2025 Campbell Award Winners
In 2016, the Columbia University Trustees and the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) established the Campbell Award, which is presented to a graduating student at each School who shows exceptional leadership and Columbia spirit as exemplified by the late Bill Campbell ’62CC, ’64TC, University Trustee Chair Emeritus and CAA co-founder.
Congratulations to the 2025 recipients! Read on below to learn more about each of these inspiring, soon-to-be alumni.
Shannon Geraghty ’25BC is from Long Island, New York, and is majoring in history. She has spearheaded Barnard’s financial well-being programming, creating a curriculum and certificate program for students at Barnard, Columbia, and the Young Women’s Leadership School.
As a first generation and low-income student, Shannon is passionate about democratizing financial literacy. Additionally, she has worked within the Finance, Alumnae Relations, and Pre-College departments, serves as the co-president of McIntosh Activities Council (McAC), and is an active member of the senior fund. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, watching movies at the theater, and going to museums.
Clinton DeMerritt ’25BUS (he/him) is a native New Yorker and an MBA candidate focusing on finance and social impact. He has held several leadership positions within the CBS community, including VP of careers for both the Black Business Students Association and the executive board, VP of logistics on the Peer Advisor Board, consortium DEI liaison, and Cluster A Career Representative. In addition, Clinton serves as VP of events for the Gourmet Club and VP of merchandise for the Golf Club.
Through the Tamer Institute’s Nonprofit Board Leadership Program, he supports the Bronx Children’s Museum in developing a fundraising strategy for a new 3D lab. Clinton has also collaborated closely with the Career Management Center to help students explore both traditional and non-traditional career paths. He is passionate about building inclusive communities that empower others to thrive.
Carissa O'Donnell ’25CS has pursued both academic and professional opportunities to better understand our connections to one another and the planet. This journey led her to Oregon State University, where she earned a BS in Environmental Economics and Policy and served as the University's 2023-2024 student body president.
As an MA student at the Columbia Climate School, she serves as a University senator and actively contributes to the Student Leadership Engagement Initiative and Student Leader Advisory Committee. After graduation, she intends to pursue a career in public service dedicated to equitably mitigating climate risk.
Julian Ricardo Infante Laborde ’25CC, studying biology and public health, is deeply committed to fostering community and well-being on campus through student organizations, serving as vice president of Sabor and president of CU Boricuas. During his tenure as ABC President, Julian collaborated with student leaders on a range of initiatives, including securing a historic $400,000 in funding for student groups, advocating for financial policy reforms, and enhancing financial training to help organizations maximize their resources.
Beyond financial advocacy, he spearheaded efforts to provide free summer storage for student groups, strengthen faculty-student group connections, and work on the rededication of Lerner Hall as a true student center. Julian believes in the power of collaboration between student leadership and administration to uplift student groups and amplify their impact. In addition, Julian serves as a crew chief for CUEMS, conducts liver disease research, and has engaged with healthcare systems in New York, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico.
Matthew Tiberino ’25DM (he/him), from Potomac, MD, is completing his Doctorate of Dental Surgery (DDS). He served on the Student Government Association, Class Council, Orientation Committee, and the District 2 American Student Dental Association. He also led his colleagues in specialty organizations as president of the Endodontics Club, co-president of CDM iDENTity, and academic liaison for the Office of Student Affairs.
After completing a summer research fellowship at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Matthew won an award at the 66th Annual Birnberg Day Research Program. His most cherished interprofessional collaboration was piloting a Queer Health Week with his peers at CUIMC.
Matthew is humbled to pursue specialty training at the Texas A&M College of Dentistry while maintaining his commitment to serving others. In his free time, catch him cooking a new recipe, baking for his friends, or exploring the countless cuisines NYC has to offer!
Kathryn Lampo ’25SEAS is from Broomfield, Colorado, and is majoring in mechanical engineering. As a long-time leader in the Columbia Space Initiative (CSI), she has developed astronaut tools for testing at NASA, delivered STEM lessons to over 1,500 NYC middle schoolers, and is currently building Columbia’s first two satellites. As CSI’s co-president, Kate oversaw the club’s 13 technical projects, fostering community and providing professional opportunities for more than 250 active members.
Last fall, she also co-created Columbia’s new minor in aerospace engineering. Outside of CSI, Kate conducts research in Columbia’s ROAM Lab, where she’s currently working on a robotic hand for Astrobee, the free-flying robot on the International Space Station.
She also enjoys giving campus tours and has been a teaching assistant for two years. Kate is a Marshall Scholar and Aviation Week Twenty20s Laureate, and will be continuing her studies in space robotics at the University of Oxford following graduation.
Matthew Rambo ’25GS (he/him), from Gainesville, Florida, is a senior at Columbia University’s School of General Studies, pursuing a BA in political science. A U.S. Army Special Forces veteran and current U.S. National Guardsman, Matthew passionately advocates for veterans, using his experiences to inspire and support others.
