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Our Staff

Thirteen Eighth College Staff Members Smiling Underneath Building with Podemos Sign Above

Provost Office

Academic Advising

Critical Community Engagement (CCE) Academic Program

  • David Quijada, Ph.D. (he/him/el)

    David Quijada, Ph.D. (he/him/el)

    Director of Academic Programs I dquijada@ucsd.edu

    Dr. David Quijada is a Teaching Professor and the Director of the Critical Community Engagement Academic Program.  A community-based youth studies scholar, David has collaborated with communities, co-creating collective spaces for research and knowledge production toward social justice. In Salt Lake City, David co-founded Mestizo Arts and Activism, an intergenerational research collective informed by the urgent concerns of young people. David’s research centers on cultural citizenship, participatory action research, and youth intercultural alliances. This work appears in interdisciplinary journals such as: International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Cultural Studies<=>Critical Methodologies, Race, Ethnicity & Education, Social Justice, Gender & Education.  David is humbled by the awards he has received including the inaugural 2024 UCSD Student Centeredness Award. David loves teaching and enjoys ocean water, everyday art, thrift store shopping, nature walks, the moon, tall trees, laughing, dogs and big skies.
  • Danielle M. Williams, Ph.D. (she/her)

    Danielle M. Williams, Ph.D. (she/her)

    Associate Director of Academic Programs I daw038@ucsd.edu

    Dr. Danielle M. Williams is an Associate Teaching Professor and Associate Director of Academic Programs in Eighth College. For the past 13 years, she has taught, researched, written, and dreamed about the potential of campus-community partnerships. Her research examines digital literacies and community engagement, and she is interested in the ways that multimodal texts composed with and for communities can address local priorities and prepare students to create more socially just futures. Her work has appeared in Computers and Composition, Composition Studies, Writing on the Edge, and in an edited collection on feminist praxis in composition pedagogies. 

    Danielle enjoys writing creative nonfiction, dabbling with art projects, biking to the ocean, and hanging out with her family in the sunshine.
  • James Crawford, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

    James Crawford, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

    Associate Director of Academic Programs I jacrawfo@ucsd.edu

    Dr. James Crawford is an Assistant Teaching Professor and Associate Director of Academic Programs in Eighth College. His teaching, research, and community engagement are sustained by a commitment to social justice that amplifies the voices, visions, and leadership of youth and local partners in advancing transformative educational possibilities. His work, rooted in the legacy of the Black radical tradition, approaches learning as a liberatory process of cultivating spaces for healing and empowerment. At UC San Diego, he has collaborated on campus-wide coalitions such as the Black Academic Excellence Initiative and the Anti-Racist Pedagogy Learning Community. His scholarship appears in Equity & Excellence in Education, The Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education, and other interdisciplinary volumes. James stays rooted in joy and community through music, movement, and mentorship.
  • Nicole Kenley, Ph.D. (she/they)

    Nicole Kenley, Ph.D. (she/they)

    Associate Director of Academic Programs I nkenley@ucsd.edu

    Dr. Nicole Kenley is an Associate Teaching Professor and Associate Director of Academic Programs in Eighth College. Their scholarship focuses on contemporary world detective fiction, gender, and  globalization. Their work appears in journals such as Crime Fiction Studies,  The Journal of Popular Culture, and Clues as well as edited collections including The Cambridge Companion to World Crime Fiction, The Routledge Companion to Crime Fiction and Teaching Crime Fiction. Their teaching interests include contemporary world and Anglophone literature, detective fiction, community-engaged composition, and of course Critical Community Engagement!

