McKinstry Fellowship Launches Research for a Fourth Consecutive Summer
SPOKANE, Wash. - The McKinstry Fellowship Research Program at Gonzaga has kicked off another summer of tackling today’s health-related research and research questions.
The Fellowship is a collaboration and partnership between Gonzaga and the University of Washington that started back in 2022, giving students an opportunity to expand their interests, do important work that benefits the community, and gain the research experience that can help them excel in their continued studies or their professions after graduation.
The 2026 fellowship recipients are studying a variety of topics from glyphosate contamination in local waterways to heat and wildfire smoke resilience for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to maternal health access in rural immigrant communities.
A total of 12 students and three professors make up this year's cohort, spanning three distinct research projects.
One team, led by Christy Andrade of the College of Arts & Sciences' biology department, is probing the influence of environmental glyphosate contamination on human pathogens in Spokane waterways. Biology majors Olivia DeFeo ('27), Bella Vaughn ('27), and Zach Kim ('27) are conducting the research.
A second project, led by Brian Henning, director of Gonzaga's Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment, alongside Sarah Bliss Matousek of the School of Health Sciences, is advancing resilience to extreme heat and wildfire smoke in the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. Public health major Nermin Omar ('29) and environmental studies and sciences major Gabriel "Kai" Crouch ('27) are working on the project.
A third team, led by Matousek, is examining immigration policy vulnerability and maternal health outcomes in rural Eastern Washington communities. The project brings together Gonzaga students Greta Crumley ('27, human physiology) and Valeria Lopez ('28, public health) with several University of Washington School of Medicine students.
This partnership allows students to gain research experience that helps them excel inside and outside their profession after graduation.