Name: Alana de Hinojosa, PhD (she/her)
Affiliation: Texas State University
Role: Co-Chair (2025-2027)
Dr. Alana de Hinojosa is an Assistant Professor of History at Texas State University. She holds a PhD in Chicana/o Studies from UCLA. Prior to joining TXST, Alana was a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the School of Transborder Studies at ASU. Alana’s research is concerned with histories of displacement, diaspora, and refusal, and what these have to do with the Río Grande. Her current book project focuses on the Chamizal Land Dispute and the landmark Chamizal Treaty of 1964.
Name: Carla Macal, PhD (she/her)
Affiliation: Occidental College
Role: Co-Chair (2026-2028)
Dr. Carla Macal is an interdisciplinary anti-colonial feminist scholar dedicated to community- engaged research addressing the intersections between state violence and intergenerational healing. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Theory and Social Justice at Occidental College. Her book-in-progress, Healing Cartographies: GuateMaya Feminists Weaving Transformative Memory across the Hemisphere, follows the oral and embodied testimonies of Guatemalan and Maya women survivors of the 36-year (1960-1996) War.
Name: Elybeth Sofia Alcantar
Affiliation: University of Texas at Austin
Role: Secretary and Treasurer (2026-2028)
Elybeth Sofia Alcantar is an PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography & the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin and a Pre-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of American Indian & Indigenous Studies at Michigan State University. Elybeth’s affiliation is to the pueblo Mixteco of Yucu Nduchi, Oaxaca, Mexico. As a feminist geographer and political ecologist, Elybeth’s research center’s Indigenous planning efforts rooted in Mixteco politics to refuse forced displacement from the Mixteca Oaxaqueña.
Name: Flavia Maria Lake, PhD
Affiliation: De Anza College
Role: Activity Director (2025-2027)
Dr. Flavia Maria Lake is a Latina first-generation college graduate from a working-class family. Her research is on the connections between identity, power, and the built environment in cities; specifically, how immigrants navigate gentrification and preserve cultural institutions. She earned her PhD in Geography from University of California, Los Angeles and is an Assistant Professor of Geography at De Anza College.
Name: Laura Torres-Vargas
Affiliation: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Role: Activity Director (2025-2027)
Laura Torres-Vargas is a PhD candidate in Geography and Environmental Systems from UMBC. She also holds degreed in Social Sciences from UGC, with a Specialization in Education, Culture and Politics from UNAD. Her research looks at the migratory movement of Venezuelan women, from Venezuela to different countries in the continent.
Name: Jimena Perez
Affiliation: University of California at Berkeley
Role: Activity Director (2025-2027)
Jimena Perez is a Geography PhD candidate at UC Berkeley. Her dissertation explores the L.A. River as a site of memory, resistance, and repair. Rather than centering loss, her ethnographic research highlights the visions and practices of residents across L.A. County who challenge dominant planning narratives and reimagine infrastructure.
Name: Yadira Silva Rios
Affiliation: University of Rhode Island
Role: Activity Director (2025-2027)
Yadira Silva Rios is a PhD candidate in Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rhode Island, with a specialization in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. She also holds an MS in Sustainable Food Systems and an MBA in Sustainability Leadership from Prescott College. Her research interests are in racial capitalism, multigenerational knowledge systems, and livelihood strategies within rural communities in Southern Ecuador.
Name: Luis Trujillo, PhD
Affiliation: California State University San Bernardino
Role: Activity Director (2026-2028)
Dr. Luis Angel Trujillo is a Lecturer of Ethnic Studies at California State University San Bernardino. Dr. Trujillo received his PhD from the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California Riverside. His research focuses on the geographies of anti-displacement urbanism in Northeast Los Angeles.
