Graduate College Elections

Sample ballot and candidate statements (brief statements were requested of all nominees and if received, will be included below):

Executive Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: TBD

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: TBD

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Brooke Shipley (Math, Statistics, and Computer Science)
I would like to serve on the Graduate College Executive Committee to share my extensive administrative experience; to represent graduate student interests; and to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in all of our graduate programs.
Brooke Shipley is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (MSCS). She was the Director of Graduate Studies from 2010 to 2012 (with over 130 graduate students), Head of MSCS from 2014 to 2022, and Co-Chair of the Faculty Equity Committee from 2017 to 2024. For many years, she has taught Math 589: Teaching and Presentation of Mathematics, a required course for MSCS TAs that also addresses their full graduate student career.
Full CV is available at http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~bshipley/

Life & Health Sciences

Nominee 1: Bilgay Izci Balserak (Nursing)
Serving on the Executive Committee would provide me with the opportunity to leverage my expertise in Life & Health Sciences, particularly nursing and research to actively contribute to central decision-making and strategic planning initiatives within the UIC Graduate College. By collaborating with fellow committee members, I aim to ensure that the College’s policies align with its mission and values while striving for the highest standards of quality and effectiveness. Through my proactive engagement, I believe that I can make meaningful contributions that positively impact the College’s overall trajectory and enhance its reputation for excellence.
I have been at UIC since 2014. My research focuses on sleep disturbances including sleep disturbances, sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), circadian misalignment, and their relationship to adverse health outcomes, with a particular interest in women’s health (including childbearing and midlife women.  I am currently PI for the BETTER study which is an NIH-funded (R01) study working with African American/black pregnant women. I teach graduate students and provide hands-on research experience to both graduate and undergraduate students.
CV Link: https://uofi.box.com/s/5nkvxrwa6hfjlarfuljthmz494hwxmip

Awards Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: TBD

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Edward Podsiadlik (Education Curriculum Studies)
I am Edward Podsiadlik, DGS of the College of Education Curriculum Studies and Critical Pedagogies & Urban Teacher Education doctoral programs. I would like to be considered for nomination to be a member of the Graduate College Awards Committee. Below is a brief statement of interest and a link to my electronic CV.
Edward Podsiadlik is the program coordinator of two doctoral programs in the College of Education – Curriculum Studies and Critical Pedagogies and Urban Teacher Education. I would like to be considered as a member of the Graduate College Awards Committee. Having served as a member of the College of Education Awards Committee for several years, I’ve come to appreciate the work of awards committees and their advocacy for student success and recognition.

Links: Podsiadlik, Edward | College of Education | University of Illinois Chicago (uic.edu)
CV_Podsiadlik_Mar-2021.pdf (uic.edu)

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Olga Evdokimov (Physics)
I am a Professor of Physics and a Director of Graduate Studies for the Physics Department. My research expertise is in High Energy Nuclear Physics; I work on experimental studies of the hot nuclear matter under extreme temperature conditions within two major international collaborations, STAR and CMS, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY, and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. I am also engaged in developing the future program at the upcoming collider facility in the U.S. – the Electron-Ion Collider. Over the years, I have served the scientific community in various roles, holding many professional appointments in various organizations in the field: I served as a member of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee to the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, as a Chair of the STAR Collaboration Council, and the Institutional Board for the EIC User Group, among others. At UIC, I am involved in curriculum development and educational policy matters. I have served on the Educational Policy Committees for the LAS and now continue serving on such a committee for the Physics Department.
I have served on the Graduate College Awards Committee before and am seeking reelection for the second term, as the GC policies allow. My goal is to contribute to the Graduate College Awards Committee’s work in promoting further the excellence in research that makes our University a Research-One Institution. A world-class education would not be possible without bringing research experience into the educational process at both the undergraduate and, even more so, at the graduate level. I am strongly committed to engaging students in cutting-edge research to enrich their learning experiences. My research experience working in large international collaborations brings a matching experience to UIC’s diverse student body. If elected, I will put my background and personal experiences to work as a member of the Committee to recognize and encourage future scientists and researchers to continue the Research One University traditions proudly.
Link: https://phys.uic.edu/profiles/evdokimov-olga/

Life & Health Sciences

Nominee 1: Kishore Wary (Pharmacology & Regenerative Medicine)
I am an Associate Professor of Pharmacology & Regenerative Medicine. I am the Director of Graduate Studies, Cellular Biology and Regenerative Medicine, GEMS, UIC. In addition, I am also the Co-Director, Vascular Biology, Signaling and Therapeutics (VBST) NIH-T32 Training program. I mentor, co-mentor, train high school and undergraduate students, PhDs, MD/PhD trainees. I am also the graduate level course director at the COM. Outside of UIC, I am currently the Chair of Education Committee of North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO), I serve as a member of study sections, a peer reviewer, and most importantly, a class-room teacher at the UIC College of Medicine.

Diversity Awards Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: TBD

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Bernadette Sanchez (Educational Psychology)
I am interested in serving on this committee because of my commitment to the growth and development of graduate students, particularly underrepresented students. Most of the PhD and MA advisees I have mentored in my career are women and people of color. I have also been serving as the Director of Graduate Studies in my department, which has allowed me to get to know students. The Graduate College Awards can make a big difference in the lives and success of graduate students as I am a former recipient of a UIC Graduate College Diversity Award. I would love to pay it forward and join this committee.
I am a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Educational Psychology. My research program is focused on the role of mentoring in the healthy development of adolescents of color. I earned my PhD in Community & Prevention Research from UIC.

Nominee 2: Esther Diaz Martin (Latin American & Latino Studies)
I am interested in serving in this committee to offer the perspective of a person with a dual appointment in the interdisciplinary units in the Department of Latin American and Latino Studies and the Gender and Women’s Studies program. In addition, my unique experience as a first-generation immigrant scholar from a working-class (farm worker) background and a woman of color in academia, makes me uniquely attuned to the importance of supporting students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds pursuing advanced degrees. In terms of my work with graduate students, since appointment as an Assistant Professor in 2019, I have served in two dissertation committees with students in the College of Education, directed one M.A. thesis paper in LALS, and served as second reader in several others M.A. papers in LALS. In my advanced and graduate classes, I work with students from diverse academic backgrounds including international graduate students.
Esther Díaz Martín holds a Ph.D. in Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin (2018) with a Graduate Portfolio in Latina/o and Mexican American Studies. Her manuscript (UT Press forthcoming Spring 2025) Latina Radiophonic Feminism(s) Into the Digital Age centers on the sound of feminist politics in commercial radio and podcasting from 1990-2020, a period of significant demographic and cultural shifts for Latinx communities. Her interdisciplinary approach makes contributions to the fields of Sounds Studies, Chicana/Latina Studies, and Media Studies. In 2021-2022, Dr. Díaz Martín was a faculty fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at UIC. They are a principal investigator in the Latinx Sound Culture Studies working group which is part of the Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative.
Link: https://uic.academia.edu/EstherDíazMartín/CurriculumVitae

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Tolou Shokuhfar (Biomedical Engineering)
As a faculty member of the UIC Graduate College, I am deeply interested in contributing to the enrichment of our academic community through active engagement in the Graduate College Diversity Awards Committee. My commitment to fostering an inclusive, equitable, and diverse educational environment drives my desire to participate in this committee. I believe that my experience and dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion within academic settings can significantly contribute to the committee’s objectives. Serving on this committee presents an invaluable opportunity to advocate for and implement initiatives that support underrepresented students and advance the college’s mission towards a more inclusive excellence. I am eager to collaborate with fellow committee members to create impactful, sustainable diversity and inclusion initiatives.
I am serving as an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the In Situ Nanomedicine Lab at the University of Illinois Chicago. My academic path led me to a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, where I honed my focus on Biomechanics and Nanomedicine. My research has been deeply immersed in Biomaterials, Nanoscience, and Nanotechnology, particularly emphasizing in situ Transmission Electron Microscopy and the fascinating process of Biomineralization. My work has been recognized through several prestigious NSF-funded projects, including a NSF CAREER award, which allowed me to pioneer studies in biomineralization at the nanomaterial/protein interface.
Throughout my career, I’ve been committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists, overseeing the successful graduation of over 30 PhD and MSc students. My efforts in education and research have been acknowledged with numerous awards, such as the INSIGHT Diversity Award for Inspiring Women in STEM and various teaching and research accolades from UIC and national and International Societies including “UIC Teaching Recognition Program Award“, UIC College of Engineering Teaching Award “, “ UIC colleges of Engineering Research Award“ , TMS Young Leaders Award”,  “ DSL Young Scientist Award”, and “Crain’s Leadership Academy” program in Chicago. As a contributor to over 150 peer-reviewed journal papers and a prolific speaker on national and international platforms, I’ve shared my findings and insights extensively. Moreover, my engagement extends to editorial duties for prominent journals in nanomedicine and smart materials, and leadership roles in professional societies related to Biomaterials and Nanomaterials.
I have served in several leadership positions such as the Chair for Orthopedic Biomaterials at the Society for Biomaterials, and the Program Chair of Nanomaterials SIG at the Society for Biomaterials. I have been the main symposium organizer for “Advanced Biomaterials for Biomedical Implants” symposium at The Materials and Minerals Society (TMS) and the “ Biomedical Implants and Devices” at the DSL international conference for several years. Currently, I am spearheading the “Advanced Biomaterials and Nanomaterials for Implantable Devices” symposium at the World Biomaterials Congress 2024 in Daegu, Korea, and leading the first UIC-COE faculty-directed Study Abroad Program in Barcelona. My commitment to advancing the field of biomedical engineering and supporting the growth of young scientists remains my driving force.

