Meet Our USA Fulbrighters Archive - Page 8 of 50

Tracy Krumm

Ms. Tracy Krumm is director for artistic advancement at the Textile Center of Minnesota, where she also serves as curator, McKnight Fellowship director, and program consultant. An artist and educator with more than 35 years of experience, she has exhibited, taught, and lectured extensively. Her leadership and administrative work spans more than two decades of teaching, mentorship, and committee service, including appointments as visiting assistant professor at North Carolina State University’s art and design program and as assistant professor of fiber art at Kansas City Art Institute. She has served as a visiting artist and lecturer at over 30 institutions nationwide, leading workshops and critiques for college students, lifelong learners, and practicing artists in fiber art and textile traditions. Her honors include a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, nominations for both USA Artist and the Tiffany Foundation Biennial awards, two International Folk Art Foundation project grants, and two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grants.

Her work has been included in the International Triennial of Tapestry, the Cheongju Craft Biennale, the Betonac Prize, and Young Americans in New York, as well as in more than 200 other exhibitions around the world. In 2012, the National Museum of Women in the Arts named her a Woman to Watch. Her work has also been featured in publications like the New York Times, Metalsmith, Sculpture, American Craft, and Surface Design Journal, as well as in the books, Textiles: The Art of Mankind (Thames & Hudson, 2012) and Cloth 100 Artists (Abrams, 2025).

Ms. Krumm’s work is part of the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), the Denver Art Museum, Kansas State University, Bloomingdale’s, the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti, the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Ford Motor Company, and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Ms. Krumm’s Fulbright-Nehru project is developing a collaborative model of co-creation between U.S. and Indian artists through Gujarat’s textile traditions – ajrakh, bandhani, weaving, and embroidery. Moving beyond transactional designer–artisan relationships, it is emphasizing upon shared authorship, fair trade, and artisan agency. The project, through studio exchange, reciprocal teaching, and fieldwork with the Khatri and Vankar communities, as well as with nomadic communities, is expected to generate new textile vocabularies, strengthen artisan visibility, and support sustainable livelihoods. The outcomes of the project – collaborative works, exhibitions, and publications – will extend impact across artistic and academic communities, thereby offering a replicable framework for equitable cross-cultural collaboration.

Jesse Jokerst

Dr. Jesse Jokerst is a professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). He graduated cum laude from Truman State University (Kirksville, MO) in 2003 with a BS in Chemistry and completed a PhD in chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009 (adviser: John T. McDevitt). He was a postdoc with the late Prof. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir at Stanford Radiology from 2009 to 2013, and was an instructor in the same department from 2013 to 2015. Dr. Jokerst joined UCSD in July 2015 where he leads a research program that integrates three distinct yet interdependent pillars: synthesis of nanoparticles, peptides, and small molecules; engineering of custom acoustic hardware and software tools; and human subjects research. Imaging (ultrasound, photoacoustics, and optical imaging) is the “glue” that binds these research areas together. His lab has active human subjects trials in wound care, COVID, arthritis, anticoagulation, and dentistry.

Dr. Jokerst has raised over USD 20 million to support his work, and has published over 180 manuscripts. His former trainees are at top universities and companies, including MIT, Harvard, Apple, and Intel. Dr. Jokerst has received the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, the NIH New Innovator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Stanford Radiology Alumni of the Year Award; he is also a Truman State Distinguished Alumni Fellow. Further, he is an associate editor at ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces and former chair of the NIH study section on imaging probes and contrast agents.

Dr. Jokerst’s Fulbright-Nehru project is developing a fast, inexpensive test for active TB in rural and resource-limited settings in India. This project will generate materials science and biotechnology tools with applications beyond TB, and thus benefit U.S. taxpayers with new assays for flu, colds, and foodborne illness. For Indian citizens, it will deliver a portable, rugged TB diagnostic usable in both urban and remote settings.

Harjant Gill

Dr. Harjant Gill is a professor of anthropology at Towson University and an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work bridges ethnography, visual storytelling, and public scholarship. His research and creative practice explore masculinity, migration, media, religion, and popular culture in South Asia and its diasporas, with a particular focus on Punjab and Sikh communities. Through film and writing, he examines how intimate lives are shaped by patriarchy, nationalism, violence, and transnational mobility. Dr. Gill is the director of the internationally recognized documentary films Roots of Love, Mardistan/Macholand, and Sent Away Boys. His work has been broadcast on the BBC, PBS, and India’s Doordarshan, and screened widely at universities, film festivals, and public forums around the world. His scholarship has appeared in leading journals, including American Anthropologist, Ethnography, and Visual Anthropology Review. Dr. Gill’s forthcoming book, Coming of Age in Macholand (University of Chicago Press), offers a deeply personal ethnographic exploration of patriarchy, masculinity, violence, and migration in the Indian state of Punjab. He has received fellowships and awards from the American Institute of Indian Studies, the United States-India Educational Foundation, the Point Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren, Whiting, and Woodrow Wilson foundations. Born in Chandigarh, India, he now lives in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Gill’s Fulbright-Nehru project is exploring the everyday aesthetics of security in contemporary urban life. Through images, objects, and built environments, it is examining how barriers, checkpoints, cameras, fences, lighting, and architectural details quietly shape public space and social experience. The project is attending to the textures, moods, and visual languages of protection that have become ordinary and familiar. It is studying how security is designed and displayed to be absorbed into daily routines, thereby influencing movement, comfort, aspiration, and belonging. The project is also tracing how ideas of safety become materialized in subtle visual forms that structure the atmosphere and appearance of everyday life.

