Introducing New SAB Members

To: All UCSC Staff

From: Fiona Weigant, Chair Staff Advisory Board

Greetings, from the Staff Advisory Board (SAB)!

I am excited and delighted to introduce our new board members.  Elections were held back in the summer and our new members have hit the ground running.   Al, Judith, Monica and Shonté bring their diverse experiences, new ideas and energy to the Board.  Please let us know what issues/events you would like us to be working on this year.  You can find the full roster ofcurrent SAB members here.  You can email us at staffadv@ucsc.edu or via our feedback form on our website.

Al Covington

The nature of my work is people management. I don't have any true direct reports, but sometimes I feel like I have 100! It helps that I truly enjoy the population I serve. While on SAB, I hope to help move our campus forward regarding some of the resources and support that other UC campuses and similarly sized public institutions benefit from. After work, I love walking the beach and taking in breathtaking views during Golden Hour... I'll let you know when it gets old. 

Judith Estrada

(Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is the director of the Chicanx Latinx Resource Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is an Oooooakes graduate. She is kindly referred to as Dr. J by her students and colleagues. Estrada has served on the UCSC-HSI’s team since 2013. She is the chair, of NASPA’s Indigenous People’s Knowledge Community (IPKC) which is comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who seek to increase understanding, and institutional commitment toward, Indigenous peoples in higher education. Estrada publishes and presents nationally on the following themes: bicultural pedagogy, decolonizing methodologies, cultural centers as pedagogical spaces, working across difference, fostering Latinx leadership and sense of belonging, pedagogy of solidarity, and critical bicultural pedagogy. Estrada is the author of Consuming ‘Dora the Explorer’ with a Critical Bicultural Lens (in Darder’s Culture & Power in the Classroom, 2012); Impacts of a Diné Decolonizing Pedagogy on Student Affairs Practitioners (in Davidson, C., & Waterman, S. (eds.); Indigenous Education Practices in Higher Education); A series of reflections of Diné elder Larry Emerson and his Indigenizing Impact on our Participation in the Profession (in NASPA Journal). As a SAB member, Estrada hopes to impact UCSC in various levels.

Monica Galvan

I am a Merrill College Banana Slug graduated in 1999. At UCSC, I work with transfer students and represent the admissions office. I'd like to bring your voice and concerns to the administration and make a difference with the hope to change a few things that affect staff and campus community.

Shonté Thomas

I am a Banana Slug and a College 8 alumna.  I have had an amazing opportunity to serve, work with, and learn from our brilliant UCSC students as the Director of the African American Resource & Cultural Center since 2013. I am fully committed to educational equity and access with an emphasis on students with minoritized identities. This work is fatiguing, never-ending, exciting, fulfilling, and a key to liberation.  The joy from my role as a scholar- practitioner is most evident when I am able to experience and directly support the transformation resulting from a student's capacity to be resilient and persist towards their goals. My hobbies include dancing, riding roller coasters, and writing chapters for my dissertation [*cough cough*]! I am excited to serve in my first year with Staff Advisory Board to address a variety of concerns/challenges UCSC staff are experiencing as well as engage in critical conversations to build and sustain positive and productive morale. Let's go, team!

We look forward to seeing you at the Chancellor’s Holiday Party on December 18th.  Drop by the SAB table and say hello.