As president of the Military Veterans of Columbia University, he leads a vibrant student veteran organization, building community, organizing university-wide events, and advancing student veterans’ interests. He collaborates with Columbia’s Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI) to enhance veterans’ success in higher education and beyond.
A Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies Student Scholar, Matt focuses on security policy and global affairs. He is excited to further his impact as a Master of International Affairs (MIA) candidate at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), continuing his dedication to security policy and veteran advocacy.
Judd Smith ’25GSAPP is a researcher and designer who approaches design and action through language. He is currently focused on building new mobile devices. His research investigates how the relation between synthetic and organic trust in our mobile technology alters how we navigate “locality” in our physical world and alters our interpersonal communication. Judd has re-envisioned products as a product designer for Netflix, Apple, eBay, and more.
At Columbia, he’s contributed critical discourse to AI with Prompt’s & Provenance, interrogating text-to-image models' ability to represent place in under-represented communities. He shared this work at the Max Planck Institute in Rome with ETH Zurich and is exhibiting this at the 2025 Venice Biennale Architettura in Venice.
Within Computational Design Practices, Judd has also bridged new collaboration into the Engineering school, with his participation in the I-Corps Start-up Boot Camp Summer 2024 cohort for his product Peer2Peer. Additionally, he’s advanced CDP’s physical computation philosophy outside of Columbia, with invitations for workshops at the Berkman Klein Center @ Harvard Law and an upcoming presentation with the Society for Social Science Studies.
Lauren Bernard ’25GSAS, from Arlington, TX, received her BA in music history from The University of North Texas in 2015. She also graduated with an MFA in Musicology from Brandeis University in 2018. While at Columbia, her dissertation project, Chaotic Blackness, Black Gesture, and Black Posthumanism in Afrofuturist Music, examines the linkages between race and the sonic, parsing out the ways through which race, and specifically Blackness, can be sonically signified by the composer and interpreted on the part of the listener.
Also during her tenure at Columbia, Lauren served as co-chair of the Students of Color Alliance for over three years.
When not working, Lauren is a voracious reader and also enjoys experimenting in the kitchen.
Subhanjana Das ’25JRN (she/her) is a journalist from Kolkata, India with over five years of experience reporting on culture, religion, environment, LGBTQ rights, gender, and fashion. She has reported from across India, and moved to New York to pursue her master's at Columbia Journalism School with a focus on visual journalism. She serves as the president of the school's student government.
Jaxon Williams-Bellamy ’25LAW was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated with a BA in economics, political science, and French from Columbia College in 2021. After a year of teaching high school English in northern France and volunteering at the Columbia Global Center in Paris, Jaxon matriculated as a JD candidate at Columbia Law School.
As an undergraduate, Jaxon served as a peer adviser in the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement and, since graduating has maintained close ties with the Columbia College community as an alumni mentor in the Odyssey Mentoring Program.
As a law student, Jaxon has continued to promote the many opportunities for collaboration and exchange available at Columbia and, as the Law School’s student representative to the University Senate, has served as co-chair of the Rules Committee and Student Affairs Committee and worked to bridge the gap between the Law School and the broader University community.
Shermin Koh ’23NRS, ’25NRS is originally from Singapore but considers Dubai, UAE her chosen home. She holds degrees in mass communications and psychology from Murdoch University in Western Australia. During her time at Columbia University School of Nursing, Shermin has immersed herself in student life with a focus on mental wellness, peer support, and cultural inclusion.
She has served as a teaching assistant for the MDE cohort, a peer advocate with the Sexual Violence Response (SVR) team, and president of both the Student Council and Nursing Students for Mental Health (NSMH). She also founded Asian Nursing Students at Columbia (ANSAC), a group dedicated to uplifting AAPI voices and advancing culturally competent care.
Shermin is passionate about trauma-informed psychiatric nursing, narrative medicine, and community healing—in short, turning breakdowns into breakthroughs. Outside of school, she finds joy in traveling (very off the beaten path), snowboarding, and hanging out with her mini Pomeranian, Princess Bulgogi.
Jasmin Martinez ’25PH (she/her/ella) is from Northern Virginia, graduating with an MPH in epidemiology. As co-president of Mailman’s Black & Latinx Student Caucus, she led initiatives for professional networking, community building, and the 2024 Taste of Latinx celebration at CUIMC. She served as vice president of Engage at Mailman, was an executive team member of Columbia Christian Fellowship at CUIMC, a member of the Student Leadership Engagement Initiative (SLEI), and the Student Leadership Advisory Council (SLAC).
Additionally, she contributed to home healthcare research in Puerto Rico at the CUSON Center for Health Policy and worked on data governance at the NYC Department of Health. She also volunteered with the New York Academy of Sciences and with the West Side Campaign Against Hunger.
