The Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society (BGHS)

Mission Statement

The purpose of the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society is to recognize outstanding scholarly achievement and promote diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate. The Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society seeks to develop a network of preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence, foster environments of support, and serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy. In the spirit of Edward A. Bouchet and the scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy he exhibited, both inside and outside academic realms, inductees into the honor society bearing his name must also exhibit these same outstanding qualities.

The national charter of the Edward Alexander Bouchet Society was inaugurated on September 15, 2005, in commemoration of Bouchet’s birthday, by Yale University and Howard University. There are currently eighteen chapter institutions. The society is named in honor of Edward A. Bouchet (1852-1918), who became the first African American to earn a doctorate from an American university when he earned a Ph.D. in Physics from Yale University in 1876. "One can only imagine the ‘inner strength’ he must have had given that he lived during a time that was exceedingly difficult for Black people,” observed Dr. Michelle Nearon, Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Student Development and Diversity at Yale University, in 2018, “We don’t know for sure, but it is probably safe to say that Dr. Bouchet knew that the odds of him being able to secure a faculty position were relatively nonexistent. Yet, owing much to his persevering nature, resilience, deep love of knowledge, and sheer brilliance he continued to excel academically." The Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate. In particular, the Bouchet Society seeks to support and cultivate a dynamic network of outstanding and multitalented scholars who are commited to the society's core values, serving as exemplars of scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy. In the spirit of Bouchet’s life, work and commitment to these pursuits in academic and public spaces, inductees into the honor society bearing his name should also embrace and exemplify these principles. Membership into the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society is by nomination only.

Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at Michigan State University

In February 2019, Michigan State University's application to become a Bouchet Graduate Honor Society (BGHS) institutional partner was accepted. On April 5, 2019 during the wonderful “New Chapter Installation Ceremony” at the 16^th Annual Yale Bouchet Conference on Diversity and Graduate Education, Michigan State University was formally welcomed as an institutional partner into the society. MSU Associate Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School Thomas Jeitschko was delighted to deliver appreciative remarks at the “New Installation Ceremony” and University Distinguished Professor of History and Associate Dean Pero G. Dagbovie, who will serve as the MSU chapter’s institutional National Steering Committee representative, delivered the “Opening Plenary Presentation” that addressed the theme of the 2019 conference, “Reflections on Racism and U.S. Racial Tensions in the 21^st Century.” The MSU Graduate School is thrilled to be an institutional partner in this society that significantly aligns with the mission, values, and goals of our Strategic Plan (2019-2024) and our enduring commitment to diversity and inclusive recruitment and retention practices. Ph.D.-granting institutions that have exhibited a sustained record of recruiting, retaining and graduating scholars, and particularly those who are traditionally underrepresented in the academy, are invited to establish BGHS chapters. Invited institutions, moreover, are expected to demonstrate prior reform efforts designed to promote diversity and excellence in doctoral education and should demonstrate their dedication to diversity in graduate education by exhibiting a track record of training underrepresented students in the academy for employment in academia and beyond. The MSU Graduate School also takes great pride in the fact that long-time Bouchet enthusiast Dr. Curtis L. Patton, Professor Emeritus, Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University, earned his Ph.D. from MSU in Microbiology in 1966 and in January 2013 established an Endowment Agreement with MSU to create The Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Award.

Further Information Related to the BGHS at MSU

For more information pertaining to the Edward Alexander Bouchet Society’s mission and five core values; Bouchet’s facinating life; and the procedures and instructions for being nominated and applying for membership in the MSU BGHS chapter, see the links below.

Questions?

Contact Dr. Terah Chambers at terah@msu.edu.

2022 MSU Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Inductees

The 2022 inductees are Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt (History), Monique Noel (Chemistry), and Jaleah Rutledge (Ecological-Community Psychology).

All are Ph.D. candidates at MSU who, in the spirit of Bouchet, exemplify the five core values of the society (character, leadership, advocacy for those traditionally underrepresented in the academy, service, and scholarship).

Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt

History

Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Michigan State University and an Interinstitutional Scholars for Diversity and Inclusion and Research Instructor in the Department of History at East Carolina University. His research is on twentieth century African American history with a focus on the U.S. South, labor, and the Black Freedom Struggle. For his dissertation project, he is exploring the contributions of the Black Workers for Justice to the long Black Freedom Struggle. Extensive archival research and oral history (interviews) are central to his approach. Ajamu is an Assistant Editor with Black Perspectives, the award-winning Blog of the African American Intellectual History Society and board member of the Interreligious Foundation of Community Organizations (IFCO) and the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN). He has served as an intern with the SNCC Digital Gateway Project at Duke University, a “Book Acquisition” student worker at Duke University Press, and an Editorial Assistant for The Journal of African American History, the oldest and leading scholarly journal in its field. In May of 2019, Ajamu graduated from North Carolina Central University with a BA in History and a BA in Political Science.