Life & Health Sciences

Nominee 1: TBD

Sample ballot and candidate statements (brief statements were requested of all nominees and if received, are included below):

Executive Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: Beate Geissler (Art)
Beate Geissler is an artist and educator. In her work she is interested in exploring entanglements and interdependencies in the world and how human actions transform the planet and how those transformations alter our existence. Her work concentrates on inner alliances of knowledge and power, their deep links in western culture and the escalation in and transformation of human beings through technology. The themes of her work are drawn from our observations about climate change and its most significant contributor, the human being. Seeking indicators, embedded traces of human interaction, social habit, and shared emotional states is at the core of her work. This part of her research is as much informed by the discipline of cultural studies, with its emphasis on locality and specificity, as it is by her commitment to give expression to global issues of contemporary relevance, especially the socioeconomical effects of climate change and global trade. She is interested in the shapes of collectivity, and in the collective structures of individuality. She believes that Art transforms cognition into experience and practice into cognition, making invisible processes available to our perception.

Nominee 2: Jack Henrie Fisher (Design)
My interest in joining this committee primarily consists in finding a new and higher level administrative platforms for developing procedures of “shared governance” in our college and beyond. Shared governance is a crucial but often loosely defined concept in the faculty’s struggle to gain more control over the policies that shape our working life. I would welcome the chance, on this committee, to help turn this democratic concept into reality.
Jack Henrie Fisher, as Other Forms, develops new aesthetics and ideologies of content for militant communication experiments. Other Forms Publishing criss-crosses the political economies of print-on-demand, offset lithography, and Risograph printing. In every publication, Other Forms investigates the implicit mutuality and antagonisms of materials, aesthetics, and media, in the production of new forms of political communication.
Links: otherforms.net
jackhenriefisher.com
teaching-documents.org

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Ranganathan Chandrasekaran (Business Administration)
I have served as a Director of Graduate Studies for the MS-Management Information Systems (MIS) Program for 15 years, and I have also served as a DGS for PhD-MIS program for 3 years. I have contributed to the design and development of many graduate programs. I have overseen the admissions, student advising, curriculum development and enhancement and student placement. I am passionate about contributing to student success in our graduate programs across the entire university. I am full professor in the Department of Information & Decision Sciences, College of Business Administration. I also hold a courtesy appointment in the Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences in the College of Applied Health Sciences. Here is a link to my profile and CV: https://business.uic.edu/profiles/chandrasekaran-ranganathan/

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Salman Khetani (Biomedical Engineering)
Salman Khetani is a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and director of the Microfabricated Tissue Models (MTM) Laboratory (mtm.uic.edu) that is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. At the MTM lab, he and his team utilize engineering techniques to fabricate tissue organoids/surrogates (e.g., liver, cardiac, intestine, and placenta) for use in drug toxicity screening, discovering safe and effective therapeutics to target global human diseases (e.g., fatty liver disease, atrial fibrillation, and hepatitis B viral infection), and developing cell-based therapies for patients suffering from end-stage organ failure. The MTM lab is dedicated to training graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and research specialists from diverse backgrounds, including different genders, educational levels, ethnicities, and nationalities.
As a faculty member at two public R1 institutions since 2011, I have had the privilege of mentoring 19 PhD students and 9 MS students in my laboratory and have served as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Biomedical Engineering since 2021. During this time, I have launched several programs aimed at recruiting, mentoring, promoting, and retaining graduate students, and have mentored junior faculty on strategies to become more effective mentors themselves. While I will continue to contribute to graduate education in my home department, I am eager to expand my involvement and serve on the Graduate College Executive Committee to assist with defining and clarifying processes that affect the aforementioned aspects of graduate education at UIC. I am also excited to participate in broader initiatives related to defining, reviewing, and clarifying novel interdisciplinary programs at UIC, both within the same college and across multiple colleges. I believe that serving on the Graduate College Executive Committee will provide me with an opportunity to learn about innovative processes and techniques for developing educational programs that not only meet the nation’s need for skilled individuals with advanced degrees but also promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in line with UIC’s central mission.

Life & Health Sciences

Nominee 1: Tanvi Bhatt (Physical Therapy)
I am an Alumni of UIC and did my doctoral studies at UIC and have been associated with the UIC graduate college as a student and then faculty since 2002. I regularly interact with several graduate students as part of my responsibilities being a Faculty mentor for the AHS Doctoral Program in Rehab Sciences and Coordinator of the MS in Health Promotion and Rehab Sciences housed within the Physical Therapy Department. I am passionate about mentoring graduate students and advocating for them and I am also committed to providing service to the University in areas of my interest and skill. I have served on the Graduate Awards Committee for 4 years. Serving on the Applied Health Sciences Committee and working with the College Dean and other members I have accrued experience which I would like to contribute at the University level by serving on the Graduate College Executive Committee. I would like to learn from other members and collectively collaborate to be the liaison between the Applied Health Sciences College and the Graduate College to assist graduate student and graduate faculty development.
Dr. Bhatt is a Professor and Director of the Cognitive, Motor and Balance Rehabilitation Laboratory in the Department of Physical Therapy (PT) UIC, and co-Director of the Midwest Roybal Center on Health Promotion and Translation and Coordinator for The MS in Health span Promotion and Rehabilitation.  She has over 25 years of experience in balance and gait rehabilitation field for geriatric and neurological populations. Her training in physical therapy, biomechanics, neurophysiology, and motor control has helped her establish her research track which focuses on examining interactions between the cognitive, balance, and locomotor systems and how they impact functional mobility and fall-risk.  Specifically Dr. Bhatt’s research interest and expertise is in field of adaptive perturbation training for fall prevention. Her research involves investigating neuromechanical basis of balance recovery from external perturbations such as slips and trips and subsequently designing intervention paradigms for reducing fall-risk in healthy and pathological populations. Her research interest and focus also lays in examining effects of alternative cognitive and motor therapies (including dual-tasking, virtual reality gaming and dance therapy) for improving impairment, function, and participation in community-dwelling people with neurological disorders with an emphasis on stroke survivors. Dr. Bhatt has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and has been extramurally funded since 2011. Currently she is the principal investigator on several NIH funded grants and has brought more than $10 million in grant funding to UIC. She is the recipient of several University and College level teaching, mentoring and research awards. She is also has more than 100 presentations at national and international conferences and is recognized as a speaker globally. Dr. Bhatt’s currently coordinates the Case Management course within the DPT program and teaches in areas related to biomechanics, motor control and rehabilitation sciences within the MS program. She is also the program coordinator for the MS in Heath Promotion and Rehabilitation Sciences housed within the Physical Therapy Department. Dr. Bhatt serves on various Departmental, College and University committees and has a passion for mentoring and advocating for graduate students, International students and students from underrepresented minorities.

Nominee 2: Michael Calik (Neuroscience, Nursing)
I am interested in serving as the Life Sciences representative on the Graduate College Executive Committee. I have the necessary committee experience at various levels (e.g. Departmental, College, University, and Professional) in which I can leverage to use on the Graduate College Executive Committee. Thank you for your consideration. Here is the link to my CV: https://uofi.box.com/v/MichaelCalikCV.

