SACNAS at UCLA    2024-2025     Board Members

Dr. diana azurdia

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN BIOSCIENCE
CO-ADVISOR
[email protected]​

Emil Dominguez

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
CO-PRESIDENT
[email protected]​

Itzetl Avila

PHD STUDENT
VICE-PRESIDENT
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Dr. Angelica Cardenas

Postdoctoral Researcher
SEDS Representative

PHD STUDENT
GRADUATE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE
​

Raymond Alvarado

PHD STUDENT
CO-OUTREACH COORDINATOR
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Luna Rodriguez

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
CO-INTERNAL AFFAIRS
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UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
CO-EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
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Dr. JEFFrey LONG

DIRECTOR, CELL & DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
CO-ADVISOR
[email protected]​

Priscila aguilar

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
CO-PRESIDENT
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AVA bignell

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
SECRETARY
​

Mathew Meza 

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
FINANCE CHAIR
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Isabel Watson

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
UNDERGRADUATE REPRESENTATIVE
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Diana Vaca

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
CO-EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
​

PHD STUDENT
CO-OUTREACH COORDINATOR
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UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
CO-FINANCE CHAIR
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LEARN  MORE ABOUT US BELOW! 

Co-Chapter Advisor/Liason

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Dr. Diana Azurdia
Associate Director, Graduate Programs in Bioscience
[email protected]
​
Website: http://bioscience.ucla.edu/

Academic History:
  • Ph.D. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • B.S. Biochemistry, California State University, Los Angeles
​

About me: Dr. Diana Azurdia has been a member of SACNAS for 16 years. She is a Linton-Poodry SACNAS Leadership Institute (2014 LPSI) and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Advanced Leadership Institute (2016 SACNAS - HHMI ALI) Alumni. Currently, Dr. Azurdia serves on the national SACNAS Board of Directors and as a UCLA Chapter Co-Advisor.  
 
Dr. Azurdia leads UCLA’s effort to enhance diversity in the biomedical graduate student population by cultivating a strong inclusive graduate training culture focused on personal wellbeing, professional development, mentorship and leadership. She has directed several programs that broaden participation in science, served as adjunct faculty in the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department at CSU Los Angeles and performed postdoctoral research in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, investigating the role of Wnt/betacatenin signaling on histone modification and its role in metastasis and proliferation of triple-negative breast cancer cells. She earned her PhD in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry from UCLA, where she was a NIGMS Predoctoral Fellow (F31), and graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry from CSU Los Angeles, where she was a NIH MARC trainee and participated in the NSF LSAMP program. Dr. Azurdia is a first-generation Guatemalan-American and the first in her family to attend college. She grew up in a low-income household with very limited resources and her first exposure to the idea that science could be pursued as a career came through the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) program. As the beneficiary of broadening participation programs she believes that initiatives that promote access to STEM degrees are important for equal representation of all identities in science, the creation of innovations that serve all communities and income equity. Consequently, Dr. Azurdia has devoted her career to promoting initiatives that serve those causes. Additionally, she attributes her ability to navigate her academic career to key mentors and therefore a major focus of her work centers on the propagation of effective mentoring of underrepresented individuals in STEM. ​

PRESIDENTS
​​Emil Dominguez 
​
[email protected]
Standing: 4th year undergraduate
Major/Minor: Biochemistry/Biomedical Research
Research Interest: My background is in natural product total synthesis, electrochemistry, biochemistry, chemical biology, medicinal chemistry and photopharmacology. 
Why choose to be on SACNAS board?: I serve on the SACNAS board because I believe in our mission of recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities. SACNAS facilitates networking and community building that benefits students as they grow in their career.

OUTREACH COORDINATORS

Finance Chair 

Graduate Representative

Undergraduate  Representative ​

Secretary 

CO-External

Co-Outreach Coordinator