Meet the Staff

Meet the Women and Gender Studies Staff!

 Dr. Rachel A. Lewis(she/her), Director 

Rachel Lewis earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University and is a Professor in the Women and Gender Studies Program at George Mason University. Prior to joining George Mason, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Transnational Sexualities in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Connecticut. Her research and teaching interests include transnational feminisms, queer theory, ecofeminism and animal rights, media and cultural studies, race and immigration, human rights, and feminist and queer disability studies. She is currently working on a book length manuscript about women, animals, and the feminization of interspecies care work, tentatively titled, Feline Animacies: Interspecies Care and Solidarity in a Post-Pandemic World.

Holly Mason Badra (she/her), Associate Director

Holly has joined WGST as our Associate Director. She received her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from GMU in 2017. While pursuing her MFA, she served as a tutor in the Writing Center and Coordinator of the Weekly Graduate Write-Ins. Her teaching experience includes elementary, middle, high school, and college Composition, Humanities, Literature, and Creative Writing classes. She is originally from North Carolina, where she received her BA in English (with a Minor in Dance) from UNC-Greensboro.

Holly also serves as the staff advisor for the GMU Kurdish Student Organization. And works with NVWP Director Leslie Goetsch coordinating the Mason Writers in the Schools program that allows MFA Creative Writing students the opportunity to teach in local grade schools. She is a member of President Washington's Anti-Racism & Inclusive Excellence Task Force. And is a part of a new CHSS working group dedicated to Staff Professional Development and the inaugural CHSS Inclusive Excellence (IE) advisory council. She is also the Executive Committee Secretary of the GMU LGBTQ+ Faculty/Staff Alliance.

Holly is the recipient of the 2022 Rose Pascarell and Ric Chollar Professional Service Award, which honors a staff person who collaborates to serve, support, and advance efforts for the LGBTQ+ community at Mason.

Scott Hovdey (he/they), Administrative Assistant 

Scott joined WGST after receiving his MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Mason in 2026. As a graduate student, he worked as a consultant in the Writing Center, where he also later served as the Coordinator of Consultant Education and Development; he additionally taught undergraduate composition and literature courses and was the fiction editor for phoebe. Scott is from Southern California and studied Gender and Women's Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to the MFA, Scott worked in student-supporting positions at Berkeley and taught English to Japanese high schoolers through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme. In addition to serving as a reader for Off Season, a new literary magazine founded by Mason MFA alums, Scott is currently at work on a novella collection and novel-in-stories, companion projects that explore intergenerational experiences of queer identity within a family. Beyond his role in WGST, he is a Learning Strategist for students affiliated with the Mason Autism Support Initiative through Disability Services. 

Debamita Guha (she/her), Graduate Professional Assistant

Debamita is currently pursuing her doctoral studies in Sociology, with a research focus on queer activist spaces in India and transnational networks of queer solidarities between India and the United States. She is especially interested in studying intersectionality, activism, and gender and sexuality issues within a global context. 

Sonia Chen (they/them), Program Advisor

Sonia is going into their senior year studying anthropology and criminology, and is most interested in their applications to humanitarian needs and causes specifically centering race, gender, and disability. They like to view the world and the current trends in a critical lens, applying the theories they've learned in class to deeper understand them and discuss them with anyone who's interested. They're an out-of-state student and have two very sweet cats back home, contributing to their love of cute things!

Mayah Taylor (she/her), Graduate Admin

Mayah is a graduate student in the M.A. Communication program. She previously earned her B.A. in Communication from San Diego State University. Her research interests include sports communication, media representation, and strategic communication. Within Women & Gender Studies, she is particularly interested in gender equity in sports alongside intersectionality. Over the next school year, she hopes to continue exploring how media and communication shape perceptions of gender, identity, and inclusion. Outside of academics, she enjoys baseball and the WNBA, concerts, and going to the movies.

Alexa Koeckritz (she/they), Center Mentor

Alexa joined the WGST team during her sophomore year at George Mason, and is now currently in the last year of her graduate program. A scholar of American history and aspiring museum professional, Alexa’s research encompasses the history of progressive feminist and queer communities and individuals in the United States, with an emphasis on their protest activity, mutual aid networks, and civic movements throughout the 20th century. With her M.A. in Applied History, she hopes to share meaningful stories of presence and persistence in publicly accessible and engaging ways. Alexa’s post-graduation dream job is working to develop exhibits for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum.

A military child, Alexa lived in six locations across the United States and Germany before coming to Fairfax to attend George Mason University. Their favorite animals are bears, they love iced tea, traveling, and being in nature, and they never leave the house without their noise-cancelling headphones.