Art of Motherhood Exhibited
New mother and Assistant Professor of Art Mihee Nahm’s recent paintings, inspired by her first child, were featured in two juried exhibitions: Small Works 2024 in New York and Small Works in Waco. In this intimate series, she explores motherhood through still-life motifs of flowers, fingers and found paper — symbols of fragile perseverance, vulnerability and memory. Together, they express the tenderness, longing and beauty of the love she carries for her daughter. Nahm shares that motherhood has also deepened her care for students as whole individuals, shaping how she guides their creative growth.
“My work holds both the ache and the beauty of my overwhelming love for my daughter.”
MIHEE NAHM
From Classroom to Real-World Gain
Launched with $75,000 in donor-funded capital, UDallas’ Student Managed Investment Fund offers real-world investing experience to students in the Gupta College of Business. Nearly a decade later, the fund has grown to more than $200,000 — a 177% return that outpaces the S&P 500 over the same period. With guidance from faculty and alumni, students gain hands-on practice in research, risk analysis and portfolio management, preparing them for real-world finance careers.
Find out more here.
Gupta College of Business
Physics, Purpose and the Cosmos
Sharanya Palit, BA ’25, was selected to present her exoplanet research at the Texas Capitol during Undergraduate Research Day, earning the TXAPS Presentation Award. Guided by physics professor Dr. Richard Olenick, her work identified 24 potential exoplanets — some possibly habitable, others showing signs of orbital decay. Thanks to UDallas’ Core Curriculum, Palit approaches science not just as data collection, but as a human search for meaning. She began her astrophysics master’s at Brown University this fall.
“UDallas taught me that science is part of a bigger conversation about truth, beauty and the human desire.”
SHARANYA PALIT
UDallas Leader Joins Prestigious AI Ethics Program
Dr. Jodi Hunt, executive director of Ann and Joe O. Neuhoff Institute for Ministry and Evangelization, was selected for the prestigious Grefenstette Faculty Scholars Program at Duquesne University. As part of a national cohort exploring the ethical use of AI in connection with religious and theological studies, Hunt brings expertise in catechesis, pedagogy and digital theology. The program is helping shape how scholars examine technology’s impact on education, ministry and human relationships.
Connecting UDallas to DFW German Community
Dr. Jacob-Ivan Eidt, associate professor of modern languages, serves as president and trustee of the Dallas Goethe Center, a nonprofit promoting German language and culture in North Texas. Under his leadership, the center hosted an international symposium, launched scholarships and expanded language programs for children and adults. Many UDallas students gain internship experience through the center and engage with the wider DFW German network, extending the university’s cultural impact into the broader community.
UDallas Students Join Shakespeare Dallas
Sienna Abbott, BA ’25, and Margaret Frank ’28 worked on Othello with Shakespeare Dallas this past summer — Abbott as Bianca and Frank as assistant stage manager. Abbott says UDallas instilled in her a pursuit of truth and curiosity and opened doors to meeting guest artists like Danielle Georgiou, who became her movement director in Othello. Frank shares that UDallas’ professional environment, built by her professors, gave her the foundation to step confidently into varied, large-scale productions.
“UDallas Drama matches the professionalism of regional theater and inspires us to pursue our craft with the same dedication.”
SIENNA ABBOTT
Back-to-Back SCAC Elite Honors
Madison Meduna, BS ’25, in her senior year on the UDallas women’s golf team, was named the 2025 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Women’s Golf Elite 19 award winner. Graduating with a 4.0 GPA and a degree in biochemistry, Meduna also earned Second Team All-SCAC honors with a 10th-place finish at the conference championship. Meduna is the second UDallas student athlete to receive the award, following her teammate Kimberly Burch, BA ’25, who won it last season.
Best Preparation for Advanced Literary Study
Building on the strength of her UDallas education, Heidi Hughes, BA ’25, has been accepted into the highly selective English doctoral program at the University of Virginia — one of the top programs in the country. She credits the UDallas English program’s intellectual, emotional and spiritual breadth as “the best and only possible preparation for advanced study in literature,” praising its deep engagement with moral insight, aesthetic vision and the enduring power of our inherited body of literature.
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UDallas Classics Students Excel Nationally
John Dougherty ’26 and Bethany Kaufman ’27 were top cash prize winners in the CAMWS Advanced Latin Translation Exam, placing among the best of nearly 200 student contestants nationwide. Dougherty also tied with 2025 Valedictorian Owen Embree, BA & BS ’25, for second place in the Eta Sigma Phi Advanced Greek Exam. These national honors reflect UDallas’ strong classical tradition, where rigorous language training empowers students to read the ancient world on its own terms with fluency, insight and joy.
Dr. Berry’s Power of Verse
Dr. Sarah Berry’s new book, Staging the Lyric: Modern and Contemporary Experiments With Verse Drama, explores the return to verse drama, which is the use of poetry to enhance dialogue and dramatic effect, by playwrights from T.S. Eliot to Sylvia Plath. This powerful form of theater can be both conservative and experimental, compatible with a wide range of political, philosophical, theological and aesthetic aims — often within the same play. Berry brings these plays to life in her classroom through archival photos and in-class performances, helping students see the stage as a site of ongoing literary experimentation.
“It is wonderful to see students gain a better understanding and appreciation for a genre that might otherwise seem boring or hard to follow.”
