Presidential Fellows 2023-2024

Advisor: Jess Kropczynski, PhD

Lily Edinam Botsyoe is a Ph.D. student in Information Technology, part of UC’s Presidential Fellowship Program, and former Adjunct Instructor. She researches the deployment of technology in service of public needs and is an ardent contributor to technology communities working widely on issues relating to the internet with a particular interest in Women and Youth Inclusion, Accessibility, Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Digital Sustainability. As a believer in the power of technology to accelerate development, her work focuses on human-centered approaches to building technology that ignites real impact for users. Lily grounds her strategies in the principles of digital inclusion and solutions focused on sustainability.

In her research assistantship, Lily collaborated with the Avondale Development Corporation and Uptown Consortium, Inc. to host digital skill training workshops with residents of the Avondale Neighborhood. According to the 2020 Census, 92 percent of Avondale residents are African American, and more than 40 percent are living at or below the poverty level. The workshops that Lily lead targeted three populations; school-aged-youth, adults, and seniors. The workshops used a train-the-trainer model wherein participants of each workshop are invited back to be paid facilitators in the following workshop. Lily worked with a team of students to perform a thematic analysis of digital inclusion strategies shared by 16 cities across the US. This analysis was later developed into a publication, was included in a report shared with community partners, and was the basis for the project that Lily was a part of, which was funded by PNC Bank. During her time on this project, Lily identified a subset of policies related to the reuse of hardware through e-waste programs that she has extended into her thesis topic.

Advisors: Ardythe Morrow, PhD, MSc and Kelly Brunst, PhD

Hatice Cetinkaya is a PhD student in Epidemiology in the Department of Environmental & Public Health Sciences (DEPHS) in the College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati. She is also a Presidential Fellow at the University of Cincinnati Graduate College. Hatice holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Izmir Katip Celebi University, Izmir, Turkey. After she received her master’s degree in nutrition from the University of Cincinnati, she worked as a research associate in the Department of Environmental & Public Health Sciences in the Human Milk and Novel Therapeutics Lab (Ardythe Morrow, Principal Investigator), and an adjunct instructor for the Research Methods in Health Sciences course at the College of Allied Health Sciences.

Her research focuses on studying the effects of maternal and environmental factors on health outcomes of the infant. Since early nutrition, as a modifiable factor, has short- and long-term impacts on the offspring, she is particularly interested in human milk. Aside from being the gold standard feeding method for infants, human milk has a functional role; therefore, she is interested in investigating the associations between maternal characteristics and milk components with system biology approach. She aims to pursue a career in academia as a molecular epidemiologist focused on maternal and child health.

Advisor: Rebecca Lindenberg, PhD

David LeGault is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing in the Department of English at the University of Cincinnati. He has an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Minnesota, as well as a B.F.A. in Writing and English from Grand Valley State University. He is the author of One Million Maniacs: a collection of essays looking at the power of collecting and collections in our society. His writing has appeared in numerous anthologies, journals, and literary publications, as well as appearing frequently in the Notables list of Best American Essays.

David’s research interests include looking at the ways we can use storytelling, games, and digital media to build community engagement and pursue social justice. He is also interested in developing opportunities for multicultural engagement through creative writing workshops, literary salons, and game development.

Advisors: Claudia Rebola, PhD and Rainer Vom Hofe, PhD

Henry Levesque is a PhD student in Regional Development Planning at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) where he is also a Presidential Fellow at the University of Cincinnati Graduate College. Henry has a background in Design, with a Bachelor of Science in Comprehensive Design from Indiana University and a Masters of Design from the University of Cincinnati. His research focuses on social impact design, equity, accessibility, and sustainability. His current research is on the future of smart cities. He works as a graduate assistant in the University of Cincinnati Digital Futures, Future Mobility Design Lab, and at the University of Cincinnati Center for DAAP Innovation and Research as well as working as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. His long term goal is to work in education.

Advisors: Ben Feldmeyer, PhD and Christina Campbell, PhD

Aaron Mallory is a first year PhD candidate in the School of Criminal Justice. Aaron is a native of Chiago, IL. Aaron obtained his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a Masters's in Social Work from the University of Chicago. Aaron is also a licensed clinical social worker under the state of Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan regulatory board. Aaron has spent the past 10 year working with community mental health organization, addressing mental health challenges that African American males deal with.  Aaron’s research interest focuses on factors that lead to inner city gun violence, and the implementation of programs to combat inner city gun violence. 

Advisor: Vanessa Carbonell, PhD

Damilola Victoria Oduola is a PhD student at the Department of Philosophy. She is also a presidential fellow at the University of Cincinnati Graduate College. Damilola hails from Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria and holds a bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where she graduated Summa cum Laude. Her research interests include bioethics, migration ethics and development studies. More specifically, she is interested in bioethical issues such as the ethics of pandemic planning, the ethics of vaccination, health workers’ migration and health systems in Africa.

Her research focuses on the effects of health workers’ migration on health systems in Africa, the position of health systems, health administration and health workers in the narrative of pandemic planning, the effects and conditions for voluntary and mandatory vaccination and ethical issues in health administration. Her long-term goal is to conduct research in bioethics and teach philosophy as a professor of philosophy. In addition, she aims to provide ethics consultations for ethics committees and programs across tertiary institutions in Africa and abroad and as well help draft institutional policies on ethical issues in biomedical research.