{"692258":{"#nid":"692258","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Isbell, Stamps Fellowships Advance Minority-led Research in School of IC","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESherilyn Francis\u003C\/strong\u003E enters her final semester of her Ph.D. at Georgia Tech with extra motivation after being named the first recipient of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/2023-isbells-visionary-impact-pushed-beyond-boundaries\u0022\u003ECharles Isbell Jr. Graduate Fellowship\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe new fellowship award was announced in 2023 and named after Isbell, who served as dean for the Georgia Tech College of Computing from 2019 to 2023.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIsbell joined Georgia Tech as a faculty member in 2002. He was instrumental in developing the College\u2019s innovative Threads curriculum and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/omscs.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EOnline Master of Science in Computer Science\u003C\/a\u003E (OMSCS) program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe new fellowship is given to graduate students from underrepresented groups.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrancis is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in human-centered computing (HCC) working toward the improvement of black women\u2019s maternal health. She is advised by Associate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/wtl.cc.gatech.edu\/people\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAndrea Parker\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019m humbled and grateful that my body of work was compelling enough to be awarded,\u201d Francis said. \u201cReceiving this fellowship in Dr. Isbell\u2019s name is encouraging, and I want to do my best work in my last semester to honor his legacy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis fellowship secures funding to complete my Ph.D. and continue equity-centered work and champion voices of marginalized or under-resourced populations. This fellowship is directly making this work possible.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrancis\u2019s work drew attention early in her Ph.D. when she started assisting Parker in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/centerformaternalhealth-equity.org\/programs\/3103-2\/\u0022\u003EPreventing Maternal Mortality Using Mobile Technology\u003C\/a\u003E (PM3) study led by the Morehouse School of Medicine\u2019s Center for Maternal Health Equity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe project aimed toward designing an app that reduces maternal mortality among Black postpartum women by getting them care on their phones. The app featured real-time health monitoring, educational resources, social support groups, and personalized care.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGoogle recognized Francis\u2019s work through its Fitbit Health Equity Research initiative in 2021.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrancis entered the HCC Ph.D. program with a background in public health. She holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in public health education and promotion from Georgia Southern University and master\u2019s degrees in public health and biotechnology from Morehouse.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI felt overwhelmed at first because I thought I had made the wrong choice pursuing a computing Ph.D. coming from a public health background,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter steeping myself in the literature and applying myself, I found that I can be a leader and innovator in this space.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrancis said the fellowship will allow her to continue her research in clinical artificial intelligence (AI) for black women\u2019s health.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EStudent Enters Ph.D. Program as Stamps Fellow\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs Francis gets set for her final semester, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/rachelbakerramos.com\/\u0022\u003ERachel Baker-Ramos\u003C\/a\u003E is beginning the first semester of her Ph.D. as a recipient of the Stamps Fellowship.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBaker-Ramos is part of the second cohort of the Stamps Fellows, which was implemented by Georgia Tech in 2025. The Stamps Fellowship is the highest merit-based doctoral fellowship offered by Georgia Tech and given to exceptional scholars positioned to advance technology that improves the human condition.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe is the second student from the School of Interactive Computing to be named a Stamps Fellow. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/prestigious-fellows-bring-industry-experience-school-ic\u0022\u003EAdya Danaditya\u003C\/a\u003E was a member of the first cohort last year.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBaker-Ramos completed her master\u2019s in human-computer interaction in 2024 under Georgia Tech\u2019s MSHCI program.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe spent two years as a research scientist in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/kamoamoa.com\/\u0022\u003EKa Moamoa Lab\u003C\/a\u003E, led by SIC associate professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/josiahhester.com\/\u0022\u003EJosiah Hester\u003C\/a\u003E. In 2025, she received the College of Computing\u2019s Outstanding Research Scientist Award.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe will continue her Ph.D. research with Hester as her advisor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBaker-Ramos has assisted Hester, a native Hawaiian, on several Hawaii-based projects centered on sustainability and indigenous STEM education.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs a master\u2019s student, Baker-Ramos led the design of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/kumuconnect.com\/\u0022\u003EKumu Connect\u003C\/a\u003E, a STEM lesson plan generator that creates culturally relevant lessons co-designed with Hawaiian immersion language teachers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHester and his lab received a Google Academic Research Award for their work on Kumu Connect and recognition from the 2025 MIT Solve Indigenous Communities Fellowship. Baker-Ramos was also first author on a paper about the project that earned best paper honorable mention recognition at the ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen I first came to Tech, I was seeking out something with the Hispanic community because we are underrepresented in STEM, but it became this partnership with my advisor,\u201d Baker-Ramos said. \u201cIt\u2019s been interesting as a researcher from an underrepresented community working with another community that has some experiences that are parallel and some that are different.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs she thinks about what her Ph.D. research will look like, she is interested in how AI is impacting indigenous cultures. She plans to start research in that area in Hawaii and then expand to other communities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re talking with Hawaiian educators about what AI should look like if it were grounded in principles of caring for the land,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to look at what\u2019s appropriate with these tools, and what should be their limitations with data sovereignty, community agency, sustainable impacts, and how they\u2019re localized to each community.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cRight now, my work is mostly in Hawaiian spaces, but there\u2019s a lot of nuance between different communities. We need to understand what each community wants or doesn\u2019t want out of these systems.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESheriyln Francis is the first recipient of the Charles Isbell Jr. Graduate Fellowship, and Rachel Baker-Ramos is a member of the second cohort of Stamps Fellows.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Sheriyln Francis is the first recipient of the Charles Isbell Jr. Graduate Fellowship, and Rachel Baker-Ramos is a member of the second cohort of Stamps Fellows."}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-09-03 16:28:19","changed_gmt":"2026-09-03 16:31:06","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681063":{"id":"681063","type":"image","title":"_86A6620-copy.jpg","body":null,"created":"1788452913","gmt_created":"2026-09-03 16:28:33","changed":"1788452913","gmt_changed":"2026-09-03 16:28:33","alt":"Sherilyn Francis and Rachel Baker-Ramos","file":{"fid":"265414","name":"_86A6620-copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/03\/_86A6620-copy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/03\/_86A6620-copy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":146907,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/03\/_86A6620-copy.jpg?itok=fR9v2HJI"}}},"media_ids":["681063"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"193157","name":"Student Honors and Achievements"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}