Wednesday, July 24, 2024 | 4:30-6:30 PM PDT
Centennial Ballroom
A pioneer of pipeline programs designed to increase diversity in the health professions Charles J. Alexander, Ph.D., currently serves as the Associate Vice Provost for Student Diversity and Director of the Academic Advancement Program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He provides full-time executive and intellectual leadership for a collection of programs designed for nearly 5,000 undergraduates from diverse populations, who have been historically underserved by higher education; these include students from low-income families, first-generation college students, and students from historically underrepresented groups. In addition to his role as Associate Vice Provost, he is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Dentistry’s Division of Public Health and Community Dentistry.
He has been a consultant and peer reviewer for federal agencies, foundations, universities, and scholarly journals; published in the area of non-cognitive factors in the selection and admissions process, workforce diversity in the health professions, and health profession pipeline programs. He recently contributed to the 2020 Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health. He has also been a faculty member and guest lecturer at a number of universities and colleges, as well as a presenter at national and international conferences. He was the past Chair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Dental Pipeline Project II Advisory Committee, and a past President of the National Association of Medical Minority Educators (NAMME). In February of 2013, the Governor of the State of California appointed him to the Medical Board of California, Physician Assistant Board for a four-year term, which was recently renewed in August of 2020.
He has received numerous awards and honors including the Martin Luther King, Jr award from the University of California, San Francisco, the Dr. Joseph J. Krahewski Award from the Northern California Section of the American College of Dentists, a Presidential Citation from the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) for his significant contributions to dental education, a Distinguished Alumnus of the Year award by the College of Education at Marquette University, the Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award from The California Wellness Foundation, and commendations and citations from the CaliforniaSociety of Pediatric Dentistry, California State Legislators, and the Governors of California, Kentucky and Wisconsin.
Dr. Alexander received his Bachelors of Arts (B.A.) degree in Sociology from the State University of New York (SUNY), College at Cortland; a Masters of Arts (M.A.) degree in Sociology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and; a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in the Sociological Foundations of Education from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has also studied at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
Charles J. Alexander, Ph.D.
Dr. Adriana Galván is a Professor of Psychology and the Dean of Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is also the Co-Executive Director of the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent committed to improving the scientific understanding of the period of adolescence.. As a neuroscientist her career has been focused on adolescent brain development and how it supports developmental milestones during this significant developmental window. Her research expertise focuses on characterizing the neural mechanisms underlying adolescent behavior to inform policies that impact young people. Dr. Galván has published over 130 scientific articles on the topic and is the author of The Neuroscience of Adolescence (Cambridge University Press). Her research, generously funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and numerous private foundations, has been featured in several media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, PBSNewsHour, and NPR. She received her B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior from Barnard College, Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Cornell. She has received multiple recognitions for her work, including from the National Academy of Sciences, American Psychological Association, Cognitive Neuroscience Society and William T. Grant Foundation. She is also the recipient of the UCLA Gold Shield Faculty Prize. In 2018 she was a Fulbright Scholar in Barcelona and in 2019 she received the White House Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineers (PECASE) award.
Adriana Galván, Ph.D.
Susan L. Ettner Ph.D.
Dean, UCLA Division of Graduate Education
As the Dean of Graduate Education at UCLA, Dr. Ettner has campus-wide responsibility for academic and professional graduate students, providing oversight for over 12,000 students in 133 degree programs. As a first-gen college graduate, she earned her bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics/Economics and German from UC Santa Barbara and a doctorate in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining the UCLA faculty, Dr. Ettner served as an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. In addition to serving as the graduate dean, Dr. Ettner is a distinguished professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine & Health Services Research in the David Geffen School of Medicine, with a joint appointment in the Department of Health Policy & Management in the Fielding School of Public Health. With over 220 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Ettner was recognized as being one of the most highly-cited researchers in her field from 1960-2020. She has served as the Principal Investigator on 26 grants or sub-awards and as a Co-Investigator on 53 other research studies. Her current research focuses primarily on behavioral health policy. Most recently, Dr. Ettner led a comprehensive NIDA-funded evaluation of the impact of the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) on insurance coverage and treatment for mental health and substance use disorders. Dr. Ettner’s most cherished award is the Presidential Service Award given to her by the UCLA Graduate Student Association.
