FACULTY & STAFF AWARDS AND MILESTONES
Annual awards are given to faculty and staff of the Andrew Young School, including recognition for milestones in years of service.
DEAN'S EARLY CAREER AWARD
2024 Recipient
Lauren Hoehn-Velasco
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
Hoehn-Velasco joined the Andrew Young School in 2020. Her research areas of interest are public economics and health economics, with a focus on topics like the determinants of child and maternal health, the impacts of the recent pandemic, how public health investments impact mortality, domestic violence and health inequality.
In the four years Hoehn-Velasco has been on faculty, she has had 33 journal articles published or accepted for publication, as well as a book chapter and three working papers. Her work consistently appears in top general economics, health economics and general interest journals in economics. She has also published in top multidisciplinary policy and health journals, and her work has been cited nearly 800 times.

EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARD
2024 Recipient
Susan M. Snyder
Associate Professor
School of Social Work
Before joining the Andrew Young School, Snyder was an assistant professor of social work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was recognized as the Most Outstanding and Most Innovative Faculty Member by the 2015 M.S.W. class. In 2017, she received the AYSPS Dean’s Early Career Award.
Snyder employs innovative teaching methods rooted in trauma-informed teaching that engage and inspire students, fostering a safe and inclusive learning environment. She meticulously designs her courses, blending theoretical knowledge with practical application, which has been instrumental in preparing students for professional success as social workers.

2020
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Economics
Lorenzo Almada
2019
School of Social Work
Fred Books
2018
School of Public Management and Policy
Joseph Hacker
2017
Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
Dean Dabney
2016
School of Social Work
Nicholas Forge
2015
Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
Michael Shapiro
2014
Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
Leah Daigle
2013
Department of Economics
Grace Eau
2013
School of Social Work
Jan Ligon
2012
Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
Brenda Blackwell
2011
School of Public Management and Policy
Janelle Kerlin
2011
Department of Economics
Andrew Hanson
STAFF EXCELLENCE AWARD
2024 Recipient
Claudia Etnel
Administrative Specialist
Department of Economics
Etnel joined the college’s Department of Economics in spring 2024 after serving as human resources coordinator in the AYSPS Dean’s Office since 2018. She was nominated by both units for her exceptional contributions to each.
In the Dean’s Office, Etnel led several initiatives to improve human resources processes, such as creating new forms and procedure manuals, providing training to the administrative specialists and holding regular meetings and online Microsoft Teams groups to keep them updated and aligned with policies and procedures, many of which she documented, creating helpful guides. She also even helped streamline the graduate and student assistant hiring processes and created a comprehensive front desk operations manual for students and office staff to reference in case of absences.

2024 Recipient
Nadia Borissova
Associate Director
Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange
Borissova first worked for the GILEE program as a graduate research assistant while pursuing her degree. Upon graduation, she was hired as its program coordinator and in 2019 was promoted to her current position. She continues to make a significant impact for AYSPS and GILEE through her innovative approaches to expanding senior law enforcement leadership development across the city and state, and nationally and internationally.
Internally, Borissova initiated the redesign of an application used by the GILEE selection board to choose candidates for its executive leadership training, reducing the time required to evaluate applicants and improving the overall quality of program participants. In another example, she designed and oversaw GILEE’s 30th anniversary celebration, which raised record funding support for the organization while bringing significant attention to AYSPS and the university by prominent dignitaries.

2021
Urban Studies Institute
Laura Viilo
2021
Dean’s Office
Mya Eveland
2020
Public Management and Policy
Amber Slyter
2019
Mary Mason
2018
Dean’s Office
Avani Raval
2017
International Center of Public Policy
Paul Benson
2017
School of Public Management and Policy
Elsa Gebremedhin
2016
International Center of Public Policy
Shereen Bhan
2015
Department of Economics
Bess Byler
2014
Office of Academic Assistance
Matt Arp
2013
Department of Economics
Caroline Griffin
2012
Office of Academic Assistance
Shelly-Ann Williams
2011
Georgia Health Policy Center
Mei Zhou
MILESTONE RECOGNITIONS
30 Years of Service
Cindy Clark
Mark D. Reed
25 Years of Service
Krawee “Kevin” Ackaramongkolrotn
Brenda “Bess” Elizabeth Byler
Shiferaw Gurmu
Kristy Deshanne Hill
Gregory Lewis
Jan Ligon
Lakshmi N. Pandey
Peter Lyons
20 Years of Service
Mathieu J. Arp
Cheryl V. King
Andrey Timofeev
Mei Zhou
15 Years of Service
Lorenzo Almada
Leah Daigle
Dame Epiphane
Yang Liu
Annette Pope
Tony C. Price Jr.
Cynthia Searcy
10 Years of Service
K. Juree Capers
Natasha Deveauuse-Brown
Ann Marie DiGirolamo
Ann-Margaret Esnard
Jack Mason
Nicholas Forge
Michael Shapiro
Kristie Seelman
5 Years of Service
Guadalaupe Arteaga
Simone Bryant
Tranae Caldwell
Stefano Carattini
Troy Crittendon
Brooke Dan-El Di’Petrillo
David Maimon
Lelani Mannetti
Goncalo Monteiro
Marie Ouellet
Sashoy Patterson
Alice Prendergast
Torrian Percy
LaVon Scott
Christina Thayer