Meet the Fellows

University Fellows Cohort 2021-2022

Ayrton Pablo Almada Jimenez

PhD Student, Applied Mathematics

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Ayrton is a graduate student in the Applied Mathematics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. He is from Mexico City and earned a M.A. in Applied Mathematics from National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). His research focus is the spectral analysis of switching diffusion processes, deep learning and stochastic differential equations and the phenomena that can be modeled by them. He plans to increase his Machine Learning expertise as much as possible in order to be at the forefront of emerging Machine Learning trends. Ayrton is also an avid runner, likes football, Japanese animation, and History trivia.

Maura Beste

PhD Student, Gender & Women's Studies

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Maura is a doctoral student in the Gender and Women’s Studies program. After graduating from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in English Literature, they worked as a Veterinary Technician with a special interest in canine dentistry. Their research interests are at the intersection of critical animal theory and gender studies, primarily investigating how understanding our relationships with animal others can be a means of articulating and empowering queer identities and culture. Outside of their studies, Maura enjoys dog training and sports, especially schutzhund and agility work.

Maria Fátima Corona del Toro

DMA Student, Musical Arts - Conducting

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María Fátima Corona del Toro is a doctoral student in orchestral conducting at the Fred Fox School of Music. Originally from Nayarit, Mexico, Fátima holds a B.A. in violin performance from the Autonomous University of Baja California. She is committed to communicating the power and benefits that music has on the formation of a healthier society both culturally and spiritually. The changes she observed and nurtured as artistic and musical director of the Esperanza Azteca Nayarit program and as a professor at the Autonomous University of Nayarit for seven years inspired her to study orchestral conducting, first at the Catholic University of America (Artist Diploma) and then at Michigan State University as a Teaching Assistant (M.A.). The cultural diversity and inclusion, the excellent music program, the opportunity to engage with the Hispanic community were her primary motivations for choosing graduate studies at The University of Arizona. In addition to music, Fátima enjoys exploring new places, spending time with her family, reading, watching documentaries, cooking, hiking, and biking.

Catherine Ellis

PhD Student, Physiological Sciences

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Catherine Ellis is a doctoral student in the Physiological Sciences GIDP. She was born in Costa Rica, where she earned undergraduate degrees in Human Nutrition and Fine Arts with emphasis in Graphic Design. Passionate about understanding and teaching how the human body works, she worked as an instructor at the University of Costa Rica for several years. Her research interests include food sensitivities, their relationship with digestive/absorptive function, stress, and immune function, and why some digestive symptoms are more prevalent in women. In her free time, she enjoys playing musical instruments, swimming, cooking, and spending time outdoors with her children.

Gözde Durgut

PhD Student, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching

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Gözde is originally from Izmir, Turkey, and has recently completed her MA in Applied Linguistics at the University of Alabama. She holds a dual degree in English literature and translation and interpreting. She has taught in a variety of contexts including first-year writing programs, EFL in Turkey and ESL in America, K-12 schools; the recipient of a Fullbright Award, she has also taught Turkish at Syracuse University. Gözde’s primary research interests are in second/foreign language acquisition and teaching. Her past work has focused on L2 writing, corpus linguistics, material design, and curriculum development. Other general areas of interest include human language technology and the intersection of linguistics and computation.

Jenna Green

PhD Student, Art History & Education- Art and Visual Culture Education

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Jenna identifies as a white, non-disabled, cis-woman from the ancestral land of the Akimel O’Odham, Hohokam, and O’Odham Jewed, colonized today as Phoenix, Arizona. An artist, museum professional, and yoga guide, she earned her M.A. in Museology from the University of Washington, where she studied museum education and evaluation; her B.A. in Anthropology from Arizona State University focused on social/cultural factors that influence health and well-being. In 2021, Jenna earned both a 200-hour and 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training Certificate. Her yoga classes interweave movement, mindfulness, and creativity; they often involve coloring, drawing, collage, and block out poetry. Jenna’s passion is exploring the intersections of art, well-being, and education in individual and community-based programs. Her goal is to integrate art, meditation, and movement into museum programs and other community art spaces. Besides these interests, Jenna enjoys traveling, making art, finding coffee shops, and going to museums.

Hilary Houlette

PhD Student, Higher Education

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Hilary is a doctoral student in the Higher Education program. She earned a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Denver and a Master of Education in Higher Education from Loyola University Chicago. Following graduate school, Hilary worked at Huron Consulting Group, focusing on research administration and institutional compliance. Blending her academic and professional interests, Hilary’s research explores the ways in which federal and institutional policies governing research either promote or limit global engagement and international collaboration. She is also interested in assessing the broader impact that research policies have on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. In Hilary’s spare time, she enjoys swimming, baking bread, hiking, and playing the recorder.

Gabriella LaRose

PhD Student, Philosophy

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Ella is a doctoral student in the Department of Philosophy. She grew up in the Atlanta suburbs and graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a B.A. in Philosophy. She also attended Colorado State University, where she received her M.A. in Philosophy, after which she served as a college tutor and barista. Her research interests are in metaphysics and aesthetics, especially where the two topics intersect. Her current focus is on establishing metaphysical relationships between aspects of aesthetic experience and the experience itself. Ella enjoys knitting, tabletop games, and spending time with her cat, Karen.

Eden McEwen

PhD Student, Optical Sciences

Eden McEwen is a doctoral student in Optical Sciences where she researches astronomical instrumentation for ground-based telescopes. She earned her BAs in computer science and physics at the University of California Berkeley, focusing on adaptive optics applications in astronomy. In her PhD program, she will develop instruments to image extrasolar planets for the current 10 meter class ground-based telescopes, and she will plan for next generation 30 meter class telescopes. Eden enjoys enjoys community STEM outreach, linoleum block printing, and photography – from portraits to astronomical images.

Joona Mikkola

PhD Student, Arid Lands Resource Sciences

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Joona is a doctoral student in the Arid Lands Resource Science program. Born in Finland, Joona earned a B.A. in social sciences from the University of Helsinki and an M.A. in management from the Grenoble Graduate School of Business. After working several years in Sahel and East Africa managing and monitoring food security and agricultural projects, he witnessed how land-degradation was fueling conflict, forced displacement and food insecurity in the area; as a result, he co-founded a climate tech start-up which helps organizations address societal challenges through the restoration of ecosystems. Joona’s research will focus on climate finance and governance of communal rangelands in Sudan, Kenya, and South Africa. He is passionate about ecological economics, and he is looking to develop his transdisciplinary research skills to solve interconnected development and environmental challenges. Joona is a great karaoke singer and spends his free time mainly outdoors.

Mary Monaghan

DMA Student, Musical Arts - Performance

Mary is a horn player and a doctoral student in the Fred Fox School of Music. She graduated with her B.A. in music performance from Oklahoma State University and her M.A. in performance from Illinois State University. Mary’s research interests are in accessible music education and diversity in classical music. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, archery, and her cats.

Crystal Morales

Biological/Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Program

Crystal Morales was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and is a proud first-generation student in the Arizona Biological and Biomedical Science program. She recently completed a B.A. and M.A. in biomedical science and biology, respectively, at Northern Arizona University. Crystal was awarded the NIH-funded RISE (Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement) fellowship at NAU. She is also a founding member and former secretary for a chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. Her research interests include addressing cancer disparities and studying chemotherapeutics agents and potential cancer treatments. She hopes her work can benefit patients struggling with cancer and minimize the burden of cancer in marginalized communities. Crystal likes to be outdoors, get crafty, and train her puppy to do new tricks.

Enrique Olivares-Pelayo

PhD Student, Geography

Enrique Alan Olivares-Pelayo is a doctoral student in the School of Geography, Development and Environment. Having earned a B.A. in English and creative writing after transferring from Pima Community College, as well as a M.A. in English from the University of Arizona, Enrique researches the production, maintenance, and daily experience of carceral landscapes in the US. Relying on primary, (auto)ethnographic methods and data, Enrique’s research is informed by lived experience of incarceration inside Arizona’s harsh prison system. He aspires to serve as a mentor and ally for people who are involved in the system and who seek their rightful place within the academy. Enrique is a proud Tucsonan and first-generation American of Mexican descent. He can be found at the park every morning walking his pug, Fígaro.

Richard Park

University Fellows Cohort Member, 2022-2023

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Richard is a doctoral student in the Microbiology Program at the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences. He earned his B.A. in microbiology at the University of Arizona and has worked as a research technician in Dr. Sadhana Ravishankar’s food safety lab since graduation. He is also the chair of the Youth Professional Development Subcommittee of the Food Safety Consortium and a member of the UA Food Science Club. His research focuses on the transfer of foodborne pathogens from soil onto melon rinds and the use of non-traditional sources of water treated with ozone in agriculture. Richard hopes that his research will create a safer farm to fork journey. He enjoys playing video games, listening to podcasts, and cooking.

Addison Plummer

PhD Student, Aerospace Engineering

Addison is a doctoral student in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Arizona with honors in Aerospace Engineering. Her research takes an experimental approach to understanding complex flow phenomena in hypersonics. In addition to generating new knowledge, Addison hopes that her research will expand the hypersonics community. In her free time, she likes yoga, cooking, walking her dog, and trying new coffee shops.

Jamie Schafroth

PhD Student, Anthropology

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Jamie Schafroth is a doctoral student in the School of Anthropology where she studies gendered violence, substance use, and the medical and legal institutions that attempt to address them. She is interested in using applied and critical frameworks to understand how violence and its infusion into gender, sexuality, class, and race shape the everyday lives of intentionally marginalized populations and medical politics. In 2017, she graduated from Grinnell College with a B.A. in Psychology and Neuroscience. She then completed a post-baccalaureate fellowship at the NIH. In 2022, she earned a Master of Science in Medical Anthropology at Boston University, where she studied the experiences of receiving and providing care for sexual and intimate partner violence. Believing that we are all more than our professions, she enjoys hiking in the mountains, exercising, and eating dessert.

Claire Taylor

MFA Student, Art

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Claire Taylor is pursuing an M.F.A. in the School of Art. She was born in Davis, California, and grew up in Utah. She holds an M.S. in Environmental Humanities and a B.F.A. from the University of Utah. Her artwork reflects her psychological attachment to and experiences with the landscapes and wildlife she visits during her walks, runs and bike rides. Her process of art-making is an existential exploration; she incorporates visual reflections of her thought process into her imagery, and she invites the viewer to see themselves as participants in ecosystem. Claire has held artist residencies at the Natural History Museum of Utah (2020) and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (2018-19). She has also worked with underserved populations in teaching-artist residencies that focus on ecology and art. Her art has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including a solo exhibition at the Utah State Capitol, titled Snail Snake City (2022).

University Fellows Cohort 2021-2022

Mourad Abdennebi

Second Language Acquisition and Teaching GIDP, PhD Student

Mourad is a doctoral student in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (SLAT). He earned a bachelor’s degree from Mohammed V University, Morocco, and a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from Texas Tech University. His research focuses on exploring the cognitive processes that assist adult language learners to effectively learn vocabulary and the role of visual stimulation in enhancing vocabulary acquisition. Mourad investigates the relationship between working memory and language acquisition and development. He is also interested in bilingualism, textual thinking, and digital social reading. He is passionate about service learning, voluntary work, and community development, and has worked with different organizations such as the American Language Center, World Leadership School, and CorpsAfrica. In addition to his interest in research and service, Mourad enjoys playing soccer, exploring international cuisines, hiking, and photography.

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Amy Banka

Microbiology, PhD Student

Amy is a doctoral student in the Microbiology program with an interest in how a pathogen’s traits interact with specific environmental and host factors – including genetics, nutrition, and co-infection – to alter disease presentation and severity. She is particularly invested in the impacts these interactions have on individuals and communities and how this knowledge can be utilized to prevent and treat disease. Amy is a member of Dr. Koenraad Van Doorslaer’s lab which works primarily with oncogenic virus, such as HPV (the leading cause of cervical cancer). Prior to her arrival at the University of Arizona, Amy attended the University of Oklahoma, where she contributed to interdisciplinary, laboratory-based research focused on disease biology and drug development. She credits her National Merit Scholarship, which enabled her undergraduate studies, to the education she received at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, a residential magnet high school. Outside of the lab, Amy enjoys rock climbing, cooking, gardening, or hiking with her pony-sized dog, Percy.

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Brianna Billingsley

Physics, PhD Student

Brianna Billingsley is a doctoral student in the Department of Physics. From Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, she graduated from Washington & Jefferson College with a bachelor’s degree in Physics and two minors in Chinese and Mathematics. Her research interests include experimental condensed matter physics and the novel properties and applications of low dimensional materials. In her free time, she enjoys reading, learning new languages, and doing integrals by hand.

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Jacob Blitz

Philosophy, PhD Student

Jacob is a doctoral student in the Department of Philosophy. He grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and graduated from the University of Chicago with BAs in Philosophy and Linguistics, after which he served in AmeriCorps as a high school tutor. His research is in ethics, especially where it can be understood through language practices; current foci include how one's values can change over time and what morally-inflected terms do in conversation. He is also interested in the pedagogy of philosophy at both college and pre-college levels. He plays folk guitar and banjo and enjoys word games.

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Lauren Bridgeman

Anthropology, PhD Student

Lauren is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology, where she focuses on applied archaeology. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and has worked as a professional archaeologist throughout the Southeast. Lauren came to the University of Arizona to pursue her MA and was introduced to a broad range of interdisciplinary opportunities. As a PhD student, she will study modern tribal relationships to cultural landscapes and how federal Indian law and policy can facilitate collaboration and produce meaningful archaeological interpretation. In her spare time, Lauren enjoys taking long trips and finding new places to camp around the Southwest.

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Rishi Chandra

Planetary Sciences, PhD Student

Rishi is a PhD student in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Born in Chicago, he graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor's degree in in Physics and Planetary Science. Rishi's primary research interests lie in the analysis of solar system materials, including meteorites and returned samples from asteroids and the moon. He also plans to develop cheaply accessible smartphone VR field trips to exotic geologic locales, such as the Antarctic dry valleys and the lunar surface, to inspire the next generation of geoscientists and to engage the public as the scientific community explores these distant frontiers. Aside from his academic interests, Rishi enjoys virtual motorsports, flight simulation, running, and science fiction literature.

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Benjamen Douglas

Applied Intercultural Arts Research GIDP, PhD Student

Benjamen Douglas is a doctoral student in Applied Intercultural Arts Research at the University of Arizona, with scholarly interests in the historic roots and current implications of white supremacy in the American arts and culture sector; ways grantmakers can successfully use policy to create systems-level change; and the development of those to develop concrete strategies to dismantle white supremacy in the arts. He has previously served as executive director, program officer, grant reviewer, and consultant to government funders, family foundations, a giving circle, and public foundations. Benjamen earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Delta State University in Cleveland and a Master of Arts in Arts Management from American University in Washington, D.C. While in his MA programs, wrote "People-Powered Performance: Maximizing the Impact of Arts Organizations through Staff Investment."

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Clar Gobuyan

Higher Education, PhD Student

Clar is a queer, trans, first generation college student in the Higher Education doctoral program. An immigrant from the Philippines, Clar was raised in New Jersey and moved to California where they earned a bachelor’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from Sacramento State University and a master’s in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of San Francisco. Clar has served in student affairs practitioner roles that addressed the needs of historically marginalized groups and international students at California Community Colleges. Their research interests include critical feminist studies, queer studies, trans studies, and post-colonial studies in the context of higher education. Clar studies structural transphobia and the reproduction of gender normativity in the eligibility criteria of transgender admissions policies at U.S. women’s colleges. Clar is a dedicated cat parent to their cats, Cielo and Nova, and they enjoy cooking, making playlists, playing chess, and video games.

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Raine Ikagawa

Entomology and Insect Science GIDP, PhD Student

Raine is a doctoral student in the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Entomology and Insect Science. She graduated from with Honors in Biology from Macalester College, where she studied daddy longlegs spiders. After two years as a library assistant performing STEM outreach, a barista, and, for five weeks, a research assistant in the Ecuadorian Amazon studying arthropod diversity, she earned her M.S. in Entomology and Insect Science from the University of Arizona. Raine's research interests include arthropod phylogeny, biodiversity, and how molecular phylogenies serve as a framework for understanding ecology and evolution. During her PhD program, she will continue to pursue her love of breaking down barriers to higher education and introductory research experiences. Outside of the lab, Raine enjoys reading, hiking, pinning insects, and snuggling with her two cats.

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Fatima Jebahi

Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, PhD Student

Fatima is a doctoral student in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences program. She spent most of her childhood in Brazil and then moved with her family to Lebanon during her early adolescence. She earned her Bachelor Honors degree in Speech Therapy from Lebanese University. After serving as a speech-language pathologist for a year, Fatima was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to attend East Carolina University, where she earned her Master's degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is interested in understanding the human brain in carrying out functions of language and cognition and how these functions are affected by stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other neurological impairments. Fatima enjoys volunteering and community service; she spent five years volunteering with the youth sector of the Lebanese Red Cross. In her free time, she likes to travel and explore new places and different cultures.

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Marshall Ledford

Genetics GIDP, PhD Student

Marshall is a doctoral student in the Genetics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. Originally from the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia, he graduated from Vassar College with a bachelor’s in general biology. He is currently working on projects with researchers at NASA Ames, the Mars Society, and the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research. His experiences include analyzing data from International Space Station biology experiments, advocating for space research to congressional offices, and organizing events with speakers in the space industry. His research interests include astrobiology, analog research, extreme environment biology, space advocacy, and science education and outreach. At Arizona, his research will focus on the metabolism of trace gases by microorganisms.

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José Malvido, Jr.

Mexican American Studies, PhD Student

A doctoral student in Mexican American Studies, José is Xicano, Yoeme, and Tohono O’odham. Since 2017, he has served as the Director of Community Services at Chicanos Por La Causa, an organization based in Phoenix. He manages various programs that include Family Immigration, Healthy Aging (meals and exercise for seniors), Elderly Transportation, Youth Support and Leadership, Family Support Programs, Utility Assistance, Home Healthcare, and many community centers. In 2000, he began work as the North American coordinator of the Peace and Dignity Journeys, covering territories from Alaska to Panama. This intercontinental spiritual movement works to unite Indigenous Peoples throughout North, Central, and South America. José also has extensive experience working with Native American/Indigenous philanthropy and in healthcare. He has served as Program Director at the Seva Foundation (Berkley, CA), the San Francisco Foundation Social Justice Fellow, and on two philanthropic boards, including Vice President of the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples and the Treasurer Cultural Conservancy. He is currently serving as a board member of Sapichay and an indigenous-led organization that conducts traditional farming and social justice organizing in Peru. José is from Ajo, AZ.

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Chosen Obih

Plant Science, PhD Student

Chosen Obih is a doctoral student in the School of Plant Sciences. He grew up in Southern Nigeria where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology from Godfrey Okoye University Enugu and a Master of Science in Plant Sciences and Biotechnology from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. He has worked as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at Godfrey Okoye University and a science instructor at DNA Learning Center Nigeria, a science education center dedicated to supporting and facilitating molecular biology hands-on laboratory training in Nigeria and Africa. His doctoral research is on the application of computational and data science approaches to solve challenges in sustainable agriculture. After earning his PhD, Chosen wants to become a professor and run a lab that applies genomics and computational tools to accelerate the development of new crops that can withstand changing climates. Outside his academic and professional pursuits, he enjoys hiking and traveling.

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Jordan Osness

Molecular and Cellular Biology, PhD Student

Jordan is a doctoral student in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, with an emphasis in Science Education. She grew up in Gilbert, AZ, and graduated from the University of Arizona with bachelor's degrees in both Molecular & Cellular Biology and Physiology & Medical Sciences, and a minor in Biochemistry. Her research is focused on how teaching beliefs change in an inquiry-based lab, what factors contribute to those changes, and how evolving teaching beliefs influence pedagogical practices in the classroom. She hopes to apply her research to revising professional development programs for the teaching assistants. After finishing her doctoral program, Jordan plans to become a biology professor and continue researching improvements in science education. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends, baking, watching movies, playing video games, and attending theatre productions.

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Gloria Ines Orozco Dorado

Musical Arts - Performance, DMA Student

Gloria is a Doctorate of Musical Arts student focusing on clarinet performance in the Fred Fox School of Music. She graduated from Universidad del Cauca with a bachelor's degree in clarinet performance, from Northeastern Illinois University with a Master's degree in Applied Pedagogy, and from Southern Illinois University with two Master's degrees in Clarinet Performance and Music Theory and Composition. The underlying purpose for her professional training has been to help the development of communities in areas affected by civil wars and crime in Colombia. Because of the environment she grew up in, she profoundly believes that everyone has the right to quality education. Additionally, she is mindful of the richness that diversity brings everywhere. She is grateful she has had the opportunity to work with Indigenous, Afro-Colombians, and Mestizos in her own country and with people from many different backgrounds in the USA. At the University of Arizona, Gloria will refine her performance capabilities and find opportunities to continue growing as a person and professional. In addition, she strives to learn more about her own culture and others. Finally, she hopes to continue her work with underserved communities, as she maintains that music is a beacon of light for all.

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Rebecca Renteria

Arid Lands Resource Sciences GIDP, PhD Student

Rebecca is a doctoral student in the Arid Lands Resource Sciences program. She earned bachelor and master’s degrees in Anthropology with a focus on archaeology from the University of Arizona. Her research is at the nexus of archaeology; public health; and traditional food, land, and water systems. She is especially interested in the impact of various forms of colonization on mental and physical health related to diabetes among marginalized communities in the United States-Mexico Borderlands, the United States, and globally. Her roots in the Mexican American community have inspired her to continue to deconstruct the nuances of ascribed identities and relations to better serve marginalized communities in a culturally responsive way. Because her academic interests are so tied into and inspired by her everyday life, she makes time for running, bikepacking, spending time with her dog and family, and especially cooking anything to do with plants.

Ernie Sandoval

Clinical Translational Sciences, PhD Student

Ernie Sandoval is doctoral student in the Clinical Translational Sciences program. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, he attended Arizona State University (ASU), where he majored in Biochemistry and developed an interest in cancer research and drug development. He enjoys studying biological pathways and how disease and illness relate to these pathways. After graduating from ASU, Ernie worked at Creative Testing Solutions, screening blood donation samples for infectious disease. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked for Sonora Quest Laboratories, performing high volume PCR testing for COVID-19. Ernie enjoys traveling and has visited England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, & Italy.

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Avery Sanford

Mechanical Engineering, PhD Student

Avery is a doctoral student in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. She received her BS with honors in Mechanical Engineering from New Mexico State University. In addition to working as a tutor, TA, and member of the student government, she researched thermal management for spacecraft while at the Air Force Research Labs (AFRL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her current research interests are focused on experimental studies of flow physics and flow control at both the basic and applied levels. Avery also enjoys hiking, yoga, learning Spanish, and walking her dog.

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Anupam Singh

Art History and Education - Art and Visual Culture Education, PhD Student

Anupam is a doctoral student at the School of Art in the Art and Visual Culture Education program. He is an interdisciplinary, socially engaged artist and educator from Mumbai, India. He holds a B.V.A in printmaking from Rabindra Bharati University, an M.F.A in printmaking from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, and a second M.F.A in Art+Social Practice from Portland State University. He is the founder of the Council for Arts and Social Practice (CASP), an arts-based non-profit in India. With more than 20 years in art practice and teaching, Anupam’s commitment to socially engaged art allows him to investigate the possibilities of artistic pedagogy in various social contexts. His interdisciplinary collective approach to artmaking aims at critically expanding our understanding of art and its modalities, while also questioning the hegemony that the art world sustains. His research is grounded in the idea of mutualism and how that speaks to the symbiotic framework of socially engaged art. He is interested in postcolonialism, transculturalism, and the decolonization of art history and education. Anupam enjoys playing and listening to music, traveling, camping, and cooking.

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Catherine Vasquez

Cellular and Molecular Medicine, PhD Student

Catherine Vasquez is a doctoral student in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. Born in Sonora, Mexico she migrated to the U.S. when she was eight years old. She attended the University of Arizona where she earned her bachelor's degree in Physiological Sciences with minors in Spanish and Japanese. She is a first-generation college student and the first in her family to attend graduate school. She hopes to help other first-generation college students find their career path and increase diversity in STEM and academia.  Her research interests include how point mutations in sarcomeric proteins result in complex symptomatic cardiomyopathy and the role of chemotherapeutic agents in cardiotoxicity. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting, learning new languages, and reading manga.

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Sarah Weinstein

Nursing, PhD Student

Sarah is a doctoral student in the College of Nursing. She is a board-certified nurse-midwife and an international board-certified lactation consultant. Sarah earned a bachelor's degree in integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a second bachelor’s and a master's degree in nursing at Oregon Health and Science University. Originally from Southern California, Sarah has spent her midwifery career in rural and urban New Mexico and in Tucson. Clinically, she specializes in breastfeeding medicine and perinatal mental health. Her research interests include the intersection of breastfeeding, epigenetics, social determinants of health, and the microbiome. Sarah enjoys working in the yard with her young son, yoga, reading, laughing, and trying to learn to garden and care for chickens in the desert.

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2020-2021 University Fellows

Mario Alberto Aguilar Buenrostro

Mexican American Studies, PhD Student

Mario is a doctoral student in the Mexican American Studies program. He was born in La Manzanilla de la Paz, a rural town in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, and migrated to Grandview, Washington. His experiences as a migrant and seasonal farmworker in Washington have guided his research on structural violence and health disparities in the farm-working community. His doctoral focus will be on public health and wellness, (Im)migration Studies, and Critical Education centering on the Latinx community. Mario wants to become a  professor in Mexican American Studies and hopes to inspire minority, underrepresented, and first- generation students in their pursuit of a career in academia and research.

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Mosiah Bluecloud

Linguistics, PhD Student

Mosiah is a doctoral student in the Linguistics program. He attended University of Oklahoma for his bachelor’s degree in Linguistics, and he earned a master’s degree from the University of Arizona’s Native American Languages and Linguistics Program. He is most interested in the revitalization and reconstruction of endangered and sleeping languages, languages which have no current fluent speakers. From Norman, Oklahoma, Mosiah is an enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma and a descendent of the Absentee Shawnee, Northern Ponca, Rosebud Sioux, Delaware, Potawatomi, Creek, Kiowa, and Cherokee people. After completing his doctoral program, he plans to return to the Kickapoo Nation to continue his work on cultural preservation and to pursue a teaching position at the University of Oklahoma.

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Austin R. Cruz

Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, PhD Student

Austin is a doctoral student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He grew up in Southern California, where he earned undergraduate degrees from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford University. Interested in the effects of climate change on species interactions, he researches how plant-animal communities are formed and shaped over ecological and evolutionary time and space. He developed his focus on ecology and evolutionary biology while working as a social sciences researcher at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Department of Anthropology on an interdisciplinary, community-based conservation and development project in rural, southern Costa Rica. In addition to his academic pursuits, Austin serves as a science instructor for the University of Arizona Sky School, an inquiry-based and place-based program that connects elementary and middle school students to science through the unique sky island environment of the Catalina Mountains. He is also a longtime musician with 20+ years playing guitar.

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Carlie Felion

Nursing, PhD Student

Carlie is a doctoral student in the College of Nursing in the Health Determinants track and is minoring in Rural Health. She is a dual-board certified Family and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with over 25 years of varied nursing experience. She earned her undergraduate degrees from Vermont Technical College and Chamberlain College of Nursing and did her graduate and post-graduate work at Duke University. Her research focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of digital health interventions for rural-dwelling and medically underserved adults with diabetes and low health literacy. Her experience living and working in rural and underserved areas informs her commitment to eliminating barriers to care and addressing the diabetes epidemic's underlying factors. Carlie and her husband, Kevin, are the parents of two teenagers and a young adult and live in Glendale, Arizona. Carlie is a proud veteran of the United States Army Reserve and enjoys volunteering, cooking, camping, and her membership in the Potterhead Running Club, which raises money for various charities through virtual races.