Nominee 3: David Ucker (Microbiology & Immunology)
I joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UIC in 1994, became a full professor in 2002, and was honored as a University Scholar in 2012. My research is focused on the processes of physiological cell death and its immunological consequences. I have received numerous honors for my research accomplishments, including election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and selection as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar. I have been elected by my peers as the chair of several international meetings, including Gordon Research Conferences. My professional service includes membership on grant review panels (including regular study sections of the NIH and VA) and the editorial boards of several journals (including Frontiers in Immunology and Cell Communication and Signaling). At UIC, I have served as the Director of Graduate Studies of my Department and of the Microbiology, Immunity, and Inflammation Research Concentration of the Graduate Education in bioMedical Sciences (GEMS) Program, as a member of the campus-wide Promotion and Tenure Committee, and as a member of the University Academic Senate and chair of its Faculty Affairs Committee.
As a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, I am dedicated to graduate education. Currently, I am the Director of Graduate Studies of my Department as well as the DGS of the Microbiology, Immunity, and Inflammation research concentration of the College of Medicine’s integrated Graduate Education in bioMedical Science (GEMS) Program. I have served previously on numerous committees of the Graduate College, including the Executive Committee (2000 – 2010). These experiences have both deepened my commitment to student-centered graduate programs and enhanced my appreciation of the diversity and enormous strengths of the University. Working to build and expand programs of graduate education, my unwavering objective is to contribute to the development of programs that serve students, foster accessibility and diversity, and enhance student independence, critical thinking skills, and intellectual rigor.

Awards Committee

Arts & Humanities

No open seats in Spring 2023.

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Mitch Hendrickson (Anthropology)
I am firmly committed to improving the state of graduate education in our university. Beginning my tenure as DGS in Anthropology in May 2020 provided immediate and unique challenges that highlighted underlying issues in pedagogy and the broader academic climate. As a founding member of our department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, we were able to identify and begin enacting necessary changes to better facilitate graduate student experience and trajectory to completion. Subsequent conversations over the past year with faculty and students are now being used to undertake the first major overhaul of our graduate program, which I will put into motion next year. I have spent the last decade teaching research design courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels here in Anthropology and am excited by the opportunity to be part of LAS’s primary mechanism for supporting existing student research and attracting innovative scholars to UIC.
I am an anthropological archaeologist interested in the dynamics of networks, premodern state expansion and religion focussed on the Angkorian Khmer Empire in Cambodia (9^th to 13^th c. CE). Over the last 11 years here at UIC, my projects have received funding from various sources including the National Science Foundation, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), American Council for Learned Societies, National Geographic as well as internal funding from UIC. CV link: https://anth.uic.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/280/2018/07/Hendrickson-CV_April-2023.pdf

Nominee 2: Rebecca Littman (Psychology)
I would be very excited to serve on the Graduate College Awards Committee. I believe that awards and fellowships are an important way to recognize and support the excellent work that UIC graduate students are doing in their research, teaching, and mentoring. I would love to be a part of reviewing nominations and allocating awards to a diverse group of students. CV link: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/552be41de4b0f397d4424a2b/t/64371edaebb6422523f7e281/1681333978928/Littman_CV_Mar+2023.pdf

Nominee 3: Paul Brian McInerney (Sociology)

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Barbara Di Eugenio (Computer Science)
I’ve been DGS for my department since 2019 and have interacted with the graduate college in that capacity, including sending nominations for various awards. I am interested in taking a more active role within the graduate college. The awards committee interests me because of the opportunity to  understand more about the achievements of graduate students across UIC, beyond my own department and college.
Barbara Di Eugenio is a Professor  and Director of Graduate Studies in the  Computer Science department at UIC, where she leads the NLP  laboratory (http://nlp.cs.uic.edu/). She  obtained  her PhD in Computer Science  from the University of Pennsylvania (1993). Dr. Di Eugenio is an NSF CAREER awardee (2002); the 2013 Innovator of the Year award from AWIS Chicago (Association for Women in Science); a UIC University Scholar (2018-2020); and a Zenith Award recipient from AWIS (2022). She was also the recipient of the UIC Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2019. She is very proud to have graduated 14 PhD and 31 Master’s students.

Nominee 2: Tom Driver (Chemistry)
Serving on the Graduate College’s Awards Committee is an opportunity to help UIC recruit talented graduate students, fund exciting and ground-breaking research projects, and award graduate student’s accomplishments. This service is important and rewarding because it helps to recognize the great work being done by UIC graduate students.
The goal of my research program is to develop new catalytic transformations that unlock and harness the reactivity embedded in nitro-groups, anilines and azides to enable the synthesis of therapeutic N-heterocycles and high energy dense materials. My research group has established aryl- and vinyl azides as useful nitrene precursors in metal-catalyzed N-atom transfer processes, and our discoveries of new reactivity patterns of metal N-aryl nitrenes have positioned us to establish them as a general phenomenon that is exhibited by nitroarenes, anilines and N-tosylhydrazones to streamline the synthesis of complex, functionalized molecules. My research group and I participate in the UICentre for Drug Discovery, a collaborative effort with the Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, for the identification, synthesis and optimization of novel small molecule therapeutics. We have focused our efforts on translation of the novel N-heterocycles we synthesize as potential therapeutics for the treatment of PAH by inhibition of nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase (NAMPT). Together with my collaborator, Roberto Machado, we formed a company, Drax Therapeutics, Inc., to advance a novel NAMPT inhibitor towards commercialization.
My research program is a proven fertile training ground: thirteen students have received their PhDs, five are women, one is an African American. After graduation, five have gone to senior scientist positions in the pharmaceutical industry, and one is an assistant professor at Santa Clara University. In addition to PhD students, nine undergraduates were co-authors on publications originating from this project, and five are currently pursuing or have completed their PhDs in chemistry at R1 universities. Of these, three are women, and two were NSF- or NIH pre-doctoral fellows. The accomplishments of these co-workers illustrate that our program is not only producing high impact papers, but it is also training students who are successfully advancing in their scientific careers. CV link: https://uofi.box.com/s/0med02j9f2pk50n8b3voxnxubsmfg9zi

Life & Health Sciences

Nominee 1: Giamila Fantuzzi (Kinesiology & Nutrition)

Nominee 2: Steve (Seung Young) Lee (Pharmaceutical Sciences)
Towards fulfilling the mission of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (PSCI) in graduate education and research, Dr. Lee has served as a lecturer/co-coordinator for graduate courses and a mentor for graduate research. In the PSCI 501 and 510 courses, he teaches graduate students the knowledge of drug delivery. For research training in the laboratory, Dr. Lee has mentored eight graduate students. He has provided personalized research training to these graduate trainees with diverse experience, backgrounds, and career goals. Since 2020, Dr. Lee has actively participated in the admission process and interviews of applicants for the department graduate program. To date, the graduate admissions committee successfully admitted 51 highly talented graduate students to the PSCI PhD program. With these broad experiences in graduate education, research and committee, Dr. Lee will significantly contribute to the UIC Graduate College program and serve to find and recognize outstanding graduate students in the Awards Committee.

Nominee 3: Christina Nicolas (Oral Sciences)
I am interested in serving on the GC Awards Committee to further help promote and support graduate student success. Graduate students are at an important juncture in their careers, and the GC awards help provide support and recognition for students and their mentors. As Director of Graduate Studies for the graduate programs in the College of Dentistry, I am eager to become more involved in graduate education at the university level. I joined UIC in 2016 and am an Assistant Professor in the College of Dentistry and serve as the DGS for the MS and PhD in Oral Sciences. My full bio can be found at: https://dentistry.uic.edu/christina-nicholas/.

Nominee 4: Adam Oberstein (GEMS-Microbiology & Immunology)
I am an Assistant Professor in the department of Microbiology and Immunology. I have been at UIC for 4 years. I’d like to serve on a committee in the graduate college as a way to give back to the community that has helped me establish my research program and supports the students I interact with on a daily basis. I’d also like to foster greater interaction with my colleagues at the college level.

Nominee 5: Kishore Wary (Pharmacology & Regenerative Medicine)
I am an Associate Professor of Pharmacology & Regenerative Medicine. I am the Director of Graduate Studies, Cellular Biology and Regenerative Medicine, GEMS, UIC. In addition, I am also the Co-Director, Vascular Biology, Signaling and Therapeutics (VBST) NIH-T32 Training program. I mentor, co-mentor, train high school and undergraduate students, PhDs, MD/PhD trainees. I am also the graduate level course director at the COM. Outside of UIC, I am currently the Chair of Education Committee of North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO), I serve as a member of study sections, a peer reviewer, and most importantly, a class-room teacher at the UIC College of Medicine.

