About Us

Hana Barrett (they/them), Co-President

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

Alex Pasqualini (they/them), Social Media

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. You'll also find Alex as the Grad Student Coordinator at the LGBT Resource Center or around town in drag as Just Alex!

Kaitlin Diggins (she/her), Graduate School Liaison
Kaitlin is a third-year Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Ph.D. student studying how climate change impacts integrated pest management systems in specialty crops.

Byron Rusnak (he/him), General Board Member
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.

Unpictured Board Members

General Board Members: Gundeep Singh, Brandon Reyes-Chavez

Some additional board members are unnamed to respect their privacy.