About the Fellows

Keagan Egbert

Botany

Keagan Egbert joined the Research Fellows Program as a Freshman in Fall of 2022. She is currently getting her bachelors in Botany with a minor in Geospatial Studies. Keagan is interested in Forestry and Environmental Ecology. She will be assisting Dr. Kerri Mocko in her research to understand gas exchange and water transportation in different plants. Keagan is interested in understanding how certain microorganisms interact with aquatic and land plants. She hopes to work with the forest service in the future and do field research. Her research interests come from a love of the outdoors and learning about the world around us.

Ivy Hughes

Psychology

Ivy Hughes joined the Research Fellows Program her junior year during the Fall 2022 semester. She originally found this program through email when applying for scholarships during the summer. At the very beginning of the year she was introduced to Ashley Steel who was working with Dr. Hutchins and Dr. Sandquist in their autism research lab. In this lab zebrafish eggs are introduced to a drug called depakote which is commonly used to treat bipolar disorder and seizures. However, depakote has also shown an increase of developing autism within the babies of pregnant women who take it. The hope is to better be able to understand how to teach those with autism and to better understand the behaviors/physical characteristics that exemplify autism spectrum disorder. She is currently working on a bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in family sciences. She plans to attend graduate school following graduation hoping to work in the therapy field with children and families.

Ally Hunsaker

Neuroscience

Ally Hunsaker joined the Research Fellow’s group as a freshman. She heard about the program in high school and knew it would enrich her college experience. Ally does research in the Hutchins/Sandquist lab as part of Dr. Hutchins’s team. The research involves studying the effects of valproic acid (a medication used to treat epilepsy) and its association with Autism Spectrum Disorder on zebrafish. After graduation Ally hopes to become a high school teacher, teaching biology, zoology and human anatomy and physiology.

Alonna Jones

Rehabilitation Science

Alonna joined the Research Fellows Program as a freshman in the Fall 2022 semester. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Rehabilitation Sciences and plans on one day attending medical school and becoming an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in sports medicine. She is currently working with Dr. Gabler and two graduate students in the Master of Science in Athletic Training program at Weber State. They are studying how different phases of the female menstrual cycle and levels of the hormone relaxin affect laxity (looseness) in the knee joint (specifically of the ACL, anterior cruciate ligament) of collegiate female athletes. Alonna grew up playing a lot of sports and has always been fascinated by the human body, which led her to be interested in sports medicine from a young age. She likes to spend her spare time playing sports, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.

Kolton Kitchin

Exercise and Sport Science

Kolton Kitchin joined the Research Fellows Program as a freshman in the Fall semester of 2022. He aims to graduate with a bachelor's degree in Exercise and Sport Science. Kolton plays soccer for the Weber State’s Mens team. Currently Kolton is working with Alysia Cohen understanding how youth athletes experience burnout and if they understand good pain versus bad pain (such as pain of working the muscles over pain from injury)? Kolton Loves sports and working with athletes. He plans to work with athletes at all levels to get them back to the playing field.

Kaeson Severe

Microbiology

Kaeson joined the Research Fellows Program his Sophomore year during the Fall 2022 semester. He is working towards a degree in Microbiology with a Medical emphasis and a minor in Chemistry. He is currently working with Dr. Katrina Twing studying a few previously cultured, antibiotic resistant Serratia bacterial species. The purpose of the study is to identify where the multi-drug resistance stems from and evaluate the genome for further understanding of the unique genetic makeup. He plans on attending Dental School following his undergraduate degree and attending additional years of schooling to specialize in Endodontics. In his free time, he enjoys sports, traveling, and spending time with his friends and family.

Elizabeth Stieneke

Botany

Elizabeth Stieneke joined the Research Fellows Program her freshman year in the Fall of 2022. She plans to graduate in with her bachelor’s degree in Botany with a minor in Outdoor Recreation. She is interested in plant propagation and genetics as well as environmental science. She is working with Dr. Kerri Mocko to learning more about plant physiological mechanisms. After graduating, Elizabeth hopes to work for the forest service or fish and game. Elizabeth has always had a love for plants and the outdoors and enjoys hiking, camping, hunting, and kayaking.

