Diversity Faculty Fellow
Washington State University Vancouver’s Diversity Faculty Fellowship Program is an important part of the University’s mission of promoting and expanding cultural diversity on our campus. Fellows act as advisors to the University on diversity and multicultural issues. They play a crucial role in helping maintain existing programs and approaches, and developing new ones, that promote diversity at WSU Vancouver.
Past fellows, for example, have helped with the creation of MOSAIC, WSU Vancouver’s college awareness and outreach program for local high school students; participated in mentorship programs for students; and have organized cultural programs, art exhibits, musical presentations, and lecture series. Fellows also add to our understanding of cultural diversity issues through the research projects, publications, and teaching they conduct during their tenure.
Current fellow:
Beth Tarasawa (2011-present)
Dr. Tarasawa is the current Diversity Faculty Fellow & Clinical Assistant Professor of Sociology. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Emory University in 2009. Her research and teaching interests include race and ethnic relations, the sociology of education, and urban sociology. Her specialization in racial inequality in education is connected to broader areas within the field of stratification including poverty, labor market participation, residential segregation, and the intersections of race, ethnicity, and class.
Dr. Tarasawa’s recent research examines the implementation of language assistance programs for English Language Learners in Southern public high schools. Additionally, she is involved in a collaborative research project which studies how race, human and social capital, and school context affect college-preparatory course taking. Beyond traditional academic approaches to research, she has also worked on multiple university-community partnership projects developed to mobilize research resources to assist local community organizations. Prior to joining WSUV, she was an Assistant Professor of Sociology at St. Norbert College.
Past fellows:
Jorge Lizarraga (2008-2010)
Jorge is a human geographer with teaching and academic interests in urban history and the built environment, regional political economy and geography, and comparative culture and ethnic studies.
Before moving to the Pacific Northwest Jorge was on the geography and ethnic studies faculty at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He has also taught at Portland State University, San Francisco State University, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Jorge served as WSUV's Diversity Faculty Fellow from 2008 to 2010 and is now an instructor in the College of Liberal Arts.
Renee Branch
Renée B. Branch is director of diversity and inclusive practices for the Council on Foundations, where she works with philanthropic leaders and organizations to advance diversity and inclusiveness as a tool of effectiveness. Branch has 15 years of senior-level experience in management, public administration, and development.
Prior to joining the Council, she was an adjunct professor at Washington State University in Vancouver and served as the diversity faculty fellow. In that role, she worked collaboratively with faculty and staff to create an institutional environment that was safe and inclusive for work and learning. Her areas of focus were curriculum and scholarship, recruitment and retention, and campus climate.
She was also a member of the Diversity Council and liaison to the Diversity Advisory Board, comprised of local leaders from Southwest Washington and the Portland metropolitan region. Branch has also worked for the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington, the Urban League of Philadelphia, Peirce College, and Johns Hopkins University.
Luz Maria Gordillo
Dr. Gordillo is an Assistant Professor in the department of Women's Studies and American Studies at WSUV. She’s the author of Mexican Women and the Other Side of Immigration: Engendering Transnational Ties. Dr. Gordillo's research focuses on gendered historical processes of Mexican immigration between the United States and Mexico. Her research also investigates the history of immigration law and its direct impact on transnational fields.
Dr. Gordillo recently published her article entitled "The Bracero, the Wetback and the Terrorist: Mexican Immigration, Legislation and National Security" in A New Kind of Containment: "The War on Terror," Race, and Sexuality.
Her latest research is on the history of Mexican immigrant women, immigration law in the United States and ideas of national security since 1942. In addition, Dr. Gordillo has been invited by Universities in the United States to present/perform her book manuscript with a working title Memoirs de una Wetback. The book is a challenging text that juxtaposes personal border-crossing trauma with the production and enforcement of immigration law.
Dr. Gordillo also lectures on Women's Resistance and Empowerment as well as on Latin American and Chicana/o Art of Resistance.
Tahira Probst
Tahira Probst, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at Washington State University Vancouver. She received her Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Illinois in 1998.
In conducting her research on job insecurity and economic stress, Probst has worked with dozens of organizations in numerous countries representing many different industries, including manufacturing, mining, construction, health care and the public sector.
Probst was a visiting scholar at the United Nation’s International Labor Organization and served as a research consultant for the National Academies Institute of Medicine on their project to evaluate workplace wellness programs at NASA.
Probst is currently associate editor of Stress & Health and sits on the editorial boards of Military Psychology and the Journal of Business and Psychology.
