Madeline Moore is the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s overall Outstanding Master’s Graduate. Moore is among five award finalists who will be recognized Friday, May 15, during Spring 2026 Commencement ceremonies.
Graduate programs nominate one student as their Outstanding Master’s Graduate. Criteria include leadership, scholarship, service and research. The dean of the University’s Graduate School leads a panel that selects the top candidates. An Alumni Association committee interviews the finalists and chooses an overall Outstanding Master’s Graduate.
In addition to being the spring semester’s overall honoree, Moore is the Outstanding Master’s Graduate Finalist for the School of Geosciences in the Ray P. Authement College of Sciences. She is pursuing a master’s degree in environmental research science.
Moore is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. She also holds remote pilot certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.
One of her research projects involved work with an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, for data collection. The process utilized drones to assist in field sampling of greenhouse gas flux measurements.
For another research project, Moore was part of a team that measured dissolved methane in aquatic ecosystems using an optical spectroscopy gas analyzer. The instrument identifies and measures the concentration of gases by analyzing how they interact with light. Results of the study were published in the “Journal of Visualized Experiments.”
She plans to work for the state of Louisiana as a coastal resource scientist.
Michael DeJean is the Outstanding Master’s Graduate Finalist for the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts. He is pursuing a master’s degree in English.
DeJean specialized in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, or TESOL. His areas of expertise include second language acquisition, phonetics and pronunciation, language and culture, and classroom and curriculum design for multilingual, multicultural learners.
DeJean examined “Teaching Across Contexts: A Practicum-Based Study of Multilingual Learner Support in Secondary, Adult, and University Settings” for his practicum capstone. He co-authored a textbook chapter on linguicism and good language practices in university contexts.
DeJean, who also holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from UL Lafayette, plans to teach at the university level in Europe. He will also pursue a Ph.D.
Braden Doucet is the Outstanding Master’s Graduate Finalist for the School of Biological Sciences in the Ray P. Authement College of Sciences. He is pursuing a master’s degree in biology.
For his thesis, Doucet examined whether two dominant grass species in the Cajun Prairie in south-central Louisiana, switchgrass and little bluestem, are locally adapted to the region’s ecosystem, or whether they exhibit climate change-related patterns of maladaptation. The results of his research will be submitted to “The American Naturalist” journal.
He presented research at the Louisiana Association of Professional Biologists Conference, earning first place in the graduate student category. Doucet will work as biologist for the state of Louisiana, where he will focus on evolutionary dynamics, local ecosystems and conservation efforts for the imperiled Gulf Coast Prairie ecosystem.
Steven Guillory is the Outstanding Master’s Graduate Finalist for the School of Music in the College of the Arts. He is pursuing a master’s degree in music with a focus on choral conducting.
Guillory has presented academic papers on research topics that include the compositional language of German composer Heinrich Schütz and the harmonic rhetoric of American composer Morten Lauridsen.
He has conducted major ensembles at the University, including its tenor/bass choral, the soprano/alto choir and the chamber choir.
Guillory is director of choirs at Comeaux High School. He was nominated for the Music Educator Award as part of the 2026 Grammy Awards.
He will pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at LSU. Guillory will also launch La Voie de Jeunes, a nonprofit youth choir.
Lauren Edwards is the Outstanding Master’s Graduate Finalist for the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts. She is pursuing a master’s degree in psychology.
Her thesis was titled “Untangling Loneliness: Examining the Unique Relationship between Existential Loneliness and Depression.”
Edwards has presented research at the Southwestern Psychological Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, and at the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science World Conference in New Orleans.
As a member of the Department of Psychology’s Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, she co-developed a culturally adaptive mindfulness and flexibility workshop for marginalized women.
Edwards will pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and ultimately a career in academia where she will focus on integrating research, teaching and clinical practice.
Photo caption: UL Lafayette’s Spring 2026 Outstanding Master’s Graduates are from row, from left: Steven Guillory, School of Music; Lauren Edwards, Department of Psychology; Overall Outstanding Master’s Graduate Madeline Moore, School of Geosciences; Braden Doucet, School of Biological Sciences; Michael DeJean, Department of English. Photo credit: Paul Kieu / University of Louisiana at Lafayette