Dear Lyman Briggs Alumni and Friends, 

Greetings from Holmes Hall! I’m pleased to share highlights from what was a true season of impact at Lyman Briggs in the Fall of 2025. 

This impact has taken shape amid significant challenges, including reduced federal research funding, a shifting political landscape affecting areas of inquiry central to our college mission, and university-wide budget reductions felt acutely in our small, tight-knit college.

In response, we centered people and purpose. We supported affected faculty and students through relationship-centered strategies that sustained research, teaching, and academic freedom, and we approached difficult budget decisions with transparency and care to preserve educational quality and community trust.  



We also redoubled our fundraising efforts in the face of financial strain. We piloted our highly impactful First-Year Seminar with donor funds, started our first-ever faculty success fund in memory of Hanni Nichols, and continue to grow mentored research opportunities and support for the ULA program. In fact, we are just $400,000 from breaking LBC’s all-time fundraising goal for this fiscal year, and we are so thankful to all of you who are helping us to advance LBC’s goals.



Thank you for your continued connection to Lyman Briggs College. I am regularly reminded how special Briggs is, and that is because of the students, faculty, staff, and alumni who make up our community. In November, the MSU provost and president reappointed me to a second term as dean. I am honored to work alongside each of you in pursuit of meaningful, mission-driven, student-centered work. 

Warm regards, 

Kendra Spence Cheruvelil 

Dean, Lyman Briggs College 

Amanda Domingues

Lisa Fink

Ariel Steele

Briggs Summer Scholars Program

Prior to the fall semester, the Briggs Summer Scholars Program supported qualifying Briggsies with tuition-free coursework in the second summer term, an early move-in to build connections and acclimate to campus, and additional academic skill development. Each year, this bridge program offers an early, supported start to college for up to 30 qualifying students.

First-Year Seminar

The first year of college is especially important for student success and wellbeing, particularly in STEM fields where academic and transitional pressures can be high. To support students in alignment with our Strategic Plan. Lyman Briggs piloted a peer‑led First-Year Seminar (FYS), building on insights from LBC mentoring and cohort programs. The FYS uses structured engagement and guided reflection with peer mentors to help students grow in five key areas of the Spartan Undergraduate Experience: discovering purpose, achieving academic success, building belonging, contributing to community, and supporting wellbeing. We are building momentum to offer this impactful experience to all incoming students in the fall. 

Career Education and Curriculum Integration

LBC is making career education more accessible to our students through the partnership of our career team and faculty. 

In the fall, two of LBC's own were featured in a Career Everywhere podcast by UConnect: Krysta Foster, associate director of career services-LBC, and Shahnaz Masani (assistant professor of biology and physiology). In the podcast they discuss In Real Life Lab: where career curriculum is woven into core science courses like LB 144 (Cell and Organismal Biology)

Community Pantry

The Lyman Briggs College Student Success Initiative Community Pantry helps provide LBC students who need physical support with easy access to free everyday essentials such as snacks, toiletries, and school supplies—right in Holmes, where they live and learn. Last semester, students shared how meaningful these resources were in supporting their day-to-day success. Alumni and friends can contribute by purchasing items through our Amazon wish list or dropping off supplies directly.

Congratulations to Sarah Krikor, a third-year human student majoring in human biology, for being nominated for the Churchill Scholarship, which supports a year of graduate study in engineering, mathematics, or sciences at the University of Cambridge.

Congratulations to Abigail Carvey, an LBC Class of 2025 alum in neuroscience. Abigail was nominated for the Marshall Scholarship, which supports graduate study at English institutions.

Congratulations to Kierra Jursch, a fourth-year student with majors in biology and psychology. She was nominated for both the Marshall Scholarship and the U.S. Rhodes Scholarship, which is one of the most prestigious international awards for fully funded study at the University of Oxford.

