The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is pleased to announce the 2025 Hooding Ceremony Speakers. The student speaker will be Caitlyn Fastenau, an IBMS Student in the Biology of Aging Discipline. Dr. Jodie Gray, a 2020 graduate of the Radiological Sciences PhD Program, will serve as the Alumni Speaker. Caitlyn was nominated and selected by her peers to serve as this year’s Student Speaker. Dr. Jodie Gray was chosen by the GSBS Deans based on nominations by program leadership. Caitlyn and Jodie exemplify that the role of a scientist is not only defined by research achievements, but by leadership, service, and the ability to inspire others along the way.

Caitlyn is a dynamic student and passionate science communicator who is deeply committed to research, mentorship, leadership, and community engagement.  Under the mentorship of Dr. Sarah Hopp and Dr. Kevin F. Bienek, Caitlyn’s dissertation research focused on the dynamic role of sialylation on microglia in Alzheimer’s Disease. With a strong commitment to aging health equity and inclusive clinical science, Caitlyn brings a rich background in biomedical research, having worked as a Senior Research Associate while earning her B.S. in Biological Sciences from UC Davis and working as an Intern at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California.

In her time at UT Health San Antonio, Caitlyn has prioritized leadership, science engagement, and science communications. Caitlyn has had three first author publications and has won numerous awards including Biology of Aging Student of the Year, GSBS Heather Menzie Junior Student of the Year, and GSBS Outstanding Leadership Award. Caitlyn has participated in numerous organizations both on campus and within the global scientific community. Notably, Caitlyn served as the Department of Pharmacology Graduate Student Symposium planning committee Chair in 2024 and simultaneously won the Department of Pharmacology Student of the Year Award.  She was also the chapter president of the UT Health San Antonio Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), leading highly engaging workshops and seminars. She has actively participated in numerous scientific panels and podcasts; she has delivered frequent poster presentations at national and international conferences; and she has served as the Masters of Ceremony for the GSBS Viva Science community event for the last two years. Outside of UT Health, Caitlyn is a student and community leader with the Alzheimer’s Association and the Global Alzheimer’s Platform. She is passionate about diverse and representative mentorship in scientific innovation, as demonstrated by her time as a prestigious Scientist Mentoring and Diversity Program (SMDP) scholar. As a peer mentor, Caitlyn has guided multiple students at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels. With her vast experience, Caitlyn hopes to expand her expertise in science communication and support multifaceted scientists and research.

Dr. Jodie Gray began her education in Physics (BS, 2011) and Computer Science (MS, 2014) at the University of West Florida (UWF). At UWF, she discovered her passion for the wealth of exciting research that occurs at the intersection of imaging and computing. For her master’s thesis, she developed an algorithm to segment anatomical data from x-ray films of pufferfish collected by collaborators in the Department of Marine Biology at the University of West Florida. Her introduction into medical imaging data led her to UT Health San Antonio in 2014 where she began studying Diagnostic Medical Physics within the school’s accredited Radiological Sciences Program.

Working with her mentor, Dr. Peter Fox, she dual-specialized in Medical Physics and Neuroscience Imaging to support her research in brain imaging signatures of major depressive disorder in human subjects. Her dissertation ultimately amassed neuroimaging findings in depression from over 2,000 human subjects. Her research has been published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and has received over 300 citations since publication.

Since completing her PhD, she has returned to the Gulf Coast and leverages her imaging expertise working with synthetic aperture radar and infrared imaging for a small-business in Navarre, FL. Dr. Gray has a long standing history of academic and community service including serving as President of the GSBS Graduate Student Association, the University of Texas System Student Advisory Council, Ducks Unlimited, and mentorship organizations including the San Antonio Northside Independent School District Independent Mentoring Program and the University of West Florida Hal Marcus College of Engineering STEM Industry Mentoring Program.

Graduating in 2020 at the height of the COVID pandemic, Dr. Gray was not afforded the opportunity to be hooded by her mentor as part of her graduation. As such, we look forward to including Dr. Gray in our ceremony this year as a reflection that even in times of uncertainty, the hurdles we experience can open doors for something beautiful and meaningful in the future. We are thrilled to finally have the opportunity to celebrate Jodie’s achievements in person and learn from her journey of perseverance and adaptability.

Dr. David Weiss, Dean of the Graduate School, shares “we train our students to be problem solvers where students go from there is up to them.” Together, Caitlyn and Dr. Gray have paved a path for themselves that extends beyond scientific discovery.