Monique N. Noel

Chemistry

Monique N. Noel is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry at Michigan State University. Her research is in the area of Computational Chemistry with a focus on Computational Materials Science. She recently published an article in the “Young Investigator Special Issue” of Surface Science (December 2021) in which she and her co-authors “used first principles calculations to study various surface terminations of the Ca5Ga2Sb6 structure as a mechanism to understand its crystal growth morphology.” She has presented at and participated in conferences and symposia related to her field of study. She has also served as served as a teaching assistant and as a mentor and writing coach for undergraduate students in the MSU Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP). Serving her community and “giving back” is important to Monique. She has participated in and worked on a range of initiatives with various organizations, including the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), the MSU Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, and the Lansing Brach of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She is driven by the notion that “there is no limit to what we can accomplish with faith and determination.”

Jaleah Rutledge

Ecological-Community Psychology

Jaleah Rutledge, MA is a PhD candidate in the Ecological-Community Psychology program in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University (MSU). Her research focuses on racial health disparities, health equity, and health promotion among marginalized populations. She is interested in understanding and utilizing strengths-based approaches for the promotion and protection of Black women’s sexual and reproductive health. Her scholarly contributions have been published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence and AIDS and Behavior. Jaleah is a University Enrichment Fellow, and her research has been supported by the Minority Health International Research Training Program sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the Career Advancement for Research in Health Equity (CARE T37) program funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, and the TIAA Ruth Simms Hamilton Graduate Merit Fellowship. Jaleah has been a servant leader at MSU in various capacities. She has served as the graduate student member of the College of Social Science Dean’s Advisory Board on Diversity and Inclusion, a Graduate Leadership Fellow for the College of Social Science, a steering committee member of the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, and a leader in MSU’s Black Graduate Student Association. Jaleah’s long-term goal is to become a professor and develop a program of research that will create a future where Black women are no longer disproportionately affected by adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes.

2021 MSU Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Inductees

The 2021 inductees are Courtney M. Bryant (Organizational Psychology), Briona Simone Jones (English), Ti'Air Riggins (Biomedical Engineering), Chistopher M. Shell (History), and Jennifer Watts (Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology).

Courtney M. Bryant

Organizational Psychology

Courtney M. Bryant is a Ph.D. candidate in Organizational Psychology at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on dimensions of authenticity in the workplace, including minority experiences at work, diversity and discrimination, and coworker relationships. Her dissertation, which has been awarded a Michigan Psychological Association Foundation Dissertation Award and The Benjamin Schneider Scholarship by the Macey Fund, explores the relationship between identity switching (colloquially known as code-switching) and well-being and burnout at work for Black employees. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Courtney has worked on several publications in academic journals such as Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International Journal and The Harvard Business Review. Courtney currently works as an Associate at Ford Motor Company in the Global Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion where she employs data and analytics to guide corporate decision making that creates, maintains, and improves a diverse and inclusive culture of belonging. Courtney has also served in leadership positions at MSU as a College of Social Science Leadership Fellow, one of two graduate students on the Graduate School Strategic Planning Committee, a member of the Steering Committee for the Alliance of Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), and the founder of her her program’s Community Service Committee. Courtney plans to continue personifying the science-practitioner by remaining active in academia while also working in the field with organizations.

Briona Simone Jones

English

Briona Simone Jones is a doctoral candidate and scholar of Black Feminist Thought and Queer Theory in the Department of English at Michigan State University. She is a Black Lesbian Feminist of Jamaican and African American descent, born and raised in Rochester, New York. Briona’s edited collection of Black Lesbian writings titled, Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought, the companion anthology to the most widely sold text about Black Feminism, Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought, was released by The New Press in February 2021. Briona’s record of service to the university and to the profession reflects her commitment to the fields of English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She has served as the Graduate Representative for the English department’s Mentoring Underrepresented Scholars in English (MUSE) program, a College of Arts and Letters funded program directed at recruiting students from marginalized groups who are interested in pursuing a career in the field of English. She also recently served as the Graduate Assistant for Womxn of Color Initiatives (WOCI), a collective that organizes events for womxn of color and their allies on the MSU campus and in the greater Lansing community. The myriad facets of Briona’s academic life (research, teaching, service) are united in the common goal of identifying the socio-literary power structures and hierarchies and calling attention to and centering the authors, works, and identities that have been traditionally—and unjustly—rendered invisible.

