2025 Doctoral Hooding Ceremony

Hooding Ceremony Livestream Recording

For Your Information

The Hooding ceremony will be captioned on video screens.

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this program’s content. Any omissions or errors are unintentional. The graduates’ names listed in this program were submitted prior to administering final examinations. Therefore, the inclusion of degree candidates’ names in this program does not represent certification that candidates have satisfactorily completed degree requirements. Unless special arrangements have been made by departments, diplomas for all May degrees will be printed after graduation and mailed to graduates. For further information, visit the Registrar's website.

Alma Mater

The words of “Hark the Sound,” UNC–Chapel Hill’s alma mater, were written in 1897 by William Starr Myers, a graduating senior. The Glee Club director asked Myers to put words to the tune “Amici,” and the song was first performed on June 2, 1897, as part of the Glee Club’s Commencement performance in Gerrard Hall.

Soon the song was almost forgotten. When a University quartet tried a few years later to remember the words, they could recollect only the first verse and the chorus of Myers’ original version. Two members of the quartet, Charles S. Mangum and Charles T. Woollen, added two verses to the one they remembered. Mangum later became a professor in the School of Medicine, and Woollen worked as the University’s business manager and comptroller.

Hark the Sound
Hark, the sound of Tar Heel voices
Ringing clear and true,
Singing Carolina’s praises,
Shouting N.C.U.!

Hail to the brightest star of all!
Clear its radiance shine!
Carolina, priceless gem,
Receive all praises thine.

The Old Well

At the heart of the campus stands the visual symbol of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For many years the Old Well served as the sole water supply for Old East and Old West dormitories. In 1897, the well was given its present decorative form at the direction of President Edwin A. Alderman, who described his beautification project as largely derived from the Temple of Love in the Garden of Versailles. In 1954, the well was given added beauty with brick walks, plantings and benches. Legend holds that students can bring good luck with a drink from the Old Well on the first day of classes.

The Doctoral Hooding Program

• Academic Procession
  The Official Platform Party
  The Deans
  The Faculty
  The Candidates for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Education, Doctor of Nursing Practice and Doctor of Public Health
  
• Presiding
  Lee H. Roberts, Chancellor, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  
• National Anthem
  Stella Ferrer, Bachelor of Music
  
• Remarks
  For the Board of Trustees of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  John Preyer, Chair
  
• Remarks
  Beth Mayer-Davis, Dean of The Graduate School
  
• Introduction of the Commencement Speaker
  Katie Heath, Graduate and Professional Student Government President, 2024-2025
  
• Commencement Address
  Dr. Don Baucom, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Psychology and Neuroscience
  
• Conferring of Doctoral Degrees
  Lee H. Roberts, Chancellor
  J. Christopher Clemens, Provost
  Kumarini “Kumi” Silva, Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education; Associate Professor, Communication, College of Arts and Sciences
  Beth Mayer-Davis, Dean of The Graduate School
  
• Presentation of the Faculty Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring
  Beth Mayer-Davis, Dean of The Graduate School
  
• Chancellor’s Charge to the Graduates
  Lee H. Roberts, Chancellor
  
• Recessional
  Hark the Sound by Stella Ferrer

Lee H. Roberts
Chancellor

Lee H. Roberts was named chancellor for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on August 9, 2024, after serving as interim chancellor. A dedicated public servant and a strong believer in the importance of a liberal arts education, Chancellor Roberts is focused on initiatives that set graduates up for success and provide support to researchers, faculty, and staff.

Roberts is a longtime advocate for higher education and for the state of North Carolina. He served as a member of the UNC System Board of Governors and as the chair of its budget committee. He has held positions on the State Board of Community Colleges, North Carolina’s Banking Commission, and the Board of Visitors at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, where for five years he taught public budgeting to graduate students. Roberts has also served as a board member at the Golden LEAF Foundation, which invests in educational and economic opportunities for North Carolina’s rural communities. He was honored to serve as state budget director under Governor Pat McCrory from 2014 to 2016.

Before serving as interim chancellor, he was the co-founder and managing partner of SharpVue Capital, a North Carolina investment firm that specializes in stewarding institutional funds and growing local economies.

Elizabeth “Beth” Mayer-Davis
Dean of The Graduate School

Elizabeth “Beth” Mayer-Davis became dean of The Graduate School in September 2022. As the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and Medicine, she has focused her career on diabetes and nutrition, including the epidemiology, natural history and treatment of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in children and adults. Throughout her career, Mayer-Davis has mentored numerous graduate students. She is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and ensuring that our graduate students have access to professional development and mental health and well-being tools to support them during their time at Carolina. Formerly the chair of the Department of Nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, she also co-directs the Nutrition Obesity Research Center.

Mayer-Davis believes that graduate students are capable and prepared to address humanity’s greatest challenges. Under her leadership, The Graduate School supports graduate students and advocates for the support of graduate education in our state.

Dr. Don Baucom
Doctoral Hooding Ceremony Speaker

Donald H. Baucom, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is truly a “Tar Heel born and bred,” having been born and raised in North Carolina and receiving both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from UNC—a Bachelor of Arts in 1971 and a Ph.D. in Psychology in 1976. He joined the faculty at UNC in 1980, where he continued as a full-time faculty member until his retirement in 2024. For a number of years, he served as director of the Clinical Psychology Program in his home department. He continues his collaborative involvement in research with faculty at UNC and around the world, as well as with graduate students.

Professor Baucom describes UNC as the ideal place to nurture and develop his passions for research, student involvement through teaching and mentorship, and leadership in the field. For 50 years, he has committed his professional career to understanding and researching the importance of close, intimate adult relationships such as marriage and their central role in individuals’ well-being. He is a primary developer of cognitive behavioral couple therapy, which is one of the few approaches with strong empirical support in assisting distressed couples and which has been adapted for cultures around the world. He has broadened his approach to assisting couples in which one or both partners are struggling with psychological issues or medical problems, teaching them how to use their relationship as a resource during difficult times. Professor Baucom is committed to taking his findings beyond the scholarly realm to make a direct impact on the lives of people within the local community and worldwide. Thus, he directed a couples therapy clinic at UNC for decades, training and supervising doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in working with couples while providing low-cost services to couples throughout North Carolina. He also conducts workshops around the world to teach therapists in other countries how to assist couples in a variety of different challenging life circumstances.

In recognition of Professor Baucom’s scientific contributions to the field and their implications for human well-being, in 2008 UNC selected him for an endowed chair and the title of Richard Simpson Distinguished Professor of Psychology. The North Carolina Psychological Association also recognized him through the Mary Clarke Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology in North Carolina, as well as their Outstanding Contributions to Science and Teaching Award in North Carolina.

Professor Baucom notes that spending time with graduate and undergraduate students is one of the most rewarding and gratifying aspects of his career. He has received the University Mentorship Award for Lifetime Achievement based on his mentoring relationships with doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. He has chaired approximately 50 doctoral dissertations and a similar number of master’s theses, maintaining relationships with many of his former students for decades. Professor Baucom also greatly values interacting with students in seminars and lectures. He has received University-wide teaching awards at both the undergraduate and the post-baccalaureate (graduate) level. Within the Clinical Psychology Program at UNC, the doctoral students have recognized him across numerous years both as their outstanding clinical supervisor and for his contributions to a constructive workplace environment.

Professor Baucom states, “Carolina is my academic home, and I am deeply grateful to join our entire University community to honor and celebrate our doctoral graduates at this year’s hooding ceremony. These graduates exemplify Carolina at its best.”

2024-2025 Graduate and Professional Student Government Executive Board

• Katie Heath, President
• William Boyer, Senior Vice President
• Bex Nelson, Chief of Staff
• Elaine Reiche, Vice President for Advocacy and Government Affairs
• Joana Vazquez, Vice President for Communications
• De'Ivyion “Ivy” Drew, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion
• Erica Li, Vice President for Finance

Graduate School Advocacy and Development Board

• Deborah “Debbie“ J. Boles '97, Ph.D. '02
• Charles “Chuck“ A. Cushman, MA '94, Ph.D. '96
• Amanda B. Elam '89, MA '97, Ph.D. '06
• Dr. Charles “Rob“ Garris (CHAIR) MA '92, Ph.D. '99
• Margaret “Peggy“ F. King '68, MA '69, Ph.D. '74
• Pamela “Pam“ K. Lattimore '81, Ph.D. '87
• John W. Poulton Ph.D. '80
• Leah B. Townsend '11, Ph.D. '17
• Shaun Venable

Administrative Board of The Graduate School

May 2025 Candidates for Graduate Degrees

May 2025 Graduates’ names are followed by their area of major study, dissertation or project title, and the name of their doctoral advisor.

