Newsletter (June 2024): Announcing the recipients of the 2024 SSMN Awards!
SSMN Quarterly Newsletter
June 2024
In this newsletter, we're thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2024 SSMN Awards: six Sloan alumni demonstrating excellence in research, mentoring, and service. Read on to learn more about this year's exemplary Awardees.
Both the Grants and Awards programs this year received an impressive pool of applications from scholar-alumni with a range of talents, ambitions, and areas of expertise. Thank you to everyone who devoted time and effort to applying. Determinations and processing for 2024 SSMN Grants are underway, and you can expect those announcements later this summer.
To those of you finishing up the academic semester, congratulations on making it through another term. We hope each of you is looking forward to something this summer — warmer weather, dedicated research time, maybe a vacation? At the SSMN, we're excitedly developing the workshop and speaker lineup for the 2024 Academic Job Market & New Faculty Boot Camp. Find more about that in this newsletter!
In this quarter's newsletter:
- Announcing the 2024 SSMN Award winners!
- Academic Job Market & New Faculty Boot Camp: Apply by June 14!
- Scholar Spotlight: Candice Guy-Gaytán, SIGP Alumna, SSMN Advisory Board Member
- Spring recap: Network events in Atlanta, Boston, and Illinois
- DEI News & Insights
- Scholar Highlights
Announcing the 2024 SSMN Award Winners
The Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network is pleased to announce our 2024 Award Winners! With generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the 2024 awards aim to recognize the research, career, and professional development achievements of our Sloan Legacy, UCEM, and SIGP alumni. Join us in congratulating these outstanding scholars!
SSMN Higher Education Professional of the Year
The SSMN Higher Education Professional of the Year award recognizes outstanding Sloan Scholar alumni who have made major contributions to their field and/or the areas of teaching, mentoring, or other forms of service in higher education.
David Garrison, PhD
Associate Dean and Professor of Physics, University of Houston, Clear Lake
PhD in Physics, Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Garrison has been a faculty member at University of Houston, Clear Lake (UHCL), for over 20 years and has made profound contributions to his department and the university through his roles in administration, teaching, and research. During his time at UHCL, Dr. Garrison has served as chair of the Physical Science and Physics Programs, director of graduate programs for the Center for Student Empowerment, and twice served as president of the UHCL Faculty Senate. He successfully developed and oversaw the approval of a revised bachelor's degree in physical science, a bachelor's degree in physics, an engineering physics sub-plan, a master's degree in physics, a professional Master of Physics sub-plan in technical management, and a collaborative PhD program in physics.
Dr. Garrison's innovations in teaching led him to develop a graduate-level, flipped classroom math methods course in 2016 and an online graduate-level physics course in 2017, both of which proved invaluable in spring 2020 when classes moved online and he was able to help other faculty with the transition. His research in computational and theoretical physics consists of work in numerical relativity and cosmology. You can learn more about Dr. Garrison on his faculty webpage.
SSMN Early Career Alumnus Award
The SSMN Early Career Alumnus award recognizes outstanding Sloan Scholar alumni who have graduated with their PhD or Master's degree (as a Sloan Scholar) within the last 10 years. Awardees have demonstrated that they have made or are poised to make significant contributions to their field and/or the areas of teaching, mentoring, diversity, and public/community service.
Cesunica Ivey, PhD
Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
PhD in Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Ivey is PI of the Air Quality Modeling & Exposure Lab at UC Berkeley. Ivey’s research focuses on the nexus of air pollution science and engineering and environmental justice. She is an emerging leader in the areas of regional air quality modeling and its applications and community-scale air pollution exposure assessment. Ivey works in partnership with community organizations across California to prevent the over-industrialization of already overburdened neighborhoods.
In recognition of her advocacy for frontline communities of the e-commerce supply chain expansion in inland Southern California, Ivey was selected as a member of the American Chemical Society's Chemical and Engineering News "Talented 12" in 2021 and a winner of the Women in Science Incentive Prize by The Story Exchange in 2022. In addition to mentoring a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students, Dr. Ivey is CEO and owner of BWINSTEM, a mentorship venture that offers professional development, coaching, and motivational speaking services. She conceived of BWINSTEM in the summer of 2020 after seeing a need for tailored mentorship and online engagement for STEM professionals who are women of color. BWINSTEM supports individuals, communities, and organizations that seek to motivate and empower all marginalized identities in STEM.
