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CSUDH News

The primary source of news and information about California State University, Dominguez Hills, its students, faculty, and staff.

Highlights and Spotlights

Faculty Highlights: April 2023

April 6, 2023 By Lilly McKibbin

Our faculty members participate in conferences around the world, conduct groundbreaking research, and publish books and journal papers that contribute to their field and highlight their expertise. We feature those accomplishments and more in this section. To share faculty news, email ucm@csudh.edu.

Academic Affairs

Ken O'Donnell
Ken O’Donnell
Kitty Fortner
Kitty Fortner

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Ken O’Donnell and Associate Professor in Graduate Education Kitty Fortner, who respectively act as the editor-in-chief and managing editor of the Experiential Learning and Teaching in Higher Education journal, published the Volume 6, Number 1 issue in March 2023. The journal relates to high-impact educational practices and is published in collaboration with the Society for Experiential Education. It gives new faculty and doctoral candidates a forum for staying current and sharing discoveries about the power of experiential education at institutions like CSUDH.

College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences

Jerry Moore

CSUDH alumni organized a tribute to Professor of Anthropology Jerry Moore at the Society for American Archaeology’s annual meeting in Portland, Ore. on April 1. The symposium was entitled “Humble Houses to Magnificent Monuments: Papers in Honor of Jerry D. Moore,” and celebrated Moore’s career of archaeological research.

Ken Seligson headshot

Ken Seligson, assistant professor of anthropology, appeared on The Oxford Comment podcast to share insights into his work exploring the environmental resilience of the Classic Maya, the environmental challenges they faced and overcame, and the lessons we can learn from them.

Recent quotes and/or interviews in the media from faculty

Jennifer Brodmann

“Gen Zers are self-motivated and are adopting financial behaviors early to prepare for their future. They are focused on building financial literacy in order to make more informed financial decisions. Their main goal is to build savings. Some are starting to invest and contribute to retirement accounts.” – Assistant Professor of Finance Jennifer Brodmann gave expert analysis for “Gen Z Stats: Who Are They & What Do We Know About Them?” by RentCafe.

Prakash Dheeriya

“The bottom line is that you must never pay interest on anything if you can avoid paying it. You should always pay your credit card bill in full every month, and if you do not have money to pay for the item in cash, then do not use your credit card to buy it.” – Prakash Dheeriya, professor of finance, was a featured expert in a WalletHub piece about low interest credit cards.

Thomas Norman Portrait

“Oftentimes, people look at the amounts students pay. But that’s not really the cost that we should be looking at from the state perspective.” – Thomas Norman, professor of management and marketing, spoke with Inside Higher Ed about the costs associated with adding baccalaureate programs at community colleges.

Beverly Palmer

“The more physically active you are together, the more the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter of dopamine is spiked.” – Beverly Palmer, professor emerita of psychology, was interviewed by The Knot about how to be romantic and show affection in a relationship.

Larry-Rosen

“With each ring, our brains let out a little cortisol or a little dopamine—an e-mail or a text makes us feel stressed or feel happy—and what this does is conspire to make us even more rapid responders.” – Larry Rosen, professor emeritus of psychology, was interviewed for an MSN article about the link between technology and anxiety.

Staff Spotlight: Krystal Rawls

April 5, 2023 By Kandis Newman

Krystal Rawls

As soon as the sun comes up, CSUDH Workforce Integration Network (WIN) Director Krystal Rawls is ready to go. The self-described early riser says she typically finds it hard to sleep past dawn. “There’s too much life to live to sleep through it!” she says.

Part of the reason she’s so eager to get her day started is her passion for her work at CSUDH. WIN aims to highlight the career opportunities available for CSUDH students and other members of our community. As director, Rawls uses advanced technological resources, combined with university and industry-generated business data, to demonstrate the benefits of the CSUDH educational experience in promoting all stakeholders: students, staff, faculty, employers, and the local community.

“Networking is a huge part of my job,” she says. “I spend about an hour or two every day responding to emails to make sure I address the needs of other departments and colleges—most often offering information about how WIN serves the campus and what resources we offer. Another significant part of my day is developing and analyzing workforce trends and programs to address skill gaps.”

This networking aspect of the job appeals to Rawls. “I enjoy working with so many different partners’ groups. I mentor interns, do research alongside faculty and staff, and work with some of the most creative and passionate community members in the South Bay. In addition, I make sure our community is represented in national and global learning conversations. For me, it’s a total WIN!”

Prior to coming to CSUDH in 2020, Rawls served as a faculty member at CSU San Bernardino, teaching management skills. “I love teaching,” she says. “I love when students see themselves the way I see them: full of promise and hope. I saw a need to explicitly articulate the value I saw in students, so I started teaching it in class and modeling my appreciation as a manager/leader. This led me to my current career in workforce development.”

