Mentorship
"We Mentor underrepresented, undergraduate researchers to cultivate the leaders of tomorrow."
Meet Our Leadership
Director
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Dr. Chris
Omni, MPH, MLS
Dr. Chris Omni, MPH, MLS
is a nature-inspired Black joy scholar. More specifically, she researches
nature's influence on the emotional, physical, social, and spiritual
well-being of Black people.🌻
Vince Omni, MFA
Vince is a McKnight Doctoral Fellow (Creative Writing) at Florida State University. He holds an MFA from the University of Kansas, where he worked in the History of Black Writing (HBW) research center.
His short story “The Diaspora Café” won the 2024 Jesmyn Ward Fiction Prize from the Michigan Quarterly Review. It was also a finalist for the Chautauqua Janus Prize (Chautauqua) and the Story Foundation Prize (Story).
This short story recently won the 2025 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize. Read more here.
He is a Hurston/Wright Fellow, a Kimbilio Fellow, and co-founder of SoulClap: A Black Joy Journal. His short story “Mine Own” will be published in Virgin Islands Noir (Akashic, 2025).
Editor in Chief
Consultant
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Jovan Osborne
Institute Alumni
YEAR ONE
Michelle Gunn
International Affairs
Public Administration Concentration
Florida State University
Michelle is invested in community advocacy and the Public Administration field. She aspires to own a non-profit organization dedicated to solving the issues amongst the Black diaspora. She feels it is her mission in life to help those who cannot help themselves through advocacy and policy work. She currently interns in Washington, D.C.
Simone Eloi
Biomedical Engineering
Florida State University
Simone contributed to our project by presenting at the FSU Undergraduate Research Symposium. She is passionate about serving her community through STEM pursuits and served as an intern at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.
Ashley Powell
Psychology
General Business Minor
Florida State University
Ashley has a passion for psychology, applied behavior analysis, and behavioral research. She is currently a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT). In addition to serving as a Research Intern, she gained experience as a Marketing Intern with a private company and Teaching Assistant at Florida State University.
Teya Moseley
Biology
Florida State University
Teya Moseley also presented to the FSU Undergraduate Research Symposium. She actively serves her community through campus leadership positions, most notably as a Small Group Leader within the International Intervarsity Organization. She aspires to continue serving her community through contributions to healthcare.
YEAR TWO
Nailah Lee
Dance
Florida State University
Nailah assisted the OMNI Institute in pursuing its goals of creative dissemination of research. Combining her passion for the arts with her research skills, she transformed the research into a captivating dance performance by choreographing a routine to interpret the poem developed by Nailah. This piece was performed at the 2022 AfroFuturism Festival. Nailah presented another original interpretation of the Black woman experience
at the Spring 2025 FSU's School of Dance "Days of Dance" showcase.
Christina Dugazon
Anthropology
Innovation Minor
Florida State University
Christina greatly advanced the OMNI Institute's efforts to creatively disseminate our research to the public by crafting a beautifully-worded lyrical piece. She sang it at the 2023 Afrofuturism Festival in Jacksonville, Florida. Christina enjoys learning about new interests me, creating art, studying humans, and serving as a UXer in her free time because, in her words, "understanding people & aiming to create change is what I do."
YEAR THREE
Gemini Williamson
Dietetics
Florida State University
Gemini is a first-generation college student who aspires to use her love for nutrition and children's health to become a Pediatric Dietitian. Gemini contributed to the OMNI Institute's pending research journal, entitled "SoulClap: A Black Joy Journal." She also assisted in the creative dissemination goal by developing a creative Reader's Theater script that encompassed the results of our literature review and research analysis. This was performed at the International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry (IAANI).
Eryn Files
International Affairs
Florida State University
Eryn is a student who aspires to create impactful community change through human rights advocacy and law. She has a passion for diverse and vulnerable communities. As a research intern, Eryn contributed to the OMNI Institute's pending journal and performed the Reader's Theater script at the 2025 IAANI Conference. She also serves as a marketing and branding manager and helps to develop the OMNI Institute's digital presence.