Diversity Awards Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: TBD

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Kira Baker-Doyle (Curriculum & Instruction)
Much of my scholarship has focused on addressing issues of diversity and inclusion in teacher education. Prior to coming to UIC in 2019, I was a member of the Diversity Awards committee at my previous institution, and I enjoyed having a direct impact on university activities through my participation in the committee. As a person of mixed-race and multicultural background (Black/white and Jewish heritage), issues of diversity, equity, and belonging have always placed a central role in my personal and professional life.
Dr. Kira J. Baker-Doyle is an Associate Professor in Curriculum & Instruction in the College of Education. She teaches courses in literacies, educational research methods, and teacher education. Her research examines how educational stakeholders’ professional and personal support networks influence equity and educational change. CV link: https://uofi.box.com/s/9bp6dzrp7b12jasgb0tzulho4jzhorms

Nominee 2: Jaira Harrington (Black Studies)
It would be a pleasure to serve on the Graduate College Diversity Awards committee. In my home department of Black Studies, I have previously evaluated applications of undergraduate and graduate students for the annual Grace Holt Awards. I am excited to see graduate students recognized for their contributions and I would be thrilled to support our graduate faculty in making those decisions.
Dr. Jaira J. Harrington (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Black Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. Prior to this faculty position, Dr. Harrington served as a 2017-18 William J. Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar in Brazil. Dr. Harrington earned her doctorate in Political Science in the subfield of Comparative Politics at the University of Chicago. Her current research and writing focuses on the union organizing of domestic workers in unions in Brasília, São Paulo, and Salvador.

Nominee 3: Bernadette Sanchez (Educational Psychology)
I am interested in serving on this committee because of my commitment to the growth and development of graduate students, particularly underrepresented students. The majority of the PhD and MA advisees I have mentored in my career are women and people of color. I have also been serving as the Director of Graduate Studies in my department which has allowed me to get to know students. The Graduate College Awards can make a big difference in the lives and success of graduate students as I am a former recipient of a UIC Graduate College Award. I would love to pay it forward and join this committee. I am a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Educational Psychology. My research program is focused on the role of mentoring in the healthy development of adolescents of color. I earned my PhD in Community & Prevention Research from UIC.

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: TBD

Life & Health Sciences

Nominee 1: Eleanor Rivera (Nursing)
As a faculty member of color, Dr. Rivera is well acquainted with issues and priorities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.  This perspective is further informed by mentorship of graduate students in minoritized populations through her role as co-investigator on an active HRSA grant and her clinical research which includes efforts to address health disparities.  Dr. Rivera’s perspective and experience would be a strong contribution to the strength of the Diversity Awards Committee. Dr. Rivera is a registered nurse and received her PhD in nursing in 2018.  After a postdoctoral fellowship, she joined the faculty at the UIC College of Nursing as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in 2020.  Her research is focused on resource-conscious and equity-focused strategies to promote patient-centered care delivery to adults living with chronic conditions. Profile link: https://nursing.uic.edu/profiles/rivera-eleanor/

Nominee 2: Jose Villegas (Pharmaceutical Sciences)
As a former Bridge to Faculty Scholar, I am interested in highlighting the efforts of folks involved in diversity initiatives. As a graduate student, I led a student group at the University of Pennsylvania named Association for Cultural Diversity in Chemistry. Now as a new faculty member in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, I am serving as faculty advisor for a group of students who are starting a local chapter of the Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering. These experiences have given me a deep understanding of the substantial effort that goes into executing diversity initiatives. Profile link: https://uicollaboratory.uic.edu/6521-jose-villegas/about

Nominee 3: Kishore Wary (Pharmacology & Regenerative Medicine)
I am an Associate Professor of Pharmacology & Regenerative Medicine. I am the Director of Graduate Studies, Cellular Biology and Regenerative Medicine, GEMS, UIC. In addition, I am also the Co-Director, Vascular Biology, Signaling and Therapeutics (VBST) NIH-T32 Training program. I mentor, co-mentor, train high school and undergraduate students, PhDs, MD/PhD trainees. I am also the graduate level course director at the COM. Outside of UIC, I am currently the Chair of Education Committee of North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO), I serve as a member of study sections, a peer reviewer, and most importantly, a class-room teacher at the UIC College of Medicine.

Sample ballot and candidate statements (statements were requested of all nominees and if received, are included below):

Executive Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: Aidan Gray (Philosophy)
I’m an associate professor and the director of graduate studies in Philosophy. I’ve been at UIC for 10 years. I’d like to get involved in the graduate college so I can better understand the forces that shape graduate students’ lives at the university and to do my part to improve them.

Nominee 2: Elizabeth Loentz (Germanic Studies)
Elizabeth Loentz is Associate Professor of Germanic Studies and Associate Director of the School of Literatures, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics. Her research focuses on German Jewish literature from the late nineteenth century to the present, Yiddish in Germany, and contemporary transnational literature written in German. She is a current and past (2009–12) member of the Graduate Executive Committee. She has also served as Department Head (2012–17) and DGS (2002–03 and 2010–17) of the Department of Germanic Studies.

Nominee 3: Sabrina Raaf (Art)
Sabrina Raaf is the Chair of the Department of Art in the School of Art & Art History (SAAH). She has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels at UIC for 16+ years and served as Coordinator for the New Media Arts Program and Lab space for 12+ years. Raaf is dedicated to expanding and advancing interdisciplinary research opportunities for graduate students and faculty across campus as well as enhancing UIC’s engagement with research partners in the city, profession, and national and international community. She has a strong commitment to cultivating equitable research cultures at UIC that address class, gender and racial inequities. Her art work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions internationally at sites including TEKS (Trondheim, Norway), Mejan Labs (Stockholm), Stefan Stux Gallery (NYC), Ars Electronica (Linz), Opel Villas Foundation Art Center (RÃsselsheim), Museum Tinguely (Basel), Espace Landowski (Paris), San Jose Museum of Art, Kunsthaus Graz (Austria), ISEA (Helsinki), Klein Art Works (Chicago), The Lab (San Francisco) and Painted Bride Center (Philadelphia).

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Somnath Das (Accounting)
Somnath Das has been at UIC since January 1996 and is currently Professor & Coordinator of the Doctoral Program in the Department of Accounting in the College of Business Administration. Between August 2010 and August 2015, he served as the Head of the Department; and earlier between 2000 through 2007, he served as the Director of Graduate Studies. During the current academic year (2021-22), he serves as the Chair of the Department’s Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He also serves on the College of Business Administration’s Executive Committee, has previously served on the Graduate College Awards Committee, and has served and continues to serve as an elected member of UIC’s Faculty Senate. Other services at UIC include serving on the Senate Committee on Research, and the Provost’s Committee on CBA Dean Search. He has been serving as an UIC Honors College Faculty Fellow since 1996 and as Faculty Advisor for CBA Business Scholars. Outside UIC, he has served as a member of AACSB’s Peer Review team, and on several Committees of the American Accounting Association, including for two consecutive terms as a Member of the Steering Committee Board, of the Association’s Financial Accounting Research Section. He primarily conducts empirical archival research focused on corporate disclosures, financial analysts, and the evaluation of firm performance He is widely published, and his research has also received coverage in the financial press, including the Wall Street Journal. Somnath received his Ph.D. and M.Phil. from Carnegie Mellon University; an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; and a B.S. in Physics from St. Stephens College, Delhi, India.

Nominee 2: Alexandra Filindra (Political Science)
I am an associate professor in Political Science and Psychology. I have been at UIC since 2012. I have served in various departmental and college committees and as Director of Graduate Studies in the past. In my discipline, I have served as co-President of the Migration and Citizenship Section of the American Political Science Association. I currently serve as an elected Member of the American Political Science Association Council and as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (JREP). My research uses experiments, statistical analysis, and historical interpretive analysis to explore and understand facets of immigration politics, race and ethnicity politics, and gun policy in the United States. My work is motivated by the importance of protecting and preserving democratic practices and norms and including in decision-making institutions and processes women and people of color who have been traditionally underrepresented in such fora.

Nominee 3: Nicole Nguyen (Education)
Nicole Nguyen is associate professor of educational policy studies in the College of Education. Since my research focuses on cultivating anti-racist and anti-oppressive educational spaces, I see service on the Executive Committee as central to ensuring quality graduate education that’s responsive to the diverse needs and strengths of our students.

