Staff
Suzanne McCray
Director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards
Email: smccray@uark.edu
Suzanne McCray serves as the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and the Director of Nationally Competitive Awards. As the director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, she has advised hundreds of University of Arkansas students concerning scholarship and graduate school applications. For three years, she served on the national program review committee for the Coca-Cola Scholarship, and she is currently serving a tenth year on the national selection committee for the Stewart L. and Morris K. Udall Scholarship review and her third on the Critical Language Scholarship review. Dr. McCray has been an active member of the National Association of Fellowships Advisors as well, serving as its president from 2003-2005. She has edited six volumes of essays on the topic of nationally competitive scholarships. The most recent include All Before Them: Student Opportunities and Nationally Competitive Fellowships (2015) and Road Less Traveled and other Perspectives on Nationally Competitive Scholarships (2017). She holds more than 300 meetings a year with students applying for scholarships, serves on a variety of campus scholarship committees, and is a member of the premed advisory committee. She earned bachelor’s (high honors) and master’s degrees in English from the University of Arkansas and a PhD in English from the University of Tennessee.
Emily Wright
Senior Associate Director of Nationally Competitive Awards
Email: evoight@uark.edu
Emily Wright serves as Senior Associate Director for the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards. She advises students who are applying for scholarships and fellowships to support research initiatives and graduate education. As the Fulbright Program Adviser, Wright guides graduating seniors, graduate students, and alumni through the application process for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. She also serves as the Co-Director of the Advanced Placement Summer Institute, hosted by the University of Arkansas each summer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Arkansas and a Masters of Arts in International Affairs from the University of Oklahoma. Wright was awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study advanced Arabic in Salalah, Oman. Prior to joining ONCA, Wright worked in cross-cultural and higher education in Washington, DC.
Matthew Halbert
Assistant Director of Nationally Competitive Awards
Email: mh171@uark.edu
Matthew Halbert serves as Assistant Director for the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards. He advises students throughout their pursuit of scholarships and fellowships that support research initiatives and graduate education. Halbert coordinates the Celebrating Discovery Program which connects Arkansas high school students with current UA undergraduates and their research projects, assists with the Advanced Placement Summer Institute, and the Arkansas Reads program which provides books to elementary schools in the Arkansas Delta. Halbert holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Central Michigan University, Master of Arts from the University of Rochester and the University of Michigan, and is ABD for a Doctor of Musical Arts in Pedagogy at the University of Iowa.
Robert Ellis
Assistant Director of Nationally Competitive Awards
Email: rce002@uark.edu
Robert Ellis serves as Assistant Director for the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards. He primarily advises graduate students pursuing fellowships and scholarships that support research initiatives and further graduate education. Ellis previously served as an award-winning career coach for the College of Education and Health Professions, assisting over 1,300 students in reaching their career goals, with many receiving offers from competitive programs such as the Vanderbilt Nurse Residency Program and The Mayo Clinic. Ellis holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Southern Arkansas University, a Master of Arts in English from the University of Arkansas, and is currently completing a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Adult and Lifelong Learning from the University of Arkansas.
Drew Schulz
Graduate Assistant for the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards
Email: ddshulz@uark.edu
Drew Schulz is a graduate assistant for the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards. He assists in the day-to-day operations of ONCA, as well as assisting students with application and interview guidance. Drew has a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Truman State University in Kirksville Missouri. Currently he is working towards a Master of Music in Horn Performance at The University of Arkansas. His favorite activities include pickleball and hanging out with his cat Violet.
Julia Hooper
Graduate Assistant for the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards
Email: jehooper@uark.edu
Julia Hooper is a graduate assistant for the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards. She assists in the day-to-day operations of ONCA, specifically by updating available student resources as needed. Julia has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. Currently, she is working towards a Master of Science in Counseling, with a focus on Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of Arkansas. Her favorite activities include crocheting and weekly trivia nights with her friends.
Visiting Advisors
Courtney Hill
Visiting Advisor
Email: awards@uark.edu
Courtney Hill graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a minor in sustainability. In 2014, she taught English at a magnet high school in South Korea through a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of Virginia, where she investigates the relationship between human health and access to silver embedded ceramics as well as other mechanisms by which silver can be used to treat water in low income areas. Her graduate work is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Dissertation Completion Fellowship. In 2018, she was named a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences. Previously, Courtney has has served as an advisor for the Center for Undergraduate Excellence working with students who apply for nationally competitive awards at the University of Virginia.
Ben Hood
Visiting Advisor
Email: awards@uark.edu
Ben Hood is the Founder and Chief Product Officer at WattBuy, an energy intelligence platform that gives personalized recommendations to homeowners for solar panels, batteries, and electricity plans, in order to save money and help the environment. He has been a software product manager for more than a dozen years, working at technology companies Apple, Endgame, Metabiota, and Aol. As a part of the diplomatic community, he has lived in Washington, DC, Warsaw, Poland, and Istanbul, Turkey, where he was the economics associate in charge of entrepreneurship, business and finance at the US Consulate. Prior to working in technology, Ben studied astrophysics, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, where he was a Marshall scholar and studied and simulated extrasolar planets. At the University of Arkansas, Ben was a Bodenhamer Fellow and graduated summa cum laude with dual degrees in computer engineering and physics. Ben and his wife Courtney currently live in the Washington DC area, with their three daughters, Lillian, Margaret, and Caraway.
Danielle Neighbour
Visiting Advisor
Email: awards@uark.edu
Danielle Neighbour is a Foreign Affairs Officer with the U.S. Department of State, where she serves in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) covering transboundary water governance in East and Southeast Asia. Previously, she was a Schwarzman Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum, where she researched wastewater and water policy in the United States and China. She holds a Master's of Global Affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, and a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering and Spanish minor from the University of Arkansas. Danielle is a Presidential Management Fellow, Schwarzman Scholar, and Truman Scholar.
Mariel Williams
Visiting Advisor
Email: awards@uark.edu
Mariel Young graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in anthropology and Spanish. In 2014, she earned an MPhil in Human Evolutionary Studies from Cambridge, where she was supported by a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, where she studies evolutionary and developmental genetics of embryonic bone growth. She also serves as a pedagogy fellow and works in science outreach for Harvard’s teaching and learning center.