Student Life
Graduate Student Spotlight
Submit:
bit.ly/OGS-Spotlights1st place poster at Acoustical Society of America

Lindsey Kummerer, AuD. College of Behavioral and Community Sciences.
Lindsey Kummerer, AuD, was awarded first place in the Psychological and Physiological Acoustics Best Student Poster Award competition at the 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America held in New Orleans from May 18鈥23.
Kummerer's poster, "Evidence of compensative listening for speech segregation in hearing-impaired adults," was described by the judges as "super innovative" and "very informative for future development to improve hearing aids."
Kummerer is a clinical audiologist enrolled in the dual AuD/PhD program in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the 黑料网吃瓜爆料 (USF). She earned her doctorate in audiology in 2023 and is now completing her PhD in communication sciences and disorders.
A member of the Auditory Behavioral Research Laboratory at USF, Kummerer's research interests include objective and physiological measures of auditory function, including otoacoustic emissions and middle ear muscle reflex, speech-in-noise performance, cocktail party listening, and subclinical hearing loss.
GeoSciences PhD Student recieves Boren Fellowship

Victoria Brown, Ph.D. Student, School of Geosciences
Victoria Brown was determined to find a way to travel to East Africa to gather data for her PhD research on coffee agriculture. Brown worked for coffee importers before starting her graduate studies, struck by the many challenges in the industry鈥檚 supply chain. She had also studied abroad in Tanzania, which planted a seed for her future goals.
Studying Swahili was a top priority when thinking about conducting her research abroad, as speaking with local farmers is vital to her work. To accomplish both goals, she applied and was selected for a Boren Fellowship to travel to Tanzania. There, she will study Swahili at Ewaso Maasai College and conduct research with the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI).
The Boren Awards offer both undergraduate and graduate students funding to spend at least one semester abroad studying a critical language. Graduate students, like Brown, can also participate in research projects during their fellowship. Brown will spend the 2025-26 academic year immersing herself in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania where there is a high concentration of coffee farming. Full article available on the Office of National Scholars website here.
Helping those who help us

Logan Sharp, Masters student, College of Public Health (far right)
Most of us keep our distance from people with a cold, flu, COVID-19 or other nasty conditions, but what about those who meet them up close, often under stressful circumstances? How do first responders stay healthy in otherwise unhealthy places?
That鈥檚 the focus of a student at the 黑料网吃瓜爆料鈥檚 College of Public Health (COPH) currently working on his master鈥檚 with a concentration in global communicable disease and epidemiology. Logan Sharp summarized his efforts in a presentation titled 鈥淣eeds Assessment of Infection Prevention and Control Training for Emergency Responders (ICER),鈥 which he gave at the 2024 Interprofessional Education Collaborative fair and won best poster.
A Journey of Academic Excellence

Darlshawn Patterson, College of Education, Doctoral Program
Darlshawn Patterson serves as a and together with her team, has planned the upcoming event to be held at the AERA 2025 Annual Meeting: Research, Remedy, and Repair: Toward Just Educational Renewal titled 鈥淪trategic Silence & Bold Resistance: Navigating Educational Renewal in an Era of Oppression.鈥
Patterson is the incoming Chair of the Doctoral Students Innovative Community Group (DSICG) of the esteemed Literacy Research Association (LRA), having served as Co-Chair for the past two years.
Patterson is co-author of a chapter titled 鈥淐omplicating Postcolonial Logics: Toward Transraciolinguistic Justice in Literacy Instruction,鈥 currently in press, to appear in the eighth edition of the book titled 鈥淭heories, Models, and Practices of Literacy鈥 (TMPL), which will be published in 2025 by the Editorial Team of esteemed literacy scholars: Misty Sailors, Idalia Nu帽ez, Vaughn W. M. Watson, James V. Hoffman, & Donna Alvermann. TMPL has been a foundational book for the field of literacy since the first edition in 1969. This text has been used as a core text for graduate programs, including advanced masters and introductory doctoral courses and in international spaces. As such, it has long served as the most comprehensive source available for connecting multiple and theories of and about literacy; it has a history of representing both classic and cutting-edge contributions from top scholars.
Patterson's recommendations for schools and teachers has been highlighted in Education Week鈥檚 鈥楨mbracing Subtraction鈥 within
Patterson is of "Black Immigrant Literacies" published this past year and has served as Research Assistant for the just-published Cambridge University Press book, "Literacies of Migration Translanguaging Imaginaries of Innocence.鈥
Presenting poster at NACCHO 360 conference in July