    Outside the classroom, Nicole loves having fun in sunny San Diego: running, biking, swimming, hiking, surfing, and eating amazing food. They are also obsessed with English Bulldogs–please say hi if you see them walking their dogs on the beach!
  • Nancy Nguyen, M.A. (she/her)

    Nancy Nguyen, M.A. (she/her)

    Community Partnership Coordinator I nan038@ucsd.edu

    Nancy Nguyen is the inaugural Community Partnership Coordinator at UC San Diego’s Eighth College, where she leverages her experience in community engagement, advocacy, stakeholder collaboration, and conflict resolution across four continents. A distinguished Rotary Peace Fellow, Nancy earned her fully funded Master’s in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Queensland, Australia. She has lectured internationally as a Fulbright Fellow in Vietnam and a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Thailand.

    An accredited mediator, Nancy grounds her work in restorative practices, fostering dialogue and building trust across diverse communities. Her portfolio includes advancing inclusive electoral participation among low-propensity voters in California, advocating alternatives to incarceration for pregnant women in Italy, delivering emergency assistance to Congolese refugees in Uganda, supporting immigrants through casework with the International Rescue Committee, and conducting refugee resettlement policy research with the United Nations Association. For her work, she has been awarded Women of the District by Senator Toni Atkins and Woman of Distinction by Mayor Todd Gloria. Beyond her professional endeavors, Nancy is passionate about dance, fitness, and the outdoors—whether she’s moving to R&B and hip-hop, weightlifting, hiking, cooking, beaching, or practicing yoga.
  • Kassy Lee, M.F.A. (she/her)

    Kassy Lee, M.F.A. (she/her)

    Lecturer I kal087@ucsd.edu

    Kassy Lee is a poet and educator from San Diego. Her poems have appeared in The Margins, The Massachusetts Review, FENCE, African American Review, Salamander, Kweli Journal, Columbia Review, Apogee, and Narrative. Her work has received support from literary foundations such as Ragdale, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and Cave Canem Foundation for Black Poets. She also curates arts and cultural events and workshops. 
  • Michele Bigley, M.F.A. (she/her)

    Michele Bigley, M.F.A. (she/her)

    Lecturer I mbigley@ucsd.edu

    Michele Bigley is a writer, educator, climate activist, community builder, dancer and mom. Her writing has appeared in New York Times, Time Magazine, Sierra Magazine, Wired, Conde Nast Traveler, and many more. As a writer and educator, she’s most curious about how communities implement climate solutions. 
  • Ash Merryman, Ph.D.

    Ash Merryman, Ph.D.

    Lecturer I asmerryman@ucsd.edu

    Dr. Ash Merryman is an educator and creative invested in working with Eighth College students to grow their community-engaged critical thinking and writing practices. Dr. Merryman’s scholarship examines how contemporary representational works imagine alternative futurities for trans/queerness. A multi-genre author, Ash’s creative publications explore hybridity and meaning-making. Outside of class, Ash loves spending time in the mountains, walking the beaches, checking out local art, and relaxing with family.
  • Kathryn Garcia, M.A. (she/her/ella)

    Kathryn Garcia, M.A. (she/her/ella)

    Lecturer I kmg005@ucsd.edu

    Kathryn (Kat) Garcia is an educator and activist. Growing up in San Diego, the complexities of living in the borderlands shaped her passion for social justice and community-oriented research. She received her Master of Arts in Latin American Studies at the University of California, San Diego where her thesis focused on the current social, economic, and spatial changes in Tijuana, Mexico due to the city’s shifting demographics. Kat previously conducted research with UCSD’s Mexican Migration Field Research Project, engaged in participatory action research in the El Paso/Ciudad Juárez region, and worked alongside the Undocumented Migration Project in Arivaca, Arizona. 

    Outside of being an educator, Kat enjoys hiking, camping, going to concerts, and spending time with her pup, Laika. 
  • Louis Labat, M.F.A. (he/him)

    Louis Labat, M.F.A. (he/him)

    Lecturer I milabat@ucsd.edu

    Louis Labat is a writer, poet, and educator from San Fernando Valley. He received his BFA from University of California, Riverside and MFA from Chapman University, both majoring in Creative Writing. His writing tends to focus on being Black in America, grief, and the ways language is used to create emotion. He has taught at Chapman University and California State University, Fullerton–and has taught the classes African American Rhetoric, African American Music Appreciation, and Intro to Black Creative Expression. He is a current instructor at University of California, San Diego as a part of Eighth College and teaches Critical Community Engagement.
  • Vabianna Santos, Ph.D.

