2022 Graduate Student Contribution to Community Life Award Recipients

Maggie Unverzagt Goddard

Proudly from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Maggie received her Ph.D. in American Studies. At the Cogut Institute, Maggie worked as a 21st-Century Ph.D. Proctor and coordinated Archival Aesthetics, a Mellon graduate workshop that allowed scholars across disciplines to collectively read and discuss each other’s work. She also created and facilitated a departmental writing group for Ph.D. students in American Studies to workshop
dissertation chapters and collaboratively organized the American Studies Graduate Student Conference. At the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Maggie created the rotating installation series Tiny Exhibits. She worked as a Research Associate on the digital humanities project Mapping Violence, directed by Dr. Monica Muñoz Martinez, to research cases of racial violence in Texas, and she created, researched, and wrote content for Rhode Tour, a statewide mobile historical app. Maggie also collaboratively managed the Royce Fellowship program at the Swearer Center to support a cohort of undergraduate students in community-engaged research. She mentored students in the Mellon Mays program by providing individual support and feedback along with organizing writing group sessions and collaboratively coordinating the Mellon Mays Northeast Regional Conference. Maggie also worked at the Writing Center and served on the College Curriculum Committee, Independent Concentration Committee, Graduate Student Council Finance Committee, Title IX Oversight, and Advisory Board, and the Redesigning Ability VII Task Force to integrate health equity as a core competency at the Alpert Medical School, where she also lectured on the history of gynecology. In her department, she served as a mentor, graduate representative, and departmental liaison at the Sheridan Center in addition to collaboratively developing departmental TA training and revising the TA handbook. She also volunteered with local organizations in Providence, including Doors Open RI, Women’s Health and Education Fund, and College Visions, and she received a Citizen Citation from the Mayor of Providence for her volunteer work at vaccine clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic. After graduation, Maggie will study Arabic at Middlebury before starting a postdoctoral fellowship. 

N’Kosi Oates

N’Kosi hails from Neptune, New Jersey, and earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Africana Studies. As one who aspires to effect positive institutional change for Brown University and the Providence community at large, Dr. Oates strives to be a diligent mentor and relentless advocate. Since his first semester at Brown, Oates has served as a co-coordinator for the Brown Soul Food Discussion Group, which is an informal discussion group for Black-identified undergraduate students housed through the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life. 

In the Graduate School, he was selected as a Graduate Community Fellow, which allowed him to facilitate campus-wide discussions around the intersection of race and politics. Dr. Oates has been fortunate to be in conversations with senior administrators centered on institutional matters and social change on campus. He has served on search committees for positions in the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity and the Chaplains and Religious Life. In Fall 2020, Oates served as a graduate student representative on the Diversity, Equity, and Student Support Subcommittee for the Healthy Fall Start 2020. This committee developed principles of equity and inclusion as the campus prepared for a hybrid model of remote and in-person learning. Additionally, he has served on several student advisory boards, including the Graduate School and the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity. In his final semester, he served as the inaugural graduate student facilitator for the Student Advisory Board for the Brown Center for Students of Color, giving him the opportunity to both lead and mentor student leaders. 

Oates’ commitment to improving community wellbeing is also shaped by his relationship with the City of Providence. Since 2017, he has been an active resident in the community; most notably, he has volunteered as a poll worker for the City of Providence. As such, his professional pursuits guide him towards public media and curatorial affairs, where he can be a cultural advocate, distinguished voice, and community leader. 

Alastair Tulloch

Alastair is from Montgomery, Minnesota, and received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience. During his career as a graduate student at Brown, he worked in Alex Jaworski’s lab investigating the mechanisms underlying nervous system wiring. In his lab and neuroscience graduate program, he mentored eight undergraduate students, organized two neuroscience retreats, served on his program’s admissions committee and as his program’s graduate student representative, and was a primary instructor for the Introduction to Neuroscience course over the summer of 2020. Alastair was also dedicated to community outreach, coordinating classroom visits to teach primary education students about brain science, chairing the Brown Brain Fair organizing committee, and serving on the Brain Week RI executive committee. Alastair was also extensively involved in advocating for graduate students across the university, serving on 15 distinct committees or councils, including the Graduate Council, Code of Student Conduct Review Committee, Brown University Community Council, New Alumni Trustee Candidate Advisory Committee, Resuming Research Continuity Committee, and the Committee on Promoting Financial Health and Sustainability. He also dedicated four years to serving on the Graduate Student Council (GSC), two years as the chair of nominations followed by two years as the president. As president, Alastair was the primary liaison between graduate students and the University administration, successfully advocating for modifications to graduate student leave policies and grievance procedures as well as for increased graduate student housing and a graduate center. Alastair also instituted the GSC Distinguished Speaker Series and the Research in Medicine Flashtalks. Most notably, he initiated and helped to create the Graduate Student Strategic Initiative document to codify the advocacy needs of all graduate students at Brown. Alastair also enjoyed the opportunities to participate in the Brown Executive Scholars Training program, all three certificate programs through the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Graduate and Postdoctoral Teaching Fellows program. After graduation, Alastair will join Connie Cepko’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow to research retinal development at Harvard Medical School.