Torrey Lawson

Mr. Torrey Lawson is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and educator with over 20 years of experience across national and international media. He has worked as a producer at NBC News and ABC News, and reported internationally for CGTN Digital and BBC Worldwide. He has also served as the Joan Konner Visiting Professor of Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and as the inaugural Stokes Visiting Professor of Journalism at Loyola University New Orleans, where he developed courses on digital storytelling, investigative reporting, film, and media studies, as also a high-enrollment course on sports, media, and politics. Besides, Mr. Lawson has taught investigative reporting at UC Berkeley. He is currently a Fulbright Specialist and Visiting Fellow at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, where his research examines how digital platforms are used for recruitment and exploitation across borders; it has a particular focus on human trafficking networks, platform accountability, and the global implications of AI-driven media systems.

As a Fulbright Specialist in India, Mr. Lawson will work with students and faculty at M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women in Chennai, leading workshops and lectures on investigative journalism, digital verification, and global storytelling in the evolving media landscape.

Hayden Bellenoit

Dr. Hayden Bellenoit is a professor of history at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He is a legal and social historian of modern South Asia. His research focuses on colonial state formation, the histories of scribal communities, and the broader impact of colonial legal systems upon Indian social, religious, and cultural traditions. Dr. Bellenoit received his MA from Wheaton College and his DPhil in modern history from Oxford University. At the Naval Academy, he teaches courses on modern India and Pakistan. He has also been a visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, where he is a life member.

Dr. Bellenoit is the author of two books: Missionary Education and Empire in Late Colonial India, 1860–1920 (2007); and The Formation of the Colonial State in India: Scribes, Paper and Taxes, 1760–1860 (2017). His articles have appeared in top peer-reviewed academic journals such as Modern Asian Studies, Law and History Review, South Asian History and Culture, and Indian Law Review. He is currently completing an article on how Mughal-era legal customs were read into the codification of Hindu property law and inheritance.

For his Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Bellenoit is conducting research for his third book, “Judges, Case Law and Jurisprudence: The Legal Construction of Caste in India, c. 1830–1950”. This will be the first book to fully address the question of modern constructions of caste/social hierarchy in India as a result of the broader phenomena of colonial law. It will carefully examine how colonial case law, the training of Indian judges and lawyers, and the resultant jurisprudence, all broadly combined to shape modern understandings about the relationship between caste and law.

Mudasir Andrabi

Dr. Mudasir Andrabi is an associate professor at Capstone College of Nursing, University of Alabama, with expertise in cardiovascular health, stroke prevention, behavioral health interventions, and community-engaged research. Her work focuses on addressing hypertension and cardiovascular disparities among underserved populations through culturally responsive and technology-enabled interventions.

Dr. Andrabi earned her doctorate in health promotion from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. She has extensive experience in teaching, research, mentorship, and academic leadership. Her work integrates public health, nursing, behavioral science, and digital health approaches to improve cardiovascular outcomes and promote health equity. She has led and collaborated on multiple interdisciplinary research projects focused on hypertension management, stroke caregiving, medication adherence, physical activity, and chronic disease prevention.

Her research interests include digital health interventions, game-based behavioral strategies, AI in nursing education, and cardiovascular health promotion. She is currently developing innovative interventions that integrate blood pressure monitoring, physical activity tracking, medication adherence support, and health education for adults at risk of cardiovascular disease. She is also actively engaged in international collaborations on culturally tailored cardiovascular disease prevention strategies.

Dr. Andrabi has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. Her work has been presented at regional, national, and international scientific meetings, and has contributed to advancing nursing science and community-based cardiovascular disease prevention efforts. She also serves in several leadership roles within academic and professional organizations. She is actively involved in developing ethical guidelines for the responsible integration of AI in nursing education and scholarship. Her long-term professional goal is to advance global cardiovascular health equity.

Dr. Andrabi’s Fulbright-Nehru project is co-developing and piloting the South Asian Cardiovascular Risk Education and Digital Coaching (SACRED) program, a culturally tailored intervention designed to reduce cardiovascular disease risk among adults aged 50 and older in Delhi, India. The project is using a mixed-methods approach, and its findings will guide the development of a digital coaching intervention delivered through WhatsApp and ASCVD risk assessment tools. The project also aims to improve heart health behaviors, strengthen global nursing collaborations, and advance culturally responsive cardiovascular disease prevention strategies.

