La Alianza Conference 2020

Speakers and Presenters

Faculty Panel
Professor Cristián Gómez Olivares is a Chilean Poet that has widely
published his creative work both in Latin America and Europe. He did his
B.A. and Master in Universidad de Chile, his alma mater. His PhD is from
The University of Iowa. He has published nine books of poetry and his
work appears in many anthologies, having been partially translated into
English, Polish and Basque. He was member of the International Writing
Program at The University of Iowa and a Writer in Residence at The
Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada. His research interest range
from Latin American Poetry to Translation Theory and the Cultural Cold
War. After publishing his book La poesía al poder: ensayos sobre poesía
hispanoamericana contemporánea (Power to Poetry: essays on
Contemporary Hispanic American poetry), delving into the meanders of
the relationship between poetry and politics in the new scenarios of a
globalized world, professor Gómez is working now in a book-length
project centered in the figure of Julián Gorkin, a political activist who was
an extremely relevant actor in the Cold War period
Dr. Damaris Puñales–Alpízar, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Chair of the
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, is an accomplished specialist on Cuban and
Caribbean Studies, devoted to advancing her students’ critical thinking by favoring their
intellectual curiosity and academic performance, and by presenting them challenging
opportunities of learning experiences. Since 2010 she has been at Case Western Reserve
University, where she teaches courses on the Caribbean and Latin American literature and
culture. During the 2013–2015 period, Puñales-Alpízar was elected delegate from the Great
Lakes region to the Modern Language Association. She is the founder and director of the study
abroad program of CWRU in Cuba. In 2018, Dr. Puñales-Alpízar was a Fulbright Scholar in
Russia to complete research for her next scholarly project. Her publications include the books
The Damn Circumstance. Scholarly Writings on Cuban Literature. Leiden: Almenara Press
(2020), Sieges to the Lettered Cayman: Literature and Power in the Cuban Revolution, Prague:
Carolina University Press (2018), The Atlantic as Frontier: Cultural Mediations between Cuba
and Spain, Madrid: Verbum (2014), and Written in Cyrillic. The Soviet Ideal in the post–1990
Cuban Cultural Production, Santiago de Chile: Cuarto Propio (2012). Her articles have appeared
in academic journals in the United States, Russia, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and
Cuba. She is now working on her next book on the geopolitics of Socialist translations. Along
with Cristián Gómez Olivares, she is co-director and co-founder of the academic journal
Revista Trasatlántica. Poetry and Scholarship. Regularly she writes and translates for the
Cleveland Arts Network Journal, and publishes op-ed pieces in a newspaper in Spain.
Francisca García-Cobián Richter is a Research Assistant
Professor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of
Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.
She earned an undergraduate degree in statistics from the
Universidad Católica del Perú in her native Peru. Her M.S. in
statistics and Ph.D. in agricultural economics (2000) are both
from Oklahoma State University. Francisca’s research
focuses on the analysis of interventions meant to improve
social welfare and the environments in which they operate.
Her recent work estimates the effects of lead poisoning on
youth outcomes, evaluates a pay-for-success intervention in
child welfare and homelessness, and includes other impact
analysis in the areas of neighborhood quality, housing
instability and health.
Resume Workshop
Amanda Bryant is the Founder of and Chief Executive
Officer of ABcareerMatch. Formerly known as The Write
Update, ABcareerMatch is widely known for customarily
showing jobseekers how to get what Bryant describes as
“new high-paying jobs,” particularly those who haven’t
searched in over 10 years and don’t know how to tell their
story. Bryant is an Award-Winning Resume Writer who is
constantly approached by Recruiters and Hiring Managers to
work with them on various Executive Resume Writing
projects. She has shown over 20,000 jobseekers over the
past 15 years how to get new jobs.
Internship
Opportunities
Lisa Grisez-Shullick, assistant director of student
experience in Post-Graduate Planning and Experiential
Education, has worked in career services at CWRU for over 7
years. Prior to working in higher education, Lisa worked for
15 years in human resources for several corporations and
also in training roles within the healthcare and education
sectors. She likes to use her experiences from both sides of
the hiring table to guide students in their career pursuits.
Research
Opportunities
Sheila Pedigo, Ph.D. has worked at Case Western Reserve
University since July 2003. Dr. Pedigo began as Director
of Undergraduate Research in the School of Engineering.
In December 2004, Dr Pedigo established SOURCE, the
university's centralized office for undergraduate research.
Prior to working at Case Western Reserve, Dr. Pedigo
worked 13 years at Saint Mary College in Leavenworth,
Kansas where Dr. Pedigo developed the Career Counseling
Center that became Career Services, and later served as
interim Dean of Students then Dean of Students for 4
years. Dr. Pedigo, a first-generation college student, has a
B.A from Belmont University in philosophy and a M.S. in
Counseling and Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Higher
Education from the University of Kansas.