2020 Graduate Student Contribution to Community Life Award Recipients

Ramisa Fariha, Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering

Born and raised in Narayanganj, Bangladesh, Ramisa is the first Ivy League student from her hometown. She was the first single female to leave her hometown to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Penn State, where she was the first international student to receive ‘Freshman of the Year’ award. Ramisa joined Brown University in Fall 2018, working on a research collaboration with Dr. Jonghwan Lee and her research inspiration, Dr. Jeff Morgan, pursuing her master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. During her time at Brown, Ramisa has served in the International Student Advisory Board, and was featured in the prestigious NAFSA Magazine when Brown was awarded the Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization. During her time at Brown, Ramisa was selected as the Graduate Community Fellow for International Students (2018-2019, 2019-2020), and she organized various events, including the ‘Graduate Student Self-Care Series’ with Global Brown Center for International Students (GBC). Ramisa also served as one of the three Graduate Assistants for International Graduate Orientation, and as a Peer Mentor and Tour Guide for Graduate Student Orientation. She also served as the first Graduate Coordinator for GBC, and together with Community Fellow Shuai Xie, executed several community building initiatives, specifically for International Graduate Students. Not only for the international student community, Ramisa has served in various career panels and search committees for different campus centers, and organizations. She was an active part of the Biomedical Engineering DIAP Committee, and also led several Diversity and Inclusion initiatives as an active member of the Brown Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (BMEB) Graduate Advisory Board. She has also been featured in various science blogs due to her activism as a womxn of color in STEM. Ramisa is currently planning to transition to the industry, looking for research positions. Her goal is to become an independent research scientist, specializing on female reproductive diseases such as Ovarian Cancer, while continuing to inspire more international students and womxn of color in STEM to pursue their dreams. 

John Santiago, Ph D. Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry

John Santiago grew up in Watertown, New York and will be graduating with a PhD in Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry (MCBGP). He is a father of three and the first in his family to attain a college degree. When he started his graduate work, with guidance from the MCBGP he became involved with the Brown Initiative to Maximize Student Development (IMSD) program and joined Brown’s Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) chapter. This involvement brought him to a few national conferences where he became aware of the impact he could have on those from similar backgrounds. He began taking opportunities to provide mentoring through activities such as participating in the MCB graduate student peer mentoring program, assisting with IMSD modules as a senior scholar, and working with the Summer Research - Early Identification Program (SR-EIP) for three summers. Additionally, he founded the Brown University junior researchers program (BjRP) to provide relatable role models in science for elementary school kids. The program worked with after school programs at local public schools to provide weekly science lessons for the past five years. The activities were completely organized and funded by graduate student volunteers across several graduate programs speaking to the compassion of our graduate school community. He credits the support and guidance of his mentor David Rand, the MCBGP and the IMSD program for his success in these efforts. After graduations, he will continue these efforts locally from his post-doc position in Jennifer Sander’s lab here at Brown. His goal is to pursue a career in academia with his own research lab while continuing his efforts to empower upcoming generations of scientists

Benjamin Wilks, Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering

Ben Wilks grew up in Chicago, Illinois and will be receiving a PhD in Biomedical Engineering in May 2020. During their time at Brown, both as an undergraduate and graduate student, building community has been a central component of their experience. These sometimes disparate communities of scientist and LGBTQ+ mentors, mentees, colleagues, and lifelong friends have been critical to Ben’s personal and professional development and are by far the most valuable reward of a Brown University degree. To bridge these communities, Ben co-founded a chapter of Out in STEM (oSTEM) with fellow graduate student Patrick Freeman ’20 MSc that had three main goals: 1) to build a network of LGBTQ+ scientists that spanned the breadth of positions and titles at Brown University including undergrads, graduate students, postdocs, staff, faculty, deans, and anyone else in search of community 2) to increase visible representation and support of LGBTQ+ folks at Brown by identifying affirming mentors, bringing in role models, and developing visibility campaigns and 3) to advocate for increased institutional support to address systematic issues within departments and the University that impact all minoritzed identities by facilitating community conversations and directly addressing departments, chairs, and administrators with tangible ideas and action items.

