has a B.A. in Anglophone Studies from the Federal University of Minas Gerais and certificates from the University of Oregon and the University of Cambridge.

Prior to coming to UGA, he taught English in Slovakia and Brazil for over 10 years. In 2017, he received a Fulbright scholarship and taught Portuguese at UGA. This experience motivated him to pursue a Ph.D. in Linguistics.

Costa-Silva’s tenure at UGA has been underscored by a strong commitment to research, teaching, and service. He gave invited talks abroad and presented at multiple conferences, including the Conference on Scholarly Teaching in Linguistics and the Linguistics Society of America Conference. He has also published in journals of international impact. He redesigned courses to promote critical thinking about language in Linguistics and in the Portuguese Flagship Program. For this work, he was the winner of the highly competitive Excellence in Teaching Award. He also served as the Executive Editor of Working Papers in Linguistics, and founded the Second Language Acquisition Lab. In 2023, he was inducted into the Blue Key Honors Society.

Costa-Silva is currently working towards a postdoctoral fellowship with the goal of diversifying his opportunities in higher education.

Ronnie Fulton
Department of Microbiology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Ronnie Fulton is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Georgia. He joined the laboratory of Dr. Diana Downs in the Department of Microbiology. His dissertation research focuses on metabolic contributions by proteins in the highly conserved Rid superfamily and the consequences associated with the reactive metabolites they remove.

Fulton’s research has described the first experimental data supporting concepts proposed from previous studies. As such, his work has defined a new paradigm in metabolism and has significantly contributed to the field.

Fulton grew up in a small rural community in southwestern Oklahoma. He earned a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Oklahoma.

Fulton has presented his work at regional, national, and international meetings, and has been recognized for his research potential as a recipient of a traineeship in Genetics from the NIH, and a departmental award for research in microbial biodiversity and physiology. Beyond his potential as a researcher, Fulton has shown devotion to education, mentorship and community engagement. He has participated in several science outreach events and has been recognized for his dedication to students in courses he has instructed. Additionally, he has rigorously mentored multiple undergraduate students in the laboratory and continues to be a resource for, and have a positive influence on, members of the laboratory and other communities on campus.

Fulton’s career goal is to become a tenured faculty member at an R1 institution where he can continue to pursue his passions for research, education and mentorship, while promoting equity and inclusion for students from underrepresented groups.

Dominique La Barrie
Department of Psychology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Dominique L. La Barrie is a Ph.D. candidate in Developmental Psychology and is mentored by Dr. Anne Shaffer. La Barrie’s dissertation study has two aims: (1) to examine whether the types and frequencies of ERS messages shared with youth differ between parents and grandparents, and (2) to examine if there are differences in how parents’ and grandparents’ ERS messages buffer against the harmful effects of racism. La Barrie hopes her work will provide contextual information about how youth receive ERS messages within their households and highlight how grandparents are significant socializers.

Before coming to UGA, La Barrie developed an interest in understanding how racism and racial trauma influence youth development. Upon starting graduate school, she focused on ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) as a cultural process that can help youth navigate discrimination and expand the literature to understand how family context may inform ERS, especially in Black and Latinx families.

La Barrie has served as the previous Psychology Undergraduate Mentoring Program coordinator and has been on various diversity committees at UGA. The American Psychological Association, the National Science Foundation, and the Society for Research on Child Development have recognized her contributions.

La Barrie is passionate about communicating the impact of racism and discrimination to academic and non-academic audiences, regularly engaging in speaking and outreach opportunities at UGA, locally and nationally. An ongoing professional goal is to work toward diversifying academia by recruiting, retaining, and supporting historically underrepresented minority students.

Oluwayomi K. Paseda
Doctoral Candidate ABD, School of Social Work

Oluwayomi Paseda, better known as Yomi, is a Ph.D. candidate. Yomi earned her BSW at Morgan State University in 2014 and her MSW, focusing on clinical social work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2015. Yomi is a Licensed Master’s Level Social Worker in Georgia. Before entering the Ph.D. program, she acquired experience working in the mental health field with adults in outpatient, inpatient, and residential treatment settings as well as providing social and mental health services to individuals involved in the criminal justice system. These experiences have strongly influenced her research interests, including reentry programs, interventions, and services for women transitioning from incarceration to the community. Yomi’s research interests also include Black feminist thought and criminal legal reform. She seeks to study programming and access to treatment among Black women involved in the criminal legal system. In her expertise, Yomi aspires to become a researcher, consultant, advocate, and educator.

Yomi strives to be a role model for future minority females by demonstrating the value of minority women in academia. She hopes to obtain a faculty position in higher education, allowing her to work with female students with multiple minority identities, such as herself. As an educator, she aims to mentor and train the next generation of social workers and create more opportunities for female students of racial/ethnic minority groups to thrive and succeed in academia. She seeks this pursuit to advance equity, diversity, and opportunities for minority women in academia.

