Four students from the Institute of Government were recognized as Top 100 UGA Student Employees of the Year at a luncheon on April 16: Rebecca Kenirey, Micah Shannon, Hayat Abdulla Asad Cue, and Teagan Woodson.
Rebecca Kenirey, a third-year management information systems major in the Terry College of Business,
has been a student assistant on the Data Analytics and Visualization team for the past two years. During that time, she has exemplified leadership and
collaboration, working closely with full-time staff and partners to achieve project
goals. She has showcased her intellectual curiosity, technical skills and strong interpersonal
communication abilities. Her rapid mastery of Microsoft's PowerBI, a crucial tool
for building custom statistical and visual dashboards, exemplifies her analytical
thinking. Kenirey became proficient in PowerBI and took the initiative to train her
peers and full-time staff, sharing her knowledge and fostering a culture of learning.
Her development of interactive tools using open-source programming and PowerBI to
aid government and education leaders demonstrates her ability to translate complex
data into clear, actionable insights and intuitive visuals.
“Rebecca consistently demonstrates a remarkable blend of intellectual curiosity, technical proficiency and interpersonal skills. Her contributions highlight her strengths in UGA's core competencies and paint a picture of a highly valuable and promising employee and collaborator,” said James Byars, Data Analysis and Visualization Unit manager.
Micah Shannon is a fourth-year double major in political science and geography while earning certificates
in Geographic Information Systems and Data Analytics in Public Policy. As a “Double
Dawg,” Shannon is also pursuing an MPA. He works primarily with the applied demography
unit in the institute’s Workforce and Economic Development Division. In his two years as a student worker, Shannon has become a role model and a valuable
part of the team. His work was instrumental in upgrading one of the institute’s signature
projects developing county and state population projections for the Governor’s Office
of Planning and Budget. These projections inform long-term decision making for communities
and state agencies in Georgia. Shannon wrote code that reconstructed historical population
counts, adjusting for inconsistencies among data sets over time and making such adjustments
reproducible and automated for future years. The result improves data accuracy and
will save time in subsequent years.
“Micah has been a key contributor on multiple applied research projects that help leaders in Georgia make informed decisions,” said Taylor Hafley, who leads the institute’s applied demography team.
Hayat Abdulla Asad Cue, an electrical and computer engineering doctoral student, joined the UGA CyberArch program in spring 2022 and now serves as its graduate assistant, mentoring and managing
work assignments for undergraduates. Abdulla has been instrumental in conducting research
and identifying funding opportunities for the program, which works to fortify Georgia’s
digital infrastructure and create a resilient cybersecurity environment. She helped
CyberArch cultivate a collaborative relationship with the UGA Center for Undergraduate
Research Opportunities (UGA CURO), leading to awards and recognition for student research.
Under her guidance, UGA CyberArch will hold its first cybersecurity training camp
for high school and middle school students this summer at the Georgia Center for Continuing
Education and Hotel.
“Mrs. Abdulla’s contribution to the UGA CyberArch program cannot be overstated,” said Mark Lupo, UGA CyberArch coordinator. “She continues to inspire, mentor and guide new interns in the program, cultivates an environment for research, and is a model for others to emulate.”
Teagan Woodson is a graduate student pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH) in biostatistics after receiving a bachelor’s
degree in statistics, magna cum laude. She works with the Data Analytics and Visualization team, specifically with creating dynamic dashboards and visualizations using complex
administrative datasets for various audiences. Her creativity and innovation shine
through her work on the Georgia State Government Workforce report which she helped
improve by actively listening to stakeholders and providing valuable feedback. Woodson
experimented with new approaches to transition the report’s development from Excel
to an automated open-source solution, writing over a third of the programming code.
She not only recreated existing visuals but also introduced new workforce comparison
charts, transforming the way data was presented. Woodson’s imaginative problem-solving
abilities, combined with her consideration of external perspectives, advanced the
report’s effectiveness, demonstrating her ability to apply innovative solutions to
complex challenges.
“Her deep understanding of data, combined with her strong ethical foundation and commitment to collaboration, allows her to make meaningful contributions that have a lasting impact on her projects and our team,” said Byars.