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Meet the New GradSuccess Staff!

By Hillary Jenks |

In another sign that summer is on its way out, we welcomed the new members of the 2021-2022 GradSuccess team this week. We are thrilled they’ve joined us and want to let you know a little bit more about the folks who’ll be bringing you the GradSuccess programs and events you know and love in the coming year.

Photo of Yi from waist up in a pink jacket with arms crossed, smiling

Yi Zhou is a PhD candidate in the Higher Education Administration and Policy program and a new Lead Consultant in the Graduate Student Resource Center. She earned a Master's of Education from the University of Pittsburgh and has worked as university staff in both China and the U.S. before pursuing her doctoral degree. Yi’s research focuses on the internationalization of higher education, international students’ experience, and diversity/inclusion of higher education.

 

Nathaly smiling at camera from shoulders up, wearing bright blue shirt

Nathaly Martinez is also a new Lead Consultant in the Graduate Student Resource Center. She earned her B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and a Master's in Higher Education from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. She is now a doctoral student with a focus on Higher Education Administration and Policy. Nathaly is passionate about being involved in the City of Riverside through multiple organizations, focusing on issues pertaining to student engagement, social justice advocacy, access, diversity, and inclusion of students of color in higher education. During her free time she enjoys spending time reading, exercising, traveling, and watching movies with her dog Honey.

Judy headshot

Judy Zhu (she/her) is a PhD student in the Higher Education Administration and Policy program and our new Graduate Student Mentorship Program Co-Coordinator for Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education. Judy's research focuses on race and racism in U.S. higher education, particularly on the racialized experiences of Asian American college students. In her free time, Judy loves to go on little adventures with her friends and her fur babies!

 

Samantha from mid-torso up, wearing a bright blue shirt and smiling in front of a green bush

Samantha Levell is a sixth-year PhD candidate in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology and our new STEM Co-Coordinator for the Graduate Student Mentorship Program. Her dissertation focuses on the relationship between embryos and their parents in placental livebearing fish. Samantha spends her free time with her horses and cats.

 

Carlos headshot

Carlos Galan is a Ph.D. candidate in Higher Education Administration and Policy at UC Riverside and the new Coordinator of the Teaching Assistant Development Program. His research efforts focus on tenure and promotion for faculty of color, college access and equity for underserved youth, and higher education governance. In his free time, Carlos is an avid soccer fan! 

 

Bryan from the shoulders up, standing in front of the Hans Christian Anderson mermaid statue in Copenhagen harbor.

Bryan Scott is the new TA Development Program Lead Consultant. As a PhD Candidate in Physics and Astronomy, Bryan's research primarily focuses on a technique called intensity mapping, which can improve our understanding of the large scale structure of the universe as well as the properties of dark matter and dark energy. Outside of research, Bryan works to make astronomy a more inclusive and welcoming community through local and national efforts. He enjoys travel, language learning, and photography (this photo is from his recent trip to Denmark!).

 

Brittany from the shoulders up, looking just to the right of the camera

Brittany Carlson is the new Coordinator of the University Teaching Certificate Program. She is a PhD candidate in English who came to UCR after double majoring in math and English at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT. Her research focuses on the relation between literacy and numeracy as an integrated form of quantitative literacy in Victorian literature and ephemera. She was in the Winter/Spring 2021 UTC cohort.

 

Headshot of Matt smiling in front of a wall of green plants

Matt Arthur is an Applied Statistics PhD student at UCR and the new Lead Consultant in GradQuant. Prior to his graduate studies, Matt worked in the actuarial field, where he analyzed corporate data to model and quantify uncertainty associated with company assets and liabilities. Matt received B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Minnesota Duluth, as well as a B.A. in Economics. His research interests include computational statistics, experimental design, and data mining with applications in biology and medicine.

 

Headshot of Shaafi smiling at camera

Shaafi Farooqi is a third year PhD student in Sociology at UCR and our new Graduate Writing Center Lead Consultant. She specializes in race and class inequality within higher education. Her current research explores Pakistani heritage college student experiences with cultural identity, race, and stereotyping. She is also interested in Asian American studies more broadly. Before coming to UCR, Shaafi received her BA in Organizational Studies from Pitzer College.

 

If you’d like to chat with a member of our team about any aspect of graduate school – teaching, work/life balance, campus resources, diversity and inclusion, being an international student, and/or professional development – sign up for our peer support office hours.

Welcome back to campus everyone, and we look forward to serving you in the new academic year!