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Diana Wanjiru Githu

Arid Lands Resource Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Diana is a doctoral student and Fulbright Scholar in the Arid Lands Resource Sciences program. A native of Nairobi, Kenya, she earned degrees and diplomas from the Kenyan Institute of Management and the University of Nairobi. After serving as a field office coordinator for the Rehabilitation of Arid Environments in Kenya, she earned a master’s degree from University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources. Her doctoral research will focus on the food-water-energy nexus in Kenya. She will investigate how to balance the agricultural role of rangelands with oil production, the potential for agrivoltaics to reduce the food-versus-energy conflict, and equitable solutions to food security. Diana is excited to sharpen her skills at the University of Arizona and to increase her knowledge base in order to addressing the complex socio-economic and environmental challenges affecting the rangelands of Kenya, Africa, and the rest of the world.

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Ana Julieta González-Gómez

Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Ana is a doctoral student in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching program (SLAT). She earned bachelor’s degrees in Education and Modern Languages and a master’s degree in Teaching Spanish from Northern Arizona University. Her research focuses on how to create an engaging language learning environment, especially through use of technology, immersion pedagogy, and social media and electronic communication platforms. She is also interested in developing more effective ways to record students’ experience and their perceptions of teaching interventions. Ana’s experience in a multi-lingual family informs her work: she is from Tucson, Arizona, and is part of her family’s first generation born in the United States; most of her family resides in Guadalajara, Mexico. Beyond her academic pursuits, she enjoys baking – especially macarons, because of their challenge and range of flavors to experiment with.

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Anuj Gupta

Rhetoric, Composition & the Teaching of English, PhD Student

Anuj is a doctoral student in the Department of English’s Rhetoric, Composition & the Teaching of English program. He earned bachelor and master’s degrees in English from the University of Delhi and a second master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Jawaharlal Nehru University. His research cuts across the fields of second language writing, translingualism, writing program administration, and social justice. He is especially interested in improving the ways Indian universities support and teach students how to read, write, and think critically and empathetically. To this end, he has helped build one of India’s first college-level writing programs as a writing administrator and teacher at the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University in his hometown of New Delhi. Anuj’s research and applied work are informed by a commitment to strengthen the health of emerging democracies across the world. Outside of his academic and professional pursuits, he enjoys cooking and playing music.

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Gabe Holguin

Psychology, PhD Student

Gabe Holguin is a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology and a member of Dr. Stephen Cowen’s Lab. His research interests are in the neurobiological bases of learning and memory, and how these cognitive domains are altered in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Gabe earned bachelor and master’s degrees in Psychological Sciences with an emphasis in Experimental Neuropsychology from California State University San Marcos (CSUSM). There, he focused on the stress response and cognitive abilities among young adults with and without a family history of Alzheimer’s disease. In Dr. Cowen’s lab, he will explore the therapeutic effects of ketamine to alleviate levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease rats; he also aims to uncover biomarkers underlying Parkinson’s disease dyskinesia after long-term levodopa use. In addition to his passion for research, Gabe enjoys playing classical guitar, working out, surfing, skateboarding, and hanging out with friends at the beach.

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Sóley Hyman

Astronomy and Astrophysics, PhD Student

Sóley is a doctoral student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics program. She attended Harvard University, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in Astrophysics and Physics, with a minor in Music. Her experience in astronomy has ranged from projects on instrumentation for high-energy particles to a multiwavelength study of a distant galaxy system. She is excited to contribute to growing multiwavelength and multimessenger astronomy communities in the search for unusual objects, systems, and phenomena, as well as possibly collaborating on small-scale instrumentation projects. In addition, Sóley is committed to making astronomy more accessible for blind and visually impaired people through sound. She is also an accomplished trumpet player and enjoys spending her free time hiking, swimming, reading, and writing poetry.

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Katherine King

Anthropology, PhD Student

Katherine King is a doctoral student in the School of Anthropology. Born in Minnesota, she graduated Summa Cum Laude from Ripon College with Honors in Biology. Her research interests include biological anthropology and primatology. In addition, she is passionate about conservation and research that helps humans make better decisions involving nature. She has served as an intern at three zoos and enjoys working with exotic animals. Her doctoral study will include fieldwork with lemurs in the rainforests of Madagascar. Outside of her academic pursuits, Katherine enjoys hiking, swimming, and traveling.

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Carlos Krapp-López

Spanish – Hispanic Linguistics, PhD Student

Carlos is a doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He grew up in Lima, Peru, and attended the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, where he received bachelor and master’s degrees in Linguistics. His research interests are derivational morphology – the process of creating a new word from an existing word – and the syntax of pronominal clitics across varieties of Spanish. Carlos has worked as a teacher and mentor to hundreds of high-school students for over 7 years, and he has played in a rock band for nearly a decade. In addition to linguistics, he enjoys soccer and 90’s alternative rock, and is a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

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Patrick Joseph Lohr

Chemical Engineering, PhD Student

Patrick is a doctoral student in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering. Born and raised in Tucson, he attended the University of Arizona for his bachelors and master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering. His research interests include the efficiency and chemical stability enhancement of thin-film perovskite solar cells through plasmonic interactions with polymer nanofibers, hybrid core-shell nanoparticles, and other metallic nanostructures. More broadly, he is interested in improving economic and environmental sustainability in his rapidly-evolving field. Patrick enjoys playing drums and guitar, reading, cooking, hiking, and programming.

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James McKenzie

Language, Reading & Culture, PhD Student

James is a doctoral student in the Department of Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies. He is interested in Indigenous language and culture revitalization, immersion education, and Indigenous culture-based education. His research will focus on how pedagogies and curricula combine language and culture in Indigenous immersion education. He will also explore how educational systems can be reconceptualized, driven by revitalization and maintenance of Indigenous languages and lifeways. Originally from the four corners area of the Navajo homelands, James has studied and lived in New Mexico, Mexico, New York, Germany, China, and Minnesota.  After years of employment in non-profit educational programs in southwestern Native American communities, he worked for the Navajo Nation’s Diné College. His most challenging and rewarding professional work was with the Center for Diné Studies and the Navajo Language Immersion Institute, where he contributed to initiating Navajo language immersion and cultural education programming, as well as development of a Bachelor’s Degree in Diné Studies. James enjoys traveling, running, hiking, camping, spending time in nature, and learning and perpetuating Diné language and teachings.

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Ivette Merced

School Psychology, PhD student

Ivette is a doctoral student in the Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies. Born in Puerto Rico, she and her family settled in California. She graduated Magna Cum Laude in Psychology at the University of Southern California, with minors in Forensics and Criminal Justice, and earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Columbia University. While at Columbia, she served as a research assistant in a psychiatric hospital on a large National Institute of Health study of substance abuse. She also interned at the United Nations, where she worked with the American Psychological Association to promote collaborations in the areas of mental health, immigration, refugees, families, aging, and ageism. After being elected to participate in the Federal Education Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., Ivette graduated from Chapman University with a master’s degree in Educational Psychology and an Educational Specialist (Ed.S) degree in School Psychology. Her doctoral research will focus on mental health services and assessments for children and adolescents, with an emphasis on finding solutions that are culturally responsive, especially for refugee and immigrant populations. In addition to her professional interests, she is an avid swimmer, cyclist, hiker, and backpacker.

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Mariel Miranda

Art, MFA student

Mariel is a Master of Fine Art student in the School of Art. She graduated with honors from the Universidad Autonoma de Baja in Tijuana, Mexico, with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. She was born and raised in the Las Cumbres neighborhood of Tijuana, and her experience there informs her artistic work and research. Mariel’s interests include the visual and textual appropriation of archival materials, the history of images, their epistemic inscription, and their rhetorical narratives. In particular, she seeks to achieve a critical understanding of the complex socio-political frameworks that are deposited in image material, understood as sensitive devices of knowledge with massive power in the present. As a border artist, she encompasses multiple mediums and practices to explore, discuss, and disseminate her research; these include museum curatorship, essay writing, artist book production, interactive installation design, counter-cartographic travelling, and teaching. She has exhibited her work in more than 18 solo and group exhibitions. Her research and creative production have received multiple honors in Mexico and the United States, including the prestigious Beca Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo.

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Anna Roche

Physics, PhD Student

Anna Roche is a doctoral student in the Department of Physics. She grew up in Seattle, and graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in Comprehensive Physics and a minor in Mathematics. Awarded the DAAD German Academic Departmental Exchange scholarship, she worked in the Chatterjee Solid State Spectroscopy Lab at Justus-Liebig Universität. Her research interests are in experimental condensed matter physics, particularly highly correlated systems, magnetism, and low dimensional materials. Anna has worked extensively to support women in science and minority physicists. She enjoys backpacking, reading, and gardening.

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Cozette Shen

Philosophy, PhD Student

Cozette Shen is a doctoral student in the Department of Philosophy. Originally from Tianjin, China, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she graduated with degrees in Philosophy, Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy-Physics. Subsequently, she earned a master’s degree in the Philosophy of Physics at Oxford University. She is especially interested in theories of knowledge and philosophies of science. Her research focus includes modeling and methods in physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. Outside of her academic pursuits, she enjoys trying new tea and nail polishes, reading mystery novels, listening to doujin music, and playing doujin games.

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Brooke Sykes

Plant Science, PhD Student

Brooke Sykes is a doctoral student in the School of Plant Sciences. A native of Phoenix, she graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences, and from University of Mississippi with a master’s degree in Biology. Her master’s research included cultivating bacteria from bird feathers, which prompted her interest in the ecological factors that shape community composition and the mediators of host-microbe interactions. Her doctoral focus will be the evolution and persistence of species associations, especially between microbes and their plant hosts. Outside of the lab, Brooke enjoys mountain-biking with her dog, running, live music, art, cooking, and being active in the community.

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Emmy Tisdel

Musical Arts - Performance, DMA Student

Emmy is a doctoral student in the Fred Fox School of Music and an accomplished violinist. She graduated from Oberlin Conservatory with a bachelor’s degree in Music, from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University with a Master of Music, and from Sculich School of Music at McGill University with an Artists’ Diploma and a Graduate Diploma in Music Performance. At the University of Arizona, she will refine her performance capabilities and will research contemporary classical music in Latin America and Japan. Her research interests stem from teaching in Japan and Latin America, where she was exposed to contemporary composers and pieces often left out of the North American classical music repertoire. Emmy is an active performer and stays engaged in the community: she is the co-founder of Ensemble Urbain, a conductorless chamber orchestra based in Montreal; she is a faculty member for the SA’ Oaxaca strings international music festival, which provides free chamber music tutoring to students based in Mexico; she is a member of Austin Camerata, an interdisciplinary festival based in Austin, Texas; and she is a member of Quartet Doyenne, a string quartet whose primary goal is to balance works by well-known composers with works by underrepresented and lesser known musicians, especially contemporary artists, women, and people of color.

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2019-2020 University Fellows

Kathleen Barvick

Anthropology, PhD Student

Kate is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology, where she is studying archaeology. She is from Massachusetts and earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology and Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The focus of her research is on the Southwestern United States; she is particularly excited to be working in the Chaco world, a pre-Columbian ancestral Pueblo cultural region. Using ceramic analysis as her primary method, she will explore the movement and exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies between Indigenous cultures of the Southwest and Mexico. She developed her skills in ceramics analysis, museum curation, excavation field work, and team management while working on archaeological projects at historic house sites as part of her undergraduate studies. Kate enjoys hiking and rock climbing. She has directed, produced, and edited an award-winning documentary, “Spy Pond.”

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Nicholas Bielski

Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program, PhD Student

Nick is a student in the Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences program with research interests in genetics and biochemistry, especially in how genes determine visible traits. He is from southeastern Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Parkside with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics. He enjoys hiking, reading, traveling, and having new experiences.

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Alicia Brown

Spanish - Hispanic Linguistics, PhD Student

Alicia is a doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, studying Hispanic Linguistics. Originally from California, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and in Spanish Language & Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and then a Master of Arts in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her academic interests are sociolinguistics, language variation and change, phonetics, phonology, and bi- and multilingualism. Her research will focus on contact zones, how languages affect each other when co-existing, and what kinds of innovative features emerge as a result. Alicia speaks English and Spanish, with varying levels of Portuguese, Catalan, Basque, French, and Romanian. Her other interests include ska and punk shows, particularly in other countries and in other languages.

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Romi Castillo

Biomedical Engineering, PhD Student

Romi is a student in the Biomedical Engineering program. She is interested in the cardiac sarcomere proteins that dictate contraction and how mutations in the proteins lead to altered structure and function in the development of disease. She hopes to develop new palliative therapies and to increase diversity in STEM. Romi’s work will include increasing public awareness of the importance of diversity and combatting the health disparities in underserved populations. In addition to mentoring, she enjoys being active and is learning to skateboard.

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Noah DeFino

Entomology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Noah is a doctoral student in the Entomology and Insect Science Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Muhlenberg College with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, and has worked as a research assistant at Case Western Reserve University and for the University of Wyoming-National Park Services Research Station in Grant Teton National Park. His research will focus on how an insect's interactions with its environment affect the physiological and neurological processes that coordinate its behavior. Noah is particularly interested in how context dependent behaviors are affected by changes in environment, such as competition, predation, available forage, and climate change. In addition to his research, he wants to expand the roles academia and research have in creating an inclusive society and socially just scientific communities. At the UA, he will continue his work in building support networks for underrepresented and historically marginalized populations. Outside of his academic pursuits, Noah enjoys drawing, board games, and reading comic books.

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Emmanouil Georgios Drimalas

Physics, PhD Student

Emmanouil is a Greek doctoral student in the Department of Physics. He attended the University of Athens, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Physics. With a focus on theoretical physics, he plans to study the modeling of complex physical systems, starting from fundamental laws. He is especially interested in compact astrophysical objects, such as black holes and neutron stars, because of their beauty and exoticness. Emmanouil enjoys the arts, games, and Japanese popular culture.

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Robert Ferrando

Applied Mathematics GIDP, PhD Student

Robert is a doctoral student in the Applied Mathematics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. He is from Staten Island, New York and earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from City University of New York. His research focus is the use of partial differential equations to answer applied questions in the field of atmospheric sciences, particularly those related to the creation of robust mathematical analyses and modeling of meteorological phenomenon and systems. He enjoys both the theory and the teaching of mathematics, and he has served as a math tutor and teacher. Robert looks forward to continuing communicating the importance of mathematics to a variety of situations and disciplines. He is also an avid hiker and is excited to explore Southern Arizona’s trails.

