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 is 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.

“This program is not only bringing financial support for these doctoral researchers to continue their education, but also giving them access to a peer network and mentoring that will help set them up for career success after they graduate,” says Brenda Barrio, UNT assistant vice president for research and innovation.

A total of six UNT students were named in the first cohort of Texas Leadership Research Scholars — Garrett Cayce in the College of Engineering; Araceli Herrera Mondragon, Celeste Ortega-Rodriguez and Jose Robledo in the College of Science; Christian Quintero in the College of Education; and Emma Wimberg in the College of Music.

Check back on this UNT Research webpage throughout Spring 2025 to learn more about students in the inaugural group of Texas Leadership Research Scholars.

Photo of Emma WimbergEmma Wimberg

Music

Emma Wimberg remembers the exact moment she began playing the organ. As a seventh grader on a church trip, Wimberg’s choir director and organist called her up in front of the whole group to perform. While she still teaches piano and plays organ occasionally at churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Wimberg decided to go a different route with her career. As a doctoral student in musicology at UNT, Wimberg’s research has taken her many directions.

Photo of Araceli Herrera MondragonAraceli Herrera Mondragon

Physics

As the first in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree and now to pursue a Ph.D., Araceli Herrera Mondragon’s (’24) college journey hasn’t been without its challenges. But being named a co-author on three published research articles as an undergraduate, earning an internship at Sandia National Laboratory in August 2024 and now being named a Texas Leadership Research Scholar has given the physics doctoral student an affirming perspective that she’s walking down the right path.

 

Photo of UNT student Christian QuinteroChristian Quintero

Human Performance and Movement

For Christian Quintero, who grew up in a single parent household in Brownsville, Texas, the peace of mind knowing he doesn’t have to worry about how to pay for tuition and other educational expenses as a Texas Leadership Research Scholar has been a tremendous relief. Being part of this inaugural group of students recognized also provides a huge confidence boost as he works to gain a better understanding of disordered eating in male aesthetic athletes and raise awareness about their experiences through his research.

Photo of UNT student Celeste Ortega-RodriguezCeleste Ortega-Rodriguez

Biological Sciences

Celeste Ortega-Rodriguez (’15) says she cried tears of joy with her family when she heard the news she had been selected as one of the inaugural Texas Leadership Research Scholars from UNT. The award allows her to focus on her education and research goals without the financial stress of how to fund those endeavors. In the lab of biological sciences professor Aaron Roberts, she studies the generational effects of pollutants on fish — specifically the neurobiology and behavior that environmental contaminants can have in offspring who weren’t exposed to the chemical, but whose parents were. The research has broader implications for understanding chemical exposure in humans.