University of Tennessee associate professor Denita Hadziabdic Guerry (front row, second from left) with members of her fungal pathogen lab
The Common Ground, a newsletter of the Senior Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice President of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, featured members of a task force aimed to serve veterans. The task force all began with associate professor Denita Hadziabdic Guerry.
Hadziabdic Guerry operates a fungal pathogen research lab. As an advocate for providing undergraduates with research opportunities, Casey Richards, a Marine student veteran in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, joined the lab as an undergraduate research assistant. As Richards neared graduation, he recommended two veteran students, Ivan Perez and Justin Kosiewska, to the research lab.
“Opportunities for veterans to have secure jobs or steady income can be limited. A challenge facing former service members entering college is that many are first-generation students, like I am. They don’t know how to find the resources or people who can assist them. Someone helped me, and that’s why I’m here. They need people to help, too,” Hadziabdic Guerry said.
Members of the task force include Haziabdic Guerry and Bonnie Ownley, professor, assistant department head, and graduate student director of the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology.
To read the full article, visit https://utia.tennessee.edu/blog/serving-those-who-have-served-us/.
