The Russell G. Hamilton Graduate Leadership Institute is celebrating the announcement of its fall 2023 grant awardees. The awards are named in honor of Vanderbilt’s first African American dean. This grant cycle, eight Professional Development and Training Grants and 13 Dissertation Enhancement Grants were awarded to Vanderbilt Graduate School students. These students are among the more than 250 graduate students whose research and professional development pursuits have been supported by GLI grant programs since they were established in 2019.
The GLI Dissertation Enhancement Grant supports Ph.D. students with outstanding potential to accelerate progress on their research, adding depth or breadth to their work. Fall awardees will expand their research over a broad range of topics, including early life on Earth, environmental links to health outcomes, political behaviors and attitudes of non-voters, drug therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, opioid use disorder–related mortality, Black Atlantic political consciousness in the legal sphere of the early 19th-century U.S., substance misuse prevention coalitions in Tennessee and particle accelerator instrumentation prototyping.
The GLI Professional Development & Training Grant supports graduate school students pursuing professional development and training opportunities to further develop their academic and professional skills. These grants have supported students from 48 graduate programs attending workshops, short courses, specialized trainings, conferences, symposia and meetings in 25 states across the U.S. and 14 countries around the globe.
The next grant cycle will open on Nov. 1, 2023, for spring 2024 applications. The GLI is honored to support Vanderbilt students in important research and professional endeavors through grants and programming throughout the year.
Dissertation Enhancement Grants
Jessica Fletcher, history
Monika Grabowska, biomedical informatics
Krista Haapanen, human and organizational development
Lauren Kasper, physics and astronomy
Sara Kirshbaum, political science
Leigh Anne Tang, biomedical informatics
Katherine Turk, Earth and environmental sciences
Olawunmi Winful, anthropology
2023 Professional Development & Training Grants
Khrysta Baig, health policy
Kimberly Bress, neuroscience
Jessica Collins, biochemistry
Natalie Favret, molecular pathology and immunology
Joseph Holden, neuroscience
KeShawn Ivory, astrophysics
Sara Kirshbaum, political science
William Lamb, astrophysics
Catherine McCormack, anthropology
William Smith, astrophysics
Ashley Spirrison, biomedical engineering
Minh Tran, chemical and physical biology
Jiaxin Jessie Wang, special education