Kayla Allen-Brown received a B.A. in Political Science and International Affairs with certificates in Human Rights and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Cincinnati; she also holds an M.A. from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy-IU Indianapolis. Kayla is currently a PhD student in American Studies. She is interested in examining how Black women create agency, shape their lived experiences, and build social capital regardless of the political and economic challenges. More broadly, her research interests include critical race theory, black feminism, minority social movements, and grassroots resistance.
Harry (Harshit) Chaubey, born in New Delhi, India, is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Technology at Indiana University Indianapolis (IUI) with a minor in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). At IU Indianapolis's Graduate Office, his responsibilities include managing social media,transcribing presentations into digital storytelling, planning events, creating podcasts, and optimizing the graduate onboarding process.
Harry has extensive experience as a Research Assistant at the Donald Louis Tavel Arts & Technology Center and as Director of Live Programming at Deck10 Media. He is active in the IU Indianapolis Food Auxiliary Committee, the Diversity, Equity & Inclusive School taskforce, and serves as a Graduate Representative in the Graduate Professional Student Government(GPSG). He received the Plater Civic Engagement Medallion for his community service. His research interests include reengineering musical devices, product design, and developing frameworks for live multimedia broadcasting
Priyadharshini Manikandan completed her undergraduate degree at Indiana State University in Terre Haute with a B.S. in Biology with a Chemistry Minor. She is currently a PhD student in the Department of Biology focusing her studies on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder research using zebrafish embryos as a model organism, to explore the effect of alcohol on the developing genome.
Outside of the lab, Dharshini enjoys travelling, trying new recipes, and spending time with her friends and dog. Alongside being a graduate student emissary, she is a laboratory Teaching Assistant for undergraduate biology labs, the President of the Biology Graduate Organization (BGO), a school of science representative on the Graduate Professional Student Government (GPSG), and likes giving back to her community as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion advisor for her collegiate Alpha Phi chapter, and as a volunteer at the local Hindu Temple.
After completing high school in Jamaica, Isheka Orr moved to Orangeburg, SC to pursue her BSc. in Environmental Science at Claflin University. Currently, she is a PhD student in Applied Earth Science at IU Indianapolis. Her research focuses on identifying the health risks associated with Combined Sewer Overflow events in urban waterways.
Isheka strongly believes in giving back to the community in whatever way possible and as a result volunteers as a mentor and/educator with various community programs such as School on Wheels(SOW)-Indy, Sea Scope Incorporated and Passport to College (PTC). Isheka also serves on the Executive Board of the Underrepresented Professional and Graduate Student Organization (UPnGO) at IUI.
Isheka enjoys cooking, trying new foods, socializing, and going on adventures. You can check out her food page (Robins Fusion).