dissertation completion fellowship michigan state university

College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences

Assistantships / fellowships, click here to see assistantships and fellowships available fall 2024 and spring 2025 semesters, assistantships.

More than 3,300 assistantships in various fields are held by eligible graduate students. Graduate assistantships provide a waiver of course tuition for up to nine graduate credits in the Fall and Spring semester, and for up to 5 graduate credits in the Summer semester. Graduate assistants must be actively pursuing degree programs and making satisfactory progress toward their degrees to be eligible for an assistantship. Benefits and a stipend may be provided. For more information consult the graduate assistantship brochure here .

Students admitted to regular graduate studies at MSU who plan to seek an assistantship or other financial assistance should consult their department or school. Since most graduate assistantships and fellowships are awarded by departments, beginning in February for the following academic year, it is essential that applications and supporting documents be submitted early to ensure adequate consideration.

For further information please visit the following websites:

The web site for Graduate Assistantships is https://grad.msu.edu/funding

The web site for Financial Aid is  https://finaid.msu.edu/

Fellowships 

Michigan State University annually awards a number of fellowships to encourage students with high achievement to purse study leading to a graduate degree. A recipient of an MSU fellowship must be enrolled in a degree program and may be required to give formal service to the university or to the department or school.

The Distinguished Fellowship Program, for example, includes a $20,000 stipend, waiver of tuition and tuition-related fees, and health insurance. To be considered for this program, your completed application must arrive prior to the deadline, and you must be nominated by your department. For other fellowships available visit the Graduate School website .

• Fellowships: http://grad.msu.edu/fellowships/
• Plant Science Fellowship: http://www.plantscience.msu.edu/Fellowships/index.html
• Financial Aid: https://www.finaid.msu.edu/grad.asp

CANR Dissertation Completion Fellowships

Please read instructions here for more information on how to apply for Dissertation Completion Fellowships with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Funding Opportunities

These fellowship and graduate student opportunities are funded by endowments from generous individuals. Please see specific links for instructions on applying. Each one has specific eligibility criteria and application content.

• THE JAMES AND HARRIET BEARD OUTSTANDING TURFGRASS GRADUATE STUDENT AWARD 
• EVERETT AND JANE EVERSON GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP IN PLANT BREEDING 
• ROBERT G. AND MARY LOU GAST GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP IN SOIL SCIENCE 
• DALE AND MARY HARPSTEAD ENDOWMENT FOR GRADUATE SUPPORT IN FOOD CROP PRODUCTION AWARD
• THE CARTER HARRISON ENDOWED FUND GRADUATE STUDENT AWARD
• THE KIRK AND MARJORIE LAWTON GRADUATE STUDENT SUPPORT AWARD
• THE JASON AND DANA LILLY PLANT BREEDING/GENETICS & BIOTECHNOLOGY (PBGB) FUND FOR GRADUATE STUDENT ENHANCEMENT
• THE ELMER C. ROSSMAN ENDOWED GRADUATE STUDENT SUPPORT AWARD 
• DUDLEY AND ANGELA SMITH GRADUATE EDUCATION ENHANCEMENT FUND 
• JORDAN B. TATTER SCHOLARSHIP IN HORTICULTURE
• NORMAN R. AND JESSIE A. THOMPSON ENDOWMENT IN CROP AND SOIL SCIENCES 
• THE JAMES M. TIEDJE GRADUATE STUDENT/POST-DOCTORATE TRAVEL AWARD IN MICROBIAL ECOLOGY
• THE TERRY N. & JOANN L. TURK ENDOWED FELLOWSHIP FUND IN CROP AND SOIL SCIENCES

Please contact Lauren Colby for fellowship and assistantship information. 

Graduate Degree Programs and Funding Opportunities

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Electronic Theses and Dissertation Submissions

Thesis/Dissertation Office, 466 West Circle Drive, 2nd floor, Chittenden Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824

Phone: 517-353-3220; Email: [email protected] .

The links below provide instructions on what needs to be completed and approved by the Graduate School in order to graduate.

Each semester has a firm submission deadline by which students must submit their thesis/dissertation to ProQuest. The document must have been successfully defended, corrections from the committee addressed and is to be a final version. After submission it may take several days for the Graduate School to review and approve the documents, especially if formatting revisions are needed. Each semester has a final deadline (usually 2 weeks later) by which students must have all required paperwork turned in, all milestones completed and their thesis/dissertation accepted by the Graduate School. 

• Printable Formatting Guide (PDF) Note the absence of List of Tables and List of Figures in the new formatting guide. These sections are generally not necessary and leaving them out helps quicken the review process. Also note that the Table of Contents is more useful when entries are limited to chapter-level headings or chapter-level headings and first-level subheadings.
• Printable Sample Pages (PDF) This includes examples of the title page, abstract, copyright, dedication page, preface, bibliography, table of contents, etc.
• Master’s Title Page Template
• Dissertation Title Page Template
• Dissertation Title Page with Dual Degree Template
• Spring 2024 Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Formatting Tutorial (PDF)
• Spring 2024 Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Formatting Tutorial (Video)
• All Plan A Master’s and all Doctoral students must turn in the Approval form.
• The Approval form is taken as evidence that the document has been examined and approved by the major professor or thesis/dissertation director. It also serves to document compliance with the appropriate Institutional Review Board for the use of human and vertebrate animals for research.
• Supplemental files may be included with the electronic submission of the thesis or dissertation in the student’s ProQuest account ONLY if the files have been approved by the faculty advisor/committee on the Approval Form.
• ETD Approval Form

Human Research Protection Program

• If human subjects were used in your research, the IRB letter (on letterhead from the Human Research Protection office) should be uploaded with your electronic Approval Form.
• The IRB number that is to appear your approval form is the “Approved” number on the IRB letter (e.g. STUDY00004871 or AMEND202100608), not the application number (e.g. i45603).
• Sending a screenshot from the “CLICK” site where you are listed as a researcher (CLICK photo must start at the green box that says “APPROVED” and extend so it includes information in the “Contacts” tab below the flow chart) OR
• Having your PI send an email to [email protected] stating the IRB number, the project title, and that you are an approved researcher on the project.  (If you used animal subjects, your name does not need to appear on the IACUC letter.)  

MSU Requirements

MSU IRB review and approval or an exempt determination is required for all projects that involve research or clinical investigations with human subjects conducted by faculty, staff, students, or agents of MSU before initiation of any human subject research activities.

For those projects that may qualify as exempt from IRB approval, an exempt determination must be obtained from the MSU IRB office prior to initiation of the human subject research. For those projects that do not qualify as exempt, IRB approval must be obtained prior to initiation of the human subject research.

Please note: your thesis or dissertation may be rejected if you did not obtain IRB approval prior to the start of your research, if your IRB request was backdated or if your review request was denied by the Human Research Protection office. For further information, please see the Human Research Protection Program website at:  https://hrpp.msu.edu/ . Phone: 517-355-2180. Email:  [email protected] .

Animal Care Program

• If vertebrate animals were used in your research, the IACUC (AUF) letter (on letterhead from the Animal Care Program office) should be uploaded with your electronic Approval Form.
• The IACUC (AUF) number that is to appear on your approval form is the “IACUC ID” number on the IACUC letter (i.e.: PROTO201800030).

Activities Needing Approval

Any ownership or use of animals for research, teaching, testing, or public outreach by or for MSU must be approved by the IACUC. Some activities are exempt but check first.

Check with the IACUC before you do any of these:

• breed, buy, or conduct research involving animals
• study wild animals
• conduct farming and food production with animals
• euthanize an animal
• import or export animals
• test products, procedures, or treatments on animals
• transport animals
• initiate a new project
• add a new procedure or controlled substance
• change your protocol
• change the breed you are using
• schedule a public performance or demonstration with animals

Get approval before you begin ANY activities involving animals.

The  laws and guidelines  for using animals are numerous. Non-compliance can affect animal care. Non-compliance will be costly to the investigator and the University (such as damage to our reputation and funding). The IACUC committee and staff have up-to-date information on legislation and regulations and contacts with agencies providing guidelines for the care and use of animals.

Please note: your thesis or dissertation may be rejected if you did not obtain IACUC approval prior to the start of your research, if your IACUC request was backdated or if your review request was denied by the Animal Care Program office. For further information, please see the Animal Care Program/IACUC website at:  https://animalcare.msu.edu/iacuc/index.html . Phone: 517-432-8103. Email:  [email protected] .

• Please take a few moments to complete this survey the semester that you plan to graduate. Only students who have applied for graduation will have access to this online survey. Your participation is important and is greatly appreciated by the Graduate School. The survey will ask you questions about your educational experience in your graduate program. The Graduate School uses data from this survey when reviewing graduate programs and to guide decisions about services and initiatives for graduate students.
• Doctoral students:  https://www.egr.msu.edu/doctoral/survey
• Master’s students:  https://msu.12twenty.com
• Enter your MSU NetID (Login name) and password.
• Complete all items on the survey. When finished, click Submit.
• If you cannot open the survey, please contact the Graduate School by email at  [email protected]  and include your name, student ID#, degree level (PhD, MA, MS, etc), and the semester of graduation. You will then be notified when you are able to access the survey.
• The Survey of Earned Doctorates is the definitive source of information on the nation’s new research doctorates. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and five other federal agencies and conducted by RTI, the SED is critical to the understanding in what specialty areas doctorates are produced and their post-graduation employment plans.
• Results are used by government as well as academic institutions to make decisions about graduate education funding, developing new programs and supporting existing ones.
• Michigan State University REQUIRES verification of completion of the survey. When you submit your survey, a notification of completion will automatically be sent to the Graduate School office. It is recommended that at the end of the survey, you also have a copy of the “certificate of completion” emailed to your personal email for your records.
• The registration URL for the survey is:  https://sed-ncses.org . You will receive an email with a PIN and password as well as the URL to the survey upon registering.
• Confidentiality Assurance: The information provided in the survey questionnaire remains confidential and is safeguarded in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 and the NSF Act of 1950, as amended. The survey data are reported only in aggregate form or in a manner that does not identify information about the individual.
• Questions about the survey may be directed to RTI at  [email protected]  or at 1-877-256-8167.
• You may submit your document to ProQuest once you have successfully defended your thesis or dissertation and you have made the corrections that your committee wishes you to make.  Do not submit your document prior to your defense. 
• Go to  www.etdadmin.com/grad.msu  and follow the directions for submitting your thesis/dissertation to Michigan State University via ProQuest.
• When creating your account be sure to use an email address that you use regularly. In order to continue the submission process, you will be asked to “confirm” your account using the email address you provided. This is the email address that all correspondence from the Graduate School regarding your document will go.
• Once you “confirm” your account, you are ready to begin the submission process. Please be sure you are on the Michigan State University website within ProQuest. 
• The submission steps are listed on the left side of the screen in the ProQuest website. As each step is completed, a check mark will appear in the appropriate box indicating that you have completed that step. In order to make your initial submission, you must go through each step of the process.
• Once you submit to ProQuest, your electronic submission will be reviewed by a Michigan State University Graduate School Administrator for possible formatting revisions and/or required paperwork before it is “officially” accepted and delivered to ProQuest for publishing.
• You may expect a response with necessary corrections or paperwork from the Graduate School within two business days from the time we receive your electronic submission (or resubmission). NOTE: Response times increase dramatically closer to deadline dates.
• Once all corrections have been made and all necessary paperwork has been turned in to the Graduate School, your document will be accepted and delivered to ProQuest for publishing.
• Please contact ProQuest directly at 800-521-0600 with any technical questions regarding your submission or any questions regarding an order you placed.
• If you wish to have ProQuest file a copyright on your behalf, the current fee is $75.00 and must be paid to ProQuest when you create your submission.  You must be the sole author of the entire document for ProQuest to file for a copyright on your behalf.
• For information regarding a publication hold/embargo on your thesis/dissertation please go to the Embargo link .