Samuel Aggrey

Prof. Samuel Aggrey is a distinguished research professor in genetics and genomics at the University of Georgia (UGA), USA. He holds the Richard B. Russell Endowed Chair and is also a professor in the Department of Poultry Science at Athens, Georgia.

Prof. Aggrey is a co-editor of Poultry Genetics, Breeding and Biotechnology and the lead editor of Advances in Poultry Genetics and Genomics. He has also authored numerous book chapters and over 200 peer-reviewed publications. He has trained postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers from around the world and maintains strong collaborative partnerships across Africa, Asia, and Europe.
His notable honors include the Jaap Memorial Lectureship at the Ohio State University; the D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Research (UGA); the UGA Student Career Influencer Award; the Broiler Research Award from the Poultry Science Association; the Changxin Chu Fund Award (China Agricultural University Educational Foundation/World’s Poultry Science Association); the Carnegie Fellowship; the World’s Poultry Science Association Siegel Research Award; and the D.W. Brooks awards for excellence in international agriculture and for excellence in diversity (UGA).

Prof. Aggrey serves as the capacity building pillar chair and as a member of the Executive Committee of the African Animal Breeding Network. He is also a member of the High-Level Think Tank on Technological Issues in African Agriculture, and contributes to the African Union’s Working Group on Animal Seed under the African Seed and Biotechnology Partnership Platform.

His current research interests include quantitative genetics and genomics of stressors (climate change and Eimeria spp. infection), as well as modeling and precision animal agriculture.

Prof. Aggrey’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining the potential of polyamine-enhancing nutritional strategies as alternatives to pharmaceutical interventions in combating Eimeria spp. infection in poultry. It is integrating molecular biology, parasitology, and applied poultry science through multi-omics approaches to advance innovative health management strategies. The project aims to enhance host resilience, provide mechanistic insights into how polyamines improve poultry health, expand frameworks for nutritional immunomodulation, and develop biomarkers.

Arunava Gupta

Dr. Arunava Gupta is a distinguished university professor emeritus at the University of Alabama and an adjunct professor in the Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the University of California San Diego. He earned his MSc in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and his PhD in chemical physics from Stanford University. Before joining the University of Alabama as faculty in 2004, Dr. Gupta served as a research staff member and manager at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York, where he led projects on thin-film and device technologies.

His research focuses on the design, synthesis, and characterization of advanced thin-film and nanomaterials for IT and energy applications. Dr. Gupta has authored more than 450 peer-reviewed articles, holds 30 U.S. patents, and is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Physical Society (APS), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2010, he received the Humboldt Research Award for his sustained contributions to the study of magnetism and superconductivity in oxide-based materials.

Joseph Wronka

Dr. Joseph Wronka is professor emeritus, Springfield College, Massachusetts. He has also had extensive post-secondary teaching experience in the United States, including in Alaska, Georgia, and New York City, and briefly in Europe at Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. He has represented the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) for roughly two decades and was on the executive committee at the United Nations for an NGO working for Indigenous Peoples. Having been to India previously – Bhubaneswar, Delhi, and Karnataka – he was also a Fulbrighter in Pakistan, Austria, and Greece. Dr. Wronka was one of the 300 human rights/social justice activists who attended the 50th anniversary of the UN endorsement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He has presented his work in roughly 20 countries. He is the author of numerous scholarly and popular articles, as well as books, with his latest book being Human Rights and Social Justice: Social Action and Service for the Helping and Health Professions. Having studied the phenomenon of performing and street musicians at the University of Nice, he completed his doctorate in social policy from Brandeis University; his master’s in existential-phenomenological psychology from Duquesne University; and his bachelor’s from Brooklyn College.

Paul Koster

Paul Koster is a professor of practice at Emory University School of Law where he teaches legal writing, legal advocacy, legal profession, and introduction to the U.S. legal system. He is also the faculty advisor to the Emory Law School Supreme Court Advocacy Program and co-faculty advisor to the Emory Moot Court Society. He was awarded the Minister Gloria Jean Fowler Angel Award by the Emory Law Class of 2024, Professor of the Year title by the Emory Black Law Students Association in 2023, and the Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education in 2021.

Prof. Koster practiced law for nearly 20 years, including 10 years as managing partner of a boutique Atlanta law firm which he cofounded. While in practice, he was named a Georgia Super Lawyer on multiple occasions. Following his law school education, he served as a staff attorney for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC) Circuit and as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Stephanie Duncan-Peters of the DC Superior Court. Prof. Koster is the 2024–2026 chair of the Pro Bono Committee for the Legal Writing Institute, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.