Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Awards
The Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes the significant contribution graduate students make to the instructional mission of the university. The award is sponsored by the Graduate School and recognizes up to five graduate students who have demonstrated superior teaching skills and made contributions to teaching beyond their own classrooms. For more information about these teaching awards, please visit the Center for Teaching and Learning Teaching Awards site.
Abigail Cormier
Department of Economics
Terry College of Business
Abigail Cormier is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the Terry College of Business advised by Meghan Skira. Her research lies at the intersection of health and labor economics.
In her dissertation, Cormier examines how health shocks and disruptions in healthcare access affect individuals, families, and communities. She employs quasi-experimental methods to identify causal effects on health and economic outcomes. Her job market paper examines the causal impact of having a first-born child with special needs on parental labor market outcomes and subsequent family formation in the United States.
Cormier has been a core member of the development team for the course “Introduction to Data Science for Business and Economics” since UGA started offering it in Spring 2022. In Spring 2025, she served as the Instructor of Record for the course. This course is required for all economics majors and serves as a pathway into the Master of Science in Business Analytics program. Cormier also participated in the Future Faculty Fellows Program, where she developed her teaching practice and contributed by leading TA Cafés and speaking at TA orientation. In fall 2026, Cormier will join the faculty at Idaho State University as a tenure-track assistant professor of economics.
Karlee Kimbrell
Department of Political Science
School of Public and International Affairs
Karlee Kimbrell is a Ph.D. candidate in American Politics at the University of Georgia, specializing in American political behavior, race and ethnicity politics, public opinion, and representation.
As a first-generation college graduate from South Bend, Indiana, her path through higher education shaped her commitment to creating inclusive learning environments where all students can thrive. Her teaching philosophy centers on empowering students to become active participants in political processes rather than passive observers. She prioritizes creating inclusive learning communities where various perspectives are essential to collective growth. In her classroom, students collaboratively establish class norms and expectations, ensuring everyone feels empowered to show up authentically. She embraces interdisciplinary methods, drawing connections across sociology, economics, law, history and philosophy to help students develop nuanced understanding of political phenomena. Theory comes alive through structured debates where students research and defend complex positions, examining multiple stakeholder perspectives and real-world implications.
As the first Chief Officer of the School of Public and International Affairs Graduate Student Association, Kimbrell created essential communication channels between students and administration. She received the 2025 SPIA Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award. She has pursued further pedagogical development through her involvement in the 2025 Future Faculty Fellowship and Certificate in Interdisciplinary University Teaching. Ultimately, she views her position in the classroom as equipping students with both robust understanding of political institutions and the transformative skills needed for meaningful civic engagement beyond the classroom.
Taylor Elijah Martin
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
College of Veterinary Medicine
Taylor Elijah Martin is a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Veterinary Medicine advised by Dr. Xiaoqin Ye. His dissertation research focuses on understanding how hormonal signaling in the uterus is essential for female fertility.
Martin graduated from University of Georgia in 2021 with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. Shortly after, he began his Ph.D. at UGA, where he began serving as a graduate teaching assistant within the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Martin has been privileged with teaching and mentoring many students, building lasting relationships with faculty and bolstering his teaching skills and portfolio.
Following his Ph.D., Martin plans to pursue a post-doctoral research position.
Riley Thoen
Department of Plant Biology
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Riley Thoen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Plant Biology. Thoen’s research focuses on disentangling the ecological and evolutionary consequences of environmental disturbance for the purpose of informing rare species conservation. In his dissertation research, he has found significant consequences of drought and warming on a classic Georgia species, Porter’s sunflower (also known as Stone Mountain daisy).
Thoen’s career goals are to teach ecology, evolution, and biological statistics, run a plant conservation research lab, and grow the Writing Intensive Program at a primarily undergraduate institution. At UGA, Thoen has taught biology and plant ecology labs, flowers, and served as a Writing Intensive Program TA for students performing independent biology research projects. Thoen has supported writing at UGA as a managing editor and reviewer for The Classic and an editor and author for the Athens Science Observer.