Nominee 4: Ara Tekian (Medical Education)

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Julius Ross (Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science)
I am an Associate Professor in the department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science and has been the Director of Graduate Studies for the past two years (overseeing our programs that total around 180 graduate students).  Previous to being at UIC I was a faculty member at the University of Cambridge, and was among other things a Graduate Tutor (loosely equivalent to a Director of Graduate Studies).  I currently serve on our department’s advisory committee and am a member of the University Senate. My interest in being elected the Executive committee stems from a desire to ensure we have a strong Graduate College, and that through any changes that may come in the future that the interests of our graduate students are well represented within the University.

Life Sciences

Nominee 1: Tanvi Bhatt (Physical Therapy)

Nominee 2: Pamela Martyn-Nemeth (Nursing)
Pamela Martyn-Nemeth, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science, and Director of the PhD Program in the College of Nursing. Her area of scholarship centers on reducing distress, improving quality of life and reducing cardiovascular risk in persons with diabetes. Her teaching scholarship focuses on philosophy of science in health research. She is a member of the College Mentorship Committee and is establishing a student mentorship program for PhD students.

Nominee 3: Kamal Sharma (GEMS-Anatomy & Cell Biology)
As the Director of an umbrella graduate program in the college of medicine I have two missions. First, to provide intellectually stimulating environment for graduate students and to support their professional development. Second, to recruit outstanding graduate students to help meet the goals of basic, translational, and clinical research in the college of medicine.  Past service on graduate college executive committee was instrumental in learning programmatic requirements and best practices to ensure that we meet educational and professional needs of graduate student and their faculty mentors.  I am volunteering to serve again, hoping to contribute to the efforts of the GCEC in fulfilling the mission of the graduate college and to share experiences gained as the director of the GEMS, a graduate program training over one hundred PhD student.

Nominee 4: Cortino Sukotjo (Dentistry)

Nominee 5: Debra Tonetti (Pharmaceutical Sciences)
I am a cancer biologist with 25 years of experience specifically focused on mechanisms of endocrine resistant breast cancer and the development of novel therapeutics. My laboratory developed several preclinical xenograft models and was the first to identify PKCα as a biomarker for tamoxifen resistance. In collaboration with Dr. Gregory Thatcher, we developed TTC-352 as a less toxic weak estrogen as an alternative to chemotherapy in patients with ER-positive metastatic breast cancer. Together, we co-founded TTC Oncology and completed a Phase I clinical trial of TTC-352 resulting in low toxicity and evidence of efficacy. Our research team also developed a novel orally bioavailable Selective Estrogen Receptor Downregulator (SERD) that was licensed to GI Therapeutics (Rintodestrant) currently in Phase 1/2 clinical trial. My lab has established breast cancer patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) and lung cancer PDXs to examine the efficacy of various cancer therapies. Several of my PhD students contributed extensively to these mechanistic discoveries and the development of therapeutics. I am the Leader of the Breast Cancer Working Group in the UICancer Center. My lab has received funding over the years from NIH/NCI, Avon Foundation, The Susan G. Komen Foundation, Chicago Biomedical Consortium and the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI).

Nominee 6: David Ucker (GEMS-Microbiology & Immunology)
As a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, I am dedicated to graduate education.  Currently, I am the Director of Graduate Studies of my Department as well as the DGS of the Microbiology, Immunity, and Inflammation research concentration of the College of Medicine’s integrated Graduate Education in bioMedical Science (GEMS) Program.  I have served previously on numerous committees of the Graduate College, including the Executive Committee (2000 – 2010).  These experiences have both deepened my commitment to student-centered graduate programs and enhanced my appreciation of the diversity and enormous strengths of the University.  Working to build and expand programs of graduate education, my unwavering objective is to contribute to the development of programs that serve students, foster accessibility and diversity, and enhance student independence, critical thinking skills, and intellectual rigor.

Nominee 7: Kishore Wary (GEMS-Pharmacology, Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine)

Awards Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: Elise Archias (Art History)

Nominee 2: Beate Geissler (Art)
Beate Geissler is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and educator interested in the question of how human actions transform the planet and how those transformations alter our existence. Her work concentrates on inner alliances of knowledge and power, their deep links in western culture and the escalation in and transformation of human beings through technology. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, galleries, and alternative spaces, including: the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Fotomuseum Antwerp; the NGBK (New Society for Visual Arts) in Berlin; the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland; the Museum Ludwig in Cologne; MAST Foundation in Bologna, Italy; and German Pavillion at the Photography Biennial Dubai, UAE. She has been the recipient of a number of grants and awards, including: the Videonale Award from the Museum of Art, Bonn, Germany; the Herman-Claasen-Award (Cologne, Germany); production grants from the Graham Foundation, Chicago; and active participation and production of the project Mississippi. An Anthropocene River (https://anthropocene-curriculum.org). She has published four monographs: Return to Veste Rosenberg (2006), Personal Kill (2010), Volatile Smile (2013) and the bio-adapter (Oswald Wiener) / you won’t fool the children of the revolution (2019). She is currently Research Associate Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Policy at UIC.

Behavioral & Social Sciences

No open slots for election in 2022.

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Alexander Furman (Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science)

Nominee 2: Sudip Mazumder (Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Dr. Sudip K. Mazumder is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UIC since 2001. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the AAAS, the current Editor at Large for IEEE TPEL (the leading journal in power electronics), and an IEEE regional Distinguished Lecturer. He received the NSF CAREER and ONR YIA Awards. At UIC, he is the recipient of Distinguished Researcher Award in Natural Sciences and Engineering, Inventor of the Year Award, and University Scholar Award. He is the Director for the Laboratory for Energy and Switching-Electronic Systems (LESES). He has led over 50 multi-million-dollar sponsored projects leading to over 255 publications and multiple patents and placements of students in leading industries and academic institutions. At UIC, he has served in multiple capacities including ECE Faculty Search Chair, Member of university’s Awards and Executive Committees, UIC Senate, ECE Advisory Committee, and as a member of high-level committees led by Vice Chancellor for Research and Vice Chancellor for Innovation.

Life Sciences

Nominee 1: Tanvi Bhatt (Physical Therapy)

Nominee 2: Tom “Yu” Gao (Pharmaceutical Sciences)

Nominee 3: Andrei Karginov (GEMS-Pharmacology)

Nominee 4: Steve (Seung Young) Lee (Pharmaceutical Sciences)
Towards fulfilling the mission of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (PSCI) in graduate education and research, Dr. Lee has served as a lecturer/co-coordinator for graduate courses and a mentor for graduate research. In the PSCI 501 and 510 courses, he teaches graduate students the knowledge of drug delivery. For research training in the laboratory, Dr. Lee has mentored eight graduate students. He has provided personalized research training to these graduate trainees with diverse experience, backgrounds, and career goals. Since 2020, Dr. Lee has actively participated in the admission process and interviews of applicants for the department graduate program. To date, the graduate admissions committee successfully admitted 51 highly talented graduate students to the PSCI PhD program. With these broad experiences in graduate education, research and committee, Dr. Lee will significantly contribute to the UIC Graduate College program and serve to find and recognize outstanding graduate students in the Awards Committee.

Nominee 5: Adam Oberstein (GEMS-Microbiology & Immunology)
I am an Assistant Professor in the department of Microbiology and Immunology. I have been at UIC for 4 years. I’d like to serve on a committee in the graduate college as a way to give back to the community that has helped me establish my research program and supports the students I interact with on a daily basis. I’d also like to foster greater interaction with my colleagues at the college level.

Nominee 6: Cortino Sukotjo (Dentistry)

Nominee 7: Kishore Wary (GEMS-Pharmacology, Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine)

Diversity Awards Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: Daniel Sutherland (Philosophy)

Nominee 2: Francesco Marullo (Architecture)

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Marcus Casey (Economics)

Nominee 2: Charles Hounmenou (Social Work)

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Cecilia Gerber (Physics)

Nominee 2: Sudip Mazumder (Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Dr. Sudip K. Mazumder is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UIC since 2001. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the AAAS, the current Editor at Large for IEEE TPEL (the leading journal in power electronics), and an IEEE regional Distinguished Lecturer. He received the NSF CAREER and ONR YIA Awards. At UIC, he is the recipient of Distinguished Researcher Award in Natural Sciences and Engineering, Inventor of the Year Award, and University Scholar Award. He is the Director for the Laboratory for Energy and Switching-Electronic Systems (LESES). He has led over 50 multi-million-dollar sponsored projects leading to over 255 publications and multiple patents and placements of students in leading industries and academic institutions. At UIC, he has served in multiple capacities including ECE Faculty Search Chair, Member of university’s Awards and Executive Committees, UIC Senate, ECE Advisory Committee, and as a member of high-level committees led by Vice Chancellor for Research and Vice Chancellor for Innovation.