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PhD Funding & Employment

The Department of English supports graduate students in a variety of ways.

First, we employ graduate students as graduate assistants (GAs) and as research assistants (RAs) in the department and in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities (IAH). These positions are posted each spring for employment in the following academic year. The  application process  is competitive, based upon GPA, progress toward degree, and letters of recommendation.

Second, we support graduate students in their applications to teach in Writing, Rhetoric, and American Culture (WRAC) and in the Writing Center.

Third, the department offers several fellowships for students, including:

• John A. Yunck Endowed Scholarship This award, named after a former faculty member in the English department, recognizes outstanding graduate students who “have demonstrated the capacity to achieve educational and professional goals, and the initiative to seek opportunities to further their progress.” Preference is given to doctoral candidates. 
• Graduate Completion Fellowships Through special funds provided by the Office of the Provost, the English graduate program is able to award three to four Graduate Completion Fellowships each year. The purpose of these fellowships is to support graduate students who will be completing their dissertations and earning the Ph.D. in the following academic year. Since these fellowships are intended to provide substantial time to the individuals selected in order to complete the dissertation, and since the time commitment to the professional development opportunity attached to each fellowship is no more than 10 hours/week, recipients may not, at the same time, hold a graduate assistant position. This allows the student to devote as much time as possible to research and writing toward the completion of the dissertation.

Fourth, we nominate our best students at every stage of graduate education for college and university fellowships and awards, including:

• University Fellowships  (new students)
• Special College Research Abroad Moneys  (SCRAM)
• Graduate Merit Fellowships
• Dissertation Completion Fellowships  

Qualified students are also encouraged to pursue external grant opportunities, including:

• Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships
• Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Grants in Women’s Studies
• Ford Foundation Fellowships

For post-doctoral funding opportunities, refer to:

• Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts
• Woodrow Wilson Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities

Chicano/Latino Studies College of Social Science

Phd program.

The PhD program in Chicano/Latino Studies prepares scholars, researchers, and teachers in the social sciences and humanities to develop expertise in the historical and contemporary experiences of Chicanos and Latinos in their social, cultural, political, and economic contexts.

The program emphasizes global, trans-disciplinary, comparative, and applied approaches to knowledge which enhance collaborative scholarly efforts within the university, peer educational institutions, and the broader community. It addresses Chicano and Latino experiences in the United States, and international dimensions and diaspora experiences involving communities in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

MSU provides resources for students who are undocumented. Visit this site for more information:  https://undocumented.msu.edu

  DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE DUAL MAJOR DOCTORAL PROGRAM BROCHURE HERE

With the assistance of an advisor and guidance committee, doctoral students plan a program of study tailored to meet their educational needs and professional goals.

Students earn a minimum of 30 credit hours in addition to at least 24 dissertation research credit hours. Candidates must also satisfy all college and university graduation requirements.

Curricular Structure  

Required CLS Courses Students must complete at least 30 credit hours from the following: CLS 810 Historiography and Social Science: Methods in Chicano/Latino Studies (3 credits) CLS 811 Literary and Cultural Theory in Chicano/Latino Studies (3 credits) CLS 893E Readings in Chicano/Latino Studies (1 to 4 credits) CLS 894 Fieldwork in Chicano/Latino Studies (1 to 4 credits) CLS 896 Seminar in Chicano/Latino Studies (3 credits)

Research methods class in area of specialization Each student must complete at least three credits of research methods in their area of specialization.

Area of specialization courses Students must determine an area of specialization and may then take electives from the following: American studies, anthropology, English, history of art, history, music, resource development, sociology, and Spanish. The course work must be selected from an approved course list in consultation with the student’s guidance committee.

Language Requirement Students must demonstrate advanced proficiency in Spanish, Nahuatl, or another Amerindian language to fulfill the program’s language requirement.

Dissertation Research

The comprehensive examination, the dissertation proposal, the dissertation research project, and the final dissertation defense are all required experiences in the Chicano/Latino Studies doctoral program.

Comprehensive Exams The comprehensive examination, the dissertation proposal, the dissertation research project, and the final dissertation defense are all required experiences in the Chicano/Latino Studies doctoral program.

Note: The program must be completed within eight calendar years. The information contained herein is meant to provide an overview of the requirements for the PhD in Chicano/Latino Studies. For more detailed information about the academic requirements for the PhD, please contact the Director of the Chicano/Latino Studies Program.

Selected Past Topics for CLS 896 Chicanos and Latinos in the World System: Decolonial Thought & Pedagogical Challenges Chicano/Latino Sociology Chicanos/Latinos and U.S. Popular Culture Globalization and Mexican immigration to the U.S. Latina Feminisms Latino Politics

In addition to meeting the requirements of the university and of the College of Social Science, students must meet other requirements for admission. Applicants must possess a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from an accredited institution of higher education. Applicants without master’s degrees or sufficient course work may be admitted provisionally and be required to complete a specified number of collateral courses, not to count toward the degree, before regular admission is granted.  All applicants to the doctoral program must also supply scores from Graduate Record Examination scores taken within the last five years (MSU’s ETS Institution Code is R1465).

All prospective students must apply to the Graduate School. Information about applying can be found at the links below.

More information on Admission to the MSU Graduate School Online application to graduate study

In addition, all applicants to the Chicano/Latino Studies doctoral program must submit the following:

• A written statement of professional goals. It should describe the following: how the applicant’s professional and educational experiences have influenced the desire to pursue doctoral study, the broader, long-term career interests of the applicant and how the Chicano/Latino Studies program relates to those interests, and the applicant’s goals and objectives for doctoral study. This statement is used to determine if the applicant’s goals are consistent with those of the program and to assess the clarity and coherence of the applicant’s writing.
• Three letters of recommendation on letterhead. The letters are required to assess the academic abilities of the applicant. The applicant should choose persons who are familiar with their academic abilities and those individuals writing reference letters should be encouraged to be as specific as possible in their comments.
• A writing sample that best represents analytic and integrative thinking of the applicant. Examples of material might include research papers completed for a graduate class, grant proposals, research reports, or published articles.

US Residents

• Applicants who are not already admitted to graduate study at MSU must submit the Graduate Application for Admission. An application fee and college transcripts of all previous academic work must be submitted with this form.

International Students International students who have not been admitted to graduate study at MSU are required to submit the International Graduate Application for Admission , proof of financial support, and proof of proficiency in English. For more information please contact the Office of International Students and Scholars .

Office of International Students and Scholars 103 International Center Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 517-353-1720

Transferring from Other MSU Programs Applicants who wish to transfer into the Chicano/Latino Studies Ph.D. program from another MSU graduate program must contact the Director of the Chicano/Latino Studies Program.

Application Materials All application materials are to be sent to the Chicano/Latino Studies Program. This includes the applications for admission to graduate study at MSU as well as Chicano/Latino Studies Program admission applications. The admissions address for the Chicano/Latino Studies Program appears below:

Chicano/Latino Studies Program Attention: Doctoral Admissions Committee Michigan State University 200 S. Kedzie Hall East Lansing, MI 48824 517-353-8685 Fax: 517-432-8662

Deadline for Applications Applications should be submitted by December 1 for optimal consideration. Applications submitted by this time can also be considered for College and University scholarships and fellowships, and for assistantships awarded by the program. Completed applications received after the December 1 deadline will be considered for fall admission as space permits.

Every year Michigan State University awards millions of dollars to graduate students through an array of fellowships, scholarships, and graduate teaching and research assistantships. The awards range from small tuition scholarships to multi-year packages that can provide annual benefits in excess of $23,000 plus tuition and medical benefits. Both entering and continuing students are eligible for these awards, although specific awards are targeted to different groups of students.

Once on campus, a student’s academic advisor can offer additional suggestions regarding assistantships. If a student is interested in a research assistantship, this interest should be shared with faculty members. In addition, Summer Research, and Dissertation Completion Fellowship programs provide exceptional financial support to conduct research. Fellowships provide exceptional financial support to conduct research.

Fellowships

Most fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis. The considerable number of multi-year and recruiting fellowships targeted to entering doctoral students are typically awarded during the winter of the year preceding entry into the graduate program. Therefore, students interested in such support should complete their application process by December 1 of the year preceding enrollment. Fellowship recipients are not required to give service to the college or its programs in return for the support.

University Graduate Recruiting Fellowships These one-year fellowships, awarded to promising new doctoral students, provide $3,000-$5,000. Recipients must study full time during the period of their award. Newly admitted doctoral students are automatically considered.

Funding sources from the Graduate School

Graduate Assistantships and Internships Graduate teaching and research assistantships are available in various departments within the University for both entering and continuing graduate students. Some assistants are assigned to teach courses, others assist in research projects, and a few provide other services to a college and university. A half-time graduate assistant earns between $11,600 and $15,000 during the academic year, plus a waiver of the out-of-state portion of tuition, a waiver of nine credits of in-state tuition each semester, medical benefits, and a waiver of registration fees.

