Undergraduate Research Advisory Board

The Undergraduate Research Advisory Board was created to support, assess, and improve the undergraduate research program at USU. From the beginning, in the fall of 2007, discussions focused on removing impediments to student access and launching new efforts to enhance the program.

The Board is made up of faculty selected from the Undergraduate Research Mentors of the Year for each college from the preceding academic year, representatives of student-serving units throughout campus, and the Undergraduate Research Fellow Ambassadors. This combination of faculty, staff and students allows for diversity of perspective as the Board guides the Office of Research.

The faculty representatives of the Board are also responsible for selecting the USU Undergraduate Researcher of the Year, and the faculty and student Board members select the USU Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year. Each college winner of these awards is considered for the university-wide prize.

Anyone is free to contact members of the board and ask that items be brought to a board meeting. Alternately, agenda items can be submitted to the Office of Research via email to athena.dupont@usu.edu.

Faculty Representatives

Ryan Berke, College of Engineering
ryan.berke@usu.edu

Austin Knuppe, College of Humanities & Social Science
Austin.knuppe@usu.edu

Mirella Meyer-Ficca, College of Agriculture & Applied Sciences
mirella.meyer@usu.edu

Nick Dickenson, College of Science
nick.dickenson@usu.edu

Tim Walsworth, S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
timothy.walsworth@usu.edu

Marissa Vigneault, Caine College of the Arts
marissa.vigneault@usu.edu

Crissa Draper, Emma Eccles Jones College of Education & Human Services
crissa.draper@usu.edu

Jared Hansen, Jon M. Huntsman School of Business
jared@usu.edu

Program Representatives

Becky Thoms, Libraries
becky.thoms@usu.edu

Kate Stephens, Center for Community Engagement
kate.stephens@usu.edu

Kristine Miller, Honors Program
kristine.miller@usu.edu

Monika Galvydis, Office of Global Engagement
monika.galvydis@usu.edu

Sarah Timmerman, Inclusion Center
sarah.timmerman@usu.edu

Student Representatives

Marissa Davis

Sophia Hessami

Radeyah Kaplan

Abi Meek

Carter Ottley

Lucy Peterson


Thank You

We appreciate the dedication of the Undergraduate Research Advisory Board in helping to strengthen our student programs, develop new initiatives, and further our goals of access and inclusion for undergraduates at USU.

Benefits for representatives on the advisory board may include membership due coverage for the Council of Undergraduate Research (CUR), matching funding for travel to CUR’s events (e.g., biennial conference, Posters on the Hill, institutes) or the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), and priority access to the RGS Student Research Travel fund for student representatives.