Alumni Award

Jackie Katzman is an incoming tenure-track assistant professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York (CUNY). Jackie’s research focuses on the causes of racial disparities in the legal system, with a specific focus on racial disparities in mistaken identifications. Jackie’s work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the American Psychology-Law Society, the American Academy of Forensic Psychology, and CUNY. Her work has been published in Law; Human Behavior, Behavioral Sciences; the Law, and UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review. She has received several awards for her research, including the American Psychology-Law Society Outstanding Student Presentation Award (X3), and the European Association of Psychology and Law Student Presentation Award. Most recently, she was invited by the Director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to present her work at its National Research Conference. Jackie received her PhD from CUNY’s Graduate Center with dual specializations in Psychology and Law as well as Basic & Applied Social Psychology and received her BA from Cornell University with a double major in Psychology and Government.

Ovie Nirgudkar started playing piano at the age of 4. At the age of 10, she started competing in local, state, national and international piano competitions. Over the past eight years, Ovie has won awards at the American Protégé International Piano Competition, Florida MTNA Competition, Carmel Klavier International Competition, Golden Key Music Festival, San Jose International Piano Competition, Clavis Music Festival (St. Petersburg, Russia), Steinway Junior Piano Competition, Atlanta Music Teachers Association Competition, and the Georgia Music Teachers Association Competition. Ovie was most recently selected as an Outstanding Performer and Conference Recitalist for the Georgia Music Teachers Association Piano Competition. She has performed in winners’ concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York, Royal Albert Hall in London and Sheremetev Place in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 2022, while a junior in high school, Ovie founded Through Human Eyes, a refugee relief project that aims to provide relief to Ukrainians affected by the war by providing on-the-ground support in areas of sanitation, mental and physical health, and education. As part of her relief efforts, Ovie performed a concert to raise funds for the people of Ukraine. Ovie currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia and studies under Dr. Liza Stepanova at the University of Georgia. She will pursue a degree in piano performance at the University of Southern California starting in the fall.