Students should discuss employment opportunities with advisors and other faculty members, and examine bulletin boards for announcements of other opportunities. Only students enrolled in graduate degree programs may apply for assistantships.

Application Checklist

To apply to the Chicano/Latino Studies PhD Program you must upload the following materials in PDF format to the Graduate Education Application Portal . Once you have submitted your paid application to the Graduate School, you will receive an email invitation to upload your application materials to the Graduate Education Application Portal . You will need your applicant ID number and the password you created when you completed your application to graduate school.

APPLICATION STEPS HOW TO SUBMIT

Application files will not be reviewed until the application fee is paid and all required application materials are received.

Do I need a master’s degree? A master’s degree in any field is required. However, potential students without a master’s degree may be admitted provisionally. Additional coursework, not to count toward the PhD, may be required.

How long will it take for me to earn my PhD? This depends largely on the student. Classes are usually completed in two to three years. Dissertation research generally takes one to four years. All students are required to complete all requirements of the curriculum within eight years.

My undergraduate and master’s degrees are not in Chicano/Latino Studies. Will this make it difficult to complete my PhD? Our graduate students come from a diverse academic background. While previous experience in Chicano/Latino studies is helpful, it should not impose a barrier to successful completion of your PhD.

Can I work on my PhD part-time? Yes. But you must complete all requirements within the eight-year time limit.

What resources are available in the library? Michigan State University has a very comprehensive library. Of interest to doctoral students in the Chicano/Latino Studies Program is the Cesar E. Chavez Collection. It is an interdisciplinary browsing collection consisting of titles in a variety of formats, research levels and locations on Chicano and Boricua Studies. Chavez Collection materials in other locations require the storage, access/viewing facilities and services not available in an open shelves collection. The main part of this collection is located on the first floor, west wing lobby of the Main Libraries. This browsing collection is reinforced throughout the Libraries system by other titles in the main stacks collection and various branch collections.

CLS Grad Handbook 2022-2023

CLS Grad Handbook 2020-2021

Recently Completed Dissertation Titles

Angélica Ruvalcaba

(Dual Major Doctoral Degree with Sociology)

"Systemic Issues Can’t Be Fixed Overnight: How Latina Undergraduate Students Engage in Activism and Critical Hope."

Esther Ayers

(PhD, Chicano/Latino Studies)

"We Are Human Before We Are Labels:" Transfiguring Testimonios with Adventure Therapy. An Exploratory Study to Re-shape Mental Health Stories with Hispanic Adult Women in a Substance Abuse Treatment Program."

Vanessa Aguilar

(Dual Major Doctoral Degree with English)

"Latinx Spiritualities in Young Adult Speculative Fiction."

Christian Ramirez

(Dual PhD with Sociology)

"¡PALENQUE!: Cross Cultural Exchange Among Indigenous and African Peoples in 17th Century Veracruz, Mexico." 

Evangelina Palma Ramirez

"My life is changed but the trust ain't there to trust somebody else": Experiences of recovery from intimate partner abuse of women of Mexican heritage in a mid-size city in Michigan

Jose Martinez

"If I don't do it, then who is going to do it": Centering the lived experiences of migrant college students to examine sensemaking of family responsibilities during the college transition process & carve out space for their counterstories in existing higher education literature

Felix Medina, Jr.

The Mexican worker: A Marxist reading of labor struggles in Californian Chicano/a literature

Samuel Saldivar, III

(Dual Major PhD with English)

Latinidad in estranged lands: Narrative interjections in Chicanx and Latinx literature, film, and television

Jose Moreno

The Chicana/o Studies movement on campus: Popular protest, radicalism, and activism, 1968-1980

Jose Villarreal

The devotion to a living santo and his religious healing: An interdisciplinary study of El Nino Fidencio and his religious movement

Rochelle Trotter

EN VOZ ALTA! Mexico's response to US imperialism, 1821-1848

Louie Moreno

Labor, migration, and activism: A history of Mexican workers on the Oxnard Plain, 1930-1980

Recent PhD Placements

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

South Texas College

Bowling Green State University

California State University-Chico

Middle Tennessee State University

Northern Arizona University

Texas A & M - Kingsville

Texas State University - San Marcos

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Dual Major PhD in Chicano/Latino Studies

Michigan State University doctoral students in other departments have the opportunity to earn a PhD with a dual major in their original field combined with a major in Chicano/Latino Studies. This interdisciplinary approach can broaden your knowledge of Chicano/Latino Studies while enhancing your work in your other major.

For more information, please contact the CLS office.

An application for a Dual Major PhD in Chicano/Latino Studies can be found at this link:

Application for Dual Major PhD in Chicano/Latino Studies (PDF)

Accessibility Tools

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Most of our graduate students are fully supported through research assistantships, teaching assistantships, or fellowships. These include a monthly stipend, a full waiver for tuition, and health benefits. 

University Fellowships:

Highest-ranked applicants may qualify for one of three prestigious MSU fellowships. If you would like to be considered for one of these competitive fellowships, make sure to mention this in the cover letter of your application.

• University Distinguished Fellowships : full support (stipend, health insurance and tuition waiver) for 1st and 5th years contingent on progress towards degree. Due in early January for new applicants to MSU.
• Environmental Science and Policy Program  -  Doctoral Recruiting Fellowships : full support in year 1, followed by Department support for 2 years. Due in early February for new applicants to MSU.
• College of Natural Science Fellowships : full support in 1st year, followed by Department support for 1 or 3 years (MSc or PhD students, respectively). Due in early January for new applicants to MSU.
• Dissertation Continuation Award – open to students in the middle of their graduate degree. Applications due for Fall semester approximately middle of June; Spring semester approximately early November; Summer semester approximately late February
• Dissertation Completion Award – open to students for the last semester of their graduate degree. Applications due for Fall semester approximately middle of June; Spring semester approximately early November; Summer semester approximately late February

Department Fellowships:

The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Michigan State University has newly endowed funds to support several competitive fellowships for outstanding PhD students.

Faculty Research Assistantships:

Research assistantships are available through externally funded projects to individual faculty advisors. Contact potential advisors directly for more information.

Department Teaching Assistantships:

The department has several TA positions, which are made available to the best Graduate School applicants.

Department Awards and Fellowships:

Graduate Travel Grant applications are solicited twice each year. Fall semester applications (e.g. for AGU Fall meeting) will be due in early October, and Spring applications will be due approximately the middle of February.

The department offers several merit-based supplementary scholarships and awards to outstanding graduate students. All awards are independent, and student may be nominated/apply for multiple awards. * *Applications are due each year in approximately late March .

• Academic CV,
• Statement of professional goals
• Demonstration(s) of academic achievements and development of professional goals, with focus on academic achievements in the past year.
• Academic progress report that includes current informal course transcript and a statement as to current status in terms of degree requirements.
• 1. Academic CV
• 2. Statement of professional goals
• 3. Demonstration(s) of academic achievements and development of professional goals
• 4. Academic progress report that includes current informal course transcript and a statement as to current status in terms of degree requirements
• 5. Up to one page proposal justifying research needs for funds by student, including budget.
• Academic CV
• Demonstration(s) of academic achievements and development of professional goals.
• Academic progress report that includes current informal course transcript and a statement as to current status.
• Up to one page proposal justifying research needs for funds by student, including budget.

The following merit-based awards do not require applications by students but faculty may send nominations to the Graduate Affairs Committee:

• Endowed Fund in Geology of the Solid Earth
• Excellence in Teaching Award
• Excellence in MS Thesis Research Award
• Excellence in Ph.D. Dissertation Research Award

Environmental Science and Policy Program College of Social Science

Espp student awarded dissertation completion fellowship.

August 26, 2021

Ward  is a Doctoral Candidate in Sociology and Environmental Science and Policy. Her research interests focus mainly on community development and sustainability in post-disaster communities, especially in Miyagi, Japan after the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake. She focuses on the intersection of disaster and environmental, social, and economic problems. She has several years of experience with NGOs in Japan and in the US. She currently collaborates with NGOs in the following areas: community sustainability and redevelopment, economic empowerment, and community organizing. Her dissertation research titled “Reviving community: building social recovery in rural post-disaster Japan,” focuses on how post-disaster, recovery difficulties in rural communities are a result of both social and economic woes. Her research questions are 1)  How is resident social capital impacted by government focus on economic community redevelopment?  And 2)  How do declines in social capital affect resident’s, farmer’s, and fishermen’s ability to handle rural problems of unemployment, depopulation, out-migration, aging, and industry stagnation?  By inquiring about social capital, she uncovers the processes that lead to better or worse community recovery patterns which provide a window into how social development currently operates in rural post-disaster communities.

The Graduate School created the Dissertation Completion Fellowship (DCF) to support doctoral students in their last year. The purpose of the DCF is to help alleviate financial concerns so students may devote themselves full time to writing and preparing to defend their dissertation. Each year the Graduate School provides funding that makes available approximately 170 fellowships across the university. Colleges set the conditions and application procedures for their DCFs and ultimately select their DCF recipients. The Graduate School then disperses the awards to the recipients. Unlike a graduate assistantship, the DCF does not include a tuition/fee waiver or health insurance.

Shaonan Liu

China and Africa

Grants and Fellowships

Dissertation Writing Fellowship.  Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholar Exchange.

$18,000. (2017-2018)

Dissertation Completion Fellowship.  Michigan State University.

$7,000. (2017-2018)

Department of History Graduate Student External Fellowship Initiative.  Michigan State University.

$5,000. (2016)

Journal of West African History Fellowship.  Michigan State University.

$5,000. (2015)

Don Lammers Graduate Award . Michigan State University.

$1,500. (2015)

Department of History Graduate Student External Fellowship Initiative.  Michigan State University.

$5,000. (2014)

$4,000. (2013)

Co-PI, “Africans’ Perceptions of China and the Chinese”, China-Africa Joint Research Program.  Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People’s Republic of China.