Nominee 3: Joel Nagloo (Mathematics, Statistics, & Computer Science)

Life Sciences

Nominee 1: Tom “Yu” Gao (Pharmaceutical Sciences)

Nominee 2: Vadim Gaponenko (GEMS – Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics)
Dr. Vadim Gaponenko is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the College of Medicine. He grew up in Central Asia and moved to the United States in 1995. He completed his Ph.D. in structural biology at the University of Cincinnati in 2000 and joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at UIC in 2006 after finishing his postdoctoral studies at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Gaponenko is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion among students and faculty at UIC. He believes that interactions with diverse populations enrich teaching, research, and scholarship by creating a safe and supportive environment where students and employees thrive.

Nominee 3: Afsar Naqvi (Periodontics)
Dr. Afsar Naqvi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Periodontics, College of Dentistry. Dr. Naqvi is dedicated to advancing student education and oral research. Dr. Naqvi has mentored diverse group of undergrads, graduate, post-graduate, junior faculty, and residents who have successfully advanced in their career. He has served in various departmental and college committees. His research focuses on dissecting immunomodulatory functions of host and pathogen (human herpesvirus) encoded noncoding RNAs in periodontal disease and ocular herpetic infection and has been funded by NIH and intramural grants. Dr. Naqvi has initiated and led “UIC MicroRNA Symposium” since 2020. He is committed to serve students, foster their education through providing equitable resources, and work in concert with colleagues to develop new opportunities for the students.

Sample ballot and candidate statements:

Executive Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: A.W. Eaton (Philosophy)
https://phil.uic.edu/profiles/eaton-a-w/

Nominee 2: Beate Geissler (Art)
https://artandarthistory.uic.edu/profile/beate-geissler

Nominee 3: Christopher Grimes (English)
Christopher Grimes is an Associate Professor in the English Department’s Program for Writers.  His books include the short fiction collections Public Works and Pornographies, as well as the novel The Pornographers.  During his year as a replacement on the Graduate Executive Committee, he’s learned a great deal about the relationship between faculty and their departments, departments and LAS, LAS and UIC, and, finally, UIC’s cultural, educational and scientific relationship with the Chicago region, Illinois, our nation and, indeed, the world.

Nominee 4: Martha Pollak (Art History)
https://arthistory.uic.edu/profiles/pollak-martha/

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Xochitl Bada Garcia (Latin American & Latino Studies)
https://lals.uic.edu/profiles/xochitl-bada/

Nominee 2: Tarini Bedi (Anthropology)
https://anth.uic.edu/profiles/bedi-tarini/

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Dave Eddington (BioE)
David Eddington is a Professor in Bioengineering and has been the DGS for the past 10 years. He currently serves on the GCEC and also on the COE Executive Committee. His research lab works in the area of microfluidics applied to biology or medicine.

Nominee 2: JT Mohr (Chemistry)
https://chem.uic.edu/profiles/justin-mohr/
Justin Mohr is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry.  He joined UIC in 2012 and maintains an active federally-funded research group examining catalysis and the synthesis of complex organic molecules.  He has served as an appointed member of the Graduate College Executive Committee since 2019.

Life Sciences

Nominee 1: Mary Khetani (Occupational Therapy)
https://ahs.uic.edu/occupational-therapy/directory/khetani-mary-a/
I am an occupational therapist and rehabilitation scientist with interest in technology-based tools to improve rehabilitation services and outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families. I am a tenured Associate Professor in the College of Applied Health Sciences with affiliations in three graduate programs in my college, through which I teach and mentor students  who are interested in pursuing a research engaged career path specific to pediatric rehabilitation. As a current member of the Graduate College Executive Committee, I have deeply valued the opportunity to contribute and grow my expertise when reviewing diverse program proposals and policies/processes to support graduate faculty and students at our university.

Nominee 2: Emily Minor (Bio. Sci)
Emily Minor is an Associate Professor, and Associate Director of Graduate Studies, in the Department of Biological Sciences. Her research focuses on biodiversity in urban landscapes. She has served as primary advisor for ten PhD students and two Masters students, and as a member of dozens of graduate student committees at UIC and other universities. She has been on the Graduate College Executive Committee for the last two years and is happy to serve another term.

Awards Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: Clare Lyster (Architecture)
Clare Lyster is an architect and founding principal of CLUAA, a research and design based office in Chicago and an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at UIC. She is the author of Learning from Logistics: How Networks Change Cities (Birkhâuser, 2016); that focuses on how contemporary digital platforms transform urban space as well as co-editor of Third Coast Atlas: Prelude to a Plan (ACTAR, 2017), that explores the relationship between urbanization and hydrology in the Great Lakes.  She is a member of ANNEX, the curatorial team for the Irish Pavilion at the 17^th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021 and co-editor of the affiliated publication, States of Entanglement: Data in the Irish Landscape (ACTAR, May 2021). She received the UIC CADA Distinguished Faculty Award 2019-2021; the 2019 UIC Distinguished Scholar Award in Art, Architecture and the Humanities; and, the 2019 SOM Foundation Research Prize.

Nominee 2: Nassar Mufti (English)
Nasser Mufti works in the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has published Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture (Northwestern UP, 2018), and is currently research the relationship between anti-colonial Pan-Africanism and nineteenth century British culture.

Nominee 3: Jeff Sklansky (History)
I am a professor of U.S. history, specializing in the history of capitalism and intellectual history. Before coming to UIC in 2011, I taught at Oregon State University for 14 years. In recent years, I have enjoyed serving as Director of Graduate Studies in my department, on the bargaining committee for our faculty union, and in the Faculty Senate. I would welcome the opportunity to learn more about current graduate work in other UIC departments and programs by serving on the Arts and Humanities Awards Committee.

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Liat Ben-Moshe (CLJ)
Liat Ben-Moshe is Assistant Professor and Acting Graduate Director of Criminology, Law and Justice. Faculty page: https://clj.uic.edu/profiles/ben-moshe-liat/ and personal (professional) page https://www.liatbenmoshe.com/

Nominee 2: Kate Zinsser (Psychology)
Dr. Kate Zinsser is an Associate Professor of Psychology and principal investigator of the Social-Emotional Teaching & Learning lab (www.setllab.com) where she conducts applied community-based research on the emotional well-being of young children and the adults who care for them. Within the Department of Psychology, she serves as the interim director of the Community & Prevention Research Ph.D. program and on the Committee of Graduate Studies where she supports students’ sense of belonging and access to resources to support their training and development.  Dr. Zinsser currently holds a temporary appointment to the Behavioral & Social Sciences division of the Graduate Awards Committee and is hoping to continue this work in the future.

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Andrew Dombard (Earth and Environmental Science)
Prof. Andrew Dombard is a planetary scientist and a science team member of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, scheduled to launch to the Jupiter system in 2024. Prof. Dombard has been the Director of Graduate Studies in the Dept. of Earth & Environmental Sciences since 2012. As DGS, Prof. Dombard has seen firsthand the importance of the graduate awards in the recruitment and retention of our talented graduate student body.

Nominee 2: Olga Evdokimov (Physics)
https://phys.uic.edu/profiles/evdokimov-olga/

Nominee 3: Carmen Lilley (Mechanical Engineering)
Dr. Carmen Lilley is motivated to serve on the Awards Committee due to her interest in recruitment of diverse and highly talented graduate students to UIC, and mentoring them for academic success. This dedicated effort is reflected in her work as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and in her research. Dr. Lilley most recently received the NSF Innovations in Graduate Education research grant on the professional development of PhD graduate students of color in STEM.

Nominee 4: Wenjing Rao (ECE)
https://ece.uic.edu/profiles/wenjing-rao-phd/

Life Sciences

Nominee 1: Mia Cajita (Nursing)
I am an assistant professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science at the College of Nursing and a current KL2 Clinical and Translational Science scholar. The overarching goal of my research is to empower individuals to effectively perform heart failure self-care. My current study is focused on the development and testing of a health literacy-based heart failure self-care intervention. I would be honored and I look forward to the opportunity to advise the Graduate Dean on the selection of graduate fellows and on other graduate student financial support issues if selected to serve on the Awards Committee.