Congratulations to Tammy Thai, a fourth-year human student with a major in biology and a minor in bioethics. Tammy was nominated for the McCall MacBain Scholars Program, a fully funded leadership and graduate study opportunity at McGill University in Montreal.

Congratulations to Caroline Beckrow, a fourth-year student with human biology and social relations and policy majors, who represented LBC, James Madison College, and the Honors College on the 2025 Homecoming Court.

Congratulations to Clausell Mathis, assistant professor of physics and physics education in LBC and the Department of Teacher Education, who was named a Winter 2026 Fellow of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). He is one of only two educators nationwide to receive this honor.

Congratulations to Ryan Sweeder, professor of chemistry and associate dean for research and faculty affairs, who was selected as a 2025-26 Big Ten Academic Alliance Academic Leader Program Fellow.

LBC faculty abroad with fellowships and awards

Did you know some LBC faculty conduct research and teach abroad?

• Kevin Elliott, Red Cedar Distinguished Professor of science and society, was in Germany on the Humboldt Research Award from the German government in the fall.
• Robert Pennock, University Distinguished Professor of science and society, was in India on the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship in the fall.
• Aklilu Zeleke, professor of mathematics, was at the University of Rwanda on the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship in the fall
• Richard A. Edwards, associate teaching professor of mathematics, will conduct research in England, on the Lisa Jardine Grant from the Royal Society of London, in 2026.

LBC faculty leadership in interdisciplinarity

Megan Halpern, associate professor of science and society, is the founding director of the MSU Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Collaboration, Learning, and Engagement (CIRCLE), and Ellie Louson, associate teaching professor of science and society, is its inaugural associate director for teaching and learning. With Megan and Ellie's contributions, CIRCLE aims to spread LBC's interdisciplinary teaching models throughout MSU and beyond! One example is a collaborative course on the theme of monsters and urban legends, taught by faculty from different disciplines and perspectives, funded by CIRCLE's seed-grant program.

This fall, LBC faculty members contributed notable publications across STEM, education, and the humanities and social sciences. Many faculty members worked with current and former LBC students to conduct research and write articles. Those names are marked with an asterisk.

• Jennifer Doherty, Kat Todd*, Aeryn VanDerSlik*, Eli Col*. “Biological Principles Successfully Guide Students’ Generative Mechanistic Reasoning” in CBE-Life Science Education.
  
• Jennifer Doherty, Aeryn VanDerSlik*, Emily E. Scott*, Mary Pat Wenderoth*, Zachary A. Kam*, Jasmine D. Parker*, Maya B. Shah*, Joseph Vieregge*. “Directed or Random? Student Reasoning About Diffusion Across Contexts” in Advances in Physiology Education.
  
• Kevin Elliott. HARP Production Grant. Supports open‑access publication of the forthcoming book, The Routledge Handbook of Values and Science, in which he served as an editor and chapter author.
  
• Andrea Kelley. 2025 article “Medical Schools as Cisgendered Organizations” was selected for a Social Science & Medicine special collection on power, structure, and health.
  
• Ellie Louson, Ryan Sweeder, Maxine Davis, Milo Treger* “Centering student perspectives and equity data in a multi-institutional learning community program” in To Improve the Academy.

• Clausell Mathis, Maya Patel*. Two publications in Physical Review Physics Education Research:
• “Tracing Different forms of politicized care in teaching physics to students traditionally underserved in science”
• “Exploring physic teacher identify: Pathways toward equitable instruction among teachers”
  
• Reagin McNeill. 2024 article coauthored with A. Jefferson: “ 'Prove yourself': Exploring epistemological values in mathematics department support and oppression of Black women faculty" was featured as an example of broadened inquiry and scholarship in an editorial in Journal for Research in Mathematics Education.

• Ryan Sweeder, Merve Kursav, Sean Valles. "Mechanisms of STEM Retention: Lessons from Interview Data from Students in STEM Cohort Program" in Journal of STEM Education.