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

• Laryssa Abdala, Mathematics, Electro-Fluid-Mechanical Computational Models of the Human Heart. Professor Boyce Griffith
• Aiman Abzhanova, Toxicology, Wood Smoke Toxicity in Human Airway Epithelial Cells: An Investigation of Oxidative Stress Using Live Cell Imaging Approaches. Professor James Samet
• Andrew Thomas Ackerman, Statistics and Operations Research, High Dimensional Neuroimaging Data Integration and Inference. Professors Jan Hannig and Zhengwu Zhang
• Esteban Alejandro Agudo, Biology, Effect of Temperature on Predation in a Warming Ocean. Professor John Bruno
• Hilary He-Jin Ahn, Business Administration, Essays on Venture Signaling and Investor Bias in the Venture Capital Industry. Professor Atul Nerkar
• Nicholas Rajai Akkawi, Chemistry, Photochemically Enabled Total Syntheses of Stemoamide Alkaloids and Organic Reagent Design. Professor David Nicewicz
• Ihsan Alp, Economics, Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets. Professor Brian McManus
• Rebeca Alvarado-Harris, Nursing, The Role of Structural and Interpersonal Discrimination in Latina Mother and Child Immune Pathways. Professor Hudson Santos
• Tomaz Alves da Silva Neto, Oral and Craniofacial Biomedicine, Inflammasome Regulation of Inflammatory Bone Loss is Sex-Dependent. Professors Julie Marchesan and Jenny Ting
• LaRisa Anderson, Media and Communication, Exiles, Podcasters, and Deconstructing Theologians: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Study of (Digital) Religion. Professor Lee McGuigan
• Daphne Miller Armstrong, Business Administration, Interagency Disclosure Use in Government Enforcement. Professors Jeff Hoopes and Ed Maydew
• Ariana Avila, Anthropology, “Aquí, Nadie se Muere de Hambre”: Food Acquisition, Care, and Food Sovereignty in Immokalee, Florida. Professor Angela Stuesse
• Madelaine Azar, Anthropology, Chaos and Creativity: Understanding Ritual Potting Traditions in the Eastern Lowlands of the Central Mississippi River Valley, A.D. 1350 - 1600. Professor Vincas Steponaitis
• Gillian Alexandra Barkell, Psychology, Hippocampal-Dependent Neuroimmune Mechanisms Are Associated With the Effect of Ethanol on Stress-Enhanced Fear Learning. Professor Donald Lysle
• Joshua Joseph Barrett, Nursing, An Examination of Turnover, Retention, and Stigma in the Behavioral Health Nurse Workforce. Professor Cheryl Jones
• Kerry Ann Bartlett, Education, Exploring the Impact of Tyto Online on the Argumentation Skills and Science Content Knowledge of Middle Schoolers. Professor Janice Anderson
• Somnath Basu Roy Chowdhury, Computer Science, Equitable Machine Learning in Static and Dynamic Environments. Professor Snigdha Chaturvedi
• Dharini Bathia, Public Policy, The Role of Social Safety Nets in Shaping Development Outcomes: Effects on Personality, Gender Norms and Employment Trajectories. Professor Sudhanshu Handa
• Jillian Taylor Battista, Psychology, Linking Machine Learning-Predicted Brain Aging With Alcohol-Related Phenotypes. Professors Charlotte Boettiger and Keely Muscatell
• Frankie Bauer, American Studies, Paradigms of Behavior: Cherokee Intertribal Diplomacy and Nation-Building in the Missouri, Arkansas and Indian Territories in the 1780s to 1840s. Professors Daniel Cobb and Kathleen DuVal
• Hannah Bazick, Neuroscience, Towards an Effective Gene Therapy for Angelman Syndrome: Targeting Ube3a-ATS With CRISPR/Cas9 and Zinc Finger Nucleases. Professor Mark Zylka
• Jon-Michael Thomas Beasley, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biomedical Knowledge Graphs and Their Applications to Scientific Discovery: Studies in Toxicity Mechanism Elucidation, Target Nomination, and Drug Repurposing Guided by Biomedical Knowledge Graphs and Chemical Bioactivity Databases. Professors Alexander Tropsha and Eugene Muratov
• Ling Beisecker, Human Movement Science, Physical Activity and Mental Health Among Women Transitioning Into College. Professor J.D. DeFreese
• Sophie Bendrath, Psychology, Central Amygdala to Lateral Hypothalamus NPY1R Signaling Modulates Binge-Like Ethanol Consumption in a Sex-Dependent Manner. Professor Todd Thiele
• Kevin Hargovindbhai Bhimani, Physics, Advances in Germanium Detector Signal Modeling With GPU Computing and Deep Learning Techniques. Professor Julieta Gruszko
• Andreley Grace Bjelland, English and Comparative Literature, Childhood and Crime in Early Modern English Drama. Professor Mary Floyd-Wilson
• Caroline Stewart Blount, German Studies, Race and Space in 19th Century German-American Literature. Professor Jakob Norberg
• Anna Kathryn Boatman, Chemistry, Advancing Non-Targeted Analysis of PFAs With Liquid Chromatography, Ion Mobility Spectrometry, and Mass Spectrometry. Professor Erin Baker
• Alexander Joseph Boley, Chemistry, Exploration of Novel C-H Functionalization Methodologies via Organic Photoredox Catalysis. Professor David Nicewicz
• Marielle Louise Bond, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Long-Range Gene Regulation in Human Development and Alzheimer’s Disease. Professors Douglas Phanstiel and Hyejung Won
• Brady Bos, Physics, LEGEND-200 Commissioning, Operations and an Investigation of HPGe Detector Performance. Professor John Wilkerson
• Michael Patrick Bremmer, Psychology, A Human Laboratory Model of Alcohol Satiety and the Role of Glucagon-Like Peptide 1. Professor Christian Hendershot
• Brian Michael Brew, Political Science, Populism in America: Anti-Elitism and Anti-Pluralism in the United States. Professor Sarah Treul Roberts
• Caitlin Ann Brinkman, Human Movement Science, Sleep Assessment and Intervention in Patients After ACL Reconstruction: An Exploration of the Relationships Between Sleep, Psychological Responses, and Mental Health Symptoms. Professor Shelby Baez
• August Alexander Bruno, Economics, Parenting Decisions and Child Skill Development. Professor Luca Flabbi
• Brooke Whitney Bullington, Epidemiology, Assessing the Impact of a Postpartum Intrauterine Device Intervention on Contraceptive Decision-Making in Tanzania, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Professor Audrey Pettifor
• Melissa Leigh Camp, Musicology, Nahda in the Grooves: Musical Modernity and Baidaphon in Post-Imperial Egypt. Professor Michael Figueroa
• Jimmy Capella, Psychology, Sensitive to a Social World: Interactions Between Neural Function and Social Networks Across Adolescence. Professor Eva Telzer
• Gonzalo Cazes-Nasitiqui, Mathematics, Loop Polynomials for Knots on a 3-Sphere. Professor Lev Rozansky
• Umit Celik, Business Administration, Streamlining Healthcare Operations Using Causal Inference and Machine Learning. Professor Bradley Staats
• Brendan Chambers, English and Comparative Literature, Novel Privacies: Surveillance and Enclosure in 1960s American Fiction. Professor Florence Dore
• Olivia Sarita Chandrasekhar, Mathematics, Pathways to Spatial Instability in Models of Fire Propagation. Professor Christopher Jones
• Laura Chaves Cerdas, Public Policy, Three Essays on Access and Utilization of Healthcare. Professor Carmen Gutierrez
• Jiawen Chen, Biostatistics, Advanced Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Methods for Spatial Omics. Professors Yun Li and Didong Li
• Chandler L. Classen, Communication Studies, Toxic Encounters/Radioactive Afterlives: Nuclear Protest, Sovereignty, Kinship, and Friction in Rural America. Professor Renée Alexander Craft
• Cristobal Clemente Rodrigalvarez, Romance Languages and Literatures, Cultura Infantil Transnacional: Orígenes del Anime Híspanojaponés. Professor Irene Gómez Castellano
• Erin Coffman, Nutrition, An Examination of Interventions to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Among Young Adult Cancer Survivors. Professor Carmina Valle
• Melanie R. Cohn, Marine Sciences, Microbial and Photochemical Processes Regulate Organic Matter Transformations Across Marine Environments. Professor Scott Gifford
• Amy C. Cole, Health Informatics, Tailoring Reports for Patient-Reported Health Information Within Digital Health Tools: Impacts on the Quality of Values Elicitation and Clarification for Complex Treatment Decision-Making in Older Adults With Advanced Cancers. Professor Lukasz Mazur
• Heidi Sonya Coleman, Education, Centering the Student Voice: A Qualitative Evaluation of Lived Experiences of Correctional Education Programs in the Southeast. Professor Cheryl Bolick
• Luke Gregory Conners, Mathematics, Colored Torus Link Homology. Professor David Rose
• Drake Matthew Crawford, Chemistry, Identification and Biosynthesis of Diazeniumdiolate Signals Produced by Pathogenic Pseudomonas. Professor Bo Li
• Angelica Cristello Sarteau, Nutrition, Use of A Priori and A Posteriori Methodologies to Inform the Development of Feasible Eating Strategies that Promote Glycemic Management in Young People With Type 1 Diabetes. Professor Elizabeth Mayer-Davis
• Natalie Croitoru, Business Administration, How Resilience Makes for Tough Leaders: The Downsides of Adversity Tolerance. Professors Michael Christian and Timothy Kundro
• Rosa Cuppari, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Risk Reduction and Risk Transfer to Manage Hydrometeorological Financial Risk for Hydropower Across Geographic Scales. Professor Gregory Characklis
• Brandy Curtis, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Effects of Membrane Properties on the Localization and Assembly of the Septin Cytoskeleton. Professor Amy Gladfelter
• Amjad Dabi, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Forward-in-Time Simulations in Population Genetics: Promises and Pitfalls. Professor Daniel Schrider
• Aline D'Angelo Campos, Health Behavior, Interpretive Front-Of-Package Labels: Assessing and Addressing Unintended Contributions to Weight Stigma. Professors Marissa Hall and Shu Wen Ng
• Daniel de Marchi, Biostatistics, Tree-Based Models for Learning Complex Distributions. Professor Michael Kosorok
• Michelle Delahanty, Epidemiology, Variability in the Hormone Environment Before and During Pregnancy and the Likelihood of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Professor Julie Daniels
• Mohit Desai, Business Administration, What Drives Bank Credit Lines? Wholesale Funding and Bank Liquidity Creation. Professor Jacob Sagi
• Emily Devericks, Nutrition, The Role of Glutathione Peroxidase 4 at the Interface of Tumor Metabolism, Diet-Induced Obesity, and Treatment Efficacy in Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Professor Stephen Hursting
• John Calvin Dickenson, Chemistry, Photophysical Properties of Molecules and Materials for Solar Energy Conversion. Professors Gerald Meyer and Alexander Miller
• Rebekah Jane Dickmander, Chemistry, Translational Regulation of Human Cytomegalovirus UL123 and UL122. Professor Nathaniel Moorman
• Christian Yadiel Dones Lassalle, Chemistry, Spectroscopic and Electrochemical Characterization of Energy Capture and Storage Materials. Professor Jillian Dempsey
• Karishma D’souza, Health Policy and Management, Technology, Innovation and Healthcare Markets in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Study of Telemedicine in India. Professor Sean Sylvia
• Vinisha Flavia Dsouza, Nursing, Applying 3D Model of Culturally Congruent Care to Address Prolonged Grief Disorder: An Embedded Mixed-Methods Study. Professor Cheryl Woods Giscombé
• Rachel DuMez-Kornegay, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Elucidating the Host Response to the Consumption of Kombucha. Professor Rob Dowen
• Matthew Dunn, Epidemiology, Individual- and Community-Level Determinants of Care Timeliness in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study. Professor Melissa Troester
• Lauryn DuPree, Education, (Re)Imagining Student Teacher Supervision: Building Antiracist Practices in the Student Teaching Internship. Professor Jocelyn Glazier
• Isaiah Eckart-Frank, Chemistry, Investigations of Palladium Alkylidenes for Strained Ring Synthesis. Professor Sidney Wilkerson-Hill
• James Isaiah Emerson, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Post-Transcriptional Mechanisms Regulate Cardiac Sex Differences. Professor Frank Conlon
• Javier Etchegaray, History, Archipelagos of History: Indigenous Legal Mobilization in Colonial Chiloé, 1684 - 1730. Professor Cynthia Radding
• Andrea Etkie, Speech and Hearing Sciences, ‘I Still Have Trouble With This’: The Views of People With Rett Syndrome Regarding Communication and Literacy. Professor Karen Erickson
• Edgar Maxwell Faison, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Chemical Visualization of Transient Conformational Processes in RNA. Professor Qi Zhang
• Kevin Christopher Field, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Immunotherapy and Model Development in Pediatric Sarcomas. Professor Ian Davis
• Hank Flury, Statistics and Operations Research, Estimation of Spatial Gaussian Dependencies With a Focus on Extremes. Professors Richard Smith and Jan Hannig
• Marshall William Fritz, Pharmaceutical Sciences, In Vivo Engineering of B Cells. Professor Samuel Lai
• Natalie Grace Frye, Psychology, Prospective Brain Network, Social, and Individual Predictors of Depression in Adolescence. Professor Kristen Lindquist
• Nicholas Pierce Funnell, Ecology, The Influence of Ecological Interactions and Environmental Context on Shellfish Mariculture and Restoration Outcomes in North Carolina. Professor Fodrie
• Katherine Furl, Sociology, Beauty, Boundaries, and Being Seen: How Appearance Norms Amplify Digital Inequalities. Professor Lisa Pearce
• Yuan Gao, Materials Science, Design of DNA-Based Multiscale Shape-Shifting Materials. Professor Ronit Freeman
• Andrew Suiter Gavin, Physics, TRISTAN Data Acquisition Development and Systematics Studies for KATRIN. Professor Reyco Henning
• Erica L. Gigas, Nursing, Factors Associated With COVID-19 Outcomes in Appalachian and State Veterans Nursing Homes. Professor Saif Khairat
• Meleena Gil, English and Comparative Literature, The Poetics of (Re)Productive Justice: How Latinx Authors are Transforming the Figure of the Child Through the Bildungsroman. Professor María DeGuzmán
• Nathan Gill, History, Before There were Roses: Environmental Conflict and the Double Conquest of the Ecuadorian Andes. Professor Miguel La Serna
• Cortland Gilliam, Education, The Disenfranchisement of Tomorrow: Black Youth and the Struggle for Political Legibility During the Era of School Desegregation in Warren County, North Carolina, 1954 - 1971. Professors Constance Lindsay and Ronald Williams
• Santiago Giron Gesteira, Romance Languages and Literatures, Is That a Forest? Contemporary Representations of Tree Monoculture in the Iberian Peninsula. Professor Irene Gómez Castellano
• Amy Glazier, Physics, Red Stars, Green Planets: Evaluating Planetary Habitability in Light of M-Dwarf Superflares. Professor Nicholas Law
• Lindsay Gomes, Psychology, Promoting Positive Social Skills Within Early Care and Education (ECE) Contexts: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses for Policy Considerations. Professor Cathi Propper
• Aubrey Josephine Gray, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Leverage of the Foot and Ankle: Aging, Balance and the Future of Super Shoes. Professor Jason Franz
• Valentina Graziuso, Romance Languages and Literatures, Le Creature Animali Nell'Opera di Anna Maria Ortese: Postumanesimo, Ontologia Relazionale e Trascendenza. Professor Serenella Iovino
• Matthew Aaron Greenwald, Microbiology and Immunology, Unraveling Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Antimicrobial Tolerance in Muco-Obstructive Airway Diseases. Professor Matthew Wolfgang
• Aliyah Griffith, Marine Sciences, Coral Reef Structure, Community Composition Shifts, and the Complexities of Coral Reef Management Across Three Regions in the Greater Caribbean and Florida. Professor Karl Castillo
• Kathryn Elizabeth Lesley Grimes, Health Policy and Management, Evidence-Based Prevention Programming in the United States Military: Validating Measures, Evaluating Effectiveness, and Exploring Factors Influencing Integration. Professor Christopher Shea
• Lauren Elise Grimley, Geological Sciences, Characterizing the Role of Compound Processes on Tropical Cyclone Flood Hazards. Professor Antonia Sebastian
• Michael Gropper, Business Administration, Lawyers Setting the Menu: The Effects of Litigation Risk on Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans. Professor Camelia Kuhnen
• Jonathan Gruhin, Chemistry, C-C Bond Formation Realized by Amidyl-Radical-Mediated Chain Reactions. Professor Erik Alexanian
• Kaiyun Guan, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Multiscale Modeling of Feedback Regulation During Cellular Polarity Establishment. Professor Timothy Elston
• Lily Gullion, Occupational Science, Serving the Country: A Critical Discourse Analysis of National Media About School Meal Policies From 2020 - 2024. Professor Nancy Bagatel
• Sarah Christina Haight, Epidemiology, Racial and Ethnic Inequities in Perinatal Mental Health Care in the U.S.: The Impact of Medical Mistrust and Residential Segregation. Professor Joanna Maselko
• Adrienne R. Hall, Geography and Environment, Black Cartographies: Theory, Experiments, and Praxis Toward Re-Mapping Black Towns and Places in the United States. Professor Sara Smith
• Eden Harder, Psychology, Effects of Cocaine on Nucleus Accumbens Core Astrocyte Calcium Dynamics and Control of Synaptic Plasticity. Professor Kathryn Reissner
• Latesha K. Harris, Nursing, Police Violence Exposure and Cardiometabolic Risk in Black Women. Professors Yamnia Cortes and Cheryl Giscombe-Woods
• Hazel Mae Havens, Biology, Computational, Behavioral, and Robotic Investigations of Magnetoreception in the Caribbean Spiny Lobster. Professor Kenneth Lohmann
• Samuel Hawke, Biostatistics, Innovations in Dimension Reduction: Contrastive, Sufficient, and Fair Approaches. Professor Didong Li
• Priya Stepp Hibshman, Cell Biology and Physiology, Defining the Role of MYC in KRAS-Mutant Pancreatic Cancer. Professor Channing Der
• Christiana Ikemeh, Health Policy and Management, Assessing the Penetration, Fidelity, and Birth Outcomes Associated With the 2016 WHO Antenatal Care Policy Across States in Nigeria. Professors Justin Trogdon and Christopher Shea
• Andrew Isdaner, Biology, Evolutionary and Genetic Mechanisms of Phenotypic Plasticity in the Mexican Spadefoot Toad, Spea Multiplicata. Professor David Pfennig
• Basma Jaafar, Romance Languages and Literatures, Représentation Littéraire de la Parisienne Objet de Désir et D'Anéantissement à Travers Les Espaces. Professor Ellen Welch
• Junyoung Jeong, Business Administration, Salaries on Display: Unintended Consequences of Wage Disclosure. Professors Stephen Glaeser and Wayne Landsman
• Luke Jeske, History, Faith and Empire: Russian Orthodox Christian Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 1800 - 1914. Professor Louise McReynolds
• Rebecca Mary Jones, Biomedical Engineering, Volumetric Ultrasound for Non-Invasive Neurofunctional Imaging and Targeted Neuromodulation. Professor Gianmarco Pinton
• Nurlan Kabdylkhak, History, Muslim Institutions and Religious Patronage on the Kazakh Steppe Under the Russian Tsars, 1820s - 1920s. Professor Eren Tasar
• Bryant Kane, Biomedical Engineering, Discovery of Β-Hydroxybutyrate Binding Proteins and Their Engineering as Enhanced Biological Recognition Elements for Continuous Biosensing. Professor Koji Sode
• Sumit Kumar Kar, Statistics and Operations Research, Three Essays on Influence Maximization in Networks. Professors Nilay Argon and Shankar Bhamidi
• Abolfazl Karimi, Computer Science, Simulation-Based Testing of the Traffic Rules Requirements for Autonomous Vehicles at Intersections. Professor Parasara Duggirala
• Michael Kebede, Epidemiology, Physical Activity and Breast Tumor Biology Among Breast Cancer Survivors. Professor Melissa Troester
• Jennica Kelm, Chemistry, Surface Properties and Electronic Structure of Semiconductor Nanocrystals. Professor Jillian Dempsey
• Joseph Adam Kerrigan Jr., Biomedical Engineering, Engineering of a Direct Electron Transfer Type FAD-Dependent Glucose Dehydrogenase for its Application in Electrochemical Glucose Sensors. Professor Koji Sode
• Kshitiz Khanal Khanal, City and Regional Planning, Applications of Machine Learning in Utility Planning for Climate Resilience. Professor Nikhil Kaza
• Mukund Khanwalker, Biomedical Engineering, Development of Immunosensors Based on Faradaic Electrochemical Impedance Spectrscopy for In Vivo Continuous Monitoring of Insulin. Professors Koji Sode and Michael Daniele
• Eliscia Kinder, Information and Library Science, Making and Unmaking the Record(s): Witness Evidence and Boundary Making Processes in Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. Professor Ryan Shaw
• Eric Andrew Kirk, Education, Modeling Causal Systems to Foster Epistemic Development, Systems Thinking, and Civic Practice. Professor Troy Sadler
• Katelyn Marie Kitzinger, Chemistry, Development of Domino and Stereoconvergent Reactions for the Assembly of Stereochemically Complex Organic Scaffolds. Professor Jeffrey Johnson
• Till Knobloch, History, August Crisis: How Hitler Went to War in 1939. Professor Konrad Jarausch
• Daniel Kolbin, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Centromeres are Stress-Induced Fragile Sites. Professor Kerry Bloom
• Mark Edward Kowalewski, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Exploring the Mucin Glycan-Degrading Glycoside Hydrolase Landscape in the Gut Microbiome and Targeting Hsp90 in Microbial Pathogens. Professor Matthew Redinbo
• Ken Cai Kowalski, Sociology, Popular Interpretations of Postindustrial Economic Conditions in the United States. Professors Andrew Perrin and Charles Kurzman
• Erin Kowalsky, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Effects of a Shared Sanitation Intervention on Child Health Outcomes: Pathogen Exposures, Anthropometric Outcomes, and Risk Factors. Professor Joe Brown
• Taylor Joanne Krajewski, Biostatistics, The Augmented Synthetic Control Method With Interference and Randomization-Based Covariance Analysis for Restricted Mean Survival Time Estimates. Professor Michael Hudgens Gary Koch
• Erin Colleen Krist, Chemistry, Investigating the Rheological and Scattering Behavior of Templated Entanglements in Polymer Networks. Professor Aleksandr Zhukhovitskiy