Tate Warren

Political Science/Quantitative Economics

Tate Warren joined the Research Fellowship Program in Fall of 2022. He had been involved with Weber State through the Early College Program, which gave him an orientation for his studies now. Before entering college, Tate was interested in pursuing research. When he found the Research Fellowship Program, he knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime, so he applied and is so grateful he did. Thanks to the flexibility of the program in accommodating students with varying goals and time frames, he has taken a different approach to his research. Instead of working as a research assistant, Tate has decided to start his own research. Given his long time passion for the law and the American Court system, Tate will be investigating to see whether there is an empirical basis for the perceived politicization of the Supreme Court. He is actively developing the research with the much needed and appreciated assistance of Dr. Johnson of the Political Science and Philosophy Department and Dr. Cavlovic of the Economics Department, and (hopefully) the project will be available to the public after it is published at some point in the future. After graduation, Tate plans to pursue law school in hopes that he can some day work for the Department of Justice and litigate constitutional questions facing the federal government.

Ceci Gibby

Environmental Science

Bailey Hall

Microbiology

Bailey joined the Research Fellows Program her Freshman year during the Fall 2020 semester. She is working towards a degree in Microbiology with a Public Health emphasis and a minor in Philosophy. She is currently working with Dr. Katrina Twing and is looking at the effect that tetracycline (an antibiotic) resistant genes that make their way through the wastewater treatment plant process have on the microbiome of the Weber River and Great Salt Lake. She has also done some work on DNA extraction optimization in soil samples. She plans on attending graduate school to get a masters degree in public health and work in underserved communities and low resource settings as a health promoter. In her free time, she enjoys reading, trail running, making leather out of Kombucha scoby, and hand sewing.

Caden Probert

Dental

Caden joined as a sophomore during the Fall 2020 semester. His initial interest in research came 2 years prior as he became interested in Dentistry. The field of dentistry is one of ongoing research and refinement of current methods of execution. Much of what we now do in dentistry is different from what was done years ago-- this is a result of ongoing research. Now, after living in Washington DC for 2 years, Caden is at Weber State eager to make a difference through research. The Fellows Program has allowed him to get a hands-on view of how research is started, executed, and disseminated. He has started an independent research project with Dr. Katrina Twing that he plans on continuing for the next few years dealing with microbes in mining. His project is titled, “Microbial Communities in Heavy Metal Contaminated Soils Near Abandoned Utah Mines.”

Emme Schow

Musical Theatre

Emme joined Weber’s Research Fellows Program as a freshman in the Fall 2020 semester. As someone who has a passion for musical theatre and history, she dove right into the opportunity. Emme is the first representative for Weber’s Musical Theatre Program, studying the mechanics of dramaturgy and how media influences past and present audiences. Though Emme’s true love is to perform, she also hopes to work behind the table with creative teams, bringing the best stories to the stage. While studying to become a professional stage actress, Emme has been working with Andrew Barratt Lewis (Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre) in his research of the history and evolution of love songs in musical theatre. She has analyzed the purposes of Conditional Love Songs, Secondary Couples with their corresponding Love Songs, the restrictions of Hollywood’s Hays Code, and the untraditional compositions of love stories in Musical Theatre. She hopes to continue this work in her professional career, becoming an asset to the work of storytelling.

Madeleine Sorbonne

Zoology

Chloë Stanley

Botany

Chloë joined the Research Scholars program as a freshman during the 2020-2021 academic year. Her interest in Botany began in her senior year of high school where she took a class in Botany primarily focused on taxonomy. During that time, Chloë developed a particular interest in the plant family Boraginaceae. Under the guidance of Dr. James Cohen, who specializes in taxonomy with a focus on Boraginaceae, Chloë worked on composing a list of various species of Boraginaceae in China, Pakistan, and surrounding areas to observe the floristic similarities between the various regions. Her current project is measuring the fruits and flowers of the genus Hackelia, to compare size variation. Eventually she hopes to expand to other genera within Boraginaceae.

