Racial Justice Fellowship Awardees

Our Racial Justice Fellowship Program awardees are supported by a cross-campus collaboration between academic divisions and through private donations. 

Diego Lazcano Avila
PhD Student, Chicana and Chicano Studies

To me this award symbolizes not only that my community recognizes and appreciates the work and interests I have but also that I have the support to continue pursuing those goals with the mindset of helping to give back to me community. It will be an integral tool for building my experience and knowledge. Growing up in Santa Barbara not only did I experience the red-lining of neighborhoods and the subsequent drop in value as well as quality of life. I also learned of the history of working class people as well as the extensive history of the indigenous communities in this area and their struggle for prosperity. As a young adult I entered many spaces where activism and cultural spirituality would blend and mesh. My fascination with history in general also fueled my pursue of Chicano Studies. As an interdisciplinary field, within Chicano Studies I am able to expand my interests and explore how I want to impact my communities.

India Sanders
PhD Student, Counseling and Clinical Psychology

I am incredibly grateful to have received the Racial Justice Fellowship, which allows me to fully dedicate myself to researching and advocating for Black and Brown communities. My research focuses on exploring the relationship between race and mental health outcomes in marginalized communities. Thanks to this fellowship, I will be able to provide essential mental health resources to underserved communities through mentorship, community healing events, and the establishment of more supportive spaces for Black and Brown communities in Santa Barbara. My research interests originated from my experiences with racism and discrimination in professional, academic, and personal settings. I have also witnessed these challenges affecting other Black and Brown individuals around me. This has sparked my curiosity to explore racial intersectionality in various environments and examine mental health outcomes. My goal is to provide resources to address racial trauma and promote resilience among Black and Brown communities. At UCSB, my research goals are to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities and integrate diversity within research.

Marlene Lopez Torres
PhD Student, Education

It is truly an honor to receive the Racial Justice Fellowship as it will alleviate some of the financial hardships that come along with graduate school. This fellowship is helping me as a first-generation Latina to obtain my PhD but also opening the door for me to help other members of my community. Ultimately, it is empowering to know that this fellowship is making it possible to increase the presence of marginalized communities in academia. My ethnic studies background and personal experiences navigating higher academia have demonstrated the persistent lack of support for Latinx students in higher education...My research interests therefore lie in the implementation of these courses at high schools in the Central Valley and the difference they will make in student success. As I research the new Ethnic Studies courses in high schools, I would also like to serve as a resource to the students in those classes as they transition into life after high school. I would hope to help them learn about higher education and how they can get financial support to get through college.

Rubysela Rodriguez
PhD Student, Education

I enrolled in a community college where I thrived and transferred to a Cal State, where I continued to do well. There, I was introduced to a program dedicated to promoting minoritized students into graduate school. That program changed the trajectory of my life and led me to pursue a doctoral degree here at UCSB, where I hope to conduct research that empowers other minoritized students....Too often, minoritized communities are absent in the literature, and the fact that the Racial Justice Fellowship recognizes scholars doing work in these communities means a lot to me.

Cynthia De La Rosa
PhD Student, Chicana/o Studies

Receiving the Racial Justice Fellowship is a true honor as it will help alleviate some of the financial hardships I face as a first-generation graduate student. My intersecting identities as a working-class, immigrant, first-generation Latina scholar have motivated me to pursue a career where I can give back to my community through research, teaching, and mentorship. By receiving this fellowship, I am encouraged to continue to advocate for my community and to produce the work needed to bring justice to crossover youth who are constantly neglected by the state.

Kristin Yinger
PhD Student, Art History

After graduation and moving back to California, I realized I wanted to put my experience and knowledge into arts education. In my teaching and mentoring experiences at the high school level, I have been able to serve students of historically disadvantaged backgrounds in south central Los Angeles, primarily women of color, to assist them on their journeys to higher education. This fellowship allows me to pursue my future art historical scholarship and teaching work towards fleshing out ‘alternative histories’ (i.e. queer histories, feminist histories and those of historically underrepresented groups), decentering whiteness and maleness in the discipline, and increasing accessibility to art, art spaces, and arts education.

