2024 – 2025 OSU SACNAS Leadership
President: René Castillo
René’s Email: Castillo.271@osu.edu
René is a 2nd Year PhD Student in the School of Earth Sciences. She studies Marine Geophysics to learn about earthquakes! She just completed her 4th NASA internship this summer. She is originally from San Antonio, TX and enjoys cooking trying a new craft when not doing science or being outdoors!
Vice-President: Felipe Caro Lopez
Felipe’s Email: Carolopez.1@osu.edu
Felipe Alberto Caro Lopez is a dual degree Master’s student in Public Policy and Latin American Studies, currently serving as the Features Editor for Que Pasa? Magazine.
Treasurer: Juana Nallely Segura
Nallely’s Email: segura.32@buckeyemail.osu.edu
Nallely is a biology major on the pre-med track. Overall, her career goal is to become a physician to serve underserved communities like the ones she grew up in. She is currently doing research that focuses on social determinants of health and their correlation to adolescent substance abuse in the Latinx community. She volunteers at the James Cancer Hospital. She is originally from Immokalee, Florida and comes from a migrant farm-working family
Secretary: Lilian Villegas-Hernandez
Lillian’s Email: lilian.villegas-hernandez@osumc.edu
Lilian is a 2nd year undergraduate majoring in Biochemistry and working towards pursuing an MD/PhD program. She conducts glioblastoma research in Goss Lab in the OSUMC Department of Radiation Oncology, volunteers at the James Cancer Center, and is a peer tutor at OSU! She is originally from Anderson, IN, and in her free time, she loves to listen to music, play sports, read, and find new coffee shops.
Graduate Recruitment & Fundraising Chair: Carmi Thompson
Carmi’s Email: thompson.4455@buckeyemail.osu.edu
Carmi is a 3nd year doctoral student in the School of Earth Sciences. Carmi’s research focuses on the intersections between museum collections, paleoecology, and geoscience education. Carmi was born in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and has a strong passion for community building, finding connections between seemingly disparate disciplines, and broadening participation in STEM.
Communications Chair: Luz Gomez
Luz’s Email: gomez.447@buckeyemail.osu.edu
Luz is a 2nd year Engineering Education doctoral student. Luz’s research focuses on the experiences of Diasporic Indigenous students in engineering. Her research interest also includes community-based learning in engineering. Luz was born in raised in Los Angeles but has strong connections to her Zapotec community in San Bartolome Quialana, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Outreach Chair: David Torres
David’s Email: torres.340@buckeyemail.osu.edu
David is a returning, non-traditional student and first-generation Ecuadorian American pursuing dual degrees in Food Science & Technology and Sustainable Agriculture with minors in Human Nutrition and Landscape Architectural Studies. His future academic goals include graduate school for human nutrition research or going directly into an MSTP to become a physician scientist specializing in biogerontology, the study of the biological aging process!
This summer, he was fortunate enough to be selected to be part of the 7th cohort of OSU’s ASPIRE Medical Research Program. He was paired with Dr. Praveen Goday, the Director of the Nutrition and Feeding Programs at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. His work under Dr. Goday includes a systematic review of growth charts for children with genetic disorders as well as conducting a preliminary survey to explore the connections between acculturation levels in immigrant families and the eating behaviors of their first-generation children.
CHAPTER ADVISORS
Dr. Marcela Hernandez is the Administrative Director in the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at The Ohio State University. She received a Bachelor of Science, in Molecular Genetics, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Her scientific training and research in biochemistry and molecular biology focused on control of gene expression at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. Her role is to design and implement programs to enhance retention, and support of postdoctoral scholars including a special focus on those with underrepresented backgrounds. She became a scientist thanks to an excellent Ph.D. mentor who inspired her, trained her, and mentored her. For this reason, she is very passionate about mentoring and is working to help the next generation of STEM professionals navigate successfully to rewarding careers. Dr. Hernandez is also the mother of twin boys, one of whom has learning disabilities, which has made her active in the area of support and advocacy of students with disabilities at the K-12 and college levels. To learn more about Dr. Hernandez’s story go here and for her professional trajectory, go here.
Marcela’s email: hernandez.16@osu.edu
As an Assistant Vice Provost at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Yolanda Zepeda leads targeted services for students of color designed to promote access to college, retention and academic success. Student groups served include underrepresented students, single-parent students, students in STEM, and Latinx students. Yolanda also works to disseminate diversity and inclusion practices across the campus and leads training workshops on inclusive faculty hiring. Ms. Zepeda is committed to nurturing a supportive climate for Latinx students on campus and fostering university engagement in the central Ohio Latinx community. Toward this goal, she manages the production of the student-led magazine ¿Qué Pasa, Ohio State? and launched a partnership with WOSU to support greater visibility of Latinxs in community media.
Yolanda’s email: zepeda.3@osu.edu