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Russell G. Hamilton Graduate Leadership Institute announces spring 2020 grant recipients

Alison Lutz (far right), a spring 2019 Travel Grant awardee, traveled to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, to attend the Liberation Theologies and Decolonial Thought Summer Institute. (photo courtesy of Alison Lutz)
Alison Lutz (far right), a spring 2019 Travel Grant awardee, traveled to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, to attend the Liberation Theologies and Decolonial Thought Summer Institute. (photo courtesy of Alison Lutz)

The Russell G. Hamilton Graduate Leadership Institute (GLI) ended 2019 on a high note with the announcement of the spring 2020 Travel Grant and Dissertation Grant recipients. The institute has supported more than 100 Vanderbilt University Graduate School students in their research and professional development endeavors since the Travel and Dissertation Enhancement Grants were established in spring 2019.

The GLI Travel Grant supports Graduate School students pursuing professional and/or academic development opportunities not covered by the Graduate School’s current Travel Grant to Present Research. These funds have supported students from more than 35 different graduate programs in their travels to workshops, short courses, specialized trainings, conferences, symposia and meetings in 23 states across the U.S. and 12 countries around the globe.

The GLI also offers the Dissertation Enhancement Grant, which supports Ph.D. students with outstanding potential to accelerate progress on their research, adding depth and/or breadth to their work. In 2019, grant funds were awarded to 26 students across 14 graduate programs to expand their research over a broad range of topics that included climate change, re-localizing agriculture, protein interaction, political rhetoric in Latin America, material coatings for medical devices and language interventions.

“I am delighted with the enthusiastic response to the new GLI grant program. It shows that our students are actively seeking out opportunities to broaden their academic and professional perspectives,” said Mark Wallace, dean of the Graduate School. “To provide our graduate students with funding to pursue activities that they may not have been able to explore otherwise is a driving factor behind the development of this program.”

Applications for the next grant cycle will open May 1, 2020. The GLI is excited to continue supporting Graduate School students in the new year with an expanded grant program, new workshops and the launch of its fellowship program in fall 2020.

2020 Travel Grants

Stephanie Castillo, Communication of Science and Technology

Sara Eccleston, Human and Organizational Development

Maura Eveld, Mechanical Engineering

Richard Hall, Leadership, Policy and Organizations

Laura Hesse, Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Alison Hessling, Hearing and Speech Sciences

Joseph Luchsinger, Basic Sciences

Emily Matijevich, Mechanical Engineering

Tin Nguyen, Special Education

Gloria Pérez-Rivera, Anthropology

Terren Proctor, Anthropology

Julie Sriken, Community Research and Action

Bryan Steitz, Biomedical Informatics

Rachel Teater, Mechanical Engineering

Previous Travel Grant awardees

2020 Dissertation Enhancement Grants

Kaitlen Cassell, Political Science

Kellie Cavagnaro, Anthropology

Azadeh Hadadianpour, Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Alison Hessling, Hearing and Speech Sciences

Sangeun Kim, Political Science

Alexander Korsunsky, Anthropology

Justin Marinko, Biochemistry

Michaela Peterson, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Terren Proctor, Anthropology

Facundo Salles Kobilanski, Political Science

Previous Dissertation Enhancement Grant awardees