SACNAS Elects New Board Members To Take Office January 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, December 6, 2017            

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SACNAS Elects New Board Members to Take Office January 2018

President-Elect Dr. Zarate will be the 4th woman to hold the position in the organizations 44 year history

SANTA CRUZ, CA — SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science) announces the election of the following individuals to its national Board of Directors. They will take office in January 2018:

President-Elect:

Sonia Zárate, PhD, Program Officer, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

General board members:

Diana Azurdia, PhD, Associate Director for Inclusion and Recruitment, University of California, Los Angeles

Martha I. Dávila-García, PhD, Associate Professor, Howard University

Corey Garza, PhD, Associate Professor, California State University Monterey Bay

Patricia Silveyra, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State College of Medicine

Student board member:

Daniela Flores, Graduate Student, Iowa State University

“This year, our membership was clearly engaged in the voting processes for selection of our new leadership. We had our highest voter turn out to date.

“The new board members bring a wealth of experience from their professional backgrounds and from their involvement with SACNAS over the years,” said SACNAS president Dr. Lino Gonzalez.

In fact, four of the six newly elected Directors (Zárate, Garza, Azurdia, and Silveyra) are alumni of the Linton-Poodry SACNAS Leadership Institute and Zárate, Azurdia, and Silveyra completed training at the HHMI SACNAS Advanced Leadership Institute.

President-Elect Dr. Zárate is the fourth woman in the organization’s 44+ year history to hold the office of president. Previous female presidents were, Drs. Maria Elena Zavala, Marigold Linton, and Maggie Werner-Washburne. Zárate said, “The Presidency is a position that I enter into with hope, with humility and with an unwavering commitment to the mission of SACNAS. As custodians of this Society, this is our moment to work together to ensure that the diverse and inclusive scientific community our founders envisioned nearly 45 years ago is actualized.  I thank the membership for entrusting me with their hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow, a tomorrow where there is true diversity in STEM!”

ABOUT SACNAS

SACNAS is an inclusive organization with a 44-year history of fostering the success of Chicano/Hispanic & Native American scientists, from college students to professionals, in attaining advanced degrees, careers and positions of leadership in science.

SACNAS serves approximately 6,000 members, a larger community of 20,000, and with 115 SACNAS student and professional chapters throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico.