The mission of The University of Texas at San Antonio is to make lives better by advancing excellence in education; research, discovery and commercialization; health; public service; and community engagement.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2025
PROCESSIONAL
NATIONAL ANTHEM
“The Star-Spangled Banner”
REMARKS
Heather Trepal, PhD Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
Heather Shipley, PhD
Provost and Senior Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
CERTIFICATION AND CONFERRAL OF DEGREES
PRESENTATION OF THE GRADUATES
College of AI, Cyber and Computing
Carlos Alvarez College of Business
College of Education and Human Development
College of Liberal and Fine Arts
College of Sciences
College for Health, Community and Policy
Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
University College
CLOSING REMARKS College Deans
Heather Trepal, PhD Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
FIGHT SONG
RECESSIONAL
Lead by Mariachis
Prince Adzimah Buti
PhD in Applied Statistics
Major Professor: Min Wang, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Bayesian Approaches in Joint Modeling and Hypothesis Testing: Application in Mixed Response Analysis and Random Effect Models”
Velu Pillai
PhD in Computer Engineering
Major Professor: Eugene John, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Ultra-Low-Power Edge-Optimized Weightless Neural Networks for Cardiac Rhythm and Stroke Volume Monitoring”
*Mazal Bethany
PhD in Information Technology
Major Professor: Peyman Najafirad, PhD
Dissertation Title: “AI in the Information Environment: Content Moderation, Adversarial Manipulation, and AI Security”
*Cody Allen Cunov
PhD in Information Technology
Major Professors: Eric Bachura, PhD and Philip Menard, PhD
Dissertation Title: “From Features to Feelings: How Media Platform Design Fosters Parasocial Experiences”
*Bryson Hilton
PhD in Marketing
Major Professor: Ashwin Malshe, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Essays on Marketing Strategy: Insights for Marketing and Supply Chain Management”
*Pranali Mandaokar
PhD in Information Technology
Major Professor: H. Raghav Rao, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Investigation of Interaction Between Emergency Management Agencies and Public During Crisis Situations”
*David Amaury Tavares
PhD in Finance
Major Professor: Kharon Banot, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Essays in Banking and Financial Intermediation”
*Xingmeng Zhao
PhD in Information Technology
Major Professor: Anthony Rios, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Responsible AI for Healthcare and Community Well-Being from Ethical Design to Practical Deployment”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
Elise N. Brittain
PhD in Culture, Literacy and Language
Major Professor: Kristen Lindahl, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Language Teacher Identity Impacts of English Teaching Policy and Ideology in Uzbekistan: Teacher Training as Nexus of Practice”
José Gabriel Bruzón
PhD in Culture, Literacy and Language
Major Professor: Gilberto Lara, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Experiences of Newly Arrived Latino Immigrant Parents Supporting Their Children’s Education in a Public Middle School”
*María Fernanda Bruzón
PhD in Culture, Literacy and Language
Major Professor: Jorge Solis, PhD
Dissertation Title: “The Discourse of Multicultural Literacies by Novice Bilingual Teachers in Dual Language Classrooms”
*Laura M. Cardona Berrio
PhD in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Major Professor: Iliana Alanís, PhD and Maria Leija, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Culturally Sustaining Biliteracy and Oracy Practices in Early Childhood Education: Challenging Deficit Perspectives Around Young Latina/o Children”
*Héctor Rafael Castrillón-Costa
PhD in Culture, Literacy and Language
Major Professor: Kathryn Henderson, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Disordering Colonial Schooling: An Ethnography Educational Language Policy and Planning”
Bianca Lizette Chapa
PhD in Educational Leadership
Major Professor: Sofia Bahena, EdD
Dissertation Title: “Testing the Limits: Exploring Teacher Perspectives on State-Mandated Assessments and Wellbeing in Texas Title I School”
Olga Estrada
PhD in Culture, Literacy and Language
Major Professor: Lilliana Saldaña, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Clapped Back Together: Healing Through Queer Conocimiento, Puteria Praxis, and Wetty Pedagogy”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
Shandra Harris
PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision
Major Professor: Claudia Interiano-Shiverdecker, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Post-Traumatic Stress and Consensual Unwanted Sex: The Role of Frequency, Gender, and Reasons for Consenting”
Bryce Kyle
PhD in Educational Leadership
