Our EBoard
Miles Roberts
he/him/his - President
Miles is a fourth year PhD student in the Genetics and Genome Sciences program. His research focuses on the population genetics of plants and the evolution of gene expression. Before becoming President, Miles represented the Genomics program at COGS meetings for a year and served as the COGS Treasurer for two years. He hopes to eventually have a career working in biotechnology.
Noah Lubben
he/him/his - Vice President of Internal Affairs
Noah is an MD-PhD Student within the College of Human Medicine. He earned his BS at Michigan State University. His research investigates proteinopathies and preclinical drug discovery in neurodegenerative diseases.
Priyanka Kothari
she/her/hers - Vice President of External Affairs
Priyanka is a second year Ph.D. student in the Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education program. Her research focuses on why we teach what we teach, with an emphasis on the history and politics of education. She is specifically interested in how ideas of nationalism and national identity are communicated through the social studies curriculum. Before becoming the VPEA, Priyanka served as the COGS Representative for her department for a year.
Nic Heilman
he/him/his - Treasurer
Nic is a PhD student in the dept. of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, and works on computational methods for fluid-structure interactions related to soft body deformations. Additionally, Nic has served as both the COGS representative and president of the graduate student organization for my respective department for one year.
Saviour Kitcher
he/him/his - Secretary
Saviour Kitcher is a doctoral student in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education (CITE). He graduated from the University of Ghana. His research interest focuses on PjBL in social studies, Curriculum Development and Evaluation, Soccer as a means of civic engagement, Active participation, and citizenship.
Julian Sanders
he/him/his - Parliamentarian
Julian is a rising second-year law student, completing a JD/MBA with a concentration in Finance and Supply Chain from MSU. He graduated from Grand Valley State University with a political science degree. Julian serves as the president of the graduate student Business and Law Association and is active in other campus organizations. Julian has a passion for public service, given his 3-years of work in the U.S. Senate, and he plans to continue serving the public after gaining valuable private sector experience.
Vanessa Cardino
she/her/hers - Director of Event Planning
Vanessa Cardino is a fifth-year Human Nutrition Ph.D. candidate and Epidemiology Certificate student. Her research focuses on the relationships between dietary fatty acids, cognitive outcomes, and perinatal HIV status in children in low-middle-income countries. Vanessa also serves as the President Elect for the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition’s Graduate Student Association.
Rachael Pyram
she/her/hers - Director of Equity and Anti-Discrimination (DoEA)
Rachael is a Doctoral student in Organizational Psychology. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a dual-bachelors degree in Statistics and Psychology. She studies organizational social network dynamics within the context of workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues, but notably her research has focused on allyship..
Sebastian Loonen
he/him/his - Medical Schools Liaison
Sebastian is a 2nd year MD candidate at the College of Human Medicine. Sebastian is involved in various organizations along with COGS hoping to address health inequities such as the Emergency Medicine Interest Group, Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic, and Spartan Street Medicine.
Duncan Bjerke
he/him/his - Law Liaison
Duncan is a second year Juris Doctorate Candidate at the College of Law. His areas of interest are civil and criminal litigation, copyright law, and estate planning. Duncan also serves as the External Affairs Chairman for the College of Law Student Bar Association and aspires to work in litigation post-graduation.
Dr. Matt Wawrzynski
Faculty Advisor to COGS
Matthew Wawrzynski, Ph.D., is professor of higher, adult, and lifelong education. His research integrates non-cognitive measures and the collegiate environment with college student outcomes.
Our Staff
Deanne Arking
she/her/hers - Business Office Manager
Council of Graduate Students
James Peetz
Major: Advertising Creative
Council of Graduate Students
