Dean’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate Education
These awards, one for Director of Graduate Studies and one for Graduate Program Administrator, recognize excellence in service and advocacy on behalf of graduate students and graduate education at the University of Georgia.
Kerstin Emerson is a clinical professor in the College of Public Health and serves as the director of graduate studies in the Institute of Gerontology. Her research focuses on improving the quality of life for older adults, with particular attention to loneliness and social connection.
She oversees the Master of Public Health gerontology concentration, the online Graduate Certificate in Gerontology and the undergraduate minor in gerontology. She holds both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in gerontology and brings a strong academic background in aging research to her work. Emerson is a passionate and dedicated educator, teaching undergraduate and graduate-level courses across a wide range of aging-related topics, including global aging as well as death, dying, and bereavement. She is deeply committed to mentoring students and creating meaningful learning experiences that challenge assumptions, broaden perspectives and prepare students for careers working with aging populations.
Kristin Lawrence serves as the graduate program administrator in the Department of Public Administration and Policy, where she oversees graduate admissions and enrolled student services while acting as a liaison between the department and the Graduate School. Additionally, she works closely with the Global Leadership and Development Program, supporting government officials from the Republic of Korea as they pursue their Master of Public Administration at the University of Georgia.
In recognition of her service to students and colleagues, Lawrence was awarded one of the School of Public and International Affairs’ Staff Member of Distinction Awards in 2025. Her commitment to international collaboration further extends beyond campus; in summer 2025, she had the opportunity to travel to the Republic of Korea to meet with the Korea Development Institute of Public Policy and Management to help develop new dual degree programs for UGA students.
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.
Aliki Nicolaides is professor of adult learning and leadership in the Learning, Leadership and Organization Development program in the Mary Frances Early College of Education. Her research centers on exploring the intra-active dynamics of learning that generate personal and societal transformation. She accomplishes this by focusing her research on the role that learning plays in activating the vital potential that connects self and society.
Her desire for creating tools and scaffolds that grow individual and collective capacity for both inquiry and action is central to her approach to teaching and mentoring the next generation of scholars and leaders of change. Nicolaides is co-founder of the Generative Learning and Complexity Laboratory, which brings together scholars and practitioners of learning and complexity science to reimagine learning and development through the lens of generative knowledge and complexity learning. The results of her scholarship are shaping a new philosophical strand of adult learning, what she describes as Generative Knowing — ways of being and becoming that liberate potential creatively. Nicolaides is a founding steward and current president of the International Transformative Learning Association.
Janette Hill is a professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences and the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Learning, Design, and Technology Program. Her research interests focus on learner-centered environments from a social constructivist frame.
Hill conducted research and evaluation on millions of dollars in funded projects from local and national organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, local schools in the Athens area, the UGA School of Medicine, AU/UGA Medical Partnership and private business support. For over a decade, she has concentrated her research in the area of medical education and resilience in formal and informal settings. She serves on multiple interdisciplinary/interinstitutional research teams with faculty and student colleagues across the university.