Staff and Visiting Scholars

Yến Lê Espiritu

Department Chair, Distinguished Professor

Phone: 858.246.0793
Email: yespiritu@ucsd.edu

As the Department Chair, Professor Espiritu leads the faculty of Ethnic Studies Department in building a more consistent, transparent, and inclusive climate for all. Professor Espiritu plans department programs in teaching, research, and other functions and ensures that departmental business is conducted ethically and in accordance with relevant laws, regulations and University policies.

Gennie B. Miranda

Chief Administrative Officer

Phone: 858.534.3278
Email: gbmiranda@ucsd.edu

As the Chief Administrative Officer of the Department of Ethnic Studies, Gennie manages departmental administrative functions including finance and budget, faculty recruitment, faculty support, human resources, website, facilities, and staff supervision. Gennie is the contact for all academic personnel and academic appointment file processing for Faculty and Lecturers. She processes tasks such as advancement, compensation, benefits, UC Path entries, leaves of absence, APOL job postings and policies and procedures. 

Jessica Williams

Graduate Coordinator

Phone: 858.534.6040
Email: jjwilliams@ucsd.edu

Jessica is responsible for all aspects pertaining to the administration and implementation of the graduate program. She advises students, manages the graduate admissions process, Ph.D. program outreach, graduate recruitment visits, and new student orientation; she assesses need for TA and Reader support and facilitates TA and Reader employment. Jessica is the primary resource for graduate students and faculty/staff within and outside the department regarding fiscal support issues, including block grant/TA FTE and external agency support. She coordinates and manages the academic progress of graduate students, evaluation documentation, and maintains all graduate record files.

Mónica RodriQuez de Cabaza

Undergraduate Coordinator

Phone: 858.534.3277
Email: ethnicstudies@ucsd.edu

Mónica is responsible for the administration of the undergraduate program, coordinating department curriculum and scheduling, academic counseling and advising of undergraduate students on degree requirements, adds and drops, etc., evaluating and processing final degree checks, preparing the catalog copy, and all other miscellaneous course and undergraduate matters including the honors program. Mónica is the liaison with campus-wide undergraduate student affairs units and community. She actively recruits potential students, promotes and advertises the undergraduate program campus-wide, and attends all campus outreach events. Mónica also provides advice to undergraduate students on graduate school and career opportunities.

Mónica earned her B.A. in Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego and attended Eleanor Roosevelt College. The UCSD Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) is what helped to encourage her to attend a four-year university and she was invited to participate in Summer Bridge to help acclimate her transition to UCSD. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of education and other personal factors, she had to drop out of college. Mónica was determined to earn her degree, she applied for a staff position on campus and was able to simultaneously complete her major.

Mónica has now been on campus for 29 years both as a student and a staff member. She started as a part-time Intake Advisor/HR manager/finance assistant with the Warren Writing Program. She then had the opportunity to work at UCSD Extended Studies in Student Services. Next, Mónica worked for a high school summer outreach program called COSMOS at the Jacobs School of Engineering. Prior to working at Ethnic Studies, Mónica was the Program Coordinator for the Chinese Studies Program at UCSD. In 2016 Mónica returned to Ethnic Studies as the Undergraduate Academic Advisor and is achieving her career goal of helping Undergraduate students earn their degree at UC San Diego.

Karen Miranda

Financial and Human Resources Analyst

Phone: 858.822.0650
Email: kmiranda@ucsd.edu

Karen has independent administrative responsibility for the financial administration, management and analysis of department funds including state, contract and grant, gifts, and donations. Responsibilities include management of all extramural and state funds, administration of the departmental operating budget, and contract and grant administration (pre- and post-award).

Karen also independently manages all aspects of staff personnel in the department. She provides expert advice, instruction and policy interpretation to the Chair, faculty, CAO and staff on all matters involving personnel administration, including recruitment, appointment, advancement, classification, compensation, benefits, grievance/disciplinary actions, and employee relations. As the Departmental Security Administrators, she can grant access to Business Systems and Active Directory.

Maddie Weisblatt

Student Assistant

Phone: 858.534.3276
Email: es-asst@ucsd.edu

Maddie is the fiscal and administrative assistant. She supports both the Ethnic Studies Department and Critical Gender Studies Program.

Iliana Maiz

Student Assistant

Phone: 858.534.3276
Email: ethniccommunications@ucsd.edu

Iliana is the communications and design assistant. She creates flyers and other communication materials for the department, makes web updates and manages social media.

Isabella Restrepo

President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Ph.D., Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Isabella C. Restrepo (she/they) is an interdisciplinary feminist scholar whose research mobilizes disability studies, girlhood studies, Chicana feminist methods, and abolition studies to analyze the U.S. foster care system. Restrepo earned her doctorate in Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. An incoming UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Ethnic Studies department at UC San Diego, Restrepo’s research offers a critical lens that excavates the criminalization and pathologization that is inherent in the foster care system and centers the experiences of racialized Latina foster girls with carceral tools like behavioral diagnosis and mandated services.