$20,000. (2013)

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Postdoctoral Scholar, Biology

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Honors & Awards

• Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Michigan State University (2022)
• William W. and Evelyn M. Taylor Endowed Fellowship, Michigan State University (2021)
• Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) Fellowship, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) (2021)
• KBS LTER Summer Research Fellowship, Kellogg Biological Station LTER (2019)

Stanford Advisors

• Gretchen Daily , Postdoctoral Faculty Sponsor
• Academic [email protected] University - Scholar Department: Biology Position: Postdoctoral Scholar
• Alternate Contact [email protected]

Additional Info

• Mail Code: 5020

• Google Scholar

All Publications

View details for DOI 10.5751/ES-14351-280319

View details for Web of Science ID 001075157700001

View details for DOI 10.21105/joss.05124

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.rse.2022.113346

View details for Web of Science ID 001013412200002

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.envsci.2021.07.020

View details for Web of Science ID 000691599800003

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41586-021-03479-2

View details for Web of Science ID 000640199200008

View details for PubMedID 33854242

Irrigated agriculture has important implications for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, there is a lack of systematic and quantitative analyses of its impacts on food-energy-water-CO2 nexus. Here we studied impacts of irrigated agriculture on food-energy-water-CO2 nexus across food sending systems (the North China Plain (NCP)), food receiving systems (the rest of China) and spillover systems (Hubei Province, affected by interactions between sending and receiving systems), using life cycle assessment, model scenarios, and the framework of metacoupling (socioeconomic-environmental interactions within and across borders). Results indicated that food supply from the NCP promoted food sustainability in the rest of China, but the NCP consumed over four times more water than its total annual renewable water, with large variations in food-energy-water-CO2 nexus across counties. Although Hubei Province was seldom directly involved in the food trade, it experienced substantial losses in water and land due to the construction of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project which aims to alleviate water shortages in the NCP. This study suggests the need to understand impacts of agriculture on food-energy-water-CO2 nexus in other parts of the world to achieve global sustainability.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-19520-3

View details for Web of Science ID 000594728700014

View details for PubMedID 33203840

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7672069

View details for DOI 10.1007/s10980-017-0527-6

View details for Web of Science ID 000401663900005

View details for DOI 10.1007/s11442-017-1400-x

View details for Web of Science ID 000398212600003

Green finance (GF) is recognized as a key driver of sustainable development. While existing studies have extensively discussed the relationship between GF and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), few have explored the coupling coordination relationship between GF and SDGs. In this paper, we use data from thirty Chinese provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) from 2008-2021 to examine the degree of coupling coordination development (CCD) between GF and the SDGs systems using the CCD model. We find that most SDGs and their sub-goals exhibit a significant upward trend, except for SDG8, 14-16. GF presents a fluctuating upward trend, with a significant decline in 2010 and 2019. The CCDs between GF and SDGs and their sub-goals generally show an M-shaped upward trend in most regions, with most of them experiencing a synchronous decline in 2011-2012 and 2019. In the analysis of regional heterogeneity, the eastern region performs better in SDG8-9, the central region performs better in SDG3, 14-15, while the western region performs better in SDG7. This paper provides empirical evidence for a further in-depth understanding of the relationship between GF and SDGs, which can contribute to advancing GF development and the SDG process.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41598-024-62471-8

View details for PubMedID 38773254

View details for PubMedCentralID 9257218

Accelerating efforts for the Sustainable Development Goals requires understanding their synergies and trade-offs at the national and sub-national levels, which will help identify the key hurdles and opportunities to prioritize them in an indivisible manner for a country. Here, we present the importance of the 17 goals through synergy and trade-off networks. Our results reveal that 19 provinces show the highest trade-offs in SDG13 (Combating Climate Change) or SDG5 (Gender Equality) consistent with the national level, with other 12 provinces varying. 24 provinces show the highest synergies in SDG1 (No Poverty) or SDG6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) consistent with the national level, with the remaining 7 provinces varying. These common but differentiated SDG priorities reflect that to ensure a coordinated national response, China should pay more attention to the provincial situation, so that provincial governments can formulate more targeted policies in line with their own priorities towards accelerating sustainable development.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-46491-6

View details for PubMedID 38480716

View details for DOI 10.1029/2023EF003769

View details for Web of Science ID 001153584900001

Unraveling the complexity of the 17 interacting sustainable development goals (SDGs) is crucial for their achievement. Empirically revealing the dimensions of the SDGs helps generalize the dominant features of SDGs and better understand their drivers. Here, using a database of 166 countries' progress toward achieving each individual SDG, we found that about 70% of the variability of national SDG performance can be captured by three dimensions: socioeconomic development at the expense of resource and climate, the environment, and development at the expense of equality. Moreover, these dimensions are mainly affected by the economy; as gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increases, the first dimension increases monotonically, the environment dimension decreases and then increases, and the inequality dimension increases and then decreases. Our findings indicate a dim prospect of eventually achieving all SDGs because of the conflicts between economic growth and resource and climate goals under the current development paradigm, highlighting the importance of sustainable transformation.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.xinn.2023.100507

View details for PubMedID 37744178

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10514454

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.rser.2023.113760

View details for Web of Science ID 001083395800001

View details for DOI 10.1038/s43247-023-01000-3

View details for Web of Science ID 001073675800001

View details for DOI 10.1002/pan3.10513

View details for Web of Science ID 001022423300001

View details for DOI 10.1002/ldr.4783

View details for Web of Science ID 001002170100001

The United Nations (UN) has adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aiming to provide human welfare and conserve the planet, now and into the future. Two of the SDGs directly address biodiversity conservation and sustainable development- SDG 14 (life below water) and SDG 15 (life on land). Although the UN has issued annual reports on SDGs, the reports did not consistently reveal the progress over time, because of inconsistent methods such as estimation based on different indicators across years. Our research examined the dynamics of the same 10 indicators for SDGs 14 and 15 between 2010 and 2020. Results indicate that the overall SDG 14 scores had a small growth between 2010 and 2020, whereas the substantial increase in SDG 15 scores spotlighted the conservation efforts and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystem services, especially in countries with biodiversity hotspots. Globally, there was more progress in terms of SDG 15 scores during 2015-2020 than during 2010-2015 (before the UN adopted SDGs in 2015). Surprisingly, SDG 14 score had smaller progress during 2015-2020 than during 2010-2015. Special attention should be given to low-income countries lagging in sustainable development performance when implementing the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106420

View details for PubMedID 37035006

View details for DOI 10.1007/s11769-023-1350-4

View details for Web of Science ID 000946963800002

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.geosus.2022.11.003

View details for Web of Science ID 000990070900001

The expansion of construction land due to urbanization is the most rapid land use change in contemporary human history and has always occupied high-quality cropland, posing a severe threat to cropland and food security, it's essential to clarify the impact of urbanization on cropland and food security. This study proposed a research framework based on the regulating role of human activities, used quantifiable complex network analysis to uncover the vital role of urbanization in the evolution of land systems, and combined trajectory analysis of crop yield change to explore the impact of different urbanization modes (urban, town, and township mode) on food security through a continuous observation on 4259 township-level administrative regions of the Loess Plateau from 1990 to 2020. The findings proved that urbanization occupied the greatest land use area of cropland, and the town mode occupied 58.62 % of all urbanization modes encroaching on cropland, which has become a new pattern for advancing the urbanization development in the Loess Plateau. Construction land is more likely to be transferred in than out in the land use transfer network, while other land use types converted to construction land will be difficult to reverse. The Chinese government has implemented pragmatic policies, improved agricultural production techniques, and promoted agricultural intensification, resulting in a considerable increase in crop productivity and crop yield and the achievement of basic crop yield self-sufficiency of the Loess Plateau, so urbanization would not endanger food security. This study not only provides a more systematic research framework for related studies but also provides a theoretical basis for securing food security in other rapidly urbanizing regions of the world.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162053

View details for PubMedID 36758697

View details for DOI 10.1029/2022EF002927

View details for Web of Science ID 000935036800001

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.energy.2022.125247

View details for Web of Science ID 000879004800001

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.egyr.2022.03.039

View details for Web of Science ID 000794015500006

Solar energy is considered one of the key solutions to the growing demand for energy and to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to the relatively low cost of land use for solar energy and high power generation potential, a large number of photovoltaic (PV) power stations have been established in desert areas around the world. Despite the contribution to easing the energy crisis and combating climate change, large-scale construction and operation of PV power stations can change the land cover and affect the environment. However, few studies have focused on these special land cover changes, especially vegetation cover changes, which hinders understanding the effects of the extensive development of solar energy. Here, we used Continuous Change Detection and Classification - Spectral Mixture Analysis (CCDC-SMA) based on Landsat images to monitor changes in vegetation abundance before and after the PV power stations deployment. To reduce the interference of PV shading on vegetation abundance estimation, we improved the vegetation (VG) fraction from SMA and developed the Photovoltaics-Adjusted Vegetation (PAVG) fraction for vegetation abundance measurements in PV power stations. Results show that PV power stations in China's 12 biggest deserts expanded from 0 to 102.56 km2 from 2011 to 2018, mainly distributed in the central part of north China. The desert vegetation in the deployment area of PV power stations presented a significant greening trend. Compared to 2010, the greening area reached 30.80 km2, accounting for 30% of the total area of PV power stations. Overall, the large-scale deployment of PV power stations has promoted desert greening, primarily due to government-led Photovoltaic Desert Control Projects and favorable climatic change. This study shows the great benefits of PV power stations in combating desertification and improving people's welfare, which bring sustainable economic, ecological and social prosperity in sandy ecosystems.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116338

View details for PubMedID 36208517

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ecoser.2022.101472

View details for Web of Science ID 000851101000002

View details for DOI 10.5751/ES-13275-270315

View details for Web of Science ID 000879545700005

View details for DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ac5c9d

View details for Web of Science ID 000770431200001

Rapid urban expansion has profound impacts on global biodiversity through habitat conversion, degradation, fragmentation, and species extinction. However, how future urban expansion will affect global biodiversity needs to be better understood. We contribute to filling this knowledge gap by combining spatially explicit projections of urban expansion under shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) with datasets on habitat and terrestrial biodiversity (amphibians, mammals, and birds). Overall, future urban expansion will lead to 11-33 million hectares of natural habitat loss by 2100 under the SSP scenarios and will disproportionately cause large natural habitat fragmentation. The urban expansion within the current key biodiversity priority areas is projected to be higher (e.g., 37-44% higher in the WWF's Global 200) than the global average. Moreover, the urban land conversion will reduce local within-site species richness by 34% and species abundance by 52% per 1 km grid cell, and 7-9 species may be lost per 10 km cell. Our study suggests an urgent need to develop a sustainable urban development pathway to balance urban expansion and biodiversity conservation.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-29324-2

View details for Web of Science ID 000773315800021

View details for PubMedID 35338145

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8956596

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41893-022-00868-x

View details for Web of Science ID 000780305100002

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jag.2022.102707

View details for Web of Science ID 000765292800001

Rapid increases in the trade of global red and processed meat impede international efforts toward sustainable diets by increasing meat consumption. However, little research has examined cross-country variations in diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) because of meat trade. We aimed to examine the impact of red and processed meat trade on diet-related NCDs and to identify which countries are particularly vulnerable to diet-related NCDs due to red and processed meat trade.By selecting 14 red meat and six processed meat items, we investigated bilateral meat trade flows across 154 countries. Then, we integrated health data and information on red and processed meat trade to quantify the country-specific burden of diet-related NCDs attributable to the meat trade using a comparative risk assessment framework.Results show that global increases in red and processed meat trade contributed to the abrupt increase of diet-related NCDs, and the attributable burden of diet-related NCDs had large geographical variations among countries. We also identified responsible exporting countries that increase diet-related NCD risks in importing countries. Over the period from 1993 to 2018, island countries in the Caribbean and Oceania were particularly vulnerable to diet-related NCD incidents and mortality due to large meat imports. In addition, countries in Northern and Eastern Europe have exceedingly increased attributable death and disability-adjusted life year rates via meat imports.Our findings suggest that both exporters and importers must urgently undertake cross-sectoral actions to reduce the meat trade's health impacts. To prevent unintended health consequences due to red and processed meat trade, future interventions need to integrate health policies with agricultural and trade policies by cooperating with both responsible exporting and importing countries.

