2005 Kathy Alberti Award Winner

Dr. Roxane (Roxy) Silver was nominated by nearly two dozen graduate students from the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior. Students quickly and enthusiastically stepped up to support Roxy’s nomination because Roxy always steps up for students, both graduate and undergraduate. Dr. Silver invests time and energy in creating excellent academics that enrich the psychological community and infuse new ideas into the field. Every student in Psychology and Social Behavior has benefited from her hard work. Regardless of her very full calendar of university obligations, her active and strong research lab, and an abundance of off-campus obligations, she is committed to advising and counseling students, even those whom she is not directly mentoring. Her door is always open to discuss school questions and concerns, research topics, and even personal issues. She is an excellent teacher, and many of her courses are geared towards helping graduate students prepare for their careers. Roxy is an integral and fundamental part of the graduate program in Psychology and Social Behavior. She places herself on the front lines for students, making it her responsibility to promote their interests in the university system and the psychology community at large. She improves the visibility and employability of students by promoting the department in the international psychological community. When students begin their search for a job, Roxy is involved. She informs students of any relevant opportunities and contacts colleagues to discuss candidates for their positions. In addition to this, Roxy has long been committed to securing funding for students. She was instrumental in securing a large National Institute of Mental Health training grant that currently supports three graduate students and two postdoctoral fellows for several years. She also has successfully obtained individual grants from federal and private agencies, most recently from the National Science Foundation, and has assisted students in applying and winning prestigious NSF, NRSA, and other fellowships. We students know we can count on Dr. Roxy Silver to help us get whatever we need (even a sharp word, when appropriate, followed quickly by encouragement) to achieve excellence in our graduate program prior to stepping confidently into our careers.

Marnie Brow

2005 Debbie Davis Award Winner

Hannah's efforts in advocating for Graduate and Professional Students in this past year have been nothing short of commendable. She has endured a long year of commitments on behalf AGS's constituency and has steadfastly both reached out to the campus community and stood up to make sure that its voice was heard. She has also demonstrated keen leadership skills in bringing the School of Ecology closer to AGS.

Fabio Leite

Hannah works tirelessly for the cause of students.  In addition to her organizing for AGS she has played a large role in the department of EHSP over at least the past two years.  This is especially important because the department has been going through a very trying time this year politically within the School of Social Ecology. Oftentimes some of the small things, like getting dept. T-Shirts have been steps to buidling morale.

It doesn't stop there.  She has also organized social events in addition to being involved in much of the political issues.

Since she has moved to AGS I see that she is applying the same commitment to her work, always working to get students informed and involved.  I often wonder how she has so much time, but I also know that she is a great student who is committed to making the most of her UCI experience for others as well as herself.  This past fall she was very persistent in getting TA's in our dept. to get students  to register to vote. She truly faciliated the process.  I was able to register a number of students from the class I TA'd.  And, I really felt like I was part of a broader effort.  It was great.  For these reasons, I nominate Hannah.

Toby Warden

Other Debbie Davis Nominations

Travis worked extraordinarily hard line up speakers for the Planning Department speaker series. He made phone calls, set it up, organized the food, etc.  It took hours of outside school time to organize it all. Travis has also worked hard for the Planning Students Organization and planning events. He is truly a nice guy who really cares about the program and all of his fellow students. He has worked hard to form bond between everyone within the 2006 class and always goes out of his way to assist any student with whatever they need.

Sidney Stone

Travis has worked hard this year putting together our department’s guest speaker series.  He put in many hours outside of school to call well-known professionals to ask if they would come and speak to us.  It took many hours of calling, organizing the room and food, and setting up for their presentations.  In addition to the speaker series work, Travis is the “social chair” of the Planning Student Organization.  He has been responsible for organizing many activities for all of us.  It’s hard to put into words what Travis has been to all of us “first year” PPD students.  He goes out of his way to keep us all bonded with one another.  Also, he always makes sure that EVERYONE is included in whatever he’s planning—he never excludes anyone (as we know sometimes us grad students get “clique-y”).  Travis Seawards really deserves this award!

Lesley Whittaker