Audrey Gray

Communications & Marketing Strategist

Writing for Web & Print

I have years of experience writing news articles, press releases, brochures, web pages, and other copy. I've done extensive writing and content management for The University of Texas at San Antonio, The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), and The New School.

UTSA brain health researcher Jenny Hsieh earns outstanding mentorship award

“It's not often that you find mentors who are that focused on you as an individual and your growth as a person as well as a scientist,” said Karina Meyer-Acosta ’25, a current postdoctoral associate whose extensive work under Hsieh’s guidance was the basis for her dissertation.
“When COVID hit, everything was on hold — it was really difficult to get the cell lines I needed, and so I tried some experiments that were very, very difficult, and she was incredibly supportive throughout,” Meyer-Acost...

‘Many winners’: How a UTSA program uplifts small-town businesses

The approach has been especially effective in New Braunfels where the rapidly growing municipality collaborates with the SBDC to provide full-time support to the region’s business owners and entrepreneurs.
The partnership began in 2012, when the city’s Economic Development Corp. (EDC) launched the New Braunfels Spark Small Business Center (SPARK). The EDC is responsible for funding the center and the UTSA SBDC provides oversight, resources and two full-time staff members at the SPARK office.
R...

UTSA researchers uncover intricacies of fertility development

This summer, we’re shining a spotlight on Roadrunner researchers and the innovative work they are doing in labs across campus and beyond.
Today, we look at a UTSA lab dedicated to the study of developmental fertility.
JULY 31, 2025 — At one UTSA lab, researchers are on a quest to understand the developmental underpinnings of fertility.
Working under the supervision of Assistant Professor Lacy Barton, trainees at the UTSA Barton Lab are exploring how reproductive cells develop correctly — and...

LAB NOTES: UTSA researcher hones spacecraft designs at national lab

Kevin Posladek, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering, began his work in the Hypersonics Lab working under advisor and lab director Christopher Combs, the Dee Howard Endowed Associate Professor in Aerodynamics in the UTSA Department of Mechanical Engineering. He later joined the Graduate Research Program at Oak Ridge.
This experience led Posladek to pivot his research from experimental to computational, and learning the “ins and outs of computer simulations,” he said, seeing a more holistic...

Three UTSA faculty to research abroad as Fulbright Scholars

JULY 10, 2025 — Three researchers from UTSA have received a Fulbright Scholar award for the 2025-2026 academic year. Each will travel abroad to advance research in their area of specialization in partnership with their host institution, while also addressing a pressing challenge in their respective region, from critical infrastructure security to biodiversity.
"Having three of our faculty members participate in the Fulbright U.S. Scholar program this year is a phenomenal and well-earned honor,...

UTSA Center for Government Contracting enhances support for small businesses

JULY 2, 2025 — The government is one of the biggest customers in Bexar County, spending an estimated $9 billion or more each year on goods and services. However, small local businesses are not always equipped to secure government contracts to capture that potential revenue.
The Center for Government Contracting, which is dedicated to empowering small businesses to compete in the public procurement market and bring government dollars back to San Antonio, recently restructured to provide a broade...

A Decade of Innovation: UTSA’s Open Cloud Institute celebrates 10-year legacy

Since its founding, the institute has stood at the forefront of cloud computing innovation, forging deep partnerships with industry leaders, advancing cutting-edge research and preparing hundreds of students for high-impact careers in the digital economy. With its interdisciplinary approach, OCI has fostered collaboration between the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design, the College of Sciences and the Alvarez College of Business to ensure that students are equippe...

Siobhan Fleming to lead UTSA faculty research development

Leslie Neely, a prominent researcher in the field of educational psychology and UTSA assistant dean for transdisciplinary research development, said that the Disability RIG has been instrumental in advancing her work and “expanding the reach of disability-focused research at UTSA.”
"The RIG has created a vibrant, cross-college community where researchers can share ideas, align complementary expertise, and form meaningful partnerships. It has helped connect me with colleagues in public health, e...

Nicole Beebe concludes 22-year UTSA legacy of research, education and cybersecurity leadership

Nicole Beebe first joined UTSA as an instructor and research assistant in 2003 after six years of active duty in the US Air Force and two years in the IT industry. At the time, she never would have guessed that she’d end up making UTSA her homebase for over two decades, wearing countless hats, supporting thousands of students and researchers, and helping to shape the university’s cybersecurity program into the juggernaut that it is today.
When she arrived, and later joined the ranks of faculty...

Jennifer Sharpe Potter to steer research growth at UTSA, UT Health San Antonio

MAY 12, 2025 — Longstanding leader in research and clinical psychology Jennifer Sharpe Potter has taken on the role of UTSA interim vice president for research. Potter will concurrently serve as senior vice president for research at UT Health San Antonio, making a significant step toward the full merger and integration of the two institutions slated for September 1.
Potter brings a wealth of experience to UTSA, including over 16 years of service and leadership at UT Health San Antonio, where sh...

