Bard College Awards 2025

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John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science

Jen Gaudioso ’95 is director of the Center for Computing Research at Sandia National Laboratories where she stewards the Center’s portfolio of research from fundamental science to state-of-the-art applications. The Center’s work includes computer system architecture (both hardware and software); enabling technology for modeling physical and engineering systems; and research in discrete mathematics, data analytics, cognitive modeling, and decision support materials.

Gaudioso began her Sandia career in 2002 and, in 2011, she moved into management, leading the International Biological and Chemical Threat Reduction Program. Gaudioso’s leadership established Sandia as a critical contributor to the US government’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Gaudioso has served on two National Academies Committees addressing biodefense issues, was an MIT Seminar XXI Fellow, and completed the Kellogg Women’s Senior Leadership Development Program. She has a PhD and a master’s degree in physical chemistry from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Bard College. Gaudioso’s time at Bard taught her to value diverse perspectives in problem solving.

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John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service

Angela Edman ’03 is a human rights and immigration attorney who specializes in asylum and refugee issues. She has expertise in providing trauma-informed legal representation to survivors of torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and other forms of persecution. With a background in international human rights and international criminal law, she brings a human rights lens to immigration legal work. Currently managing attorney of Immigration Legal Services at Catholic Charities of Baltimore, Edman directs the legal program, mentors and supervises staff and pro bono attorneys, and represents clients in complex cases. In an innovative collaboration with community partners, she leads a local partnership that provides holistic legal, medical, and mental health services to unaccompanied immigrant children.

Edman leads efforts to empower immigrants and survivors. She has previously worked as an attorney at TASSC (Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition) International and the Hong Kong SAR Refugee Advice Centre (now Justice Centre Hong Kong), among other domestic and international organizations. As an attorney at Global Refuge, she published a book to guide refugees and asylum seekers through the immigration legal process. Prior to her immigration work, she provided legal analysis for trials in The Hague and Sarajevo with a focus on gender justice.

× Aleksandra Skochilenko ’17, known as Sasha, is an artist and former political prisoner. She was born in Leningrad in 1990 and studied at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts from 2007–12. She went on to work as a videographer for the Russian news outlet paperpaper.ru, covering several elections, LGBT pride events, and protests, including the 2012 “March of Millions” in Moscow. She earned a BA from Smolny College of Saint Petersburg State University in 2017. She published the educational comic A Book About Depression, which quickly became a Russian internet sensation, and she founded the antihierarchical musical collective “Free Random Jam.”

Skochilenko openly opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and was subsequently detained by riot police and later arrested for spreading pacifist leaflets under the accusation of “spreading knowingly false information about Russian Armed Forces.” During her imprisonment, she started an “Imprisoned for Peace” performance and participated in exhibitions of prison art. Skochilenko was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony, and after spending more than two years in prison, she became part of a 2024 prisoner exchange among Russia, Germany, and the United States that resulted in her release. She currently lives in Germany.