Ti’Air Riggins

Biomedical Engineering

Ti’Air Riggins is a Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Michigan State University. She received her bachelors in Biomedical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 2011 as the first Black undergraduate BME student, and proceeded to earn a master’s from the University of Cincinnati in 2013. Beginning her Ph.D. at Purdue, she transferred to Michigan State in January 2019. Her research focus is integrating tissue engineering with implantable electrodes to tune immune response in the brain, in the REIL lab under the direction of Dr. Erin Purcell. She is a co-founder for Black In Neuro, the Academia Chair for the Health Innovations special interest group of the National Society of Black Engineers, a local organizer for Com Sci Con MI, and a member of the speaker’s bureau for the Rape and Incest National Network. She has also served in the community under her platforms of sexual assault awareness and exposing underrepresented students to STEM as Miss Indiana United States 2015. She has received awards for her social justice work (2016) and humanitarian efforts (2018). She was named a fellow in the Society for Neuroscience from 2016 – 2018 and is also a NIH F99/K00 fellowship awardee. Her future goals include managing her own lab and being a successful entrepreneur and mentor for students who are underrepresented students in neuroscience and engineering.

Christopher M. Shell

History

Christopher M. Shell is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Michigan State University. Christopher’s research interests include the modern Caribbean, immigration and migration, labor history, Black theology, and Black socio-political liberation movements during the twentieth century. His dissertation is a political narrative of the impact that Black Leeward Islanders had on radical socio-political organizing in Bermuda and New York City during the interwar period, told through the lens of Antiguan-born Reverend Richard Hilton Tobitt. A recipient of MSU’s University Endowment Fellowship, his research has also been supported by several MSU awards including the Walker Hill International Award and the TIAA Ruth Simms Hamilton Graduate Research Fellowship. He has served as an editorial assistant for the African American Intellectual Historical Society (AAIHS) and The Journal of African American History. Since 2019, he has served as the on-campus advisor for MSU’s Zeta Delta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Community is extremely important to Christopher. He is a member of MSU’s Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA) and Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP). Upon completion of his Ph.D., Christopher looks forward to fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a history professor. In this capacity, he intends to publish his research, teach courses on the African diaspora, and mentor undergraduate and graduate students.

Jennifer Watts

Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology

Jennifer (Jenn) Watts is a Ph.D. candidate in the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology program at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the Zika virus (ZIKV) origins of congenital birth defects. In her efforts to study viral pathology in development, Jenn utilizes mouse embryos, embryonic-derived stem cells, and single-cell functional analysis. She has discovered that ZIKV infected embryos days after fertilization undergo embryo demise, particularly affecting cells that become the baby. These findings are significant to human health providing knowledge on the impact of infections on early pregnancy outcomes. Jenn’s work has resulted in National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD) funding through MSU’s Reproductive and Developmental Sciences Training Program and multiple presentation awards. Jenn is dedicated to outreach and professional development which includes her work with MSU’s Summer Research Opportunities Program, Graduate Women in Science’s Girls Math and Science Day, and the 2019 Alliance for Graduate Education and Professoriate (AGEP) Capitol Hill Trip team. In 2020, Jenn won the faculty-nominated Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award and secured funding for the last year of her studies. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the inaugural AGEP Graduate Student Survival Guide and an inaugural member of the Advancement, Cultivation and Training Future Faculty Program, both of which help upcoming generations of underrepresented trainees navigate graduate education and their future careers. Jenn is passionate about leveraging her achievements to promote inclusivity in the biomedical field, something she plans to continue in the future.

2020 MSU Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Inductees

In April 2019 at the “New Chapter Installation Ceremony” at the 16^th Annual Yale Bouchet Conference on Diversity and Graduate Education, Michigan State University was formally welcomed as an institutional partner into the society. Five exceptional MSU graduate students were nominated and then selected to be in the first cohort of inductees into the university’s chapter of the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.

The 2019 inductees are Carl E. Fields (Physics & Astronomy), Demetrice (Dee) Jordan (Geography, Environment and Spatial Science and Environmental Science and Policy Program), Daniel Puentes (Physics & Astronomy), Connie Rojas (Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior) and John Tran (Plant Biology).

Carl E. Fields

Physics & Astronomy

Carl E. Fields is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Michigan State University. Carl’s research focuses on astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, stellar nucleosynthesis, and multi-dimensional simulations of core collapse supernova explosions and their massive star progenitors. Carl is jointly supported by the National Science Foundation and Los Alamos National Laboratory. During his time at MSU, he has co-authored several scientific publications, two of which he is the first-author for and one that was published in the prestigious journal Reviews of Modern Physics. Carl has also been involved in many outreach activities locally and outside of the university, including the SpaceTime project with The Planetary Society, a program aimed at connecting scientists with classrooms across the country. He is also interested in developing new ways that technology can contribute in significant ways to the development of college-level physics and astronomy curricula. After completing his Ph.D., Carl looks to transition to a postdoctoral position. In this position, he will work on using next generation computational models of stellar explosions to make accurate predictions of multi-messenger signals for ground-based detectors.

