Jacque Benitez is the Assistant Manager of Planetarium Programs at the California Academy of Sciences. Jacque received her Bachelor of Arts in Physics with a concentration in Astronomy from San Francisco State University in 2012. After graduating, she used her Physics degree at Peets to produce quality coffee. In late 2012, Jacque began working part-time at the Academy in San Francisco, California, presenting astronomy shows to Kindergarten to 8th-grade students and the general public in the Morrison Planetarium. The other half of her time she spent continuing to work at the coffee shop. Then in 2015, Jacque took the opportunity to reach K-5 students beyond the Bay Area innovatively as the Education Specialist for the Academy's Distance Learning program. Through this program, she connected with students via Zoom all around the country on subjects ranging from asteroids to African penguins. More recently, Jacque returned to her first science love, astronomy, as the Assistant Manager of planetarium programs for the Morrison Planetarium. She is responsible for hiring, coaching, and supervising the team of planetarium presenters. Jacque is also creating, implementing, and presenting astronomy and natural science content for the planetarium and other venues in the Academy. No matter her job, she has a passion for science communication and will continue to reach audiences innovatively.

Amy Furniss is an Associate Professor at Cal. State East Bay. Amy received her Physics PhD in 2013 from University of California in Santa Cruz. For the past 8 years she has been studying gamma-ray astrophysics, active galactic nuclei, blazar environment, evolution and emission, extragalactic background light, intergalactic magnetic fields, extragalactic cosmic ray and photon propagation, relativistic acceleration mechanisms and non-thermal emission processes. She is currently the Deputy Spokesperson of the VERITAS Collaboration, keeping involved in her research through the work of her undergraduate students and her adjunct faculty position at UC Santa Cruz. In addition to teaching physics and astronomy courses, Amy is working on an engaging digital format textbook on introductory physics, works to help CSU physics, astronomy and computer science students succeed in their pursuits of getting their PhD, and is dedicated to increasing student awareness of Impostor Syndrome within the physics and astronomy fields.

Dr. Louise Edwards joined Cal Poly in August, 2016, having been a lecturer in the Yale Astronomy department for 4 years prior. She was also an Assistant Professor of Physics at Mount Allison University, and held postdoctoral positions at the California Institute of Technology's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center and at Trent University. She received her PhD in Physics from Laval University in Quebec, Canada in 2007. Optical and infrared spectroscopy, along with photometric data from X-ray, through to Radio wavelengths allow Dr. Edwards to study the formation and evolution of galaxies. She is particularly interested in the cores and infall regions of rich galaxy clusters. In 2002, she was pictured on a Canadian stamp.

https://physics.calpoly.edu/ledwar04

I'm Alejandra Rosselli-Calderon and I am a PhD student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics department at UC Santa Cruz, where I study high energy astrophysical events. I am interested in tidal disruption events, black holes and gravitational waves. I was born and raised in Colombia and find it fulfilling to get to know more latines in STEM. Before coming to UCSC, I got my Master's degree at Brown University and my Bachelor's degree at Clark University in Massachusetts, both degrees in physics. Before doing research in astro, I worked in a biophysics lab where we studied the motion of magnetotactic bacteria, as well as liquid crystals and active matter. I attended two CUWiP conferences during my undergrad and helped plan one at Brown. I really enjoy physics and it is very cool to get to apply it in the simulations of high energy astro. I love the fact that the knowledge that I obtained when working with tiny organisms can directly transfer to astronomical scales. I love the universality of physics that allows us to learn about our universe from microscopic to universal scales. I am excited to meet more young physicists and feel free to reach out!

I am a physics PhD student at UCSC, and I completed by BS in astrophysics at Arizona State University. I work on fundamental physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. I am interested in the early universe, dark matter and black holes, and gravitational physics. I love gardening and collecting stickers from big science projects, and I can peel a mango skin in a single continuous ribbon on a good day.

