Spring 2026 Graduate Award Winners

Published May 01, 2026

The University of Wyoming’s School of Graduate Education and Graduate Council have announced the 2026 recipients of the graduate student and mentor awards, recognizing outstanding achievements in teaching, research, and mentorship.

Image of award winner photos.

The 2026 recipients of the Graduate Student and Mentor Awards! 

Top Row: Cindy Eke, Faith Breads, Joseph Saufley, Megan Lee, and Olivia Grella. 

Bottom Row: Jaylan Aliev, McKenna Litynski, Miriam Sanders, Lauren Shoemaker, and Qin Zhu

The John P. Ellbogen Outstanding Graduate Assistant Teaching Awards honor graduate teaching assistants who demonstrate exceptional dedication and excellence in the classroom. The Outstanding Master’s Thesis Awardrecognizes a graduate student whose thesis reflects exemplary scholarship, while the Outstanding Dissertation Awardhonors a doctoral student for distinguished dissertation research.

 

In addition, the Early Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award and Mid-Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Awardrecognize faculty members who have shown a strong commitment to mentoring graduate students. The Early Career award is presented to a faculty member with fewer than six years of academic service at the University of Wyoming, while the Mid-Career award recognizes faculty with six to ten years of academic experience at UW.

The 2026 award recipients are:

 

John P. Ellbogen Outstanding Graduate Assistant Teaching Award

  • Cindy Eke, Department of Communication and Journalism 
  • Faith Breads, Department of English 
  • Joseph Saufley, Department of English 
  • Megan Lee, Department of Kinesiology and Health 
  • Olivia Grella, Department of Psychology  

Outstanding Master’s Thesis

 

  • Jaylan Aliev, Department of Psychology
  • Thesis: The Influence of Victim Physical Maturity and Victim-Defendant Age Congruency on Mock Juror Decision-Making in Child Sexual Abuse Trails 

Outstanding Dissertation

  • Dr. McKenna Litynski, Department of Anthropology.
  • Dissertation: Unraveling Threads of the Past: Evaluating Cultural, Functional, and Environmental Factors Influencing the Production and Use of Bone Needles and Awls

Early Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award

  • Dr. Miriam Sanders, School of Teacher Education 

Mid-Career Graduate Faculty Mentor Award

  • Dr. Lauren Shoemaker, College of Agriculture, Life Sciences, and Natural Resources 

Distinguished Graduate Faculty Mentor Award

  • Dr. Qin Zhu, Department of Kinesiology and Health