Demetrice (Dee) Jordan

Geography, Environment and Spatial Science and Environmental Science and Policy Program

Demetrice (Dee) Jordan is a dual-Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Science and Environmental Science and Policy at Michigan State University. Her dissertation focuses on risk reduction approaches to tsetse and trypanosomiasis control in sub-Saharan Africa. African trypanosomiasis is a vector borne parasitic illness transmitted by the bite of the tsetse fly, effecting both humans and animals. Dee is the founder and current co-leader of the Advancing Geography Through Diversity Program (AGTDP), an innovative program focused on diversifying the graduate program in her department. Dee is the 2020 Association of American Geographers Enhancing Diversity Award winner, becoming the first graduate student to receive this honor. In 2019, she received a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Endowed Scholarship, the Council of Graduate Students Disciplinary Leadership Award, and the E. James Potchen Award for Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year in Geography. In 2018, Dee was named MSU’s Excellence in Diversity Awards Individual Emerging Progress recipient and the Black Faculty, Staff and Administrators Association’s Graduate Student Emerging Leader. Dee is a member of the College of Social Science Dean’s Advisory Board for Diversity and Inclusion. She has also been actively involved in student government at MSU, serving two terms on the Council of Graduate Students from 2015-2017, becoming the first African American woman elected to the organization’s executive board and the first African American to serve as president.

Daniel Puentes

Physics & Astronomy

Daniel Puentes is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University. His research specializes in experimental nuclear physics, and he carries out his research at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL). Daniel is a part of the Low Energy Beam and Ion Trap Group, a group that performs high-precision mass measurements to inform nuclear astrophysics and nuclear structure studies. His research focuses on the mass measurement of ²⁴Si to constrain reaction rates and light curves observed from Type-1 X-ray bursts as well as on the creation of a gas cell with an entrance window that will be responsible for converting molecular ion beams into atomic ion beams. Daniel is also engaged with the community through different local initiatives. He co-hosts a science radio show called “The Sci-Files,” an innovative space where graduate students are interviewed and explain their research agendas to lay audiences. He is also a part of a local city program known as the East Lansing Emerging Leaders Program, an initiative that has allowed him to learn about how the local government operates and how citizens can make a difference within their city. Daniel is a founder and leader of a science communication organization that seeks to connect the public and scientists to show how science plays a role in today’s society. It is his vision to make science more accessible for everyone while understanding how he can use science to inform policies from the local to the federal level.

Connie Rojas

Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior

Connie Rojas is a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior at Michigan State University. Her research is at the intersection of animal behavior, ecology, microbiology, and computationally biology. Specifically, she uses next-generation sequencing to study the functional contributions and benefits of the microbiome (communities of microbes that inhabit animals’ bodies) as well as the potential ecological and social factors that may be impacting these communities. Connie has presented her research widely at national conferences and recently published an article in Oxford’s FEMS Microbiology Ecology. Connie is currently working on a refreshing teaching-as-research project in a microbial genomics course that investigates how the utilization of interactive web apps can assist undergraduate student learning, particularly regarding key concepts and statistics. Connie is a member of the steering committee for MSU’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) and serves as president of her program’s graduate student organization. She has assisted with the organizing of their annual conferences/symposia and professional development activities. Connie is passionate about mentoring youth, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds in the academy. For instance, she taught high school students in MSU’s Upward Bound Summer Program, and helped undergraduate students develop their poster and oral presentations for MSU’s Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). Her ultimate goal is to become a professor of Biology and conduct quality research as well as teach and mentor undergraduates. As a first-generation student from an immigrant and low-income background, she hopes to be a resource to many students in the academy.

John Tran

Plant Biology

John Tran is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University. His project aims to improve plant biofuel technologies by genetically reducing the cell wall structural integrity of plant biomass that is difficult to digest during industrial processing. He has identified a transport protein likely involved in delivering monolignols for building the lignin polymer, which is responsible for rigidifying the plant cell wall. An Arabidopsis mutant in this gene showed substantially reduced lignin content. Findings from his research will provide insights to regulate either the amount or composition of lignin in Poplar and other biofuel crops. John advocates for greater representation of research from Asian American graduate students. He is a founder and served as president of APAGA, the Asian Pacific American Graduate Alliance. He also worked to support multicultural graduate student programming efforts as a steering committee member for AGEP, the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, and led as Editor for its science bulletin. He mentors undergraduate student research assistants in his lab, an experience he views as valuable for integrating research experiences into the undergraduate biology curriculum, and thus helping students broaden their ideas for career opportunities in STEM. He has been selected to participate in several teaching and learning professional development opportunities at MSU, such as the Data Visualization Institute and the Future Academic Scholars in Teaching (FAST) Fellowship Program. A fellow for the Spartan Innovation Venture Fellowship program, he aspires to become a faculty entrepreneur.

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