Welcome New Faculty!

The College of Natural and Social Sciences is pleased to welcome eight new faculty members in the departments of Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies, Pan-African Studies, biological sciences, sociology, mathematics and psychology.

Daisy Camacho-Thompson A Chicago-native, Daisy Camacho-Thompson completed her undergraduate degree with a major in psychology with a concentration in community psychology and minors in Latin American/Latino Studies, religion, and Spanish at De Paul University. She then received her Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, with a concentration in developmental psychology and a minor in diversity science.   Camacho-Thompson’s research focuses on engaging Latino families in educational systems such as schools, after-school activities, and evidence-based interventions. She has employed multiple methodologies (e.g., quantitative [longitudinal, multilevel, latent profile analyses], qualitative, and geographic information systems) towards the goal of understanding contextual factors that promote academic resilience.    She recently participated in the NSF I-Corps Program to learn how business science models can inform the broad dissemination of evidence-based interventions in low-income schools and CHIPS (Child, Intervention, Prevention & Services), a training consortium focused on grant applications for NICHD. Camacho-Thompson would like to adapt an evidence-based intervention developed with low-income Mexican-origin families to a self-paced web-based technology that can be facilitated with a group of parents in a trusted community setting.

Raul Diaz Raul E. Diaz, Jr. was raised not far from Cal State LA in the city of Baldwin Park. In 2004, he received his bachelor’s degree in integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. At the University of Kansas, he earned his master’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology and in 2007 moved down the road to the University of Kansas Medical Center where he completed his Ph.D. in anatomy and cell biology. The majority of his laboratory work was conducted at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. His career has focused on exploring the biology of reptiles and amphibians - more specifically how differences across the body types in reptiles arise through changes in genetic activity during embryonic development. He pioneered the veild chameleon as a lab organism for the study of embryonic development while a Ph.D. student and recently co-edited a book titled Heads, Jaws, and Muscles: Anatomical, Functional and Developmental Diversity in Chordate Evolution .

Serie McDougal Serie McDougal, III received his B.S. in sociology from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. Additionally, he has an M.A. in Africana Studies from the State University of New York at Albany, NY, and a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. McDougal is also the co-director of the Afrometrics Research Institute. His research interests span five basic areas: 1) Black fatherhood, 2) Black manhood studies, 3) research methods and theorization in the discipline of Africana Studies, 4) African and African American politics, and 5) Black student engagement.  In 2017, McDougal was honored by the National Association for Ethnic Studies who awarded him the Robert L. Perry Mentoring Award. He is the author of the book, Research Methods in Africana Studies , which received the National Council of Black Studies’ Ida B. Wells/Cheikh Anta Diop Award for Outstanding Scholarship in 2016 and the Cheikh Anta Diop Institute for Scholarly Advancement’s Excellence in Scholarship Book of the Year Award in 2015 .

José Mijares Palacios José Mijares Palacios received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Universidad Central de Venezuela in 2007 and completed part of his thesis work at the University of Toronto. He was an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia. He also taught in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences University of Colorado, Denver. At Universidad Central de Venezuela, Mijares served as course coordinator for Calculus I and II. His research is in infinite Ramsey theory, set theory, combinatorics and topology. He has written a book in Spanish on infinite Ramsey theory and has published nine research articles. Mijares is an avid champion of students having mentored undergraduate and graduate students including Ph.D. candidates.

Luis Nuño Luis Nuño earned his Ph.D. in sociology and historical studies at the New School for Social Research. Nuño began his education at Riverside Community College. He then transferred to the University of California at Berkeley. Nuño is currently completing a book chapter describing the Democratic and Republican positions on discretion in law enforcement. His ongoing research examines stigma management among marginalized groups, the federal government’s hardline, zero-tolerance border enforcement policies, and the general public’s diverse attitudes towards immigration policy and immigrants. Nuño lives in Chino Hills where he coaches tackle football, girls’ soccer, and little league baseball. In fall 2018, his girls’ soccer team completed an undefeated season, winning the Chino Hills AYSO 14U championship. In the spring 2018 and spring 2019 seasons, his teams won the Canyon Hills Little League Majors division championships. Nuño also managed the Canyon Hills Little League 11-12-year-olds All Stars teams in summer 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Anita Tijerina Revilla Anita Tijerina Revilla is an activist, scholar and professor joining Cal State LA’s Department of Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies. Her research focuses on student movements and social justice education, specifically in the areas of Chicana/Latina, immigrant, feminist and queer rights activism. Her expertise is in the areas of Jotería (Queer and Latinx) Studies, Chicanx Education, Chicana/Latina Feminism, and Critical Race/Ethnic Studies. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, she earned her doctorate from UCLA Graduate School of Education in Social Sciences and Comparative Education with an emphasis in Race and Ethnic Studies. She is working on a book about feminist, queer, and immigrant rights activism in Las Vegas and Los Angeles titled, Muxeristas y Jotería: From Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Beyond . She is also a visual artist that specializes in painting muxerista and Queer community.

Tanya Sanabria Tanya Sanabria’s research and teaching interests include educational inequality, the development of interventions in schools, and quantitative methodology. A native Los Angeleno, Sanabria holds a B.A. in sociology from Cal Poly Pomona, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Irvine. Before coming to Cal State LA, she served as a statistician at the U.S. Census Bureau in Washington D.C. for two years while completing her dissertation.   Sanabria is a former President’s Dissertation Year Fellow (2018). Her research and work has been supported by the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 Postsecondary Research Grant at UT Austin, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the UC Irvine Faculty Mentor Program. Her work has been published in Research in Higher Education (forthcoming), Educational Researcher (2018), and Social Sciences (2017).

Rafael Solorzano  Rafael R. Solórzano is a social movement historian whose teaching interests include Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x history, racial geographies, and queer of color critique. He earned his Ph.D. in Chicana and Chicano Studies at UCLA with an emphasis on gender studies. Born and raised behind the orange curtain of Orange County, CA, Solórzano has been a racial justice advocate for over 20 years. He plans to write racial justice history by documenting coalition efforts that center those most marginalized in society. His current book project,  Trail of Dreams; Forging New Visions of Migrant Justice,  documents the political ingenuity led by undocumented youth along the Trail, a four month, 1,500 mile walk from Miami, FL to Washington D.C. in 2010.

Outstanding Professor Awardees

Six faculty members were recognized for excellence and outstanding achievements during the 2019 Fall Convocation at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex. Two of the four Outstanding Professor awardees are members of the College of Natural and Social Sciences as is the universty-wide Outstanding Lecturer. Read more on their accomplishments.

Outstanding Lecturer - Jessica Bodoh-Creed Jessica Bodoh-Creed is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology. In her nine years at Cal State LA, Bodoh-Creed has taught 21 different courses that include a graduate seminar across three departments in two colleges. Her students have participated in projects benefiting Los Angeles domestic violence shelters, as well as other community service agencies. She has sat on both undergraduate honors and graduate theses committees.

Outstanding Professor - Heidi Riggio Heidi Riggio is a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology. Riggio has mentored more than 50 graduate students and dozens of undergraduate students working on research projects. She has also delivered more than 135 professional conference presentations, many with student co-authors. A number of her former M.A. graduate students have earned Ph.D.s or are currently in Ph.D. programs.

Outstanding Professor - Howard Xu Howard Xu is a professor of microbiology in the Department of Biological Sciences. Xu directs an applied microbiology and biotechnology lab at Cal State LA, where students conduct research on novel antibiotics and elucidation of mechanisms of pathogenesis of bacterial pathogens. He has mentored master’s, undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students, resulting in more than 40 peer-reviewed publications from his lab.