Research And Engagement > Research News > Cuny wins 2025 Research Mentor award – Professional Track

Cuny wins 2025 Research Mentor award – Professional Track

Posted on March 26, 2025

Undergraduate Kaya McDowell and Kim Cuny pose at a table with their laptops
Senior Kaya McDowell worked with her mentor Kim Cuny on a recent publication.

Senior Lecturer Kim Cuny has received the 2025 UNCG Thomas Undergraduate Research Mentor Award in the professional track category. The communication scholar, who examines storytelling and disability activism, has mentored many undergraduates through coursework, independent studies, and internships. She develops strong relationships with each of her students to help them succeed, and her students say her pedagogical approach empowers them to take risks. 

Undergrad student Kaya McDowell works with mentor Kim Cuny on a laptop
Cuny is one of three Thomas awardees this year. Dr. Jaclyn Maher and Dr. Robert Wiley were honored in the tenured and pre-tenure categories.

“Teaching is communicating and revolves around growing and maintaining relationships with students – as whole people. I approach teaching and scholarship from a systems perspective. You have to recognize the interconnectedness of different aspects of peoples’ lives.”  – Ms. Kim Cuny

Cuny works to challenge her students and individualize each of her undergraduate mentees’ research paths. She works closely with Peacehaven Community Farm, where she gives students the opportunity to work in disability activism.  

Cuny’s students emphasize how she continuously encourages them to pursue publication opportunities and assists them with all parts of the process. Her mentees have given 18 conference presentations and produced 24 publications, in outlets including the Communication Center Journal, the national leader for communication center research. 

Cuny also received the University Teaching and Learning Commons’ 2021 Anna Maria Grove Award for Teaching Excellence and the 2018 College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award. 

“As a student who did not see her own potential coming into UNCG as an undergraduate student, Kim took the initiative to show me. Kim’s model of mentorship is one to be admired and one to which I owe much of my professional development. She is fiercely dedicated to student success.”  

– Abigail Salah ‘21  

“Working in the Speaking Center has been such a blessing. I see firsthand how this organization that helps student patrons at UNCG provides a supportive culture where student employees like me are mentored while we leverage the center’s experiential education. Since 2003, Kim has nurtured that culture. She believes in all of her undergraduate students.” 

– Jacques Gann ‘23  

Story by Nikkola Brown
Photos by Sean Norona

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