Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award

The award is named in memory of UCLA professor Jenessa Shapiro, who thought it was extremely important to promote diversity and inclusion in her lab, at the university, and in the field more generally. Jenessa took concrete actions to do this in a number of ways, ranging from volunteering for mentorship lunches at professional conferences to serving on committees to address issues of diversity within her departments as well as at the National Institutes of Health. She also engaged in countless other less visible activities to contribute to the goals of diversity, inclusion, and social justice that she never advertised.