Major Professor: Curtis Brewer, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Drawing Out Student Veteran Workforce Transitions: Inscriptions, Editions, and Discoveries”
Jorge Alberto Limón
PhD in Educational Leadership
Major Professor: Betty Merchant, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Del Salón a la Dirección: The Journey of Former Bilingual Students Leading Rural Schools”
Madison Arden Mitchell
PhD in Educational Leadership
Major Professor: Curtis Brewer, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Voices in a Volatile Era: Faculty Perspectives on the Shifting Landscape of Academic Work in Small, Private, Tuition-Dependent Institutions”
*Luis Emmanuel Montero Moguel
PhD in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Major Professors: Guadalupe Carmona, PhD and Joel Alejandro Mejía, PhD
Dissertation Title: “A Comparative Study of the Cognitive Integration of Disciplinary and Societal Knowledge Between First-Year and Senior Engineering Students Through Mathematical Modeling: An Epistemic Network Analysis”
*Ngoc Que Anh Pham
PhD in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Major Professor: Crystal Kalinec-Craig, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching and Torres’s Rights of the Learner: Exploring Vietnamese Elementary Teachers’ Experiences”
Victoria Gonzales Rivas
PhD in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Major Professor: Crystal Kalinec-Craig, PhD
Dissertation Title: “(Re)Humanizing Pedagogy and Zone of Proximal Development: A Mixed Methods Study Investigating Mathematics CoRequisite Students”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
Naomi Beth Rubal
PhD in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching
Major Professor: Bekisizwe Ndimande, PhD
Dissertation Title: “First-Year Experience Service-Learning Modality Differences Among First-Generation College Students”
Maria Elizabeth Montemayor
PhD in Educational Leadership
Major Professor: Mariela Rodriguez, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Towards Sustaining Newcomers’ Cultures’: An ESL Teacher’s Math Curriculum Design Journey”
Hamidreza Allahdadi
PhD in Civil Engineering
Major Professor: Samer Dessouky, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Energy Harvesting in Transportation Infrastructure: Longitudinal and Efficiency Assessments of Maintenance- Free Solar Panels on Horizontal and Vertical Surfaces Across Various Climates”
Athanasios Ioannis Arvanitidis
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Miltos Alamaniotis, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Optimal Economic Dispatch and Load Following Control in Nuclear Integrated Energy Systems Using Deep Reinforcement Learning”
Protik Banerjee
PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering
Major Professor: Saugata Datta, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Biogeochemical Factors Controlling the Mobility of Soil Phosphorus in Different Land-use Patterns Across a Climatic Transect”
Jose Artur Teixeira Brasil
PhD in Civil Engineering
Major Professor: Marcio Giacomoni, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Enhancing Urban Stormwater Management Through Digital Twins and Low-Impact Development: A Framework for Real-Time Monitoring and Performance Evaluation”
Lingjuan Chen
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Chunjiang Qian, PhD
Dissertation Title: “From Neural Network Controllers to Cyber-Physical Systems: Efficient Resilience Assessment Methods”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
*Stephen Ambe Chengu
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Sara Ahmed, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Modeling, Control, and Protection of Modern Distribution Networks Integrating Inverter-based Resources and Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles”
Anurag Daram
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Dhireesha Kudithipudi, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Towards Efficient Continual Learning With Neuronal Importance and Alignment”
Kyle Logan Fetter
PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Major Professor: Daniel Pineda, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Toward Real-Time measurements of Toxic and Flammable Gases Using Wavelength Modulation Spectroscopy”
William Paul Flynn
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Ruyan Guo, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Smart Electronics: Materials Jetting Additive Manufacturing of Multiferroic Composite Materials for Tunable Electronic Device Applications”
*Bryan M. Gamboa
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Ruyan Guo, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Experimental and Numerical Evaluation of Stacked Piezoelectrics and Composite Structures for High-Efficiency Mechanical-toElectrical Energy Conversion”
Sean Garnsey