Lillian Santos-Olmsted is a 1st year PhD student in physics at Stanford University. She received her B.S. in physics from UC Santa Cruz, but spent the first two years of college at Santa Rosa Junior College. As an undergraduate, she did research on applications of machine learning to the study of galactic properties, as well as theoretical particle physics, with a focus on dark matter. Currently, she is working on a project on the capture of dark matter by white dwarfs. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, badminton, board games, and star trek. Lillian Santos-Olmsted is a 1st year PhD student in physics at Stanford University. She received her B.S. in physics from UC Santa Cruz, but spent the first two years of college at Santa Rosa Junior College. As an undergraduate, she did research on applications of machine learning to the study of galactic properties, as well as theoretical particle physics, with a focus on dark matter. Currently, she is working on a project on the capture of dark matter by white dwarfs. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, badminton, board games, and star trek.

Alison Breeze works in the lighting industry, leading her company’s LED reliability and failure analysis team. Prior to her time in reliability, she spent the first half of her career as an R&D scientist developing next-generation solar cell technologies. Alison completed her undergraduate, masters, and doctorate degrees in physics at UC Santa Cruz, the latter while researching organic solar cells, followed by a post-doctoral position at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Outside of work, Alison leads her neighborhood’s Firewise community, volunteers in the wilderness patrol program at the local state parks and enjoys backpacking, hiking, and science fiction and fantasy.

Bree Barnett Dreyfuss is a high school teacher at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton where she has taught Physics and AP Physics for 17 years. She is the STEP UP Ambassador Program Coordinator and active in the American Association of Physics Teachers both nationally and locally. Her research interests are gender and physics as well as equitable access to physics for all.

www.STEPUPphysics.org

Nora Brackbill is a consultant for the California State Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, where she analyzes state-level fiscal issues in public safety and the judiciary. This includes funding for the courts, the state prison system, and emergency response, among other safety and criminal justice issues. She previously joined the committee’s staff as a California Council on Science and Technology Policy Fellow, a program that helps bring scientists into state government. She grew up in Santa Cruz and received her B.S. from UCLA (where she attended CUWiP!) and her Ph.D. from Stanford, both in physics. Her dissertation focused on computational approaches to understanding vision, but she worked in a variety of interdisciplinary labs throughout undergrad and grad school, including two summers in astrophysics at UCSC. She also ran a science news podcast at Stanford and is interested in teaching and science communication. While her current work is not directly tied to physics, the ability to read and analyze scientific studies, think critically, and brainstorm and solve problems are crucial for her work as a consultant.

nora.brackbill.com

Dr. Stephanie Deppe is a planetary scientist and science communicator. In a past academic life, she worked with telescopes in Chile to discover and study new icy asteroids orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. Now, she's the Astronomy Content Strategist for Rubin Observatory, creating online and social media content for astronomy's next big ground-based observatory. When she's not talking about astronomy to anyone who will listen, she's probably on a trail somewhere, reading a sci-fi or fantasy book, or hanging out with her cat. Learn more about her @SpaceSciSteph or at spacescisteph.com.

www.spacescisteph.com, www.twitter.com/SpaceSciSteph

After transferring to UCSC from community college, Jane joined the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics as an undergraduate researcher in the ILC Simulation Group. Jane graduated with a B.S. in Physics in 2017 and works as an accelerator operations engineer at SLAC National Laboratory, operating multiple particle accelerators and collaborating on human-computer interaction and machine learning research. As a dedicated science educator, Jane creates immersive experiences to engage youth in science and serves as a mentor and advocate for folks from underrepresented communities pursuing STEM careers. A lifelong slug, Jane resides in Santa Cruz with her cat Lucy and you can find her dancing, making art and tea, frolicking through the forest, or jumping in the ocean.

https://phys.org/news/2020-04-machine-method-particle.html

Amita Kuttner (they/he) is co-founder of moonlight institute, a non-profit organization that seeks to illuminate pathways to an equitable and just future, taking into account the realities of the climate emergency, as well as technology and decolonization. Amita received their PhD in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2019. Their research focused on black holes, wormholes, quantum effects, and the early universe.

Amita ran for Member of Parliament in Canada in 2019, and served as Critic for Science and Innovation for the Green Party of Canada from 2018 to 2020, bringing forward policy on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. They ran for leader of the party in 2020, and served as Interim Leader from 2021 to 2022. They were the first non-binary, transgender and person of East Asian descent to lead a major federal political party in Canada.

