About Us

Alex Nik Pasqualini (they/them), Co-President

Alex is a PhD Candidate in the Music & Sound Studies department whose research is focused on the intersections of popular music, activism, and queer community building, with a recent focus on the 1990s queer-feminist-punk music of riot grrrl and queercore. Alex’s passion for fostering queer belonging is also reflected in their extracurricular involvement at Cornell, like QGrads! Alex is the Community Engagement Coordinator of Trans Empowerment Programming at the LGBT Resource Center, the event coordinator for the Music Graduate Association, and a graduate facilitator for the Intergroup Dialogue Project. Outside of Cornell, you can also find (and hear!) them as a member of Transpose: Ithaca's Queer Singers Alliance.

Hana Barrett (they/them), Treasurer

Hana is a PhD student in the plant pathology program. When they're not studying they enjoy hiking, crochet, and hanging out with their cat Albert. Find them on Twitter @Hana_D_Barrett

Stephanie Tepper (she/they), General Board Member
I am a fourth-year PhD candidate in social psychology interested in how people think about and respond to economic and racial inequalities. I love to do research with an applied focus on changing real-world behavior to promote justice and well-being.

I love working to create vibrant and welcoming spaces for queer folks at Cornell and in the broader Ithaca community. I have been especially interested in bringing queer sex educators to campus to promote more open and radical conversations about sex and sexuality. I also enjoy organizing and building collaborations between orgs to better advocate for grad students at Cornell. Outside of academia and queer things, I like to play music, try new recipes, and explore farms/wineries/cideries in the area.

Morgan Irons (she/her), Social Media Manager
I am a fourth-year PhD candidate in Soil and Crop Sciences at Cornell University, where I study microbial and organo-mineral adhesion mechanisms in soil aggregates and their effects on soil organic carbon persistence in varying gravities. My past research has also concentrated on the development of quasi-closed, agroecological systems for sustainability in extreme environments and long duration space habitation.

As the Social Media Manager of QGrads, I am working to make our social media platforms fun, engaging, and a resource for people to learn more about QGrads at Cornell and the LGBTQIA+ community. I believe social media is a tool that can be used to communicate with a diversity of people not only in our community but also beyond our community. I am excited to learn more about LGBTQIA+ history, culture, and current events alongside our social media followers through the creation of daily and weekly posts.

Byron Rusnak (he/him), Design Chair
I am a third year PhD candidate in Plant Biology interested in plant development. I am interested in improving live imaging methods and using cutting edge spatial transcriptomics and optical coherence elastography techniques to understand how plants respond to internal and external mechanical forces to achieve robust forms. I collaborate with architects on campus to model and understand these mechanical forces.

I have been a board member of QGrads since my first year at Cornell, helping where I can and learning ways to create an inclusive environment in my lab and classrooms.

Alice Wolff (she/her), Board Member
I’m an archaeologist in my fourth year of the Medieval Studies PhD program here at Cornell! My research focuses on how climate change and food cultures affected agricultural management practices in the past. Before coming to Ithaca I studied medieval archaeology and archaeobotany in the UK where I was part of an LGBTQ+ community choir. I’ve joined the board of QGrads to get more involved with the non-archaeology/non-medieval community at Cornell.