Carla Neckles
FDI Scholar in the Department of Chemistry
Carla is originally from Long Island and received her B.S. in Chemistry at SUNY Albany. Immediately after her undergraduate education, she applied to the chemistry doctoral program at Stony Brook University where she received a SUNY LSAMP NSF Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship. She is a graduate student within the chemical biology training program (CBTP) where she also received a fellowship from CBTP grant, and the Alliance of Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) Summer Research Grant at Stony Brook University. Carla plans to defend her research in Spring 2014, which focuses on substrate and inhibition specificity of enzymes that are involved in the fatty acid biosynthesis type II pathway of biodefense pathogens Yersinia pestis and Burkholderia pseudomallei. Moreover, she serves on the Graduate Affairs Committee and on the Graduate Chemistry Society executive board. In her free time, she enjoys being an active participant in outreach community programs, such as being a Center of Inclusive Education graduate mentor and a Long Island Youth Mentor.
Veronica Gonzalez
FDI Scholar in the Department of Professional Studies in Education
Veronica Gonzalez has worked in the field of education for 10 years. She began her career teaching high school Spanish. She has taught various elementary grade levels, including Kinder, first, second, fourth, and fifth grades in Inglewood, Culver City, and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. In LAUSD, she has had different roles such as teaching ESL and parenting classes, teacher adviser, grade level chair, track chair, and an active member of the advisory committees. In addition, she has mentored new teachers and was the demonstration teacher for the English Language Development practicum for English learners. Currently, she is the Title I/English Learners coordinator at Los Angeles Unified School District. In this position, she coordinates the planning, organization, implementation, and evaluation of categorical funded and English Learners programs. In addition, she provides professional development to teachers to ensure the needs of English language learners are met.
Veronica is a Ph.D. student in Education specializing in Urban Education at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Her research interests focuses on the Latino community and strategies to increase and embrace parent involvement in the education system. In addition, she wants to examine the effects of cultural capital on first generation students of color. More specifically, she is interested in the contributing factors that impact Latino college students' college access and choice. She is the recipient of a number of grants and fellowships, including Claremont Graduate University Doctoral Fellowship, SESSA Travel Award, and Tae Han Kim Award. She has presented at professional conferences hosted by California Association for Bilingual Education, Hawaii International Conference on Education, Claremont Graduate University Annual Research Conference, and California State University, Northridge.