Breanne Jones

Zoology

Breanne joined the Research Fellows program as a freshman in the fall of 2019. Since she was 8 years old, she has been fascinated by sharks and wants to become a shark biologist. She likes to spend her summers traveling to areas that allow her to scuba dive and interact with sharks. During the summers of 2019 and 2020, she was a student at the Coastal Marine Education and Research Academy, assisting with their population study of the sharks around Clearwater, Florida. In the summer of 2021, she returned as an intern and taught students how to identify, safely handle, and tag sharks and rays. This year Breanne has been working with Dr. Hoagstrom analyzing the literature to understand how sound affects fish. This summer she will start her independent research project evaluating the physiological and behavioral effects of sound, particularly anthropogenic sound, on zebrafish embryos. She knows this research project will help prepare her for graduate school, where she hopes to study sharks.

Braxton Tonks

Psychology and Neuroscience

Braxton joined the Research Scholars as a freshman during the 2019-2020 academic year. During the summer of 2019, before his freshman year, he began work with Dr. Todd Hillhouse in the neuroscience lab at Weber State University. Growing up, Braxton was extremely interested in studying and doing science with the goal of becoming a medical doctor someday. After taking a trip to the cadaver lab, Braxton was in awe after holding a human brain, and instantly knew he wanted to go in the direction of neuroscience. Luckily, he was able to secure a spot in the neuroscience lab conducting experiments. Some of these experiments include but are not limited to: Chronic Nicotine exposure, Pain LMA (Locomotor Activity), Pain depressed feeding, Long term vaping (addiction and effects), and other experiments in the realm of behavioral neuroscience. His primary research is conducted on pain LMA and the effects of long term nicotine exposure. To study pain LMA, he and others in the lab started with habituation. The subjects were given a dose of MK-801, an NMDA receptor antagonist, and then an injection of acetic acid. This experiment was conducted to show how pain would depress the subjects natural instinctive movements. The drug MK-801 was used to counter the effects of acetic acid. This experiment as a whole gave the researchers data to conclude how MK-801 works in the body primarily on pain and behavior. Braxton and other lab research assistants will present research on “Pain LMA” at the Weber State University 2020 Spring Symposium 2020; he and his lab partners were invited to present the results from the pain LMA study (as well as other experiments) at the 2020 Utah Conference of Undergraduate Research, but were not able to make it due to complications in data presentation mediums. Moving forward, Braxton plans to continue his research in the neuroscience lab, and eventually pilot his own projects going into medical school.

Xitlalli Villanueva

Microbiology

Xitlalli joined the Research Scholars as an incoming sophomore during the 2019-2020 academic year. She became interested in the Scholars program when she dove into doing research with Dr.Nicole Berthelemy. Their Research focuses on understanding the effects of methylmercury on artemia of the great salt lake. This is important because of the major role of artemia in the great salt lake ecosystem. Their research involves using field research at the Great Salt Lake and using a laboratory environment and equipment to study the effects of methylmercury on artemia. This research is just one step on the way to understanding how humans are affecting a unique wetland ecosystem. For her junior year, she hopes to combine social, physical, and natural sciences to understand how scientific research is communicated and perceived in the eyes of the public. During the fall semester of 2019, Xitlalli received a grant to continue her research. She presented her research entitled, “The Effect of Mercury Chloride and Methyl Mercury on Artemia franciscana,” at the 2020 Utah Conference of Undergraduate Research). She plans to present this study at the 2020 National Conference on Undergraduate Research at Montana State University.

Nicholas Bently

Geology

Joined the Research Fellows Program as a sophomore in the Fall 2020 semester. His biggest interests within the field of geology are volcanism, tectonic regimes, and the continual evolution of Earth’s surface. He currently assists Dr. Yonkee and collaborates with Dr. Balgord in researching the Farmington Canyon Complex to better understand the tectonic development of the western United States. His passion for geology stems from his love of rocks and being outdoors. He is a fledgling rockhounder and mineral collector, and has begun to collect raw rocks and minerals from around the state to begin lapidary work.

Catherine Dunbar

History

Catherine is a senior at Weber State and is studying history.  She started the Scholars' program during the 2017-2018 academic year.  She has been working under the advisement of Dr. Brandon Little and conducted research on humanitarian efforts during WWII.  She presented her research at the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research.  She has begun undertaking a new research project. Her research question is, "To what extent did awareness of the Holocaust alter anti-Semitism in America?"  What a fantastic and interesting question. We wish Cathrine the best of luck and look forward to hearing what she discovers.