    Vabianna Santos, Ph.D.

    Lecturer I vasantos@ucsd.edu

    Dr. Vabianna Santos is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose practice develops performative writing techniques and material paradoxes. S(he) is thrilled to join the Eighth College team as a lecturer after many years of contributing to UCSD’s foundational writing programs. H(er) scholarship explores tactics of non-harm, while h(er) artwork considers the body’s exchange with its environment, both social and ecological, as a form of speculative worldmaking. S(he) has exhibited and performed internationally including at MOCA North Miami, Vox Populi Philadelphia, Headlands Center for the Arts, Hammer Museum Los Angeles and SOMA Mexico City. (He)r work has been discussed or published in PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, Theatre Journal, Ecumenica: Performance and Religion and WhiteHot Magazine of Contemporary Art. When not making or teaching, s(he) is scouring San Diego’s amazing thrift stores and flea markets and laughing with friends.

     
  • Kerry White, Ph.D. (she/her)

    Kerry White, Ph.D. (she/her)

    Lecturer I kew077@ucsd.edu 

    Dr. Kerry White is an interdisciplinary transfeminist scholar and educator invested in community-engaged research and activist praxis. As an ethnographer of trans life and politics in the Americas, her research considers how trans and queer people in the Americas—particularly in Cuba and its diaspora—collectively make sense of their lives and their communities while navigating gender and sexual discrimination, U.S. empire, and anti-Black racial formations. Her writing, which blurs genres of life writing in order to engage with the power of reflexive storytelling for trans communities across the Americas, can be found in Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism as well as in NACLA’s Report on the Americas. As a teacher, Kerry is invested in helping students better articulate and critically engage with the structures of power that define their worlds. She has a PhD in American studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, an MA in Latin American studies from the University of Florida, and a BA from Lewis & Clark College.

  • Dominique Shank, Ph.D. (she/her)

    Dominique Shank, Ph.D. (she/her)

    Lecturer I dshank@ucsd.edu 

    Dr. Dominique (Dom) Shank is a Critical Community Engagement (CCE) program Lecturer in the Eighth College. Her scholarship looks at Black Gothic Horror, a coherent and longstanding storytelling tradition that fabulates centuries of entanglement, suffering, resilience, and redress in the Atlantic world. A section of her dissertation, “Zombie Roar: Slow Horror, Banal Supernaturalism, and Colonial Memory” appears in The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film (2025). While earning her Ph.D in English from The University of California, Irvine, she inaugurated the Critical Race Collective - an interdisciplinary initiative intended to promote critical race discourses and scholarship - and developed a Multiethnic Autofiction course for the Composition program. Dr. Shank is passionate about teaching and adapting her pedagogy to meet the ever-evolving needs of her students.

  • Davíd Morales (he/him/él)

    Davíd Morales (he/him/él)

    Lecturer I davidmorales@ucsd.edu 

    Davíd Morales is a Critical Community Engagement (CCE) program Lecturer in Eighth College and a PhD candidate in the Race, Inequality, and Language in Education program at Stanford University. His research examines the pedagogical contributions of social movements and education activists, as well as their responses to colonial, (neo)liberal, and militarized logics that govern schools and racialized geographies across the U.S. and Latin America. His dissertation project explores the political and pedagogical possibilities—and defiant solidarities—that emerge from what he calls intercambio, an approach to transnational exchange and encounter among educators, social movements, and autonomous education projects. A former public high school teacher, Davíd has taught across the Bay Area and in his hometown of San Diego, where he has been involved with a range of community campaigns and organizations like Colectivo Zapatista and Project YANO (Youth And Non-Military Opportunities) since high school. He holds an M.A. in Education from Stanford University and a B.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of California San Diego.
  • Angela Mendoza, M.F.A. (she/her/ella)

