Meet the Fellows
Writing Fellows are a select group of graduate students recommended by their departments for their demonstrated mastery of writing in their disciplines and their aptitude for peer review. Oral Communication Fellows are all advanced graduate students from the Communication Department. In ongoing training with the CWOC Director, fellows develop an understanding of writing and oral communication in the disciplines and theories of peer support, among other topics.
Linda Macri, Ph.D. (Director)
Dr. Linda Macri is the Director of Academic and Professional Development in The Graduate School and has directed the Center since 2014. From 2005-2013, she served as the director of the Academic Writing Program in the English Department. Her research about graduate writing focuses on supporting student wellbeing in tandem with supporting their writing, and she is currently the co-chair of the Consortium on Graduate Communication. According to Dr. Macri, directing the Center is "the best job on campus because everyday I get to learn about the amazing research that our passionate, committed graduate students are engaged in."
Anuoluwapo Adesina (Communication)
Anuoluwapo is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication. Her research centers on crisis and risk communication, strategic communication, and health communication. She is particularly interested in how organizations craft effective communication strategies during natural disasters and public health emergencies. Anu holds a B.A. in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan. Outside academia, she is actively involved in her church community and passionate about mentoring others to become the best versions of themselves.
Michael Bonthron (Mechanical Engineering)
Michael Bonthron is a doctoral candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, where he researches reconfigurable structures that can adapt their mechanical properties. He has authored numerous research proposals, publications, and presentations in the field, and his work has been recognized with the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Research Fellowship, the ASME Henry Hess Early Career Publication Award for best technical paper by an early-career author, and a University of Maryland Three Minute Thesis competition award. Before moving to the East Coast, Michael studied in Chicago, earning a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and a master's degree in Applied Mathematics from DePaul University. Outside the lab, he enjoys playing basketball, bird watching, and card games.
Chia-Shuan Chang (Behavioral & Community Health)
Chia-Shuan, a second-year Ph.D. student in Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland, is currently a Teaching Assistant and actively engaged in multiple independent research studies. Her research primarily focuses on adolescents' and young adults' mental health and sleep behavior. Her research has been published in journals such as Sleep and European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Shuan holds a Master of Science in Health Behaviors and Community Sciences from National Taiwan University, where she received the School of Public Health Master’s Thesis Excellent Award, along with multiple scholarships and awards for her academic excellence and research presentations. Outside of her academic responsibilities, Shuan is passionate about dance. She loves to dance during her leisure time and teaches dance fit classes at the gym during the summer and winter, combining her love for physical activity with community engagement.
Lisa Danaczko (Community Planning)
Lisa R. Danaczko is a Master of Community Planning degree candidate in the University of Maryland’s (UMD) School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Having spent over 15 years managing nonprofit external affairs strategy and facilitating communications workshops throughout the Mid-Atlantic, Lisa is a community builder and storyteller at her core. Her current research examines how civic infrastructure fosters belonging and social capital for youth and families to thrive. With a Master of Arts in Writing from the Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Creative Writing from Columbia University, she has provided editorial and peer review support for academic and creative publications, including UMD’s TerraPlan Journal. Her experience communicating to policymakers, community leaders, funders, and the general public has made her a skilled translator of data into calls to action. When she is not rallying her network to attend community arts events or volunteering for her favorite animal welfare organization, Lisa is writing fiction (currently a psychological thriller) at a public market in her Baltimore neighborhood.
Funmilola Fadairo (English)
Funmilola Fadairo is a Ph.D. student in the Department of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she specializes in the Language, Writing, and Rhetoric track. Her research explores the intersection of culture, technology, and public memory, with a commitment to amplifying African voices and perspectives within digital conversations. She is a Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Fellow, a former recipient of the Arts for All Graduate Student Research Grant and AADHum Microgrant, and a research assistant for the Maryland Study of Writing on GenAI, Language Diversity, and Student Writing. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a professional writer for software companies across the blockchain, AI, B2B, and eCommerce industries. Outside academia, Funmi enjoys taking photographs, singing, spending time with friends, traveling to perhaps too many places, and being part of her church community.