In his free time, Thoen likes to bring treats to the dog park so he can earn the title of “most popular human at the dog park.”
Saja Yim
Lamar Dodd School of Art
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Saja Yim is a Ph.D. candidate in art education at the Lamar Dodd School of Art advised by Mira Kallio-Tavih. Her research centers on increasing representation in children’s books through bookmaking as an arts-based and critical pedagogical practice. Drawing on varied perspectives, she examines how the material and conceptual processes of handmade bookmaking can challenge dominant narratives in children’s media and visual culture, particularly those that marginalize the experiences of underserved populations. She is especially interested in how bookmaking empowers children to author their own stories and represent their lived experiences through multimodal learning.
Yim also earned her B.A. in studio art and an M.Ed. in educational psychology with an emphasis in gifted and creative education at the University of Georgia. Her interdisciplinary academic background bridges studio practice, critical theory and educational research, informing a teaching philosophy grounded in creativity, equity and student-centered learning. She has taught across a wide range of educational contexts, including inner-city public schools, undergraduate courses and graduate-level seminars, experiences that have shaped her commitment to responsive and participatory pedagogy.
In addition to her scholarly work, Yim is deeply invested in teaching both within and beyond university settings, including museum education, after-school and summer camp programming, and interdisciplinary collaborations with community partners. Her teaching practice emphasizes diverse representation and access within arts education. Through this work, she seeks to expand inclusive, creative learning opportunities for children and adults while advocating for the arts as a vital site for critical inquiry, identity formation and social transformation.
Graduate Student Excellence in Research Awards
The Excellence in Research Award recognizes outstanding research by graduate students. Five awards are given annually, one from each of the following five areas: Fine Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, and Professional and Applied Studies.ers, Life Sciences, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Applied Studies.
S. Jack Hu Family Excellence in Social and Behavioral Sciences Doctoral Research Award
Olutosin (Tosin) Adesogan is a current postdoctoral fellow in the Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Program at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine. She recently received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Georgia, under the direction of Justin Lavner, after completing her doctoral internship in child and pediatric psychology at the University of Chicago Medicine. Adesogan’s program of research uses multidimensional approaches to understand and promote the mental and physical health of Black Americans.
Her research at UGA focused on examining the negative effects of stressors driven by systemic issues like financial strain and increased exposure to COVID-related stress, and the positive effects of sources of strength and support among Black populations. Support for her work resulted in 10 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier clinical psychology journals. Prior to attending UGA, Adesogan received her B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Health Disparities in Society from the University of Florida.
At UNC, Adesogan is expanding her program of research by using multimodal, community-engaged approaches to examine suicide risk pathways among Black youth. Ultimately, Adesogan’s goal is to continue to advance health equity and promote positive well-being among Black individuals, families and communities.
Ron and Yvette Walcott Excellence in Fine Arts and Humanities Doctoral Research Award
Tracy L. Barnett is a visiting assistant professor of history at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. In May 2025, she earned her Ph.D. in American history from University of Georgia, working under the direction of major professor Stephen Mihm.
Currently working to transform her dissertation into a book manuscript, her project analyzes the historic origins of America’s gun culture and its mutually constitutive relationship with specific ideologies. Requiring extensive archival research, this project has been supported with fellowships and grants from the UGA Graduate School, UGA Department of History, Smithsonian Institution, American Historical Association, Boston Athenæum, Winterthur Library, Hagley Museum and Library, University of Virginia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other institutions. Barnett’s academic scholarship has been published in Civil War History, the Georgia Historical Quarterly and The Washington Post. In addition, she has worked on various digital and public history projects and regularly contributes a quarterly column on 19th-century language to the Civil War Monitor, a popular magazine devoted to the Civil War Era.
Excellence in Professional and Applied Studies Research Award
Corinna Hazelrig is a DVM–Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. She completed her Ph.D. in comparative biomedical sciences in 2025 under the mentorship of Dr. Nicole Nemeth in the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. Her dissertation research focused on the health of free-ranging snakes in the southeastern United States through risk-factor analyses of multipathogen detection, including coinfection dynamics associated with the fungal disease ophidiomycosis.
Using a multidisciplinary approach that integrated pathology, hematology, ecology, epidemiology and molecular biology, she identified key pathological trends, documented novel pathogen detections in wild snakes and characterized risk factors used to inform conservation management strategies. To support her doctoral research, Hazelrig was awarded numerous competitive research grants. In parallel with her dissertation, she has published multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and received several awards for graduate student research presentations. Hazelrig is currently completing the DVM portion of her dual-degree program, with an anticipated graduation date of May 2029.
Following graduation, she plans to pursue advanced training through a zoological medicine residency and ultimately work as a zoo veterinarian specializing in reptile medicine, while continuing research that advances wildlife conservation. Her long-term goal is to make a global impact by improving medical care and disease management in wildlife, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainability of the planet’s ecological resources.
Excellence in Life Sciences Doctoral Research Award
Taylor Medlock Lanier is a Rita Levi-Montalcini Postdoctoral Fellow in the Developmental Biology Department and the Center of Regenerative Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. There, her research centers on developing zebrafish as a model for studying Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Lanier aims to identify neuro-protective signals, informing future treatments to prevent the degeneration of motor neurons. Lanier earned her Ph.D. in cellular biology at the University of Georgia in fall 2025 under the mentorship of Dr. Rachel Roberts-Galbraith.
While at UGA, Lanier utilized planarian flatworms to understand successful nervous system regeneration, with a focus on dopaminergic neurons. Lanier characterized six transcription factor-encoding genes required for regeneration and maintenance of dopaminergic neurons through combinatorial mechanisms. At UGA, Lanier received a Fechheimer and Furukawa Travel Award and a Summer Research Grant. She also completed the Advanced Techniques in Molecular Neuroscience Course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and presented her research at a Gordon Conference on Cell Biology of the Neuron.
Lanier was also a skilled instructor, mentor and leader while at UGA. She played leadership roles in the Cellular Biology and Developmental Biology Graduate Student Associations. She was invited to speak at the ribbon cutting of Cedar Street Building C. In recognition of excellence in teaching, Lanier received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award and served on the leadership team for anatomy and physiology teaching assistants. Lanier also participated in the selective Future Faculty Fellows Program through the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Excellence in Mathematical and Physical Sciences Doctoral Research Award
Akash Singha Roy is a postdoctoral researcher at Charles University (Univerzita Karlova) in Prague. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Georgia, advised by Paul Pollack.
His research is in analytic number theory, a field that uses tools from the continuous world — such as analysis and probability — to study discrete objects (the integers). Two central objects in this area are primes (numbers divisible only by 1 and themselves) and multiplicative functions (sequences which behave predictably with respect to multiplication), and the study of connections between them often reveals deep, unexpected structure underlying the integers.
Although primes appear random, a classical result shows that they are evenly distributed among simple arithmetic patterns, and this remains reliably true no matter how far out one looks. In a series of joint papers with his advisor and further solo papers, Roy established some of the first analogues of such results for multiplicative functions, which are also essentially optimal. They drew on ideas from multiple sub-fields of number theory, along with several other areas of mathematics, including probability, linear algebra and algebraic geometry. The methods they developed also have potential applications to other problems.
A related focus of his research concerns mean values of multiplicative functions. Results in this general area are fundamental tools in turning randomness into structure and making progress on long-standing open problems. Some of Roy’s works bridge gaps between precision and uniformity in existing literature, while another work extends one of the most powerful known results in this area, giving new applications that were previously out of reach.
Roy has also worked on problems related to Benford’s Law, the anatomy of integers, and value distributions of arithmetic functions. He completed 16 manuscripts by the end of his Ph.D., 12 of which have been published so far.
Engaged Scholars
The Engaged Scholarship by Graduate Students Award recognizes extraordinary community-engaged scholarship and public service by graduate students. Such as endeavors that advance the public service, outreach, and engagement mission at UGA. This award is established by the Graduate School in connection with the Office of the Vice President for Public Service & Outreach and the Office of Service-Learning.