    Angela Mendoza, M.F.A. (she/her/ella)

    Lecturer I anm069@ucsd.edu 

    Angela Mendoza is a Chicana, Central American-American writer hailing from Roseland, a small corner of the Bay Area in California. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University, where she taught classes in literature, poetry, and fiction, and a BA in English, Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She’s presented at the RE: Border conference in San Diego as well as the Latinx Literary Conference in New York City, and had poetry published in The Los Angeles Review. Her research interests include Lowriding studies, Chicano/a culture, Black literature, and contemporary visual art by Black and Brown artists. She’s currently working on her debut novel about immigrant women, female solidarity, and self-love. When she’s not lecturing in Eighth College’s Critical Community Engagement (CCE) program, she’s somewhere advocating for immigrant rights and West Coast rap.
  • Enrique Sepulveda, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

    Enrique Sepulveda, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

    Lecturer I ensepulveda@ucsd.edu 

    Enrique Sepulveda is the son of Mexican migrant/cannery workers from the Tejas/México border and in his early career he worked as a bilingual classroom teacher and school principal in the northern California central valley. He has centered his research projects in Latinx communities and schools heavily impacted by global migration in northern California, San Salvador, El Salvador, and Madrid, Spain. His work seeks to understand and develop subaltern methodologies and pedagogies that facilitate a deeper understanding of the complex, liminal lives of migrant youth and community. He has co-authored the book Global Latin(o) Americanos: Transoceanic Diasporas and Regional Migrations, with Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, and Border Thinking: Latinx Youth Decolonizing Citizenship, with Andrea Dyrness. This latter book was the winner of the Outstanding Book Award for 2020 for the Council on Anthropology and Education (CAE). It was also awarded an Honorable Mention for the Association for Humanist Sociology Book Award in 2021.

     

Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS)

Facilities Management Custodial Team

  • Marvin "Lee" Jones (he/him)

    Marvin "Lee" Jones (he/him)

    Lead Custodian
  • Harvey Mcknight (he/him)

    Harvey Mcknight (he/him)

    Senior Custodian
  • Deonne Wheaton (he/him)

    Deonne Wheaton (he/him)

    Senior Custodian
  • Ivory Young (he/him)

    Ivory Young (he/him)

    Senior Custodian

Housing & Dining Custodial Team

  • Gloria Alcala (she/her)

    Gloria Alcala (she/her)

    Senior Custodian
  • Henry Estigoy (he/him)

    Henry Estigoy (he/him)

    Senior Custodian
  • Esther Garcia (she/her)

    Esther Garcia (she/her)

    Senior Custodian
  • Noemi Hernandez (she/her)

    Noemi Hernandez (she/her)

    Senior Custodian
  • Ana Limon (she/her)

    Ana Limon (she/her)

    Senior Custodian
  • Rocio Pallan (she/her)

    Rocio Pallan (she/her)

    Senior Custodian
  • Maricruz Pena (she/her)

    Maricruz Pena (she/her)

    Senior Custodian
  • Emilia Quinones (she/her)

    Emilia Quinones (she/her)

    Senior Custodian
  • Maria Rangel (she/her)

    Maria Rangel (she/her)

    Senior Custodian
  • Christina Torres (she/her)

    Christina Torres (she/her)

    Senior Custodian

Residence Life

Student Affairs

Honorary Eighties

  • Priscilla "PJ" Ju

    Priscilla "PJ" Ju

    Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at Sixth College

    PJ served as Interim Dean of Student Affairs for Eighth College during Summer 2023. Thank you, PJ!
  • Stephanie Pineda, M.A. (she/her/ella)

    Stephanie Pineda, M.A. (she/her/ella)

    Assistant Director of Program Operations at Seventh College

    Stephanie served as Eighth College's inaugural Senior New Student Programs Specialist. Thank you, Stephanie!