• Anjali Dakshina Kumar, Epidemiology, Exploring the Effects of Neighborhood-Level Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Mortgage Lending on Metabolic Syndrome in Latino Individuals. Professor Chantel Martin
• Joungwon Kwon, City and Regional Planning, Exploring Scholarship, Practice, and Applications of Augmented Reality in Planning Visualizations. Professor Todd BenDor
• Elizabeth Choy Kwong, Health Informatics, Impact of Stakeholder Engagement and Underlying Factors on the Design, Evaluation, and Knowledge Transfer of Automated QA Tools in Two Radiation Oncology Departments Prior to Implementation. Professor Lukasz Mazur
• Shelby Lake, Mass Communication, Developing Effective HIV Prevention and Prep Promotion Messages for Self-Identified Bisexual Men. Professor Allison Lazard
• Matthew Lanetti, Chemistry, Experimental and Computational Study of Electrides With Unique Dimensionality and Metastability: Theory, Synthesis, and Characterization of a 3D Electride and an Emerging Class of Dynamically Stable Electrides. Professors James Cahoon and Dorothy Erie
• Andrea Larson, German Studies, Defective Media: The Function of the Feminine in German Lyric Poetry After 1900. Professor Sarah Pourciau
• Joseph Lavond, Statistics and Operations Research, Advancing Model Security, Data Privacy, and Performance for Widespread Adoption of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. Professor Yao Li
• Sierra L. Lawson, Religious Studies, Spilled Milk, Spilled Blood: Breastmilk, Race, and Religion in Transatlantic Spanish Empire. Professors Jes Boon and Brandon Bayne
• Tanya Maria Lazarus, Chemistry, Alkene Functionalization via Organic Photoredox Catalysis. Professor David Nicewicz
• Sarah Lebu, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Assessing the Resilience of Sanitation Systems to Extreme Rainfall and Flooding. Professor Joe Brown
• Adam Micheal Lee, Health Informatics, Harnessing Topic Modeling and Knowledge Graphs for Enhanced Discovery in Health Interoperability Research Through Retrieval-Augmented Generation. Professor Stan Ahalt
• Chanhwa Lee, Biostatistics, Causal Inference Under Clustered Interference and Nonparametric Efficient Estimation. Professors Michael Hudgens and Donglin Zeng
• Sool Lee, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Systematic Investigation of Allelic Regulatory Activity of Genetic Variants Associated With Psychiatric Disorders. Professors Hyejung Won and Douglas Phanstiel
• Brian Andrew Lerch, Biology, Formalizing Feedback Between Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. Professor Maria Servedio
• Rebecca Rawson Lesnefsky, Education, Transformative Science Education: Bridging Theory and Practice in Innovative Science Curricula. Professor Troy Sadler
• Haolin Li, Biostatistics, Ensemble Learning Methods for Survival Prediction in Studies With Outcome-Dependent Sampling Designs. Professors Jianwen Cai and Haibo Zhou
• Tianqi Li, Economics, Regularized Regression When Boundary Values Are Possible. Professors Jonathan B. Hill and Valentin Verdier
• Xinglin Li, Economics, Essays on Econometric Modeling of Forecasting, Uncertainty, and Price Impact. Professor Eric Ghysels
• Sarah Lindmark, Musicology, Disco-Tech: Jukeboxes and DJs in Manhattan's Gay and Lesbian Discotheques, 1968 - 1975. Professor Mark Katz
• Na Liu, Education, Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Perspectives in Mandarin Dual Language Programs: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study. Professor Xue Lan Rong
• Qin Liu, Computer Science, Human-Centered Visual Segmentation. Professor Marc Niethammer
• Sarah Lofstrom, English and Comparative Literature, Depathologizing Queerness: Narrative Therapy as Coalitional Healing in Contemporary Queer Life Writing. Professor María DeGuzmán
• Anneliese Marie Long, Anthropology, Diverging Reproductive Futures: Exploring Biosocial Influences on Fertility Goals and Reproductive Preferences. Professor Amanda Thompson
• Alejandro G. Lopez, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Novel Inhibitory Sites of [3a,5a]3-Hydroxypregnan-20-One on Toll-Like Receptor 4 Neuroimmune Signaling. Professor A. Leslie Morrow
• Charlotte Ann Love, Toxicology, Effects of Aerosolized Cannabinoids and Their Quinone Oxidation Products on the Respiratory Epithelium. Professor Ilona Jaspers
• Andrew Lyons, Mathematics, Boundary Deformations of Elliptic Eigenvalue Problems. Professors Jeremy Marzuola and Yaiza Canzani
• Siena Mantooth, Biomedical Engineering, Development of a Novel Injectable Hydrogel for the Local Delivery of Breast Cancer Immunotherapy. Professor David Zaharoff
• Alexander David Marsh, Economics, Discriminatory Pricing in the Airline Industry. Professor Jonathan Williams
• Holli Martin, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Knowledge-Driven Antiviral Discovery. Professor Alexander Tropsha
• Ian Duncan McArthur, German Studies, Confession and Authority Negotiating Voice, Identity, and Power in Early Modern Women’s Autobiography. Professor Aleksandra Prica
• Kyle McQuillan, Romance Languages and Literatures, Novel Interventions: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Curricular Design in Language for Specific Purposes Classrooms. Professor Juan Carlos González Espitia
• Karen Medlin, Mathematics, Sampling Imbalanced Data With Bilevel Optimization. Professor M. Gregory Forest
• Tess Megginson, History, Borders of Statehood: The Mapping of Czechoslovakia, 1918 - 1925. Professor Chad Bryant
• Carmen Elena Mendoza, Epidemiology, Helicobacter Pylori Seroprevalence and its Association With the Epigenome, Hypertension, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Professor Wayne Rosamond
• Joshua Douglas Miller, Nutrition, Household Water Insecurity and Young Child Feeding Practices Across the Nutrition Transition: Findings From Ecuador and the Philippines. Professors Linda Adair and Amanda Thompson
• Katie Mollan, Epidemiology, Comparative Effectiveness of Levonorgestrel (LNG) Implant and Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA) Injectable for Pregnancy Prevention Among Women Living With HIV on Efavirenz or Dolutegravir. Professor Brian Pence
• Charlotte Loraine Montgomery, Chemistry, Mechanistic and Kinetic Evaluation of Cobalt Hydride Formation for Improved Catalysis. Professor Jillian Dempsey
• Sam Moore, Human Movement Science, The Athena Project: Advanced Tracking for Health and Enhanced Athletic Performance in Female Athletes. Professor Abbie Smith-Ryan
• Wesley Todd Morris, Education, Three Essays on Understanding and Strengthening the Teacher Pipeline. Professor Lauren Sartain
• Nicolas Murgueitio, Psychology, Translating Rodent Models of Threatening Rearing Environments. Professors Margaret Sheridan and Cathi Propper
• Morgan Nalesnik, Toxicology, Sex Specific Airway Response to Inhaled Wood Smoke Exposure: A Proteomic and Macrophage Analysis in Human Volunteers. Professors Meghan Rebuli and Neil Alexis
• Morgan Nicole Narain, Toxicology, Modifiers of PM2.5 Associated Health Effects in Vulnerable Populations. Professor Cavin Ward-Caviness
• Kendra Lynn Nelson, Nutrition, Uric Acid and Cognitive Impairment: Exploring the Impact of Obesity and Genetic Risk. Professor Venkata Voruganti
• Micah Hayman Nelson, Sociology, Politics, Partisanship, and Population Health: Exploring the Health and Measurement Consequences of a Polarizing United States. Professors Kenneth Andrews and Kenneth Bollen
• Alinda M. Nyamaizi, Maternal and Child Health, Navigating the Triple Burden: Understanding Pregnancy, HIV, and Mental Well-Being Among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Zambia. Professor llene Speizer
• Nicole Elise Ochandarena, Neuroscience, Molecular Identity, Spatial Distribution, and Corticothalamic Connectivity Differentiate μ-Opioid Receptor-Expressing Neurons in Prefrontal and Somatosensory Cortical Areas. Professor Grégory Scherrer
• Joonho Oh, Public Policy, The Sources of Accelerator Heterogeneity: Three Essays on Accelerator Participants and Geography. Professor Maryann Feldman
• Siddhi Ozarkar, Neuroscience, White Matter in Neurotypical Development and Angelman Syndrome. Professor Benjamin Philpot
• William Clyde Partin, Communication Studies, The E in Sports: The Platformization of Professional Gaming. Professor Torin Monahan
• Nila Madassary Pazhayam, Genetics and Molecular Biology, The Centromere Effect in D. Melanogaster. Professor Jeff Sekelsky
• Elena Peña-Argüeso, Romance Languages and Literatures, Rebeldes, Herejes y Enamorados: El Enemigo Neerlandés en el Teatro de Lope de Vega y en Relaciones de Sucesos. Professor Carmen Hsu
• Audrey L. Pereira, Public Policy, Three Essays on Social Policy in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Toward Gender Equality and Freedom From Violence. Professor Sudhanshu Handa
• Ximena Perez-Velazco, Nutrition, Combating Food Insecurity Among College Students at UNC: Developing A Social Marketing Intervention to Promote Snap Use. Professors Molly Demarco and Alice Ammerman
• Ishan Phadke, Economics, The Economics of Pharmaceutical Line Extensions and Regulatory Policy. Professors Brian McManus and Luca Maini
• Cassandra Phillips, Cell Biology and Physiology, Cytoskeletal Proteostasis Mechanisms and Gigaxonin Interactions in Human Disease Models of Giant Axonal Neuropathy. Professor Natasha Snider
• Zora Piskacova, History, Torn Men in a Torn Town: Municipal Administrators in Cieszyn and Český Těšín, 1918 - 1938. Professor Chad Bryant
• Erin Caroline Pratt, Musicology, Freedom and Repetition in German Strophic Song. Professor Naomi André
• Rakesh Radhakrishnan Menon, Computer Science, Using Language for Efficient, Explainable, and Interactive Machine Learning. Professor Shashank Srivastava
• Fariha Rahman, Biomedical Engineering, Mapping the Nuclear Landscape With Multiplexed Super-Resolution Fluorescence Microscopy. Professor Wesley Legant
• Julia Reddy, Maternal and Child Health, Performance of a Discretionary Child Protection System Reporting Policy for Infants With Prenatal Substance Exposure. Professor Emily Putnam-Hornstein
• Andrew Reed, Computer Science, Hiding Object Sizes With Constrained Padding in Multiple Settings. Professor Michael Reiter
• Elaine Taylor Reiche, Human Movement Science, From Fear to Physical Function: Investigating Cognitive-Affective-Motor Responses After ACL Reconstruction. Professor Erik Wikstrom
• Shannon Rhoads, Neuroscience, Utilizing Systems Imaging to Characterize Cell-Type and Stress-Dependent Organelle Signatures of Neurons and Astrocytes. Professors Sarah Cohen and Todd Cohen
• Nicholas William Ringelberg, Neuroscience, Circuit Mechanisms Driving Seizure and Behavior in a Mouse Model of Angelman Syndrome. Professor Benjamin Philpot
• Natalie Lynn Rittenhouse, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Molecular Determinants of Cohesin Function in Chromosome Organization and Disease. Professor Jill Dowen
• Grace Ross, Cell Biology and Physiology, Dynamic Synchronization of the Frontoparietal Network During Sustained Attention. Professor Flavio Frohlich
• Nicole Ross, Education, Reconceptualizing Teacher Education Through Critical Posthumanism: Cultivating Relational Consciousness and Justice Orientations in Preservice Teachers. Professor Jocelyn Glazier
• Rebecca Judith Rubinstein, Epidemiology, Human Milk Oligosaccharides and Infectious Gastroenteritis Risk in a Nicaraguan Birth Cohort. Professor Sylvia Becker-Dreps
• Savannah Jane Ryburn, Ecology, Elucidating the Diet of Sharks Through DNA Analysis of Fecal Matter. Professor John Bruno
• Dawn L. Sanderson, Statistics and Operations Research, Uncertainty Quantification in High-Stakes Systems: Assessing Rare Events in Real-World Problems. Professor Richard Smith
• Ginger Scanlon, Business Administration, Prescription for Savings? Disclosure in the Drug Market. Professor Eva Labro
• Courtney Schlusser, Epidemiology, The Burden of Exposure and Monitoring of QT-Prolonging Drugs and the Transient Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death Among Older Adults With Cancer. Professor Jennifer Lund
• Samuel B. Schmitt, Political Science, Market Society, Open Society? Contemporary Protestant and Catholic Critiques of Market-Oriented Liberalism. Professor Jeff Spinner-Halev
• Conner Schultz, Philosophy, The Role of Deliberation in the Theory of Normativity. Professor Alex Worsnip
• Ben Schwartz, Philosophy, A Critique of the Attention Economy: Flourishing, Autonomy, and Corruption. Professor Luc Bovens
• Spencer Craig Scott, History, Theology in the Medieval Public Sphere: Scholastic Theologians and the Franco-Papal Conflict. Professor Brett Whalen
• Donald Stephen Serafin, Cell Biology and Physiology, Adrenomedullin Proximity Interactomes Identify Regulators of Lymphatic Endothelial Cells. Professor Kathleen Caron
• Jordan James Shanahan, Chemistry, Synthesis and Application of Cleavable Side Chains in Modern Organic Semiconductors for Achieving Thermal Stability and High Conductivity. Professor Wei You
• Bingzhen Shang, Nutrition, Diabetogenic Effects of Preconception Arsenic Exposure in Wildtype and AS3MT Humanized Mice: The Role of Differential CpG Methylation and Gene Expression. Professor Miroslav Styblo
• Laurel Ann Sharpless, Health Behavior, Examining the Role of State-Level Restorative Justice Policies in Mental Health Disparities Among Girl Dating Violence Survivors. Professor Luz Reyes
• John Shook, Microbiology and Immunology, Antibiotic Treatment Failure of Staphylococcus Aureus in Diabetic Skin and Soft Tissue Infections. Professor Brian Conlon
• Erin Shore, Epidemiology, Outcomes Following a Catastrophic Sport Injury in U.S. High Schools: Sports Medicine and Preparedness Planning. Professor Stephen Marshall
• John Sebastian Sigmon, Computer Science, Integration of Optical Maps and Short-Read Sequencing Data in Genomic Investigation. Professor Leonard McMillan
• Aryssa Simpson, Biomedical Engineering, Developing Multi-Scale and Multi-Multidimensional Biomaterial Platforms for Investigating Fibrotic Progression and Abnormal Wound Healing Responses. Professor Ashley Brown
• Cyrus Shannon Sinai, Geography and Environment, Has Expanded Health Facility Electricity Access in Sub-Saharan Africa Improved Healthcare Delivery and Utilization? An Examination of Two Health Services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Malawi. Professor Michael Emch
• Elena Sirotkina, Political Science, Structuring Persuasion: Audio Dramaturgy, Implicit Attitudes, and Visual Attention in Political Communication. Professor Santiago Olivella
• Connor C. Slamowitz, Materials Science, Design of Fluoride-Ion Batteries Based on Electron-Anion Exchange. Professor Scott Warren
• Allison M. Smith, Chemistry, Developing CO2 Reduction Cascades Guided by Thermodynamic Hydricity. Professor Alexander Miller
• Alexander Sobotka, Physics, Altering the Pre-Recombination Expansion History With Hidden Sector Physics. Professor Adrienne Erickcek
• Jennifer Lee Standish, History, Right-To-Work: How World War II Agricultural Policy Shaped 20th Century Labor History. Professor William Sturkey
• Sandra Jeanne Stangeland-Molo, Biomedical Engineering, Developing a Novel Vascularized Bone Microdevice for Investigating the Post-Stroke Bone Microenvironment. Professor Jacqueline Cole
• Colleen Sturdevant, Microbiology and Immunology, Tumor Antigen Properties Determine B Cell-Driven Anti-Tumor Immunity in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. Professor Yuliya Pylayeva-Gupta
• Zara Surratt, Religious Studies, “Those Who Wear Black Dresses:” Indigenous Students, Catholic Immigrants, and Belonging at St. Francis Indian School. Professor Brandon Bayne
• Zachary Taebel, Marine Sciences, The Energetic Pathways in Oceanographic Wave Turbulence Examined Through Laboratory Experiments. Professor Alberto Scotti
• Hiroyuki Takahashi, Economics, Theory of Asset Price Bubbles and its Effects on Macro-Economy. Professor Stan Rabinovich
• Matias Catriel Tarillo, Political Science, Not (So) Political: Politics, Everyday Life and Stereotypes in Argentina. Professor Jonathan Hartlyn
• Nandi Taylor, Epidemiology, Historical and Contemporary Indicators of Structural Racism and Pedestrian Injury Rates in Chicago: A Spatiotemporal Analysis. Professor Stephen Marshall
• Alyssa Tedder-King, Business Administration, Consequences of Allyship Behaviors at Work. Professor Elad Sherf
• Pa Chia Thao, Physics, Windows Into Planetary Evolution: The Detection and Characterization of Young Worlds. Professor Andrew Mann
• Aaron Thieme, Philosophy, Harm and Benefit. Professors Luc Bovens and Alex Worsnip
• Palas Balakdas Tiwade, Pharmaceutical Sciences, mRNA-Based Gene Therapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment. Professor Owen Fenton
• Sophie Bao-Chieu To, Health Behavior, Comedy as Counterstory in the Covid Era? Generating Novel Insights Into the Intersection of Comedy, Racialization, and Health of Asian Americans. Professor Alexandra Lightfoot
• Diana Isabel Torres Silva, Romance Languages and Literatures, The Language of Contemporary Social Protests in Latin America: Mnemo-Critical Artifacts and Their Role in Shaping Marginalized Collective Memory and National Identity During the 2021 Colombian Social Outburst. Professor Miguel La Serna
• Md Asadullah Turja, Computer Science, Learning Spatio-Temporal Dynamics From Neuroimaging Datasets. Professor Martin Styner
• Michael Valancius, Biostatistics, Causal Inference With Machine Learning for Complex Data Contexts. Professor Michael Kosorok
• Ayelén Vanegas, Political Science, The Political Economy of Social Investment in Latin America. Professor Evelyne Huber
• Rachel Vaughn, Occupational Science, Understanding Participation in Occupation for Youth With Neurological Disability. Professor Nancy Bagatell
• Marissa Velarde, Maternal and Child Health, Mind The (Widening) Gap: A Multi-Method Study of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Dobbs Decision on Abortion Access. Professor Sian Curtis
• Ellysa Jeri Danielle Vogt, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Theme and Variations of Salt and Shape: Investigating Influences of Septin Assembly in Multiple Yeast Species. Professor Amy Gladfelter
• Cristian Roberto Walk, History, Cultivating Capitalism: Land and Labor in Ventura County, 1900 - 1964. Professors Erik Gellman and Benjamin Waterhouse
• Shuguang Wang, Education, How to Better Engage Students With Diverse Backgrounds - Using Asian Studies Courses as an Example. Professor Xue Lan Rong
• Austin Waters, Health Policy and Management, Queer, Sick, and Poor: Financial Hardship Among LGBTQ+ Cancer Survivors and Caregivers. Professor Erin Kent
• Kaeli Welsh, Pharmacology, Regulating the Anaphase-Promoting Complex/Cyclosome: Intrinsic Mechanisms and Cell Cycle Inhibitors. Professor Nicholas Brown
• Keridwen McLeyne Whitmore, Geography and Environment, Hydrological and Environmental Drivers of Carbon Fluxes in Rivers and Wetlands of a High-Elevation, Peatland Ecosystem of the Tropical Andes. Professor Diego Riveros-Iregui
• Denise Yookong Williams, Social Work, Transformational-Visual Intervention for Exposure With Suicide (Transformational-Views): Postvention as Suicide Prevention for Racially Diverse Queer Young Adult Suicide Loss Survivors. Professor William Hall
• Ian Williams, Communication Studies, In Miniature: A Study of Craft and Play in the Wargaming Industry. Professors Michael Palm and Aaron Shapiro
• Robert Williamson, History, Martial Materiality, Masculinity, and the Expression of Knightly Identity 1350 - 1425. Professors Marcus Bull and Brett Whalen
• Ellie Dewese Wilson, Biomedical Engineering, Antibody Engineering Towards In Vivo Continuous Monitoring of Insulin. Professor Koji Sode
• Alexa Rae Wolber, Microbiology and Immunology, Evolution of Physiology and Virulence in Bordetella. Professor Peggy Cotter
• Caitlin Wood, School Psychology, Effectiveness and Utility of a Multi-Modal Education and Support Group for Adoptive Families. Professor Kathryn Murray
• Morgan Wood, Statistics and Operations Research, Data-Driven Population Tracking and Arrival Forecasting in Service Systems. Professors Adam Mersereau and Serhan Ziya
• Euphy Wu, Biostatistics, Statistical Challenges in Sequencing Data: Addressing Uncertainty in Analysis. Professors Michael Love and Naim Rashid
• Prateek Yadav, Computer Science, Modular Methods for Continuous and Efficient Adaptation of Large Language Models. Professor Mohit Bansal
• Yue Yang, Biostatistics, Knowledge-Enhanced Learning Methods for Alzheimer's Disease. Professor Hongtu Zhu
• Yining Ye, Psychology, Investigating Referential Adaptation:The Statistics and Learning Mechanism. Professor Jennifer Arnold
• Bongsoo Yi, Statistics and Operations Research, Novel Methodologies in Network Analysis, Adversarial Learning, and Bandit Problems. Professors Andrew Nobel and Yao Li
• Sinan Yorukoglu, Statistics and Operations Research, Managing Innovative Green Technologies: Residential Solar-Plus-Storage and Electric Truck Fleets. Professors Nur Sunar and Jayashankar Swaminathan
• Emily Youree, English and Comparative Literature, Outside the Law: King and Outlaw in Late Middle English Literature. Professor Taylor Cowdery
• Ashlyn Nicole Zebrowski, Health Informatics, Exploring the Effects of Prescribing and Implementation Techniques on The Adoption of Virtual Reality Therapeutics. Professor Lukasz Mazur
• Jonathan H. Zhang, Biostatistics, Joint Modeling Subject to Dependent Censoring and Group Sequential Designs by Prespecifying Cumulative Power Levels With Uncertainties in Effect Size. Professors Jianwen Cai and Xianming Tan
• Shuofan Zhang, Economics, Essays in Time Series Econometrics With Applications to Public Health. Professor Peter Hansen
• Dongxu Zhao, Computer Science, Towards Building Immersive Telepresence Experience. Professor Jan-Michael Frahm
• Christina Zhou, Biostatistics, Statistical Machine Learning Methodology in Precision Medicine for Multiple Survival Outcomes. Professor Michael Kosorok
• Andrea Zurek-Ost, Anthropology, Mobility and Burial Along the Way of Saint James: Embodiment and Ephemerality at the Silo of Charlemagne. Professor Dale Hutchinson
• Logan Tyler Zwerneman, Chemistry, Inhibition of 4-Phosphopanthetheinyl Transferase in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and Advances in Stereo- and Regioselective Synthesis of Azepanes. Professor Jeffrey Aubé

DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

• Lisa Ashe, Educational Leadership, A Qualitative Case Study Exploring the Sustainability and Partner Interaction of a Statewide Research-Practice Partnership in K-12 Mathematics Education. Professor Eric Houck
• Jeffrey Martin Boyd, Educational Leadership, Assessing the Snapshot: Social Reproduction in Selective Admissions. Professor Eric Houck
• Anders Campbell, Educational Leadership, An Exploration of Opportunity Culture® Models in a Rural Middle School. Professor Chris Scott
• Emily Jean Ericson, Educational Leadership, Building Loyalty Through Policy: An Exploration of How School Districts Identify Problems. Professor Eric Houck
• Karis Renee Graves, Educational Leadership, Voices in Education: A Qualitative Analysis of Stakeholder Feedback in North Carolina’s Science Standards Revision. Professor Lora Cohen-Vogel
• Mary Lacey Holmes, Educational Leadership, Measuring the Impact of Culturally Responsive Teaching Training on Advanced Placement Teachers’ Self-Efficacy to Meet Diverse Advanced Placement Learners’ Needs at Porter High School. Professors Chris Scott and Jocelyn Glazier
• Darren James, Educational Leadership, Race, Place, and Disability: Mapping Special Education Disproportionality in an Urban School District. Professor Chris Scott
• Beth Keefer, Educational Leadership, To See and Be Seen: Factors Influencing the Retention of Black Teachers. Professor Christoher Scott
• Natashalyn Snipes, Educational Leadership, From Policy to Practice: Social Emotional Implementation Across North Carolina North Central Region Public School Units. Professor Eric Houck
• Sarah Stephens, Educational Leadership, Equity-Focused School Improvement. Professor Christopher Scott

DOCTOR OF NURSING PRACTICE

• Faith Bittinger, Nursing Practice, Quality Improvement Project for Adolescent Mental Health Through Tablet-Based Screening. Professor Ashley Kellish
• Laiby Boban, Nursing, Implementing Patient Education to Reduce SGLT-2 Inhibitor Associated Euglycemic DKA in Patients With Heart Failure. Professors Rebecca Kitzmiller and Liz Bell-McClure
• Chelsea Calandra, Nursing Practice, Comprehensive Program Evaluation for Strengthening Military Mental Readiness. Professor Rebecca Kitzmiller
• Amber Collins, Nursing Practice, Autism Screening in Pediatric Primary Care. Professor Stephanie Machalicky
• Amanda Marie Davidson, Nursing Practice, Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit Fall Prevention Program Evaluation. Professor Rebeccca Kitzmiller
• Breanna Dent, Nursing, “Our Children are in Trouble”: Integrating Therapeutic De-Escalation Training to Youth Leaders. Professor Ann-Marie Jones
• Uchenna Harrison Enyinnaya, Nursing Practice, Improving Colorectal Cancer Screening in Average-Risk Adults in Custody: Effects of Provider Education, Educational Brochure, and Reminders. Professor Rebecca Kitzmiller
• Elizabeth Marlo McCullen Fann, Nursing Practice, Implementing the PHQ-(A) Depression Screening in Post-Concussion Visits to Identify Early Signs of Depression in Adolescents. Professor Audra Rankin
• Sarah Folorunsho, Nursing Practice, Bridging Mental Healthcare Gaps: Targeted Depression Screening in African American Faith-Based Community. Professor Stephanie Machalicky
• Susan Frederick, Nursing Practice, Implementation of Continuous Glucose Monitoring Protocol in Primary Care. Professor Carrie Palmer
• Patricia Gebe, Nursing Practice, Code Phoenix: A Burn Notification Alert System. Professor Margaret Carman
• Victoria Gutierrez, Nursing Practice, Anticipating Post-Stroke Depression: Strategies to Promote Psychosocial Support. Professor Leslie Sharpe
• Monique L. Halyard, Nursing Practice, An Evaluation of the Changes in the Critical and Progressive Curriculum (CPC) Nurse Residency Program at UNC Hospital. Professors Ashley Kellish and Rebecca Kitzmiller
• Andrea Denise Howell, Nursing, Implementation of Standardized Depression, Anxiety and Risky Behavior Assessments of the Adolescent Patient Using Electronic Tablets During Check-In. Professor Maureen Baker
• Dorie Kogut, Nursing Practice, Is HIV Suppression Enough? Improving Quality of Life Assessment in Aging HIV+ Patients. Professor Rachel McInerney
• Mika Kuroki, Nursing Practice, A Multi-Level Intervention Using Learning and Education (MILE) to Improve Chlorhexidine Gluconate Use and Reduce Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections. Professor Lorinda Coombs
• Paige Lloyd, Nursing Practice, Improving LGBTQ Inclusivity in Primary Care: A Program Evaluation. Professor Rachel McInerney
• Marielle Leigh McDermott, Nursing Practice, Improving Medication Reconciliation During Patient Transitions of Care. Professor Carrie Palmer
• Ashley Morelen, Nursing Practice, Improving Multimodal Analgesia Medication Administration in a Total Joint Replacement Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Pathway. Professor Tracy Vernon-Platt
• Amelia Morton, Nursing Practice, Improving the Use of Evidence-Based Guidelines for Alcohol Screening and Brief Interventions in an Internal Medicine Clinic. Professor Leslie Sharpe
• Mary Susan Moss, Nursing Practice, Standardizing Oral Anticancer Medication Initiation to Improve Clinician Compliance With National Guidelines. Professor Tracy Vernon-Platt
• Kathleen Peniston, Nursing Practice, Engaging At-Risk Patients in a Safety Planning Intervention: A Program Evaluation of Zero Suicide in a Psychiatric Emergency Department. Professor Rebecca Kitzmiller
• Taylor Breanne Pinkos, Nursing Practice, Impacting Cesarean Section Rates in Low-Risk Nulliparous Laboring Women. Professor Rebecca Kitzmiller
• Emilie Price, Nursing Practice, Implementation of a Standardized Food Insecurity Screening and Referral Protocol at an Enhanced Primary Care Center. Professor Leslie Sharpe
• Savannah Addison Pruden, Nursing Practice, Implementing Depression Screening and Treatment Algorithms to Reduce Post-Operative Complications for Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery. Professor Carrie Palmer
• Savannah Roberson, Nursing Practice, Video-Based Self-Care Education for Patients With Heart Failure: A Doctor of Nursing Practice Quality Improvement Project. Professor Leslie Davis
• Abigail Short, Nursing Practice, Utilizing a Palliative Care Needs Assessment for Adult Allogeneic Hematopoeitic Stem Cell Transplants. Professor Lorinda Coombs
• Meagan Sutton, Nursing Practice, Implementing Strategies to Increase Referrals From Home Health to Hospice. Professor Rebecca Kitzmiller
• Jamie Watt, Nursing Practice, Depression Screening in Outpatient Physical Therapy. Professor Stephanie Machalicky

DOCTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH

• Kimberly Peterson Enders, Biostatistics, Bayesian Approaches to Address Missing Data and Analysis Challenges in Longitudinal Studies With Frequent Measurements. Professor Matthew Psioda
• Ryan McBride, Biostatistics, Variance Components, Correlation Components, Canonical Correlation, and Prediction in Mixed Models. Professor Bahjat Qaqish
• Nicolas Schaad, Health Policy and Management, Assessing Targeted and Enhanced Pediatric HIV Identification Efforts in Tanzania. Professor Sean Sylvia
• Alyssa Anne Schatz, Health Policy and Management, The Implementation of HPV Mandates for School Entry in Rhode Island and Hawaii and the Impact on HPV Vaccine Coverage Among Adolescents. Professor Lisa Spees
• Juliana Soares Linn, Health Policy and Management, Breaking the Cycle of Invisibility: Pilot Study of Barriers and Facilitators for People Living With Disabilities to Access HIV Prevention Services. Professor Sandra Greene
• Alonzo South, Health Policy and Management, Can Healthcare Make Wealth Fair? Utilizing Community Benefit Reporting to Address Racial Wealth Inequity. Professor Ciara Zachary
• Katherine Wells, Health Policy and Management, Exploring “Navigational Hubs” to Improve Population Health, A Role of Governmental Public Health. Professor Susan Helm-Murtagh

December 2024 Candidates for Graduate Degrees

December 2024 Graduates’ names are followed by their area of major study, dissertation or project title, and the name of their doctoral advisor.