View details for DOI 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006394

View details for Web of Science ID 000714166200003

View details for PubMedID 34782356

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8559104

View details for DOI 10.1007/s10980-021-01285-9

View details for Web of Science ID 000667133100001

View details for DOI 10.3390/w12102825

View details for Web of Science ID 000585415400001

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101129

View details for Web of Science ID 000577345300001

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41893-020-0572-z

View details for Web of Science ID 000548446500002

To address global challenges1-4, 193 countries have committed to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)5. Quantifying progress towards achieving the SDGs is essential to track global efforts towards sustainable development and guide policy development and implementation. However, systematic methods for assessing spatio-temporal progress towards achieving the SDGs are lacking. Here we develop and test systematic methods to quantify progress towards the 17 SDGs at national and subnational levels in China. Our analyses indicate that China's SDG Index score (an aggregate score representing the overall performance towards achieving all 17 SDGs) increased at the national level from 2000 to 2015. Every province also increased its SDG Index score over this period. There were large spatio-temporal variations across regions. For example, eastern China had a higher SDG Index score than western China in the 2000s, and southern China had a higher SDG Index score than northern China in 2015. At the national level, the scores of 13 of the 17 SDGs improved over time, but the scores of four SDGs declined. This study suggests the need to track the spatio-temporal dynamics of progress towards SDGs at the global level and in other nations.

View details for DOI 10.1038/s41586-019-1846-3

View details for Web of Science ID 000505617400029

View details for PubMedID 31894145

View details for DOI 10.3390/w11081628

View details for Web of Science ID 000484561500102

Across the globe, many regions import virtual resources to support their development. Although many researchers have studied transfers of a single virtual resource, interactions across two types of virtual resource transfer networks - energy and water, for example - have rarely been explored simultaneously. To address these knowledge gaps, we constructed and analyzed interprovincial virtual water and energy transfer networks, using China (the largest energy consumer and is undergoing severe water scarcity) as a demonstration. The results unexpectedly showed that more than 40% of provinces gained one kind of resource (either water or energy) through trade at the expense of losing the other kind of internal resource (energy or water), and 20% of provinces suffered a double loss of both water and energy. The remaining provinces gained both water and energy. Surprisingly, approximately 40% of transferred water/energy was from relatively water/energy-scarce provinces to water/energy-abundant provinces, further deepening resource inequality. Moreover, 33.3% and 26.7% of the provinces relied more on cross-border trade than on internal resources to support their water and energy consumption, respectively. Furthermore, in terms of total trade volume, 83.3% and 73.3% of provinces depended more on distant provinces via trade than adjacent ones to support their water and energy consumption, respectively. Overall, virtual water-energy networks tended to enhance each other. Trade largely shaped the nexus relationship between water and energy consumption in provinces. Our study suggests that there is an urgent need to assess multiple virtual resource networks simultaneously in other countries to uncover unintended consequences and to develop cross-sectoral and holistic policies to achieve global sustainability and human well-being.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.298

View details for Web of Science ID 000466418300015

View details for PubMedID 30981920

The world is connected through multiple flows of material, but a comprehensive assessment of their temporal dynamics and interactions is rare. To address this knowledge gap, we assessed the evolution and interactions of global flows of virtual water, energy, land, CO2, nitrogen as well as financial capital embodied in international trade from 1995 to 2008. We found that the volumes of all these flows, except for land flow, increased over time. Financial capital flows increased most (188.9%), followed by flows of CO2 (59.3%), energy (58.1%), water (50.7%) and nitrogen (10.5%), while land transfer decreased by 8.8%. Volumes of virtual material flows among distant countries were much higher than those among adjacent countries. The top five countries accounted for a surprisingly large proportion (47% to 80%) of total flow volumes. Different kinds of virtual material flows tended to enhance each other through synergistic effects, and CO2 and nitrogen flows tended to have stronger positive synergetic impacts on the other virtual material flows. Our results suggest that it is important to pay particular attention to such fast-growing material flows, promote cooperation between distant countries, and target countries with the largest flows to achieve global sustainable development goals.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.169

View details for Web of Science ID 000456175700063

View details for PubMedID 30580220

View details for DOI 10.3390/su11041033

View details for Web of Science ID 000460819100093

View details for DOI 10.3390/su10124426

View details for Web of Science ID 000455338100092

View details for DOI 10.1007/s11442-018-1551-4

View details for Web of Science ID 000442748400002

View details for DOI 10.1007/s11442-016-1292-1

View details for Web of Science ID 000375111200003

Graduate College

Graduate college dissertation completion fellowship.

Western Michigan University Graduate College Dissertation Completion Fellowships

The Graduate College offers Dissertation Completion Fellowships to WMU doctoral students for up to one year (two semesters and two sessions) awarded in open competition, on the basis of superior scholarly achievement and quality of proposed dissertation project, to assist full-time doctoral students with the completion of their dissertations. 

The DCF, the Frostic Fellowship and the Thompson Fellowship are exclusive of each other. While you are encouraged to apply for more than one fellowship in any award cycle, you cannot hold concurrently. Do note, applications for each fellowship should be adapted given the award amount varies and therefore the scope of the project may need to be modified.

Award Period

• One-year Fellowships typically begin in Summer II and extend through the following Summer I.
• Half –year Fellowships typically begin in Summer II and extend through Fall only.
• If the Fellow graduates during the fellowship period, the award terminates upon graduation.

Deadline to Apply: Feb. 19, 2025

The online application will open closer to the deadline

Eligibility

Recipients must be full-time doctoral candidates within one year of graduation who can demonstrate at the time of application the completion of the following requirements:

• Superior academic achievement
• Admission to Doctoral Candidacy: The designation of “candidacy” means that students have an approved dissertation committee; approved dissertation proposal; completed all courses and program requirements, with the exception of the dissertation; completed all research tools; completed all qualifying or comprehensive examinations.
• Fellows may not hold any other additional graduate appointments or paid positions at Western Michigan University during this appointment.

Award amount

• Salary per fall/spring semester:TBD
• Salary per summer session: TBD
• Tuition award: Tuition to cover 1 dissertation credit (7300) of resident/non-resident tuition each semester and/or session of your award

Important note about financial aid 

Any award you receive on your student account will reduce the cost of your educational expenses and may reduce the amount of other financial aid or loans for which you are eligible. If there is a change in your loan eligibility, the Office of Financial Aid will notify you. The tuition portion of your award may not be subject to tax, but you need to rely upon your own tax advisor as to the taxability of what you receive from WMU. Also, please check with your loan provider to see if being enrolled in one credit per semester will require you to begin repaying your loans due to under-enrollment.

Guidelines for the application process

Access the online application, once posted.

Letter of Nomination

Important: A Letter of Nomination must be uploaded in InfoReady by the student's dissertation advisor or the department/graduate program advisor or the department chair, on university letterhead. The letter should also include the name of one additional faculty member who may be contacted during the application process. 

The Letter of Nomination must clearly address the following elements:

• The student's name and the name of the fellowship
• Please ensure the student is currently enrolled
• Indicate the likelihood that the student will complete the dissertation within or by the following time period: Summer II 2024 - Summer I 2025
• Significance of the dissertation research as it is situated in the respective discipline
• The student’s academic/scholarly accomplishments
• The scholarly scientific promise of the student
• Any other elements that will distinguish the student’s nomination
• A specific time line for each chapter of the dissertation that indicates the percentage of completion for the following elements:  Research, Writing, Committee review, and a time line for completion of the dissertation leading to date of defense and graduation. 

If you have questions about the application process for this award, please contact  Diana Berkshire-Hearit . 

• For Disabled Academics
• Policy & Advocacy
• A11y in Action

Congrats to CREATE’s Graduating Ph.D. Students 2024!

May 30, 2024

Four of CREATE’s influential and productive doctoral students are graduating this spring. Please join us in congratulating Avery Mack, Emma McDonnell, Venkatesh Potluri, and Ather Sharif and wishing them well.

Avery Mack will receive their Ph.D. from the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Advised by CREATE Director Jennifer Mankoff, their research focuses on representation of people with disabilities in digital technologies like avatars and generative AI tools. They recently have investigated how technology can support people with fluctuating access needs, like neurodiverse people and people with chronic or mental health conditions.

Mack has been an invaluable resource at CREATE, co-leading graduate seminars, presenting workshops on accessibility, and contributing to CREATE’s accessibility research. “CREATE has been a great place to meet other accessibility researchers and get in contact with disabled people in our community,” says Mack. “As someone who tries to align my researchers with community needs and desires, this connection to the Seattle disability community is invaluable.”

Mack, whose thesis is titled, Dissertation Title: Understanding, Designing, and Building Adaptable Technology for Fluctuating Accessibility Needs in Group Setting s, is on the job market, interested in a research scientist position in industry.

Emma McDonnell

E arning her Ph.D. from Human Centered Design and Engineering , Emma McDonnell is advised by CREATE associate director Leah Findlater . McDonnell’s research blends computer science, design, and disability studies to explore ways that technology can be designed to align with disability politics and social worlds.

