Enrique Núñez-Mussa
Enrique Núñez-Mussa is a Fulbright scholar and a Ph.D. student in the Information and Media program at the School of Journalism of Michigan State University (MSU). His research interests are journalism's epistemology and societal function. Before coming to MSU, he was a full-time faculty member at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), where he instructed journalism courses and was a faculty advisor for the School of Communication’s student publications. Since his first year in the Information and Media program at MSU, he has been an instructor of record of core visual literacy and photojournalism courses in the Journalism’s curricula. His teaching has been characterized by developing innovative learning experiences recognized with awards and invitations to present at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference in 2022, 2023, and 2024. He currently serves as the co-graduate student liaison of the Visual Communication Division of AEJMC, leading its first mentorship program. He participates in the College of Communication Arts & Science’s Center for Teaching and Learning Advisory Board. In 2024, he was selected as a winner of Michigan State University’s Excellence in Teaching Citation. In 2023, he received the Love of Learning Award from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. His work has been published in journals like Digital Journalism, Communication & Society, and Teaching Journalism and Mass Communication.
Wendy Leuenberger
Wendy runs a session called “Ask a Biometrician” at The Wildlife Society’s annual national conference. This session is set up with two main goals: 1) provide statistical guidance to conference attendees, particularly students; and 2) train student and early career biometricians. Over the past three years, they have provided over 40 conference attendees with statistical advice tailored to their questions and provided training and experience to eight student and early career biometricians. It’s been a great way to network with other student and early career professionals while also engaging in service towards others in the wildlife field. Wendy looks forward to running the session again in 2024!
Lamia Bagasrawala
Lamia Bagasrawala is a Ph.D. student in the School Psychology program at Michigan State University. Her research and praxis center and apply decolonial approaches and critical theories to develop school-based preventative mental health services for students from marginalized groups, in the U.S. and in India. Since her move to the U.S. for graduate school, Lamia is most proud of her contributions to both national-level organizations that oversee graduate training and professional practice in school psychology. As Chair of the Science committee of the American Psychological Association for Graduate Students (APAGS), Lamia has collaborated with graduate students across all specializations of psychology to support graduate students through advocacy and programming to support graduate student research in psychological science. Through her role as the Graduate Student Leader for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), Lamia has enjoyed developing outreach and programming to expose undergraduate students to opportunities in school psychology. As a member of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) subcommittee of the Multicultural Affairs Committee of NASP, Lamia has led advocacy efforts for AAPI and international graduate students in psychology. Lamia has also mentored undergraduate and graduate students as a mentor through the NextGen Psych Scholars Program (2023-24), NASP (2023-24), and APA Division 16 (2022-23) mentorship program. Lamia is passionate about advocacy at various levels and looks forward to continued collaboration with peers globally to promote equitable and inclusive graduate training opportunities, research, and practice in psychology.
Christi Druskovich
As a medical student passionate about education, Christi Druskovich is proud about providing health-related education to thousands of youth in communities across Michigan. Using creativity, she was able to curate slides at the end of a sun protection and skin cancer presentation to inspire and encourage local middle school and high school students to think about a career in medicine. Additionally, this year education has been expanded to adult learners experiencing hardships in our communities. They have also partnered with a LatinX group to deliver presentations in Spanish, expanding the reach of her education project. Lastly, Christi's national leadership position through the Dermatology Interest Group Association has enabled her to connect medical students across the nation to resources and opportunities in the field of dermatology and continued to make Michigan State a nationally recognized name.
Laxmi Prasad Ojha
Laxmi Prasad Ojha is a Ph.D. Student in Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education program in the College of Education. His research focuses on multilingualism, language, literacy, and teacher education. Currently, Laxmi is working on multiple projects to understand the issues of language and literacy development of multilingual children and youth from immigrant backgrounds. He also works with in-service and pre-service teachers to understand their professional trajectories and support them in creating equitable learning opportunities for students from linguistically, culturally, and socio-economically diverse backgrounds. Laxmi is currently serving in the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Division-K Community Building Committee where he works to support the professional development of graduate students having an interest in teaching and teacher education. Previously Laxmi served as the Co-Chair of the Graduate Student Council at American for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) for two terms (2020-2022) and as a member-at-large (2019-2020). Laxmi also served AAAL as the graduate student representative in the Executive Committee (2021-2022), a member of the Conference Connection Committee (2020-2022), and a trustee in the Funds for the Future of Applied Linguistics (2020-2021). He was a member of the AAAL conference organizing committee for the AAAL 2023 conference. Before moving to the US, Laxmi served as the Central Committee Member (2015-2017), Membership Secretary (2018-2018), and Secretary (2018) of Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA). Laxmi’s research has been published in several journals and edited volumes including International Multilingual Research Journal, Modern Language Journal, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Routledge International Handbook of Language Education Policy in Asia.