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

• Devin Issac Alewel, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Neuroendocrine Mechanisms of Acrolein-Induced Health Outcomes. Professors Rebecca Fry and Urmila Kodavanti
• Zahra Al-Hamdani, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Cumulative Dietary Exposure Assessment to Chemical Contaminants. Professor Courtney Woods
• Benjamin Paul Allen, Chemistry, Mapping the Morphological Landscape and Dynamics of Peptide-Polymer Amphiphiles. Professor Abigail Knight
• Cyril Anyetei-Anum, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Evidence for a Causal Role of Histone-H3 Lysine-4 in Developmental Gene Regulation. Professor Daniel McKay
• Noah Cazimir Armstrong, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Formation and Evolution of Isoprene Epoxydiol-Derived Secondary Organic Aerosol: Composition, Hygroscopicity, and Role of Heterogeneous Oxidation. Professor Jason Surratt
• Joseph Winston Arney, Chemistry, Detecting and Perturbing Functional RNA Structure Ensembles. Professors Kevin Weeks and Gary Pielak
• Jeffrey Ayers, Mathematics, Capped Vertex Functions for Hilbert Schemes of Points and Cyclic Quiver Varieties. Professor Andrey Smirnov
• Samantha Jo Balboa, Chemistry, Molecular Adaptations in Antimicrobial Resistance and Stress Response Across Biological Systems. Professors Leslie Hicks and Dorothy Erie
• Saianand Balu, Health Informatics, An NLP Enriched Search Engine for Pathology Reports. Professor Javed Mostafa
• Victoria Barber, Chemistry, Accessing New Functional Polymers Through C-H Functionalization. Professor Frank Leibfarth
• Sophia Marie Bartels, Health Behavior, A Mixed Methods Assessment of Organizational Characteristics Associated With Successful Scale-Up and Sustainment of Systems Navigation and Psychosocial Counseling for People who Inject Drugs Living With HIV in Vietnam. Professor Vivian Go
• Madigan Lavery Bedard, Pharmacology, Sex-Specific Responses to Withdrawal in Mouse Models of Opioid Use. Professors Zoé McElligott and Grégory Scherrer
• Ryne Beddard, Religious Studies, “The Accursed Swamp:” The Ambiguity of tThe Sacred and the Great Dismal Swamp, ca. 1660 - 1860. Professor Todd Ochoa
• Matthew Begley, Biochemistry and Biophysics, A Structure Based Mechanism for AP-3 Coat Formation by Arf1. Professor Richard Baker
• Stephanie Betancur Grondona, Nursing, Evaluation of Environmental Services (EVS) Workers’ Risk for Occupational Exposure to Antineoplastic Drugs in Hospital Settings. Professors Ashley Bryant and AnnMarie Walton
• Clare Marie Byers, History, Expanding Knowledge, Exploring Empire: Constructing Credibility Among English and French Readers of the Natural History and Geography of North America, 1673 - 1763. Professor Jay Smith
• Jackson Cacioppo, Chemistry, Synthesis of Antitubercular Diaminopyridines and Studies on Product Inhibition in the Intramolecular Schmidt Reaction. Professor Jeffrey Aubé
• Julia Cardwell, Geography, Navigating Disruptions: Examining Weather-Induced Road Closures and Structural Vulnerabilities in North Carolina’s Road Network. Professors Charles Konrad and Paul Delamater
• Feng Cheng, Computer Science, Efficient Unimodal and Multimodal Video Understanding. Professor Gedas Bertasius
• Samantha Lucenell Chéry, Neurobiology, The Characterization of Neuroimmune Actions of [3a,5a]3-Hydroxypregnan-20-One in Alcohol-Preferring Rat Brain. Professor Leslie Morrow
• Anna R. Coletti, Mathematics, Different Relative Scalings Between Transient Forces and Thermal Fluctuations Tune Regimes of Chromatin Organization. Professor Katherine Newhall
• Victoria Crowder, Nursing, Nutrition, Eating, Mealtimes, and Quality of Life for Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Myelodysplastic Syndromes, and Their Care Partners. Professor Ashley Bryant
• Marta Cristina Cruz Cisneros, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Analyzing the Impact of Host Genetic Variation in SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza Adjuvanted Vaccination. Professors Mark Heise and Martin Ferris
• William Anderson Davis, Mathematics, Frobenius-Like Algebras, Colored Ribbon Graphs, and Extensions of TQFT. Professor Olivia Dumitrescu
• Halston E. Deal, Biomedical Engineering, Fibrin-Modulating Colloids as Alternative Treatments for Fibrin-Associated Pathologies. Professor Ashley Brown
• Jonathan DeLiberty, Pharmacology, Therapeutic Targeting of RAS-Driven Metabolic Dependencies by PIKfyve Inhibition. Professors Kirsten Bryant and Channing Der
• Jennifer Ford Loome Diaz, Microbiology and Immunology, Deciphering Chikungunya Virus Replication: The Role of RNA Structural and Sequence Elements in Gene Expression and Replication. Professor Mark Heise
• Karen Diepstra, Epidemiology, Investigating Drug-Drug Interactions and Contraceptive Efficacy Among Women Living With HIV Initiating Progestin-Based Hormonal Contraception in a Setting With High Tuberculosis Prevalence: Analysis of FP-ART Cohort Data From Lilongwe, Malawi. Professor Daniel Westreich
• Tyler Ditmore, Political Science, Fiscal Politics in an Era of Economic Interdependence: Three Essays on the Domestic Politics of International Taxation. Professor Cameron Ballard-Rosa
• Ginna Doss, Epidemiology, Measuring Gestational Age With Ovulation to Better Understand Pregnancy Length, Embryonic Growth, and Their Predictors. Professor Julie Daniels
• Chelsea Parker Duppen, Human Movement Science, Assessing and Addressing Hypokinesia of Gait Initiation in People With Parkinson Disease. Professor Michael Lewek
• Dominic Schaefer Finis, Chemistry, Development of Aliphatic C-H Functionalization Reactions Utilizing Organic Photoredox Catalysis. Professor David Nicewicz
• Merrill Froney, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Development and Implementation of a First-in-Class High Throughput Screen for Identifying Modulators of the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) Pathway. Professor Samantha Pattenden
• Michelle Fiamingo Fyle, Toxicology, Characterizing the Impact of Temperature and Living Conditions on Cardiovascular and Behavioral Health and Subsequent Toxicological Risk. Professor Mehdi Hazari
• Leah Gallant, School Psychology, A Path Analysis Associated With Self-Determination With Academic and Career Planning. Professors Dorothy Espelage and Steven Knotek
• Rachana Gangwani, Human Movement Science, Determining the Role of Brain-Muscle Synchrony in Post-Stroke Function and Recovery. Professor Jessica Cassidy
• Yuan Gao, Materials Science, Design of DNA-Based Multiscale Shape Shifting Materials. Professors Ronit Freeman and Wubin Bai
• Sayan Ghosh, Computer Science, Building Teachable AI From Explanations, Interactions, and Demonstrations. Professor Shashank Srivastava
• Kirsten Giesbrecht, Mathematics, Elucidating Mechanosensitive Pathways in Cardiogenesis Through Combined Experimental and Numerical Approaches. Professor Boyce Griffith
• Andrea Goodwin, Sociology, Race/Ethnicity, Caregiving and the Health of U.S. Women. Professor Robert Hummer
• Fahmi Grey, Business Administration, Channel Control Mechanisms: Exclusivity and Minimum Advertised Price Policies. Professor Katrijn Gielens
• Zack Hall, Physics, Towards Precision Physics: A Determination of Hadronic Observables With Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics. Professor Amy Nicholson
• Jaehyun Han, Computer Science, Reduced Associativity Memory Mapping in Computer Systems. Professor Donald Porter
• Dylan Lee Hardee, Chemistry, Development of the Asymmetric Lossen Rearrangement and Expansion of the Asymmetric Schmidt Reaction Utilizing Chiral Hydroxyalkyl Azides. Professor Jeffrey Aubé
• Sarah Elizabeth Harris, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Exploring the Evolution of RNA Binding and Regulation. Professor Daniel Dominguez
• Hanne Christine Henriksen, Chemistry, Leveraging Differences in Molecular Recognition to (1) Develop the First Frustration-Induced Switchable Foldamer and (2) Design Selective Inhibitors for Epigenetic Reader Proteins. Professor Marcey Waters
• Ellison Henry, Maternal and Child Health, Applying Tools From Systems Science to Inform Public Health Decision-Making in North Carolina Elementary Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Professors Dorothy Cilenti and Kristen Hassmiller Lich
• Joshua Hochuli, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Novel Cheminformatics Tools to Drive Experimental Discovery. Professor Alexander Tropsha
• Matt Hong, Computer Science, Adaptive Data Visualization Via Machine Learning From Human Feedback. Professor Danielle Szafir
• Jennifer A. Howard, English and Comparative Literature, Lands of (Dis)Enchantment: Native Critical Theory and Southwest Decolonial Imaginaries in Native Contemporary Literature. Professors Maria DeGuzmán and Gutierrez Michael
• Katelyn Tassan Howard, Romance Languages and Literatures, The Negotiation of Fear in Sixteenth-Century Discalced Carmelite Women Religious' Literature in Spain. Professor Jessica Boon
• Sarah Anne Howard, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Development of Novel Non-Hormonal, Long-Acting Contraceptives for Men and Women. Professors Soumya Benhabbour and Juliane Nguyen
• Katelyn Huff, Toxicology, Relationships Among Prenatal Chemical Exposures, Placental Epigenetic Gestational Age Acceleration at Birth, and Cognitive and Psychiatric Outcomes in Adolescence. Professor Rebecca Fry
• Elizabeth Hunt, Cell Biology and Physiology, Enhancing CD8+ T Cell-Mediated Tumor Control: The Interplay of ER Stress, Lipid Metabolism, and ER Morphology. Professor Jessica Thaxton
• Janay Franklin Hunt, Neurobiology, Investigating Nucleus Accumbens Astrocyte Cellular Processes Affected by Cocaine Self-Administration. Professor Kathryn Reissner
• Kristen Irons, Chemistry, Bringing Capillary Electophoresis (CE) to the Biochemist: Developing CE Methods for Characterizing Nucleic Acid Enzymes. Professor Dorothy Erie
• Diane Pearl Isaacs, Chemistry, Reactivity of Transition Metal Hydride Complexes in Energy Conversion Processes. Professor Jillian Dempsey
• Hanna V. Jardel, Epidemiology, Occupational Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds and Glycemic Dysregulation Among Oil Spill Cleanup Workers. Professor Lawrence Engel
• Claire Johnson, Ecology, Investigating Rates of Nitrogen Fixation by the Epiphytic Pelagic Sargassum Community Within the Gulf Stream Frontal Zone Off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Professor Lindsay Dubbs
• Jo / Kira Baldoni Karlik, Physics, Minkowski and De Sitter Branes in Massive Type IIA String Theory. Professor Dmitri Khveshchenko
• Lauren Elizabeth Kass, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Use of Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) to Develop Rationally Designed 3D Scaffolds to Deliver Therapeutic Neural Stem Cells for the Treatment of Glioblastoma. Professor Shawn Hingtgen
• Stephen J. Klawa, Chemistry, Engineering Structure-Function Relationships in Protein-Mimetic Supramolecular Materials. Professor Ronit Freeman
• Wesley Martin Knapp, Ecology, The Importance of Taxonomy, Species Discovery, and Prioritization in Preventing Plant Extinctions. Professor Alan Weakley
• Daniel Kolbin, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Centromeres are Stress-Induced Fragile Sites. Professor Kerry Bloom
• Abigail Ballard Kordeliski, Biochemistry and Biophysics, The Role of Small GTPases in Platelet Coagulation Interplay. Professors Wolfgang Bergmeier and Sharon Campbell
• Cansu Kose, Biology, Genome-Wide Nucleotide Excision Repair in Caenorhabditis Elegans. Professor Aziz Sancar
• Aditi Kothari, Pharmacology, HPV-Associated Head and Neck Cancer: Etiology and Determinants of Radiation Sensitivity. Professors Natalia Isaeva and Wendell Yarbrough
• Lauren Koval, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Investigating the Influence of Environmental Chemical Exposure on Breast Cancer Risk. Professor Julia Rager
• Benjamin Kruse, Chemistry, Supramolecular Templation of Trapped Entanglements in Polymer Networks. Professor Alesandr Zhukhovitskiy
• Michael Kunz, Ecology, Drivers of Rarity and the Conservation of Astragalus L. (Fabaceae) in the Southeastern United States of America. Professor Alan Weakley
• Kelsey R. Landrum, Epidemiology, The Children Who Go Uncounted: Quantifying the Surgical Disease Burden of Major Gastrointestinal Congenital Anomalies in 204 Countries and Territories. Professors Jessie Edwards and Brian Pence
• David Francis Lee, Pharmacology, Harnessing Neuron Type-Specific GPCR Targets and Tools for Precision Analgesia. Professors Grégory Scherrer and Bryan Roth
• Nayeon Lee, Nursing, Workplace Outcomes of Internationally Educated Nurses. Professor Mark Toles
• Esteban León, Physics, Data Cleaning With Traditional and Artificial Intelligence Methods for the Legend Experiment. Professor Julieta Gruszko
• Yifan Li, Philosophy, Unity of Science: A Mechanistic Approach. Professor John Roberts
• Peter Lin, Statistics and Operations Research, Disparities in Prioritization and Admission Decisions in Emergency Departments. Professors Nilay Argon and Serhan Ziya
• John Linehan, Biology, Modelling Cellular Forces During Division and Development. Professors Amy Maddox and Sebastian Fürthauer
• Lillian C. Lowrey, Microbiology and Immunology, DNA Amplification-Mediated Phase Variation and Two-Component Regulatory Signaling Coordinate as a Bet-Hedging Strategy in Burkholderia Thailandensis. Professors Peggy Cotter and Rita Tamayo
• Yang Luo, Statistics and Operations Research, Extragradient-Type Methods for Large-Scale Variational Inequalities. Professor Michael O'Neill
• Jamie Madrigal, Mathematics, Mathematical Modeling of Lipid-Mediated Coagulation Reactions. Professors Karin Leiderman and Suzanne Sindi
• Rami Martina Major, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Emergent Ethical and Scientific Considerations of Gene Editing in Human Disease. Professors Mark Zylka and R. Cadigan
• Breanna Elizabeth Mann, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Advancing the Organotypic Brain Slice Culture Platform Toward Functional Precision Diagnosis of Brain Tumors. Professor Shawn Hingtgen
• Laura Martinez, School Psychology, Effects of Immediate Reaction Force Deployment on the Academic Performance and Emotional Wellbeing of Military Children. Professor Sandra Evarrs
• Ann Marie May, Chemistry, Investigating the Electronic Structure, Photophysics, and Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Reactions of Low Spin, D5 Metallocenes. Professor Jillian Dempsey
• Sean McCann, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Characterizing Sources of Pediatric Pharmacokinetic Variability Through Diverse Real-World Data Sources. Professor Daniel Gonzalez
• Liliana S. McKay, Microbiology and Immunology, Adaptation of Bordetella Bronchiseptica to Survival Within the Mammalian Respiratory Tract. Professor Peggy Cotter
• Catherine McManus, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Monitoring, Managing, and Maintaining Communal Handpumps in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Dale Whittington
• Angana Mukherjee, Pathology, Characterization of the Cancer-Associated Effects of Loss and/or Mutation of Tumor Suppressor Genes on NF-kb Signaling in Breast and Pancreatic Cancers. Professor Albert Baldwin
• Mian Li Ong, Psychology, Plugging the Science-Practice Gap: Getting Evidence-Based Assessment Past the Tipping Point. Professor Eric Youngstrom
• Brian Overington, Political Science, Arid/Arable? How Climate and Geography Influenced a Political Divergence in Europe and the Mena Region. Professor Graeme Robertson
• Afroditi Papantoni, Nutrition, Reinforcement Learning and Food-Based Decision-Making. Professor Kyle Burger
• Ji-Eun Park, Biostatistics, Statistical Methods for Inference of Etiologic and Genomic Heterogeneity. Professors Michael Love and Di Wu
• Victoria Alexandra Parsons, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Identification of Genes Involved in Proinsulin Processing and Secretion. Professor Karen Mohlke
• Opal Patel, Epidemiology, Association of Oil Spill Cleanup-Related Hydrocarbon Exposure With Hypertension and Other CVD-Related Biomarkers Among Gulf Long-Term Follow-Up Study Participants. Professor Lawrence Engel
• Jarrett Michael Pelton, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Expanding Cell Free Biosynthesis for the Discovery of Natural Product-Inspired Peptides. Professor Albert Bowers
• Siran Qian, Chemistry, Acridinium Catalyzed C-H Activation, Alkene/Alkyne Functionalization and Decarboxylative Functionalization. Professor David Nicewicz
• Jacob Ramsey, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Delivering the Undeliverable: Nanomedicine Strategies to Overcome Biological Barriers. Professor Alexander Kabanov
• Kenneth Jackson Richards, Religious Studies, The Settler Doctrine: Indians, Religion, and the Land. Professor Randall Styers
• Keith Leslie Rogers, Toxicology, Characterizing Human Upper Respiratory Responses to Incinerated Plastic Emissions With Burn Pit Exposure Implications. Professor Ilona Jaspers
• Alexandra Ross, Nutrition, Assessing Methods to Estimate the Cost of Adherence to a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Diet Pattern for Low-Income Adults in South Africa. Professor Shu Wen Ng
• Sophia Roush, Pathology, HIV and Antiretroviral Therapy Exposure Alter Immunogenomic Features of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma. Professor Yuri Fedoriw
• Jack Ryan, Chemistry, Optimizing a Multidimensional Liquid Chromatography - Ion Mobility Spectrometry - Mass Spectrometry Platform for the Analysis of Biomolecules. Professor Erin Baker
• Prashamsa Sannareddy, Nursing, Feeding Outcomes in Infants Born Preterm and Small for Gestational Age. Professor Suzanne Thoyre
• Virginia Savage, Health Behavior, A Mixed Methods Study of Mental Health Among Female Sex Workers With HIV During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Professor Clare Barrington
• Alison Schaefer, Biomedical Engineering, Antibodies as Reinforcement for the Cervicovaginal Mucus Barrier. Professor Samuel Lai
• Grant E. Scull, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering and Application of Microfluidic Devices to Monitor Coagulation and Cellular Responses to Fibrin Matrices. Professors Ashley Brown and Michael Daniele
• Prabisha Shrestha, Geography, Socioeconomic Dynamics, Forest Governance and Energy Transitions: Examining Fuelwood Dependency and Health Impacts of Biomass Fuel Use. Professor Conghe Song
• Adams Sibley, Health Behavior, Determining the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Novel Stigma Resistance Text Message Intervention for People Who Use Drugs. Professor Vivian Go
• Hannah Skjellum-Salmon, English and Comparative Literature, “Come Into the Black and Live”: Black LGBTQ Resistance to Archival Erasure. Professors Rebecka Fisher and María DeGuzmán
• Kaitlan Sierra Smith, Pharmacology, Genetic and Pharmacological Inhibitors of Necroptosis in STUB1-Dependent Ataxias. Professor Jonathan Schisler
• Keeley Spiess, Neurobiology, Apoptosis in Neurons is Transient and Reversible. Professor Mohanish Deshmukh
• Mariah Stewart, Pharmacology, Phosphorylation-Dependent Interactions of Heat Shock Proteins and Co-Chaperones: Structural Insights and Implications for Cancer Cell Proliferation. Professor Jonathan Schisler
• Ian Ross Sturgill, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Roles of BAP1 in Cancer and Liver Damage Response. Professors Katherine Hoadley and Jesse Raab
• Kadija Muse Tahlil, Epidemiology, Behaviors Indicating Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Eligibility and HIV Testing Among Adolescents and Young Adults: Longitudinal Data From Nigeria. Professor Audrey Pettifor
• Hoyt Patrick Taylor, Computer Science, Connectome Eigenmodes and Their Applications. Professor Pew-Thian Yap
• Edward Terrell, Mathematics, An Efficient and Accurate Integrator for Nearly- and Fully-Incompressible Nonlinear Elastodynamics. Professor Boyce Griffith
• Morrent Thang, Neurobiology, Utilizing Neural Stem Cells as Therapeutic Carriers for Protein- and Nanoparticle-Based Therapies in Glioblastoma. Professor Shawn Hingtgen
• Devina Josephine Thiono, Microbiology and Immunology, The Effect of Dengue Virus 2 Envelope Proteins as Vaccine Antigens on Neutralizing Antibody Responses. Professor Aravinda de Silva
• Jake Edward Thistle, Epidemiology, Early Life Phthalate Exposure and Effects on Motor and Visual Development. Professor Stephanie Engel
• Alvin G. Thomas, Epidemiology, Measurement and Plasma Proteomic Signature of Cognitive Resilience to Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders. Professor Kari North
• Lin Tian, Computer Science, Learning Generalizable Deformations From Images. Professor Marc Niethammer
• Brittany Trottier, Epidemiology, Residential Proximity to Superfund Sites: Associations With Sociodemographic Characteristics and Breast Cancer. Professors Andrew Olshan and Alexandra White
• Alberto Valido, Education, Longitudinal Pathways of Depression and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among LGBTQ Youth of Color: An Integrative Data Analysis. Professor Roger Mills-Koonce
• Sarah Christine Van Alsten, Epidemiology, Genomic Classification of Secondary Breast Cancer: Expanding Approaches to Diverse Populations. Professor Melissa Troester
• Daniel Velasquez, History, Transimperial Trade Through the Louisiana-New Spain Nexus: Contraband, Slavery, and the Bourbon Reforms, 1763 - 1808. Professor Cynthia Radding
• Jianqiao Wang, Biostatistics, Efficient Estimation for Semiparametric Regression Models With Big Data. Professors Danyu Lin and Donglin Zeng
• Ying Wang, Genetics and Molecular Biology, cGas Controls Lipid Droplet Function Through ALDH2 Inhibition. Professor Pengda Liu
• Steven Weber, History, Imagining an Age of Revolution: Foreign News and Universalism in the French Revolution. Professor Jay Smith
• Christopher Michael Westgard, Maternal and Child Health, Assessment of Barriers to Implementation of the Home Visitation Program in Brazil and a Feasibility Trial to Test an Improved Implementation Strategy Bundle. Professor Herbert Peterson
• Keke Wu, Computer Science, The Design of Cognitively Accessible Visualizations. Professor Danielle Szafir
• Wenyi Xie, Biostatistics, Improving Risk Prediction and Treatment Decisions Using Auxiliary Information. Professors Donglin Zeng and Daniela Sotres-Alvarez
• Yifei Yang, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, The Interactions of Arsenic Exposure, Gut Microbiome and FXR Signaling in Diabetes. Professor Kun Lu
• Ashley Zachmann, Chemistry, Site-Selective C-H Functionalization as an Enabling Tool for Molecular Diversification. Professors Erik Alexanian and Jeffrey Johnson
• Shu Zhang, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Extra but not Useless: Shared and Redundant Proteins Coordinate Signal Cross-Talk Between MAPK Pathways in Yeast. Professor Henrik Dohlman
• Zhilan Zhou, Computer Science, An Examination of Analytic Focus and Perception During Exploratory Visual Analysis. Professor David Gotz
• Zahra Ziaei, Business Administration, Modeling Customer Choice in Retail Settings Using Novel Data Sources. Professors Adam Mersereau and Seyed Emadi

DOCTOR OF NURSING PRACTICE

• Marguerite Antonia Swick, Nursing Practice, Evaluation of an Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery Program. Professors Tracy Vernon-Platt and Carrie Palmer
• Jennifer Walker, Nursing Practice, Improving Obstructive Sleep Apnea Screening in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation With a Standardized Protocol and Home Sleep Apnea Tests in Electrophysiology Clinic (Sleep-AF Project). Professor Tracy Vernon-Platt
• Sonia Elizabeth Xavier, Nursing Practice, An Osteoporosis Screening and Treatment Bundle to Reduce Care After Fragility Fracture. Professor Carrie Palmer

DOCTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH

• Anna Batorsky, Biostatistics, Statistical Methods to Integrate Data to Improve Efficiency and Generalizability of Results from Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trials. Professors Donglin Zeng and Kevin Anstrom
• Emily Catherine Cimini, Health Policy and Management, Studying Public Health Quality Improvement Collaborative Evaluation to Advance Knowledge and Improve Implementation. Professor Karl Umble
• Zoey J. Kernodle, Health Policy and Management, Strategies to Address the Impacts of American Individualism and Individualization on Public Health Practice: Lessons From COVID-19 in the United States. Professor Sandra Greene
• Kiti Kajana Phillips, Health Policy and Management, Access to Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies, Including With Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), for People Suffering From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the U.S. Professor Erin Kent
• Albert Wright, Health Policy and Management, How Can the Integrated Care for Kids Model, A CMS Alternative Payment Model, Help Health Systems Learn to Better Address Pediatric Social Determinants of Health? Professor Ciara Zachary

August 2024 Candidates for Graduate Degrees

August 2024 Graduates’ names are followed by their area of major study, dissertation or project title, and the name of their doctoral advisor.