Amita’s academic work in physics and astrophysics led them to tech policy and into politics and beyond. Though very disparate in nature, skills from the scientific academic world were good preparation for policy and politics. When not trying to help humanity, Amita can be found elbow deep in either soil or bread dough.

www.moonlightinstitute.org

I am a former Physics undergraduate with the Ubiversity of Colorado in Boulder. I left school just shy of completing my degree to work in the software industry. I spent two years at Google working on projects to improve inclusive design and usability before leaving to start my own business. I am now the founder of Blue Crane, LLC, which designs innovative strollers, car seats, and other products tailored to the needs of parents who do not drive their own vehicles. I use physics extensively in my work to solve mechanical engineering problems, understand what is needed to keep kids safe in transit, and make business choices backed by data.

Dr. Louise Edwards joined Cal Poly in August, 2016, having been a lecturer in the Yale Astronomy department for 4 years prior. She was also an Assistant Professor of Physics at Mount Allison University, and held postdoctoral positions at the California Institute of Technology's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center and at Trent University. She received her PhD in Physics from Laval University in Quebec, Canada in 2007. Optical and infrared spectroscopy, along with photometric data from X-ray, through to Radio wavelengths allow Dr. Edwards to study the formation and evolution of galaxies. She is particularly interested in the cores and infall regions of rich galaxy clusters. In 2002, she was pictured on a Canadian stamp.

https://physics.calpoly.edu/ledwar04

Yvonne started her education as a first generation, re-entry student with three children. Back then, she had dreams of becoming a world-famous Chicana poet. Instead, she ended up with a doctorate degree in physics. Although trained as a physicist, Yvonne has extensive experience in nonprofit leadership and programming and is committed to creating pathways for advancement for People of Color that are free of obstacles and full of support. Yvonne chose to join Surge in its commitment to strengthening the educational leadership landscape by supporting Leaders of Color from the community. She is happy to work with Surge Fellows and Alumni as they take their skills to the next level on behalf of the youth of Oakland and the bay area. Source: The Surge Institute

I'm Alejandra Rosselli-Calderon and I am a PhD student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics department at UC Santa Cruz, where I study high energy astrophysical events. I am interested in tidal disruption events, black holes and gravitational waves. I was born and raised in Colombia and find it fulfilling to get to know more latines in STEM. Before coming to UCSC, I got my Master's degree at Brown University and my Bachelor's degree at Clark University in Massachusetts, both degrees in physics. Before doing research in astro, I worked in a biophysics lab where we studied the motion of magnetotactic bacteria, as well as liquid crystals and active matter. I attended two CUWiP conferences during my undergrad and helped plan one at Brown. I really enjoy physics and it is very cool to get to apply it in the simulations of high energy astro. I love the fact that the knowledge that I obtained when working with tiny organisms can directly transfer to astronomical scales. I love the universality of physics that allows us to learn about our universe from microscopic to universal scales. I am excited to meet more young physicists and feel free to reach out!

alejandrarosselli.com

Arcelia Hermosillo Ruiz is a 4th year phd candidate in astronomy and astrophysics and nsfgrfp fellow at UC Santa Cruz. As a first generation college student, she got her Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley with a double major in physics and astrophysics. At UC Berkeley she learned about research and phd life through student and national organizations such as SACNAS, NSF-LSAMP, and McNair Scholars Program. She participated in several other programs with a mission to increase diversity in STEM graduate programs across the nation. Along with her own drive to learn and dream of becoming a professor, the support from these programs positively impacted her decision to pursue a PhD.

At UC Santa Cruz she has studied the evolution of the outer solar system by using nbody simulations and observations of the Kuiper Belt. She is interested in the dynamics that form planetary systems and debris disks. Arcelia values mentorship and community support from her peers. She finds the most joy when doing science in community and mentors other first gen/students of color to pay it forward. On her free time, she enjoys watching interesting tv shows/movies, playing video games, taking care of her plants, and spending quality time with loved ones.

ahermosillo.github.io

Bree Barnett Dreyfuss is a high school teacher at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton where she has taught Physics and AP Physics for 17 years. She is the STEP UP Ambassador Program Coordinator and active in the American Association of Physics Teachers both nationally and locally. Her research interests are gender and physics as well as equitable access to physics for all.

www.STEPUPphysics.org

Cissy is a joint Ph.D. candidate between the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Stuttgart, Germany) and the Quantum Matter Institute at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). She studies strongly correlated electron materials using a variety of spectroscopic techniques, in particular angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy or ARPES. She is currently holds a doctoral fellowship at the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, working at beamline 7.0.2 on the micro- and nanoARPES systems. Cissy is also currently on the organizing committee of ComSciConCAN, the national science communications conference for graduate students, and the VP of News for Science Policy and Exchange, a student-run group bridging science and policy in Canada. In her spare time, Cissy loves learning languages (she speaks 5 and is learning a 6th!) -- fun fact, she's been to over 45 countries!