Janelle Arnold
PhD Student, Chemical Engineering

Victoria Diaz
Master's Student, Chemical Engineering

I am absolutely honored to say that I will be fully funded by the Racial Justice Fellowship at UCSB. It is a privilege to be distinguished as someone deserving of such an award because there are many odds against me as a Mexican and Native American female wanting to obtain a higher education in STEM. I want to connect with other students through the mutual goal of creating a more diverse STEM community, promoting what a diverse collective can bring to the table.

Kaela Farrise
Doctoral Student, Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (CCSP)

This fellowship means that I have more time and freedom to focus my research on the reasons I decided to pursue a PhD -- to focus on Black and Latinx mental health disparities through research and take more risks that can lead to better mental health outcomes. It also indicated to me as a prospective student that studying issues of racial justice from a mental health perspective is meaningful to and supported by the university which was a huge driving factor for my decision to come to UCSB.

Humberto Flores
Doctoral Student, Sociology

The Racial Justice Fellowship reaffirms my research on police illegitimacy in minoritized communities. Being a Chicano first-generation college student drives me to become a strong agent of diversity in the academy. Additionally, conducting policy-oriented research that has the potential to reimagine public safety keeps me motivated to finish the PhD program. As a member of UCSB’s intellectual community, I am looking forward to working with the sociology department’s trailblazing faculty and learning from my colleagues in the program.

Fabián Pavón
Master's Student, Chicana and Chicano Studies

For me, receiving this fellowship means that the often thankless racial justice work that I have done actually means something to someone. It means that someone cares about people who sacrifice themselves for the betterment of our society. It encourages me to contribute to the racial justice work done by my predecessors. It feels like a nice breath of fresh air before getting back to work. It encourages me to continue to document and research movements for racial justice in order to create a blueprint that will move us closer towards racial justice for future generations of scholar-activists to follow.

Kendall Rallins
Doctoral Student, Feminist Studies

Being awarded the racial justice fellowship was just further confirmation that UCSB was the place I needed to be. They showed me that they placed value in work like mine. To know that UCSB sees value in research that centers Black queer folks and wants to support my project and myself means everything.

Nya Hayes
Doctoral Student, Classics

Ricardo Delgado Solis
Doctoral Student, Chicana and Chicano Studies

Ricardo Delgado Solis graduated with a B.S. in Sociology and a B.A. in Gender and Sexuality Studies from UC Riverside this June. At the UCSB Chicana/o Studies Department, he hopes to document the challenges, struggles, and achievements of first-generation undocuqueer students, demonstrating their resiliency and creation of supportive communities.

Brianna Reddick
Doctoral Student, Feminist Studies

Brianna (Bri) Reddick graduated with a B.A. in Communications and a minor in Politics and International Affairs in May 2019 from Wake Forest University in North Carolina. At the UCSB Department of Feminist Studies, Reddick’s research will focus on menstrual equity, internship and leadership experience, teaching potential, and scholar-advocacy work to benefit young Black and other women of color.

Maria Guadalupe Romo-González
Doctoral Student, Education

Maria Guadalupe Romo-González tutored migrant children, served as a mentor for middle school students, and co-founded a PUENTE program at UC Berkeley. She is currently conducting equity-focused research on higher education access for the education policy program at New America, a Washington DC-based think tank. She described her desire to pursue a doctorate at the UCSB Gevirtz Graduate School of Education as a means to “pay it forward as a mentor and professor to other first-generation, low-income, English language learners and Latinx students.” As a Higher Education Policy fellow at the Leadership Enterprise for Diverse America, she lobbied Congress for equitable higher education opportunities for first-generation and low-income students and presented policy proposals to that effect.

Gaby Hinojosa
Doctoral Student, Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (CCSP)

Gaby Hinojosa graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from CSU Northridge, where she worked on research at the NIH-funded BUILD PODER program that focuses on training undergraduates from underrepresented groups for Ph.D. programs and careers in the biomedical sciences. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology Program at UCSB, where she hopes to pursue research on mental health intervention and prevention programs. She also looks forward to teaching and mentoring students at an ethnically diverse university.