Category: Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award

Olutosin Adesogan, a 2025 Ph.D. graduate of the Franklin College Department of Psychology and current postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, is recognized for a highly productive research program examining health inequities among Black Americans. Working under faculty adviser Justin Lavner, she investigates how stressors rooted in systemic racism shape mental and physical health across the lifespan, while also identifying sources of resilience. Adesogan has authored 10 peer-reviewed publications, including multiple first-authored articles, in leading journals such as Clinical Psychological Science and Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Her research and training have been supported by prestigious national programs, including her selection as a visiting future faculty scholar at the University at Buffalo and as a trainee in the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research. Adesogan also secured a National Institute on Aging Research Supplement to Promote Diversity, reflecting recognition of both her scholarship and its relevance to aging and health equity research. 

Hannah Arnade, a combined D.V.M./Ph.D. candidate in the College of Veterinary Medicine, studies the development of orthobiologics for challenging joint infections in horses. Her work focuses on platelet-derived therapies that integrate regenerative and antimicrobial strategies to address conditions with limited effective treatments. Working under her faculty adviser, Dr. John Peroni, Arnade developed a clinically relevant, three-dimensional joint tissue model using post-mortem equine tissue, creating a scalable platform for evaluating orthobiologic therapies while reducing reliance on live-animal testing. Her research has contributed to the refinement of platelet formulations, including shelf-stable preparations suitable for clinical use, and has informed treatments applied in the UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital. In parallel, Arnade has participated in the UGA IDEAS program and NSF I-Corps, translating her research toward real-world application through customer discovery and commercialization training. Together, these efforts reflect a research profile that combines scientific rigor, translational focus, and entrepreneurial engagement at an early career stage. 

Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award 2025

Trevor Tuma, recent Ph.D. graduate in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, conducts interdisciplinary research in two distinct fields—forest biotechnology and biology education—under the mentorship of professors Chung-Jui “C.J.” Tsai and Erin Dolan. His biology research is aimed at enhancing biofuel production and developing more resilient trees with higher biomass yields. Tuma combined greenhouse experiments and field studies to uncover key mechanisms in carbohydrate allocation affecting biomass yield and climate resilience in trees. His education research examined the negative aspects of mentoring relationships, including how these relationships can go awry and cause harm for students. His research contributions have been published in multiple journals and presented at national and international conferences and universities. Now an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at UGA, Tuma continues to advance STEM education and is poised to make significant contributions to the field.

Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award 2025

Ava Reck, recent Ph.D. graduate in human development and family science from the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, conducts research on the sociocultural and neurobehavioral mechanisms of mental health in children and adolescents. Under the mentorship of professors Steve Kogan and Assaf Oshri, she has examined how poverty, neglect, and racial discrimination influence mental health through family and neurocognitive pathways. Reck has published 12 peer-reviewed articles, with six as first author. Her research on internalized racism and conduct problems in Black adolescents and food insecurity’s impact on adolescent brain development has received national attention. During her time at UGA, she was awarded a Georgia Clinical & Translational Science Alliance grant and multiple university-wide fellowships. Now a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, Reck continues to advance interdisciplinary research on developmental risk and resilience.