WGSS 2026 Award Recipients

The Department in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality congratulates the 2026 WGSS Award Recipients. Jada Okereke ’26 and Neriah Olivier ’26, WGSS majors, were both recipients of the Anne Boyle Award for Outstanding Achievement. The award is granted annually to the graduating senior (major or minor) with the Department’s highest grade-point average.

Neriah’s work makes meaningful contributions to the fields of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, archival research, and politics, among others, with great clarity and depth. Most recently, she researched and wrote a paper titled “‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i and the Historical Erasure of Hawaiian Women.” Her work demonstrates exceptional analytical rigor, original thinking, and scholarly depth. Neriah also received the Mary DeShazer Award.

Jada has done excellent work during her time in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is particularly concerned with populations that are often invisibilized, and affords them the attention and care they deserve. Her senior thesis on Black women in superhero fan communities, alongside her research with the Cordy Lab on the G6PD enzyme and its effects on African and African American communities, demonstrates both her intellectual range and her commitment to breaking down barriers in health care. Her work reflects many of the priorities we value in WGSS, particularly rigor, community care, and creativity. Jada also received the Leadership Award.

Paige Distefano ’26 was nominated for the Elizabeth Phillips Award for her paper, “Disrupting the Closed Society: Black Women’s Political Mobilization in Mississippi.” She is a Politics and International Affairs Major and minored in Communication.