The Vanderbilt Graduate Student Council has announced the winners of its inaugural Graduate Leadership Anchor Awards. The awards were designed by the Graduate Student Council to identify and honor the hard work and leadership of graduate students at Vanderbilt.

The Graduate Leadership Anchor Awards recognize graduate student leaders on a school-wide level and include focuses beyond solely academic research. This year’s awards focused on graduate student leaders who have served as “anchors” and helped the Vanderbilt graduate community weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 recipients are as follows:

• Kelsea Best – Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Francis Cambronero – Neuroscience
• Thao Le – Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
• Katy Riojas – Mechanical Engineering
• Kavya Sharman – Chemical and Physical Biology

The inaugural recipients were selected from a pool of nearly 40 nominees.

This year’s nominees were evaluated by a panel of seven judges: Terrah Akard (Nursing), Dominique Béhague (Medicine, Health and Society), Katherine Friedman (Biological Sciences), Carlos Lopez (Biochemistry), Bianca Manago (Sociology), Stacey Satchell (Academic Life Coach) and Irene Wallrich (Graduate Leadership Institute).

In future years, the awards will expand to include other categories to further recognize student leaders.