Her dissertation research explores how communication technology, specifically captioning, could be redesigned to encourage mixed ability groups to take a collective approach to accessibility.  Along with CREATE associate directors Leah Findlater and  Jon Froehlich, McDonnell studied captioning practices on TikTok and offered steps toward a standard for user-generated captioning. With fellow Ph.D. student, McDonnell presented a workshop on accessible presentations for CREATE’s GAAD Day 2024, contextualizing the importance of accessibility within the longer history of disability discrimination and activism.

Looking ahead

McDonnell is interested in postdoctoral opportunities to continue exploring new possibilities for technology design anchored in critical disability perspectives. 

Venkatesh Potluri

Advised by CREATE Director Jennifer Mankoff in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering , Venkatesh Potluri ’s research examines accessibility barriers experienced by blind or visually impaired (BVI) developers participating in professional programming domains such as user interface design, data science, and physical computing. His work contributes real-world systems to improve developer tools and new interaction techniques to address these access barriers. His thesis is titled, A Paradigm Shift in Nonvisual Programming.

While at the UW, Potluri has been selected as an Apple Scholar and a Google Lime Scholar, and contributed to the Accessibility Guide for Data Science and STEM Classes . He presented a paper on a large-scale analysis of the accessibility of Jupyter notebooks, a new tool that enables blind and visually impaired people to create their own data visualizations to explore streaming data.

Asked about his experience with CREATE, Potluri responded, " Since CREATE's founding, I've been thrilled by its mission to take a holistic approach to accessibility with disabled experts and stakeholders—from education to research to translation. I'm grateful to have been part of this beacon of high-quality research informed by a deep understanding of disability. I aspire to carry the torch forward and help make the world accessible!"

Future plans

Potluri will join the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in the Information School in Fall 2024.

Ather Sharif

Sharif has garnered many awards while at the UW, including:

• A Web4All Conference Best Technical Paper Award for a paper about improving the functionality of VoxLens, shared with CREATE faculty Katharina Reinecke and Jacob Wobbrock.
• The individual award at the 2024 UW Digital Accessibility Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
• 2023 Golden Key Graduate Scholar Award for his dedication to digital accessibility for disabled individuals.

Sharif credits CREATE leaders, who include his advisors as well as Richard Ladner, Jennifer Mankoff, and Anat Caspi, to name a few, “who are not only prominent allies for disabled people but are always willing to advise and guide students to be the best researchers they can be.”

“I cannot begin to express how incredible it is to have CREATE as part of our ecosystem,” says Ather. “It advances the state of accessible technologies for people with disabilities through cutting-edge research . Personally, as someone with a disability, it means the world to me. As a researcher, CREATE has funded almost all of my research work at UW.”

After graduation, Sharif will be traveling on a 2024 UW Bonderman Fellowship . He plans to visit Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Costa Rica, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, and Thailand to learn about disability rights history and distinct physical infrastructure for wheelchair users and enhance his perspectives, challenge his viewpoints, and identify real-life barriers disabled people face. 

With too many accomplishments amongst them to list here, these almost-minted Ph.D.s collaborated on projects that have contributed to CREATE’s growth and success. In addition to mentoring undergraduate students, publishing and presenting papers, and working in labs and with researchers, here are a few of the ways Sharif, Potluri, McDonnell and Mack have worked together:

• Avery Mack and Venkatesh Potluri contributed to the Accessibility Guide for Data Science and STEM Classes , available via the CREATE website, A11y in Action resource link. They, with the other lead contributors, received the 2024 UW Digital Accessibility Team Award as part of UW Accessible Technology’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day celebration. 
• Potluri and Mack also co-led 5 CREATE Accessibility Seminars to discuss relevant reading and share accessibility research.
• Mack and Ather Sharif collaborated with Lucille Njoo to dispel common myths about students with disabilities in an article in the Winter 2024 Allen School DEIA newsletter .
• McDonnell and Mack presented an accessible presentations workshop as part of UW’s 2024 Global Accessibility Awareness Day celebration.

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Five doctoral students awarded Contemporary History Institute fellowships

Five graduate students are the 2024–25 recipients of the  Contemporary History Institute's Klinder Fellowships and the Baker Peace Fellowships.

All five are Ph.D. candidates, which means they have completed all the required coursework and have successfully passed their qualifying exams. The award provides fellows with a stipend to facilitate dissertation completion or research.

"Some students use these fellowships to visit archives or libraries for further dissertation research. Other students use the funding to attend and present their research at academic conferences," said Dr.  Alec Holcombe , associate professor of history and director of the Contemporary History Institute (CHI).

Harrison Fender and  Sukyoung Hong are the 2024-25 Klinder Fellows. The Klinder endowment was established in the 1990s to fund a dissertation writing year for Ohio University doctoral students enrolled in the  Contemporary History Institute Certificate program .

Cody Billock ,  George Ofori Atta , and  Jordan Zdinak are the 2024–25 Baker fellows. The John and Elizabeth Baker Peace Endowment funds the Baker Peace Fellowship through the Baker Peace Studies program, which was created in the 1980s to support teaching, scholarship and conferences at Ohio University that promote the study of conflict and conflict resolution. The program offers at least one fellowship each year to a CHI certificate student.

About the Fellowship Awardees:

Cody Billock

Billock’s dissertation, titled “Huế & the Global Vietnamese Civil War, 1945-1975”, examines a thirty-year period when a violent Civil War consumed Vietnamese society. Based on archival research in Vietnamese, French, and American archives, his project employs Huế City in Central Vietnam as a case study to explore the fractured nature of Vietnamese politics.

“At this time, various Nationalist Parties battled not only with the Communist Party but with each other for control of Huế city,” said Billock, who studies Vietnamese history under the advisement of Holcombe. “Sectarian religious strife between Catholics and Buddhists further contributed to the unrest. This civil war was grafted onto the broader Cold War struggle between the Communist and Capitalist blocs, which further facilitated domestic political violence in Vietnam.”

Billock, who earned his Master of Arts in History from San Diego State in 2020, said that during his Fellowship year he plans to continue his research at the John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Gerald Ford Presidential Archives in the United States. He also also plans to visit the Thua Thien Provincial archive in Vietnam.

Harrison Fender

Fender’s dissertation, “The Maritime Strategy Ashore: Amphibious Operations, Intelligence, and the Security of NATO’s Littoral,” discusses the use of British and American amphibious operations along NATO’s Northern Flank during the final years of the Cold War. British and American amphibious forces had been vital in protecting Western interests during the first decades of the Cold War. But by the beginning of the 1970s, her argues, economic stagnation and a shift from global commitments had weakened British and American amphibious capabilities. British and American amphibious forces found a new role in NATO planning, particularly defending NATO’s flanks. Intelligence assessments revealed NATO’s flanks had become vulnerable to Soviet naval, amphibious, and airborne forces. Overall, the use of amphibious forces in offensive and defensive roles helped demonstrate NATO’s resolve in checking Soviet ambitions in Europe.

“I plan on using the Klinder Fellowship to finish my dissertation,” Fender said. :I have recently concluded collecting all my research from British and American archives, and I will spend the next academic year writing my dissertation. My plan is to have the dissertation completed and defended by the Spring of 2025.”

Fender earned a Master of Arts in History from Ohio University in 2019. He studies British imperial and naval history under the direction of Dr.  John Brobst .

Sukyoung Hong

Hong’s dissertation, “Seeing Through Western Eyes: How Racialized Beauty Standards Shaped Lives of Women of Color in the Late Twentieth Century,” explores how beauty standards, established around whiteness, contributed to the exclusion of Asian American women from mainstream American society and how Asian American women appropriated the white beauty ideals to pursue social acceptance in the late twentieth century.

Throughout U.S. history, whiteness was synonymous with Americanness, and the physical characteristics of Asian descendants were often classified as ugly. Hence, the slanted eyes of Asian Americans were targeted as the marker of their allegedly inferior race, and plastic surgeons promoted blepharoplasty as a solution for Asian Americans to erase their racial traits and create more beautiful, Americanized faces. Despite plastic surgeons’ racist rhetoric, Asian American women adopted white American beauty standards as a part of their strategy to prove conformity.

“Throughout the history of Asian American immigration, they were treated as unassimilable aliens who refused to be integrated into the mainstream society,” Hong said. “Additionally, because of a series of armed conflicts between the U.S. and East Asian nations, including the Pacific War during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, Asian Americans were put under suspicion. Thus, their bodily manipulation through blepharoplasty was a tool to demonstrate their willingness for assimilation, prove their loyalty, and display their benignity.”

Hong earned an Master of Arts in History from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea in 2017. She is currently studying American women’s history with Dr.  Katherine Jellison .

George Ofori Atta  

Ofori-Atta’s dissertation – “Modernization, the State, and Disaster in Contemporary Ghana: An Environmental History of Accra c.1860 to the Present” – seeks to examine the devastations caused by flood disasters in 20th century Ghana with a focus on the urban settlements of Accra inhabited mostly by the Ga speaking people. His work lies at the intersection between environmental and social history.

“I argue that from the nineteenth century until the late twentieth century, the persistence of ideas about modernization and urbanization reshaped the understanding of environmental disaster among the Ga people of Accra,” Ofori-Atta said. “The relocation of Ghana’s capital from Cape Coast to Accra in 1877 created diverse forms of social organization and regulations that redefined local understandings of the landscape and environmental disasters. In the decades following Ghana’s independence, new political leaders embraced modernization theories of development without any consideration of indigenous thoughts and settlements located in the fragile environments where the poor lived.”

Ofori-Atta earned a Master of Arts in International Studies from Ohio University's Center for International Studies in 2021. He is currently studying African environmental history with Dr.  Assan Sarr . During the Fellowship year, he to conduct field and archival research to enrich the study and outline all the chapters for his dissertation.

Jordan Zdinak

Zdinak’s dissertation – “Violence and Memory: Lynching in the Midwestern United States” – examines the historical trajectory of the normalization of violence against Black bodies during the era of slavery, how society tolerated lynching from the 1870s to the 1950s, then discouraged these extrajudicial murders, and now works to memorialize lynching victims. To show society’s shifting views, she focuses on themes such as the changing concepts of Black and white masculinity and femininity, the failure of law enforcement, the restructuring of public narratives about the Black family, and the roles of the media. Her project will contain an international component by explaining how racist ideas formed throughout the Atlantic world, how British colonists brought these notions to the U.S., and how these beliefs migrated to the Midwestern region after emancipation.

