Outstanding Graduates 2025

Master of Arts, English

The Theory of Nomads: Home in the Wake of Diaspora

A dedicated and thoughtful scholar, Zaira Bardos’s nominators describe their work as innovative and radical, particularly their graduate thesis “Apparitions of Homely Hauntings: The Theory of Nomads.” This approach shines through in their work with others as well, including in their work as the president of the English Graduate Association, the poetry editor and a fiction reader for the Bellingham Review, and in providing acclaimed teaching in the classroom. With work supported by an RSP grant during their MA program, they have demonstrated the continued impact and possibility for their future work.

Master of Arts, Rehabilitation Counseling

Chelsie has consistently contributed to class discussions in both online and in-person courses. Early in her career, she was hired to work with adults with disabilities, and this sparked her desire and commitment to work in this field. Chelsie continues to demonstrate her passion for supporting individuals with disabilities through her work as the director of Samish Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation. She has also been good support to three of her staff members who are also in the MA in Rehabilitation Counseling program. All the faculty and staff have expressed that it has been a pleasure to work with her over the past two years. We all agree that she will continue to have success and make a big impact in her support and advocacy for people with disabilities.

Master of Science, Biology

Evan is exemplary academically, and frequently helps with other students' understanding of statistics and bioinformatics. Indeed, the director of the Data Science Cert program indicated that he was among the best students she has had. Additionally, his work with the WAWU process was thoughtful and informative. 

Master of Arts, History

North of Gold Mountain: Chinese Women in the Pacific Northwest During the Exclusion Era

Megan has been a great student and advisee here—she's lead TA, got As in all her seminars, straight As in her Chinese classes too, and defended her thesis this spring. Her thesis, focused on Chinese women in the Pacific Northwest, is grounded in deft reading of a range of primary sources and is a much-needed intervention in a field that has often acted as if these women were totally invisible. I expect to see her project evolve into an even stronger PhD dissertation and maybe even a published monograph someday. Megan has been a talented, dedicated, and creative student from the moment she arrived here and has demonstrated enormous potential for future scholarship. I would recommend her for this honor without reservation.

—WWU Associate Professor of History Josh Cerretti

Master of Science, Chemistry

Bioinspired Ligand Design with Hydrogen Bonding Capabilities Facilitate Denitrification and N-N Bond Formation

Kayla has been a fantastic graduate student during her tenure at WWU. Kayla started her project as a master's student, and that project recently culminated as a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. She presented her work as a poster at the National ACS meeting in New Orleans (2024). In addition, she has laid the foundation for multiple other projects currently being conducted in the lab that she started and handed off to undergraduate students. She is an amazing mentor to the other students in the lab. She is by far one of the most dependable students I have mentored. Her sheer determination and grit has allowed her to flourish in the MS program. In addition to her accolades in scholarship, she has been active in advancing the chemistry department's community building through multiple lab tours and meeting with potential students/families. These acts take time and effort, and she is always willing to help out. She is also active in the mentoring of other MS students across the university.

–WWU Professor of Chemistry John Gilbertson

Master of Science, Environmental Sciences – Marine and Estuarine Science Program

Maia Heffernan has excelled in coursework (4.0 GPA), in research, and as a leader in my research group and among her peers in the department. As a researcher and problem solver, Heffernan excels at learning new skills and immersing herself in new subject areas. Heffernan’s undergraduate research experience was focused on deep sea marine biology. In her graduate work with me, she has studied nearshore physical oceanography in the Swinomish clam garden. Next year, she will begin a PhD in UW in Civil Engineering. She has excelled at learning both the subject matter and methodology of the field, and exploring new ideas is clearly invigorating to her. During the first year of her master’s degree, Heffernan designed, planned, and carried out a field campaign at the clam garden that used many types of instrumentation with which she was previously not familiar. Her particular focus was the deployment of two Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) and two Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters (ADVs). These instruments, which measure water velocity, are challenging to program correctly, as the instrument sampling schemes vary widely to properly resolve the dynamics of interest for a given field campaign. Heffernan executed the deployments without issue, generating the first measurements of water velocity in a clam garden.
 
Heffernan has stood out as a leader in my research group. She excelled in this role during the field campaign in summer 2024, where she shared responsibility of mentoring and supervising the five undergraduate research assistants. This involved helping to coordinate deployment and recovery logistics as well as day-to-day field operations at the clam garden. Heffernan was effective at motivating and directing the undergraduates during deployment and recovery operations. After the fieldwork concluded, Heffernan became a leader in my research group in the realm of data processing and analysis, leading weekly code review with a fellow graduate student and several undergraduates; she has built on this success by co-leading an introductory Python seminar in my group meeting this spring. In every phase of the scientific process she has undertaken at WWU, Heffernan has demonstrated the ability to lift her fellow students up and help the project succeed.
 