Nominee 2: Teresa Orenic (Biological Sciences)
https://bios.uic.edu/profiles/orenic-teresa-vales/#

Nominee 3: Kuei Tseng (Anatomy and Cell Biology/GPN)
http://anatomy.uic.edu/faculty/index.html?fac=kueiytseng&cat=all
As a PhD scientist with a MD degree, I have a long-standing interest in fostering training to predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars in the field of medical sciences. Together with my long-lasting commitment to providing training to the next generation of life science scholars combined with my tenure track record on serving NIH study sections for F, K, and R-level awards as reviewer, I have accumulated a unique set of skills that will positively impact the tasks of the Graduate College Life Sciences Awards committee’s mission. Through my tenure at Rosalind Franklin University (former institution) and now at UIC (since October of 2017), I have trained over 20 predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars, all with several peer-reviewed publications in top-tier journals. In addition to maintaining a very active research program in the field of neuroscience and biological psychiatry, I am the DGS of the GEMS Neurobiology research concentration and the Head of curriculum of the GPN. I also serve as mentor on several NIH-funded predoctoral and postdoctoral training programs we have here at UIC-College of Medicine including the IRACDA K12 Postdoctoral Training.

Diversity Awards Committee

Arts & Humanities

Nominee 1: Madhu Dubey (English)
https://engl.uic.edu/profiles/dubey-madhu/
Madhu Dubey earned her PhD from the University of Illinois-Urbana and has been a faculty member in the Black Studies and English departments at UIC since 2002. She previously taught at Delhi University, Northwestern University, and Brown University. She is the author of two books, Black Women Novelists and the Nationalist Aesthetic (Indiana University Press, 1994) and Signs and Cities: Black Literary Postmodernism (University of Chicago Press, 2003), and numerous essays on 20^th century and contemporary American and African American literature and culture, postmodernism, and race and speculative fiction. She is currently serving as Director of Graduate Studies in the department of Black Studies. Her service at UIC includes: Director of Graduate Studies in the English department (2012-2014), Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs, LAS (2005-2006), Executive Committee of the Institute for the Humanities (2009-2012), LAS Task Force on Academic Priorities (2009-2010), and the editorial board of the University of Illinois Press (2013-2020). Beyond UIC, she has served as a reviewer for faculty and doctoral fellowship applications for the ACLS and National Humanities Council and on various book prize selection committees for the Modern Language Association. Her professional service beyond UIC also includes mentorship of minority faculty members through the Black Metropolis Research Consortium in Chicago, the Ford Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Nominee 2: Silvia Malagrino (Professor, Art)
https://artandarthistory.uic.edu/profile/silvia-malagrino
I have served as a juror for the National Fulbright fellowships, The Cleveland and Maryland Arts Councils, The Community Assistance Grant of the Chicago Cultural Affairs and the McKnight Foundation Fellowships, the UIC Impact & Research of the Honors College and the Graduate College Awards Committee. I feel I can bring my experience to the Diversity committee and contribute to it. I am an international artist and filmmaker and Professor at the School of Art and Art History. In 2010 I received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and in 2012 I was awarded with the State of Illinois Distinguished Artist Award for my contributions to Art and Society.

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nominee 1: Lorena Garcia (LALS/Sociology)
https://soc.uic.edu/profiles/lorena-garcia/

Nominee 2: P. Zitlali Morales (Education)
https://education.uic.edu/profiles/p-zitlali-morales/
Zitlali (Lali) Morales is Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction and affiliated faculty of the Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS) program. Her research focuses on the linguistic practices of Latinx bilinguals, the language ideologies of multilingual immigrant communities, and bilingual education policy. She coordinates the Literacy, Language, and Culture doctoral program as well as the Bilingual and ESL endorsements at UIC. Dr. Morales was recently awarded a Spencer Foundation large grant, “Centering racialized pre-service teachers: A proleptic re-design of teacher education for leveraging linguistic diversity” and is a co-editor of the book, Transforming Schooling for Second Language Learners: Theoretical Insights, Policies, Pedagogies, and Practicesby Information Age Publishing. Dr. Morales has worked with both SROP and Honors students to support their research interests, and would like to engage in the process of awarding funding to attract, support, and retain diverse graduate students.

Engineering, Mathematics, & Physical Sciences

Nominee 1: Gerard Awanou (MSCS)
http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~awanou/
I am a professor in the mathematics department. I am very interested in being on the Diversity awards committee. I received my Ph.D. in mathematics in 2003 from the University of Georgia and spent two years as a postdoctoral associate at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications in Minnesota. I then worked at Northern Illinois University for seven years before coming to UIC in 2012. In 2009, I was awarded a Sloan Fellowship. My research is partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

Nominee 2: Constantine (Dino) Megaridis (MIE)
I was involved in the NSF-ADVANCE-funded Women in Science and Engineering System Transformation (WISEST) program that aimed to evaluate the climate and address the needs of women faculty in 11 STEM departments spreading across the UIC Colleges of Engineering and Liberal Arts and Sciences during the period 2006-2011. I served as my department’s facilitator then, as well as chair/member of two subcommittees within the program. My exposure and training received through WISEST will inform and guide my contributions to the Diversity Awards Committee of the Graduate College.

Life Sciences

Nominee 1: David Marquez (Kinesiology and Nutrition)
https://ahs.uic.edu/kinesiology-nutrition/directory/marquez-david-xavier/

Below is the sample ballot with statements from the nominees.  The actual ballot does not include statements.

Graduate College EXECUTIVE Committee: Arts and Humanities Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Christopher Boyer, Professor, History
https://hist.uic.edu/profiles/boyer-christopher/
(statement not received)

——————————————–

Graduate College EXECUTIVE Committee: Behavioral and Social Sciences Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Tarini Bedi, Associate Professor, Anthropology
https://anth.uic.edu/profiles/bedi-tarini/
Tarini Bedi is an Associate Professor of sociocultural anthropology in the Department of Anthropology. She is an urban anthropologist who conducts research on labor, gender, politics, infrastructure, and urban kinship in South and Southeast Asia. She received her PhD from UIC in 2009 and has been on the faculty since 2012. This has allowed her to see and understand graduate studies at UIC from the perspective of both students and faculty and is a perspective that she would bring to her service on the Graduate College executive committee. Additionally, prior to joining the faculty at UIC, Dr. Bedi worked closely with graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Chicago, where she mentored graduate students, organized graduate fellowship competitions, and designed graduate pedagogy workshops.  At UIC, Dr. Bedi mentors and teaches graduate students from Anthropology and several other departments. At UIC, she has developed and contributed five new graduate level courses to the curriculum, created several informal writing, reading and grant-writing workshops for graduate students, currently serves on the graduate studies committee in Anthropology, and has served for five years on her department’s graduate admissions committee. She also serves on the graduate fellowship selection committees for the National Science Foundation’s Cultural Anthropology and the American Institute of Indian Studies, Junior Fellowship Programs. She is currently the doctoral advisor for four students in Anthropology and has served on the dissertation committees of ten other students in Anthropology and other UIC departments. She also serves as the external committee member and mentor for students at other universities in the United States, Europe and Australia. Dr. Bedi looks forward to the opportunity to bring these different forms of experience to her service as a member of the Graduate College’s Executive Committee.

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Graduate College EXECUTIVE Committee: Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

David Eddington, Professor, Biongineering
https://bioe.uic.edu/profiles/david-eddington-phd/
David Eddington is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and has also been the Director of Graduate Studies since 2011. He grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, earned a BS in Materials Science from UIUC, a MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and did a postdoc MIT. He has been at UIC since 2006 and his lab works on microfluidic devices for biological and medical applications and has been continuously funded with NSF and/or NIH grants since 2008. He has graduated 9 PhD students in total and is familiar with the GCEC due to implementing several revisions to the BIOE graduate programs since taking over as DGS.

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Graduate College EXECUTIVE Committee: Life Sciences Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Emily Minor, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences
https://bios.uic.edu/profiles/minor-emily/
Emily Minor is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in Biological Sciences and the Institute for Environmental Science and Policy. She has been at UIC since 2008. In that time, she has served the university in multiple capacities, including as a WISEST (Women In Science and Engineering System Transformation) facilitator, a member of the Honors Council, and as Associate Director of Graduate Studies in Biological Sciences. She has served as primary advisor for ten PhD students and two Masters students, and as a member of dozens of graduate student committees at UIC and other universities.
Emily is an ecologist whose research focuses on biodiversity in urban landscapes. Her work is very interdisciplinary and includes collaborations with anthropologists, computer scientists, urban planners, cancer biologists, and others. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal papers, is currently editing a book (“The Routledge Handbook of Landscape Ecology”), and serves on the editorial board for two academic journals (BioScience, Landscape Ecology).

