Franklin Miller Awards

I enthusiastically nominate Grace Jansen for the Franklin Miller Award to honor her significant contributions to the academic environment of Kenyon College. Grace will graduate from Kenyon in 2026 with a major in psychology and minor in religious studies, and she is on track to graduate summa cum laude with an extremely high GPA (3.93). 

I am so fortunate to have known Grace in various capacities — as my student in the classroom, as a research assistant in my lab, and now as my lab manager. Grace is capable, intelligent, driven, socio-emotionally mature, a natural leader and a stellar student. She maintains an extraordinarily high GPA while simultaneously juggling demanding and physically taxing performance and work as a student athlete (she is a swimmer) and also while involved in psychological lab research and extracurricular campus service (e.g., PSI CHI, the international honors society in psychology).

It has been a joy to watch Grace realize her passion for social work and to identify the path she wants to pursue via a MSW. This path is motivated by her desire to create meaningful and positive change supporting children and families at individual and broad levels. Already, her research efforts as an undergraduate are not only remarkable, but are directly aimed at her goals of understanding the challenges faced by children who become legally involved — all with an eye toward improving systems in ways that support children and families. Grace has been accepted into every MSW program she has applied for, due in no doubt to her considerable academic achievements which have enhanced the academic environment of Kenyon, as I describe below.When Grace learned of my research area — children, psychology and the law — she promptly approached me expressing interest in working in my lab. During my first meeting with Grace, it became clear to me that she had a strong interest in the field of children, psychology, and the law and was eager to gain research experience and learn about the field more broadly. She subsequently joined my social psychology and the law research lab where she has now worked with me for over two years facilitating on-going research projects. It is a joy having Grace as a research assistant in the lab. In my lab, Grace first achieved CITI approval to conduct ethical research and became involved in a number of different projects. And although I have a special interest in children, my research interests are also more broadly aimed at the intersection of psychology and the law, and accordingly I involved Grace in an on-going interdisciplinary research project in collaboration with a former visiting assistant professor of sociology, Kyla Bender-Baird, in which we examined on an overlooked issue within psychological research — the treatment of transgender plaintiffs in employment discrimination lawsuits. Together, we found that contrary to legal assumptions, introducing transgender plaintiffs’ medical diagnoses did not predict favorable outcomes for trans plaintiffs and in some cases predicted negative outcomes, backlash that might stem from essentialized conceptions of gender (Bender-Baird & Stevenson, 2024). Grace was instrumental in reliably coding data for this project. We have since extended this work by involving Grace in additional coding of our data, denoting the number of anti-transgender laws passed within each state for all of the plaintiffs in our dataset.

Grace also coded whether the plaintiff lived in a state whose electoral colleges went toward Biden versus Trump in the 2020 election. Grace’s work in coding these data permitted our data analysis revealing a significant association between losing a lawsuit alleging transgender-related employment discrimination and living in a state with more (vs. less) anti-trans legislation, as well as living in a red (vs. blue) state. Critically, Grace’s assistance on this project has made its publication in the American Psychologist very likely (we received a positive invitation to revise and resubmit our manuscript). Grace’s involvement in this work set the stage for her subsequent leadership in a follow-up project, this time examining factors that shape case outcomes in criminal cases involving trans defendants. Currently, Grace is managing 10 undergraduate research assistants across three colleges (Kenyon, Bridgewater State, and Oberlin College) in a collaborative effort to reliably identify all existing published criminal cases involving trans defendants — a challenging task requiring careful planning, coordination, attention to instructions, detail, and understanding of legal jargon. Truly, I have no other student I could entrust to spearhead this effort than Grace, who has more than risen to the task. She is both reliable and competent, and this project will also be successful because of her leadership role.It is an exciting thing for me as a professor to watch a student’s passion for research unfold and take form. This was certainly what happened for Grace, who joined my research lab as a research assistant and subsequently went on to apply for Kenyon’s John W. Adams Summer Program in Socio-Legal Studies to work under my mentorship as a research assistant last summer. She was admitted to this program and her research efforts in my lab facilitated a number of projects related to the intersection of children, psychology, and the law. She also enjoyed participating in opportunities offered by this program, which I developed as the program director. Specifically, I took all the program’s students to New York on a summer legal scholars experiential learning trip, where we observed a trial and subsequently spoke with the presiding judge. We also toured the Human Rights Watch, visited the NYU law school, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice psychology faculty hosted us and shared about their research and offered advice for prospective graduate students. There, Grace met with a faculty member, Kelly McWilliams, who spoke with her about her research at the intersection of children, psychology and the law — an experience that she later told me made it all the more clear to Grace of her solidified aim to pursue an MSW degree.With regard to the research Grace did that summer, her primary work in my lab was on a project examining factors predicting child sexual abuse outcomes stemming from cases from various midwestern Children’s Advocacy Centers. We replicated some of my earlier work, extending my own research regarding predictors of child sexual abuse case outcomes. We did so in collaboration with Dr. Wolf at the Center for Family Safety and Healing (TCFSH) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. As such, Grace and I have pursued research regarding the assessment of factors predicting child sexual abuse outcomes — particularly from an equity lens. Specifically, Grace was involved in coordinating the collection of data through the Ohio Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers (ONCAC) to assess racial equity in the treatment of children within Ohio’s children’s advocacy centers, extending my earlier work, but this time, with larger and more racially diverse samples across Ohio. 