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Ruyan Guo, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Reactive Inkjet Printing of Nanostructured Metal Oxide Microelectronics”
*Ali Hosseinzadeh Ghobadlou
PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Major Professor: F. Frank Chen, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Fuzzy-Ranked Ensemble of CNNS and Vision Transformers for Steel Surface Defect Detection and Maintenance Prioritization”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
*Gabriela Cervantes-Gonzales
PhD in Biomedical Engineering
Major Professor: Teja Guda, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Tissue Mechanics, Microbiome, and Inflammation Modulate Post-Injury Rehabilitation in the Upper Airway”
George T. Harea
PhD in Biomedical Engineering
Major Professor: Teja Guda, Professor, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Development of Modern Miniaturized Extra Corporeal Life Support System for Selective Organ Perfusion and Adjunct Therapies”
Savannah Heath
PhD in Biomedical Engineering
Major Professor: Xiaodu Wang, Professor, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Holistic Study into the Age-Related Effect of Glycosaminoglycans (GAGS) Loss on Bone Quality and Potential Underlying Mechanisms”
Halah Jaber
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Claire Walton, PhD
Dissertation Title: COPNet, Compositional Orthogonal Polynomials Network”
*Anshul Jha
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Eugene John, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Neural Networks for Intelligent Healthcare: Transfer Learning and WNN Based Hardware Accelerator for Disease Detection”
*Mansi Hiren Joshi
PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering
Major Professor: Alan Whittington, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Analyzing Sea Ice Formation, Growth and Deformation in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica Using ICESat-2”
*Elijah James LaLonde
PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Major Professor: Christopher Combs, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Experimental Measurements of Hypersonic Separation Events”
*Roy Uzoma Lan
PhD in Civil Engineering
Major Professor: Ibukun Awolusi, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Enhancing Workplace Safety Using Emerging Technologies: The Role of Computer Vision in Mitigating Risks in Construction and Steel Industries”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
Xiaoyun Liang
PhD in Civil Engineering
Major Professor: Jiannan Cai, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Communicate, Understand, and Collaborate: An Aiintegrated Human-Robot Collaboration Approach to Improve Safety and Productivity in Construction”
Gonzalo Martinez Medina
PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Major Professor: Krystel Castillo, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Infrastructure, and Security: Advancing Smart Manufacturing Through Review, Modeling, and Optimization”
Mei Lani Cabico May
PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering
Major Professor: Brian Laub, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Low Impact Development Implementations for the Edwards Plateau”
*Sergio Montufar Chavez
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Chunjiang Qian, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Design and Control of an Autonomous Wheel-Legged Biped Robot ”
Thomas Edward Nordstrand
PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering
Major Professor: Yongli Gao, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Hailstones: Analyzing Their Composition and Constituents for Environmental Insights”
*Chinedu Patrick Okonkwo
PhD in Civil Engineering
Major Professor: Ibukun Awolusi, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Autonomous Construction in Extraterrestrial Environments: A Focus on Process Simulation and Resource Optimization for Lunar Sustainability”
James W. Ryan
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Guenevere ‘Qian’ Chen, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Side Channels of Imaging Systems: Image Injection and Extraction”
*Robert Stannert
PhD in Biomedical Engineering
Major Professor: Nehal Abu-Lail, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Comparative Physiochemical and Mechanical Characterization of Healthy and Osteoarthritic Human Chondrocytes”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
Sean Christian Tritley
PhD in Biomedical Engineering
Major Professor: Amina Qutub, Professor, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Modeling the Brain’s Master Clock: Reprogramming Life’s Daily Recipes”
*Juan Camilo Velasquez Gonzalez
PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Major Professor: David Restrepo, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Development of Derivative-Enhanced Surrogate
