This year’s recipients were both nominated multiple times by students whose lives they have touched. “Based on the wonderful things graduate students wrote about them, they have both earned this great honor many times over,” says PhD student and head of the Graduate Student Council nominations committee, Christian Casey.

Hanni, Academic Department Manager in Egyptology and Assyriology receives the Wilson-DeBlois Award, which is awarded annually to recognize outstanding contributions to doctoral students and the Graduate School.

Hanni shares, “graduate students have so much pressure on them - when they first arrive, as they realize the challenge of the degree, and finally as they wrestle their dissertations - anything that helps them meet their responsibilities with less stress, makes their lives easier or more pleasant, is worth trying to do. They are terrific individuals and I care for them very much.” 

“She always treats graduate students as people and scholars first, and her extra efforts to support and encourage graduate students through major life events makes the department a welcoming and pleasant place to work and study,” says PhD student Jessica Tomkins.

The second annual Bates-Clapp Award goes to Algava, who is an Assistant Director of Teacher Education in the Department of Education.

“Carin is an invaluable advisor to graduate students, offering wide-ranging counsel on admissions, course selection, and certification,” says nominator and Visiting Assistant Professor, Bradford Gibbs. Her students describe her as the “godmother” of the Teacher Education Program for her accessibility and unflagging support. 

"I am deeply honored to receive this year's Bates-Clapp Award. It has been a privilege to know the more than 600 MAT graduates who have gone out into the world and are working to make our schools more equitable and just and who continue to transform the lives of young people every day," says Algava.

The Graduate Student Council created the award to honor a staff member who has made outstanding contributions to master's students and the Graduate School. The Bates-Clapp Award is named in honor of Louise Prosser Bates (Mrs. Francis E. Bates) and Lucia Maria Clapp (Mrs. William Noyes), the first women to receive master's degrees from Brown University. The Wilson-DeBlois Award is named in honor of George Grafton Wilson and Austen K. DeBlois, recipients of Brown’s first Doctor of Philosophy degrees in 1889.