About Me
I am currently the Recruitment, Outreach, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (RODEI) coordinator in the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences at UCLA and will be starting as Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech starting in January 2025. I am a first-generation Mexican American originally from Los Angeles, California, where I was born and raised. After being initially interested in marine biology, I decided to pursue geology as a major after watching the movie, Dante’s Peak, when I was in high school. I attended Cal State Fullerton, where I majored in Geological Sciences. As an undergrad, I developed a passion for marine paleobiology and decided to pursue that as a career after participating in an NSF REU at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. After earning my B.S., I stayed at Cal State Fullerton where I earned my Master’s degree. For the next two years, I split my time between living in Panamá working for the Florida Museum of Natural History and working in paleontological resource mitigation in Southern California. I then went on to earn my Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Georgia. After completing my Ph.D., I was a Stanford Earth Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4221-0693Media Mentions
Has Life on Earth Survived More Than Five Mass Extinctions? – Smithsonian Magazine
Of Gitnuganaks, Glaciers, and Life at the End of the Last Ice Age – Hakai Magazine
Doerr School welcomes new cohort of Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellows – Stanford University
Ancient Earth: Inferno – PBS NOVA/BBC
The First Fossil Finders in North America Were Enslaved and Indigenous People — Smithsonian Magazine
Without Deep Emissions Cuts, Marine Species Face Mass Extinction — Eos
Extinction changes rules of body size evolution — Stanford University
Strengthening science — Stanford University
From Dante’s Peak to the Panama Canal — Florida Museum of Natural History
Geology Student Wins Paleo Award — California State University, Fullerton