Linda Lucas, Ph.D.
- Director, Office of National Scholarships

Linda E. Lucas is Director of the National Scholarship Office. She has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Hawaii and an undergraduate degree in economics and government from the University of Texas at Austin. Her recent book, Unpacking Globalization: Markets, Gender and Work (2007, Rowman and Littlefield) documents the experiences of workers all over the world under global economic change. She has held Fulbright Professorships in Mexico City and Kampala, Uganda; been a Visiting Scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, a Visiting Professor of Economics at Thammasat University and Resident Researcher at the Thailand Development Research Institute in Bangkok, Thailand and Economic Policy Research Institute in Kampala, Uganda and an East-West Center fellow in the Pacific Islands Development in Honolulu, Hawaii. She loves working with scholarship applicants.

Lauren Schumacher
- National Scholarship Advisor

Ms. Schumacher joined the Honors College in December of 2008. She is now a National Scholarships Advisor in the Office of National Scholarships. Her previous role was Research Advisor in the Office of Undergraduate Research. Ms. Schumacher received her bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Florida. Ms. Schumacher’s previous research experience includes an assessment of grief support in north central Florida, evaluating accessibility in an urban setting and reducing pediatric obesity in rural communities.

Lauren Townsend
- Graduate Assistant

Lauren is a student assistant and has worked for the Office of National Scholarships since 2009 planning workshops, corresponding with students, and keeping ONS organized. She is a junior in the Honors College majoring in philosophy and hopes to go on to earn her PhD in Philosophy. She is also involved in undergraduate research, is the LEAD Fellows student coordinator in the CLCE, and enjoys running marathons in her spare time.

Jenna Dionisio
- National Scholarship Advisor

Jenna Dionisio earned a dual-major in Biomedical Sciences and Individualized Interdisciplinary Honors Research with a minor in Biomedical Physics from the University of South Florida in May 2011. Ms. Dionisio began cultivating her interests in Kailua, Hawai’i where she took her sophomore science fair project in Extrasolar Planet Transits to the 2004 Intel International Science & Engineering Fair. As an undergraduate, she initiated a study of patients who employ self-taught mechanisms to stop their seizures with her main mentor, epileptologist Dr. William O. Tatum IV, and has since worked on multiple clinical studies including a project on neurosurgical EEG implants for patients with uncontrollable epilepsy. Her research has been presented through Grand Rounds and at national conferences including the American Academy of Neurology (’11, ’09). Ms. Dionisio encourages students of any age to connect to professionals in their chosen fields of interests and to be proactive in going after their professional goals. In the interim before her pursuit of graduate school, she will be taking a Fulbright Fellowship in January 2012 to teach English and skateboarding to high school students in Malaysia.

Samuel Waldron
- National Scholarship Advisor

Sam Waldron completed his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Miami in 2009. Since graduating, he has worked as an academic advisor and a research assistant at several different colleges and Universities. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in marketing at the University of South Florida. His current research interests include the effects of heuristics on consumer behavior. He hopes to continue on to earn his Ph.D. in marketing.