Contact Jordan LaPier Director (202) 495-3320 jlapier@ourpublicservice.org Kansas native and KU graduate who helped develop COVID-19 vaccine gets federal award November 17, 2021 Dr. Barney Graham, who graduated in 1979, was named the 2021 Federal Employee of the Year last week by the Partnership for Public Service, the university said in a news release. He is the former deputy director of the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center, and shares the award with Dr. Kizzmikia Corbett, another researcher.