Katherine Becker, administrator in the School of Nursing, was selected as a recipient of the 2015 University of Houston-Clear Lake Early Achievement Award, presented by the UHCL Alumni Association. The event is a celebration of UHCL alumni and the difference they are making in the community and world. Becker is actively engaged in the community outside of UTMB. She's an adjunct professor at Galveston College with the Health Care Administration program, volunteers with the Galveston Historical Foundation and serves as a volunteer chairwoman for Dickens on the Strand and the Historical Homes Tour. Becker will be a guest of honor at an alumni celebration later this year at Space Center Houston.

UTMB's Office of Legal and Regulatory Affairs took second place in the Galveston County Bar Association's food drive, "Food From the Bar." The four-week competition taps the local legal community to raise money, donate food and volunteer their time to the Galveston County Food Bank. Legal and Regulatory Affairs' efforts helped provide the equivalent of 6,298 meals. Way to go!

Kathleen Murphy, an associate professor in UTMB's School of Nursing, was elected to the Board of Directors for Prevent Blindness, a national volunteer eye health and safety organization. The vote was held on June 16 at the 2015 summer board meeting held in Washington, D.C. Murphy has been a volunteer for Prevent Blindness for more than 10 years. At UTMB, Murphy directs the Executive Nurse Leader program, focused on facilitating the professional development of emerging nurse leaders.

Harshini Neelakantan, a postdoctoral fellow with UTMB’s Center for Addiction Research, received an award for “Best Abstract” in the Division of Behavioral Pharmacology at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Annual Meeting in Boston, Mass. Neelakantan is currently investigating the role of specific serotonin receptors within brain circuits that are involved with cocaine-use disorder and relapse under the direction of Dr. Kathryn A. Cunningham.

On the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth, UTMB President Dr. David L. Callender, spoke at the historic Ashton Villa, one of the locations in Galveston where the announcement of the emancipation of slaves was first read. Each year, Galveston hosts several days of festivities to celebrate Juneteenth -- a holiday that originated in this historic beach town. The last of the slaves who lived in the South were freed on June 19, 1865, after the Emancipation Proclamation was read on a harbor pier in Galveston. This date eventually became known as "Juneteenth."