CEE PhD Student Gabriel Mesole Wins the Professor John H. Bracey, Jr. Emerging Student Leader Award
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Gabriel Mesole, a PhD student focusing in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering within the UMass Amherst Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department, has been selected for the Professor John H. Bracey, Jr. Emerging Student Leader Award. This award recognizes Mesole’s “remarkable contributions to our community and the University of Massachusetts in realizing its goal of building an equitable and inclusive campus,” according to Linda M. Ziegenbein, the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Strategic Outreach & Engagement.
Mesole was presented with the award during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Racial Healing Community Gathering, held on Tuesday, January 20. The award includes a plaque and $1,500.
The Professor John Bracey, Jr. Awards for staff, faculty, and students honor the lasting legacy and impact of Bracey, who was an innovative scholar, mentor, community member, and activist at UMass Amherst. A leading figure in the fields of African American Studies and U.S. history, Bracey helped create one of the nation’s first doctoral programs in African American Studies at UMass Amherst and served as chair of the department as well as co-director of the graduate certificate in African Diaspora Studies. The awards recognize contributions by members of the university who, in turn, foster a more equitable and inclusive campus community.
Since arriving at UMass Amherst for his Ph.D. work in 2021, Mesole has been actively engaged in leadership and service efforts that promote equity and inclusion across campus. His involvement includes service within the Riccio College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Group and the Graduate Student of Color Association, as well as leadership roles with the African Graduates and Scholars Association, Graduate Student Government, Graduate National Society of Black Engineers, and Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Students.
Freke Etta, Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Riccio College of Engineering, has worked with Mesole as part of the Dean's Graduate Advisory Group. Etta reflected: "I have reached out to Gabriel whenever I wanted to publicize events for graduate students in the College, confident in his support and his honest feedback. He surprises me with the passion he brings to projects and the vision he has for a fairer, more equitable and just society."
Mesole’s research integrates engineering, microbiology, and genomics to study water quality and antimicrobial resistance in drinking water systems by examining how infrastructure reliability, climate variability, and household water practices shape public health risks and inform more resilient and equitable water solutions.
As an example of Mesole’s research activities that improve the experiences of marginalized and underrepresented groups, he recently engaged in fieldwork in Machakos County, Kenya, on a National Science Foundation–funded research project, supported by a UMass Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, examining antibiotic usage, antimicrobial resistance, and pathogen exposure in intermittent drinking-water systems and household water storage. His additional research projects include investigations of seasonal total-coliform blooms in the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts and evaluations of total-coliform bacteria as indicators of drinking-water quality.
Mesole’s broader interests include environmental and global health, environmental surveillance, environmental microbiology, and the field of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, particularly as they relate to equity, drinking water, and public health safety.
Mesole earned his B.S. degree in Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he also participated in that university’s student chapter of Engineers Without Borders.