Livingston Farya Phillips
Drs. Diana DiNitto and Barbara Jones with Farya Phillips, Dr. Michel Granof and Provost Steven Leslie at The University Co-op Michael H. Granof Awards

Doctoral student Farya Phillips has received the William S. Livingston Outstanding Graduate Student Academic Employee Award.

This award was established in 2004 by the university’s Graduate School and Graduate Student Assembly to recognize an outstanding teaching assistant, assistant instructor, and graduate research assistant. Awardees are nominated by faculty members and selected by a committee from the Graduate Student Assembly. Every spring semester, awardees are are honored at the University Co-op Michael H. Granof Awards for Excellence in Graduate Education.

Farya was accepted into the School’s doctoral program in fall 2009. Her research focuses on the effects of cancer on the family system. She is writing her dissertation on the adolescent’s experience of having a parent with advanced cancer. Farya plans to graduate this summer, and is excited to begin her appointment at the School in the fall as the Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychosocial Oncology.

For the past three years, Farya has been doing outstanding work as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for Drs. Barbara Jones and Mary Velasquez.

“At the start of Farya’s first semester as my TA, it became evident to me that the students in our class would have the opportunity to interact with a superb TA,” said Dr. Velasquez. “Farya not only has high expectations for students’ work but is also dedicated to helping them become strong social workers, consumers of research, and writers.”

Farya has also worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for Dr. Jones, and has co-ordinated many major events for the Institute for Grief, Loss, and Family Survival, a university-community partnership in research and education. She is currently collaborating with Dr. Jones in a grant submission for the National Institutes of Health, two translation-dissemination research projects, and multiple publications.

“Farya brings incredible professionalism, intelligence, creative thought and genuine dedication to every project she is involved in,” said Jones. “This award honors her as the truly exemplary student and colleague she is.”