Five UTSA faculty members honored for research achievements

Currie is an accomplished astrophysicist and associate professor in the UTSA Department of Physics and Astronomy. He is widely recognized for his discovery and exploration of exoplanets — planets outside of our solar system that orbit another star.
In a paper published in Science in 2023, he analyzed data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii and the European Space Agency’s Gaia space satellite to capture the first-ever image of an exoplanet that is also jointly detected by astrometry, which meas...

Texas Demographic Conference offers glimpse of state’s future population

APRIL 29, 2025 — Next month’s Texas Demographic Conference is poised to shed light on current and anticipated population changes in Texas, which has experienced some of the fastest growth in the nation over the past decade.
The Texas Demographic Center (TDC), a state agency housed within the UTSA Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research, will host the conference and play a leading role, sharing its biennial Center Vintage 2024 projections. This report predicts the state's residentia...

UTSA helps UT System rank no. 3 on Top 100 list for utility patents

“The UT System provides a unique and expansive environment for interdisciplinary research and invention that addresses the grand challenges in the world today. It shines a spotlight on the incredible talent we have across Texas,” said Jennifer Sharpe Potter, interim vice president for research at UTSA and vice president for research at UT Health San Antonio. “I’m proud to be part of a community that values and uplifts its researchers, enabling us to achieve this prestigious ranking year after ye...

UTSA researcher to help fuel rural workforce development across five states

Vanessa A. Sansone, UTSA associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies and co-director of ARRC, will assist the community listening tour. She will design and conduct surveys, attend focus groups and analyze the feedback to assess community needs.
At a time when some RSIs are facing funding challenges and some are even closing their doors, Sansone believes that listening to community stakeholders is key to RSI success.
"This [approach] is very novel — working with rural commu...

Valdez Institute for Economic Development reports $1.8 billion in economic impact

The UTSA institute supported a total of 46,337 businesses in the last fiscal year.
Equally as important, 961 businesses expanded, and 536 new businesses opened their doors with the institute’s support.
One small business owner, San Antonio-based Mina Youssef, was able to expand his veterinary clinic into two new locations with guidance from the UTSA Small Business Development Center. Youssef secured $2.7 million in investments, enabling him to create 40 new jobs.
Another client, San Antonio-b...

Having more children doesn’t ward off depression, UTSA researcher finds

The researchers initially expected to find the opposite trend, reasoning that single-child parents have only one person to support them in their older years, and they face more years as “empty-nesters.”
"I was surprised to find that single-child parents report fewer depressive symptoms than those with multiple children,” said Lin. “This challenges the common belief that more children provide a stronger support network.”
He added, “My first thought was that the strong emotional bond between sin...

AAAS recognizes UTSA’s Schlegel, Whittington for groundbreaking research

Schlegel completed his Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies at Indiana University, where he studied fast-changing binary star systems, called cataclysmic variables. These are pairs of stars that orbit each other extremely closely, completing a full orbit in just a few hours. To study them, he used specialized equipment that measures the light emitting from these stars over very short periods of time, allowing him to see how the light changes as the stars move and interact. He completed a second postdo...

UTSA center tackles economic challenges facing South Central Texas

The cost of creating a strategic growth plan can be prohibitively high for small communities. When Gonzales approached a consultant out of Dallas to create such a plan, it quoted her $85,000.
“That’s for a community of only 19,000 people. Small communities can’t afford that,” she said.
Yet, Gonzalez believes that a plan can be pivotal for small communities striving to grow.
“The City of Alton is a great example,” she said. “It’s a small community that sits on Interstate 2 that designed an eco...

UTSA President Taylor Eighmy and thought leaders map competitive future for San Antonio

Eighmy discussed the vital role UTSA’s new College of AI, Cyber and Computing will play in creating a talent pipeline to support growth in these areas.
“We’re creating a college that specifically aligns disciplines that are needed to come together to drive innovation in this digital space, and cyber is such an important component of it,” Eighmy said. “It will be tied to data science, computer engineering and AI applications.”
Wince-Smith emphasized the importance of incorporating security into...

UTSA researchers to tackle AI’s growing energy footprint

To innovate at the atomic level, one part of the project team will test new or improved materials, surface processing and control as well as the chemistry, synthesis and fabrication of microelectronics. Meanwhile, another group will aim to develop algorithms that consume less energy while producing the same results.
In the final component of the project, researchers from all five collaborating institutions will take a co-designed approach to ensure that both the software and hardware work seaml...

UT System ranks No. 6 in NAI’s prestigious Top 100 worldwide list

MARCH 13, 2025 — UTSA inventors have again helped the University of Texas System (UT System) rank highly on the latest Top 100 Worldwide Universities List, which ranks universities globally by number of U.S. utility patents secured in 2024. The ranking is produced annually by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) to recognize the critical function of patents in translating university research and innovation into real-world applications as well as the pivotal role academic institutions play in...
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