Kinesiology doctoral student receives award from Southern Regional Education Board

School of Kinesiology doctoral candidate Mariah Morton was selected for the Doctoral Scholars Program Dissertation Year Award by the Southern Regional Education Board, or SREB. The SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program offers awards to students who are pursuing Ph.D.s and plan to become college and university professors.

“Through this funding award, I will have the privilege to focus solely on completing my dissertation research, which seeks to identify biomarkers of vocal function. I will also have the opportunity to network and learn from other PhD students and PhD holders across the Southeast via the Institute, which I know will make me a better researcher, teacher, and future professor in academia.”

According to the SREB website, “The mission of the SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program is to increase faculty diversity in the region’s colleges and universities by providing a comprehensive package of support to increase the number of minority scholars who earn the Ph.D. and seek careers as faculty members. A diverse faculty with a variety of scholarly perspectives produces a stronger educational experience for all students.”

As part of the award, Morton will receive a living stipend, all-expenses-paid to attend the annual Institute of Teaching and Mentoring, access to professional development funds and academic support, and participant in an online scholar directory used for networking.

Morton is a licensed speech-language pathologist, studying at the intersection of voice science and exercise science, and she has earned numerous other awards and accolades. Thus far, during her doctoral studies, Morton has co-authored 8 publications and most recently, she was awarded a New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarship from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation. Morton was also awarded the Vanderbilt Hearing and Speech Sciences Rising Star Award and won second place in the poster category—University-Wide Graduate Student Winners in Human Sciences, Social Sciences, Creative Arts, Nursing and Humanities—during the 2022 Auburn Research: Student Symposium.