Congratulations to Dr. David Fedele who is one of two recipients of the 2021 College of Public Health and Health Professions Graduate Mentor of the Year Award.
David joined the University of Florida in 2013 and was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in 2019. During his time at the University of Florida David has excelled as a mentor. He is extensively involved in research-related mentorship, serving as the chair or member of master’s (n = 24), and dissertation (n = 27) committees. He has chaired 7 dissertations, and is currently the lead mentor for five additional graduate students in our department. His mentees have published 24 peer-reviewed publications, 10 of which are as first author (many in top tier journals such as JAMA Pediatrics, Health Psychology, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology), and multiple book chapters. They have presented over 50 separate presentations at national conferences, and nine of these presentations have received special recognition as outstanding graduate student presentation award winners at these conferences. His recent graduate mentees have also received numerous other awards including the prestigious Marion and Donald Routh Student Research Grant from the Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP), the SPP Research Award, a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Student Traineeship Grant, multiple travel awards at SPP national conferences, and the prestigious Geoffrey Clark Ryan Award, which is annual award to recognize the outstanding research project in pediatric psychology within his department.
David is also significantly involved in research-related instruction for undergraduate students. Undergraduate students either enroll for research credits, honor’s thesis credits, or join he research team on a volunteer basis. He has supervised over 50 volunteer undergraduate research assistants. Undergraduate mentees in his lab have been selected to be McNair Scholars and admitted to UF’s competitive University Scholars Program (n = 5). Notably, the undergraduates from his lab have an outstanding track record of pursuing graduate education at prestigious graduate and medical programs (e.g., Harvard, University of Kansas).
Congratulations David! We are all proud of you.