Modelling Capabilities for Optimization and Design of Dynamical Structural Systems”
*Maria Fernanda Villa Bracamonte
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Arturo Ayon, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Advanced Optical Characterization and Modeling of Multilayer Thin Films for Perovskite Photovoltaics: Addressing Structural Non-Idealities and Material-Specific Behaviors”
Stacy Ann Willson
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Guenevere ‘Qian’ Chen, PhD
Dissertation Title: “From Phishing to PLCs: AI-Driven Security Solutions Using Behavioral and Industrial Data”
Mingkang Wu
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Yongcan Cao, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Reinforcement Learning from Human Guidance”
*Yu Zhang
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Yuanxiong Guo, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Quantum-Assisted Optimal Resource Allocation for Next-Generation Wireless Networks”
Zhenxiao Zhang
PhD in Electrical Engineering
Major Professor: Yanmin Gong, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Advancing Secure and Efficient Edge Intelligence Over Mobile Edge Networks”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
*Kaitlin Grelle
PhD in Psychology
Major Professor: Rebecca Weston, PhD
Dissertation Title: "A Longitudinal Evaluation of Healthy Relationship Education: How Self-Efficacy Influences Adolescent Dating Violence Among Youth With Foster Care Experience"
*Christina Gabriella Quintanilla-Munoz
PhD in Applied Demography
Major Professor: Rogelio Sáenz, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Examining the Consequences of Gentrification On Residents’ Neighborhood Opportunity in San Antonio and Bexar County, Texas”
*Humyra Jabin Rama
PhD in Applied Demography
Major Professor: Raymond Swisher, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Variation in Mother’s Physical and Mental Health Across Parental Stages”
*Coda Edith Rayo-Garza
PhD in Applied Demography
Major Professor: Rogelio Saenz, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Death by Politics: Examining Patterns in Mortality and Life Expectancy Through the Political Determinants of Health Framework in the Southern United States”
Drew Scott Schaefer
PhD in Applied Demography
Major Professor: Jeralynn S. Cossman, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Trends in County-Level Working-Age Life Expectancy: The Role of Sex and Education”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
Kayla Joan Guerrero Morales
PhD in Anthropology
Major Professor: Devin Flaherty, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Siempre Nos Ayudamos: Community Care and Chronic Disaster in Puerto Rico”
Calvin Hoovestol
PhD in English
Major Professor: Steven Kellman, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Huckleberry Finn’s Wigwam Quest: Frontier Indianism in Twain’s Vanishing Indian Quintology”
Christina Willis Frasier
PhD in Anthropology
Major Professor: Jamon Halvaksz, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Placekeeping as Social Equity: Heritage and Gentrification in San Antonio, Texas”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
Anthony Amaya
PhD in Chemistry
Major Professor: Zachary Tonzetich, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Synthesis and Catalytic Studies of Hydrofunctionalization Reactions With Well-Defined Pincer Complexes”
*Courtney Paige Cornitius
PhD in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Major Professor: Jenny Hsieh, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Roles of Candida Albicans Pathogenesis in the Aggravation and Promotion of Alzheimer’s Disease”
Charles Anthony Garcia
PhD in Neuroscience
Major Professor: T. Chris Gamblin, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Impact of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Structure on the Induction of Tau Aggregates”
Caleb Joseph Gimar
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Ujjwal Raut, PhD
Dissertation Title: “From the Moon to Charon: Laboratory Investigations Into Space Weathering and Polar Reddening”
Tu Minh Ho
PhD in Chemistry
Major Professor: Francis Yoshimoto, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Synthesis of C12-Deuterated Sterol Derivatives to Explore Cytochrome P450 8B1 Enzymology”
Gregory Jellick
PhD in Chemistry
Major Professor: Stephan Bach, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Characterization of Acaricide Pharmacokinetics, Bioavailability, and Dosing Strategies to Improve Control of Cattle Fever Ticks”
Nathan Alexander Kilgore
PhD in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Major Professor: Janakiram Seshu, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Molecular Mechanisms Underpinning the Role of Borrelia Host Adaptation Protein (BadP) in Pathogenesis of Agent of Lyme Disease”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
