UNMC achievements, Sept. 27, 2024

UNMC student awarded predoctoral fellowship

Natalia Santos, a UNMC College of Public Health PhD candidate, received the 2024 USDA-NIFA Predoctoral Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to promising scholars who demonstrate potential to address critical challenges in the agricultural and food sciences sectors.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the support system at COPH and beyond that believed in my food insecurity research and encouraged me to keep trying,” Santos said. “The USDA’s decision to award me this grant is validation that rural food security and health equity are critical issues that deserve continued attention and investment.”

The USDA-NIFA Predoctoral Fellowship supports the development of new scientists and professionals in research, education and extension within food and agricultural sciences. It emphasizes the cultivation of future leaders who will contribute to sustainable agricultural intensification, agricultural climate adaptation, food and nutrition translation, value-added innovation and agricultural science policy leadership.

Santos, a fourth-year PhD student in health promotion, has been working on food access issues for more than a decade. Her research focuses on innovative methods to identify areas and populations vulnerable to food insecurity.

UNMC postdoc named IMPACT fellow

The National Postdoctoral Association in August announced that UNMC’s Hager Kowash, PhD, was among six scholars nationally accepted into the 2024-25 class for the organization’s IMPACT Fellowship Program.

The 16-month program empowers postdoctoral scholars from underrepresented backgrounds to build skills, understand strengths and develop networks, according to the National Postdoctoral Association.

“We are thrilled to welcome this new cohort of remarkable individuals who are not only striving to reach their full potential but committed to lift up one another along the way,” Thomas Kimbis, JD, executive director and chief executive officer of the NPA, said in an announcement. “By strengthening themselves through the IMPACT Fellowship, they position themselves as leaders within their fields, their communities, and society.”