Microbiology and Immunology doctoral graduate Katelyn Sheneman receives 2026 Guy Stevenson Award

The Guy Stevenson Award for Excellence in Graduate Studies honors a former dean of the Graduate School and is presented to an outstanding doctoral degree recipient who has demonstrated excellence in both scholarship and leadership within the discipline and has made significant contributions to teaching and/or service. Katelyn Sheneman is the recipient of this year’s Stevenson award and, as such, serves as the Graduate School’s outstanding student, carries our banner for the Hooding and Commencement ceremonies and delivers the student speech for the Hooding ceremony.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Sheneman's interests in infectious disease research led to her pursuit of graduate training at the UofL School of Medicine in the department of Microbiology and Immunology, studying under the mentorship of Matthew Lawrenz, professor and vice chair of the department.

Early in her graduate career, Sheneman successfully competed for a prestigious NRSA F31 fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. This fellowship supported her research to study how Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the disease known as the plague, evades clearance by the human immune system. Sheneman made numerous fundamental and novel discoveries in this field, defining for the first time the role of important mediators of cell signaling, called extracellular vesicles, in the context of our immune response during bacterial infections. Her innovative discoveries were recognized with numerous awards, including the UofL Excellence in Research Award and the Society for Leukocyte Biology Presidential Scholar Award. Sheneman's PhD research efforts have already resulted in four publications, with another four publications in preparation and eight invitations to present her research at both domestic and international scientific conferences.

During her time as a graduate student, Sheneman was also an active mentor, serving as a peer mentor and tutor for new graduate students within the department for several years. She also served as a mentor for the UofL BIOMED-PREP program from 2023-2025, providing guidance and support for post-baccalaureate students as they prepared to transition to graduate school.

Outside of her research, Sheneman was actively involved in several leadership and science outreach endeavors at the university. She served in multiple positions in the Microbiology and Immunology Student Organization (MISO), including president in 2023, on the Graduate Student Council Executive Board from 2024-2025 and she founded a new Student Chapter of the American Society for Microbiology at UofL in 2025.

In 2023, Sheneman assumed leadership of the Louisville Science Pathways (LSP)program. LSP is a scientific outreach program with the goal of increasing science literacy within the Louisville community by providing summer research opportunities to Jefferson County high school students. She worked closely with the JCPS Board of Directors to expand the program’s outreach, significantly increasing the accessibility of the LSP program to new student populations. This initiative resulted in a 55% increase in student applications for the summer of 2024 and dramatically diversified the student population.

Sheneman also significantly expanded research opportunities available for these students by recruiting new research mentors in the departments of Engineering, Anthropology and Bioinformatics. She also worked with a local partner, SummerWorks, to acquire new funding from the Jewish Heritage Fund to support a 25% increase in participant numbers each summer. Her commitment to promoting equity in STEM expanded the outreach of the LSP program, which continues to provide exceptional opportunities for students within our community and will foster the next generation of scientists.

After graduation, Sheneman has accepted a postdoctoral research position at Washington University in St. Louis. In the future, she will continue using her education and experiences to further improve as a young scientist and mentor, with the aspiration to one day lead her own research lab at an academic institution.