Finding physics later in life, after several 'incarnations' including as a Slavic languages major, I have had the varied life experience of living on five continents and working in numerous fields. These previous incarnations make me more convinced I have found the right path in physics and I am currently looking at moving away from pure cosmological spectroscopic research and towards more applied quantum computing.

www.github.com/cleolepart

David Williams is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics at UC Santa Cruz and a Research Physicist in the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP). He received a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis and master's and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from Harvard University, specializing in experimental particle physics. His particle physic research studied electron-positron collisions at DESY in Germany and SLAC in California. He subsequently became interested in applying experimental techniques from particle physics to address problems in high energy astrophysics, the field that has come to be known as particle astrophysics. He studies astrophysical sources of very high-energy gamma-rays (with energy >100 GeV) and has been part of the CYGNUS, Milagro, STACEE, VERITAS, and Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) collaborations. He has been a member of the graduate admissions committee in the Physics Department at UC Santa Cruz for more than 20 years.

http://scipp.ucsc.edu/~daw/

My research focuses on the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets. I am currently on sabbatical and working on model fits with an eye toward the JWST data being released. I followed the more traditional career path, obtaining a bachelor degree in physics in 1996 from Brigham Young University (BYU). I then received my MS in 1999 and my PhD in 2002, both in astronomy from New Mexico State University. I worked as a postdoc for three years at Space Telescope Science Institute discovering binary systems in the Kuiper Belt, and then as an assistant research scientist for two years at Johns Hopkins University working on Spitzer data of brown dwarfs before becoming full-time faculty at BYU in January 2007. What is unusual in my career path is that I have been married for almost 30 years and I have 7 children ranging in age from 26 to 8. Much of my citizenship focus at BYU has been on trying to improve the quality of life for women faculty at BYU and recruiting and encouraging female students into STEM fields. I am heavily involved in efforts to improve diversity and inclusion on campus and providing support and resources for our students who do not fit the traditional mold.

I am a physics PhD student at UCSC, and I completed by BS in astrophysics at Arizona State University. I work on fundamental physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. I am interested in the early universe, dark matter and black holes, and gravitational physics. I love gardening and collecting stickers from big science projects, and I can peel a mango skin in a single continuous ribbon on a good day.

Gina Quan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at San José State University. Prior to coming to San José State University, she earned her PhD in Physics (specializing in Physics Education Research) from the University of Maryland, College Park and was a Research Associate at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her current research studies the design of sustainable, supportive learning environments and how these environments impact students’ long-term engagement in physics. She is also a co-founder of the Access Network, an NSF funded research-practice community dedicated to fostering community and supporting inclusion efforts in undergraduate physical science programs. Outside of work, she enjoys powerlifting, cooking, and playing guitar.

https://ginaquan.com/

Gwynn Benner spent over 13 years supporting students within the University of California system. Before retiring in 2021, she served as Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success and Director for the Student Success Equity Research Center. Prior to her time at UC Santa Cruz, she oversaw career services for master's, PhDs, and postdoctoral scholars at UC Davis.

https://sites.google.com/ucsc.edu/academic-job-market-success/home

I am a former Physics undergraduate with the Ubiversity of Colorado in Boulder. I left school just shy of completing my degree to work in the software industry. I spent two years at Google working on projects to improve inclusive design and usability before leaving to start my own business. I am now the founder of Blue Crane, LLC, which designs innovative strollers, car seats, and other products tailored to the needs of parents who do not drive their own vehicles. I use physics extensively in my work to solve mechanical engineering problems, understand what is needed to keep kids safe in transit, and make business choices backed by data.