In her data analysis, Heffernan has remained grounded in the societal and ecological context of the work and has shown the ability to learn quickly. She has become masterful in two coding languages (R and Matlab) in her first year of graduate school and is able to translate scientific ideas into practical data analysis effectively. ADCP data is difficult to process and analyze, but Heffernan has learned to be patient with her data analysis and works methodically through challenging data-processing issues. Throughout all of this, she has kept her eye on the big picture, continuously tying her analyses of clam garden residence time back to their context in setting the water properties that clams in the garden experience. She has characterized clam garden hydrodynamics, produced the first estimates of residence time in a clam garden, and begun an investigation of the role of the clam garden in altering turbulence in the water column. This was considerably more progress than I had anticipated she would make during her master’s and has provided an excellent jumping off point for future research. She has also made a point of assisting Swinomish fisheries in related scientific endeavors and attending community events at the clam garden when invited. Heffernan has been an exemplary student and leader in my research group and has exceeded my considerable expectations for her.

–WWU Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences Sam Kastner

Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing

Something Waking: An Origin Story

Anni Kamola is an accomplished member of the MFA program in the Department of English. She has many accomplishments and qualities that inform her selection as this year's Outstanding Graduate Student, including her nomination from the entire creative writing faculty to attend the Port Townsend Writers Conference; her service on Bellingham Review as a nonfiction editor; a 2025 Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award in 2025; and, in spirit and comportment, her dedication as a leader, ever mindful of sharing resources and mentoring others, compassionate to the core.

Master of Arts, Anthropology

Hailey is an outstanding graduate student whose intellectual rigor, ethical commitment, and passion for social justice are evident throughout her work. She has also been active in the department by teaching classes, mentoring students, and engaging in public outreach.

Her thesis examines how North Korean refugees narrate their lived experiences of incarceration, institutional violence, illness, and survival, offering a meaningful contribution to the anthropological study of trauma, health systems, and state violence. Her additional research on webcam models, conducted through the WWU Applied Anthropology Lab, reflects a deep engagement to contemporary issues of gender, digital labor, and marginality. She has already authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and presented at national academic conferences—remarkable accomplishments at the MA level.

This fall, Hailey will begin a PhD in Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas—one of the leading programs in sex work studies—where she will continue the research on sex workers she began in our lab, supported by multi-year funding through a research assistantship.

We are proud to recognize Hailey as an Outstanding Graduate, and we look forward to the meaningful contributions she will continue to make in anthropology, sociology, and beyond. 

Master of Science, Geology

They did an exceptional and thorough job on their thesis, and they are currently working on combining their work with the thesis work recently completed by an undergraduate in our group into a comprehensive manuscript. Alex was also an incredible TA—they never missed a deadline, always came prepared to class, and they really cared about the students' ability to comprehend the material and gave them a lot of feedback on their coursework on top of in-class and office hours help. They were also heavily involved in department DEI and outreach efforts.

Master of Science, Clinical Mental Health Counseling 

Kaleb Starling is being recognized as the Outstanding Graduate of the CMHC Counseling Program for his exceptional dedication and unwavering commitment to both his studies and his community. Achieving straight As throughout the program, Kaleb consistently demonstrated a profound understanding of counseling theories and an empathetic, client-centered approach. His peers admire him for his natural leadership and mentorship and for always being willing to support and uplift others. Kaleb’s counseling work has earned him deep respect from his clients, who value the safe, compassionate, and empowering space he creates for them. Beyond the classroom and counseling room, Kaleb is a passionate advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, dedicating his free time to champion inclusivity and equality. His hard work, heart, and advocacy truly make him a deserving recipient of this prestigious award.

Master of Science, Kinesiology

The Effect of Starting Position on Shoulder Joint Repositioning Error at Various Target Positions

Grace’s dedication to producing high-quality work and commitment to investing the time and effort necessary to ensure she understands course material has resulted in her strong academic record and success in the research and writing components of her thesis research. She has been a teaching assistant for the department, helping to mentor current undergraduate students, for the past two years. In this role, Grace has worked to create an environment in her labs, office hours, and broader department where students feel welcomed, appreciated, and excited to learn. Though she’s uncertain of a specific trajectory for her future, Grace is certain that she is well-prepared from her education at Western and is excited to utilize the good the skills and knowledge she’s gained during her time here.

Master of Science, Computer Science

Vivian is a fantastic research student and is taking her cat Charlie and going on to a doctoral program in computer science at University of British Columbia. She has won an international external grant for her faculty-mentored research and also received a scholarship as an incoming doctoral student. She has workshop papers already published and another in prep. She is also an excellent teaching assistant.