Through this work, Grace and I found that children who disclose sexual abuse in the context of a forensic interview are more likely to have their abuse substantiated by DCS – but only if the children are White and not if they are Black (an effect replicating my earlier research, Stevenson & Rivers, 2023). We also replicated similar racial disparities revealing that cases involving Black perpetrators are more likely to result in abuse substantiation than cases involving White perpetrators. These effects are consistent with historical and present racism, steeped in a legacy of slavery and born from the myth of a Black male rapist, generated during the reconstruction era as a way of re-enslaving Black boys and men to rebuild the south. Because of Grace’s central role in these projects, she earned co-authorship — in fact lead authorship — on the latter project and has submitted the results for presentation at the annual professional Law and Society conference, this year to be held in San Francisco, where they were accepted and so she will present these findings as a talk. But because we believe these findings should not simply live behind a paywall to be exclusively read by an academic audience, Grace was directly involved in developing a detailed report that we disseminated to the Ohio Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers (ONCAC), and so Grace has directly helped contribute to the education of relevant issues of racial equity to the centers themselves – the people who are directly poised to affect meaningful social and policy change.Given Grace’s aptitude for research in the laboratory, it is no surprise that she also maintained consistently stellar scholastic achievement in the classroom and in all courses. Grace took my “Children, Psychology, and Law” course and emerged as a stellar student, earning an A overall in the course. I teach this course as an upper-level seminar-type discussion-oriented class. This class has no textbook and instead students read and discuss primary sources. Grace’s research proposal for the class reflected an important and novel research question racial equity in children’s likelihood to disclose sexual abuse in forensic interview contexts. I was so pleased that Grace’s knowledge and enthusiasm for the course material manifested in the classroom: She participated in class with confidence, sharing her unique and important insights, which was enriching for all students. Critically, Grace’s senior seminar course in psychology — a year-long capstone course — is on the topic of the “Family” and she will be studying interactive effects of race and therapeutic alliance among people who have experienced different kinds of abuse. As you can see, themes of race and racism emerge throughout Grace’s coursework and research because of Grace’s intentional efforts and deep concern regarding racial equity.I have enjoyed working with Grace both in the classroom and in the lab. I should also say that her she has impressed my faculty collaborators at different institutions (Cynthia Najdowski at University at Albany), who tell me how lucky I am to have such an incredibly competent research assistant (I know it!). It is clear to me that Grace will continue to be successful in her chosen field, having already gained considerable relevant experience in research as an undergraduate. Importantly, I want to emphasize that she achieved incredible academic success here at Kenyon despite the very real time and effort she expended competing as a student athlete, which meant early mornings of physically demanding swim practice and time-consuming travel for meets. So, she knows well how to succeed while juggling a very demanding schedule. Importantly, she not only knows what it takes to conduct high-quality research, but she has what it takes to be an effective mentor and lab manager. Grace worked well with my entire lab – she was conscientious and considerate, while also effective at managing a team of undergraduates across multiple institutions in an on-going research project.Grace has my full and enthusiastic support for the Franklin Miller Award.

Amanda is one of the most reliable students I've met on campus. She has two student employment positions where both of her supervisors describe her as imperative to the success of those departments. She volunteers for additional tasks like photography and music direction for the drama department and exceeds expectations at all of her endeavors. She is also a delight to have in the room, funny and kind. She is an exemplary collaborator and in her four years working with the drama department she has improved the quality of the productions and the environment of the costume shop. She improves curricular opportunities for DDF majors every time she is given the opportunity and that isn't even her major!

Amanda is an example of liberal arts education community and collaboration for that reason I would love to see her receive this award.