Chelsea Fowler (MEES)
Chelsea is a Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES). Her research focuses on the effects of common environmental stressors on juvenile oysters in order to develop tactics to increase stress resiliency in oyster aquaculture. Chelsea has pursued many opportunities to build community, help others, and perpetuate science-driven problem solving since her undergraduate days and has a passion for effective communication. She received her BS from the University of Tampa in 2016 and her MS from UMCES in 2023. You can learn more about Chelsea's past experiences from her website: chelseafowler.com. She looks forward to working with graduate student writers, helping to build effective communicators in all disciplines.
Shriyam Gupta (Sociology)
Shriyam Gupta is a Ph.D. student of sociology and demography focused on documenting inequalities in areas of education, family and development; and geographically in South and Southeast Asia. His work aims to highlight hidden symmetries through which social structures, particularly class and caste, maintain, perpetuate and legitimize inequalities in the contemporary world. His ongoing work is divided across two strands. First, he is studying the emerging middle class of the developing world in the context of socio-economic uncertainty. The second strand is focused at what House (2019) calls "policy sociology", and is aimed at responding to contemporary policy questions in the developing contexts. Prior to starting his Ph.D., he brought such a perspective to close to a decade of work in the area of policy and development. His previous degrees are in B.A (Hons.) History, and Master of Economics in China Studies from India and China, respectively.
Valerie M. J. Hall (Anthropology)
Valerie is a Ph.D. student in Anthropology. Her research interests include exploring human- animal relationships, engendered tasks, and landscape change in the Chesapeake region through analysis of archaeofaunal remains and other proxy data. She is specifically interested in the use of stable isotope analysis and geometric morphometrics as tools to elucidate cultural and environmental shifts. She is a 1997 graduate of the Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Education and taught at the elementary level before becoming interested in archaeology. She received her MA in Anthropology and Archaeology from Illinois State University in 2012. Valerie serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Historical Archaeology and enjoys doing some freelance copyediting. She is a voracious reader of all genres. Recently, she has been experimenting with using historically/archaeologically-informed creative writing as another avenue to interrogate and refine her research.
Kristen Hickey (Anthropology)
Kristen Hickey is a Ph.D. student in the Anthropology Department. She specializes in historical zooarchaeology, using the study of animal bones to understand human-animal relationships and diet in the past. Her research currently focuses on multispecies narratives, foodways, and animal husbandry in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia. She also delights in finding new ways to incorporate creative methods into research and science communication. When not swimming in spreadsheets and bone fragments, she enjoys writing speculative fiction, thrifting obscure physical media, and bird-watching with her cats.
Anand Idris (Computer Science)
Anand Idris is a third year Ph..D student in Computer Science. His research is in Computational Imaging: developing computational algorithms that complement state-of-the-art optical hardware. He is a current National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) recipient, McNair Fellow, and former Fulbright Scholar to Taiwan. Anand earned a BS in Optics from the University of Rochester in 2023, where he was a TRIO Upward Bound mentor. He's from Queens, New York, and is a big proponent of better public and intracity transit in the United States, but is unfortunately limited to just taking the Amtrak down the Northeast Corridor (DC to Boston) whenever he goes back home. He is a big fan of running, having run three marathons and hoping to make his fourth soon enough.
Sam Mitterhoff (Agriculture and Natural Resource Economics)
Sam Mitterhoff is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resource Economics. His research lies at the intersection between environmental and behavioral economics, employing lab experimental settings to investigate systematic biases in decision-making and their impacts on environmental and individual belief outcomes. Prior to UMD, he earned an MS in Energy Policy from Johns Hopkins and a BS in Economics from Tulane University.
Tania Nachrin (Communication)
Tania Nachrin is a doctoral candidate in Communication at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on how communication shapes peoples' health experiences. She focuses particularly on marginalized communities whose health concerns often receive limited recognition. Before coming to the United States, she worked with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, an experience that continues to inform her research. In her free time, she enjoys spending time in nature.
