The 2026 University of New Mexico McNair Scholars Research Conference

Oral Presentation Session #7, 1:25 to 1:45 p.m.
-----Scroll to the bottom to view abstracts in the Sched App or PDF----
Presentations:
Botero, Pacha - Major: Chemistry and Biochemistry, New Mexico State University
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Trailblazer/Spirit
Title: Investigating HIDA as a Ligand for Oxo-Bond Disruption in Actinide Complexes

Gomez, Kira  - Major: Animal Science, University of Arizona
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Isleta
Title: Tracing Zoonotic Tuberculosis Using Whole-Genome Sequencing

Guzman, Neftali - Major: Psychology and Social Work, St. Edward's University
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Fiesta A
Title: Breaking the Cycle: The Criminal Justice System and the Barriers to Trauma Informed Care

Hancock, Erica  - Major: Psychology/Criminology, Concord University
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Acoma B
Title: The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Quality of Life in College Students from Rural West Virginia

Johnson, Alexis  - Major: Bioengineering , University of Maryland, College Park
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Lobo B
Title: Mucin-coated Nanoparticles for Modulating Neutrophilic Inflammation 

Mancinas, Jeremías - Major: Mathematics, University of Colorado Boulder
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Lobo A
Title: Lie Conformal Algebras and Celestial Holography

Novella, Areika  - Major: Psychological Science , Loyola Marymount University
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Fiesta B
Title: The Association between Health Literacy and Receiving Coordinated Medical Care among Hispanic and Latino/a U.S Adults with Chronic Disease 

Perfecto, Ashton Lucas Leonardo - Major: Oceanography, California Polytechnic University, Humboldt
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Acoma A
Title: Progress on the Kumar Texts: Visual communication of oceanographic concepts for coastal science education

Richey, Kaydyn - Major: Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Northern Colorado
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Santa Ana B
Title: Preservice Teachers Exposure to Developmental Language Disorder During College

Sylla, Hadja Mariam  - Major: Finance , Washington State University
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Luminaria
Title: Navigating Financial distress in immigrant households: Identifying systemic barriers and policy solutions
 
Zurasky, Melyssa - Major: Psychology , University of New Mexico
Oral Presentation Session #7, Room: Santa Ana A
Title: Understanding Mechanisms of Behavior Change for Substance Use Treatment

Oral Presentation Information for presenters:

• Format: 12-minute presentation, and 3 minutes for Q&A (15 min. total).  Please do not go over your allotted time so that everyone can have a full 15 minutes.
• Organization of presentations:  To enhance your presentation experience at our conference, there will be evaluators and moderators (faculty, staff and grad students) in attendance that will fill out evaluation forms to provide feedback to presenters. Therefore, your presentation will be at the exact time and location as it appears in the schedule. We will not deviate even if there is a no-show.
• Please bring your presentation saved onto a thumb drive/USB drive.  Please arrive at your presentation room early, locate the moderator and ask them to assist you in copying your presentation to the laptop desktop before the session begins.  Then eject your USB drive.  Open up your presentation and make sure it works properly.
• For more information about presentation format, equipment, etc click this link