Staying Politically
Informed & Civically
Engaged
Veronica Isabel Dahlberg, Founder and Executive Director of HOLA
Ohio
Veronica was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Mexican and
Hungarian immigrants. She has been an advocate in Northeast
Ohio’s Latino & immigrant community for more than 20 years. She
oversees all programs and operations for HOLA, including a full-time
staff of four, three office locations, and development of the HOLA
Hispanic Community Center, in Painesville, slated to open in 2021.
Under her direction, HOLA Ohio has received multiple honors,
including the Torchlight Prize – a national award recognizing work
that empowers the Latino community – and the Distinguished
Hispanic Ohioan Award from the Ohio Commission on Latino Affairs
under Gov. John Kasich. She received the 2013 Community Advocate
of the Year from the Cleveland Hispanic Roundtable, and a
“Characters Unite” award from NBC Universal. Most recently, Crain’s
Cleveland Business named her a 2019 Woman of Note.
Creating and
Enhancing Your
Linked In
Lisa Hebert is committed to helping individuals discover their greatness as they move
through career transitions. Lisa provides strategic and tactical direction on capability
assessments, résumés, LinkedIn profiles, executive bios, interviewing, and
compensation negotiations. Currently, Lisa works through her company LMH Advisors
in crafting personal brand portfolios and preparing clients for all aspects of the job
search process, from tackling networking to preparing for interviews, evaluating
compensation packages, and potentially negotiating with employers. She utilizes her
certifications as a career transition coach, employment interview professional,
résumé writer, and LinkedIn branding specialist to assist her clients in their career
journey. The foundation of her work is based on her experiences hiring and mentoring
hundreds of people in the corporate sector and working with students as they
prepare for their careers after university. Lisa holds a BSBA from The Ohio State
University and is a Certified Résumé Writer, Certified Employment Interview
Professional, Nationally Certified Online Profile Expert, and a Certified Career
Transition Coach. She is a member of the National Association of Résumé Writers, the
Professional Association of Résumé Writers and an certified Strong Interest Inventory
and DISCstyles administrator.
History of
Immigration Panel
John H. Flores is a Professor of Immigration & Labor
History at Case Western Reserve University, and his
research centers on recovering the lost history of
Mexican immigrant political activism in the United States.
His book, The Mexican Revolution in Chicago, traces the
political activities of immigrants back to Mexico,
Nicaragua, Cuba, and other countries, revealing the Latin
American social movements that created the Mexican
American community of Chicago. To learn more about
Professor Flores' work, you can visit his website at
johnfloresborderless.com.
Chrissy Stonebraker was raised in the legacy industrial city of Youngstown, Ohio.
Chrissy devotes passion for social justice to their union-laborer father and concern
for Latin American solidarity to their mother, who found refuge in the US from
Medellin, Colombia, during the height of the civil war in the 1980s. Chrissy
received a BA in International and Financial Management from Hiram College and
an MA/MEd in Higher Education Administration and Counseling from Kent State
University. While studying at Hiram College, Chrissy helped with the creation of the
501c3 Hiram Farm Living and Learning community for people with autism
spectrum disorders, and co-founded the Olive Branch fair trade store at Hiram
College. At Kent, Chrissy worked in Student Affairs, coordinated experiential
education, civic engagement and service learning trips, taught Student
Development and Leadership courses and served on the staff Sustainability,
Equity and Professional Development committees. Chrissy joined the IRTF staff in
2013. Currently, Chrissy serves as a representative to the United Nations for the
International Fellowship of Reconciliation (iFOR), Co-Moderator of the Disciples
Peace Fellowship (DPF), Co-Chair of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
(FOR/FORUSA), Chair of the Ohio Fair Trade Network (OFTN), on the Council of
School of Americas Watch (SOAW), and as a steering committee member of the
Ohio Poor Peoples Campaign (PPC) and Christian Peacemaker Teams
(ECAP-Colombia, CPT IK-Iraqi Kurdistan).
Graduate/
Professional
School Panels
Mr. Christian Essman is the Senior Director of Admissions & Financial Aid at the
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. Mr.