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Caroline Jäger

Transcultural German Studies, PhD Student

Caroline is an Austrian doctoral student in the Translational German Studies program in the Department of German Studies. She earned a BA in Education from Paedagogische Hochschule Tirol, and a MA in Literature, Cultures, and Language and a Graduate Certificate in Human Rights from the University of Connecticut. She works on the methodology and didactic systems used in foreign language teaching, with a special focus on teaching intercultural competence in second language classrooms. A speaker of four languages, Caroline has served as a teacher trainer in China, Korea, and Thailand, a European Volunteer for a kindergarten class in Palermo, Italy, and was a language teaching assistant in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, China, the United States, and Kenya.

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Rebecca Jarnutowski

Mathematics, PhD Student

Rebecca is a doctoral student in the Department of Mathematics. She grew up in California and attended the University of New Mexico. There, she earned a BS in Pure Mathematics with minors in Interdisciplinary Studies and Psychology. She also served as a peer mentor and math instructor, and participated in research abroad at the Universidad de Colima in Mexico, where she defined harmonic structures over Mauldin-William Fractals. Her research interests include real analysis, harmonic analysis, and algebra. Rebecca plans to become a professor of mathematics and to apply current research to active and collaborative adult learning. As part of her efforts to improve mathematics pedagogy, accessibility, and impact she will pursue post-baccalaureate degree in developmental psychology. Outside of the Academy, Rebecca enjoys tennis, swimming, cooking and baking, cross-stitching, and playing with her dog.

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Sana Khan

Epidemiology, PhD Student

Sana is a doctoral student in the College of Public Health’s Epidemiology program. She earned a Master of Public Health and Bachelor of Science degrees in Physiology and Psychology, with a minor in Business Administration, from the UA. Interested in infectious disease epidemiology, Sana focuses on multidrug-resistant infections and how prescribing patterns influence antimicrobial resistance. She is also committed to the study of health disparities, women's health, and access to quality healthcare. Her previous research and clinical experience ranged from projects in neurology and cancer survivorship to health disparities. She plans to continue her research into the efficacy of treatment programs and health outreach initiatives to diverse audiences. In 2018, she helped coordinate the campus-wide 12th Annual Social Justice Symposium, a student-run public outreach event that disseminates important research and generates dialogue related to the intersection of social justice and public health. Sana enjoys spending time with her siblings, experimenting with new recipes, and working on a podcast with the Western Region Public Health Training Center.

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Marta Kozlowska

Plant Science, PhD Student

Marta is a doctoral student in the School of Plant Sciences. She grew up in Poland and Romania. She graduated from University of Edinburgh with First Class Honours in Biochemistry. Marta is interested in epigenetics and how plants interact with and sense their surroundings. She has conducted research on plant RNA and photosynthesis at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat in Munich, Germany. Examining the interface between molecular and systems plant biology, she will focus her doctoral work on how minuscule biochemical differences can affect entire cells and organisms. Marta is active in promoting science communication, having run the University of Edinburgh’s first Science Slam competition, and she hopes to inspire other people to learn about plants.

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Sierra Lauman

Natural Resources - Ecology and Management of Rangelands, PhD Student

Sierra is a doctoral student in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment. She earned a BS in Environmental Biology and a MS in Biology at California State Polytechnic University. Her research focused on utilizing plant functional-trait based approaches to restoration in invaded habitats. This focus led her to participate in post-fire restoration efforts in Southern California as well as a large scale restoration project set in a montane rain forest in Hawai'i. She plans to build upon this research at the UA by focusing on the mechanisms contributing to species coexistence and community composition, and how these dynamics can be used to inform successful management and restoration practices. Outside of her academic interests, she enjoys hiking, gardening, drawing, karaoke, and potlucks.

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Annalysa Lovos

Psychology, PhD Student

Annalysa is a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology’s Cognition and Neural Systems program. She grew up in Montana and is most recently from Austin, Texas. She earned a BA and a MA degree in Culture and Ecology from the New College of California. Prior to coming to the UA, Annalysa was a research assistant in the Clinical Neuroscience Lab at the University of Texas, Austin, where she conducted cognitive assessments with adults. She has also served as an educator and private tutor at the Austin Waldorf School and provided grant writing support to nonprofit organizations. At the UA, she will focus on human memory across the lifespan and its neural basis. She is especially interested in how people learn, remember, and the impact of sleep patterns on these cognitive processes. She plans to become a professor, but is open to a career as a researcher in a non-academic setting. Annalysa enjoys swimming, gardening, music, film, design, pets, arts and crafts, and, programming.

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Iggy Matheson

Aerospace Engineering, PhD Student

Iggy is a doctoral student in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. He earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University, followed by a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Utah State University. A recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, he is interested in orbital mechanics - how orbits are described, how they evolve, and how they can be designed. Iggy’s previous research includes a CubeSat project that led to the creation of the BYU Space Group, designing a portable oven for composites repair for which Boeing has a patent pending, and a master thesis addressed interstellar probe navigation using angles-only measurements. Outside of aerospace pursuits, he enjoys reading classic novels and history as well as cycling, swimming, and collecting Lego sets.

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Raven Moffett

Art, MFA Student

Raven is a Master of Fine Arts student in the School of Art’s Photography program. A member of the Blackfeet Nation, she attended Appalachian State University in North Carolina where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Art and Visual Culture as well as a minor in Anthropology. Her art explores and deconstructs identity at the individual and cultural levels. She is particularly interested in the history of photography, photographic processes, museum politics, the politics of visual culture, the ethics of display, artistic ownership and appropriation, and Native and Indigenous artistic expression. Raven writes that “As an artist whose research arises from experimentation and as someone who communicates through embodied performance, I am interested in the dialogue which the creative process creates with the work itself, me as the creator, and my audience.” Her research focuses on photographing and performing trauma and growth in ways that promote healing for the artist, the audience, and the community. Raven enjoys art, yoga, hiking, exploring, learning, and the scent of Bergamot.

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Lucy Mugambi

Art History and Education - Art and Visual Culture Education, PhD Student

Lucy is a Kenyan doctoral student in the School of Arts’ Art and Visual Culture Education program. She holds a B.Ed. in Fine Arts and a M.Ed. in Primary Teacher Education from Kenyatta University, as well as an MA in Art Education from the University of British Columbia. Lucy has taught children and teachers in training for over 15 years. She is interested in how the arts can help improve the well-being of disadvantaged groups, especially the elderly and children with special needs, and in “a/r/tography,” a practice-based form of inquiry that deploys the arts as a way of understanding the world. She writes that she “intends to explore the possibilities and limitations of art making activities and open avenues for further areas of research.” Committed to art education, Lucy plans to become a university professor. She enjoys travelling, making art of all types, cooking, and dancing.

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Kyle Norland

Systems and Industrial Engineering, PhD Student

Kyle is a doctoral student in the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering. Originally from Wenatchee, Washington, he attended the University of Arizona, where he became interested in complex systems, biologically inspired design, emergent systems, the internet of things, the fourth industrial revolution, and smart systems. He enjoys studying these areas because they offer an alternative to top-down engineering, and they are increasingly common as computation becomes more decentralized. In addition to his research experience at the UA and the University of California, Kyle has practical experience in the engineering field; he interned with Chelan County Public Utility District and assisted with their move to a computerized electrical grid system. Aspiring to become a professor or a research scientist in government or industry, he looks forward to improving intelligent systems of today and developing new systems to address emerging challenges. He enjoys rock climbing, hiking, reading, traveling, computer programming, drawing, swimming, and exploring Tucson.

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Sy Simms

Higher Education, PhD Student

Sy is doctoral student in Higher Education. They hold a BA in Theatre with emphasis in Design, and a Master of Education in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Sy served as the Trans Education Specialist in the Lionel Cantu Queer Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where they were responsible for overseeing the LGBTQIA+Peer education program and supporting gender expansive policies, resources, and awareness across campus. Sy’s research addresses student affairs practitioners’ motivations and intentions in engaging in diversity and justice work with, alongside, and for marginalized communities; in addition, they examine ways that (trans)genders are regulated and practiced in university settings. Sy wants to expand the knowledge and improve the pedagogy in this field and to be a role model for the Trans, Queer, and African-American community. They enjoy cooking, going to concerts, browsing through comic book stores, and watching competitive cooking shows.

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Marie Tanaka

School Psychology, PhD Student

Marie is a doctoral student in School Psychology, a program in the Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies. She earned BAs with Honors in Psychology and Literary Studies at Brown University and an MA in School Psychology from the University of South Florida. She has teaching experience in primary, secondary, and higher education, and she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach abroad in Andorra. Marie’s research focuses on how to make education a more equitable, accessible, and meaningful experience for all students, especially newcomer immigrant adolescents. In collaboration with other educators, she plans to apply such work and bridge the research-to-practice gap. Outside of these interests, she enjoys yoga, arts and crafts, games, and learning languages; she speaks English, Japanese, Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese.

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Wunetu Tarrant

Linguistics, PhD Student

Wunetu is a doctoral student in the Linguistic program. She grew up on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in New York. She graduated with a BFA in Art and Design, as well as minors in Education and Art History from Alfred University; in addition, she has an MA in Linguistics from the UA, where she focused on Native American Linguistics and Languages with a specialization in Indigenous Language Revitalization. From 2011 to 2016, Wunetu taught elementary and middle school children and served as Director of the Art department for the school’s summer camp. She has also taught the Shinnecock dialect of Algonquin in her home community. Her research interest is language revitalization, especially the Shinnecock dialect of Southern New England Algonquian, which is currently classified as dormant. Wunetu plans to develop a language teaching model appropriate to Shinnecock and to construct curricula and classroom ready resources for teachers and students. She enjoys learning about the local environment, Indigenous peoples, and the land. Although she misses the ocean, she has found an appreciation for the desert through Tucson’s cacti, the Desert Museum, and Tucson’s botanical gardens, museums, and art galleries.

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Tina Workman

Nursing, PhD Student

Tina is doctoral student in the College of Nursing’s PhD program. She is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) with over 16 years of experience across 7 states. She earned her BS in Nursing and an MS in Nurse Anesthesia from Virginia Commonwealth University; she also has a Post Masters Nurse Educator Certificate from The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, where she developed and implemented an innovative and interdisciplinary training simulation called “The Unanticipated Emergency Intubation in the Hospital Setting; an Intaprofessional Emergency Airway Team-Based Simulation Training Experience.” The success of the training has led to its incorporation into the curriculum at Johns Hopkins University and her appointment as an adjunct lecturer for the simulation, which she leads four times a year. Her dissertation will address additional means to reduce error and improve patient outcomes following airway emergencies. Outside of nursing, Tina is an avid sailor and sailboat racing enthusiast. She founded two charitable organizations, “Rent-A-Husband” which assists with needs of families of deployed military soldiers, and “The Noah Spencer Foundation,” a non-profit that provides disabled children with outdoor and competitive experiences through the help of a coordinated team of volunteers.

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2018-2019 University Fellows

Jared Baker

Dance, MFA Student

Jared Baker is a Master of Fine Arts student in the School of Dance. He grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and is an alumnus of the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He is interested in the role of dance as a form of therapy and as cross-training for athletes; he plans to research the development of programs or curricula that respond to individual athletes’ needs, depending on their form of discipline, their strengthening requirements, or their focus on injury prevention and recovery. Prior to returning to the University of Arizona, Jared lived in Sacramento, California, with his six-year old Siberian Husky Kyla, where he taught dance and performed. An accomplished performer and choreographer, he was the recipient of the School of Dance’s Creative Achievement Award during his undergraduate career. He also won the International Choreography Competition at the Jazz Dance World Congress in 2012 and was a finalist for the Capezio A.C.E. Awards in 2014.

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Ian Briggs

Optical Sciences, PhD Student

Ian Briggs, a native of San Francisco, is a doctoral student in the College of Optical Sciences. He attended Cornell University where he graduated with his Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as two Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Applied Engineering Physics. An avid researcher and optical science enthusiast, his interests include optoelectronics, optical fiber technologies, signal processing, and advanced techniques of physical optics and optical design. Outside of the lab, Ian is proficient juggler, runner, and enjoys video games and movies.

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Nina Conrad

Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Nina Conrad is a doctoral student in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. She is an alumna of the University of Arizona, where she held the National Merit Scholarship and earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Journalism and Art History. Prior to entering her doctoral program, she earned a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Nina’s research examines student writing as a social practice in higher education. She is interested in literacy brokering (the involvement of others besides named authors) in the production of student texts and its implications for students and their institutions. Based on findings from her master’s research, she is challenging assumptions about international students and non-native English speakers by arguing that these labels are not equivalent, nor do they properly represent students' linguistic repertoires. Nina grew up in Seattle, and enjoys hiking, yoga, and vegetable gardening.

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Jonathan Credo

Clinical Translational Sciences, PhD Student

Jonathan Credo is a doctoral student in Clinical Translational Sciences. A native Arizonan, he is from Flagstaff, where he attended Northern Arizona University and graduated with Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Biology. In addition to his doctoral studies, he is a third year medical student at the University of Arizona and plans to complete his medical training after the completion of his doctoral degree. His research Interests are ecotoxicity, environmental medicine, and toxicology. He is excited to explore how, under the guise of progress, we poison and damage both the environment and ourselves, and to develop solutions through academic research and clinical approaches. Outside of his studies, Jonathan has many interests, ranging from cooking, baking, and video games, to backpacking, weight lifting, jogging, running, fishing, archery, and blacksmithing.

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Sonia Delphin Pérez

Natural Resource Studies, PhD Student

Sonia Delphin Pérez is a doctoral student in the Natural Resources program. She attended the National University of Asuncion in San Lorenzo, Paraguay, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Forest Engineering in 2005. After working in the field for a few years, she attended the University of Florida, where she graduated with a Master of Science in Forest Resources and Conservation in 2012. Her research interests are land use planning, conservation of natural resources, and sustainable development, all with an emphasis on finding ways to balance growth and conservation. In particular, her research will focus on the feasibility of developing, implementing, and monitoring a municipal level land use planning strategy that integrates environmental, social, and economic factors, using the Chaco Ecoregion of Paraguay as an example. An avid traveler, she has worked in her native Paraguay, Florida, and Washington, D.C. on projects for the National University of Asuncion, the University of Florida, consultancy firms, and, most recently, the World Wildlife Fund. She enjoys learning about other cultures and being outdoors.

