Dean Jon Gould, far right, congratulates LEAD awardees, from left, Carlo Chunga Pizarro, Eloy Ortiz Oakley and Carolina Valdivia.
Carolina Valdivia, Carlo Chunga Pizarro and Eloy Ortiz Oakley honored
An immigration scholar who illuminates the hidden labor of sanctuary-seeking families, a policy researcher connecting disaster vulnerability to undocumented communities and a higher education trailblazer who has shaped equity-driven learning across California and beyond have been recognized with Latine Excellence and Achievement Awards Dinner (LEAD) honors.
The UC Irvine School of Social Ecology faculty member, Carolina Valdivia, Ph.D. candidate Carlo Chunga Pizarro and alumnus Eloy Ortiz Oakley were celebrated last week among the honorees at UCI’s 9th annual Latine Excellence and Achievement Awards Dinner (LEAD).
Championing the next generation
Carolina Valdivia, assistant professor of criminology, law and society, took home the Outstanding Emerging Faculty Mentorship Award, recognizing her dedication to guiding graduate students alongside her acclaimed research. Her book, Sanctuary Making: Immigrant Families Reshaping Geographies of Deportability, offers a gripping look at how immigration enforcement has crept into the spaces of everyday life — grocery stores, hospitals, neighborhood streets, and family homes — and how young adults quietly shoulder the emotional and material burden of protecting their loved ones. A Harvard-trained scholar and former UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, Valdivia brings rigor and deep human empathy to her work, qualities that clearly extend to her role as a mentor.
Changing how America responds to disasters
Carlo Chunga Pizarro, a Ph.D. candidate in urban planning and public policy, received the Graduate Student Excellence Award, and a well-deserved $1,000 prize. Born in Piura, Peru, and raised in Texas, Chunga Pizarro dedicates his doctoral work to a question with urgent real-world stakes: when disaster strikes, are undocumented communities left behind? His dissertation argues that the answer is too often yes, and that sanctuary policies may hold the key to building more resilient, equitable systems of disaster preparedness and recovery. That research doesn't stay in the classroom. Chunga Pizarro has partnered with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the UndocuFund Network, and the Orange County Rapid Response Network, and has mentored undocumented undergraduates through UCI's Dream Center. He also served as Undocumented Student Engagement Chair for Associated Graduate Students, fighting to make those voices heard on campus. He cites his late father Jorge Chunga and his mother Pilar Pizarro as his greatest inspiration for pursuing a Ph.D.
Reshaping higher education
Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who is credited for expanding access to higher education in California, received the Outstanding Alumni Leadership Award. Now president and CEO of the College Futures Foundation, the state's leading philanthropic force for post-secondary success, Oakley previously led the California Community Colleges as chancellor for six years, steering the nation's largest and most diverse higher education system. He went on to advise the Biden Administration as a Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, helping shape the Build Back Better agenda for higher education. A 2016 White House Champion of Change, Oakley serves on the UCI Board of Trustees and is a Regent Emeritus of the University of California Board of Regents. After serving in the U.S. Oakley enrolled at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, then transferred to UCI, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental analysis & design in 1996 and his MBA in 1999.
“Carolina, Carlo and Eloy embody what social ecology is all about — bringing rigorous scholarship and an unwavering commitment to justice to bear on the challenges facing real families and communities, and we couldn't be more proud,” said Jon Gould, dean of the School of Social Ecology.
The Latine Excellence and Achievement Awards Dinner was the vision of UCI Education Ph.D. graduate Verónica Ahumada Newhart, who believed it was time to formally celebrate the accomplishments of UCI's Latine/x community. Now in its 9th year, the annual dinner honors faculty, graduate students, staff, and alumni who champion student success and research excellence in the Hispanic/Latine/x community at UCI and across Orange County.
— Mimi Ko Cruz