Spring 2026

Grace Jansen '26

Amanda Kuo '26

Fall 2025

Marilyn Gates '26

Laney Tullius '28

Spring 2025

Elizabeth Redmond '25

Khue Tran '25 and Mariah Szabo '26

Fall 2024

Basil (Isabella) Strickland '26

Marissa Sun '25

Fall 2023

Yufan Lu '25

Jaden Stewart '25

Spring 2024

Jessica Besca '24

 Olivia Rataezyk '25

Fall 2022

Michelle Lin '23

Happy Wang '23

Spring 2023

Victoria Brown '23

Molly Fording '23

Fall

Roya Best '22

Ella Wilson '23

Spring

Salame Shubitidze '22

Taylor Womack '24

Spring

Alex Thoms '23

Paris Tully '21

Fall

Zola Gray '23

Xiaoyu (Dorothy) Wang '21

Spring

Ben Baturka '20

April Murphy '22

Fall

Sutton Amthor ’21

Scout Crowell ’20

Spring

Ghada Bakbouk ’19

Qiyam Stewart ’21

Fall

Masen Colucci ’19

George Goldman ’20

Spring

Mustafa Aziz ’19

Jenna Rochelle ’18

Fall

Max Smith ’18

Toneisha Stubbs ’18

Spring

Eliza Abendroth ’18

Phoebe Carter ’17

Fall

Christiana Binkley ’17

Edgar Martin ’17

Spring

Emily Bulik-Sullivan ’16

Sean P. Bush ’17

Kaitlin, Creamer ’16

Fall

Qossay Alsattari ’16

James Currie ’16

Spring

Sarah Eisenlohr ’15

Shariq Khan ’15

Fall

Lila Greco ’15

Willa Sachs ’16

Spring

Co-awardees Julia Greer ’15, Casey Griffin ’14 & Emma Miller ’15

Megan Koenecke ’15

Fall

Benjamin Ros ’14

Robert Sellers ’14

Spring

Paul Hoehn ’14

Karen Huntsman ’13

Fall

Solomon Reisberg ’13

Co-awardees Tommy Brown ’13, Matt Hershey ’13 & Alexander Variano ’13

Spring

Paul Bisagni ’12

Timothy Jurney ’15

Jessica Goley ’12

Claire Dutton ’14

Fall

Darko Gligorovski ’14

Sean Grant ’14

Sarah Heminger ’13

Ashley Meyer ’14

Reina Thomas ’14

William Koehler ’11 

Meredith Blake ’09 

Caleb Ruopp ’09 

Matthew Jacobson ’09 

Priscilla Erickson ’09 

Pengyu “Alex” Zhao ’10 

Monica Kriete ’11

Tsvetan Asamov ’08 

Kathleen Woods ’09 

Chris Henson ’09 

Katerina Karaivanova ’10

Loren Bondurant ’07

Aaron Clark-Ginsberg ’08

Lee Kennard ’07

Matthew Zaremsky ’07

Kaelin Alexander ’07

Stefanie Wilson ’08

Christopher R. D’Ardenne ’06

Michael B. Dash ’07

David A. Long ’07

Marissa H. Stearns ’06

Tatsiana A. Zhurauliova ’06

Jacob Yandura ’09

Caitlin Wells ’06

Mary Hostenske ’06

Joanna Budd ’06

October

Joseph M. Neilsen ’06

Aaron T. Samuel ’05

November

Emily E. Nishioka ’05

Lara J. Cox ’06

February

Kelly Henry ’07

Jennifer Underwood ’05

April

Katharine Touchton-Leonard ’05

Lisa King ’07

October

Brad Bennett ’04

Alexander Franz ’04

November

Robbie Ketcham ’04

Kathy Lynd ’04

February

Mara Bernstein ’04

Jun Ma ’07

April

Tyler Van Wormer ’04

Benjamin Fahey-Burke ’06

October

Matthew Buckley ’03

November

Joseph Freeman ’05

Jennifer Raterman ’05

February

D. Michael Barnhart ’04

Chandra McClelland ’06

April

Christopher Wager ’05

Daniel Kiepfer ’03

October

Lisa M. Maurer ’04

Sarah C. Stella ’02

November

Margaret C. Scavotto ’02

Heather L. Van Ligten ’02

February

Michael F. Sriprasert ’02

Abby E. Rokosch ’02

April

Sarah R. Fox ’02

Lindsay M. Sabik ’03

October

Meredith Ishida ’03

Sarah Kammerer ’01

November

Emily Anderson ’01

Erika Plank ’01

February

Adam Knapp ’01

Jacob Howley ’03

Jessen Book ’01

April

Anneka Lenssen and Fritz Horstman ’01

William J. Ward ’01

Christopher Monson ’01

November

Donald Cole ’01

Sara Gage ’00

December

James Ray ’00

Alexis Staples ’02

March

Sarah Wasserman ’03

Allison Hawkins ’00

April

Jessica Berretto ’00

Anne Crosby ’00

October

Will Sugden ’99

Maraleen Shields’00

March

Joseph Fouse ’99

Erin Wimmers ’00

April

James Riggs Jr. ’99

Jesse Savage ’99

May

Michael Floyd ’01

Laura Vazquez ’99

David Heithaus ’99

Christopher Junkin ’99

May

Jefferson Barlew ’98

Beth Schiller ’98