Avanza Faculty Fellows Join Inclusive Excellence
Advancing Mentoring and the Professoriate, a unit of Inclusive Excellence, is delighted to announce that Professor Marcela Cuellar(School of Education) and Associate Professor Jesús M. Velázquez (Letters & Sciences) will join our office as Avanza Faculty Fellows.
In their role, professors Cuellar and Velázquez will advise and support the Avanza initiative, Director to help develop and refine the initiative’s vision and strategies, ensuring they are grounded in current research and best practices related to designated serving institutions. They will also propose and recommend capacity-building activities for faculty and staff, drawing on evidence-based models and practices, to foster a culture of inclusive excellence and support institutional goals for student success and belonging.
Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow Marcela Cuellar is a nationally recognized leader in research on Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Latine student success. She joined the School of Education in July 2014 and received her PhD in Education (Higher Education and Organizational Change) at UCLA. She has supported the Avanza Initiative over the years in different capacities, including as a member of the HSI Taskforce and as a collaborator with the initiative’s directors. She currently serves as a co-chair of the UC-HSI Initiative advisory board, a systemwide effort to support and advance UC campuses as Hispanic-Serving Research Institutions (HSRIs).
Associate Professor Jesús M. Velázquez has been deeply involved in student success initiatives at UC Davis for many years including creating innovative chemistry courses and programs that partner with HSIs and HBCUs. Since joining the faculty at UC Davis in 2016, he has established a dynamic, interdisciplinary research team comprising graduate and undergraduate students from various chemistry and engineering majors. His group is dedicated to designing and understanding new materials for applications in nanoelectronics, energy conversion, and environmental sustainability. His lab’s impactful work has earned multiple major accolades, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the Sloan Research Fellowship in 2023, recognizing him as an emerging leader in the physical sciences.
Associate Vice Chancellor Luis Carvajal-Carmona, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine shares, “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Professors Cuellar and Velázquez to the AMP Office as our newest Avanza Faculty Fellows. We are thrilled that they will be working closely with our recently appointed Avanza Director, Dr. Mayte Frias, as we continue to strengthen and expand the vision of Avanza. Professors Cuellar and Velázquez are dynamic, deeply committed to equity, and nationally recognized faculty whose leadership, scholarship, and mentorship will be invaluable to our work. Their partnership will provide critical support to Dr. Frias and our office as we advance UC Davis’s national leadership in providing the best possible educational, leadership, and research opportunities to support the aspirations of all our students. With the addition of Professors Cuellar and Velázquez, we truly have an AVANZA dream team, and we are excited about what we will accomplish together. We look forward to working with them and to the collective impact we will make for our campus community.”