On Tuesday, January 27, the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) marked National Mentoring Month by celebrating recipients of the 2026 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars with a ceremony and reception in Genentech Hall at Mission Bay.
The gathering featured heartfelt appreciations from nominators for the six awardees, plus warm recognition of the six honorable mention recipients. In addition to the postdocs, grad students, faculty, staff, family and friends in attendance, the entire GEPA "dean team" was on hand to host and hand out certificates: Nicquet Blake, PhD, vice provost and dean; Jennifer Nazareno, PhD, associate dean of academic affairs; D'Anne Duncan, PhD, assistant dean of graduate student affairs; and Chequeta Allen, EdD, assistant dean of postdoctoral affairs. A reception for the crowd of about 80 followed in the atrium, with light bites and beverages.
Launched in 2019 in partnership with grad students and postdocs, the Dean’s Awards recognize graduate students and postdocs who consistently serve as excellent mentors for their colleagues at UCSF, and who have formally or informally taken on some of the responsibilities typically held by traditional mentors, supervisors, and sponsors during their training. This year’s honorees were selected from over 50 nominations reviewed by panels comprising faculty, staff, postdocs, and grad students. For the six main awardees, the distinction also includes a $600 cash award.
This year's Awardees:
Graduate Students
- Magdalene Kuznia, Nursing PhD program
- Audrey Magsig, Neuroscience PhD program
- Alonso Torres, Jr., Bioengineering PhD program
Postdocs
- Andrea DeRogatis, PhD, MS, Department of Dermatology
- Konstantinos Stasinos, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology
- Minjie Zhu, PhD, Department of Radiology
This year's Honorable Mentions:
Graduate Students
- Stephanie Brener, Bioengineering PhD program
- Jennifer Dunn, Sociology PhD program
- Catherine Shin, Chemistry and Chemical Biology PhD program
Postdocs
- Jon Gauthier, Department of Neurological Surgery
- Honesty Kim, PhD, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
- Han Yang, PhD, Institute for Human Genetics; Department of Neurology
Learn more about the honorees.
Nominations for the 2027 Dean’s Mentoring Awards will be accepted starting in fall 2026.