On Friday, May 3, 2024, the UNLV School of Public Health celebrated the end of the academic school year by recognizing student scholarship recipients, faculty excellence, donors and community partners at its annual Honors Ceremony.
Below is the list of all the award recipients recognized at this year’s event.
2024 Student Scholarship Awards
ACHE Scholarship (American College of Healthcare Executives)
Scholarship Recipients: Vidhani Goel, Sisinyous Mengesha, Trisha Anne Claire Santos
Nevada Healthcare Forum Endowed Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Maryam Z. Dehkhargani, Leticia Delgado, Fye Pinera
Francisco Sy Undergraduate Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Cleo Navarro
Francisco Sy Graduate Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Miklo Alcala
Nevada Public Health Foundation Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Ashley Meda, Srishti Awasthi
Minority Health Consultants Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Zipporah Collier, Lizette Mejia, Jazmin Rios
Joan Essex Internship Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Kristen Custino
Guinan & Gerstenberger Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Karen Figueroa Chilito, Ishrat Zaman, Homa Azizimazreah
Guinan & Gerstenberger Internship Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Jessica Lopez, Dana Surwill
SPH Alumni Association Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Mae Ling Catayong
Aetna Community Heart Internship Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Marija Zolfaghari Dobrijevic
Public & Community Health Benefit
Scholarship Recipients: Brisa Rodriguez Alcantar, Bruno Bevilacqua, Kira Kramer
Glahnnia Rates Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Tracy Carmelo
Stacy Darling Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Emylia Terry, Binita Adhikari, Siddharth Raich
M. Chino Dissertation Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Laurencia Bonsu
Roland Sotero Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Mable Lorraine Garrett, Fay Faiz
Joshua Huebner Memorial Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients: Aastha Poudel, Terry Jones
John & Nicanora Gurley Scholarship
Scholarship Recipients:Jazmin Stamaria, Veronica Brown
School of Public Health Awards
Faculty Excellence Awards
Excellence in Teaching – Gabriela Buccini
Excellence in Research – Erika Marquez
Excellence in Service – Chris Papesh
Donor Appreciation Award
Robbie Martin
Outstanding Community Partner
Lisa Bogard
Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Scholars Program
Outstanding Internship Partner
Sunrise Hospital
2024 SPH Faculty Awards -- Presented by Kaiju Manera, PHSA President
(The awards were presented in the theme of the movie "Monsters University")
James P. Sullivan -- The Hero
Dr. Louisa Messenger
Mikee Wazowski -- The Jester
Dr. Amanda Morgan
Professor Knight -- The Mentor
Dr. Nicole DeVille
Don Carlton -- The Caregiver
Dr. Kay Callahan
Roz -- The Gaurdian
Dr. Sheniz Moonie
Department Awards
Department of Healthcare Administration & Policy
Outstanding Research – Yonsu Kim
Outstanding Teaching – Maire Simington
Outstanding Service – Jay Shen
Rising Star – Mohammad Karim
Outstanding Graduate Student – Jalen Jones
Outstanding Undergraduate Student & McGaw Recipient – Thomas Bloodgood III
Department of Environmental & Occupational Health
Outstanding Research – Louisa Messenger
Outstanding Teaching – Karen Callahan
Outstanding Service – Charles Regin
Outstanding Part-Time Instructor – Lawrence Sagadraca
Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award – Alyx Phillips
Outstanding Capstone Class Award – Austin Tang
Outstanding Graduate Student – Samantha Smith, Katharine Major
Outstanding Undergraduate Student – Annie Wang
Department of Social & Behavioral Health
Outstanding Teaching – Amanda Morgan
Outstanding Research – Timothy Grigsby
Outstanding Service – Christopher Johansen
Outstanding Administrative Faculty – Asma Awan
Outstanding Dissertation – Noehealani Bareng-Antolin
Outstanding Community Partner – Nevada Cancer Coalition
Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Outstanding Teaching – Chad Cross
Outstanding Research – Miguel Fudolig
Outstanding Service – Timothy Bungum
About the School of Public Health
The School of Public Health Sciences (SPH), formerly the School of Community Health Sciences(SCHS), is one of UNLV’s most recent additions. In 2003, Paul W. Ferguson, Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, recognized the need for such a school in Nevada, given that rapid population growth threatened the capacity of the state’s public health agencies to cope with new and emerging public health issues. In 2004, the Board of Regents approved the formation of the School of Public Health and the school brought together programs housed in other colleges — environmental studies, health promotion, and healthcare administration — as well as several research centers, the Center for Health Disparities Research, Center for Health Information Analysis, and the Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy. The schools centers, coalitions, and labs serve as connections to our community and real world examples of public health in practice. They provide opportunities for our students to engage in public health practice and gain experience as well as allow faculty to be on site role models.