Wednesday, July 24, 2024 | 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM PDT
Centennial Ballroom
Gaye Theresa Johnson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies
Chair, Faculty Advisory Committee – Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies
Gaye Theresa Johnson is Associate Professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies and an affiliate in the Department of African American Studies at UCLA. A historian of freedom struggles and cultural politics who is deeply invested in community, she is also a lead facilitator and trainer in healing justice work for numerous social justice movement spaces across the nation. Johnson’s first book, published with University of California Press in 2013, is Spaces of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity: Music, Race, and Spatial Entitlement, and is a history of political coalition building and spatial struggles among Black and Brown freedom seekers in Los Angeles.
Johnson’s second book, Futures of Black Radicalism, is co-edited with Alexander Lubin and published with Verso Press. Futures of Black Radicalism is a collection of writings about the Black Radical Tradition, both in tribute to and animated by the work of Cedric Robinson. Called “field defining,” It has been translated into German and Japanese and is in its third edition.
Her third book, due out in Fall 2025 with University of Illinois Press, is a co-edited volume with sports scholars David J. Leonard and Rodolfo Mondragón, titled Rings of Dissent: Boxing and the Performance of Rebellion. She also has two chapters in a forthcoming, co-edited manuscript with Ananya Roy, Veronika Zablotsky, Maite Zubuairre, and Leisy Ábrego titled Sanctuary Spaces: Reworlding Humanism (Duke University Press, 2024) and several book chapters across multiple disciplines.
Johnson is a community-engaged scholar and an advocate for grassroots organizing, primarily in farmworkers’ rights, reproductive rights, and housing justice. She is a past Board President of the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) in Ventura, California, a present board member with California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, and an advisory board member for the Goldin Institute and the Rosenberg Fund for Children. She wrote the curriculum and trained high school teachers to offer the first Ethnic and Social Justice Studies in the Ventura Unified School District, and worked with a coalition of community members to compel the school board to make the course a requirement for K-12 education in the county.
Her proudest achievement is being a mother and a part of the circle of friends and family that constitute the core of her life.
Thursday, July 25, 2024 | 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM PDT
Centennial Ballroom
Alvine Kamaha, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Endowed Chair, Physical Sciences – Dr. Keith and Cecilia Terasaki
Dr. Alvine Kamaha is a dark matter physicist who completed her undergraduate work and earned a master’s degree in theoretical physics from the University of Douala in her native Cameroon, in western Africa. She received a second master’s degree from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. Dr Kamaha then pivoted to experimental physics, earning her PhD in astroparticle physics at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and staying on for a postdoc. She then moved to the United States to do a second postdoctoral research fellowship at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where she worked on the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, a U.S. flagship experiment searching for the missing matter of the universe so-called dark matter.
Dr Kamaha joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as an assistant professor in the department of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA in November 2021. She holds the inaugural Dr. Keith and Cecilia Terasaki Endowed Chair in Physical Sciences. At UCLA, Prof. Kamaha currently continues her leading role on the LZ experiment, while setting up a test facility for various R&D ideas on low background techniques and different detector technology calibrations to optimize the sensitivity of current and future experiments in finding dark matter. Her honors also include the “Excellence in Science and Life Award” from the University at Albany – SUNY, the “Mottashed and Millington/Stroud Graduate Awards” from Queen’s University, and the “Female Excellence Academic Award” as a student in Cameroon. She is also the 2024 recipient of the prestigious Edward A. Bouchet award from the American Physical Society “For leadership and key accomplishments in the experimental search for dark matter in the Universe, including advances in radioactive purity, as well as contributions to outreach, diversity, and inclusion through service and mentoring of students.”
