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George Mason �鶹���� history PhD candidate Jayme Kurland is living her dream this academic year as the Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

George Mason psychology professor Thalia R. Goldstein’s work focuses on children's developing social and emotional skills, and how such skills intersect with imaginative activities. In her latest book, Why Theatre Education Matters: Understanding its Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Benefits (Teachers College Press, 2024), she pulls together the research she’s conducted on social and emotional learning and cognitive development.

Third-year Mason LIFE student Madison Schittig contributes her unique visual point of view as a photography intern with George Mason's Office of �鶹���� Branding.

George Mason English professor Kyoko Mori writes both fiction and nonfiction. Her latest book, Cat and Bird, has been called a “memoir in animals” and focuses on the six house cats who defined the major eras of her life as a writer.

Since graduating from George Mason �鶹����, alum Alex Plank, BA Film and Video Studies ’10, has worked professionally on films and television series as an associate producer and actor. Plank is also an autism activist who works toward more authentic neurodiverse representation in media.

When George Mason alum Samantha Carrico enters a room, eyes usually lock onto her charismatic coworker Rylynn, a five-year-old Labrador golden retriever mix. But while Fairfax County’s facility dog gets all the attention, Carrico is the key to making it all happen.

Keil Eggers, who is graduating from Mason with his PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, has been a champion of complexity-informed conflict transformation, futures, and SenseMaker: a technology that applies a quantitative framework to narrative data submitted and interpreted by the subjects themselves. 

Helping the community understand the parameters of recycling and composting is one of the biggest challenges in recycling and waste management, according to Kevin Brim, supervisor in Facilities Management at George Mason �鶹����. “It can be confusing trying to decide what is recycling, trash, or compostable,” said Brim. His team is working hard to change that.

Psychology major and student-parent Valeria Fernandez was selected to represent Mason as Generation Hope's FamilyU fellow for the 2022–23 cohort. She grew as a leader and advocate during that time and went on to work as a student-parent ambassador with Mason’s Contemporary Student Services.

The 19-year-old Malinin left no doubt about who will be the likely favorite in the men’s singles competition at the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.

Since 1989, more than 3,000 people have been exonerated after being wrongly convicted. In his new book, The Politics of Innocence: How Wrongful Convictions Shape Public Opinion (New York �鶹���� Press, September 2023), Robert J. Norris, associate professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society, and his coauthors explore the political dynamics that shape the innocence movement.

Gary T. Taylor, MSW ‘15, is destigmatizing mental health support and normalizing therapy in the Black community one barbershop at a time. “Barbershops are this safe space for Black men,” explains Taylor who has been working with local barbershops in the Rappahannock region since 2022 to foster healthy discussions about mental health by educating barbers on “mental health first aid” for their patrons.