Erin Yenawine becomes UTC’s third consecutive Portz Scholar 

Erin Yenawine did not know she had been nominated for a national award after submitting her thesis. 

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga alum graduated in May with degrees in political science and economics and started working full-time in Chattanooga when she received a surprising email. She was selected as a 2026 Portz Scholar by the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC).  

Yenawine, a Brock Scholar in the UTC Honors College from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, was one of four students selected nationally for the honor. It is the third year in a row—and the third time in University history—that a UTC student has received the award. 

“[The Honors College] had selected mine without me knowing earlier this summer, right after graduation,” Yenawine said. “A few weeks ago, I got the email that I was one of the four of the nominated folks to receive the award.” 

The Portz Interdisciplinary Fellowship recognizes outstanding undergraduate honors research projects. Recipients receive a $350 award and present their work during the NCHC Annual Conference, scheduled for this fall in New Orleans. 

Yenawine said the research project began well before her senior year. 

As a freshman, she took an economics course with Dr. Sheena Murray that introduced her to the ways economics can use data and statistical models to study social issues. 

“That class kind of kicked off this line of research, this interest for me,” Yenawine said. “I was able to see some examples of research and case studies in that class of how economists look at social issues.” 

That interest stayed with her. 

The summer before her junior year, Yenawine participated in an eight-week Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Southern Methodist University in Texas. She presented her research involving human trafficking data at the NCHC’s annual conference in San Diego. 

By then, she began developing the project that would become her honors thesis, a process that lasted about a year and a half. 

“I had been interested in research around women and healthcare,” she said. 

Her thesis examined maternal and infant health outcomes across the United States following changes in abortion access after the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Yenawine analyzed data at the county level. 

To conduct the research, she applied for access to restricted federal birth certificate data through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She used those records and regression models to study factors associated with maternal and infant health.

“I was combining all of those to see what could have had the most explanatory power,” she said. 

Her findings pointed toward broader socioeconomic and demographic factors. 

“My findings were that there’s a continued importance and relevance of structural inequities facing particularly Black mothers, but also socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers in the United States,” Yenawine said. 

The project allowed her to take her undergraduate research off campus. 

In April, she presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference in Chicago with support from UTC’s political science and economics departments and the Office for Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor. 

“It was really awesome just to be there and learn from other people doing cool things in political science,” she said. 

Her Portz scholarship will give her another opportunity to present the research, this time alongside the other fellowship recipients at the NCHC Annual Conference. 

Since May, Yenawine has remained in Chattanooga and transitioned from an internship into a full-time position with the Tennessee Valley Authority. She had interned there for about a year and a half while attending UTC before accepting the position during her final semester. 

Now, only a few months after graduation, she will return to the NCHC’s annual conference as a nationally recognized undergraduate researcher. 

“It was a lot and a total surprise,” she said. “I love it a lot, so I’m happy to be able to reconnect with some folks.” 

She credited the faculty members who helped guide her research and her time at UTC, including Murray and Political Science and Public Service faculty Dr. Chris Acuff and Dr. Sarah Heise. 

“I’ve had a lot of really great professors and mentors at UTC who have helped me get to this point,” Yenawine said.

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