Tihitina Bekele made multiple strong contributions to the Associate Chair for DEI faculty search committee and her mentoring of undergraduates through the Diversity Committee.
Aylin Fernandez's many contributions start with serving as a mentor to the many undergraduate students with marginalized identities involved in research in the Mercado lab. But it doesn’t end there - she is active in supporting students at community colleges and high schools, as well as non-student community members in having a voice in research, in academic trajectories, and in their own life journeys.
Eleni Kapoulea has done extensive work to build meaningful community partnerships with Cambodian Americans that raise the standard for how we interact with underrepresented communities in research. Eleni also co-presented an invited talk on Advocacy for Refugee & Immigrant Services for Empowerment (ARISE) at Smith College.
Minji Lee is both incredibly hard-working and a leader. Minji has served the department as co-chair of the diversity committee and a member of multiple sub-committees, served the clinical program on the colloquium and admissions committees, and the university as Vice President of the UMass Amherst Korean Graduate Students Association. In all that she does, Minji looks for ways to give back to her communities.
Wendy Helmer Memorial Graduate Student Award
Andrea Mah "has spent five years dedicated to her peers and this department… and there are probably few individuals who have given more time and energy to PBS-related commitments than Andrea, and even fewer individuals who would be so relentlessly humble and quiet about these endeavors." She has served on the PBS diversity committee throughout her time at UMASS and she has been a long-serving GEO rep for students. Beyond this work, Andrea is "the type of person that other students know they can trust and who they know will show up."
Minji Lee was described as a “great leader in our department” and as someone “who strives to increase belonging and inclusion”. She has been co-chair of the Graduate Student Diversity Committee for the past year and has “done an amazing job connecting and organizing students”. Additionally, her nominators described her as someone who is “extremely supportive of her colleagues’, “puts a lot of effort into her service work”, and as someone who “makes the department a better place with her innovative ideas and positivity.”
Faculty/Staff Ally to Graduate Students Award
Among many positive comments received through nominations, Maureen Perry-Jenkins is described as an understanding, accommodating that creates an inclusive atmosphere in her teaching and in the department as a whole. She was described as a kind and compassionate person who has worked relentlessly to support and champion grad students. Throughout her tenure as department head, Maureen has sought out and listened to the perspectives of graduate students, providing much needed space. Most notably, she set up summer funding for students, which has greatly improved the well-being of graduate researchers, and been something graduate students have been long asking for. Under incredibly difficult circumstances, Maureen has been a person in our department that refused to let good things fall apart. That doesn’t mean her role or position was perfect (how could it be?) but that her adamant commitment to showing up, and showing up fundamentally on behalf of students, is something that should be recognized and valued.