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Awards Committee

Graduate College AWARDS Committee: Arts and Humanities Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Mahrad Almotahari, Associate Professor, Philosophy
https://phil.uic.edu/philosophy/people/faculty/mahrad-almotahari/
Mahrad is an Associate Professor in Philosophy, having arrived at UIC in 2012, shortly after receiving his PhD. He specializes in the philosophy of language. He’ll be the Director of Graduate Studies beginning in fall 2019. He enjoyed serving on the graduate awards committee in academic year ’18-’19 and looks forward to serving again. From fall ’16 to spring ’19, Mahrad was a member of the Faculty Senate. His hobbies include poker, go (the ancient east Asian board game), and pipe smoking. Vote Mahrad! He’ll make us all filthy rich.

Catherine Becker, Associate Professor, Art History
https://artandarthistory.uic.edu/profile/catherine-becker
Catherine Becker is Associate Professor of Art History and Affiliated Faculty in the Global Asian Studies Program. She has served as the DGS for the Department of Art History from 2016-2018 and advises students in the department’s MA and PhD programs. Her first book examined the construction and re-use of Buddhist sites and their relief sculpture in South India. Her current research investigates the creation of spectacular sound and light shows at historic monuments across India. She has served on the board of the American Council for Southern Asian Art and is presently a member of the Association for Asian Studies’ South Asia Council.

Heidi Schlipphacke, Associate Professor, Germanic Studies
https://lcsl.uic.edu/germanic/people/faculty/heidi-schlipphacke
Heidi Schlipphacke is Associate Professor of Germanic Studies (75%) and Classics (25%) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also serves as Director of Graduate Studies. She received her B.A. in Philosophy from St. John’s College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in German Literature from the University of Washington. She has taught at Old Dominion University, Haverford College, and Bryn Mawr College. Her research focuses on gender, kinship and aesthetics in the German Enlightenment, in post-WWII German and Austrian literature and film, and in Critical Theory. She also writes on popular and queer culture. Her research has been funded by the Fulbright Foundation and by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. Nostalgia After Nazism: History, Home and Affect in German and Austrian Literature and Film appeared in 2010 with Bucknell University Press, and the co-edited volume Sissi’s World: The Empress Elisabeth in Memory and Myth appeared in 2018 (Bloomsbury). She serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Austrian Studies and The Goethe Yearbook as well as for the Bloomsbury series “New Directions in German Studies.” She recently co-edited a volume of the Lessing Yearbook on sexualities in the eighteenth century. She is currently working on a monograph on 18th-century German literature and aesthetics entitled The Aesthetics of Kinship.

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Graduate College AWARDS Committee: Behavioral and Social Sciences Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Stellan Ohlsson, Professor, Psychology
https://psch.uic.edu/profiles/ohlsson-stellan/
Stellan Ohlsson is Professor of Psychology and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science. He joined the UIC faculty in 1996. His research addresses fundamental issues in human cognition, including cognitive mechanisms behind creative insight, skill acquisition, and conceptual change. He has published numerous research articles on these topics in peer-reviewed journals, often in collaboration with other UIC faculty. Dr. Ohlsson teaches required as well as elective courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Some of his former PhD students have secured tenure-track academic positions at respectable universities, while others lead research teams at Microsoft, Facebook, and other corporations. He has earned three teaching awards from UIC.

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Graduate College AWARDS Committee: Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Tolou Shokuhfar, Associate Professor, Bioengineering
https://bioe.uic.edu/profiles/tolou-shokuhfar-phd/
(statement not received)

Christof Sparber, Professor, Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science
http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~sparber/Christofs_Webseite/Contact.html
Christof Sparber has been at UIC since 2010 and a Professor of Mathematics since 2018. He also holds a master’s degree in Physics from the University of Vienna. His research is at the interface of mathematical physics, partial differential equations and numerical analysis with applications in quantum mechanics and nonlinear optics. A particular focus of his research is the mathematical analysis and numerical simulation of multi-scale systems. His research has been supported by, among others, an NSF Career grant and a Royal Society Research Fellowship. He is also a Co-PI on several NSF grants supporting the Midwest PDE Seminar, a decades long biannual conference series on partial differential equations, and a member of the Ki-Net, a NSF research network in mathematical sciences. He has recently developed two new graduate courses in mathematics, centered around the modern theory of nonlinear wave equations and spectral analysis of operators.

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Graduate College AWARDS Committee: Life Sciences Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Donna MacDuff, Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Immunology
https://sites.google.com/uic.edu/macduff/home
I am an Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and my research focuses on the inflammatory responses to commensal and pathogenic microbes. A graduate student in my laboratory was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Graduate Research Award last year, so I recognize the significance of these awards for the continued development and success of our students, and am enthusiastic about the opportunity to participate on this important awards committee. I am currently serving on the travel awards committee for the American Society for Virology’s annual meeting, and have judged abstracts and posters for the GEMS Symposium and the College of Medicine Research Day.
I am actively involved in the recruitment of students for the Graduate Education in Medical Sciences (GEMS) PhD program, as well as the Medical Scientist Training Program and the Medical School. Effective trainee mentoring and student education are important to me, and I have participated in the University’s Mentorship Training Program. In addition to teaching innate immunity to graduate students, I am a co-director of a Journal Club, during which we actively challenge our students to critically evaluate and discuss the scientific literature, and I mentor a student each year as part of a grant-writing course.

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Diversity Awards Committee

Graduate College DIVERSITY AWARDS Committee: Arts and Humanities Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Daniel Sutherland, Associate Professor, Philosophy
https://phil.uic.edu/philosophy/people/faculty/sutherla
Daniel L. Sutherland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy.  His work focuses on Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of mathematics and science and the history and philosophy of mathematics.  He has been at UIC for 20 years.  As Director of Graduate Admissions for the Philosophy Department, he has been actively promoting diversity in philosophy.  He is currently serving on the Diversity Council and has been a mentor for the Summer Research Opportunities Program for undergraduates (SROP), and has also served on the SROP Executive Committee.  In addition, he has served multiple times on the LAS Education Policy Committee.  He believes that promoting diversity in higher education requires focused attention and energy.

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Graduate College DIVERSITY AWARDS Committee: Behavioral and Social Sciences Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Petia Kostadinova, Assistant Professor, Political Science
https://pols.uic.edu/profiles/kostadinova-petia/
Petia Kostadinova is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. Her research spans topics of mandate representation, voters’ awareness of party positions, media framing of election news, and the role of media in fulfillment of party priorities. Her research has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Electoral Studies, East European Politics, European Journal of Communications, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Party Politics, Political Communication, and Politics & Policyamong others. Prof. Kostadinova is actively engaged with the professional development of graduate students in her department. For example, in addition to supervising PhD students, she convenes a bi-weekly research seminar where students discuss their research projects and proposals, as well as issues related to professionalization and success in the discipline. Prof. Kostadinova is especially active in mentoring graduate students who are parents, as work-life issues present an especially important challenge for success in graduate school, and attention to these issues further helps promote diversity and inclusion. Prof. Kostadinova also serves on the Education Policy Committee of the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences where she helps oversee curriculum changes.

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Graduate College DIVERSITY AWARDS Committee: Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Carmen Lilley, Associate Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
https://mie.uic.edu/k-Teacher/carmen-lilley-phd/
Carmen M. Lilley is an Associate Professor in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE). She received her Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Northwestern University in 2003 and joined the faculty at UIC in Fall of 2003. Her research is focused on synthesis, characterization and modeling of materials at the quantum and nanoscale. Dr. Lilley will also be the Director of Graduate Studies for the MIE department starting in Fall of 2019. Dr. Lilley is committed to promoting STEM graduate education and recruiting a diverse population of graduate students to study at UIC.

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Graduate College DIVERSITY AWARDS Committee: Life Sciences Division

One (1) to be elected. (Vote for 1)

Terry Moore, Assistant Professor, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy
https://pharmacy.uic.edu/people-resources/directory/twmoore
Terry Moore is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. His research program focuses on developing new compounds to study ways to block the interactions of proteins. Terry has previously served on the Graduate College Scholarships and Awards Committee. He currently serves on the Diversity Strategic Thinking and Planning Committee in the College of Pharmacy, and he is a Presidential Awards Program mentor. A member of the LGBTQ community, he hopes to promote diversity and inclusion on campus through service on the Diversity Awards committee.

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