Born in Hawaii, Rawls was an “army brat” who moved around a lot during her childhood. She eventually settled in California, where she has spent most of her teen and adult life. Her family is the one thing she says she could not live without—and what a family she has! Rawls has 16 (!) siblings and 7 daughters, and is married to a retired Navy veteran.

Rawls’ proudest contribution to campus is her work with the Open Skills Network Open Recognition Workgroup, which revolves around identifying the skills and strengths of first-generation and exploring students. “I love showing students they have more skills than they think they have,” she says.

When she’s not working—she’s still actually kind of working. “I love love love my work,” she says. “It can be soothing for me to read innovative articles about the work I do. When I’m not officially working, I’m writing scholarly articles about ways educators can show students we value their lives and experiences. I don’t have a great work-life balance because my work is a passion project!”

Her innovative work with WIN has drawn attention to the university, and Rawls is often asked to speak to fellow educators at conferences across the globe. This year, she will be presenting at events in Boulder, Colo., Portland, Ore., and Vienna, Austria—among others.

“I love that DH is looking for ways to showcase the amazing people who work and learn at the institution,” says Rawls. “When I think about why I work at DH instead of another institution, it boils down to a very selfish thought… I want to be a part of the magic that pushes people to see themselves in a positive and productive light, instead of as a deficit!”

To that end, she was thrilled to see Thriving Educators and Thriving Students as pillars of the new Strategic Plan. “When I saw those pillars, my heart leaped for joy,” she recalls. “We are not here to survive but to thrive. I want to be a part of that!”

Fun Facts About Krystal Rawls

Favorite movie:
Black Panther ! My license plate reads “WKANDA.” I run a website called Nation of Wakanda and own the entire graphic novel series. Bit of a fan!

Favorite book
The V.C. Andrews series that begins with Flowers in the Attic.,

Best Concert?
Carlos Santana at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. After his official set he said, “If y’all don’t have any place to be, I’m going to keep playing.” He played for almost three more hours and I was in heaven!

Favorite food? Least favorite?
My favorite is ramen. Least is okra.

Cats or dogs?
Dogs. Pit bulls or labs, specifically.

What is one superpower you would like to have?
To translate all languages fluently. I could end conflict with such a power!

If a movie was made about your life, who would you want to play you?
Vanessa Williams. She was the first Black Miss America and I remember people saying she and I favored each other when I was younger. I think she would understand my struggle being a Black woman in a system that doesn’t love Black women.

Favorite childhood memory?
My 7th grade English teacher, Mrs. Auerbach, read a poem I wrote out loud to our class, telling them that honest writing is the best writing. I had been criticized because the poem was dark and had decided I’d never write again. It meant everything to me that she acknowledged the content above the tone!

What is one thing you could not live without?
My family and pets.

Describe yourself in three words:
Authentic, accurate, and passionate.

Staff Spotlight: Lily Arana

March 23, 2023 By Kandis Newman

Lilly Arana

Although she’s only been at CSUDH a relatively short time, Lily Arana is already sure she’s at the right place. She serves as a bilingual counselor and advocate at the on-campus Center for Advocacy, Prevention & Empowerment (CAPE), a space that provides confidential assistance, support, and education for those affected by sexual abuse, assault, intimate relationship abuse, and stalking.

Arana says she wouldn’t trade jobs with anyone, and she “loves how intimate the CSUDH campus is, and how friendly everyone is.”

A South Bay native, Arana got her BS in psychology from CSU Los Angeles, then attained a master’s in social work at CSU Long Beach. While pursuing her graduate studies, she interned as a clinical social worker at a local domestic violence agency, and realized that advocating for and counseling survivors or trauma and assault was her calling.

She has been at CSUDH since September, 2022. “Growing up in an underserved community in the South Bay, I want to make a difference by being the support and advocate that I wish I had growing up and attending a CSU,” she says. “As a first-generation college graduate, I had to navigate higher ed on my own, and I want to be that guide for the first-gen students here.”

As a counselor and advocate, she says that every day is different and unique. “I can go from scheduling meetings with campus survivors to doing advocacy on- and off-campus to creating content for presentations. My favorite days are Tuesdays, when I host Social Hour with CAPE, where we have open conversations about relationships and other topics.”

Her favorite part of working at CSUDH is interacting with the students on a daily basis. “I love being around students!” she says. “Whether it’s during Social Hour on Zoom or when CAPE is out there tabling an event, I love meeting and working with Toros!”

When she’s not working, Arana spends most of her time “chasing after my 15-month old daughter.” In the rare moments she gets to herself, she enjoys cooking and baking, painting, and indoor gardening. Arana is also a nature lover who loves being outdoors every chance she gets.

