About Stephanie

My HSI experience as a student, instructor, and grant director has made me passionate about creating transformative spaces that believe in cultural awareness, equity, and social justice. From a first-generation community college student to a first-generation doctoral graduate, I attended HSIs throughout my college career. I am thankful for my education to be in a welcoming space that acknowledged and supported my identity. My doctoral thesis based on HSI presidential leadership was inspired by my HSI student experiences hopes that leadership within these spaces can transform and evolve to best fit the needs of the current Latino college community. I intend to expand my research on community college HSIs as organizational systems to create an asset-based system that benefits all shared governance involved. 

As an instructor, I love working at HSIs to fully adapt to the student-center approach to best meet the needs and desires of our students. I also enjoy sharing information about our HSI campus to our students and all the unique opportunities they receive by being a part of these special organizations. 

As a leader of a Title V grant, I am dedicated to transformative HSI practices through our grant implementation. I work with a dedicated team that is shares our vision to create and sustain an HSI intersectional identity through events, professional development, and spotlighting Latino STEM major student success. One of our more notable achievements is the STEM Research Symposium, which spotlights the work of our two-year students with the help of their faculty mentors. 

In addition to community college HSI organizational systems and leadership development, my research interests include cultural awareness and advocacy for our intersectional Latino groups on campus, specifically bridging HSI/Latino identity and LGBTQIA+ identities.