UNMC students named Presidential Graduate Fellows

Two UNMC students were among six recipients of 2019-20 Presidential Graduate Fellowships, which were announced by University of Nebraska Interim President Susan Fritz, Ph.D., on Thursday.

The prestigious fellowships are awarded to a select group of NU graduate students each year on the basis of high academic performance and personal accomplishment. Fellows receive an annual stipend made available through the University of Nebraska Foundation that allows them to pursue their studies full time.

“Our Presidential Graduate Fellows are among the best students at the University of Nebraska,” Dr. Fritz said. “They are accomplished scholars, inspiring mentors and outstanding representatives of their campuses — exactly the kind of young people who will lead our state forward. We are grateful for the private support that allows these talented students to devote themselves fully to their studies.”

UNMC’s 2019 Presidential Graduate Fellows are:

Megan Perry, of West Point, Neb., a Ph.D. student in genetics, cell biology and anatomy.

Perry is already an experienced anatomy teacher at the undergraduate and graduate level, most recently in the neuroanatomy lab at UNMC. She has been a research assistant at Doane College, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in biology, and at UNMC, where she completed a master’s degree in medical anatomy. In her Ph.D. program, she is in a teaching track in medical anatomical sciences education. As a researcher, Perry is focused on DNA protein crosslink repair. Crosslinks are lesions that can disrupt DNA metabolic function and lead to genome instability and mutations. Her research explores a key repair enzyme that could play a role in cancer therapies.

Rashelle Hoffman, D.P.T., of Holdrege, Neb., a Ph.D. student in medical sciences at the Munroe-Meyer Institute.

After completing a bachelor’s degree in exercise science at the University of Sioux Falls and a doctor of physical therapy degree at UNMC, Dr. Hoffman is now pursuing her Ph.D. in rehabilitation science at UNMC, where she hopes to graduate next year. Her studies have taken her to the Munroe-Meyer Institute at UNMC, where she has been engaged with data collection and data analysis for a variety of research studies. She also serves as a geriatric physical therapist in skilled nursing, outpatient and long-term care settings and mentors physical therapy residents in a Creighton University residency program where she completed her residency. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dr. Hoffman also has several peer-reviewed published manuscripts.

See information on all the 2019 Presidential Graduate Fellows here.