Heath Anderson will use the prize to pursue his dissertation on white supremacist violence in Louisiana and Mississippi during Reconstruction.

The Forrest Award is given annually to a student in the War, Peace and International Affairs Node of Excellence.

Dr. Forrest attended Mississippi State University for his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree through the Department of History where he specialized in Modern United States History and International Security Studies.

While working towards his PhD, Forrest worked as a teaching assistant within the Department of History and within the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library as an archival and editorial assistant. In 2017, Dr. Forrest earned his PhD with honors from Mississippi State University. 

Upon graduation from MSU, he worked for the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and then went on to accept a role with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

An Omaha native, Elizabeth attended the University of Nebraska – Lincoln where she earned a degree in Cultural Anthropology and continued her education at Michigan State University where she earned her graduate degree in Anthropology.  

Following graduate school, Elizabeth pursued a career serving the needs of refugees.  Initially working with Syrian Civil War refugees in Cairo, Egypt, Elizabeth eventually transitioned to a role as a grants manager with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C.  In 2019, Elizabeth accepted a role with AmeriCorps as a Program Manager for state and local grants.