Boot Scootin’: The 2024 Outstanding Young Texas Exes

Midlife crisis? These four Longhorns aren’t even close. In fact, they’re just getting started.

Before the age of 40, the newest winners of the Outstanding Young Texas Exes Awards are already making their mark on the world, from groundbreaking science to the most popular sounds and stories of our time. The Texas Exes honored them last September with a celebration at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center. And because traditions are our thing, we introduced a new one while inducting them into this special cohort: Each recipient from this year forward will receive a custom pair of Lucchese boots—along with the enduring honor of representing this great University.

Photographs by Matt Wright-Steel

Dr. Morgan Micheletti

BS ’10, Life Member

Ophthalmologist, Partner, Director of Clinical Research, and Fellowship Director, Berkeley Eye Center

“Some of you may be surprised by this, but I’m somewhat ambitious,” Dr. Morgan Micheletti said, surprising no one in the room—especially not his two sons who accompanied him on stage to present him with a pair of Lucchese boots. “What I’ve learned is that ambition without possibility is merely wishful thinking,” he added. But what once might have been nothing more than a wish is now the mission of this board-certified ophthalmologist.

He’s performed more than 10,000 surgeries, invented six patent-pending surgical devices, and pioneered two surgical techniques. He has served as an investigator in more than 15 clinical trials and as a medical advisor for more than 20 companies. These numbers evince a career-long commitment to improving the lives of his patients, with specialization in cataract, vision-correction, microinvasive glaucoma, and complex anterior segment surgery.

“When I started at The University of Texas, I wanted to work on something that would help someone somewhere down the line,” Micheletti said. “Those were my ambitions, but the University provided the possibility, and those possibilities became realities.”

Celine Halioua

BSA ’17

Founder and CEO, Loyal  

Celine Halioua is trying to change the lives of dog lovers and their loyal companions everywhere with a drug that will (hopefully) extend the lifetimes of beloved pets. “If you want more healthy years with your dog, I am hopefully your dream,” she joked with the crowd, “and if we fail, I’m your nightmare!” The drug is expected to be the first approved for lifespan extension in any species, which could be significant for the future of human health as well.  

Since founding Loyal in 2019 at the age of 24, just two years after graduating from UT, Halioua has raised more than $125 million from leading investors including Khosla Ventures, Bain Capital, First Round Capital, and Valor Equity Partners. Now, as CEO, she leads a team of neuroscientists, veterinarians, biologists, chemists, regulatory experts, creatives, and operators. Halioua credits her work in multiple labs of UT’s Freshman Research Initiative with inspiring the kind of interdisciplinary thinking with which she leads these disparate teams.  

“Be disciplined, but also pursue your interests, because sometimes you’ll find opportunities if you understand one field and another,” Halioua told the Texas Exes’ Hello Longhorn podcast in October 2024. “Opportunity is at the intersection.”

Jessica McGehee

BA ’07, Life Member

Author writing as J. Elle  

Before she was the bestselling author J. Elle, Jessica McGehee was once a first-generation, pre-med student struggling through organic chemistry. She spent all of her free time, however, volunteering with the student-run broadcast news station on campus.

“This was the first time I’d asked myself what I wanted to do with my life—not what other people’s expectations of me were,” McGehee said in her acceptance speech. “What did I enjoy? Could I make a living doing it without succumbing to the claws of generational poverty, which felt like they were right around the corner if I made a mistake?”

After transferring to the School of Journalism, graduating from UT, and 12 years as a stay-at-home mom—“juggling many creative jobs and many soggy diapers”—McGehee’s writing has earned the coveted distinction of New York Times Best Seller several times over. In the last three years, the prolific author has penned six children’s and young adult novels that have been translated into more than a dozen languages across five continents.

“What my education at UT gave me that I value the most is the vision to dream of endless possibilities for my life,” McGehee said. “The permission to envision a life beyond poverty—something from my wildest dreams, led by what I love to do.”

Korey Pereira

BS ’11, Life Member

Assistant Professor of Practice and Audio Area Head, Moody College of Communication; Sound Editor

Despite arriving at The University of Texas as one of only two incoming freshmen admitted into the viola studio that year, Korey Pereira quickly confessed to his professor that he did not want to play viola as a career. “He told me, ‘What I’m going to teach you is how to become a master of something,’” Pereira recalled, “‘because then you can take that skill, apply it to anything else, and be equally successful.’”

Pereira found his equally successful path by switching to Radio-Television-Film (RTF) halfway through college, and with his 2022 Primetime Emmy for sound editing on Stranger Things’ fourth season, anyone would be hard-pressed to doubt that Pereira is a master of his craft. In addition to running his own freelance studio, Soularity Sound, Pereira shares his expertise as an RTF professor, earning a spot on the Alcalde’s 2024 Texas 10 list of the University’s most excellent professors.

“At our faculty kickoff event this semester, there was a moment when each professor around the room talked about what they were working on, and I was honestly blown away,” Pereira said. “The idea is that we foster a place where you can become the best at what you do, and whatever that is, you can find your way.”