Noteworthy
"Noteworthy" is a monthly compilation of important awards, achievements and grants received by Columbian College faculty, students and alumni. Articles published in academic journals are also included among these recognitions.
Recent Recognition
The GW National Student Speech Language Hearing Association earned the Gold Award from the national parent organization for the fifth year in a row.
Postdoctoral Scientist Niguss Baraki (Anthropology) received a $17,050 grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to study capacity building for sustainable management of paleoanthropological sites in Ethiopia.
Tiffany Bisbey (Organizational Sciences and Communication) published an article in Sage Journals titled “Towards Understanding How Teams Overcome Setbacks: a Longitudinal Study on the Emergence and Impact of Team Resilience.”
David Braun (Anthropology) received a $14,160 grant from the Leakey Foundation to study the evolution of cumulative culture across a 3 million year perspective of social learning.
Leah Brooks (Public Policy and Public Administration) spoke at the inaugural symposium for the Stuart Handler Department of Real Estate, University of Illinois Chicago.
Brendan Drake (Dance) is the inaugural winner of the DC Dance Network Choreographer Commission.
Junior Isabella Franco (Geography, Criminal Justice) presented her Luther Rice Undergraduate Fellowship research paper “Ni de aquí ni de allá: The Case for A Modern Bracero Program” at the Race, Ethnicity and Place Conference in Albuquerque, N.M.
Michael LaForest-Tucker (Public Policy and Public Administration) received a $97,303 grant from Arnold Ventures LLC to study the heterogeneous effects of prison programs.
Rachel Metz (Political Science) received a $189,922 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study what motivates partners to grant contingency access and how security cooperation can secure access.
Stephen Mitroff (Psychological and Brain Sciences) received a $277,456 grant from the U.S. Army to study a scalable and adaptive multi-agent framework for human-AI teaming across hierarchies and time horizons.
Senior Olivia Nippe-Jeakins (Physics) received the Universities Space Research Association Distinguished Undergraduate Award.
David Silverman (History) authored the book The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026).
Heather Stebbins (Music) performed a solo set at Rhizome DC.
Senior photojournalism major Jordan Tovin was named the College Photographer of the Year at the 80th College Photographer of the Year competition. He also earned a Gold Award in Documentary Photographic Project and was a finalist in both the Spot News and Feature categories. Other photojournalism honorees included Sage Russel, BA ’25, (Gold, Interpretive Story); graduate student Luke Johnson (finalist, Domestic Picture Story); and seniors Arwen Clemans (finalist, Sports Action and Domestic Picture Story), Allison Robbert (finalist, Portrait) and Taytum Wymer (finalist, General News).
Alexander van der Horst (Physics) received a $25,000 grant from the Glenn W. Bailey Foundation to study how to build bridges through a comprehensive research experience.