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Richmond Embeywa

Translational German Studies, PhD Student

Richmond Embeywa is a doctoral student in the Transcultural German Studies program. Originally from Kenya, Richmond attended Kenyatta University in Nairobi, where he graduated with degrees in German and History in 2016. He then earned a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) at West Virginia University in May 2018. His research interests are in the teaching of German and English as foreign languages, and in second language acquisition, with a focus on immigrants arriving in Germany during the refugee crisis. He is excited to contribute to research on how refugee populations navigate challenges to acquire a second language. An avid language learner and teacher himself, Richmond speaks German, English, Swahili, and Luhya. He has taught language classes for West Virginia University and at colleges in Nairobi; he also interned for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and provided pedagogical support to the German School Nairobi. Richmond has a passion for languages, second language acquisition, international affairs, and travel. He lived in Germany on multiple occasions, funded by scholarships from Kenyatta University, the Free University of Berlin, the Hamburg University of Technology, and the Fulda University of Applied Sciences.

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Erin Jennings

Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program, PhD Student

Erin Jennings is a doctoral student in the Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences program. She grew up in Smyrna, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, with her parents and younger sister. She attended King University in Bristol, Tennessee, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology: Cell and Molecular Tract with a minor in Mathematics. Her research interests are inspired by her undergraduate work in an environmental toxicology lab, researching the effects of neurodegeneration due to pesticides in nematodes, and in a kinesiology lab, studying how different compositions of gastrointestinal microbiota affect aging in mice. Erin plans to combine these research areas by exploring the effects of external substances on the gastrointestinal tract and how the gastrointestinal tract affects other body systems. Outside of the lab, she enjoys learning new things that are beyond her comfort zone, spending time with friends and family, and encouraging young girls and women to follow their passions.

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Elizabeth Johnson

Nursing, PhD Student

Elizabeth Johnson is a doctoral student in the College of Nursing. She has a degree in Nursing from Purdue University and a Master of Science in Clinical Research Management from Arizona State University. Her interests include human research subject protections as they pertain to Electronic Health Record utilization and subject retention. As a research nurse, she encountered participant withdrawals due to communication problems and documentation errors within Electronic Health Record platforms. Her goal is to lessen this occurrence and maintain opportunities for patients to continue access to novel therapies. Elizabeth is from Chicago and is an avid runner and outdoorsperson. She enjoys challenge climbs, half-marathons, and recently completed the Torres del Paine Moreno hike in Chile.

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Ashok Kaliyamurthy

Marketing, PhD Student

Ashok Kaliyamurthy is a doctoral student in the Marketing program. Born and raised in Bangalore, India, he graduated as an engineer from Bangalore University in 2001 and worked in the telecom industry, analyzing how people use their mobile phones. He then earned a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University and worked for Johnson & Johnson in sales and marketing roles. His corporate experiences interested him in sustainability, so he became the CEO of a social enterprise that creates innovative products using bamboo. Most recently, he has worked as a marketing consultant, researching and designing solutions that aim to promote sustainable consumption and empowerment of micro-entrepreneurs. These experiences have shaped his interest in pursuing doctoral research on the ways in which culture and consumption shape each other and the economic, social, and political implications of this interaction. When not working, Ashok is an avid long-distance cyclist, and he has a keen interest in documentaries and story-telling. He has lived and worked in over a dozen countries and loves to learn about different cultures.

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Julie Kasper

Educational Leadership, EdD Student

Julie Kasper is pursuing an Educational Leadership Doctorate in Education (EdD). As an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, she earned degrees in Sociology and Women’s Studies. She attended Columbia University’s Teacher College and graduated with a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in 2002, and is a National Board Certified Teacher in English as a New Language. Julie taught English as a Second Language in K-12 schools in Japan, New York City, and Tucson for 16 years before focusing on research related to immigrant and refugee education with nonprofits, colleges, and school districts. Her research interests include equitable access to high-quality, culturally responsive educational opportunities, especially for migrant and refugee populations. She plans to investigate how educational policy - both as written by policymakers and as implemented by administrators and teachers - includes and excludes particular communities of learners and what this means within larger systems of oppression or inequity and within fields of empowerment and agency. She looks forward to analyzing how education in the US and around the world can be more accessible and responsive to the needs and interests of all students.

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Victoria Luizzi

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, PhD Student

Victoria Luizzi is a doctoral student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program. She grew up in Seekonk, Massachusetts, attended Amherst College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, and conducted research with Dr. Magne Friberg at Lund University in Sweden as a Fulbright Research Grant recipient in 2017 and 2018. Victoria’s research interests focus on how species interactions and natural selection on traits important to these interactions vary across time and space. She is especially interested in how plant-pollinator or plant-pollinator-antagonist relationships may be affected by changes in their surrounding community or environment. In addition to her fascination with science, Victoria enjoys writing, poetry, playing French horn, and hiking. As an undergraduate, she co-founded a club that involved building and playing alphorns made of PVC pipe and duct tape.

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Joshua Mack

Electrical and Computer Engineering, PhD Student

Joshua Mack is a doctoral student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering program. Born in Iowa, he grew up in Peoria, Arizona, and attended the University of Arizona, where he earned dual degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mathematics. After graduation, he worked as a software engineer in Phoenix. His research interests include the intersection of high performance computing and reconfigurable systems; emerging architectures; and intelligent and/or autonomous workload partitioning across heterogeneous systems. Joshua aims not only to enable better and more efficient computation through designing or choosing the right kind of processor for every job, but also to create environments and structures that allow end users to make these decisions without needing to be experts. Outside of his scholarly pursuits, Joshua is an avid moviegoer and enjoys traveling to new places.

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Lauren Meeks

Nutritional Sciences, PhD Student

Lauren Meeks is a doctoral student in the Nutritional Sciences program. She grew up in Ontario, California, and graduated from University of La Verne in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology; in 2016, she earned a Master of Science in Human Nutrition and Food Science from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Lauren stayed on as a lecturer in the Human Nutrition and Food Science Department from 2016 to 2018, confirming her desire to pursue a doctorate and a career in academia. Her research interests include the impact of nutrition on the prevention and treatment of cancer and natural methods of cancer treatment that circumvent the side effects associated with traditional chemotherapy. Beyond the classroom, Lauren enjoys hiking and exploring nature with her dog.

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Tristan Phillips

Mathematics, PhD Student

Tristan Phillips is a doctoral student in Mathematics. He grew up in Walpole, New Hampshire, and attended Shippenburg University of Pennsylvania where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. Tristan is enamored with the way mathematics can influence our lives as well as beautifully describe the natural world. He is especially interested in number theory and the way it influences other mathematic theories and practice. In addition to exploring long standing and historically interesting number theory problems, he has experience showing dairy cows and owns several Jersey dairy cattle. He also enjoys running, hiking, juggling, and painting with watercolors. 

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John Powell

Linguistics, PhD Student

John Powell is a doctoral student in the Department of Linguistics. He has a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics and a Bachelor of Arts in English (Literature), both from Arizona State University. His research interests include language documentation and revitalization of indigenous languages. He is especially concerned with the syntax and semantics of Yuman languages, a family of languages spoken in the American Southwest and Baja California. John’s work often overlaps with tribal revitalization efforts, and he collaborates with the Piipaash (Maricopa) on their continuing documentation and revitalization program. Although he was born in Pocatello, Idaho, he is most recently from Arlington, Arizona.

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Joe Schlosser

Chemical Engineering

Joe Schlosser is a doctoral student in the Chemical Engineering program. An alumnus of the University of Arizona, he earned his Bachelor degrees in Chemical and Environmental Engineering. Joe is looking forward to researching the impacts of aerosols on climate change, especially in respect to sustainable practices in nutrient and water recovery, farming, manufacturing, and transportation. A Tucson native and licensed paramedic, Joseph’s favorite past times are slacklining, aerial silks, and salsa dancing.

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Carmella Scorcia Pacheco

Spanish, PhD Student

Carmella Scorcia Pacheco is a doctoral student in the Spanish program. She graduated from the University of New Mexico with Bachelor degrees in Spanish and Marketing and International Management in 2006 and with a Master of Arts in Spanish with a concentration in Hispanic Southwest Studies in 2013. She has also studied at the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey in Chihuahua, Mexico, and the Universidad de Granada in Spain. The multicultural character and history of her hometown, Los Alamos, New Mexico, influences Carmella’s research on cultural hybridity, in all the manifestations and genres of expressive culture. Her work will explore border issues, cultural resistance, social justice, and the affirmation of multicultural and transnational identities. She plans to raise awareness of histories that influence border communities and to create tools to facilitate broader discussions about the politics of difference; one objective of her work is to enable more inclusive and expressive cultures, particularly as manifested in music, language, literature, and the arts. Her own engagement with the arts is evident in her enjoyment of music, flamenco dancing, great food, and wine. She is a certified accordion apprentice in the New Mexico Folk Arts program, and she enjoys tuning, rebuilding, and refurbishing accordions in addition to playing accordion and offering lessons.

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Victoria Sisk

Sociology, PhD Student

Victoria Sisk is a doctoral student in the School of Sociology. She grew up in Denver, Colorado, and attended Case Western Reserve University where she earned dual degrees in Philosophy and Psychology. After graduation, she worked in Washington, D.C. as a research assistant for the American Institutes for Research. Victoria plans to focus on understanding social inequality at the neighborhood level, particularly the ways in which gentrification can disrupt or perpetuate inequality for long-time residents of gentrifying neighborhoods. She plans to investigate how homeownership, age, and race shape the consequences of gentrification for long-time residents in terms of their displacement, socioeconomic mobility, and health post-gentrification. Outside of her scholarly pursuits, she enjoys gardening and is looking forward to learning about Tucson's native plants and heirloom vegetables.

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A. Grace Steig

Anthropology, PhD Student

Grace Steig is a doctoral student in the School of Anthropology, studying food in the midst of the climate crisis. She is interested in the ecology of changing food systems and the biopolitics of agricultural work and migration. In 2015, she graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies. Her thesis at Yale was on Andean potato conservation. From 2015 to 2018, Grace worked on mutual aid organizing in the Pacific Northwest; she helped found Greater Seattle Neighborhood Action Coalition and coordinated Food Not Bombs Seattle. She enjoys foraging edible plants and watching international films.

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Yuhui Tang

Planetary Sciences, PhD Student

Yuhui Tang is a doctoral student in the Planetary Sciences program. Although originally from Shanghai, Yuhui has called New York home since his family moved there while he was in elementary school. He attended Cornell University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics. He is excited to contribute to the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory’s exploration of the processes that shape planet development and to be a part of the search for life on other planets. Outside of the classroom, Yuhui enjoys exploring the world and is an amateur sommelier, having taken Cornell University’s Introduction to Wine class.

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Rebecca Thompson

Applied Intercultural Arts Research Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Rebecca Thompson is a doctoral student in the Applied Intercultural Arts Research Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. An alumna of the University of Arizona, she has a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics Education, a Master of Science in Art Education from Elmira College, and a Master of Fine Arts in Fine Arts from Cornell University. Rebecca has produced art for over 15 years, using sustainable materials and developing her curiosity about the history of sites and land use. This curiosity is integral to her research, in which she explores how to develop sustainable mindsets and embodied experience in art education. Through the development of interdisciplinary gardens and outdoor learning spaces, Rebecca believes educators can counteract the "throw away" habit and instead instill a sense of respect and value for the planet and humanity. Rebecca has lived all over the United States, holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and is an avid gardener in Japanese and traditional English styles as well as those proposed by landscape designer Frank Law Olmsted.

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Amanda Wilson

Environmental Health Sciences, PhD Student

Amanda Wilson is a doctoral student in the Environmental Health Sciences program in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences and a Master of Science in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of Arizona. Her research interests include quantitative microbial risk assessment, exposure modeling, and exposure science. She enjoys the intersection of microbiology, mathematics, statistics, and behavioral sciences in risk assessment, because it drives her to be constantly learning new concepts and to think creatively about how to capture the larger systems that affect our health and well-being. A native of Gilbert, Arizona, Amanda seeks opportunities to incorporate creativity into her writing and research. She enjoys singing, songwriting, poetry writing, painting, pottery making, and jewelry making. Exploring a new art form and being a "beginner" again is one of her great pleasures.

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Jessica Zanetell

Applied Mathematics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Jessica Zanetell is a doctoral student in the Applied Mathematics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. Originally from Colorado, she graduated in 2015 from Regis University in Denver with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. She then headed east to Wake Forest University, where she graduated with a Master of Arts in Mathematics. Her research interests lie in mathematical modelling, particularly applications in atmospheric and environmental sciences. She wants to explore ways to account for the effect of noise associated with tipping points in climate models, such as the Eiseman Wettlaufer model, in order to improve the efficacy and reliability of such models. Doing so will allow scientists, policy makers, and people impacted by climate change to make more informed decisions. In addition to her love of mathematics, Jessica enjoys hiking, yoga, and running.

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2017-2018 University Fellows

Annie Beguhl

History, PhD Student

Annie Beguhl is a doctoral student from Rolesville, North Carolina. She has a BA in History from Gardner-Webb University. She is interested in researching the history of gender deviance in the late nineteenth-century United States and how it relates to medicine, sexuality, urbanization, local communities, and crime. A fun fact: Annie worked at a Dairy Queen for six years and still loves ice cream.

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Victoria Bland

Nutritional Sciences, PhD Student

Victoria Bland is a doctoral student in Nutritional Sciences. She received her B.S. in Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise from Virginia Tech and an M.S. in Foods and Nutrition from the University of Georgia. She has worked as a clinical dietitian as well as adjunct faculty at Kennesaw State University. At the University of Arizona, she plans to research the impacts of diet and physical activity on body composition and disease risk. In her free time, Victoria enjoys running, hiking, rock climbing, or anything else that will get her outside.  

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Matiss Castorena Salaks

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, PhD Student

Matiss Castorena is a Mexican doctoral student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He earned with honors his bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology in Mexico City from the Autonomous National University of Mexico. Matiss studies how plant trait diversity is driven by natural selection and how this may affect ecosystem processes. He plans to examine how the capacity of plants to cope with the environment is related to their respiratory rates. When not doing research, Matiss is an avid tree climber, mountaineer, and explorer the world around him.

