The awards ceremony honored dozens of students receiving their master’s or doctoral degree or who have attained doctoral degree candidacy. Also recognized were the faculty mentors who helped along the way.

“We need you. We need your diverse perspective,” SIGS Dean Beth Boehm told the audience that included friends and family members of the graduates. “You are our next generation of leaders.”

The event is part of SIGS effort, underway since 2014, to help support graduate and doctoral students from underrepresented populations by connecting them to their university community.

“In this group today, we have educators, engineers, we have social workers, actresses, actors, biologists, musicians, professors, mathematicians, sociologists, writers, doctors, scientists, administrators, policymakers, activists and so many other professions that we need to motivate and inspire others to become change agents,” said Latonia Craig, SIGS director of graduate recruitment and diversity retention.

Craig joined UofL in 2014 to develop programming that would support students awarded SIGS minority fellowships. She was tasked with finding ways to help the fellows solve common problems that caused them to leave the university before finishing their degrees.

“We want the world to know that when UofL’s diverse graduate students of color transition into the workforce or even decide to pursue another degree, they will have made this decision knowing that their campus community has supported them,” Craig said. 

Mordean Taylor-Archer, UofL’s vice-provost for diversity and international affairs, gave the graduates and doctoral candidates a charge.

“You have got to become social activists,” she said.

Nine doctoral graduates were given the chance to talk about their educational journeys. Each one included a story about a difficulty that had to be overcome to make it over the finish line.

“The ‘P’ in PhD stands for ‘perseverance,’” said Tiva Vancleave, who earned a doctorate in microbiology and immunology and said she couldn’t let her 7-year-old daughter see her quit. “The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t always a train, it’s a light. … You will get there.”

A former pageant winner and state representative candidate, Miller, 32, has been awarded the Guy Stevenson Award for Excellence in Graduate Studies, the highest honor that the University of Louisville gives to graduating doctoral students. Miller will receive her PhD from the UofL School of Nursing next month.

Named after a former dean of the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies, the Guy Stevenson Award is given in the fall and spring semesters to the most outstanding doctoral graduate who excels in scholarship and leadership.

As the recipient, Miller will carry the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies banner at the Doctoral Hooding and Graduation Ceremony and the university-wide Commencement Ceremony on May 14. She also will speak at the Hooding Ceremony.

Miller said receiving the award is humbling.

“I think when you’re in the program and you’re working so hard toward a goal, you really don’t pay attention to the stuff around you that you’ve achieved, so it definitely feels amazing for someone to tap you and say ‘we think your work is amazing,’” Miller said. “It’s a pillar of hope for other people that you really can achieve anything you want if you work hard enough and stay persistent.”

Miller was raised in Louisville and is co-owner of Athena Health and Wellness, a boutique-style health center for women where she works as a women’s health nurse practitioner.

She is the first person in her family to graduate from college and supported her education by participating in beauty pageants to take advantage of scholarship programs. Miller won Ms. Kentucky United States in 2013, Miss Black Ohio in 2010 and Miss University of Louisville in 2008. Her success in pageants provided enough scholarship money to pay for her master’s education.

Miller obtained her MSN from UofL and her BSN from Berea College.

While working and attending school full-time in 2014, she ran for state representative of the 32nd District in east Louisville, losing to Phil Moffett.

“She ran a campaign for political office while pursuing a PhD, which is borderline unheard of,” said Ben Wetherbee, coordinator of graduate affairs at UofL. “The award committee was enthusiastically blown away by that.”