GradConnect: NIU Graduate Student Announcements

November 2024

Congratulations to the Outstanding Thesis and Dissertation Award Winners!  

Dr. Oliver Camacho, “Undocumented Students' Voice, MTSS, and School Counselors' Mental Health Advocacy: A Transformative Mixed Methods Study.” 

Dr. Timothy Draher, “Design and Performance of Superconducting Switches for Nanowire Detectors in Magnetic Fields.” 

Casey Farmer, “The Energetics of Seasonality in Wild Diademed Sifafa (Propithecus Diadema): A Technical and Biological Validation of Fecal Triiodothyronine Radioimmunoassay.” 

Vianca Ocampo, “Tagalog and English Core Communication Boards for Tagalog-English Bilingual Children in the Philippines.” 

Ashley Valinskas with an honorable mention, “Effectiveness of the Catch (Coordinated Approach to Child’s Health) Rainbow Program in Elementary Schools for Change in Fruit and Vegetable Intake.” 

Graduate Student Enterning Mentoring Program 

Congratulations to the first cohort of NIU graduate students to complete the Entering Mentoring training. Participants earned a Research Mentorship Badge issued by Academic Affairs and received a $500 scholarship from the Graduate School. This 8-hour training is designed for mentors of research trainees based on the work completed by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER). Upon completion of the training, this group articulated their own mentorship approach and have a toolbox of resources and strategies to use for developing and sustaining effective mentorship relationships. 

Back row, left to right: Daniel Reshadfar, CLAS, Economics, Ernest Plange Kwofie, CLAS, Political Science, Md Jasim Uddin Sohel, CLAS, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Rahul Khanke, CLAS, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Oluwatobi Kushimo, CEET, Mechanical Engineering, Lindsey Price, CLAS, Biological Sciences, Lizzy Small, CLAS, Biological Sciences, Harouna Amadou, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Nathan Campbell, CLAS, Psychology, Nicole Scheuermann, CLAS, Biological Sciences, Front row, left to right: Makyla Charles, OSEEL Graduate Assistant, Co-facilitator, Shaista Ahmad, CLAS, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Yuzhou Liu, CLAS, Economics, Panchalie Gunathunga, CLAS, Biological Sciences, Hoa Vo, CHHS, Applied Human Development and Family Sciences, Charis Chen, CLAS, Psychology, Emily Reilly, OSEEL Associate Director, Trained Facilitator 

Congratulations to the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award Winners! 

Stacy Kelly Ph.D., is a professor in the Visual Disabilities Program within the Department of Special and Early Education (SEED) and College of Education (COE). Kelly is honored to have been awarded one of two NIU Distinguished Graduate Faculty Awards for the 2024-2025 academic year. NIU's Visual Disabilities Program has continuously received federal grant funding since its inception more than a half century ago in 1964—and Kelly is keeping this 60-year streak alive. Notably, 300 NIU graduate assistantships have been supervised by Kelly and supported through more than $7.5 million in federal personnel preparation grants awarded to Kelly by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Also, most of Kelly’s over 100 publications and conference presentations have involved NIU graduate students as co-authors and co-presenters.  

Kelly serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) and as an Associate Editor for The New RE:view (TNR). As an Associate Editor for both journals of record in the profession, Kelly has mentored several hundred graduate students (both NIU graduate students and graduate students worldwide) in their writing of publications included in these peer-reviewed journals.  

These accomplishments of Kelly and her colleagues over the long and successful 60-year history of this program keeps NIU well situated as the top university for those who want to work with the visually disabled. Graduates of the NIU Visual Disabilities Program go onto play a significant role in the lives of children and adults who are visually impaired, along with their families and Kelly is proud to play a significant role in making this meaningful career path possible for so many. 

Dr. Jenn Jacobs is a Lane Zimmerman Endowed Associate Professor of Sport Psychology at Northern Illinois University. Her research examines sport as a tool for social change with vulnerable populations. Specifically, she has developed and studied sport programs in diverse settings such as afterschool clubs, summer camps, professional sports organizations, and juvenile detention centers. Some of her most proud outreach programs include a decade-long summer camp in the Chicagoland neighborhood she grew up in, a middle school girls’ body empowerment boxing club, and a multi-year international exchange program with national sport organizations in Belize.  

Currently, she is the co-director and co-founder of Project FLEX, a program within Illinois youth prisons that uses the power of sport to teach life skills to incarcerated youth. This program is funded by the Department of Juvenile Justice with a $2.55 million dollar grant. She leads a team of 12 graduate students that help individuals who are incarcerated reimagine their futures through participating in leadership opportunities, including college programming, community-based sport experiences, and sport/fitness offerings run at their prison facilities. 

In total, Dr. Jacobs has over 50 research publications and 80 national/international conference presentations highlighting her work and she has received over $3.5 million dollars in grant funding. Her work has been recognized nationally through receiving the 2021 Early Scholar Award from the Journal of Sport for Development, the 2020 Young Alumni Award from the University of Illinois College of Applied Health Sciences, and the 2023 Illinois Juvenile Justice Volunteer of the Year Award.