Taylor Pearson is a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s population health department and is a Wormsloe Fellow, with Michael Yabsley and Christopher Cleveland as major advisors. Her dissertation research focuses on ticks and tick-borne pathogens along the Georgia coastline. Working with the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS), Pearson conducts research in 22 coastal counties, targeting field sites in inland wiregrass communities and in maritime forests on Georgia’s barrier islands. From raccoons, opossums and squirrels to eastern glass lizards, broad-headed skinks and white-tailed deer, Pearson works with various wildlife species to collect ticks throughout the coastal plains.
Pearson graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.S.E.S. in entomology and a B.S. in applied biotechnology. She leads “Tick Talks with Tick Taylor” in elementary classrooms and youth engagement camps across the state to promote tick safety with outdoor explorers of all ages. Pearson also facilitates discussions with local medical, veterinary and military professionals, creating partnerships with various community members to increase awareness of ticks and the importance of tick-borne pathogens along Georgia’s coastline. Participants in these educational outreach sessions walk away with a better understanding of how to protect themselves, their family members and their pets from tick-borne illnesses. By starting tick safety conversations early and with active learning that encourages remembering what ticks are, where they are found and why they pose a risk, Pearson’s hope is that community members will be better prepared for. and most importantly safe from, tick exposures during their time outdoors.
Kellsie Prather is a doctoral candidate in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences’ Department of Human Development and Family Science, advised by Niyantri Ravindran and Elizabeth Wieling. She holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and a master’s degree in reading education from Ohio University and has taught in both public and homeschool settings. Her research and public service focus on parenting, family processes and child development in rural and under-resourced communities, with an emphasis on working alongside families as experts in their own lives and grounding research and outreach in community realities.
As a first-generation college student from rural Appalachia, Prather draws on her teaching experiences to shape her commitment to family-centered, community-responsive work. These experiences inform both why and how she engages with families and communities, prioritizing access, trust and relationship-building. Through partnership with Extension Specialist Diane Bales, Prather has supported the adaptation and implementation of the Block Party, a community-based early childhood outreach program. This work centers on adapting the program to local community needs while creating welcoming, play-based spaces that support informal learning and connection among parents and children. This work was supported by the FACS Don Bower Extension Experience Fund and fulfilled the Graduate Portfolio in Community Engagement, awarded by the Office of Service-Learning.
In her teaching and service, Prather prioritizes meeting students, families and community members where they are. As a member of the 2025 UGA Future Faculty Fellowship Program, she has deepened her preparation for an engaged faculty role that integrates teaching, scholarship and community partnership.
Wezddy Del Toro Orozco is a Ph.D. candidate in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources’ Integrative Conservation Program, advised by Nate Nibbelink. Del Toro Orozco’s doctoral research bridges ecology and social science and focuses on jaguar movement ecology and human–jaguar coexistence in Central Amazonia.
Originally from Mexico, she holds a B.S. from UMSNH and a master’s degree from UNAM. She has participated in research and human–wildlife coexistence projects in eight countries, with more than 13 years working in the Amazon region. Working with local communities and researchers from the U.S. and Latin America, she co-produces knowledge to inform community-centered coexistence strategies. Through collaboration with a community-based ecotourism program and the Mamirauá Institute, she developed visual materials and facilitated outreach sessions in rural Amazonian communities, creating spaces for dialogue that integrate scientific and local knowledge.
At UGA, Del Toro Orozco extends her engaged scholarship through science communication and leadership. She curated a photography exhibition at the Warnell School that connects Georgia audiences to global conservation challenges and informs local human–wildlife management. She also co-organized a cross-unit forum on fieldwork safety. Beyond campus, she has co-chaired an international symposium on human–wildlife coexistence, presented award-winning research through storytelling and helped organize media-focused initiatives to promote ethical human–wildlife interactions communication. Fluent in four languages, her work exemplifies UGA’s mission of public service and outreach by integrating science, communication and community partnership to foster safer, more resilient relationships between people and wildlife, locally and globally.