Akhenaton-Andrew Jones, PhD
Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University
PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Jones is PI of the Systems for Engaging the Environment Lab (SEEL), which aims to solve global challenges in water and health using engineering and policy analysis. His lab studies how external stresses impacts biofilm formation, viability, and susceptibility with applications towards infection, medical devices, food, water, and wastewater treatment systems.
During his PhD, Dr. Jones studied microbial fuel cells and was named a Lemelson Presidential Fellow and was later recognized as Young Investigator by the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State, the preeminent center for biofilm research in the United States. As a faculty member, Dr. Jones has earned an NIH R35 Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award to develop new models and tools for studying biofilms. Additionally, he is Duke’s faculty representative on the NY Climate Exchange, one of three co-PIs on an NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) T32 Training Grant on Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health, and one of 20 co-PIs on an NIH NIEHS P20 application on Climate and Immunology. Dr. Jones’ role in all three of these projects is to develop researchers and workers (NY Climate Exchange focuses on the non-research workforce) to bring engineering approaches to societal and health challenges. Dr. Jones has supervised and mentored over 30 trainees, including three PhD students who are currently Sloan UCEM Scholars at Duke University.
SSMN Excellence in Community Engagement Award
This award recognizes outstanding Sloan Scholar alumni who have shown excellence in community engagement and/or public service. Awardees have demonstrated how their work or service has positively affected or is poised to make positive change within their chosen community.
Janelle Cronin, M.S.
PhD Student, Purdue University
M.S. in Ecological Sciences and Engineering & Curriculum Studies and Instruction, Purdue University
Janelle Cronin is a member of the Navajo Nation is currently a third year Ph.D. student as well as a George Washington Carver Fellow and Alfred P. Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership Scholar at Purdue University. She serves as board secretary for the National Indian Youth Council. In 2021 and 2022, she served as a keynote speaker for the Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) program where she shared her personal experience of transitioning from a tribal college/university (TCU) to a primarily white institution (PWI). While with the HERS program Janelle also assisted Indigenous students through culturally based mentoring that focused on their summer research.
Over the last few years, she has organized and participated in several fundraisers and volunteer efforts for her community. This includes organizing a fundraiser for the Haskell Indian Nations University Alumni Association with all the proceeds directly benefiting Haskell students in scholarships and emergency funds and other fundraisers that included multiple food, water, and school supply drives to Janelle's home community, the Black Mountain/Tselina/Cottonwood area of the Navajo Nation, during and through the COVID-19 pandemic. Janelle volunteers with the Wabash River Enhancement Corporation by participating in their white-tailed deer population reduction hunt as part of their deer management program and participates in a community service-based partnership with the Indiana Niches Land Trust to aid in box turtle egg conservation efforts through ethical trapping methods from an Indigenous centered perspective. Connect with Janelle and learn more on her LinkedIn page.
Denise Smith, PhD
COO, Hummingbird, and President, STEMkofa
PhD in Civil Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Smith is the chief operating officer at Hummingbird, a consulting firm that specializes in community engagement, data analytics, and training in the industries of transportation equity, environmental justice, energy equity, and climate justice. Her major projects have included leading community engagement to connect North Texas communities with emerging transportation technologies as well as providing community engagement support for the winning teams of the New York Clean Transportation Prize competition. Dr. Smith is co-author of “Black Gems in STEM: An Academic Success Workbook for Grades 4 & 5” and “Black Gems in STEM: An Academic Success Workbook for Grades 6–8.”
Through her nonprofit, STEMkofa Educational Solutions, Inc. (STEMkofa), Dr. Smith has had over 50 students participate in the Black Gems in STEM summer program, a summer enrichment opportunity designed to expose elementary and middle school students to STEM through a curated series of hands-on activities that follow an engaging storyline. Dr. Smith uses her experiences as a former transportation engineer, adjunct professor, and middle school math teacher to combine her expertise in engineering with her passion for education to advocate for STEM education as a tool for community building.
SSMN Outstanding Mentor Award
The Outstanding Mentor award recognizes a Sloan Scholar alumnus with a record of outstanding undergraduate and/or graduate student mentoring. Awardees have particularly demonstrated how their mentoring style and history has impacted Black, Indigenous, and/or Latina/o/e students in STEM fields.
