The head of one of the largest municipal housing authorities in the United States and the first undocumented resident to earn at Ph.D. at UC Merced will be keynote speakers at the university’s fall commencement ceremonies.
Lourdes M. Castro Ramírez, president and chief executive officer of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, will address undergraduates. Yuriana Aguilar-Sánchez, a professor of biology at Texas A&M University, will speak to advancing graduate students.
Commence
ment is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Dec. 20-21, at the Art Kamangar Center at The Merced Theatre (details).
Castro Ramírez (pictured, right) assumed the lead role for HACLA this month after serving for a year as the city’s chief housing and homeless officer. The authority provides services and support to more than 200,000 people in a city of more than 4 million. She is a top advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Previously, Castro Ramírez was secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, leading dozens of boards and bureaus responsible for improving affordable housing, reducing homelessness, and protecting consumers.
Aguilar-Sánchez (pictured, left) came to the United States with her family from Mexico at age 5. Her parents became fieldworkers in the San Joaquin Valley. She enrolled at UC Merced in 2007, overcoming financial barriers raised because of her status as an undocumented immigrant. She performed community service and joined student organizations. A pair of summer internships cemented her interest in biomedical research.
After earning her undergraduate degree in 2011, she worked in Professor Ariel L. Escobar’s lab. A year later, she saw President Barack Obama's announcement of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which opened the door for her to begin working on a doctoral degree. She received a Ph.D. in quantitative systems biology in 2016, focusing on the autonomic nervous system regulation over the heart’s function.
Earlier this year, Aguilar-Sánchez joined the faculty at Texas A&M, starting a research lab that studies the effects of diabetes on the heart.
In addition to the keynote speakers, graduating students will address the two ceremonies for undergraduates.
Shreegandha Kulkarni, a double major in cognitive science and psychology, will speak at the ceremony for the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. A resident of Dublin, she was president and design coordinator of the Cognitive Science Student Association and served as public relations chair for Psi Chi, an honor society in psychology.
Berrydal Moshe, a computer science and engineering major, will speak at the ceremony for the School of Engineering and School of Natural Science. A resident of Pleasanton, she worked as a math tutor and was a member of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics Club. She conducted undergraduate research and was team lead for Electronics, Electrical and Embedded Systems for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Battery Workforce Challenge Program.
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