Dean’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate Education
These awards, one for graduate coordinators and one for graduate coordinator assistants, recognize excellence in service and advocacy on behalf of graduate students and graduate education at the University of Georgia.
Chad Howe (Submitted photo)
Chad Howe is a professor with joint appointments in the Department of Linguistics and the Department of Romance Languages in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. He has been the graduate coordinator of the linguistics department since 2020. Since taking on this role, Howe has served the department in a highly dedicated way to support and improve all aspects of student experiences, from recruitment through to graduation.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly more graduate students have experienced personal difficulties that have affected their progress, and Howe has been recognized for working closely with students and advocating to help them get the resources they need. He is also credited with creating more opportunities for students to gather, in person or remotely, to build belonging and community among Linguistics graduate students.
Howe has also contributed substantially to the success of individual students and to the graduate program in Linguistics as a whole. He has successfully engaged in recruitment activities to grow applications and enrollment, has helped students complete their degrees in a timely manner, and has supported many graduate students in obtaining recognitions and awards for their scholarship.
Morgan Bouwsma (Submitted photo)
Morgan Bouwsma is the student affairs manager and graduate coordinator assistant for the Department of Food Science and Technology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
She serves as a main resource for Athens, Griffin and online graduate students across three graduate programs within the department, as well as the liaison between graduate students, departmental faculty and the graduate school. She is committed to positively impacting students from all backgrounds and strives to promote graduate education by supporting students from the time they apply until they graduate.
She is recognized by graduate students in her department for being dedicated, creative and an advocate that contributes significantly to the graduate community in Food Science and Technology. As noted by one of her student nominators, “Morgan has been my go-to listener during difficult times, providing support and guidance whenever needed. Her welcoming and supportive personality has made her approachable to all students, and she consistently prioritizes equity to ensure that every student feels valued and supported.”
Outstanding Mentoring Award
The Outstanding Mentoring Award recognizes excellence in a variety of mentoring functions. This award encourages and rewards innovation and effectiveness in mentoring graduate students during their educational experience. Two awards are given each year to current members of the Graduate Program Faculty. Awards in Professional/Applied Sciences and Social/Behavioral Sciences are given even years. Awards in Humanities/Fine and Applied Arts and Life/Physical Sciences are given in odd years.
Edward Delgado-Romero (Submitted photo)
Edward Delgado-Romero is a professor and the associate dean for faculty and staff services at the Mary Frances Early College of Education. Over the last 19 years, he has established a collaborative record of publications, presentations and service that have supported graduate students and the Latinx community. Recently, a group of over 30 current students and alumni contributed to his edited book, Latinx Mental Health: From Surviving to Thriving.
Delgado-Romero is a first generation American and son of Colombian immigrants. He founded la Clinica in LaK’ech, a free psychological clinic for Spanish speakers. The clinic has trained counseling, clinical and school psychology graduate students, Master of Social Work interns and undergraduates. He is also a founder of the National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA), a past president of NLPA and serves on the board of directors of the American Association for Hispanic Higher Education. His awards include the UGA Engaged Scholar in 2021.
Delgado-Romero received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Notre Dame. He has been a major professor for nearly 50 Ph.D. students, many of them first-generation college, bilingual and committed to cultural competency. Together with his students, Delgado-Romero has written and presented extensively about Latinx psychology, multicultural psychology, and the ethics of training bilingual clinicians. Many students have described Delgado-Romero’s house as their “home away from home” and acknowledge the support of his wife, Angie Romero-Shih, LMSW, and his children Anaïs, Xio, Nick, Emery, and Guillermo.
Patricia Richards (Submitted photo)
Patricia Richards is director of the Institute for Women’s Studies and professor of sociology and women’s studies. She is an affiliate faculty member with the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute and the Institute of Native American Studies. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2002.
In her time at UGA, Richards has consistently emphasized the importance of mentoring in graduate education. She has supervised or is supervising 10 doctoral dissertations and seven MA theses and has served on an additional thirty-four dissertation and seven MA thesis committees. Reflecting Richards’ commitment to interdisciplinarity, students from a variety of disciplines seek her expertise, including those in geography, anthropology, journalism, communications, performance studies, international affairs and education, in addition to her home discipline of sociology.
Richards has published extensively with students and former students, including one book and at least 13 peer-reviewed articles and essays. She has co-presented with students at numerous conferences, and mentored students on many solo-authored publications and presentations. Richards also currently funds two UGA sociology doctoral students in her role as co-editor of Gender & Society.
In her former role as graduate coordinator for the Institute for Women’s Studies, Richards advised over 40 graduate certificate students, supervised IWS’s GTAs and successfully nominated Women’s Studies GTAs for the CTL’s Excellence in Teaching Award three years in a row (2021-2023). Under her directorship, the IWS continues to prioritize mentoring graduate learning and professionalization.