Sarah Henley
Sarah is presenting a poster at the in July for her paper, "Climate Change and its Effects on Disaster Mitigation Planning for American Indian/Alaskan Native Tribes: A Case Study Review"
Student published, then presents another accomplishment with travel grant

Sherilyne Jones
Anthropology Ph.D. candidate Sherilyne Jones recently published the following: "Museums and community engagement in Belize: Case studies for protection and active participation of knowledge" in Communities and Museums in the 21st Century.
Additionally thanks to her travel grant, she participated in the Commonwealth Association of Museums (CAM) Conference in New Zealand and presented her research. Sherilyne was also elected to the Board of the CAM.
Finally, she is presenting "(TH-108) Engaging Communities in Environmental Research across Scales (PESO)" at this year's Society for Applied Anthropology. Sherilyne will be rotating off the Board of Directors as the student representative, after serving 3 years.
Student presenting at the 18th Annual Conference of the Florida Society of Social Sciences (F3S)

Anabela C. Villach Vaquer
"I will be presenting at the 18th Annual Conference of the Florida Society of Social Sciences (F3S) on the topic of "Paradiplomacy in Argentina and Brazil: A Perspective from Their Federal Governments." This presentation is an integral part of my ongoing research, which aims to analyze the international relations of subnational entities. Having previously focused on Argentine paradiplomacy from a legal standpoint during my graduate studies in Constitutional Law and International Law, I have broadened my scope. Currently enrolled in the Master in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies program at the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean (ISLAC), I have expanded my research to include a comparative analysis of South American countries with federal systems, particularly Brazil and Argentina. In addition to my legal approach, I have incorporated insights from international relations and political science into my research."
Ph.d. student's co-authored article published, and presenting a paper at prestigious conference

Anthony Woode-Eshun
He co-authored an article titled, "Exploring Headteachers' Struggles in Overseeing Kindergarten Education at Basic Schools: An In-Depth Study in Awutu Senya East Municipality." which was published in the International Journal of Early Childhood Education, Vol. 4, Issue No. 2
In addition, his paper "Learning Centers' Impact on Literacy Development: Perspectives of Effutu Municipal Kindergarten Teachers," has been accepted for presentation in a Research-in-Progress Roundtable Series session at the prestigious 2024 AERA Annual Conference in Philadelphia.
Doctoral Student article wins award and published


Christopher David Adkins
Copngratulations to Christopher David Adkins! peer-reviewed article, "The Canine Crucible of Labor, Love, Killing, and Kindness of the Gold Rush North" was published in the journal Alaska History (Vol. 38, No. 2).
It received the Morgan and Jeannie Sherwood Award for the best article published in the
journal. The article is drawn from research he has conducted for his dissertation
in the history department at USF.
Doctoral candidate challenges psychologists to improve patient care by recognizing their own mental health
Researcher Andrew Devendorf shares how his brother's death inspired his passion to
normalize discussions surrounding depression and other mental health concerns.
Story originally by Sandra C. Roa, University Communications and Marketing.
Boundless Bulls is a collection of stories about what truly makes 黑料网吃瓜爆料great 鈥 the people. It is a focus on our community footprint, our impact and the trajectory of where we can go together.
Mcknight Fellows Photoshoot by Dr. Travis Bell
The McKnight Fellows were so kindly helped by Dr. Travis Bell in their recent headshot photoshoot. The Fellows want to thank Dr. Bell for his time and geneorsity, and for arranging the professional sessions.


recently published an article in "Race and justice" Journal based on M.A. thesis

Congratulations to College of Behavioral and Community Sciences Doctoral student Carl L. Reeds, who recently published an article based on his Master's thesis.