Abbey Dunford

Radiologic Technology

Abby became a scholar as an incoming freshman during the fall semester of 2017. Immediately, she began working with Professors Ward and Nolan by completing literature reviews and diving into laboratory work and doing medical imaging. She presented initial findings of their work during the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research held at Weber State University in the Spring of 2019. She is continuing to work with Professor Ward by doing statistics and data analysis of the measurements she has taken of athlete's mandible, and is currently doing work in her field.

Melissa Hanni

Nursing

Melissa Hanni is a Nursing Major graduating in December 2020 with her Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) and projected graduation with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) with a minor in Health Administrative Services in August of 2021. She was selected to be a part of the Research Scholar Program in the 2017-2018 academic year. After successful completion of the first year of Weber State’s Nursing Program, she obtained her Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) license through the State of Utah. She currently practices as an LPN in the Weber and Davis county communities. Inspired by her work with patients, as well as an honors course titled Conflict Journalism, Melissa has joined with Dr. Jean Norman in the Communication Department to complete an interdisciplinary study of war correspondents and conflict journalists. The title of the IRB approved research project is Holistic Nursing Care of War Correspondents: the Spiritual Domain. This study seeks to understand the overall health and wellbeing of journalist who have written and witnessed the traumas of war and understand their resiliency while considering their spiritual health.

Lia Jenson

Psychology/Interior Design

Lia became a scholar as an incoming freshman during the fall semester of 2017. Like all scholars, she took WSU 1560, "Research, Creativity, and Exploration among the Disciplines." In this class she expressed interest in learning about the relationship between colors and emotions. She began working with Dr. Aaron Ashley in Psychology. Last semester, Spring 2019, she presented their research at the Utah Conference of Undergraduate Education that explored how background color for product placement affects a person's valuation of the product. She is combining here experience with this research with her major field of study, interior design. In one of her classes (and to be considered for an interior design competition), she is designing a hotel from an abandoned brewery in Kansas City and which embraces environmental sustainability. She plans on creating an experiment and survey to explore how various designs affect a person's emotions. She will draw on prior literature that has explored the "Language of Color" and how room colors can affect our emotions.

Niharika Mishra

Microbiology

Coming all the way from India, Niharika joined the research scholar program as a freshman during the 2019-2020 academic year. Her desire to study microbiology was driven by her interest in understanding why certain microbes can cause health problems in some people, whereas for others are important for survival. During the spring semester of 2019, Niharika found herself at Weber State University to do research with Dr. Craig Oberg. Under the guidance of Dr. Oberg, for her research entitled,”Fermentation of Plant-based Extracts by Dairy Lactic Acid Bacteria," she explores using plant-based fermented foods to replace milk-based fermented foods, such as yogurt and cheese, which have become a growing cultural necessity. These products are currently being produced using dairy fermentation cultures and processing equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to determine if dairy-derived lactic acid bacteria (LAB) cultures can effectively ferment plant-based milk substitutes. We received results that promise probiotic survival in plant extracts. We presented the results of this research at the 2020 Utah Conference of Undergraduate Research at Utah State University, and will present it at the Weber State University 2020 Spring Symposium and at the conference for the American Society of Microbiology. Niharika has started an independent research project under the guidance of Dr. Oberg, where she will be analyzing the shelf-life stability of eight commercially used probiotic strains in refrigerated plant extracts at different pH levels. Her goal is to find ideal pH and most suitable plant extract for each strain.

Bailey O'Leary

English

Bailey has been working with Dr. Wutz since she started at Weber State in 2018. His guidance and mentorship has been invaluable in helping her explore her interests and find her niche in the English Department. Over the years, Bailey has taken classes with Dr. Wutz (including sitting in on a Master's class, though she is still an undergraduate), got a first taste in editing a journal, and has gotten more involved on campus through his advice and support.

Zadoth Vazquez

Medical Labratory Science

Zadoth Vazquez is a medical laboratory science major sophomore who is working closely with Dr. Matthew Nicolaou. She started her freshman year developing basic lab skills and starting her sophomore year wrote and submitted a research grant proposal. She is now developing a research method to analyse a semi-quantitative way of detecting lipid laden macrophages in mouse lung homogenates. The purpose of her research started when cases of pulmonary damage, disease and death were closely correlated with the vaping of electronic cigarettes.