Kaitlin Phillips of Keller, Texas has received a 2016-17 Presidential Graduate Fellowship.
These prestigious fellowships honor a select group of NU graduate students each year on the basis of high scholastic performance and personal accomplishment. Fellows receive a stipend provided through the University of Nebraska Foundation that allows them to pursue their studies full-time.
As a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Studies at UNL, Phillips deepens her understanding of family relationships through extensive familial studies research.
Phillips has worked as a graduate teaching assistant at UNL since 2013, where her dissertation captures the nuances of family identity, and is designed to benefit scholars focusing on familial studies, as well as practitioners working with families.
“Students who receive Presidential Graduate Fellowships are among our very best and brightest. While still in school, they are already making important contributions to their fields that are benefiting the university and people in the state and beyond,” University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds said. “We are fortunate to enjoy a level of private support that allows these talented students to fully devote themselves to their studies and research. I am certain we will see great things to come from this year’s Fellows. I congratulate each of them and thank them for being outstanding ambassadors of the University of Nebraska.”
Phillips' work focuses primarily on communication that both helps and hinders family relationships, with publications in top journals such as Communication Monographs, Journal of Family Communication, Western Journal of Communication and Southern Journal of Communication.
This year, Phillips and her colleague were awarded the Federation Prize from the Central States Communication Association to fund research on racial and ethnic differences in family communication. Phillips’ goal is to help families through applicable and accessible familial research.
Before coming to UNL, Phillips attended Texas Christian University, where she received a B.S. in communication in human relations and an M.S. in communication studies.