Beside her research, Prof. Kamaha is passionate about outreach activities geared toward motivating the younger generation and visible minorities to pursue advanced studies in STEM programs. As an advocate for science outreach, she enjoys educating students about science and stirring up their interests in scientific disciplines, in and outside of classroom settings. Prof. Kamaha is a member of several STEM outreach committees, such as the international committee of the National Society of Black Physicists. At UCLA, she is a member of the diversity, equity and inclusion committee in the Physics and Astronomy department as well as a member of the faculty advisory committee for the university-wide Academic Advancement Program (AAP), a multiracial program that represents the best of what U.S. society aspires to: access, equity, opportunity, and excellence.
Is Grad School For Me? Book Talk
Thursday, July 25, 2024 | 12:00 PM PDT
Centennial Ballroom
Yvette Martínez-Vu, Ph.D.
Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu is a neurodivergent, chronically ill, and first-gen Chicana productivity coach, consultant, author, and speaker. She is the founder and CEO of Grad School Femtoring, LLC, where she empowers first-gen BIPOCs as they pursue higher education.
With over thirteen years of experience supporting first-generation students of color, Dra. Yvette remains committed to demystifying higher education, making academic knowledge accessible to wider audiences, and supporting first-gen BIPOCs in reaching their professional and personal goals through a compassionate and social justice informed lens.
She is the co-author of Is Grad School for Me?: Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students with the University of California Press (2024). She is also the co-editor of the bestselling Chicana M(other)work Anthology with the University of Arizona Press (2019).
Dra. Yvette is also the creative force behind the top global-ranked Grad School Femtoring Podcast, with over 270 episodes featuring 100+ experts in the field. Recognized as one of the top 20 best higher education podcasts, this platform has a global reach, impacting listeners in over 100 countries.
Dra. Yvette is a proud double alumna of UCLA with a PhD in Theater and Performance Studies and Bachelor’s Degree in English literature. She’s also a mother of two, born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, California, and currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Learn more:
Author of Negotiating Conquest: Gender and Power in California, 1770s to 1880s (University of Arizona Press, 2004), States of Delinquency: Race and Science in the Making of California’s Juvenile Justice System (University of California Press, 2012), and Migrant Longing: Letter Writing across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands (University of North Carolina Press, 2018), Dr. Miroslava Chavez-Garcia is currently at work on a new research project focused on the intersection of population control, environmentalism, eugenics, and anti-immigration restriction in the 1960s to the early 2000s. “‘The Architects of Hate’: The Environmental Movement, Population Control, Eugenics, and the Mainstreaming of Immigration Restriction,” focuses on how a small yet politically and economically powerful group of people influenced mainstream environmental organizations to spread racist, eugenicist, anti-immigrant sentiment and pass increasingly draconian immigration policies and practices aimed at closing the door to people of color from around the world.
In addition to her academic research interests, Dr. Chavez-Garcia recently published Is Grad School For Me? Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students (UC Press, 2024) the first guidebook for first-generation, low-income, and/or non-traditional students of color interested in pursuing graduate school. With a strong focus on demystifying higher education, the guide provides foundational knowledge on how to apply, gain admission, and successfully navigate graduate school. The aim is to empower traditionally marginalized populations with the resources they need to enroll in a graduate program that best fits their needs and interests.
A first-generation immigrant Chicana of farm worker origins, Dr. Chavez-Garcia was born on the U.S.-Mexico border, specifically in Mexicali, Baja California, and was raised in San Jose, California, by her parents and then by her aunt and uncle (who raised her after her parents died in a car accident when she was 12). She received her BA (1991), MA (1993), and PhD (1998), from UCLA.
Miroslava Chávez-García, Ph.D.
University of California, Santa Barbara