Two COS alumni receive statewide honor for their STEM leadership

Thursday, May 14, 2026 • Greg Pederson :

Two alumni from The University of Texas at Arlington who work to remove academic, economic, and social barriers to higher education received a statewide honor for leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and health sciences.

Mayowa Awe, executive director of the National Science and Technology Medals Foundation (NSTMF), and Valene Garr Barry, an instructor in the Center for Reproductive Health Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, were presented with the Texas TRIO Achiever Award by the Texas TRIO Association at the 53rd Annual Texas TRIO Conference, held Feb. 22-25 in South Padre Island. The award is given to former TRIO participants who have achieved high levels of professional, civic, or educational success.

 

From left, Lawanda McKelvy, Valene Garr Barry, Courtney Broderick, and Mayowa Awe as students at UTA. Photo courtesy of Valene Garr Barry.

Mayowa Awe

Awe earned an Honors B.A. in Mathematics from UTA in 2015 and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from UTA in 2019. Prior to joining the NSTMF, she was a senior data analyst at Lockheed Martin. She said receiving the Texas TRIO Achiever Award is truly an honor.

“Receiving this recognition feels especially meaningful because it reminds me of how far I’ve come and of the programs, mentors, and community that have helped shape my academic and professional journey,” she said. “This award is also a reminder that success is never achieved alone. It takes a village and the collective effort of many people who believe in and support students from underserved communities as they pursue higher education and postgraduate opportunities.

“For me, receiving this award has been a moment of reflection and gratitude. It also affirms the responsibility I carry to help the next generation see possibilities they may not yet be able to imagine for themselves.”

TRIO is a set of federally funded college opportunity programs that motivate and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds in their pursuit of a college degree. UTA is one of only nine institutions nationwide — and the first in Texas — to host every federally funded, student-serving TRIO program.

“TRIO programs are important because they do more than support students academically,” Awe said. “They help students expand their sense of what is possible and provide the tools, mentorship, and community that can truly change a student’s trajectory.”

TRIO programs include the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, in which Awe participated as an undergraduate.

“As a first-generation college student and immigrant from Nigeria, I came into college knowing the value of education, hard work, and integrity, but I was still unsure of what was truly possible for me,” Awe said. “Being accepted into the McNair program was transformative. Through McNair, I gained research experience, strengthened my writing and presentation skills, and, most importantly, began to see myself as someone who could contribute to scholarship and whose perspectives are valued within the scientific community. I also found an incredible community of peers and mentors who supported and encouraged me along the way.”

Awe said that this foundation gave her the confidence to pursue graduate school, where she earned the LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. During her doctoral studies she worked on projects related to the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases and elementary mathematics education.

As NSTMF executive director, Awe’s work focuses on building inclusive STEM communities and expanding opportunities for undergraduate STEM students nationwide, she said. Along with managing the organization’s day-to-day operations, she works to bring the NSTMF’s mission to life by building strong partnerships, growing awareness of its work, and ensuring that its programs are impactful and responsive to the needs of the next generation of STEM scholars.

Awe is an associate in the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning and is involved in the National Society of Black Engineers. Through speaking engagements, she tries to encourage the next generation of STEM scholars and expose others to the versatility of mathematics. She said she is honored to be able to serve as an inspiration for others who started out in circumstances similar to her own.

“It is incredibly important for young women and underrepresented communities to have role models they can look to,” she said. “Representation matters because it can be both affirming and motivating and can expand a person’s sense of what is possible. It strengthens a sense of belonging, which is often pivotal to persistence and retention in both education and career pathways.”

Valene Garr Barry

Garr Barry earned a B.S. in Biological Chemistry, cum laude, from UTA in 2014, followed by an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Nutrition Sciences from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She was a postdoctoral research scholar at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine before joining the faculty as instructor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s Center for Reproductive Health Sciences in 2024.

“I am honored, yet surprised to be given the Texas TRIO Achiever Award,” she said. “There are so many amazing TRIO scholars from the great state of Texas that I am just honored to be counted among them.”

Garr Barry transferred to UTA from community college at age 27 and had a full-time job while working on her bachelor’s degree. She joined the McNair Scholars Program and said it did much more than introduce her to research.

“It crystallized an academic path for me where I could dedicate my life to the generation of knowledge, the communication of science, and the improvement of community health through research,” she said. “The McNair program provided a structure of belonging, accountability, preparation, and affirmation that fundamentally changed my vision of what was possible.”

Garr Barry said through her work on her thesis and presentation for the McNair program, she found her voice as a science communicator.

“Giving the final McNair research presentation was transformational,” she said. “It felt natural, energizing, and purposeful. I finished the presentation with an overwhelming feeling of, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’ That singular moment set the trajectory for everything that followed.

“In many ways, my career is a direct extension of the TRIO mission. I am a scientist because the McNair program created room for me to imagine that identity and taught me that none of us succeed alone. And I am an advocate for equity in STEM because TRIO programs at UTA have demonstrated the transformative power of investing in the potential of students who have historically been overlooked.”

In her lab at WashU, Garr Barry’s research involves studying the role of maternal metabolism on fetal growth among pregnant Black women and explores the use of wearable devices and remote monitoring strategies for women with hypertension in pregnancy. A central priority of the lab is to unravel biological factors that drive racial disparities in pregnancy outcomes.

Last year, she received a highly competitive Career Development Award (K01) from the National Institute of Minority Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health to study fetal growth restriction in Black women, and this year she has added a staff scientist, a bio-informaticist, and a postdoctoral fellow to her lab.

“My long-term research vision is to establish a productive and well-funded research lab and center that 1) serves as an intellectual hub for interdisciplinary researchers to advance research on maternal metabolism and physiology as critical targets to reduce maternal health disparities among women of color, and 2) provides training opportunities for underrepresented minority students from high school through postdocs and clinical fellows where they are valued as contributors and future leaders,” she said.

In addition to scholarship, Garr Barry is committed to the mentorship of future scientists. She said while it is important for underrepresented populations to see role models with great success stories, today when programs and resources that have helped put underrepresented students in a position to succeed are being cut or eliminated altogether, even more is needed.

“It is important for aspiring scholars to see us, but also for those of us who succeed to fight for those students, to reach while we climb,” she said. “So I now say, they need to connect with those who have success stories, and we have a responsibility to support those behind us.”
 

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