Asia Passmore
Doctoral Candidate, Hugh Hodgson School of Music

Originally from Buford, Georgia, Asia began studying piano at the age of 15. She went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and her Master of Music in Piano Performance from the University of New Mexico. Currently, Asia is a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia where she studies piano performance and pedagogy.

Her career highlights include recent performances at the 2022 National Association of Negro Musicians Convention, a recent performance with the Metropolitan Atlanta Musicians Association in a concert highlighting African American women composers, presenting at the 2022 Georgia Music Teachers Association Conference on solo piano works by African American composers, participating in the 2020 Dark Water Women in Music Festival, participating in the 2019 Klavierfestival in Lindlar, Germany, and her current internship with the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy where she works to promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the field of piano pedagogy as well as provide children’s resources. Currently, she teaches private and group piano in UGA’s Community Music School.

Asia’s greatest passion as a performer, teacher, and scholar, is to emphasize the solo piano works of African American composers. Her doctoral research focuses on the solo piano music of Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) and his connection to musical artists across the African Diaspora, particularly in the United States. Asia hopes to continue contributing research on this very important subject, as well as highlighting these works on the concert stage and in teaching.

Megan Tomamichel
Doctoral Candidate, Odum School of Ecology

Megan Tomamichel is an infectious disease ecologist with a love for aquatic systems. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the Infectious Disease Ecology Across Scales (IDEAS) program, and is advised by Drs. James (Jeb) Byers and Richard Hall. Megan has also earned a M.S. degree at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities in the Conservation Sciences program and a B.A. degree at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Megan’s research combines lab- and field-based experiments with statistical and simulation modeling to explore the feedbacks between the environment, host population cycles, anthropogenic forces and infectious disease. Her research balances practical considerations such as fishery management and scenario forecasting with theoretical applications. Megan hopes to use her research to answer the big questions in aquatic infectious disease ecology while conserving the sociological and ecological systems in which she works.

While earning her PhD, Megan has been an active member of the graduate student community, where she is working towards promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Georgia, enhancing expertise in various scientific topics at the Odum School of Ecology, and advocating for graduate students in the program. She has also mentored several undergraduate students and has served as a lecturer and teaching assistant in undergraduate level courses. Megan’s career goals center around continuing to do research, with her ideal position being a tenured faculty member at an R1 university. She also plans to carry through my efforts to promote DEI and excellence in undergraduate mentorship throughout her career.

Sergei Makaev
Postdoc, Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors, College of Family and Consumer Sciences

Sergei Makaev is a postdoc at the Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Interiors at the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences, with Prof. Sergiy Minko and Assistant Prof. Vladimir Reukov, working on two US NSF projects. He received a master’s degree in material science from the Moscow State University in Russia and earned a PhD degree in physical chemistry from the Russian Academy of Sciences on the topic of hydrothermal (high-temperature, high-pressure) chemistry. Afterward, he worked as a researcher on the water treatment using polymer membrane technologies in the Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis (Russian Academy of Sciences). At UGA, his research centers on material science with emphasis on synthesis and characterization of polymers for biomedical applications. Sergei hopes that the technology they are developing will be used in the industry for sorting soft colloids or live human and animal cells, and also for tissue growth and transplantation.

Since joining UGA in September 2022, he became one of the PostDoctoral Association board members, where he serves firstly as a secretary/treasurer and now as a vice-president. Sergei’s hobbies include cycling, sailing, and board games.

Raissa Nogueira de Brito
Postdoc, Department of Anthropology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Raissa Nogueira de Brito holds a Ph.D. in Health Sciences (major: Infectious and Parasitic Diseases). Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Georgia (UGA). Raissa has dedicated her efforts to researching Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and other zoonotic, infectious diseases that disproportionately impact disenfranchised people, primarily focusing on the control and surveillance of these diseases. She advances this research by fostering collaborations between academic institutions, local/state health departments, and the affected communities.

Raissa’s research has made significant scholarly contributions to the field. These contributions include the implementation of population-based surveys, surveillance systems, and longitudinal studies for emerging infectious diseases (EID), such as COVID-19. She has also developed tools for the surveillance and control of vector-borne diseases, including a smartphone app for the identification and reporting of Chagas disease (CD) vectors by non-specialist users, as well as a statistical modeling approach to advance CD risk assessment.

Raissa’s work engages in new debates to overcome challenging issues for diagnosis, surveillance, and control of infectious diseases. Her research also spans the understanding of fundamental aspects of the biology of vectors, such as the factors contributing to the emergence of vector-borne diseases beyond their current distribution ranges due to the vectors’ responses to environmental changes. Currently, she is working along with UGA and Panama’s Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies on the social and ecological determinants of CD and American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL) in Panama. Together, they are combining household surveys, ecological and veterinary assessments, and GIS to study how human activities impact the transmission of these diseases.

Raissa brings to the SEC Emerging Scholars program a diverse and international background, attention to interdisciplinary science, and a commitment to the inclusion of historically underrepresented individuals.