In collaboration with oSTEM leadership and a wide array of fantastic University sponsors, Ben proposed, secured funding, and administered numerous initiatives such as a yearly “You Are Welcome Here” campaign that has been distributed to thousands of Brown University community members, departmental collaborations to bring openly LGBTQ+ speakers to speak about their work, identity, and the intersection of the two, professional development events to discuss navigating the workplace as an LGBTQ+ individual, and the development of a new speaker series called the DiversiTeas. While building the DiversiTeas series, Ben applied for and was awarded funding through the Graduate Community Fellows Program and invited GSOCnSTEM and SACNAS to co-facilitate the series with oSTEM. At the same time, Ben advocated for increased student support within his own program leading to the development of a Center for Biomedical Engineering DIAP committee in which he co-wrote the first draft of the DIAP document.
After graduation, Ben will be taking some time to rest, reconnect with family and friends, and work as a Visiting Scholar at Brown while applying for funding to start a biotech venture. www.ostematbrown.com

Amanda Howard is from Palo Alto, California and will be receiving a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. Throughout her time at Brown, Amanda has created a number of new initiatives that are innovative for how they develop community among graduate students and welcome future students to STEM careers. She has taken the lead in several efforts to help make Applied Math a more diverse field which include organizing and co-founding the Applied Mathematics Graduate/Undergraduate Mentorship Program, founding the student chapter of the Association of Women in Mathematics (AWM) which won the national AWM Student Chapter Award for Scientific Excellence under her leadership last year and organizing the Women Educators in STEM Discussion Group for the 2017-2018 academic year. Amanda has demonstrated a deep commitment to engagement, inclusion, and enhancing Brown’s teaching and learning communities through her work as a Head Teaching Consultant at the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning where she has served as a mentor and co-coordinator for the 40+ graduate members of the Sheridan graduate teaching consultant community, offering guidance on consulting and workshop mentorship for larger programs such as New TA Orientation. She also received the Simon Ostrach Fellowship (May 2018) for distinguished academic record. After graduation, Amanda will continue her work as a postdoc at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory starting in July 2018.

Rafael D. González Cruz is from Aguada, Puerto Rico and will be receiving his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. Outside of the classroom, Rafael’s innate sense of duty and responsibility has brought him into a variety of leadership positions. These include serving as the President of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) from 2015-2017, student representative of the Initiative to Maximize Student Development Internal Advisory Board  from 2016-2018, student mentor for the Post Baccalaureate PREP Program from 2016-2017 and co-founder of the Puerto Rican Student Association in the fall of 2017. While dealing with his family’s suffering in rural Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, he took it upon himself to be an advocate for institutional redress and interpersonal support on campus and advocated to bring students from University of Puerto Rico to complete their studies at Brown. After graduation, Rafael hopes to become a tenure-track professor in Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Sciences or Biotechnology and pursue original research. He is also committed to continue to mentor minority students pursuing careers in STEM, particularly helping students from Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries to gain exposure to STEM research and academic/professional development opportunities.

Eboni Chambers is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and will be receiving a Ph.D. in Pathobiology, and a Masters of Public Affairs through the Open Graduate Education Program. During her tenure at Brown she has been a mentor and role model for students of color and other historically underrepresented groups particularly in the STEM fields. Her involvement includes being a mentor for the Leadership Alliance Summer Research Early Identification Program, the Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative, the African American, Latino, Asian, and Native American (ALANA) Mentoring Program and the Postbaccalaureate Research Experience Program (PREP). She was also the 2015 Graduate Advisor for the Leadership Alliance (LA) and provided novel collaborations and mentorship for students interested in the biomedical sciences. Eboni has advocated and aimed to provide community for students on color on campus, particularly in her current role as the President of the Samuel M. Nabrit Black Graduate Student Association. Moreover, Eboni’s advocacy as part of the executive board of the Graduate Student Council has directly contributed to permanent improvements in graduate student lives. She contributed to advocacy efforts that supported sixth year funding and the establishment of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP). Currently, in her role as the Treasurer of the Graduate Student Council, she has advocated for and successfully increased support of graduate student conference travel, advocated for improvements to the graduate grievance processes, additional graduate exclusive spaces on campus, graduate housing, and improved parental relief policies. After graduation, Eboni hopes to use science in a meaningful way and translate scientific advances into global policy initiatives for the betterment of society.