Student Achievements

Heyshel Guillermo-Tapia ’28 (Biology Major) spent six weeks this summer at the University of Virginia Medical School participating in the Summer Medical School Leadership Program where she had the opportunity to shadow clinicians, observe surgeries, explore various medical specialties, prepare to take the MCAT exam and participate in research on opioids.

Cynthia De La Paz Charco ’27 (Chemistry Major) spent her summer at the University of Michigan participating in the Summer Research Opportunity Program. Earlier in the spring, Cynthia presented a research paper at the American Chemical Society convention in Atlanta. Cynthia was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a junior! Trinity Alumna Lorena Medoza Perez ’26, also Phi Beta Kappa, participated in the SROP at Michigan last year and now she is working as a research assistant there!

Millicent Okoro ’27 spent the summer at the Yale School of Medicine in the PATHS program to develop future physicians and scientists. Millicent enjoyed the mentorship of Trinity Clare Boothe Luce Professor Taylor McFadden as she developed her research talents at Yale.

The Trinity Times, our student newspaper and media outlet, took 19 of 40 awards at this year’s Catholic Media Association conference including the award for Best Student News Organization, as well as Best Website, Best News Story, Best Profile, Best Audio or Radio Single Episode, Best Multimedia or Digital Storytelling and Best News Photo. Trinity students competed with journalism students from colleges and universities across the United States, such as Fordham, Loyola, Catholic University, Notre Dame and the University of San Diego.

Four students received the Katherine Johnson Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics including Masai Oakes ’26 in Mathematics, Laurie Cangé ’27 in Biology, and minoring in bioinformatics; Nila Smartt ’28 in Biology; and Biochemistry major Miriam Mendoza Pinzon ’29. Trinity Alumna Jurate Kazickas ’64 created the Johnson Award in the name of the famous NASA mathematician whose significant contributions to the space program are legendary; the award encourages Trinity students to succeed a high levels in math and science.

Faculty Achievements

Dr. Patrice E. Moss, Professor of Biochemistry, earned recognition as a 2026 AAAS Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, “for distinguished contributions to the field of broadening the participation of minoritized groups in STEM via significant and sustainable evidence-based undergraduate education reform.”

Dr. Moss, who came to Trinity as a Clare Boothe Luce Professor in 2012, has been one of the leaders in revitalizing Trinity’s science curricula and pedagogies.  For the last decade, Dr. Moss led Trinity’s undergraduate research initiative through which nearly 200 students participated in research projects and made presentations at local and national conferences.  Many of those students subsequently gained admission to major graduate schools as a result of Dr. Moss’s careful mentoring.  Among other achievements, she secured a major grant from the Sloan Foundation for a partnership with Johns Hopkins to prepare Trinity students for pathways to graduate study in the sciences.

Dr. Jamal Watson, Associate Dean for our School of Professional and Graduate Studies, was awarded the The Frank W. Hale Jr. Distinguished Service Award. The award was presented to him by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) during their annual conference in Philadelphia.  This award highlights the great recognition Dr. Watson deserves for his continued work in bringing equity and access to marginalized communities in higher education to the forefront of discussions of social justice.

Dr. Watson is also recognized for his book on The Student Debt Crisis: America’s Moral Urgency; the book was recently nominated to receive the 2026 Museum of African American History (MAAH) Stone Book Award.

Dr. Paheli Desai-Chowdhry, Clare Booth Luce Professor of Mathematics for the College of Arts and Sciences, and her major student Masai Oakes ‘26, recently published a research article in Frontiers of Computational Neuroscience. The article titled “Information Flow Drives Localized Morphological Differences Across Neuronal and Glial Cell Types” discusses the variation of how information flows across neurons and the impact of that on the neural morphology.

Alumnae Achievements

Beatrice Peterson ’12, ABC News Political Reporter, was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists.  A double major in Political Science and Business at Trinity, Beatrice also earned her master’s in Journalism at Columbia University.  She covers the White House, national security, intelligence, Congress, and elections.  In February 2026, five of the ten most-read stories on ABCNews.com carried her byline. Before joining ABC News in 2018, she spent four years at Politico.

Imeyrani Islas Castillejo ’24 is in her second year in the Master’s in Public Policy Program at the University of Chicago.  She spent this summer as a policy intern at the Illinois Justice Project.

Kimberly Cruz ’18 completed her Master’s in Biotechnology at Johns Hopkins University.  A Biochemistry and Mathematics major at Trinity, Kimberly aspires to become a patent attorney, writing that, “Through my extensive time in both research laboratories and patient-facing healthcare environments, I discovered that my true calling lies in defending the intellectual property that drives scientific progress.”

Onjali McEachan ’24, a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate in Mathematics, just completed her Master’s degree in Computer Science at Virginia Tech.

Other recent Trinity graduates are earning advanced degrees at a remarkable range of graduate schools including Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Howard University, Columbia University, Brown University, Rutgers University, University of Michigan, Arizona State and Penn State University as well as here at Trinity!

Graduates of Trinity’s Nursing and Health Professions programs are now working at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and other MedStar hospitals, Children’s National Hospital, Sibley Memorial Hospital (in the Johns Hopkins network) and other healthcare providers.  Also notable is the fact that 100% of recent graduates of the Master’s In Occupational Therapy Program passed the NBCOT licensure exam.

A recent federal report on post-graduate earnings revealed that Trinity Nursing grads earn an average of $97,600 four years after graduation, the second highest among D.C. universities!