The Texas Leadership Research Scholars Program, which debuted in Fall 2024, is a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board research scholarship and leadership opportunity program for high-achieving graduate students with financial need.

UNT was among only nine public universities in the state selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of the program, which awards selected doctoral researchers a nearly $18,000 scholarship renewable for up to four years.

“The TLRS program provides access and opportunity to exceptional doctoral scholars to excel in their research, academics and graduate life. The funding removes barriers for our scholars as they expand their career and life experiences to be readied for the workforce. This investment by the state of Texas is highly impactful and life-changing for UNT's doctoral students,” says Brenda Barrio, UNT associate vice president for graduate studies and student research.

Read Abbie Teel's story below and check back on the UNT Research website throughout Summer 2026 to learn more about other students in the inaugural group of Texas Leadership Research Scholars.

The Human Element

Abbie Teel had a simple observation that she couldn’t shake: she never dreams about technology.

"I don’t dream of a computer or a TV or my phone,” says Teel, a second-year Ph.D. student in learning technologies at UNT. "But my friends and family and dogs — they show up. But the things we use all day, why don’t they?"

That question may become one of the avenues of her doctoral research, which she hopes will explore how people cognitively abstract information from the technology used to deliver it — and what that reveals about learning and memory.

"There's a classic debate in ed tech about whether media is just a delivery vehicle, or whether the media itself shapes learning," she says. "I want to situate myself in that debate and look at dream content as a window into cognitive abstraction of information."

It's a question with real stakes, Teel believes, at a time when institutions pour enormous resources into educational technology while underinvesting in teachers and content.

"We invest a million dollars in a smart board system and hand someone a remote and say, 'Have fun,'" she says. "Teachers and content matter just as much as the tech."

Teel came to UNT's Ph.D. program as a natural extension of her master's work in library science. She still works part-time as a librarian, a background that shapes the way she approaches her other major research focus: artificial intelligence ethics and literacy in education. She has published more than 15 peer-reviewed publications with over 1,200 citations and has two forthcoming book chapters. She recently learned that universities across the country are citing her research in informing their own AI policies.

It came as a bit of a shock.

"I’m like, ‘Who? Don’t put that on me!’"

As a Texas Leadership Research Scholar, Teel gains access to monthly seminars covering everything from research communication to managing graduate school anxiety — resources she's quick to pass along as president of UNT's Learning Technologies Student Association, a Graduate Student Council Senator and as an informal mentor to students behind her in the program.

"I've tried to put myself out there enough that people feel comfortable coming to me," she says.

After graduation, she hopes to pursue a tenure-track faculty position at a research university, with an eye toward academic leadership down the road — and a community to pour herself into along the way.

"A lot of what I do right now is so isolated," she says. "I want to give back what's been given to me. That's what I feel called to do."