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Matthew Crosby

Conducting, DMA Student

Matthew Crosby is a doctoral student in Choral Conducting. He earned a Master’s of Music from Westminster Choir College, and has been teaching music at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, his alma mater, since 2003. Choirs under his direction have toured Japan, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Austria, and across the United States. He is interested in cultivating artistry in undergraduates and passing along the mentorship which has been vital in his own development.

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Harman Dhatt

Pharmaceutical Sciences - Pharmaceutical Economics, Policy & Outcomes, PhD Student

Harman Dhatt is a doctoral student in the Pharmaceutical Economics Policy & Outcomes program in the College of Pharmacy. She received her Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain Management at Arizona State University and Master of Public Health at Brown University, where her thesis focused on dual-use of healthcare systems among veterans and their quality of care. She has conducted research in a wide range of therapeutic areas in pharmaceutical consulting, lab, government, and clinical settings over the past ten years. Most recently, she worked as a Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) Manager and Business Development Manager at a global HEOR consulting company for five years; she has also worked as an independent principal HEOR consultant. Her interests include pharmacoeconomics, health outcomes, quantitative methods, strategic market access and value assessment. Outside of her academic and professional life, she also enjoys traveling, music, poetry, and astronomy.

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Thomas Benjamin Fuhr

Transcultural German Studies, PhD Student

Thomas Benjamin Fuhr was born in a French car, to an American mother and a German father. He has explored different cultures and languages around the world, before and during his Magister studies of ethnology, pedagogy and Spanish philology at the Johannes-Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany.  As a PhD student in the Transcultural German Studies program, Thomas is eager to learn about multilingualism, language acquisition, and cultural German studies from a transatlantic perspective. A classically trained guitar-player, Benjamin is passionate about music, and he enjoys a good hike.

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Jessica Gjerde

Higher Education, PhD Student

Jessica Gjerde is a doctoral student studying Higher Education. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and Spirit Lake, Iowa. She received a B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College in Music and an M.A. from the University of St. Thomas in Leadership in Student Affairs.  Her research interests are multiracial identity development for a growing biracial/multiracial population and its implications for higher education. Jessica enjoys traveling, dog-sitting, and playing board games when she’s not binge-watching Netflix.

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Gitanjali Gnanadesikan

Anthropology, PhD Student

Gitanjali Gnanadesikan is a doctoral student in the School of Anthropology. Her research focuses on cognitive evolution and social behavior, especially in domesticated species such as dogs. She is particularly interested in developing experimental paradigms that enable meaningful comparisons of cognitive abilities across species. Gita graduated from Princeton in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, after which she spent a year teaching English and music in an elementary school in rural China. When not working, teaching, or playing with animals, she enjoys reading, singing, photography, spending time outdoors, and especially combinations of the above.

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Michael Grace

Optical Sciences, PhD Student

Michael Grace is a PhD student in Optical Sciences. He and his wife Sarah have moved to Arizona from Connecticut, where Michael graduated with a BS in Physics from Yale while focusing in biophysics. After college, Michael was a researcher at the Yale School of Medicine, working on characterizing and optimizing state-of-the-art optical super-resolution microscopy techniques. He is excited by methods development and interdisciplinary collaboration and hopes to apply his training in optics to areas such as biological imaging and quantum information. He enjoys balancing his research with running, making music, and engaging with others about big life questions.

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Sara Hu

Entomology and Insect Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Sara Hu is a doctoral student in the Entomology and Insect Science GIDP. She received a B.A. in Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley and both a B.S. and an M.S. in Biology from California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her primary research interest is in ants’ collective behavior. Her doctoral research will focus on how competitive and defense behavior of individuals influences colony-level behavior and organization.

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Sue Youn Kim

Marketing, PhD Student

Sue Youn Kim is a doctoral student in the Department of Marketing with a background in economics. Her research interests include using quantitative methods to model brand loyalty and customer satisfaction in experience goods. Sue Youn's past research investigates the relationships between American film return on investments (ROIs) and movie genre classifications.

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Li-Chuan Ku

Psychology, PhD Student

Li-chuan Ku is a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology. Before coming to the UA, he earned a B.Eng. in computer science and information engineering and M.A. in English (Linguistics program) at National Taiwan Normal University. His master thesis explored how personality could affect emotion word processing in the brain. He is interested in exploring individual differences in emotion processing in linguistic contexts. As a member in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory led by Dr. Vicky Lai, he will research emotion processing in language across the life span by using EEG/fMRI techniques.

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Jingyi Li

East Asian Studies – Japanese Studies, PhD student

Jingyi Li is a doctoral student in Pre-Modern Japanese Literature. She earned her B.A. in Japanese Language and Literature from East China Normal University and M.A. in Pre-Modern Japanese Literature from Kyushu University. Her research focuses on Edo period literature, particularly novels and traditional Japanese poems. Her M.A. research project discusses the reception history of the Chinese novelist and playwright Li Yu in Edo period Japan. At the UA, she will examine the exchange of knowledge between Japan and China during the 1600-1900s. Her hobby is transcribing cursive writings of traditional Japanese materials.

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Siennah Miller

Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program

Pharmacology and Toxicology, PhD Student

Siennah Miller is an Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program alumnus and is pursuing her doctoral degree in the College of Pharmacy's Pharmacology and Toxicology Program. She was born and raised in Michigan and earned her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Her research interests include studying the mechanisms of pharmacological agents and their interactions with the body at the molecular level. While earning her PhD, Siennah hopes to volunteer at local schools to educate and encourage girls to get involved with science at an early age. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, yoga, and traveling.

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Dylan Moriarty

Statistics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Dylan Moriarty is a doctoral student in the Statistics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. He grew up on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona and earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the UA. His M.S. is from Stanford’s Energy Resources Engineering Program. Upon graduation, he worked on special statistics as an R&D engineer with Sandia National Laboratories. Dylan will be researching methods of processing big data in the earth sciences.

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María del Mar Navarro

Applied Intercultural Arts Research Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

María del Mar Navarro is a PhD student in Applied Intercultural Arts Research Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. Her research explores the visual and material culture of Spanish literatures. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Communication Design, a Master of Business Administration from the Eller College of Management, and an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Arizona; while earning both graduate degrees, she studied advertising effects on young populations. María has held faculty positions internationally and in the United States. A native of Spain, she enjoys literature, theater, music, films, nature walks, and the company of her pets, friends, and family.

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James Romine

Epidemiology, PhD Student

James Romine is interested in the application of epidemiology and medical anthropology to Global Health projects. His current research compares Dengue fever prevention practices among several cities in Mexico and the United States. When earning his MPH, he helped develop a system that enables community health workers to deploy smartphones in the prevention of Dengue fever in northern Mexico. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua from 2010-2013, James worked extensively with community-based public health programs. He grew up in California and misses the beach but enjoys Mt. Lemmon and the Sonoran desert.

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Travis Sawyer

Optical Sciences, PhD Student

Travis Sawyer is a doctoral student in Optical Sciences. An alumnus of the University of Arizona, he received his BS in Optical Sciences before being awarded a Churchill Scholarship to pursue an MPhil in Physics at the University of Cambridge. The novel medical imaging technologies he helped develop at Cambridge will inform his doctoral research on new methods for early detection of ovarian cancer. Travis is an avid hiker and painter. He also enjoys traveling and has lived in Germany, England and the Netherlands.

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Andrew Sevrinsky

Astronomy, PhD Student

Andrew Sevrinsky earned a BS in Physics from Georgia State University, where he researched the fundamental properties of nearby stars.  As a doctoral student in the Department of Astronomy, he will build on that work, using high resolution imaging tools on UA telescopes to search for and characterize companions and exoplanets around young stars.  In his free time, he enjoys cooking, hiking, and any situation that puts him in the same room as dogs.

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David Welsh

Plant Sciences, PhD Student

David Welsh is a doctoral student in the School of Plant Sciences. He is especially interested in the interaction of plants and fungi. His doctoral research will focus on Aspergillus and how to prevent it from making aflatoxin in maize. David grew up in Michigan and received a BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Lawrence Technological University. He is excited by the opportunity to explore Arizona. Outside of class, David practices and coaches competitive winter guard with his husband.

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Julia Yang

Geography, PhD Student

Julia Yang earned her bachelor's degrees in Environmental Studies and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas. She developed her research in biogeochemistry with the support of the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) – a federal program and community dedicated to increasing diversity in STEM. Now in the UA Geography department, she will investigate how ecosystems interact with a changing global environment across large spatial scales—in particular, changes related to land use and climate. In her free time, Julia is a dedicated rock climber and outdoor adventurer.

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2016-2017 University Fellows

Junmo Ahn

Mining and Geological Engineering, PhD Student

Junmo Ahn is a South Korean doctoral student in the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Konkuk University and a master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Seoul National University. He is interested in improving the environmental sustainability of mining waste materials reclamation through the use of biotechnology, and improving the environmental sustainability of the mining industry through regional organizations.

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Dylan Barton

School Psychology, PhD Student

Dylan Barton earned an Honors BS in Psychology and a Criminology Certificate from the University of Utah. Born and raised in Utah, he spent much of his young adulthood supporting LGBTQ rights and visibility - particularly for LGBTQ youth and people of color - in a state where they are routinely under-served. He worked for the Utah Pride Center's Advocacy and Education department and supported Utah's Gay-Straight Alliance network. His interest in serving vulnerable youth populations eventually led him to work for Utah's Juvenile Justice System. There he learned that early detection and intervention in our school systems can prevent a myriad of negative outcomes for youth, prevent delinquency, and promote the resilience our students need in order to thrive. Dylan will earn his PhD in School Psychology. Outside Academe, he enjoys the gym, journaling, visual arts, and attending rock and mineral fairs.

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Katie Chenard

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, PhD Student

Katie Chenard is a doctoral student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She earned her BS in Wildlife Ecology from University of Maine, where she wrote an honors thesis on nesting captive Zebra finches; the project included extensive research in New Zealand. Since graduating, Katie has worked with field research teams in a variety of locations. She has also conducted  independent research on the feeding and boldness behavior of guppy populations in the rainforests of northern Trinidad. Her doctoral work in Dr. Duckworth’s lab will focus on animal behavior, integrating aspects of endocrinology and genetics in order to improve our understanding of how persistent individual behaviors are created and disrupted.

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Kayla Chronister

English Literature, PhD Student

Kayla Chronister is a doctoral student in English Literature. She is originally from Seattle and holds a BA in Literature from Seattle Pacific University. Her research interests include Gothic literature, interactions between folklore and written literature, and the politics of genre. Prior to starting her graduate studies, she spent a year teaching and mentoring sixteen children at a group home in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In her spare time, she writes horror and fantasy short fiction. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, and Shimmer. 

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Kevin Doubleday

Biostatics, PhD Student

Kevin Doubleday is a Biostatistics doctoral student in the College of Public Health. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Mary Washington in 2009, then taught high school math for 4 years before attending the University of Arizona to earn an MS in Biostatistics. His current research interests include developing individualized rules for treating chronic diseases, focusing on value based recursive partitioning methods. His objective is to provide optimal treatment for patients as indicated by their baseline characteristics.  

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Ryan Endsley

Astronomy, PhD Student

Ryan Endsley graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in physics and mathematics. He then spent a year working at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics near Munich, Germany. Now a PhD student in the Department of Astronomy, Ryan researches properties of stars and gas in galaxies when the universe was only 5-10% of its current age. By using various UA directed telescopes and resources, Ryan seeks to gain a deeper insight into how galaxies formed and evolved in the early universe and how they built the universe we live in today.

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Caroline Geisler (Foy)

Animal Sciences, PhD Student

Caroline Geisler is a doctoral student in the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences. She grew up outside Dayton and attended Miami University in Oxford, OH, where she earned a B.S. in zoology. She then attended the University of Arizona for her Master’s Degree in Animal Sciences. Her primary research interest is how metabolism and endocrinology impact systemic health and liver physiology. Caroline's master's thesis investigated how signaling by ketone bodies affects the hepatic adaptation to fasting. Her PhD project focuses on how lipid accumulation in the liver drives pathophysiologies common to obesity and diabetes, such as insulin resistance and hypertension.

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Kristy Gilman

Nutritional Sciences, PhD Student

Kristy Gilman graduated from Oregon State University with a BS in Nutrition and Health Sciences and a minor in Chemistry. Now a doctoral student in the UA Nutritional Sciences Program, she is interested in bioactive compounds and nutrients and their impact on cancer development. She enjoys jogging, hiking, and watching The Big Bang Theory in her free time.

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Khaled Jarrar

Art, MFA Student

Khaled Jarrar is a Palestinian student in the School of Art's MFA program. He is an internationally known artist with a strong professional portfolio that spans more than ten years. His art often focuses on the sociocultural impact of modern-day power struggles on ordinary citizens. In addition to expanding his artistic experience in the US, he is interested in teaching and in making community connections throughout Tucson.

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Tanya Jeffries

Computer Science, PhD Student

Tanya Jeffries, a doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science, researches high performance computing data visualization with her advisor, Dr. Kate Isaacs. She is particularly interested in graph drawing. Prior to coming to the UA, she studied at the University of New Mexico, where she earned both her B.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Computer Science. Her Master's thesis explored problems related to crossing minimization in bipartite graphs.

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Juli Kim

Hispanic Linguistics, PhD Student

Juli Kim is a doctoral student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, specializing in Hispanic Linguistics. She is from South Korea, where she earned a Master of Hispanic language from Seoul National University and was awarded the prestigious Brain Korea 21 Program Fellowship in Academic Research. Her doctoral work will include address form, politeness, pragmatics, null subject, and object in Spanish and Portuguese.

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Matthew Klass

Physiological Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP), PhD Student

Matthew Klass is a doctoral student in Physiological Sciences. A veteran of the UA, he earned his bachelor’s degrees in Physiological Sciences, French, and Italian in May 2016. His research focuses on the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease. Outside of the lab and classroom, Matthew is committed to volunteering; he has served in the Dominican Republic with the International Student Volunteers Project and in Tucson with the SBATA Youth Mentorship Program, supporting Nepali-Bhutanese youth refugees.

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Juan Mejia

Musical Arts – Cello Performance, DMA Student

Juan Mejia is a doctoral student who wants to create meaningful impact through music education. A cellist, he has studied at the renowned San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is known for his superb musicality as well as his community outreach. As in Brazil's El Sistema program, Juan is committed to addressing poverty through music education.

