UW School of Graduate Education, Graduate Council Name 2026 Graduate Award Recipients

The University of Wyoming School of Graduate Education and Graduate Council have selected the 2026 winners of graduate student and mentor awards for outstanding teaching and research.

The 2026 award winners, by category, are:

-- The John P. Ellbogen Outstanding Graduate Assistant Teaching Awards go to graduate teaching assistants to honor their excellence in teaching. Winners, listed by hometown, are:

Watertown, Conn. -- Olivia Grella, Department of Psychology.

Greater Accra, Ghana -- Cindy Eke, Department of Communication and Journalism.

Waldorf, Md. -- Faith Breads, Department of English.

Baton Rouge, La. -- Megan Lee, Department of Kinesiology and Health.

Hershey, Pa. -- Joseph Saufley, Department of English.

-- Jaylan Aliev, a graduate student from Boise, Idaho, in the Department of Psychology, won the Outstanding Master's Thesis Award, which recognizes a graduate student for an exemplary master's thesis. Aliev's master's thesis is titled "The influence of victim physical maturity and victim-defendant age congruency on mock juror decision-making in child sex abuse trials."

-- McKenna Litynski, a recent Ph.D. graduate student from Hollywood, Md., in the Department of Anthropology, won the Outstanding Dissertation Award, which is granted to a graduate student for an exemplary doctoral dissertation. Litynski's dissertation is titled "Unraveling threads of the past: Evaluating cultural, functional and environmental factors influencing the production and use of bone needles and awls."

-- Miriam Sanders, an assistant professor in the School of Teacher Education, won the Early Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. This honor is bestowed upon a faculty member with less than six years of academic career experience at the university.

-- Lauren Shoemaker, an assistant professor in the Department of Botany, is the winner of the Mid-Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. This award is given to a faculty member with six to 10 years of academic career experience at UW.

-- Qin "Arthur" Zhu, director and professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health, is the winner of the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Mentor Award. This honor is presented to a faculty member with more than 10 years of academic career experience at UW.

The faculty mentor awards are presented to faculty members for their commitment to mentoring graduate students.