2026 Runsdorf Award winners pursue service through civic engagement

Dhehir Kelly and Aditi Morumganti traced very different paths to Tulane. Kelly, a New Orleans native whose mother works for the university, always hoped that she would one day be a student here. Morumganti, a Californian, toured Tulane on a whim and put down roots in the South after visiting the region for the first time.  

While their journeys to Tulane were different, over the past four years both graduating seniors leaned into passions they had nurtured from a young age to embody the university’s spirit of service. In recognition of their devotion to the community, Kelly and Morumganti are the 2026 recipients of the Jim Runsdorf Excellence in Public Service Student Award.

The award is bestowed each year by the Tulane Center for Public Service to students who demonstrate social responsibility and awareness of the needs of the community through significant contributions throughout their undergraduate careers.  

As the daughter of a Tulane employee, Dhehir Kelly grew up attending Tulane’s summer camp as a child and spent many days on campus. When it came time to apply for college, she was drawn to the opportunities for service learning the university offered, which she says complemented values she gained from her Christian upbringing.  

“I grew up learning about the principles of serving and what it looks like to be in community,” Kelly said.

At Tulane, Kelly pursued an ambitious academic path, working toward a Bachelor of Science in psychology from the School of Science and Engineering. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and sociology, complemented by a minor in strategy, leadership and analytics, from the School of Liberal Arts.

She took on leadership roles on campus, serving as president of the Black Women Society, an organization open to all students, which seeks to foster a welcoming community. Mentoring first-year students as a resident advisor in Wall Residential College was especially rewarding for Kelly.

“It’s amazing being able to see them blossom into who they want to be as individuals,” she said.

During an internship with a nonprofit focused on rehabilitation for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals, Kelly gained hands-on experience conducting policy research on funding for education. The internship solidified her passion for public interest law and education policy.

For Morumganti, the decision to attend Tulane was unexpected. Born near Boston but raised in the California Bay Area, she originally planned to stay close to home for college. However, when a canceled family trip during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a spontaneous visit to New Orleans, her mother persuaded her to reach out to current Tulane students.

“I realized the school offered everything I wanted, and I should take the leap and do it because if I didn’t, I would always regret it,” she said. “Now, it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”

Morumganti, who is earning a Bachelor of Science from the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, was drawn to Tulane’s public health program because it aligned with her interests in medicine, mental health advocacy and violence prevention.

Observing stigmas against addressing mental health issues that were prevalent in her community when she was growing up, Morumganti came to believe that health is shaped by social and environmental factors, especially those that take root in childhood. Her work in violence prevention went hand-in-hand with that belief.

“Having empathy and providing compassion and support for children can solve a lot of generational issues that we’re seeing,” she said.

At Tulane, she translated her understanding into action through work with the Newcomb Institute, starting with joining the institute’s Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Collective during her first year.

An internship through the institute led to pivotal mentorship under Executive Director Anita Raj, opening doors for Morumganti to contribute to research on violence against children through the institute’s Violence Experiences Survey. Presenting her work at a conference reinforced her belief that robust data is essential for effective advocacy.  

“The information provides visibility,” she said. “Now these are problems that we have a name for, and we have the numbers to back it up.”

Both Kelly and Morumganti also served as Community Engagement Advocates with the Center for Public Service during their time at Tulane, leading workshops on cultural exchange, societal issues and violence prevention. Kelly also worked as a Service Learning Assistant at the center, where she worked with community partners, professors and students on ethical approaches to service learning.

Following graduation, Kelly will travel to Paris and Barcelona to learn about different legal systems through the Lex Fellowship. She will also complete an internship with Transcendent Law Group and plans to attend law school to continue her work in advocacy.

Morumganti is now preparing to work toward a Master of Public Health and a Doctor of Medicine from Tulane and plans to continue her violence prevention and community engagement work as a Pincus Violence Prevention Scholar at the university. She credits Tulane with leading her to unexpected opportunities.

“I’ve learned to be open to the unexpected,” she said. “At times, I thought, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen,’ and those times ended up bringing about the most beautiful things.”