Daniela Jones, PhD
Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University
PhD in Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University
As PI of the Intelligent Data for Energy and Agriculture Logistics and Supply Chains lab, Dr. Jones develops large-scale heterogeneous and geo-temporal data-intensive models to better understand and enhance the sustainability of intensifying agricultural systems. Before this role, Dr. Jones was a postdoctoral associate at Duke University, where she performed quantitative and qualitative research on student interventions and supported programming of educational, career development workshops and community development events for underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students in the biosciences.
Her mentoring style includes serving as a supportive and approachable mentor who advises students not only on academic and research endeavors, but also on career development by introducing students to a range of career pathways. In the last five years at NC State, Dr. Jones has served as a direct mentor for 14 diverse undergraduate and graduate students and served as a secondary or informal mentor for numerous others. Her students report that Dr. Jones serves as an example of achievement by a woman of color in STEM and that she tirelessly champions for her mentees by connecting students with media resources to ensure their work gets broad exposure, advocating for students on social media, and nominating or connecting them with internship, research, and scholarship opportunities.
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Scholar Spotlight: Candice Guy-Gaytán
Dr. Candice Guy-Gaytán (Delaware Tribe of Indians) was the first scholar to graduate from the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP) program at Purdue University in 2007. Today, she brings nearly two decades of experience in education to her work as a curriculum developer and research scientist with BSCS Science Learning, a non-profit established in 1959 with a longstanding focus on science curriculum development for K-12 students.
Candice is interested in the design and implementation of culturally relevant curricula. Her work involves “defining science in expansive ways, and bringing on members from the communities that we serve to make sure that they are giving voice to...and are seeing themselves and their communities in the science curriculum materials that we are creating.”
In this quarter’s Scholar Spotlight, learn how Candice found her niche as a science educator, what her aspirations are on the SSMN Advisory Board, the advice she hopes to pass on to others, and more.
Spring Recap: Thank you to everyone who joined us at network events in Atlanta, Boston, and Illinois!
In April, we had several fantastic Sloan community events around the country. Engineers convened in Atlanta for NSBE along with local alumni and a few Georgia Tech Sloan Scholars; in Boston, local alumni got together with current MIT Sloan Scholars for a fun night of tacos and margaritas; and at the end of the month, the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign hosted its annual Illinois UCEM Conference, featuring posters and oral presentations by current scholars as well as a career panel featuring four Sloan Scholar alumni, organized by the SSMN.
DEI News & Insights
The STEMM Opportunity Alliance released its national strategy for building a more diverse and inclusive STEMM workforce in the U.S. The five-pillar plan, called “STEMM Equity and Excellence 2050: A National Strategy for Progress and Prosperity,” describes investments and commitments by 200 partner organizations in industry, philanthropy, government, and the nonprofit world. The SOA is a national initiative started in 2022 and led by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Scholar Highlights
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Michael Kotutwa Johnson (University of Arizona ’19) was featured in the Washington Post, describing how traditional dryland farming techniques enable Hopi farmers to grow corn in desert environments.
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Monifa Vaughn-Cooke (Penn State ’12) was highlighted by Virginia Tech, where she recently started as Associate Professor of Health Systems and Implementation Science at Virginia Tech’s Carilion School of Medicine.
- In January, Joy Olabisi (University of Michigan ’09) was appointed assistant vice provost for graduate education and executive director of graduate admissions at Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, Joy was an associate professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, where she also directed several degree programs.
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Nancy Diaz-Elsayed (UC Berkeley ’13) was awarded the 2024 Women in Leadership and Philanthropy Dr. Kathleen Moore Faculty Excellence Award.
- Astronomer Michael Rodruck (Penn State ’21) is lead author on a study of star clusters in galaxy tails using the Hubble telescope, which was featured on NASA’s Hubblesite.
- Chibueze Amanchukwu (MIT ’17) was named a 2024 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar for his work using ion and molecular solvation to control electrochemical processes.
Have you recently published a paper, started a new position, gotten a grant, or had another professional experience that you're proud of? Let us celebrate you! Send a note to the SSMN staff at [email protected].
Contact Us
Veronica Zepeda, Malu Napuelua, and Camille Baptista
Staff, Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network
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