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

• Jill Kimiko Akiyama, Health Policy and Management, Medicare Transitional Care Management and Chronic Care Management Services: Practice Take-Up and Patient Impact. Professor Sally Stearns
• Nafeesa Andrabi, Sociology, Birth Outcomes Among Muslim Immigrants in the United States. Professors Robert Hummer and Carmen Gutierrez
• Brandon Baker, Classics, The Roman Karystia. Professors Donald Haggis and Jennifer Gates-Foster
• Deborah Baron, Health Behavior, A Mixed-Methods Study of Socio-Ecological Resilience Among Young South African Women Who Have Been Exposed to ACEs. Professor Suzanne Maman
• Katerina Elaina Brandt Beach, Geography, Disease Ecology of Gastric Cancer and its Primary Infectious Agent, Helicobacter Pylori. Professor Michael Emch
• Sampreeti Bhattacharya, Chemistry, Exploring Relativistic Effects and Optical Phenomena in Condensed Matter Systems: First-Principles Quantum Simulation With GW Approximation and Bethe-Salpeter Equation. Professor Yosuke Kanai
• Codey Ryan Bills, Communication Studies, Anticipating Survival: Latent Militarism and the Logic of Infrastructure in the Late-Twentieth Century United States. Professor Michael Palm
• Stephanie Allison Bogdewic, Maternal and Child Health, Assessing Health System Readiness for Achieving Sustainability of Effective Programs in Ghana. Professor Ilene Speizer
• Jacqueline Elyse Borgert, Statistics and Operations Research, Foundational Methods for Object Oriented Data Analysis and Statistical Inference. Professors Jan Hannig and J.S. Marron
• Alison Kramer Brinson, Anthropology, “Every Baby Is Gonna Baby”: Infant Sleep Development in the United States. Professor Amanda Thompson
• Stephanie Ann Brocke, Toxicology, The Role of the Airway Epithelium in Particulate Matter-Induced Exacerbation of Respiratory Viral Infection. Professor Ilona Jaspers
• Eric Dwayne Brown, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Identifying Placental Mechanisms Linking Environmental Stressor Mixtures to Preterm Birth: Understanding Disparities in Exposure and Outcomes. Professor Rebecca Fry
• Clara Busse, Maternal and Child Health, Acute Care in the Postpartum Period: Patterns of Utilization and the Perspectives of Birthing People. Professor Alison Stuebe
• Peter Buttery, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Development and Characterization of Covalent Chemical Probes for Chromodomain Proteins MPP8 and CDYL2. Professors Lindsey James and Stephen Frye
• Derrick Souid Carr, Physics, Investigating the Evolution of Local Nugget Galaxies. Professor Sheila Kannappan
• Yunwei Chen, Health Policy and Management, Information, Beliefs, and Household Health Behaviors: Evidence From China and the United States. Professor Sean Sylvia
• Matthew G. Clayton, Psychology, Social Stress Responses, Inflammatory Processes, and Risk for Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Adolescence. Professor Mitchell Prinstein
• Alexandria Coffey, Maternal and Child Health, Refundable State Earned Income Tax Credits and Child Maltreatment in the United States. Professor Meghan Shanahan
• Evan Crawford, Chemistry, A Dearomative Synthesis of Chiral Diene Ligands and Their Application to Domino and Enantioconvergent Reactions. Professor Jeffrey Johnson
• Vincent Ray Curtis, Materials Science, Optical Instrumentation and Methods for Animal Behavior Tracking and Modulation. Professors Nicolas Pegard and Jose Rodriguez-Romaguera
• Amanda Josephine Dale, Maternal and Child Health, Family Characteristics and Children’s Access to Primary Care Before and During the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2019 (COVID-19). Professor Angela Parcesepe
• Timothy Daugird, Pharmacology, Correlative Single Molecule Lattice Light Sheet Imaging Reveals the Dynamic Relationship Between Nucleosomes and the Local Chromatin Environment. Professor Wesley Legant
• Nicolás de la Cerda, Political Science, Beyond Partisanship: Political Identities in Comparative Perspective. Professor Jonathan Hartlyn
• Erin Dickey, Art History “Bad Information”: Networks, Knowledges, and Feminist Art in the 1980s. Professor Cary Levine
• Cassandra Dictus, Nursing, Multilevel Factors Related to Racial Disparities in Symptom Management Among Nursing Home Residents. Professor Anna Beeber
• Mekhala Dissanayake, Epidemiology, Race and Racial Composition of County: Inequities in Maternal Health and Healthcare in Rural North Carolina. Professor Mollie Wood
• Anne Drescher, School Psychology, Sources of Strength in the College Environment: Evaluation of a Credit-Bearing Course on Undergraduate Mental Health and Wellbeing. Professor Dorothy Espelage
• Chelsea Ducille, Maternal and Child Health, Association of Remittances With Skilled Delivery and Child Health in Uganda, 2015 - 2020. Professor Kavita Singh Ongechi
• Arianne Ekinci, History, Permanent Precarity: East Turkestani and the Quest for Political Belonging in Homeland and Diaspora, 1930 - 1970. Professor Michael Tsin
• Benjamin David Estevez, Statistics and Operations Research, Some Interacting Particle Systems With Singular Interactions. Professors Amarjit Budhiraja and Sayan Banerjee
• Sherah Faulkner, Geography, Reconsidering Blight: Land Use Planning and the Making of Problem Properties. Professor John Pickles
• Megan Anne Fenrich, Romance Languages and Literatures, On Cave and Stone: Ludovico Ariosto, Domenico Delfino, and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Professor Maggie Fritz-Morkin
• Rachael Flatt, Psychology, A Multi-Study Evaluation of Adaptable and Dynamic Approaches to Digital Interventions for Binge-Type Eating Disorders. Professor Cynthia Bulik
• Joseph Foster, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Investigating the Role of Cellular and Epigenetic Heterogeneity in Disease Through Integration of Multiomic Data. Professors Ian Davis and Joel Parker
• Molly Patricia Frauenheim, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Characterization and Fate of Isoprene Epoxydiol Isomerization Products in Atmospheric Secondary Organic Aerosol. Professors Avram Gold and Jason Surratt
• Andrew Freeman, Computer Science, Rethinking Video With a Universal Event-Based Representation. Professors Ketan Mayer-Patel and Montek Singh
• Sean Mitchell Gay, Neurobiology, Elucidating the Interplay Between Sleep, Synapses, and Brain Development. Professor Graham Diering
• Puyao Ge, Statistics and Operations Research, Optimal Policies for Inventory Allocation and Machine Maintenance. Professor Vidyadhar Kulkarni
• Giuseppina Gemboni, Romance Languages and Literatures, Space and Place in Italian Postcolonial Literature. Professor Serenella Iovino
• Graydon Buchanan Gereau, Pharmacology, Manipulations of the Neurotensin System Modulate Ethanol Consumption and Responses to Ethanol Administration in Rodents. Professor Grégory Scherrer
• Sarah Godoy, Social Work, A Mixed Methods Study Exploring Commercial Sexual Exploitation Initiated During Early Life Stages in the United States. Professor Mimi Chapman
• Elizabeth Tracy Green, Biology, Effects of Soil Nutrients on Plant Disease: Coinfection, Host Response, and the Microbiome. Professor Charles Mitchell
• Jacob Spencer Griffin, Anthropology, Inflammation, Adiposity, and Age in the Yakut of Northeast Siberia. Professor Mark Sorensen
• Hangyu Gu, Materials Science, Developing Efficient and Stable Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Modules for Tandems. Professor Jinsong Huang
• Isabella Guynn, Health Policy and Management, Understanding the Adaptation of Evidence-Based Interventions From a Systems Perspective: Integrating Implementation and Systems Sciences to Guide the Scaling of a Community Health Worker Program. Professor Kristen Lich
• Atiyah J. Hamilton-Barlow, Psychology, Dropping the Anchor: Factor Analysis Models for the Simultaneous Assessment of DIF on Every Item as a Function of a Latent Covariate. Professor Daniel Bauer
• Emily Harmon, Biology, Plasticity Minimizes Mismatch and Promotes Persistence. Professor David Pfennig
• Peter Hase, Computer Science, Interpretable and Controllable Language Models. Professor Mohit Bansal
• Samantha Noelle Hellberg, Psychology, Optimizing Ambulatory Assessment to Capture Person-Specific Dynamics of Perinatal Distress. Professor Jonathan Abramowitz
• Katharine Henry, English and Comparative Literature, “One Blood of All Nations”: American Protestant Missionaries in Early Nineteenth-Century China. Professor Philip Gura
• Aldwyn Anthony Hogg Jr, Musicology, Black Sonic Technopoetics: Sound, Music, Race, and Technology in Twentieth-Century America. Professor Andrea Bohlman
• Rebecca Leigh Hoover, Nursing, Exploring Physical Activity (PA) Interventions, Patterns of PA Change, and Cardiovascular Outcomes Among Survivors of Adolescent and Young Adult Cancers: A Comprehensive Dissertation. Professors Rachel Hirschey and Deborah Mayer
• Autumn Grace Hullings, Nutrition, Sex Differences in Dietary Intake in Association With Cardiovascular Disease-Related Lipid Metabolites. Professor Penny Gordon-Larsen
• Zackary Hutchens, Physics, Multiphase Gas in Galaxy Groups in Resolve, Eco, and Laduma. Professor Sheila Kannappan
• Heesoo Jang, Mass Communication, An Integrative Framing Study of the Public Discourse Around Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics. Professor Shannon McGregor
• Jessica Janos, Psychology, Adapting Interventions for Virtual Administration: Using MF-PEP as a Feasibility Model for Virtual Group Therapy. Professor Eric Youngstrom
• Yichen Jiang, Computer Science, Inducing and Interpreting Compositionality in Neural NLP Models. Professor Mohit Bansal
• Evan Jones, Communication Studies, Abandonment in Reverse: The Container Experience and Adaptive Reuse in Placemaking. Professor V. William Balthrop
• Jincheol Joo, Economics, Essays on Post-Crisis Housing Markets. Professor Stanislav Rabinovich
• Nathan Loren Jumper, Religious Studies, Confronting Fascism in Contemporary Esoteric Thought: Jason Reza Jorjani’s Spectral Philosophy. Professor Randall Styers
• Stacey Kane, Speech and Hearing Sciences, Factors Affecting Assessment and Speech Perception in Children With Auditory Neuropathy. Professor Emily Buss
• Nicole Kaitlyn Kelly, Epidemiology, The Relationship Between Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation and HIV Prevention Among Sexual and Gender Minoritized Youth in the United States. Professor Audrey Pettifor
• Jiyeon Kim, Sociology, Occupational Wages, Transition Pathways, and Secondary Jobholding: An Examination of Gendered Patterns in the Direct Care Workforce. Professor Ted Mouw
• Stephanie Jeanelle Kinzinger, English and Comparative Literature, Playing Reality: The Promise and Peril of Compositional Realities. Professor Matthew Taylor
• Sophia Noor Kiser, Mass Communication, The New Evangelists: White Christian Women Influencers as Book Authors in the Digital Age. Professor Barbara Friedman
• Chris Yun Lane, Human Movement Science, Reducing Long-Term Disability After Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury: Examining Opportunities in Those at Greatest Risk. Professor Louise Thoma
• Nicholas Jacob Lauersdorf, Materials Science, Bridging the Gap Between Real-Life and Theory: Heterogeneity in Active Matter. Professor Daphne Klotsa
• Yanru Lee, Economics, International Corporate Debt Distress. Professor Anusha Chari
• Xijing Li, City and Regional Planning, Exploring Heat Vulnerability in Historically Disadvantaged U.S. Urban Areas. Professor Yan Song
• Zhizhi Li, Musicology, A Polyphonic Study of Jazz in Early Occupied Japan, 1945 - 1949. Professor Andrea Bohlman
• Zhongbo Li, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Elucidating and Overcoming Anti-Peg Antibodies to Pegylated Therapeutics and Nanomedicine. Professor Shawn D. Hingtgen
• Slki Narae Lim, Education, Exploring How Primary Students Develop Computational Thinking Using Educational Robotics: A Mixed Methods Case Study. Professor Peter Halpin
• Yuan Yu Lin, Marine Sciences, Phytoplankton Molecular Physiology Associated With Upwelling Dynamics Through Field and Laboratory Studies. Professor Adrian Marchetti
• Anthony Sterling Lindsay, Political Science, CFE MK1: Conflict Forecasting Engine and Theory of Interstate Tension. Professor Mark Crescenzi
• Sophie Litwin, School Psychology, A Developmental Perspective on Intervention Strategies for Segmented Migration Among Latine Immigrant Families. Professors Juan Prandoni and Marisa Marraccini
• Tianyi Liu, Biostatistics, Algorithms for Cell-Type Deconvolution Under Constraints and Latent Structural Unwanted Variation. Professors Fei Zou and Quefeng Li
• Wentao Liu, Biomedical Engineering, Enhancing Human-Robot Symbiosis in Robot Control Design Using Inverse Reinforcement Learning. Professor Helen Huang
• Xuejun Liu, Health Policy and Management, Colorectal Cancer: New Screening Technology, Treatment Patterns and Medical Cost. Professor Justin Trogdon
• Quentin R. Loague, Chemistry, Photoinduced Electron Transfer at Dye-Sensitized Oxide Interfaces. Professor Gerald Meyer
• Adyasha Maharana, Computer Science, Data Selection for Generalization in Unimodal and Multimodal Models. Professor Mohit Bansal
• Ahsan Mahmood, Computer Science, Anomaly Detection Via Score Matching. Professor Martin Styner
• Katherine Hannah Malinski, Biology, Heat Waves Disrupt the Ecophysiology of Hosts, Parasites, and Symbionts: Evidence From an Agricultural Insect Pest. Professors Joel Kingsolver and Christopher Willett
• Alexander Marsden, Musicology, Rehearsing Community, Performing Empathy: The Value of Music in Refugee Advocacy Activism in the United Kingdom, 2015 - 2022. Professor Mark Katz
• Caitlin Martinez, Nutrition, An Exploration of Opportunities to Increase the Potency and Efficiency of Digital Behavioral Weight Loss Interventions. Professor Deborah Tate
• Dana Baker McCarty, Maternal and Child Health, Maternal Presence in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Understanding Unique Challenges and Assets at the Intersections of Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Geography. Professor Meghan Shanahan
• Amelia McCue, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Engineering Tumor-Selective T Cell Engager Prodrugs for Cancer Immunotherapy. Professor Brian Kuhlman
• Claire Ruth McNellan, Social Work, When is Maltreatment Confirmed? Using Unsupervised Machine Learning to Advance Understanding of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Report Dispositions. Professor Emily Putnam-Hornstein
• Zachary Metzger, English and Comparative Literature, The Border of Reality: Text Generation and the Birth of the Digital Humanities, 1952 - 2002. Professors Gregory Flaxman and Matthew Taylor
• Alexandra Jackelyn Miller, Psychology, General and Sport-Specific Risk Factors of Disordered Eating and Negative Affect Among Female Aesthetic Athletes. Professor Anna Bardone-Cone
• Mary Catherine Minnig, Epidemiology, Investigating Novel Methods to Determine Participant Inclusion Criteria in Disease-Modifying Osteoarthritis Drug Clinical Trials. Professor Yvonne Golightly
• Karah Marie Mitchell, English and Comparative Literature, Primary Lessons: Animals, Children, and Human(e) Education in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Professor Eliza Richards
• Mahsa Mofidi, Materials Science, Dynamic Simulation of Binding and Assembly of Proteins on Biomembranes. Professors Ehssan Nazockdast and M. Gregory Forest
• Brandon Mouery, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Molecular Mechanisms Maintaining Cell Cycle Arrest Induced by Pharmacological CDK4/6 Inhibition. Professor Jeanette Cook
• Ryan Daniel Mouery, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Regulation of the Cell Cycle Proteome by Kinase-Ubiquitin Signaling. Professor Michael Emanuele
• Rafael Nunez Rodriguez, Romance Languages and Literatures, Formas De Narrar La Deuda Hispanocubana: El Indiano Como Sujeto Económico (1868 - 1898). Professor Irene Gómez-Castellano
• Han Wee Ong, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Design and Synthesis of Kinase Inhibitors as Anti-Infective Agents for Malaria and COVID-19. Professor David Drewry
• Helen Megumi Orita, Musicology, “I Haven’t Got it All Figured Out Just Yet”: The Emergence, Circulation, and Influence of Turn-of-Millenium Feminist Music for Girl Audiences in the United States. Professor Jocelyn Neal
• Shreya Parikh, Sociology, Mirages of Race: Blackness, Racialization, and the Black Movement in Tunisia. Professors Charles Kurzman and Nadia Marzouki
• Sarah Patterson, Pharmacology, Understanding and Optimizing Chemotherapy Combinations. Professors Adam Palmer and Channing Der
• Drake Philip, Microbiology and Immunology, Host Responses Controlling Herpes Simplex Virus Skin Infection. Professor Jason Whitmire
• Ana Maria Pozo, Romance Languages and Literatures, Camuflajes Cotidianos: La Simulación en la Literatura Latinoamericana (1903, 1925, 1927, 1934, 2018). Professor Juan Carlos González Espitia
• Brenda Quiñones Ayala, Romance Languages and Literatures, Conciencia Racial: Las Trabajadoras Negras en la Literatura Puertorriqueña de Entre Siglos. Professor Oswaldo Estrada
• Rebecca Claire Radomsky, Chemistry, Electrides as Solid-State Ionic Conductors for Fluoride-Ion Batteries. Professor Scott Warren
• Erika Megan Redding, Health Behavior, Assessing County-Level Structural Racism and Plaintiff Race as Determinants of Disparities in Domestic Violence Protective Order Outcomes in North Carolina. Professor Kathryn Moracco
• Alexandria E. Reimold, Health Behavior, A Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Dollar Stores as Food Retailers. Professor Shelley Golden
• Benjamin Kylan Rice, English and Comparative Literature, The Costs of Cherishing. Professor Eliza Richards
• Evan Sparks Ringel, Mass Communication, “Special Concern”? A Mixed-Methods Examination of the Tension Between Legal and Practical Conceptions of Academic Freedom. Professor Amanda Reid
• Madeline Mae Robertson, Psychology, Prefrontal Cortical Excitatory/Inhibitory Balance: A Role in the Developmental Course of Psychopathology. Professors Charlotte Boettiger and Margaret Sheridan
• Anais Rodriguez-Thompson, Psychology, The Role of Context on Emotion Regulation Strategy Use and Effectiveness for Black Young Adults Facing Cross-Race Evaluative Stress. Professor Margaret Sheridan
• Leah Sadinski, Epidemiology, Blood Pressure Trajectories and Mortality Among People With and Without HIV in a United States-Based Cohort Study. Professor Jessie Edwards
• Swarnadeep Saha, Computer Science, Interpretable, Modular, and Structured Multi-Step Reasoning Over Natural Language. Professor Mohit Bansal
• Manuel Alejandro Sánchez Cabrera, Romance Languages and Literatures, Doing Cultural Studies in Central American Contexts Through Films and Documentaries. Professor Lawrence Grossberg
• Matthew Alan Sanders, Chemistry, Development of a Structure-Function Toolbox for Synthesis of Bioinspired Polymeric Catalysts. Professor Abigail Knight
• Ryan Sheehy, Pharmacology, Interrogating the Role of G9a in the Brain During Health, Aging, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Professor Juan Song
• Andrew D. Shelton, Biomedical Engineering, The Ecological Viability of Balance Perturbations for Real-World Diagnostic Testing. Professor Jason Franz
• Matthew William Sherry, Classics, Seeking Solace in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. Professor James O'Hara
• Elizabeth M Simmons, Maternal and Child Health, Improving Access to Midwifery Care and Preventing Perinatal Morbidities Through Policy Changes. Professors Kavita Singh Ongechi and Anna Austin
• Che Sokol, English and Comparative Literature, Sens(ing) and Self: A Haptic ‘Look’ at Multi-Sensory Representations of Women’s Labor and Artistic Production in Maghrebi and Maghrebi-French Diasporic Cinema Post-2000. Professors Hassan Melehy and Rick Warner
• Cole C. Sorensen, Chemistry, Stereoselective Cationic Polymerization: Method Development and Computationally Guided Mechanistic Studies. Professors Frank Leibfarth and Alexsandr Zhukhovitskiy
• Doug Stark, English and Comparative Literature, Untimely Play: History, Habit, Games. Professor Gregory Flaxman
• Emanuele Stefanori, Romance Languages and Literatures, The Detective Tools: Investigating Technology in Italian Crime Fiction. Professor Serenella Iovino
• Ya-Cing Syu, Occupational Science, Understanding Autistic Young Adults' Perceptions of Sleep and the Role of Habits and Routines in Sleep Experiences: A Multi-Method Study. Professor Nancy Bagatell
• Stephen Tang, Computer Science, Extending Soft Real-Time Analysis for Heterogeneous Multiprocessors. Professor James Anderson
• Zari Alyssa Taylor, Communication Studies, “TikTok as an App is Not Friendly to Black Creators”: Beauty Capital, “Ideal” Influencers, and Techno-Minstrelsy on Social Media. Professor Kumarini Silva
• Chiao-Hsin Teng, Nursing, Adaptation to Fatigue and Recovery of Physical Function Among Stroke Survivors. Professor Leslie Davis
• Delaney Thull, Philosophy, Political Emotion. Professor Markus Kohl
• Cullen Walsh, Chemistry, Charge Carrier Dynamics of Multilayer Molybdenum Diselenide Observed Using Optical Pump-Probe Microscopy. Professor James Cahoon
• Emily Caroline Walsh, Psychology, Exploration of the Relationships Between Body Attitudes and Sexual Experiences in a Diverse Sample of Adults: A Critical Theory-Guided, Multi-Method Approach. Professor Anna Bardone-Cone
• Mengru Wang, Materials Science, Deciphering the Degradation Mechanisms of Formmidinum-Cesium Perovskite Solar Cells. Professor Jinsong Huang
• Xikai Wang, Geological Sciences, Potassium and Lithium Isotopes in Marine Carbonates: Implications for Biological Effects and Hydrothermal Activities. Professor Xiao-Ming Liu
• Kelly L. White, Chemistry, Designing Silicon Nanowire Geometric Diodes for High Frequency Rectification. Professors James Cahoon and Robert Geil
• Logan Scott Whitehouse, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Deep Learning Applications in Population Genetics. Professor Daniel Schrider
• Robert Edward Wiley, Chemistry, I. Dearomatizations Enabled by an Internal Oxidant II. The Synthesis of Trisubstituted Pyridines From a Prefunctionalized Building Block. Professor Jeffrey Johnson
• Leonie Friederike Wilms, German Studies, Writing Hate/Performing Hate: Embodied Affect in Contemporary German Theater. Professor Richard Langston
• Alexandra Kristina Wojda-Burlij, Psychology, Understanding the Relationship Between Income and Well-Being Among Couples: Analysis of a Cognitive Mediational Model. Professor Donald Baucom
• Raven Wright-Smith, Nursing, A Multi-Method Approach to Understanding the Intersections of Cardiometabolic Disease, Gendered Race Based Stress, and Biological Aging in African American Women. Professor Cheryl Woods-Giscombe
• Shuang Xu, Materials Science, Multisource Volumetric Computed Tomography Using a Carbon Nanotube X-Ray Source Array. Professors Jianping Lu and Otto Zhou
• Jin Yan, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Chemical Characterization of Fresh Electronic Cigarette and Aged Isoprene-Derived Organic Aerosols. Professor Jason Surratt
• Juan Yanguela, Health Policy and Management, Understanding Racial Inequities Along the Lung Cancer Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment Continuum in North Carolina and the U.S. and Assessing Equity and Cost-Effectiveness Trade-Offs in the Design of Lung Cancer Screening Guidelines. Professor Stephanie Wheeler
• Stephen Zaksewicz, German Studies, The Ends of the World: Figures of Planetarity in Contemporary Austrian Prose. Professor Richard Langston
• Zhang Zhang, Health Policy and Management, The Impact of Telehealth on Healthcare Utilizaton, Health Behavior and Health Workforce Supply. Professor Sean Sylvia
• Tian Zhao, Economics, Essays on Machine Learning in Finance. Professor Eric Ghysels
• Xiaowei Zhong, Materials Science, Synthesis and Stability Study of Conjugated Organic Materials for Organic Photovoltaics. Professor Wei You
• Joshua Paul Zitovsky, Biostatistics, Improving Real-World Applicability of Offline Reinforcement Learning. Professor Michael Kosorok