Fun Facts About Lily Arana

Favorite movie:
The Nightmare Before Christmas

Favorite book
The Lord of the Flies , by William Golding

First concert/last concert/best concert:
First: No Doubt & Blink-182; Last: The Story So Far; Best: Maná

Favorite song:
Right now, it’s “Memory” by Windser

Favorite food? Least favorite?
Fave: Anything pasta; Least: Sushi

Cats or dogs?
Both

What is a place you’ve never been that you would most like to travel to?
Patagonia

What is something interesting about you that other may not know?
I have six brothers and am the only girl in my family!

What is one thing you could not live without?
My family and pets.

Describe yourself in three words:
“Empathetic, creative, determined”

Faculty Highlights: March 2023

March 9, 2023 By Lilly McKibbin

Our faculty members participate in conferences around the world, conduct groundbreaking research, and publish books and journal papers that contribute to their field and highlight their expertise. We feature those accomplishments and more in this section. To share faculty news, email ucm@csudh.edu.

Recent quotes and/or interviews in the media from faculty

Amber Broaden

“Now that I’m working within law and the legal field, it’s such a passion for me to save young children.” – Lecturer of Psychology Amber Broaden was interviewed by Fox 11 News during a memorial for Gabriel Fernandez, a young boy murdered by his parents in 2013. Broaden had followed the case for years, and incorporated it into her Legal and Psychology (PSY 371) course. Broaden offered students who came to the memorial the opportunity to receive extra credit, and said that she weaves her experiences into her classes to make them relatable to students.

Chris Hallenbrook

“My hope is that if [students] engage once in various ways, hopefully in the future when something upsets them or there’s a policy they’re really passionate about being pushed through, they’ll be more confident and likely to write a letter because they want to.” – Assistant Professor of Political Science Chris Hallenbrook was interviewed on KNX 1070 about encouraging civic engagement among young people.

J. Kim McNutt Photo

“CSUDH itself serves many first-generation students, many come from migrant backgrounds and are people of color whose parents never attended college, but instilled a respect for education and worked to provide it for their children.” – College of Continuing and Professional Education (CCPE) Dean J. Kim McNutt was interviewed for by the Babb Group for the How I Lead series, which features leaders in higher education sharing their insights to support wider collective problem solving in the sector.

Joanna Perez

“It’s so important to humanize the student experience in order for that sense of belonging to be cultivated.” – Joanna Perez, associate professor of sociology, was quoted by The Chronicle of Higher Education for an article about students’ sense of belonging in colleges and universities.

Claudia Serrato writing on a whiteboard

“We are forgetting who we are. If we don’t have an identity, then who are we? It’s important to know where you come from.” – Lecturer of Chicana and Chicano Studies Claudia Serrato was profiled by Telemundo about her passion for culinary anthropology and decolonizing Mesoamerican foods. Scenes from Serrato’s Chicana Spirituality class at CSUDH are included in the segment, along with an interview with one of her students.

Sonal Singhal

“There are some species that reproduce asexually but the males still serve some role, whether that’s to trigger ovulation or to trigger fertilization, but in these lizards, they don’t need the males for anything.” – Sonal Singhal, assistant professor of biology, was quoted by CNN for an article called “Meet the animals with love lives more complicated than yours.”

College of Arts and Humanities

Mara Lee Grayson

Associate Professor of English Mara Lee Grayson‘s peer-reviewed article “Antiracism is Not an Action Item: Boutique Activism and Academic (Anti)Racism” was published by Writers: Craft & Context.

Several of Grayson’s poems were also published, including “For the Red-Brown Cow Whose Eyes I Caught from the Backseat of my Mother’s Chevy Nova, 1993” in Radar, “Response from Dean Following Discrimination Complaint: An Erasure Poem” in the Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, “May We All Emerge One Day as Butterflies in Poems,” a semifinalist for the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, in Nimrod International Journal, “For All of This We Carry Forth and Back” in Tampa Review, and “Listening to ‘America,’ I Find Myself Feeling Homesick for a World that Never Existed” in CutBank.

College of Business Administration and Public Policy

Harun Rashid

Assistant Professor of Accounting Harun Rashid co-authored “Corporate Dividend Policy and Tax Avoidance,” published in Canadian Tax Journal. Using the agency theory, the article argues that as a dividend policy is considered to be a fixed commitment, it may affect a “tax-avoidance strategy to generate additional cash flow to meet this obligation and to fund operating and investment needs.” It also provides persuasive evidence that suggests “that dividend policy affects the distribution of surplus among shareholders, managers, and the tax authority.”

College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences

Horace Crogman

Assistant Professor of Physics Horace Crogman authored “Theory of Projectors and Its Application to Molecular Symmetry,” published by Symmetry. The article describes projector theory and its usefulness as a tool to perform the symmetric computation of molecular systems. He also co-authored “The Effectiveness of Suffruticosol B in Treating Lung Cancer by the Laser Trapping Technique,” a study published by Biophysica which suggests that the effects of suffruticosol B may be useful in preventing or treating lung cancer.

Irene Tung

Assistant Professor of Psychology Irene Tung co-authored “Impact of Sedentary Behavior and Emotional Support on Prenatal Psychological Distress and Birth Outcomes During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” published in Psychological Medicine. The study found that there was no strong evidence for an association between pandemic exposure and adverse birth outcomes. It also highlighted the importance of reducing maternal sedentary behavior and encouraging emotional support for optimizing maternal health regardless of pandemic conditions.

Staff Spotlight: Ricardo Magallanes

February 23, 2023 By Kandis Newman

Ricardo Magallanes

As the Chemical Hygiene Officer for the CSUDH Environmental Health and Safety Department, Ricardo Magallanes is responsible for making sure that students, faculty, and staff are safe while on campus and working with chemicals. This can mean everything from working with administrators to develop good hygiene policies to maintaining accurate inventories of the chemicals that are stored here.

To that end, he says he spends most of his days “going through emails, conducting lab inspections, leading a variety of safety training events, reviewing CSUDH safety programs—and going to lots of meetings.” Magallanes has been at CSUDH for three years, and is proud of the work he’s done building up and improving its safety programs and policies.

A graduate of CSU Long Beach (CSULB), Magallanes had already been working in the environmental field when he started college, but he had never thought about pursuing such work as a career. It was while at CSULB that he found his calling.

“My third year at Long Beach, I was required to pick a major,” he recalls. “My counselor asked what I like to do and what I worked in. I said that I loved music and playing guitar, but I couldn’t see myself making money with it. He suggested that I try out Environmental Science & Policy as a major. I took one course from the program and never looked back!”

Since graduating from CSULB with a degree in Environmental Science and Policy, Magallanes has held a variety of related jobs in both the public and private sector. He’s spent the bulk of his career working in university safety positions, having spent time at UCLA, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and CSULB before coming to Dominguez Hills.

Magallanes appreciates the atmosphere on the CSUDH campus, saying “it still has that small-college feel even though it’s in a major urban area.” He enjoys working with the students and the community engagement aspects of his position, and takes pride in “making sure that students operate in a safe manner, whether in a research or instructional setting.”

When he’s not working, Magallanes’ favorite place to spend time is at the beach. He considers himself an adventurous person by nature, and loves hopping in his car and “driving someplace new,” as he puts it. Other favorite pastimes include “reading, a glass of whiskey, smoking cigars, and working out.”

Although he would happily trade jobs with Philip LaPolt, Dean of the College of Natural & Behavioral Sciences, if he had the chance, Magallanes is happy where he is at. “I enjoy the challenge of solving new and potential problems at Dominguez Hills,” he says.

Fun Facts About Ricardo Magallanes

Favorite movie:
The Count of Monte Cristo

Favorite book
The Brothers Karamazov, “The Grand Inquisitor” by Fyodor Dostoevsky

First concert/last concert/best concert:
Vans Warped Tour/A Perfect Circle/Tool in Phoenix, AZ on Halloween

Favorite song:
“Wherever I May Roam” by Metallica

Favorite food? Least favorite?
Fave: sushi; least fave: onion

What is one place you’d like to travel that you’ve never been to?
Japan

If a movie was made about your life, who would you want to play you?
Christian Bale

What is one superpower you would like to have?
Teleportation

Describe yourself in three words:
“Adventurous, Ambitious, Driven”

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Press Releases

Installation view of “Personal, Small, Medium, Large, Family”

CSUDH University Art Gallery Presents “Personal, Small, Medium, Large, Family” by Mario Ybarra, Jr.

September 19, 2023

Student walking near Science and Innovation building on campus.

CSUDH Recognized as a Top Performer in the 2023 Sustainable Campus Index

September 15, 2023

Map showing geography of Southern California

Getty Foundation Awards CSUDH $180,000 for Brackish Water Los Angeles

May 9, 2023

See all Press Releases ›

CSUDH in the News

Students working on computers.

Daily Breeze: CSUDH Offers New Master Program for Incarcerated People for Fall 2023

September 11, 2023

Woman doing work on a computer.

KTLA: California Department of Corrections, CSU Dominguez Hills Unveils Graduate Program for Inmates

September 5, 2023

Exterior photograph of San Quentin State Prison

EdSource: A First for California’s Incarcerated Students – Now They Can Earn Master’s Degrees

September 5, 2023

See more In the News ›

Faculty Highlights

Headshot of Carolyn Caffrey.

Faculty Highlights: September 2023

Headshot of Jonathon Grasse

Faculty Highlights: August 2023

Rama Malladi

Faculty Highlights: July 2023

Staff Spotlight

Cesar Mejia Gomez

Staff Spotlight: Cesar Mejia Gomez

Staff Spotlight: Ludivina Snow

Staff Spotlight: Gilbert Hernandez

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