“Midwestern racial violence is worth investigating because it is an understudied topic, as most of the historiography focuses on the South and ignores how powerful and widespread ideas of white supremacy were across the United States,” said Zdinak, who also works under the advisement of Jellison. Refuting this misconception is a point she addresses in the dissertation by focusing specifically on case studies of lynching victims that communities have chosen to commemorate in the Midwestern U.S, while also advancing the idea that addressing past wrongs will enable discussions about present issues of violence perpetrated against Black bodies.

“The Baker Fellowship will allow me the time and opportunity to analyze these documents and swiftly write my dissertation,” said Zdinak, who earned her Master of Arts in History from Ohio University in 2020. “I also plan to travel to the Midwestern lynching commemoration sites to familiarize myself with the area’s history and to learn more about the historical marker projects and those who were involved in memorializing these lynching victims.”

Florida State University

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International Admissions

We are now accepting Graduate applications for Fall 2024, and Spring 2025.* *Please contact your department for application open terms and deadlines.

Our community welcomes you

Each year, the university enrolls approximately 1,700 international students. We are proud to offer extensive support and services to our international population. International applicants should plan to apply early so they have ample time to obtain their immigration documents and make living arrangements in the U.S. Any F-1/J-1 students planning to obtain their I-20/DS-2019 should contact the Center for Global Engagement at [email protected] . Please check with your department regarding deadlines. 

International Admissions Requirements

In addition to meeting graduate university admissions requirements, international applicants must also meet the following University requirements to be considered for admission. 

English Language Proficiency Requirement

Official English Language Proficiency results are required of all international applicants whose native language is not English. The following are the minimum scores required for admission to the University, although some departments require higher scores at the graduate level: 

Internet based TOEFL ( IBTOEFL ): 80 

Paper based TOEFL ( TOEFL ): 550 

International English Language Testing System ( Academic IELTS ): 6.5 

Pearson Test of English ( PTE ): 55 

Duolingo : 120 (Summer 2022 and Forward)

Cambridge C1 Advanced Level : 180  (Fall 2022 and Forward)

Michigan Language Assessment : 55  (Fall 2022 and Forward)

Although official scores are required, most departments will begin to review your application with self-reported scores, while they are waiting for the official scores to arrive. You can self-report your scores on your Online Status Page, after you submit your application. 

The English Language Proficiency requirement can be waived, at the University-level, for applicants who have earned a minimum of a BA or higher in the US or in an English-Speaking Country. Please note, your department may still require proof of English-Language proficiency. *A variety of countries are exempt from the English language proficiency requirement.

Transcript and Credential Evaluation Requirements

All transcripts/academic records that are not in English must be accompanied by certified English translations. 

To be considered "certified," documents should be true copies that are signed and dated by an educational official familiar with academic records. Any translated record should be literal and not an interpretive translation. Documents signed by a notary or other public official with no educational affiliation will not be accepted. 

If the transcript/academic record does not indicate the degree earned and date the degree was awarded, separate proof of degree is required. 

International applicants or degrees earned from international institutions must submit their official transcripts through the SpanTran pathway portal, or from another NACES approved evaluator. SpanTran has created a custom application for Florida State University that will make sure you select the right kind of evaluation at a discounted rate. Florida State University recommends SpanTran as our preferred credential evaluation because it offers an easy way to streamline the application process.

Please read more about our general transcript requirements on our  Graduate Admissions page. 

International Transfer Credit

International transfer credit is awarded for coursework completed at an accredited (recognized) institution of higher learning. No credit is awarded for technical, vocational, or below-college-level coursework, or courses completed with grades below "D-." An official course-by-course evaluation is required for all academic records from non-U.S. institutions. We recommend the evaluation be done by a member of the  National Association of Credential Evaluation Services . 

SUPPORT TO HELP YOU THROUGHOUT THE PROCESS.

The Center for Global Engagement (CGE) and its staff are here to serve international students and their families. They may advise you about:

• F and J visa requirements
• Cultural adjustment
• Employment matters
• Housing assistance
• Assistance with personal concerns
• Maintaining your visa status

Many academic programs only accept applications for a specific admit term. Contact your academic department to determine which admit term to apply. It is recommended that you submit your application as soon as the admit term opens. CGE also assists students throughout the New International Student Checklist and Process . You may learn more about what CGE has to offer by emailing [email protected] . 

Center for Intensive English Studies

Need to improve your English skills? FSU’s Center for Intensive English Studies can help! At CIES, you will be given personalized instruction by highly qualified teachers in a safe, friendly environment.

Please note that admission to and completion of the CIES program does not necessarily guarantee admission to the University as a degree-seeking student.

CIES also offers:

• TEFL certification  opportunities
• Credit-bearing courses and workshops  to enhance your English speaking ability

Learn more about how the Center for Intensive English Studies can help you.  

Florida State University is required by U.S. federal regulations to verify the financial resources of each applicant prior to issuing the Form I-20. If granted admission to the University, an email with instructions on how to complete the I-20 will be sent from the Center for Global Engagement (CGE). You will provide information verifying your financial support (bank statements, award letters, scholarships, etc.) through the I-20 application. FSU requires proof of financial support for the first year of study and demonstrated availability of funds for the length of your academic program

Estimated International Student Costs:

For more information on estimated costs of living and the I-20 process, please visit  CGE’s website .  

I-20 Application

Shortly after admission, students will receive an email with instructions for completing the online I-20 application to demonstrate proof of adequate funding. Florida State University is required by U.S. federal regulations to verify the financial resources of each applicant prior to issuing the Form I-20. Applicants must show proof of financial support for the first year of study and confirm availability of funds for the length of the academic program.

For more information, contact the Center for Global Engagement at [email protected] .

US Federal Grants and Loans are not Awarded to International Students

Graduate students may apply to their respective departments for assistantships or fellowships, although funds are very limited. For further information, please contact your academic department directly. 

SPEAK (Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit) is a test for evaluating the English speaking ability of non-native speakers of English. At FSU, the SPEAK test is administered by the Center for Intensive English Studies to international students who have been appointed or will be appointed as teaching assistants in an academic department at Florida State University.

For more information, click here .

  Explore Funding Opportunities 

May the TOEFL be waived?

The TOEFL may only be waived as a test requirement if the student has received a bachelor's or master's degree from a U.S. institution.

Can you review my documents prior to applying?

Students must submit the application, application fee, and any required departmental materials for application materials to be reviewed.

Can the application fee be waived?

Unfortunately, the Office of Admissions is unable to waive the application fee payment for graduate applicants.  In order to complete your application for review, you must submit the application fee payment by logging in to your Application Status Check ,  along with any other documents required by the department. 

When will I receive a decision?

Applications are reviewed holistically by each graduate department. Please contact your department for information about decision timelines. Please note that the application must first be completed before it can be reviewed. Contact your department for more information.

Can the GRE be waived?

FSU is currently waiving the GRE requirement for most master’s and specialist programs through Fall 2026*. For more information on whether the requirement can be waived, please contact your graduate department. 

* Excludes the College of Business

What if I don’t meet the English Language Proficiency score requirements?

​​​​​​ The FSU Center of Intensive English Studies (CIES) offers comprehensive courses to help students improve their English skills. Students who complete the top-level of the CIES program will not have to take an English Language Proficiency test.

What is the F-1 visa/I-20 process?

• Students can learn more about the I-20 process here .
• Students can learn about the visa here .

Do you have funding available for International students?

• The Graduate School offers fellowship and grant opportunities for graduate students. For current FSU students, the  Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards  assists in identifying and applying for external funding opportunities. In addition,  here is some more information  about additional funding opportunities for international students. 
• There may also be additional funding opportunities through your department. Please contact your graduate representative for assistance. If you do not know who to contact, please email us at [email protected] for assistance.

Are there on-campus housing opportunities?

University housing costs are not included in the tuition and fees at Florida State University. If you want the option of living on campus, you can apply for housing online as soon as you are officially admitted to FSU. Housing at university-owned residence halls and apartments fill quickly. You can also find off-campus housing options by clicking here .

Two Decades of Innovation in Public Health Leadership: SPH’s DrPH Program Turns 20

Maternal and Child Health Alums Honored at 24th Annual Networking and Alumni Reception

Two decades of innovation in public health leadership: sph’s drph program turns 20 ..

Founded in 2004, the DrPH program at the School of Public Health celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Megan jones.

Everyone enrolled in a doctoral program is going to be smart, says Eugene Declercq , a professor of community health sciences and the former director of the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program at the School of Public Health. “When we are making admissions decisions, we are asking the question, ‘Is this person going to make a difference? Can we see things in their history that suggests that when they leave us, they are going to actually change people’s lives?’”

Over the past two decades, SPH’s DrPH program has welcomed, and graduated, more than 100 highly motivated, mission-driven students. Developed under the guidance of former Dean Robert Meenan , the program was founded in 2004 to serve those who “wished to lead public health agencies and projects locally, nationally, and internationally,” says Meenan.

DrPH students are experienced public health professionals who enroll in the practice-oriented degree program to enhance their leadership, management, research, and policy skills to have a greater effect on the health of populations in need. Among the program’s alumni, for example, are global public health leaders like Arundati Muralidharan , co-founder of Menstrual Health Action for Impact (MHAi) , an organization that drives strategic investments and policy action to advance menstrual health and hygiene across India.

In addition to her DrPH, Muralidharan holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in social work. She designed and administered HIV and AIDS prevention programs for high-risk groups in India before beginning her doctoral studies at SPH. Since graduating from the School in 2012, Muralidharan has expanded upon her dissertation research on the healthcare-seeking behaviors of young women in Mumbai’s slums, implementing what she learned to improve the lives of women and girls across India through her work with MHAi.

“Everything we have done has been aimed at trying to develop a program for people who want to move to the next level and want the skills to be able to do that,” says Declercq. Under his leadership, SPH’s DrPH program has served as a model for other schools of public health across the country.

“One of the first things we did was reach out to all the other DrPH directors at the time and organize the DrPH directors’ group,” he says. The group assembled at American Public Health Association meetings to discuss common challenges in the evolution of the relatively young professional degree program, which first emerged in the early 20th century as a bridge between research science and the real-world implementation of public health interventions. Their conversations ranged from whether to require practicums and dissertations to how to structure comprehensive exams, Declercq says.