Lillian Santos-Olmsted is a 1st year PhD student in physics at Stanford University. She received her B.S. in physics from UC Santa Cruz, but spent the first two years of college at Santa Rosa Junior College. As an undergraduate, she did research on applications of machine learning to the study of galactic properties, as well as theoretical particle physics, with a focus on dark matter. Currently, she is working on a project on the capture of dark matter by white dwarfs. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, badminton, board games, and star trek. Lillian Santos-Olmsted is a 1st year PhD student in physics at Stanford University. She received her B.S. in physics from UC Santa Cruz, but spent the first two years of college at Santa Rosa Junior College. As an undergraduate, she did research on applications of machine learning to the study of galactic properties, as well as theoretical particle physics, with a focus on dark matter. Currently, she is working on a project on the capture of dark matter by white dwarfs. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, badminton, board games, and star trek.

Madelyn earned her bachelor's in Astrophysics from Princeton in 2019 and master's from Cambridge the following year. She currently works on exoplanet theory for her PhD with Ruth Murray-Clay at UC Santa Cruz. Her lifelong commit to excite, engage, and elevate historically-excluded learners in STEM takes many forms, from outreach and designing research-based inclusive pedagogy, to making physics accessible to the general public through science writing. She has written for a variety of publications and currently co-runs the university's Ask an Astronomer account. When she's not mentoring young women or speaking at events to encourage other Native youth in STEM, she can be found sailing, rowing, playing for the university rugby team, or watching arts performances.

I am a Heising-Simons 51 Pegasi b Fellow at UC Santa Cruz and formerly held a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship at Arizona State University. I study exo-aurorae and characterize the magnetospheres of very cold brown dwarfs to both gain insight into exoplanet magnetism and learn how magnetism evolves in the mass regime that bridges planets and stars. I received my PhD in 2017 at Caltech and held a 2017 Grote Reber Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Prior to Caltech, I received my SB in Physics from MIT with a concentration in Architectural Design. Beyond research, I guide backpacking trips in as part of my practice of exploring and taking care of the natural world, as well as passing on its wonder to others.

www.melodiekao.com

Mu-Chun Chen is a theoretical particle physicist and Professor of Physics at the University of California, Irvine. She is also the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the School of Physical Sciences. Formerly, she was the Department Vice Chair for Graduate Studies and the Inaugural Vice Chair of Inclusive Excellence.

In her physics research, Chen studies the properties of the elementary particles and the interaction among them. Chen received her undergraduate degree in Physics from National Taiwan University and PhD in theoretical physics from University of Colorado at Boulder. From 2002 - 2006, She was a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Lab and Fermi National Lab. Chen joined the faculty at UC Irvine in 2006. Chen has received several awards for her research and teaching. Most recently she was the recipient of the Humboldt Research Fellowship in Germany for her research achievements in neutrino physics. She was also twice the recipient of UCI's Excellence in Undergraduate Education Award and voted by the graduating seniors as the most influential professor in 2019. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 research publications, and has been invited to give more than 200 research presentations worldwide.

Chen has been very active in promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in physics and in higher education in general. Previously, she was the director of UCI QuarkNet to bring particle physics into the high school classroom especially for schools in the underserved neighborhood in Orange County and South Los Angeles.

https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/muchunchen/

Pearl Sandick is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Associate Dean for Faculty and Research in the College of Science at the University of Utah. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2008 and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Weinberg Theory Group at the University of Texas at Austin before moving to Utah in 2011. Professor Sandick is a theoretical particle physicist studying physics beyond the Standard Model, including possible explanations for the dark matter in the Universe. In addition to her research, she’s passionate about teaching, mentoring students, and making science accessible and interesting to everyone. She has given a TEDx talk, been interviewed on KCPW’s Cool Science Radio and NPR’s Science Friday, and has been recognized for her teaching and mentoring work with a 2016 University of Utah Early Career Teaching Award and a 2020 University of Utah Distinguished Mentor Award. Professor Sandick has recently served on the American Physical Society (APS) Committee on the Status of Women in Physics and as the Chair of the National Organizing Committee for the APS Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiPs), and as chair of the APS Four Corners Section in 2021-2022. Her favorite non-academic activities are long walks with her husband and seven year old daughter, working on projects around the house, and yoga.