Essman has served in this role for 15 years and oversees all aspects of the
admissions process including outreach and recruitment activities, application
processing and review, the interview process, and also provides some
pre-medical advising. Mr. Essman frequently represents Case Western
nationwide in a variety of different ways, including at conferences and workshops,
and on admissions panels. He cares about the success of applicants and is very
passionate about providing students with helpful information to make the
medical school application process less mysterious. He is also the creator and
host of a popular podcast for pre-meds called “All Access: Med School
Admissions”. Mr. Essman's background includes experience with organ donation
programs and transplantation recovery as well as education for organ
procurement organizations. When not doing admissions work, Mr. Essman
spends most of his time with his family. He is an avid musician, playing the
drums, learning the guitar, and listening to all kinds of music and podcasts. He
also enjoys exercising, watching sports, and eating chocolate chip cookies.
Felicia Moss, Assistant Director of Enrollment and
Engagement in the School of Graduate Studies at
CWRU, works with applicants from their initial inquiry
all the way through the application process, getting
their files into SIS, and welcoming them to campus.
She also works with BS/MS and IGS students to help
navigate entering those programs. In her office, she is
also responsible for managing the application system
and working with faculty and administrators to
ensure a smooth application process and keep
communication lines open.
Jim Stanton is the Director of Admissions for Case Western
Reserve University School of Law. He has been in the position
for seven years. His main role in the admissions office is to
connect with prospective students to provide information about
the law school to help potential students assess their fit with
the school, programs, and community at Case. Jim also is part of
the admissions committee and will typically review the majority
of the applications Case Western receives. Jim is a proud
alumnus of Clemson University with a B.S. in Business
Management and a minor in legal studies. He is a licensed
attorney in the state of North Carolina where he received his
Juris Doctorate from Elon University. He is always happy to
speak with prospective students and can be reached at
jas505@case.edu.
Dr. Catharine Boothroyd is the Administrative Director of the
Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program and the Director of the
Gateways to the Laboratory Summer Program. She received her
PhD in genetics from The Rockefeller University in 2006. Her
thesis was on circadian rhythms in Drosophila, specifically
studying how temperature can act as a Zeitgeber for the
Drosophila circadian clock. Dr. Boothroyd went on to do
postdoctoral work on targeted gene conversion as a means of
antigenic variation in the parasite Trypanosoma brucei. A
long-standing passion for outreach and education led her to take
the leap from the bench to the classroom in 2011. For seven
years, Dr. Boothroyd taught high school Biology and Chemistry, as
well as founded a small independent research program. In 2018
she returned to academia in her current position at Tri-I, where
her favorite part of the job is working with MD-PhD and
Gateways students.
Dr. Benjamin Levitt is the Data Analytics and
Communications Manager for the Tri-I MD-PhD Program
and the Associate Director of the Gateways to the
Laboratory Summer Program. He earned his PhD in
mathematics from the University of Arizona (studying
arithmetic algebraic geometry) and an MA in Comparative
Literature from the University of Chicago prior to that. Dr.
Levitt has spent the better part of two decades working to
support and further STEM education in various: as an
Associate Professor of Mathematics at Cal State U., Chico;
as the inaugural Chief of Education for the National
Museum of Mathematics in NYC; as an editor for Springer
Nature; and now, in his work with the Tri-I.
Multicultural
Mental Health
Workshop
Adriana Alejandre is a Trauma Psychotherapist and Speaker
from Los Angeles, California. She specializes in adults who
struggle with PTSD and severe traumas at her own private
practice. She has done disaster relief work for Hurricane
Harvey and Las Vegas shooting survivors. Adriana’s expertise
has been featured in LA Times, Telemundo, USA Today, the
New York Times and Buzzfeed. Adriana is the founder of
Latinx Therapy, a national directory of Latinx Therapists and
global, bilingual podcast that provides education to combat
the stigma of mental health in the digital world and through
in-person services. In 2019, she won Hispanizice’s TECLA
award for Best Social Good Content award. Her podcast has
been featured in iTunes’ Top 200, Spotify’s Top 30 Latin
shows and has been heard in 112 countries. Adriana’s
mission is to create spaces to spark dialogue about mental
health struggles and strengths in the Latinx community.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Michele Reid-Vazquez is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Africana Studies at the University of
Pittsburgh where she founded and directs of the Afro-Latin
American and Afro-Latinx Studies Initiative. Her research
and teaching address the history of enslavement and
freedom, race and gender relations, and the politics of
migration and identity in the 19th-century Caribbean and
Latin America, and 20th and 21st-century diasporic
Afro-Latinx populations in the U.S. In addition to numerous
articles and essays, she is the author of The Year of the Lash:
Free People of Color in Cuba and the Nineteenth-Century
Atlantic World (2011). Her second book-in-progress is
entitled Black Mobilities in the Age of Revolution: Comparative
Politics, Migration, and Freedom in the Caribbean. She is
currently conducting research on the history of Caribbean
Latinx communities in the Midwest.