Kevin James Knebel
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Arturo Ayon, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Optical Characterization and Down-Shifting Effects of CuInS₂ Quantum Dots for Solar Cell Enhancement”
*Carlos Alberto Marquez Ibarra
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Kathryn Mayer, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Assessment of Advanced Materials for Sustainability Applications: Environ-Mental Sensing and Hydrogen Storage”
Md Mohsin
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Marcelo Marucho, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Polyelectrolyte Properties of Actin and Microtubule and Their Roles in Electrical Activities in Neurons”
Kimberly Dianne Moreland
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Maher Al Dayeh, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Relationships Among Space Weather Elements and Their Importance In Forecasting”
*Veena Prasad
PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology
Major Professor: T. Chris Gamblin, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Assay Development for Tau-Directed Therapeutics”
Michael D. Preston
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Angela K. Speck, PhD
Dissertation Title: “The Curious Case of RT Vir: Developing New Tools for DUSTY Modeling, Motivated By A Stellar Outlier”
Jeremy Lynn Reed
PhD in Computer Science
Major Professor: Turgay Korkmaz, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Securing the IoT Edge Cloud Model”
*Sarah Beth Saeger
PhD in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Major Professor: Chiung-Yu Hung, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Drug Discovery and Characterization of Activity Against Coccidioides Spherules”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
*Jared Lawrence Schroeder
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Stefano Livi, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Advancing Neutral Instrument Calibration: Development of a Molecular Beam Facility and Velocity Filtering Technique for In-Situ Mass Spectrometers”
*Christian Ray Borbon Serrano
PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology
Major Professor: Melanie Carless, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Role of DNA Methylation in a Hispanic Childhood Obesity Cohort”
Rakibul Alam Shohan
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Arturo Ponce Pedraza, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Structural Transformation and Physical Properties of Oxide Materials by Using In-Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy”
*Michael Anthony Velez
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Kurt Retherford, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Investigating Europa’s Atmosphere and Surface Composition: Hubble Space Telescope Analysis and Europa-UVS Stellar Occultation Preparations”
Dinesh Kumar Veypatty Radhakrishnan
PhD in Physics
Major Professor: Stephen Fuselier, PhD
Dissertation Title: “Journeying Through the Magnetopause: Statistical Studies of Kelvin Helmholtz Instabilities as Seen by the MMS Mission”
*Candidates who graduated in August 2025. All other candidates are expected to meet their requirements in December 2025.
Taylor Eighmy, PhD President
Heather Adkins, MS
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
Lisa Campos, EdD
Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics and Athletics Director
Francisco Cigarroa, MD
Senior Executive Vice President for Health Affairs and Health System
Kathryn E. Keeton, PhD
Vice President for Presidential Initiatives and Chief of Staff
Andrea Marks, MBA, CPA
Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Carlos Martinez, MS, JD
Senior Vice President for Governmental Relations
Karl Miller-Lugo, MBA
Senior Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Engagement
Hailey Mullican, JD
Vice President for Legal Affairs and Chief Legal Officer
Jennifer Sharpe Potter, PhD
Senior Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation
Veronica Salazar, MBA
Senior Executive Vice President for Enterprise Development and Transformation
Heather Shipley, PhD
Provost and Senior Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Eric Brey, PhD
Dean, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Lynne Cossman, PhD
Dean, College for Health, Community and Policy
Jill Fleuriet, PhD
Vice Provost for Honors Education
Jonathon Halbesleben, PhD
Dean, Carlos Alvarez College of Business
Fred Martin, PhD
Interim Dean, College of AI, Cyber and Computing
Glenn Martínez, PhD
Dean, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Jianwei Niu, PhD
Dean, University College
Stephanie Santorico, PhD
Dean, College of Sciences
Mario Torres, PhD
Dean, College of Education and Human Development
Heather Trepal, PhD
Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and Graduate Dean