Beyond academics, Jasmin enjoyed exploring NYC’s diverse food scene, running with Paso Run Club, reading, and baking. Upon graduation, Jasmin is excited to apply her skills in research and data analysis to advance public health and community health in the D.C. Metropolitan Area. She is deeply grateful for the support of her family and friends.
Ann Wang ’25SOA (she/her) is a Malaysian-Chinese-American scholar and arts practitioner from Tallahassee, Florida. At Columbia, she served as the MA fellow in the Film and Media Studies program, chair of the Diversity & Equity Committee within the School of the Arts Interdisciplinary Arts Council, and social media assistant at the Institute of Latin American Studies, where she supported political and climate justice initiatives across the region. She has also organized campus-wide contemporary East Asian film screenings and led community-centered events that bridge artistic, academic, and political dialogue.
Outside of campus, as a former tech industry worker, her research and artistic practice foreground regions, voices, and infrastructures often excluded from dominant Anglo-American and Western European media frameworks—particularly in East Asia and the Nordic Arctic. Her work has been presented at the Lofoten International Arts Festival and published in Metode. In Fall 2025, she will begin her PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Gabriella Danielle Ramirez ’25SIPA is an International Security Policy student at SIPA and the sole elected student senator, having represented her peers on the SIPA Student Association (SIPASA) and currently serving on the University Senate. She serves on the Committees on Rules of University Conduct and Student Affairs. Committed to expanding opportunities for historically marginalized populations, she led efforts for Columbia to adopt a subsidized transit program.
She also advocates for first-generation/low-income (FLI) students through University Life’s Basic Needs Working Group and collaborates with SIPA’s Office of Student Affairs and the First Generation Student Union to do the same. A student scholar at the Institute of Global Politics, Gabriella is dedicated to security, governance, and social impact. A first-generation college graduate from Newark, NJ, she earned a Specialized Honors BA in Political Science from Drew University and founded multiple equity-driven initiatives. She is passionate about advancing policy and diplomacy.
Emily Taylor ’25SPS, originally from Rexburg, Idaho, is an MS candidate in nonprofit management at the School of Professional Studies, and serves as the President of the Columbia School of Professional Studies Student Government (SPSSG). In this role, she leads a dynamic team of student leaders, representing more than 4,000 students from 18 programs at SPS, while serving as a key advocate for students with the dean, faculty, administration, and trustees.
Emily has led groundbreaking initiatives both in and outside of SPSSG, including the creation of the Presidents’ Summit sessions, which unite graduate student leaders from across Columbia. Prior to her role as SPSSG President, Emily served as the Nonprofit Management Program Representative, the Public Relation Deputy Officer, and as the Secretary of the Executive Board, where she chaired the Alumni Committee and served as a judge for the 2024 SPS Next Speaker Series.
Jasmin Yangwaue ’25SW (She/Her) is a Hmong American from Minnesota, pursuing a Master’s in Social Work with a specialization in Policy Practice at Columbia School of Social Work. She serves as the vice president of the Student Union, an orientation leader, and a graduate assistant through the Office of Student Life. Through her leadership and advocacy, she strives to create an inclusive environment where every individual has the resources and support they need to thrive.
She has interned with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau, where she worked to advance policies that promote women’s success and participation in the workforce. Jasmin is deeply passionate and committed to social justice, gender equality, and community building.
Vikramaditya (Vik) Joshi ’25TC is the director of research at the International Interfaith Research Lab at Columbia University, Teachers College. Graduating with a PhD in philosophy and education, Vik's research focuses on building resilience and belonging in K-12 Schools and universities in service of fortifying democracy across the United States of America. His research has been funded by three consecutive Innovation Grants awarded by the U.S Department of Homeland Security.
He currently co-leads Reimagine Resilience, Project Belonging, and Unifying Stories—three federally funded initiatives that empower educators, educational staff, and students to create and sustain learning environments free from hate in their local communities. He has served as part of the faculty of a college-in-prison program, teaching in maximum-security prisons in Up-state New York and has held a fellowship at the Center for Justice at Columbia University. Vik is completing, upon request, the biography of the late Justus Rosenberg, a spy in the French Resistance in the Second World War.
Emma Tucker ’25VPS is an MD candidate from Decatur, Georgia. During medical school, she served as co-chair of the Columbia Student Medical Outreach (CoSMO) Clinic, a student-run free clinic providing care to uninsured patients in Washington Heights. She also held a leadership role on the board of the Columbia Human Rights Initiative Asylum (CHRIA) Clinic, where she helped train clinicians nationwide to prepare medical and psychiatric affidavits in support of asylum seekers.
Her additional campus involvement has included Medical Students for Choice and CoffeeHouse, Columbia’s student-led musical showcase. Emma is thrilled to be continuing her training at Columbia as an Internal Medicine resident.