physics.utah.edu/~sandick

Raja GuhaThakurta received his B.Sc. (1983) in Physics at Saint Xavier’s College, Calcutta, India and his Masters (1987) and PhD (1989) in Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1989–1992) and a Hubble postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University (1992–1993). He worked at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the operational headquarters of the Hubble Space Telescope, in 1994, before joining the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz and UC Observatories where he has been a professor for the last 27 years. He was Visiting Faculty at Google in Mountain View, California in 2015. Selected awards include the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, Herzberg Memorial Prize and Fellowship of the National Research Council of Canada, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecturer at Tel-Aviv University (Tel-Aviv, Israel), and American Astronomical Society Fellow. He currently serves as the Department Chair of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UCSC.

GuhaThakurta’s astrophysics research focuses on galaxies (their formation and evolution, structure, kinematics, dark matter content, chemical enrichment, merger/cannibalism history, star formation), black holes (central cusps in star clusters, tidal disruption events), stellar populations, and the interstellar medium. He and his research group use the Hubble Space Telescope, the Keck 10-meter telescopes in Hawaii, the Lick Observatory telescopes in California, and several other ground based telescopes around the world. He supervises the research of PhD students, Masters students, postdoctoral scholars, and undergraduates. He founded the Science Internship Program at UCSC in 2009 and serves as its Faculty Director – this program engages high school students from around the world in cutting-edge research projects in a variety of STEAM fields under the close mentorship of researchers at UCSC. He is deeply committed to the inclusion and support of students from groups that have traditionally been excluded from STEM.

https://www.astro.ucsc.edu/faculty/index.php?uid=pguhatha

https://app.ubinum.com/lab/raja-uco-lick-observatory

Stephanie Figuereo is an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz. She is an astronomy research intern and has been a part of the SALVATION astronomy research team for three years. She is currently studying a major in applied physics and a minor in electrical engineering. Her hobbies include playing video games with friends, reading epic fantasy novels, and writing short sci-fi stories.
www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-figuereo-7735801bb

I have been a faculty member in the Physics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz since 2011, and I serve as the Associate Director of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics. My research interests focus on constraining the nature of dark matter and dark energy using the formation and evolution of large-scale structure in the universe. Outside of work, I spend time with my two, crazy kids, and I do a lot of swimming. I compete open water swim races; my longest swim was a 13 mile swim from Anacapa Island to the coast of California, and during the pandemic I swam on a six person relay across the Monterey Bay (no wetsuit). I first attended CUWiP as a speaker in 2010 when it was held at UCSC for the first time. I helped organize the 2015 CUWiP also at UCSC, and I have attended two other meetings. Every time it is an amazing experience, and I am reenergized by interacting with all of the incredible students who attend.

My research is in underwater acoustics and how we can learn properties of the seabed from sound recorded in the ocean. I have a nontraditional career path in that I worked part-time for 18 years between my PhD and my first full-time appointment as a professor. One of the things I particularly enjoy talking with students and other faculty about is how being aware of and responding well to common concerns improves the experiences of our women students in STEM and along the way makes things better for everyone. (Here is a conference paper I wrote for a talk for faculty https://asa.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1121/2.0000586 but I have a student-centered version also). I have been the chair of the Women in Acoustics committee of the Acoustical Society of America and am now a member of their Executive Council. I have co-authored columns for the Acoustics Today magazine dealing with the two-body problem, work-parenting balance, the impact of COVID, and tips for networking: https://womeninacoustics.org/news/ This will be my first experience with CUWiP and I am looking forward to meeting all of you who are working hard to make it successful.

Yvonne started her education as a first generation, re-entry student with three children. Back then, she had dreams of becoming a world-famous Chicana poet. Instead, she ended up with a doctorate degree in physics. Although trained as a physicist, Yvonne has extensive experience in nonprofit leadership and programming and is committed to creating pathways for advancement for People of Color that are free of obstacles and full of support. Yvonne chose to join Surge in its commitment to strengthening the educational leadership landscape by supporting Leaders of Color from the community. She is happy to work with Surge Fellows and Alumni as they take their skills to the next level on behalf of the youth of Oakland and the bay area. Source: The Surge Institute
linkedin.com/in/Yvonne-rodriguez-phd-mba-1a874213/