Rio Tate, a PhD candidate in the School of Aging Studies, was recently awarded a prestigious McKnight Dissertation Fellowship. The fellowship seeks to address the underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic faculty at colleges and universities in the state of Florida by increasing the pool of citizens qualified with PhD degrees to teach at the college and university levels. The fellowship is awarded for one year and assists students in completing their dissertation.
A U.S. Air Force veteran, Tate's commitment to service work through research was recognized when he was awarded a Tillman Scholarship through the Pat Tillman Foundation in 2022.