UC Santa Cruz recognized work by students, faculty, staff, and programs to promote diversity and inclusion on campus through the 2016 Chancellor’s Achievement Awards for Diversity.
Chancellor George Blumenthal noted the award ceremony is one of his year's highlights and praised the work of Campus Diversity Officer for Staff and Students Sheree Marlowe, who accepted a job to become chief officer of diversity and inclusion at Clark University in Massachusetts.
“Sheree joined us in 2013 and has expanded our diversity initiatives and programming in bold and lasting ways,” Blumenthal said. “She has been a great bridge-builder: working with students, staff, academic departments and divisions, and other campus units, including the Academic Senate and my Diversity Advisory Council.”
Faye Crosby, distinguished professor of psychology and provost of Cowell College, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. As a scholar, she is best known for her work on affirmative action, as well as diversity issues in education and business.
Crosby discovered a phenomenon called “the denial of personal disadvantage,” which revealed how people imagine themselves to be exempt from injustices that affect their group. The insight fueled her commitment to affirmative action—and later, to mentoring as a strategy to bring about change in the workplace.
Associate professor of history David H. Anthony III was honored for for his leadership inside and outside the classroom, as well as in the community. As a scholar, Anthony’s focus is on African and African-American history, art, music, literature, and cinema, as well as African diaspora studies. He also serves as emcee for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation. A former provost of Oakes College, his legacy includes helping to establish a service-learning program, as well as a peer-to-peer mentorship program.
Ethan Hutchinson, lead academic preceptor for Cowell College, has emerged as a strong and powerful voice for social justice since joining campus a few years ago. He has organized welcome events for traditionally underserved communities, including Educational Opportunity Program participants, international and out-of-state students, and LGBTQ+ students, as well as developed a Bystander Intervention Training and an interactive Academic Integrity Seminar.
Ricki Carr, lead senior analyst in the Enterprise Financial Systems unit, started the Staff Diversity Group after being in the first cohort to complete the campus’s Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program in 2010. Carr also had the idea to launch a campus-wide campaign to promote the Principles of Community, an effort that’s reached nearly everyone on campus.
Joanna Bucio Villaseñor, an undergraduate student from Oakes College majoring in Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, was recognized for her participation in the California Alliance for Minority Participation, a statewide initiative that supports underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
For the past two years, she has served as the president of the UC Santa Cruz chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Latinos and Native Americans in Science and has mentored her peers and helped build community.
Tisha Emily Bohr, a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, was honored for seeking out innovative and inclusive teaching practices, as well as for her work as outreach coordinator for Women in Science and Engineering.
She is engaged in the recruitment and retention of younger women, and has coordinated activities and workshops at local schools and conferences to encourage girls and young women to go into STEM fields. She also worked with the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Graduate Division to launch a Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program for graduate students.
GEODES, a student organization made up of six graduate students in the Earth and Planetary Science department, was recognized for its work to enhance diversity in the geosciences by supporting students from all backgrounds and by raising awareness of diversity issues among students, faculty, postdocs, and staff.
The People of Color Sustainability Collective was founded to engage students of color in sustainability efforts—and to recognize contributions that were being overlooked. The collective was recognized for highlighting the work that communities of color have done to advance sustainability and for working to redefine sustainability to include diverse cultural interpretations.
The Women in Science and Engineering Award was given to Adina Paytan, a research scientist in the Institute of Marine Sciences. She is a passionate advoacate for women and other underrepresented groups in STEM fields.
She’s recruited graduate students from her lab to reach out to high school girls in Salinas through Expanding Your Horizons, a science program that encourages girls to pursue STEM careers. They also teamed up with the High School Summer Intern program to bring 50 economically disadvantaged and underrepresented high school students to campus.
The awards program is sponsored by the Chancellor’s Office, Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Staff Human Resources.
