I have spent my entire faculty career working at CSUN, a large, public Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in Los Angeles, which affords me the privilege of working in what the Wall Street Journal ranked in 2022 as the 3rd most diverse learning environment in the country. Our students are not only diverse in terms of race and ethnicity (56% Latinx, 20.8% White, 9.3% Asian-American or Pacific Islander, 4.8% Black or African-American, and 0.1% are Native American), they are ‘non-traditional’ in other ways that also contribute to diversity. Most of our undergraduate students are transfer students from community colleges, and they are first-generation college students and/or first-generation Americans; for them, CSUN represents a pathway to the middle class and economic stability. Many work part- or full-time, are Pell-grant eligible, live at home in multi-generational households, and/or function as caregivers for family members, all while enrolled full time. 

I understand the nuances of our students’ identities and responsibilities because I am one of the few Geoscience faculty members who teaches at the university level and in an interdisciplinary manner, which allows me to see and work with students who represent the greatest cross section of diversity at CSUN. I am part of a small cohort of faculty across the university that has taught U100 ‘The Freshmen Seminar’ to first-time freshmen, which is a ‘how to do college’ skill- and confidence-building class. I have also collaborated with colleagues in Chicano/a/x Studies to teach an interdisciplinary environmental justice class, and have now established my own environmental justice class in the Department of Geological Sciences - the first geoscience course to incorporate a service learning component with local communities who are disproportionately affected by environmental racism. Working with students in this capacity has taught me how traditional STEM teaching pedagogy can be deficit-minded and exclusionary for women and/or Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) students, and it has shaped the intentionality with which I communicate and interact with students in the classroom, lab, and in the field. I am adept at creating an environment in which students feel that their identities and skill sets are seen and valued, and that their presence and success at the university is a necessary part of achieving inclusive excellence.  

I have been a vocal proponent of efforts to improve inclusivity at national levels within the Geoscience discipline. Most recently, I was an invited panelist for a webinar offered through the Earth Sciences Women's Network (ESWN) called 'Navigating Workplace Hierarchy', where an international panel of women from the Germany, Nigeria, the UK, and the USA discussed their experiences in academia, industry, and non-profits. I was also an invited panelist for a webinar offered through the AAPG Women’s Network centered around the challenges of Geoscience DEI work in both academic and industry settings, along with co-panelists Emily Cooperdock (Brown University), Anahi Carrera (Ph.D., Brown University, now at LLNL ), and Rebecca Caldwell (Chevron). I was the Vice Chair of the Southern California Earthquake Center’s inaugural DEI committee, and contributed feedback and commentary on the Geological Society of America (GSA)’s Code of Conduct when it was introduced in 2019. I have served as proponent and co-convener of DEI-themed sessions at GSA, including one at the Fall 2021 meeting called “Building the Workforce of the 21st Century: Understanding Diversity, Intersectionality, Ethics, And Inclusivity In The Geosciences And Implementing Transformative Change In Our Culture”, and my co-leaders of this session include three other women of color in science. I write and speak about my personal experience as a woman of color in academia; my 2021 article called The Leaky Pipeline Playbook was published in Inside Higher Ed, and was the basis for a talk that I gave at GSA that year. My voice has impact on students, and a GSA student member who attended my talk specifically refers to it in her On to the Future guest blog. Students outside of the geosciences discipline are also impacted by my work; on a 2022 visit to Texas Tech University as an invited speaker, I met a Latino Doctorate of Education student who recognized my name from having read my article—he had read it in a graduate student seminar in the College of Education, and it resonated with him and his graduate advisor. The national impact of my work and my voice helps our discipline move towards becoming a just, diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for all geoscientists.