DR. SARAH BERRY
Faculty Art on International Stages
Through her acclaimed ceramic and photographic work, Associate Professor Kelly O’Briant, MFA, continues to bring national and international recognition to the Art Department. In 2024, her pieces were featured in invitational exhibitions like SLOW Photography in Kristinestad, Finland, and in juried exhibitions at venues like the American Museum of Ceramic Art in California, affirming her place among today’s leading ceramic artists.
In her recent bodies of work, O’Briant has explored ideas of place, the weight of one’s belongings and the things we carry, and the presence of people, ideas or things that no longer have visible or measurable form.
“I am drawn to what it means to carry the collection of experiences that shape us — and how we grow when we gain or lose a treasured connection.”
KELLY O'BRIANT
A Commitment to Undergraduate Research
The university is deeply committed to providing undergraduates with meaningful research opportunities. At UDallas, 100% of bachelor of science students complete a significant research experience before graduation, and 75% present their work at regional or national conferences.
Kathleen George, BS ’25, exemplifies this dedication. She presented her research on specialized organic chemical entities at the 2025 Texas Undergraduate Research Day in Austin, as well as at multiple American Chemical Society meetings. She is now pursuing her PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Notre Dame.
“It is a personal mission of mine to ensure that every student in my lab has the chance to present their work before graduating.”
DR. SAADIA BIMIDINE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY
Dr. Kenney on Austen’s Endings
The university is deeply committed to providing undergraduates with meaningful research opportunities. At UDallas, 100% of bachelor of science students complete a significant research experience before graduation, and 75% present their work at regional or national conferences.
Kathleen George, BS ’25, exemplifies this dedication. She presented her research on specialized organic chemical entities at the 2025 Texas Undergraduate Research Day in Austin, as well as at multiple American Chemical Society meetings. She is now pursuing her PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Notre Dame.
A Career Built on Excellence
After achieving full professorship in the College of Business, Dr. Laura Muñoz continues to rise. Honored with the Haggerty Teaching Award and national accolades for teaching excellence, she was recently elected editor-
in-chief of the Marketing Management Journal, a peer-reviewed publication with global readership in marketing scholarship. Her leadership not only crowns a distinguished career, but also strengthens UDallas’ international reputation for academic excellence and dedicated faculty.
Prestigious Fellowship, Public Calling
Darcy Stubbs, a political philosophy doctoral candidate in the Braniff Graduate School’s Institute of Philosophic Studies, was named a 2024 Fellow by the prestigious Rumsfeld Foundation Graduate Fellowship Program, a highly selective honor by nomination only. The fellowship recognizes exceptional graduate students for their leadership, moral character and commitment to public service.
Through this fellowship, Stubbs joined a national network of scholars, public servants and thought leaders dedicated to the public good. Stubbs reflects that the fellowship “lent [her] pursuits a weightier dignity” and expanded her vision for a career in the humanities — one rooted in virtue and the tradition of the Founding Fathers.
“The fellowship opened a broader world of ideas — through discussions and opportunities to know the people bringing those ideas to light.”
DARCY STUBBS
IPS Scholar Illuminates Dante’s Vision
Joe Carlson, BA ’05 MA ’21 PhD ’25, a graduate student in the Institute of Philosophic Studies (IPS), earned a doctorate with distinction for his dissertation on Dante’s Divine Comedy as a poetic resolution to the philosophical shortcomings of Convivio. His original three-volume translation of the
Commedia and accompanying reader’s guides affirm the enduring relevance of poetic truth. Carlson’s work while studying at the IPS contributes to a growing revival of classical learning, an effort deeply shaped by UDallas’ commitment to the Christian intellectual tradition.
“Dante has enlarged my vision of creation and given me eyes to see the majesty of Christ in and through everything He has made.”
JOE CARLSON
From Great Books to National Service
Joe Carlson, BA ’05 MA ’21 PhD ’25, a graduate student in the Institute of
Heath Dowers, MA ’21, doctoral candidate in the Institute of Philosophic Studies, was awarded a prestigious Boren Fellowship to study Arabic in Oman. Boren Fellows receive funding to study foreign languages and cultures in regions critical to American interests.
Dowers immerses himself in Arabic study and conducts dissertation research on the political philosophy of 10th-century Islamic thinker al-Farabi, whose writings on reason, division and civic harmony continue to shape serious philosophical inquiry. Drawn to Oman by its traditional Arab culture and hospitality, Dowers enjoys experiencing the region firsthand through daily study and local engagement.
He credits the university’s Great Books foundation, small classes and faculty — especially Drs. Dougherty, Parens, Berry and Burns — for sharpening his intellect and broadening his worldview. After Oman, Dowers hopes to serve in national security as an analyst or teach at a U.S. military institution.
Executives-on-Campus Program Enhances Real-World Learning
Dr. Laura Muñoz led the revival of the Executives-on-Campus program, which brought 48 executives to campus for 34 events during the 2024-25 academic year. Many of them were alumni, eager to give back by offering their time, insights and gratitude for how UDallas prepared them for their successes. For students, the program offered an opportunity to hear firsthand from professionals about current trends and practices in specific fields like cybersecurity and marketing. Alumni speakers especially showcased for students how a UDallas education leads to real-world success and accelerated career growth.