“… in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”

Maya Angelou

My professional endeavors are guided by the values instilled in me by my grandmother, mother, and aunts in my Mexican-American matriarchal home, focused on: family, community, education, and serving those in need. When my American grandfather died, the U.S. government presented my Mexican grandmother and her children with the ultimatum of moving to the U.S. within 30 days or losing their U.S. citizenship. As a result, my mother, her three siblings and my grandmother lived in an over-crowded apartment in El Paso, Texas. Through dedication and perseverance, they were able to come out of those circumstances to become successful professionals. My career is grounded in my heritage and my recent family history. I have the motivation, work ethic, and skillsets to benefit and contribute to the diversity, equity, and inclusive body of work at UT Austin.

Past activities: Practice, mentorship, teaching & research

I have had a rich public health and education career spanning 20 years. During that time I have primarily worked with young people up to 25 years old. This has included LGBTQ youth who were thrown out of their homes when they came out to their parents, drug-using and drug-abusing youth, and young, poor, people of color in New York City where every country and everyone is represented. In working with a student team at the City University of New York (CUNY), a university as diverse as New York City, they described their experiences as being first generation: U.S. citizens, ambitious women, LGBTQ and students. These students also shared how they were dealing with gender expectation for males, feeling like a misfit when representing their home culture, and like they were bridging two worlds, all while managing multiple jobs and classes. In many ways, I reflected a typical underrepresented student: I worked full-time while attending school, I have close family ties, and I am the first in my family to earn a doctorate. Underrepresented students balance a lot and my work, as an educator, is rooted in supporting and helping them reach their academic goals.

For a needs assessment on underrepresented college students in 2020, I conducted in-depth interviews with 29 individuals who self-identified as a person of color, first generation undergraduate college student, or were Pell Grant recipients. I came to understand underrepresented students as 1) often supporting themselves and families both emotionally and financially; 2) struggling to find a sense of belonging in their first and second years of college, and working hard to prove they belong too often translates into spreading themselves too thin; and 3) being under-estimated and experiencing racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression on campus, results in increased stress levels, poor academic performance and taking a leave of absence at a greater rate than their more privileged counterparts. This work has ignited my passion to encourage an inclusive campus environment.

From that experience, and as a professor at CUNY, a minority-serving institution, I have taught hundreds of underrepresented students. Among the 7 graduate students I supervised and mentored closely as the Health Technology Project Director for Healthy CUNY, all were underrepresented students. Through a combination of my mentorship and their academic scholarship and dedication, they all made significant achievements, including presenting at professional conferences; two are currently pursuing their PhDs. In addition, as an educator in public and private institutions with diverse student demographics in NYC, I made explicit efforts in my courses to bring intersectional discussions primarily through the use of case study methodology and group work. For example, to explore health disparities, I have dedicated class sessions on morbidity and mortality in the U.S.; structural violence; age and gender; race and class; stress and allostatic load; and the intersections of politics, values, and interventions at the population level. I create space for and facilitate meaningful student-led conversations resulting in an empowering and respectful learning environment.

My dissertation, funded by a National Research Service Award, National Institutes of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health (F31MH099924), was motivated by health disparity trends of disproportionately elevated rates of STDs, including HIV, among young Black and Latina women aged 18 to 24 compared to their White counterparts resulting from individual behaviors (i.e., delayed healthcare seeking) and structural level factors such as racism and sexism. GURHL Code was a randomized (RCT) 2-arm pilot study testing the feasibility of a smartphone web-based application (a website that works across smartphones, tablets, laptops) to promote connection to clinical services and to improve sexual health knowledge. To develop GURHL Code, I convened and maintained an advisory committee of providers and young women of color aged 18 to 24, conducted formative focus groups, and created a web-based application (gurhlcode.org). The pilot RCT examined web analytics, baseline, and 3-month post-test survey, and follow-up focus groups data. I would eagerly mentor natural sciences undergraduates on applying an inclusive lens to their research.

 

Future plans: Contribute to diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education

As violent acts continue in the United States, rooted in systemic racism that the country has yet to heal, I have clarity and drive about focusing my energy to contribute to a larger diverse, equitable, and inclusive body of work. As a faculty member , I would build on previous experience to take an active leadership role in fostering diversity among undergraduates to promote the diversity and inclusion by:

• Expanding policies and practices reflecting the racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of demographic trends in the U.S.
• Encouraging an inclusive culture that is evidence-based and draws from best practices.
• Maintaining a culturally-competent campus environment through ongoing training, dialogue, and reflection that demonstrates awareness, understanding and commitment to DEI.
• Acknowledging that higher education institutions were designed to serve a privileged subgroup, and encourage faculty to work in consort to undo this inequity.
• Asking difficult questions: How can we encourage a campus environment that invites a more diverse population by socioeconomic status, gender, ability, race, and ethnicity? What more can be done right now to create an inviting environment so that all feel empowered and heard?
• Fostering a campus environment that examines bias so students can bring their most authentic selves to their academic work and beyond.
• Ensuring that diverse student voices are heard and valued in all courses I teach, including readings from nonwestern authors and across campus activities.
• Enthusiastically contributing to a diversity leadership team.

As a professor, I will have many opportunities to inspire students to demonstrate purposeful and thoughtful guided exploration and self-reflection around diversity, equity and inclusion themes or as part of a broader diversity leadership team. With these opportunities, I can actively support the diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for students thereby contributing to the cross-cultural collaborative and innovative university atmosphere.