Congratulations to the graduate students and faculty honored with Graduate School Awards and participants of the Graduate Showcase of Scholarship and Creative Activities!

The awards and events highlight the important contributions that graduate students make to the JMU community.

Thank you to the faculty and students who support the Graduate Showcase and Awards as program planners, reviewers and members of the juries.

We are proud of the accomplishments of all our graduate students.

2022 AWARDEES
  

Outstanding Dissertation Awards

Visual and Performing Arts

James Richardson
Doctor of Musical Arts
Nominator: Kevin McMillan

Five Songs by Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960): From Nostalgia to Christian Hope and the Assurance of Heaven

Social Sciences, Business, Health and Behavioral Studies

Lindsay Miller King
Ph.D., Strategic Leadership Studies 
Nominator: Benjamin Selznick

An Entrepreneurial Mindset: Not Just for Entrepreneurs

Outstanding Thesis Awards

Education, Social Sciences, and Humanities

Rachel Mangan
Master of Arts in Communication and Advocacy
Nominator: Melissa Aleman

I Just Want to Feel Heard: An Autoethnography of Complaint and Institutional Response 

STEM, Health, and Behavioral Studies

Robert Harper
Master of Education in Special Education, Behavior Specialist
Nominator: Sara Snyder

Effects of First-and Third-Person Point of View on the Acquisition of Behaviors Using Video Modeling  
 

The Graduate School Innovation Award

Aiveen Gallagher
Doctor of Musical Arts
Nominator: Diane Phoenix-Neal, DMA

Aiveen was nominated for ”innovation in creative expression by composing original virtuoso music for the viola".
 

The Graduate School Civic Engagement Award

Macon Thompson
M.A., Communication and Advocacy
Nominator: Paul Mabrey and Pete Bsumek

Macon was nominated for "exemplary contributions and commitment to civic engagement".
 

The Graduate School Community Engagement Award

Leah Tripp
M.A., Communication and Advocacy
Nominator: Carlos Aleman

Leah was nominated for “commitment to developing herself through service, mentorship, and advocacy with immigrant families of our local community outside the JMU gates”.
 

Graduate Showcase of Scholarship & Creative Activity Awards

Graduate student presenters were awarded top honors from a jury of faculty and graduate students.

Top Oral Presentation Award, Doctoral Student

Julia Portman
Biology, M.S.

Identifying Key Stream Restoration Variables in an Agriculturally Impaired Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Top Poster Presentation Award

Sasha Ewing
Biology, M.S.

Urban habitats impact the song and reproductive success of a migratory bird, the gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)

Top Poster Presentation Award

Chris Patterson
Assessment and Measurement, Ph.D.

Does the Student Opinion Scale's Effort Subscale Function Differently Across Black and White Students? A Measurement Invariance Study
 

Three Minute Thesis Competition Awards

First Place  

Jaclyn Tolchin
Biology, M.S.

      Does the song of a vocal mimic reflect changes in avian acoustic communities across an urban gradient?

Second Place

Lara Leggio
Communication Sciences and Disorders, Au.D.

Counselling in Clinical Practice for Pediatric Cochlear Implant Audiologists

Third Place

Arta Sejdiu
Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication, M.A.

Positive and Negative Transfers of Rhetorical Awareness that Students Bring from High School to College: A case study at James Madison University

People's Choice

Telena Turner
Communication and Advocacy, M.A.

Performance of Work and Community by Women Employed in Rural, Predominately White, Small-town Schools