Meet Our Campus Advisory Board!
Tanya Golash-Boza
Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, Merced
"I am deeply committed to support activities that facilitate social and political change in my community. I am excited about the opportunity to be part of the ReCEES Advisory Board. I hope to assist in deepening the collaboration and partnerships between UC Merced community-engaged scholars, who are addressing complex issues locally and around the world, and community members and others outside of the academy. I want to fully support and be part of the connection between university and community partners to generate and apply knowledge to improve my community in tangible ways. I am eager to be part of a community where researchers and community members learn, understand and respect each other as they work together to transform Merced County into a better place."
Tanya Golash-Boza is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced. She is the author of five books, including Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism (New York University Press 2015), which explains mass deportation in the context of the global economic crisis; Due Process Denied (Routledge 2012), which describes how and why non-citizens in the United States have been detained and deported for minor crimes, without regard for constitutional limits on disproportionate punishment; and Immigration Nation (Paradigm 2012), which provides a critical analysis of the impact that U.S. immigration policy has on human rights. Her innovative scholarship was awarded the Distinguished Early Career Award from the Racial and Ethnic Minorities Studies Section of the American Sociological Association in 2010. In 2013, she was awarded the UC Merced Senate Faculty Award for Distinguished Scholarly Public Service.
Katherine Steele Brokaw
Assistant Professor of English, Humanities and World Cultures, University of California, Merced
Christopher Butler
Assistant Director, The Foster Family Center for Engineering Service Learning, University of California, Merced
"ReCCES helps to develop and provide tools for truly collaborative research opportunities between academic researchers and their community. These synergistic partnerships have the greatest potential to make positive change in our community and benefit those whom we are trying to serve."
Chris Butler directs the Engineering Service Learning program at the University of California, Merced where he helps students complete real-world engineering design projects. Through this program Chris manages the largest professional and technical workshop series at UC Merced providing students the tools they need to become career ready. He received a Master’s in Environmental Engineering from UC Merced and hopes to use his unique skill set to develop more projects solving problems that current non-profits face today.
Chris focuses on helping others contribute to their community through creative uses of their professional and technical skills. In addition to his work with Engineering Service Learning, Chris is actively engaged on multiple non-profit committees and boards throughout the Merced community, including Boys Scouts, and the Castle Air Museum.
Vernette Dotty
Director, Community Engagement Center, University of California, Merced
"We cannot understate the importance of linking our “new knowledge”, our research, with the needs of the community throughout the Central Valley, and in the process, recognizing and celebrating the reciprocal benefits of university-community, student-community member relationships."
Vernette Doty is the Associate Director of the office of Student Life and Civic Leadership at the University of California, Merced. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and her Master’s Degree in Education with and emphasis in student development at Washington State University. Before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Vernette taught art classes at an independent art store, coached club and high school swimming and volleyball, owned her own business as a personal fitness trainer in Alaska, Washington and California, and owned and operated a small local fitness center. She designed curriculum for kid’s fitness, taught kick-boxing in high school P.E. classes, organized and coordinated inspirational retreats for women, and raised 3 children. In her position at UC Merced, Vernette supports not only the co-curricular community engagement via student groups, clubs and organizations, but is also building the community based learning partnerships for the growing campus as well.
Valerie Leppert
Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Merced
"ReCCES is important to me because it provides students with experiential learning opportunities to apply their learning to solving community problems. The world has so many problems and needs the engagement of our students’ bright minds. ReCCES is a flagship program for the university that epitomizes why we earned our Carnegie Community Engagement Classification."
Valerie Leppert is an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering who specializes in the characterization and synthesis of nanomaterials for technological and environmental applications. Her research focus is electron microscopy of these materials to understand their physical and chemical properties, and in this capacity she has mentored over 40 post-docs and students, and published over 50 journal articles. She was a UC Merced Founding Faculty Member and Director of the Foster Family Center for Engineering Service Learning (2004-2007), Imaging and Microscopy Facility (2004-2015), and Research Experience for Undergraduates Program under the NSF NSEC “Center of Nanomechanical Systems” (2003-2013). She has been honored with an NSF Advance Fellows Award (2002), UC Davis Academic Federation Finalist for Excellence in Research Award (2003), UC Merced Fred Spiess Distinguished Senate Service Award (2013), and as an invited participant to the National Academy of Engineering 10th Annual Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (Irvine, CA, 2004), the National Academy of Engineering Japan-America Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (Kobe, Japan, 2008), the 2nd Annual Academy of Engineering Global Grand Challenges Summit (Beijing, China, 2015), the 5th Annual National Academies Keck Futures Initiative on Art, Science, Engineering, and Medicine (Irvine, CA, 2015), and the National Academies Workshop on Integrating Art and the Humanities with Science, Engineering, and Medicine (Washington, DC, 2015). She has an abiding interest in the integration of research and education, and harnessing of the diverse disciplinary perspectives within a public research university to solve global problems and transform society.
Mayya Tokman
Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics, Faculty Director of CalTeach Program, University of California, Merced
"I strongly believe education is one of the major keys to addressing a multitude of the socio-economic challenges faced by the Central Valley. Only a strong partnership between the community and all other stakeholders in the future of the Valley, including UC Merced, can help us improve the quality of education across the educational spectrum and consequently the quality of life in the region."
Mayya Tokman is an Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics and a member of the founding faculty of the University of California in Merced. She has served as a Faculty Director of the CalTeach program since the program’s inception at UC Merced. Tokman completed her B.S. in Applied Mathematics with Specialization in Computing at UCLA and graduated with a Ph.D. in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Caltech. During her graduate studies she was the recipient of the Department of Energy’s Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF) and later served on the CSGF steering committee. She held positions of a Visiting Assistant Professor and a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Mathematics of the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to her academic work Tokman has also served in the Bureau of the Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the US Department of State as an American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) Policy Fellow (2005/2006). Tokman’s research interests include scientific computing, numerical analysis and mathematical modeling. Tokman and her group are developing new numerical methods as well as using the tools of computational science and mathematical modeling to investigate problems in fields like plasma physics, climate modeling and biology.