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Rachel Murray

Arid Lands Resource Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP), PhD Student

Rachel Murray is a doctoral student in the Arid Lands Resource Sciences Program. She investigates current stressors on the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty between Pakistan and India.  As a Borlaug Global Food Security Fellow at the University of Wisconsin's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Rachel received her MS for research on the resiliencies and vulnerabilities of small Farmer-Managed Irrigation Systems in Nepal; her was on women farmers. Rachel also holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a BS in Wildlife Ecology and Botany from UW-Madison.  Her research interests include interstate water conflict, climate change adaptation in agro-ecosystems, women and irrigation, and the global water-food-energy-ecosystem nexus. Rachel has worked as a Tribal Attorney, Director at a domestic violence council, ornithologist, water regulations specialist, and of course, cheesemonger.   

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Edna Osuna

Finance, PhD Student

Edna Osuna is a doctoral student in the Department of Finance at the Eller College of Management. She received an Associated Degree in Business Administration at Pima Community College and both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Finance at the UA. Edna’s research interest is in financial markets, especially the role and development of venture capital markets in Mexico. Combining her financial research and education with community engagement in the Tucson area, she has volunteered with Fundación de México and served as an intern for the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Edna has also provided loan analysis and small business education services for Chicanos Por La Causa.

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Patrick Ploschnitzki

Transcultural German Studies, PhD Student

Patrick Ploschnitzki grew up in Germany and served his Zivildienst at a hostel on Norderney, followed by a job at the front desk there. Fascinated by languages and the USA, he completed the programs of "Linguistics and Phonetics" and "English Studies" at the University of Cologne in 2013. As an undergraduate, he interned for the University of Rhode Island's German Section and served as an assistant and phonetics teacher at Middlebury College’s German School. Patrick recently earned his Master's degree in German Studies (Translation Emphasis) at the University of Arizona. He will continue his studies as a PhD student with a minor in Translation Studies in the Department's "Transcultural German Studies" program. He is passionate about travel and language, music, movies, and literature. Patrick plans to become a professional literary translator.

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Sarah Price

Psychology (Clinical Psychology Focus), PhD Student

Sarah Price is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program. A longtime resident of Philadelphia, she holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in the Biological Basis of Behavior. While contributing to various clinical trials at the Perelman School of Medicine, Sarah became interested in developing interventions to help individuals cope with serious medical diagnoses and to facilitate health behavior change in clinical populations. Her research focuses on improving quality of life for cancer patients and survivors. In her free time, Sarah enjoys rock climbing, yoga, hiking, and cycling.

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José Luis Ruiz Duarte

Systems and Industrial Engineering, PhD Student

José Luis Ruiz Duarte is a doctoral student in the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering. He attended the Universidad de Sonora in Hermosillo where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering, and served as an assistant professor instructing courses in the areas of systems engineering, data analytics, simulation, and operations research. He is interested in solar energy research and its application for sustainable development through the use of systems and industrial engineering approaches. Outside of the lab and classroom, José Luis is an avid musician.

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Paula Ugalde

Anthropology, PhD Student

Paula Ugalde is a doctoral student in the Anthropology program. She earned her BA in Archaeology from the Universidad de Chile. Her research focuses on the early peopling of the Atacama Desert. Broadly, Paula is interested in the history of humans settling harsh and unknown territories. She wants to develop a geoarchaeology research approach line to site formation processes in the Atacama. Throughout her career, she has been devoted to outreach activities. Her more recent work includes a story for children based on the Inca civilization. Aside from archaeology, she enjoys singing, writing, and swimming.

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Josh Uhlorn

Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program

Physiological Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Josh Uhlorn is an Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program alumnus and is pursuing his doctorate in the Physiological Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. Although originally born in Idaho, Josh has lived in Chandler, Arizona, for most of his life, and he received his bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Arizona in May of 2016. During his graduate career, Josh plans to focus on how the human body functions, with a particular interest in both cardiovascular and immune systems. He hopes to use this knowledge to develop biomedical devices that better mimic natural mechanisms and elicit less of an immune response when implanted.

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Ernest Vallorz III

Pharmaceutical Sciences – Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics, PhD Student

Ernest Vallorz is a doctoral student in the Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics Program. While earning his BS in Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he held multiple research positions. For the past three years, he has been a project lead at Cirrus Pharmaceuticals in RTP, developing novel pMDI and DPI formulations for industry clients. Ernest's research interests are in parenteral, aerosol and topical drug delivery, specifically understanding and modeling pharmaceutical aerosol delivery to the lungs. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, is an avid reader, and looks forward to exploring many of the hiking trails Arizona has to offer.

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Karolina Wisniewska

Philosophy, PhD Student

Karolina Wisniewska is a doctoral student in the Philosophy Department. She holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy and Art History from York University, a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School, and an MA in Philosophy from York University. After completing her law degree, Karolina clerked at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. She has been called to the Ontario Bar and is a licensee of the Law Society of Upper Canada. Her research focuses on transnational institutional structure and function in the context of the philosophical debate on global justice, and the implications of these normative questions for substantive issues of international law. Her broader research interests include political, moral and legal philosophy. Karolina enjoys travelling and has studied in England and Italy.

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Christina Wyles

Nursing, PhD Student

Christina Wyles is a doctoral student in the College of Nursing. She has served as a nurse for over a decade and has focused on related healthcare research and outreach. Christina earned a Master of Science in Nursing and a Master of Arts in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Arizona. Her combined interests in nursing and information science have led to her focus on health informatics and its role in improving access to health care. To this end, she works with Dr. Sheila Gephart on the nationally-funded NEC-Zero intervention project, helping to prevent and improve early recognition of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants.

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Pam Yabeny

American Indian Studies Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP), PhD Student

Pam Yabeny is a doctoral student in the American Indian Studies program. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame, and a Master of Counseling degree and a Master of Science degree from Arizona State University.  A member of the Navajo Nation, she has worked with American Indian students for nearly ten years in the Maricopa Community College District. Pam is interested in researching the differences among American Indian student experiences in tribal colleges and community colleges. She enjoys travelling to exciting destinations with her husband.

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2015-2016 University Fellows

Misha Burstein

Art and Visual Culture Education, PhD Student

Misha Burstein is a PhD student in Art and Visual Culture Education.  He holds a BA in Film and Video Production from Montana State University and an MA in Intermedia Art and Video Performance from University of Iowa. He recently earned a M.Ed. in Adult and Higher Education from Western Washington University while teaching art history, film production, and art education courses at the Art Institute of Seattle. Misha is currently on the steering committee for the International Transformative Learning Conference at Teachers College, Columbia University— researching the relationship between transformative learning theory and art and social activism. Additional interests include contemplative pedagogy, critical reflection practice, weather art, and generative systems theory.

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Joseph Dupris

Anthropology and Linguistics, PhD Student

Joseph Dupris is a doctoral student in the Anthropology and Linguistics dual degree program. He focuses on language revitalization and documentation, situated within his tribal community’s contemporary systems of knowledge transmission. He earned an MA in Native American Linguistics from the University of Arizona, where he combined community experience and archival research in order to examine the descriptive and theoretical aspects of maqlaqsyals (Klamath-Modoc) grammar in the Klamath Tribes region of the Upper Klamath Basin. Joseph intends to expand upon this research by exploring the sociolinguistic and ideological factors that come to bear on the Upper Klamath Basin, including the influence of political conflict, historical violence, and assimilationist government policies on language shift.

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Gregg Erickson

Management Information Systems, PhD Student

Gregg Erickson is a doctoral student in the Management Information Systems program. He earned an MBA and an MS in Industrial and Technical Studies from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and he earned a BS in Chemistry from the University of Washington. Gregg is an established entrepreneur, having co-founded three companies in the automotive industry, online support forums, and pharmokinetics. He also has consulting experience with Siemens Medical Systems and the Audubon Society His research is concerned with the impact of overdependence on assistive technology, with how to design assistive technology that avoids groupthink, and with the use of deception detection to screen patients and deliver higher-quality diagnoses. In his free time, Gregg travels the West, photographing the night sky, and posts his photos at www.DarkSkyWest.com.

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Mel Ferrara

Gender & Women’s Studies, PhD Student

Mel Ferrara is a doctoral student in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, having graduated from Muhlenberg College with a BA in Philosophy/Political Thought and in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Their research interests include transgender and intersex studies, medical ethics, and politics of the body. They have worked as an advocate with the Diversity Strategy Planning Committee and the Muhlenberg Trans Advocacy Coalition, which Mel helped co-found. Mel enjoys traveling and has studied in Morocco and the Netherlands.

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Ana Florea

Epidemiology, PhD Student

Ana Florea is an Epidemiology doctoral student in the College of Public Health. She holds an MPH from Boston University and a BS in Physiological Science from UCLA. Ana has worked at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, on various cardiology clinical trials, where she provided statistical support by creating original statistical coding; by monitoring enrollment, event rates and safety; and by creating monthly deliverables for executive committee meetings. She intends to study pharmaceutical clinical trials and vaccines, with interests in infectious diseases and healthcare in developing countries. Ana’s research interests developed from service abroad opportunities in Romania, where she was born and raised, and in Mexico. She wants to pursue a career with pharmaceutical companies or the Centers for Disease Control, overseeing a variety of epidemiological and clinical trial studies.

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Brooke Finley

Nursing, PhD Student

Brooke Finley is a doctoral student in Nursing. She earned her BS in Nursing at The University of Arizona in May 2015. In the course of holding four research positions as an undergraduate, Brooke found her scholarly niche in nursing informatics. Her doctoral research will focus on integrating healthcare informatics, biomedical technology, cognitive science, and psychology in order to meet the needs of 21st century healthcare; those needs include reducing compassion fatigue and streamlining care delivery while mutually reducing financial costs and improving patient outcomes. She enjoys cooking, practicing yoga, and reading classical literature, philosophy, and contributions from public intellectuals.

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Brittany Uhlorn (Forte)

Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program

Cancer Biology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD

Brittany Forte is an Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program alumnus and is a doctoral student in the Cancer Biology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. A Pennsylvanian-turned-Texan, Brittany graduated from the University of Arizona in May 2015 with Bachelor of Science degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology and with a minor in Mathematics. Her undergraduate thesis, based in pharmacology, focused on the novel use of a peptide, Angiotensin-(1-7), as a therapeutic in cancer-induced bone pain. Brittany plans to join the Cancer Biology program to focus on mechanisms of breast cancer memory, invasion, and metastasis.

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Nathania García

Language, Reading & Culture, PhD Student

Nathania Garcia is a doctoral student in the College of Education’s Language, Reading, and Culture program. She earned a Master’s degree from the University of Arizona in Mexican American Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Northern Arizona University. Nathania’s research focuses on identity, queer borderlands, feminist pedagogies, and bilingualism, especially as they relate to social justice and the Mexicana/Chicana experience.

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Jeffrey Gillan

Natural Resource Studies, PhD Student

Jeffrey Gillan is a doctoral student in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment. He earned a BS in Park Management and Conservation from Kansas State University and an MS in Environmental Science from the University of Idaho. In addition to being a scholar, Jeffrey is a USDA Agricultural Research Service employee in New Mexico at the Jornada Experimental Range; there, he has developed expertise with GIS datasets, and he has had extensive experience with using digital tools to communicate both science and policy. His research will focus on improving the use of GIS in land management policy and on communicating science to the public.

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Joshua Gosney

Chemical Engineering, PhD Student

Joshua Gosney is a doctoral student in the Chemical Engineering program. He is a member of the Black Feet tribe and is a first generation college student. The recipient of both the McNair and INBRE scholarships, he earned a BS in Chemical Engineering at Montana State University. His research focuses on the environmental and health applications of computational and statistical modeling of fluid dynamics. More specifically, Joshua intends to work on the atmospheric science applications of chemical engineering in order to predict future climate on Earth. He is also interested in biomedical engineering and sustainability initiatives; at Montana State University, he led a project to reduce fume hood energy use, which led to $10,000 in savings per month. Joshua is an avid cyclist and has enjoyed traveling to Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

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William Gurley

Plant Sciences, PhD Student

William Gurley is a doctoral student in the School of Plant Sciences. He attended Auburn University, where he researched the metabolic adjustment of cotton under high temperatures. He has a wide background in the life sciences, ranging from organic chemistry to genetics and physiology.

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Byron Hempel

Environmental Engineering, PhD Student

Byron Hempel is enrolled in the PhD program in Environmental Engineering. He earned a BS in Chemistry at the University of Kentucky, and he has worked in both the laboratory and the field, including a project in Argentina.  Byron’s doctoral work will focus on water remediation and developing advanced water filtration techniques. In addition to his work in environmental engineering, he has experience in traditional chemistry labs and in the medical field. In his free time, he enjoys rock climbing on Mt. Lemmon and working out at Rocks and Ropes.

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Stephanie Hoeckley

Musical Arts – Performance, DMA Student

Stephanie Hoeckley is earning a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Flute Performance.  A Florida native, she earned a BA in Music at the University of Central Florida and a Master’s of Music at Arizona State University, where she expanded her performance repertoire and teaching credentials. She has been a finalist in the Florida Flute Association’s College Young Artist Competition and in ASU and UCF’s Concerto Competitions; in addition, she was principal flutist in many of the schools’ ensembles, and she maintains an active private flute studio. Stephanie’s interests include Alexander Technique, acoustics, entrepreneurship, and autism awareness. She aspires to become a “musician with a cause,” one who champions social justice. She hopes to improve the accessibility of classical music and destigmatize the genre as elitist. She is also interested in leveraging her role as a musician to promote feminism and broader equality. Outside the studio, she enjoys everything sci-fi and fantasy-related, and she belongs to the fictional Ravenclaw House.

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Adolfo Béjar Lara

Spanish, PhD Student

Adolfo Béjar Lara is a PhD student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, where he will specialize in in Spanish American Cultural Studies and Border Studies. He has BAs in Spanish and Creative Writing from the University of California Riverside and an MA in Spanish from the University of Kansas. Adolfo’s research interests include ways in which food intersects with cultural representations of identity and hybridity; his doctoral work will focus on the dynamics of cultural exchange between border towns in the U.S. southwest and the north of Mexico.

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Megan McKendry

Sociology, PhD Student

Megan McKendry is pursuing a PhD in Sociology. She holds a BA in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University. She served with AmeriCorps VISTA and spent four years working for a volunteer-run national non-profit organization focused on campus sexual assault policy and student activism. Before beginning her doctoral studies, Megan worked for the UA Campus Health’s Oasis Program as a Violence Prevention Counselor and for the Center for Disease Control in the Harlem Health Promotion Center. Broadly, her research interests include law and policy, sexual and reproductive health, social movements, political participation, and social inequality.

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Jeffrey Melzer

Optical Sciences, PhD Student

Jeffrey Melzer is a doctoral student in Optical Sciences. He earned his BA in Materials Science and Engineering from Rutgers University, where he researched optical fibers, with an emphasis on hollow waveguides for infrared applications. His doctoral work will focus on the intersection of telecommunications and electronics, as well as the role of photonics in their enhancement. In his free time, Jeffrey enjoys photography and looks forward to capturing the new landscape around him.

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Mohammad Abdolhosseini Moghaddam

Hydrology and Water Resources, PhD Student

Mohammad Moghaddam is earning his PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources. An international student from Iran, he holds an MA in Civil Engineering and Water Resources from the University of California, Irvine, and a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic. His main interests are in hydrogeology, hydrology, optimization and inverse modeling. Mohammad’s current research uses hydrologic tomography to improve subsurface imaging at basin scales. He plans to investigate system responses of naturally recurrent stimuli (i.e., storms, earthquakes, and river stages) in order to map the subsurface characteristics and improve both water resource management and flood prediction.

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Rhoda Muse

Statistics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Rhoda Muse is a doctoral student in the Statistics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. Originally from Kenya, she earned a BA in Actuarial Science from the University of Nairobi in 2012 and an MA in Statistics from the UA. Rhoda is interested in the intersections of statistics, agriculture, and climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. Her research is on the modeling of food production as the developing world faces climate change. An aspiring farmer, she hopes to improve food production throughout Africa. In her free time, Rhoda enjoys singing, cultural dancing, travelling, and watching movies.

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Kevin Scott

Drug Discovery and Development, PhD Student

Kevin Scott is a first generation college student enrolled in the College of Pharmacy’s Drug Discovery and Development PhD program. Born in Germany, he moved to San Diego as a child. While working on a BS in chemistry at the University of California Irvine (UCI), he interned at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla and at an organic synthesis lab at UCI; he also worked at an aerospace startup in Los Angeles. Kevin is interested in applying medicinal chemistry to the discovery and design of new drugs. Among his notable achievements are the development of a method to genetically incorporate a non-canonical fluorescent amino acid into a bacterial cell-wall protein, the development of a therapeutic molecule that circumvents drug-resistance in pathogenic fungi, and the development of a chemical etching process for a key component of NASA/JPL’s InSight Mars Lander, which is due to launch in 2016.

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Amanda Snell

Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Amanda Snell is a doctoral student in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching program. She earned undergraduate degrees in Spanish and English from Purdue University and an M.A. in English from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She enjoys volunteering and has developed English and family literacy classes for adult immigrants and refugees in central Indiana, where she grew up. In 2014, she received a Fulbright grant to teach English to German secondary school students and German to adult refugee women. This year, the Graduate Center is helping facilitate her community engagement project at Robison Elementary, a TUSD International Baccalaureate World School, where she leads a weekly girls’ mentoring club and teaches English to parents in the evening. Amanda’s research interests include family literacy, adult immigrants’ access to quality language instruction, discourse about immigration, and the connections between mental health and language acquisition. In her free time, she enjoys running, writing letters, and traveling.

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Sarah Sutton

Planetary Sciences, PhD Student

Sarah Sutton is a doctoral student in the Planetary Sciences Program. She is an active member of the HiRISE Team at the UA, which uses advanced imaging and processing techniques to study Mars. She is also associated with NASA’s Planetary Geology and Geophysics cartography panel. Sarah intends to advance the role of innovative imaging techniques and modeling in order to explore more fully not only Mars but other bodies in the solar system.

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Kirsten Verster

Entomology & Insect Science Graduate Intersdisciplinary Program, PhD Student

Kirsten Verster is a PhD student in the Entomology and Insect Science Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. She has a strong interest in evolutionary biology and entomology, having researched the cognition and facial recognition of wasps, phylogenetics, and bat-moth acoustic coevolution. As an undergraduate, she earned degrees in in Biology and Spanish at the University of Florida. This past year, she worked as the curator of flies for the UA. Studying genetics in order to understand behavior and evolutionary processes, she plans to examine the origins of herbivorous behaviors using the Scaptomyza flava model system. Kerstin’s fascination with biology began during her childhood in Florida when she snorkeled with manatees and collected bugs in the Everglades. She is an avid reader, enjoys cooking, and plays the ukulele, guitar, and piano.

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Lu Zhang

East Asian Studies – Chinese Religion and Thought, PhD Student

Lu Zhang is a PhD student in the Department of East Asian Studies, where she is focusing on the relationship between Buddhism and politics in medieval China. An international student from Beijing, she earned her BA and MA from Minzu University. Lu’s research focuses on the ways in which secularization and other cultural factors influenced Buddhism during the Song Dynasty. She is especially interested in the impact of evolving Buddhist beliefs on the literature of the period and on people of different socio-economic backgrounds. Richly interdisciplinary, her work includes Chinese history, philosophy, literature, and religion.

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2014-2015 University Fellows

Kyle Curham

Psychology, PhD Student

Kyle Curham received bachelor degrees in Mechanical Engineering (2012) and Psychology (2013).  Currently, he is working in the Psychophysiological Laboratory with Dr. John Allen at the University of Arizona. Curham is interested in the organizational principles guiding large-scale brain activity and in the mechanisms underlying a constellation of theta-band fronto-central event-related potentials. He uses ideas from dynamical systems theory to make predictions about oscillatory processes in the brain and tries to verify them using EEG.

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Kelly Dew-Budd

Plant Sciences, PhD Student

Kelly Dew-Budd is a PhD student in the School of Plant Sciences. She earned a B.S. in Zoology from North Carolina State University. At the University of Alabama, she earned a M.S. in Biology, under the guidance of Dr. Laura Reed, studying the effect of diet on fruit fly metabolism. Currently, Kelly is working with Dr. Mark Beilstein on identifying the functions of non-coding RNAs in Brassicaceae genome stability. 

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Shyla Dogan

Educational Leadership, PhD Student

Shyla Dogan is a doctoral student in Educational Leadership and Policy. She has an M.Ed. in Anthropology and Education from Columbia University and she has an M.A. from the University of Arizona’s School of Middle East and North African Studies. She worked as a teacher in the Teach for America program and was the administrator of Al-Huda Islamic School in Tucson. She is interested in the education of minorities and refugees in the Middle East and how minority and refugee status pertains to language and identity formation. 

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Matthew Godfrey

Marketing, PhD Student

Matt Godfrey's research interests focus on the social and environmental impact of human consumption and marketing communications. His past research has included studies in environmental communication, social marketing, and consumer psychology. Matt received an MA in communication and culture with an Energy and Environmental Systems Specialization from the University of Calgary. He received his BA in communication with an emphasis on advertising from Brigham Young University. Matt has also worked in business innovation consulting and residential energy efficiency, in addition to completing several internships for business and non-profit organizations.

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Michael Kerins

Pharmacology and Toxicology, PhD Student

Following graduation from the University of Wisconsin with a BS in biochemistry, Michael Kerins worked as a product developer for Kimberly-Clark Corporation.  Because K-C manufactures FDA-regulated medical devices, Michael interacted with PhD-level toxicologists to navigate the intersection of technology, consumers, business, and regulation. Interested in the profession, Michael found the University of Arizona’s Pharmacology and Toxicology graduate program matched his intellectual and career interests perfectly.  He eagerly anticipates the opportunities at the UA and University Fellows Program and hopes to research toxicological mechanisms, quantitative biology, signal transduction, or metabolism.

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Andrew Kunihiro

Nutritional Sciences, PhD Student

Andrew Kunihiro has a BS in Bioengineering and a MS in Nutritional Science. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Nutritional Sciences, where his research will focus on the relationship between bioactive compounds in food and cancer. Specifically, he will examine whether certain compounds in food increase or decrease the risk of developing cancer or if they affect tumor progression and outcomes for those who already have cancer. His undergraduate focus was on microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip diagnostics, which he hopes to leverage during his doctoral studies.

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Elliott Kwan

Optical Sciences, PhD Student

A PhD student in Optical Sciences, Elliott Kwan’s specific interest is in translational research, where science is implemented for improvement of human health. Kwan finds it astonishing how light can probe human tissue and be analyzed to obtain useful information. By developing quantitative imaging systems with advanced hardware, accurate models, and efficient processing, Kwan hopes to provide doctors with structural and metabolic information that can aid in patient treatment. Currently, he is working on a multi-resolution foveated laparoscope to aid in minimally invasive surgery. Treating illness and alleviating pain motivate him to succeed.

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Stephanie Lashway

Epidemiology and Biostatistics, PhD Student

Stephanie Lashway is a PhD student in Epidemiology at the Mel & Enid Zimmerman College of Public Health. Her research interests are in methodology and systems epidemiology, She is currently assisting Dr. Leslie Dennis with a meta-analysis of melanoma. Lashway received bachelor degrees in Biology and International Studies at Knox College, and she earned a Master of Public Health from the UA prior to starting her PhD program Fall 2014.

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Tomas Martinez

Management and Organizations, PhD Student

Tomas Martinez is a PhD student in the Management & Organizations program at the Eller College of Management. He completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Arizona in Spring 2014. Born and raised in Arizona, his main area of interest is in employee citizenship behaviors, with an emphasis on employee voice.

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Paul Neff

Materials Science and Engineering, Master Degree Student

Paul Neff is a Tucson native, who graduated from the University of Arizona in May 2014 with degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. Expanding on the materials background, his research interests are in Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics for hypersonic flight applications. He intends to continue working with Dr. Erica Corral in the MSE department, investigating how to develop ceramics for more extensive use. His aim is to shape the next generation of aerospace transportation by combining his knowledge of materials science and aerospace engineering.

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Christine O’Donnell

Astronomy, PhD Student

Christine O’Donnell received her bachelor’s degree in astronomy and physics from the University of Virginia (UVA), and she earned a Master of Public Policy (MPP) in May 2014 from the Frank Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy at UVA. Christine has worked on research projects that investigate exoplanets, star formation, and galactic dynamics. In addition, she is interested in science education and policy. For her MPP thesis, Christine worked with the American Association of Physics Teachers and wrote a policy analysis addressing the gender gap in physics. She looks forward to both her astronomy research and science communication interests at UA.

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Saffo Papantonopoulou

Anthropology and Middle Eastern and North African Studies, PhD Student

Saffo Papantonopoulou is pursuing a Dual PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies. She holds a BA in History and Teacher Education from Brown University and an MA in Anthropology from The New School. She is interested in Ottoman history and the politics of historical memory in contemporary Greece and Turkey. In particular, she is interested in the ways in which the 1923 population exchange between both states is remembered, and the ways in which that memory is deployed by various political actors and activists.

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Terrance Pitt-Brooke

Music – Choral Conducting, DMA Student

Terrance Pitt-Brooke is a DMA student in Choral Conducting in the Fred Fox School of Music. He studied composition at the University of Toronto under Oskar Morawetz and Talivaldis Kenins, and conducting with Jon Washburn in Vancouver and Robert Fountain at the University of Wicsonsin. He has worked as a conductor and educator in a wide range of environments: church, community choir, high school, college, and professional ensembles. As a musician,
Pitt-Brooke’s interests range from Medieval to contemporary and from jazz to symphonic; his skill sets include scholar, critic, composer, performer and teacher. Additional interests include physics, natural history, food security, and sustainability issues.

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Susan Renz

Nursing, PhD Student

Dr. Susan Renz is a PhD student in Nursing. She received her BSN and MSN from the University of Pennsylvania and her Doctorate in Nursing Practice from New York University. She has devoted her career to promoting evidence-based and resident-centered practice in nursing homes. Her dissertation will examine communication patterns among advanced practice nurses in long-term care and the effect on patient decision-making and unplanned hospital transfers. In addition to her studies, Dr. Renz serves as an associate program director and educator for the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program and the clinical site coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Danielle Sheather

Dance – Performance and Choreography, Master of Fine Arts Student

Danielle Sheather, from Ontario, Canada, graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Buffalo with a BFA (Dance) and a BA (Psychology). Her national and international credits include BalaSole Dance Company, Holland America, and The International Dance Festival. Her choreography has been showcased at Baryshnikov Arts Center. She is an ABT® Certified Teacher, having completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. Danielle is pursuing an MFA in Performance and Choreography, teaching jazz and theater dance, and is rehearsal assistant to Michael Williams. She is interested in studying the economics of single-choreographer dance companies.

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Christopher Shepard

Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, PhD Student

Chris Shepard grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Southwestern Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia, where he received a BS in Environmental Science. In 2012, he came to the University of Arizona to work with Dr. Craig Rasmussen in the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, where he received a Master’s degree in the spring of 2014. Shepard is interested in understanding the relationships between soil and the surrounding environment. Specifically, he wants to investigate the effect of environmental factors such as vegetation and topography on soil formation, in order to develop better digital soil mapping techniques. 

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Brigette Walters

Spanish and Portuguese, PhD Student

Brigette Walters is a PhD student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She has bachelor degrees in Spanish and Geography from the UA, and she earned an M.A. in Spanish and Latin American Linguistic, Literary, and Cultural Studies at New York University. Her research interests include contemporary Latin American literary and cultural representations of urban space, specifically with regard to sociospatial reorganization produced under neoliberalism and the subsequent effects on aesthetic developments and conceptions of personhood.

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Melodie Yen

Linguistics, PhD Student

Melodie Yen is a PhD student in Linguistics. She received her undergraduate degrees from the University of California, San Diego, in Psychology and Linguistics with a minor in Cognitive Science. Her interests lie primarily in language neuroscience and artificial languages. She will be conducting research in areas such as language disorders resulting from stroke or trauma, using fMRI and other neuroimaging techniques. Multilingual, she speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Spanish, and she has studied Korean and Latin. She enjoys linguistics because it is intrinsically interdisciplinary—no language system is independent from social, cognitive, psychological, and biological factors.

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