“We had the benefit of saying we wanted to go all in on what a practice-oriented program should be. And it would be much more management-oriented, much more leadership-oriented than what a lot of the [other] programs at the time looked like,” says Declercq. He points out that it was not until 2009 that the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH)—the predecessor of the current Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH)—released the DrPH Core Competency Model to formally guide preparation of the DrPH workforce.

In 2019, he passed leadership of the program to Patricia Elliott , a clinical associate professor of community health sciences and a graduate of the DrPH program. Elliott is one of several SPH faculty members to have completed the DrPH program, including Salma Mohamed Abdalla (SPH‘16,‘22); Craig Andrade (SPH‘11), associate dean for practice; Sophie Godley (SPH‘17), clinical associate professor of community health sciences; and Nancy Scott (SPH‘03,‘13), assistant professor of global health.

During Elliott’s five-year tenure, the program formalized its leadership curriculum, adding credit-bearing leadership seminars, an alumni mentorship program, and a variety of communications training opportunities. She also prioritized seeking out new sources of funding for DrPH student and faculty projects.

“Ultimately, as both an alum and outgoing director, I want to be able to say that we are training the next generation of public health leaders with an eye towards equity,” says Elliott, “which means we ensure that students with the capacity for impact and transformative leadership can come to BU and leave ready to help the world, regardless of their financial circumstances. Our students bring a wealth of experience to our campus community, and I am grateful to learn from them and to see them elevate the thinking of our master’s students.”

This summer, Elliott will transition leadership of the program to Jessica Leibler , associate professor of environmental health. In celebration of the program’s 20 th anniversary, Elliott identified several current students and alumni who embody the spirit of the program. Their stories may be found below.

“So many of our students come back and give guest lectures, or serve as instructors or TAs in our classes, and they contribute back to our community in really positive ways,” says Elliott. “It has been wonderful to be able to be the director of the program for the past 5 years—definitely a career highlight for me.”

Darius L. Fenelon

Upon completion of his degree, Darius Fenelon , a current DrPH student at SPH, plans to return home to Haiti to apply the skills and knowledge he has gained in leadership, management, and policy to tackle the mounting challenges posed by non-communicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs are a major but historically neglected cause of mortality due to resource limitations and a multitude of competing health challenges, he says.

As a physician and the former divisional director of the NCD program at Zanmi Lasante , Haitian sister organization to the global health nonprofit Partners in Health (PIH) , Fenelon has observed firsthand the complex interplay of the social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health outcomes. He points to Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake as a turning point in his life, when he realized the country’s health challenges were too great for any individual doctor to overcome.

“The substantial shortcomings in our health system made it evident that solo efforts to treat injuries and save lives were insufficient to tackle the deep-rooted systemic issues,” says Fenelon, who earned an MPH in health services policy and management from the University of South Carolina in 2015. “This harsh truth led me to an essential insight: To make a meaningful impact, I must extend my focus beyond individual treatment to include broader aspects of health policy, partnerships, and advocacy.”

Boston University was always on Fenelon’s radar as a top choice for advanced study due to the School’s rank and history of partnerships with PIH, he says, but a positive experience collaborating with an SPH DrPH student on a 2021 pilot study of SMS messaging as a means of coordinating outpatient NCD appointments at rural Haitian clinics ultimately solidified his decision to come to Boston.

One of the most significant lessons Fenelon has learned from his DrPH studies to date has been the vital role that effective communication and interdisciplinary collaboration play in public health leadership. He says he found Professor Monica Onyango’s Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (GH755) course particularly illuminating. “Effective communication extends beyond merely sharing information,” he says. “It involves ensuring clarity, comprehension, and engagement across diverse stakeholders, translating complex data into accessible policies, and tailoring messages to suit various audiences such as policymakers, community leaders, and health professionals.”

Christian Mazimpaka

Prior to enrolling in the DrPH program at SPH, Christian Mazimpaka , like his classmate Fenelon, also worked for PIH (or Inshuti Mu Buzima, as the organization is known in Mazimpaka’s home country of Rwanda). Since 2014, Mazimpaka has used his clinical training as a medical doctor in service of the global health nonprofit, as well as the Rwandan Ministry of Health. As clinical director for Kayonza District, he oversaw the implementation and evaluation of clinical programs at all levels of the district’s health sector, including at health posts, health centers, and the district hospital.

Witnessing health disparities and the impact of infectious diseases in his community in Rwanda inspired Mazimpaka to pursue advanced studies in public health, he says. He first earned his MSc in global health delivery at the University of Global Health Equity in Butaro, Rwanda in 2016, and then began his DrPH at SPH in 2020. He was attracted by the program’s focus on leadership, management, and policy, he says, “which are critical areas for health systems strengthening in low-resource settings.”

Mazimpaka credits Professor Veronika Wirtz’s Seminar on Global Policy Issues (GH888) with teaching him some of the most important lessons of his studies so far. “This course deepened my understanding of the politics of the policy-making process in public health and its impact on health outcomes. It introduced new concepts and provided new tools that I believe will be invaluable back home in Rwanda,” he says.

In addition to his coursework, Mazimpaka also holds the position of evaluation coordinator with the School Health Institute for Education and Leadership Development (SHIELD) at SPH. In his role, he leads development of research and evaluation initiatives for the program, which provides continuing education to school nurses in the form of clinical, management, and leadership courses. He is also currently in the process of finalizing his dissertation proposal, which he says will focus on Rwanda’s Mass Drug Administration Program, evaluating its coverage for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis and assessing its capacity for sustainability when donor funding runs out.

Throughout his studies, Mazimpaka has maintained research collaborations with colleagues back in Rwanda. He says he looks forward to returning home after graduation and applying his newfound expertise in health policy and systems management to improving his country’s national health system, particularly with respect to pediatric health and neglected tropical diseases.

Dana Rice (SPH‘10)

Dana Rice applies the training she received as part of the DrPH program’s first cohort to administer academic programs of public health and teach MPH students as an associate professor and assistant dean of master’s degree programs at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health .

Rice says it was largely a stroke of luck that she landed in the field of public health. While working as a research associate for a large academic hospital in Michigan, she was walking through the university’s affiliated school of public health to drop off her application to another master’s program when a display about epidemiology captured her attention. She says she immediately signed up for three graduate courses in the subject and never looked back, working at her local health department while earning her master’s in community health services research in the evenings. She later transitioned into a role in infection control at a local jail where she realized that if she wanted to have a greater effect on the health and wellbeing of incarcerated people, she would need additional public health training.

“I chose BU because it was the only DrPH program with a concentration in social and behavioral health, an area of focus that I thought would give me skills in leading systems change,” says Rice. “I also knew that there were amazing faculty at BU with expertise in substance-use prevention, program implementation and evaluation—skills I wanted to enhance.”

As a DrPH student, Rice completed her dissertation on the design, implementation, and evaluation of a jail-based rapid HIV screening program. She went on to receive more than a decade’s worth of funding to support her continued work on the program, which became the largest HIV screening site in the state, connecting many people in need to care. Much of her work in academia today still relates to the criminal legal system’s impact on the health and wellbeing of people and communities, she says.

“My dissertation work laid the foundation for all of my current work,” says Rice. “The system was changed—albeit slightly—for the better and the policies, practices and partnerships that were created during my time working on the screening program sustained past my tenure.”

Gampo Dorji (SPH‘14)

Gampo Dorji is likely one of the fastest students to have completed the DrPH program at SPH, matriculating in fall 2011 and graduating three years later in fall 2014. He has since held a variety of roles in government service and leadership across southeast Asia, and now works for the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office for Nepal as the team leader for noncommunicable disease and mental health and disability inclusion.

In his current role at WHO, Dorji advises and supports the Nepalese government on the prevention of chronic diseases and the improvement of health services for people with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and mental disorders. He also aids the government in the implementation of upstream interventions for a variety of complex public health challenges, such as alcohol control, tobacco cessation, suicide prevention, injury and road crash prevention, and mental health and healthy diet promotion. One of his notable recent contributions was to strengthen enforcement of a Nepalese law banning alcohol advertising, sponsorship, and promotion in the country. In partnership with the Nepal Consumer’s Forum, Dorji and his team successfully stopped Nepal-based editions of The New York Times newspaper from carrying alcohol advertisements.

Dorji first came to appreciate the value of public health practitioners while seeing patients as a primary care physician in remote regions of his native Bhutan. He realized then that he could have a larger effect through government service than as an individual clinician. He served in various levels of Bhutan’s Ministry of Health prior to coming to the United States to earn his MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health from 2007 to 2008. Seeking a more advanced, hands-on grounding in global public health leadership and practice, Dorji later applied to the DrPH program at SPH.

“We were seven [in the program], each one with a wealth of life experiences and highly passionate about making a difference in the world of public health. We would have rich discussions in- and out- of the classrooms,” recalls Dorji. “I also met wonderful professors who eventually became my lifelong mentors and friends— Lora Sabin , [Eugene] Declercq, Rich Feeley, Jon Simon and Susan Foster. Some of them visited me later in Bhutan. I continue to reach out to them and seek their advice in my professional work and life.”

Jen McCutcheon (SPH‘13)

Jen McCutcheon ’s background as a physical therapist specializing in neurological recovery and current role as an elected representative for a population of about 20,000 people living in the greater Vancouver area speak to the diversity of incoming DrPH students as well as the ever-expanding realm of applications for the skills the degree provides.

“I really appreciated that candidates in the program were coming from a strong breadth and depth of experiences from around the world,” says McCutcheon. “I was excited to learn from and with colleagues who already had real world working and leadership experience, and looking back on my time at BU, this really was a highlight.”

In her role as electoral area director, McCutcheon promotes policies that address social determinants of health and makes decisions for her constituents related to public transportation, infrastructure, climate action, parks and housing. The DrPH program provided excellent preparation for these responsibilities, she says. “Specifically, the leadership and communication skills, focus on solving complex problems, and linkages among health, climate and environment, and social justice issues have been central to my approach to challenging decisions in my current role.”

McCutcheon, who completed her DrPH while simultaneously working and raising two children, encourages current students to get to know their classmates as they can be a huge source of both knowledge and moral support. “I was fortunate to have a fantastic cohort, without whom I am not sure I would have made it though the program,” she says. To prospective students, McCutcheon says, “Do it! The program really helped me to think about complex problems in a more holistic and systematic way and left me with both skills and friendships that will last a lifetime.”

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