Hayley Park (Information Studies)
Hayley Park is a Ph.D. student whose research focuses on the intersection of immigrant information experiences, PD/PAR methodologies, and the potential of technology in the rapidly changing LIS landscape. As a former library worker in diverse information settings, Hayley’s librarian-researcher praxis reflects a social justice-centered approach, focusing on examining and disrupting the conditions under which structural inequities are created, maintained, and reinforced, with attention to the multilayered costs of labor on workers and marginalized community members.
Sarah Perry (Neuroscience and Cognitive Science)
Sarah Perry is a third-year doctoral candidate in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) program at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studies how the insula, a “hidden island” in the brain, contributes to decision-making and psychiatric vulnerability across populations and developmental periods. Sarah is particularly interested in the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience, including the intersection of genes and behavior, and in understanding human behavior from the mundane to the pathological. She is also passionate about science communication and making scientific research more accessible to the broader public, an interest strengthened through her recent adventures in pop-science writing at ScientistsHub. When not in the lab or furrowing her brow over her computer, Sarah can be found exploring new restaurants in DC, watching reality TV, or taking comedy classes in hopes of one day amusing the undergraduate research assistants in her lab (unfortunately, she has been unsuccessful thus far).
Elizabeth A. Pineo (Information Studies)
Elizabeth Pineo (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Information at the University of Maryland, College Park, where her research explores the intersections of disability, music, and archives. In particular, she is interested in the accessibility of music archival materials and websites for Disabled users and representations of Disabled individuals within music collections. Elizabeth holds an MLIS, also from the University of Maryland, and a BA in Music from Dickinson College. In addition to her academic pursuits, she is a classically trained pianist and an Associate Editor for Including Disability. For more information about her, visit elizabethpineo.com.
Niko Reed (Physics)
Niko is a sixth year Physics Ph.D. candidate studying quantum technology in an interdisciplinary group that spans the intersection of physics and engineering. Their research focuses on characterizing defects in semiconductors for use as quantum sensors and single photon sources. They are a Joint Quantum Institute Graduate Fellow and a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Before enrolling at UMD, Niko completed a bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics with a Spanish minor at the University of Delaware. Outside of work, Niko enjoys reading books of all kinds and tending to their houseplant collection.
Patrick Mark Saunders (Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies)
Patrick is a doctoral student in theatre and performance studies. His research interests and artistry center around adaptations of literature for performance. He is particularly invested in representations of queerness within such adapted works, and the role nostalgia plays in revisiting (and reimagining) these familiar stories for the stage. Patrick holds a B.A. in theatre arts and English from Providence College and an M.F.A. in acting from the University of Essex (East 15 Acting School). While in London, he also completed an educational residency at Shakespeare’s Globe. Patrick has served as an acting instructor and guest director at Providence College and the University of Rhode Island, in addition to his work as an actor, director, and dramaturg. For more information, visit pmsaunders.com.
Nina Versenyi (American Studies)
Nina is a Ph.D. student in American Studies. Her research focuses on spatial/temporal justice, the built environment, memory studies, and material and visual culture. Specifically, she examines how memory, time, and material objects are mobilized as a strategy of possession in ongoing processes of U.S. settler colonialism and empire. Prior to coming to UMD, Nina earned her M.A. in Museum and Exhibition Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago and her B.A. in Spanish and Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nina has an insatiable sweet tooth and enjoys testing cookie recipes in her spare time.
Milla Wu (American Studies)
Milla Jingtong Wu (any pronouns) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of American Studies. She holds B.A.s in Black Studies and English from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Previously, she was also the academic advisor for the Black Studies department at UCSB. Her research examines the relationship between global capital flows (particularly so-called “Asian” or “Chinese” capital), urban development, and Asian racialization in the U.S. In her spare time, Milla volunteers at HIPS, a harm reduction agency in DC.