DOCTOR OF NURSING PRACTICE

• David Batsa, Nursing, Increasing Naloxone Kit Distribution for At-Risk Patients. Professor Rachel Mclnerney

DOCTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH

• Malaika Brewer, Health Policy and Management, Identifying Effective Strategies to Mitigate Race-Related Stress Experienced by Black American Children. Professor Ciara Zachary
• Xiaoming Gao, Biostatistics, Addressing Challenges in Interval-Censored Survival Models: Study Design and Missing Time-Dependent Covariates. Professor Fei Zou
• Rodney Ellis Jenkins, Sr., Health Policy and Management, Increasing Racial Equity in North Carolina’s Local Public Health Senior Leadership Teams. Professor William Fleming

Awards and Fellowships

Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Awards

• Julia Brom, Chemistry
• Adams Sibley, Health Behavior
• Pa Chia Thao, Physics and Astronomy
• Jennifer Wu, Art History

Lovick P. Corn Dissertation Fellowship

• Umit Celik, Business Administration

Henry H. Dearman Dissertation Fellowship

• Nicholas Funnell, Ecology

Jessie Ball duPont Dissertation Fellowship

• Sayoko Kawabata, Occupational Science

Linda Dykstra Dissertation Fellowship

• Fatima Touma, Sociology

Mrs. Victor Humphreys Fellowship

• Takhona Hlatshwako, Health Policy and Management
• Ece Erlat, Anthropology

Ross and Charlotte Johnson Family Dissertation Fellowship

• Mira Markham, History
• Zora Piskacova, History

Lyle V. Jones Dissertation Fellowship

• Stephanie Betancur Grondona, Nursing

Susan Lord Dissertation Fellowship

• Linyu Yu, Education

William R. Kenan Jr. Fellowship

• Michael Baird, Art History
• Sydney Bauer, Art History
• Ryan Brooks, Political Science
• Yutong Gao, Education
• Farrah Hasan, City and Regional Planning
• Hunter Hughes, Earth and Marine Sciences
• Stephanie Kaczynski, Communications
• Theo Kassebaum, Anthropology
• Brian Lerch, Biology
• William Lewis, Classics
• Madelina Marquez, Biology
• Sean McCann, Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Ruitian Yan, Ecology
• Aurora Yu, Philosophy

Joseph E. Pogue Fellowship

• Clare Byers, History
• Frankie Bauer, American Studies
• Alita Miller, Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Jonathan Lara, Nutrition
• Pao-Pei Huang, Information Science

John W. Poulton Dissertation Fellowship

• Chu-Wen Hsieh, Anthropology

William Neal Reynolds Fellowship

• Margaret McAllister, Speech and Hearing Science
• Natashia Rogers, Nutrition
• Caz Armstrong, Environmental Sciences and Engineering
• Bryn Barker, Mathematics
• Emmanuel Amoako, Social Work
• Anneliese Brei, Computer Science
• Abdedaim Battioui, Ecology
• Rene Marzuk, English and Comparative Literature

Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Fellowship

• Rebeca Alvardo-Harris, Nursing
• Assanatou Bamogo, Maternal and Child Health
• Elisabeth Bernhardt, Nursing
• Caroline Blount, German Studies
• Adreinne Bonar, Psychology and Neuroscience
• Lily Chen, Nursing
• Dalia Chen, Biology
• Seonghyun Choi, Religious Studies
• Laura Cox, History
• Angelica Cristello, Nutrition
• Natalie Croitoru, Business Administration
• Amjad Dabi, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Tara DiCassio, Geography and Environment
• Ken Ge, Musicology
• Mark Jareczek, Chemistry
• Carnayla Johnson, Epidemiology
• Jonathan Larach Bonilla, Religious Studies
• Yifan Li, Philosophy
• Andreina Malki, Geography and Environment
• Sehdia Mansaray, Anthropology
• Alexander Marshall, Physics and Astronomy
• Chrisine Mikeska, Anthropology
• Joshua Miller, Nutrition
• Kierra Peak, Occupational Science
• Abhik Pramanik, Public Policy
• Carmen Prestemon, Nutrition
• Ana Ramirez, Anthropology
• Hannah Robison, Human Movement Science
• Lanier Walker, English and Comparative Literature

Thomas S. and Helen Borda Royster and Snowden and Elspeth Merck Henry Dissertation Fellowship

• Karishma Dsouza, Health Policy and Management

Sequoyah Fellowship

• Zara Surratt, Religious Studies

Carol and Edward Smithwick Dissertation Fellowship

• Carrington Merritt, Psychology and Neuroscience

The Chancellor’s Fellowship

• Lucas James, Neuroscience
• Aashka Dave, Information Science

GEAB Impact Awards

• Aleah Bailey, Toxicology
• Sarah Blanton, Romance Studies
• Laura Chaves Cerdas, Public Policy
• Jeremy Fine, Health Policy and Management
• Nicholas Funnell, Ecology
• Lauren Grimley, Earth, Marine and Environmental Science
• Kenneth Harris III, Social Work
• Elizabeth Kwong, Biomedical and Health Informatics
• Olufeyisayo Odebunmi, Health Policy and Management
• Annie Oomen, City and Regional Planning
• Courtney Peragallo, Public Health
• Sarah Perry and Charlotte Robbins, Public Health
• Jennifer Stone, Speech and Hearing Sciences

Academic Dress

The following information, based in part on An Academic Costume Code and Ceremony Guide (published by the American Council on Education), may be helpful in identifying academic attire worn during today’s Doctoral Hooding ceremony.

Degree Candidates’ Regalia. The hooded doctoral gown features three bars across each sleeve. The doctoral gown for Carolina graduates is Carolina blue, with facings and crossbars of dark blue outlined in white piping. The facings bear the shield of the University supported by the torches of learning. The hoods of master’s and doctoral degree candidates vary in color according to the field of study (see list below).

Faculty Regalia. Faculty wear the regalia of the institution that conferred their highest degree. The doctoral gowns are usually faced with black velvet, although the color of the velvet may vary according to the field of study. Hoods, which differ in length according to the level of the degree held, are lined with official colors of the university or college that conferred the degree, usually with one color forming a chevron pattern over the other. Some colors you will see on faculty and administrators’ robes are, for example, the crimson of Harvard, the maroon of Chicago, the orange and black of Princeton, the dark blue of Yale, and the light blue and white of North Carolina. Like the hoods of master’s and doctoral degree candidates, faculty hoods are edged and bound with velvet in the color appropriate to the field of study. The colors in the hoods and gowns of faculty and administrators represent the following fields in which degrees were taken: