Closing Historic Equity Gaps

CSUN Launches Global Hispanic Serving Institution Equity Innovation Hub and Advances Opportunities in STEM

CSUN President Erika D. Beck

CSUN’s unwavering commitment to enabling our students’ success continues to light the path toward a brighter and more equitable future. As we begin 2022, and despite every challenge thrown our way, the CSUN community advances with ingenuity, compassion and resilience, leaning into undefined spaces that emerge in service to a better future for our students, their families and the communities we are so very proud to serve.

Our path forward is filled with promise as CSUN launches the Global Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Equity Innovation

Hub — the first of its kind in the nation. Embracing partners in common cause, the HSI Equity Innovation Hub will advance a data-practice-leadership framework to build the infrastructure and programming that inspires and supports Latinx and other historically underrepresented students to realize their potential in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The HSI Equity Innovation Hub will also aim to build a STEM career pipeline from early childhood through higher education. Our ability to retain a competitive edge in advancing innovation in STEM fields depends upon the extent to which we engage the richness of diversity of our communities to lead the future of these critical professions.

Several flagship programs — AIMS2, BUILD PODER and U-RISE — have been advancing diversity in STEM at CSUN for years. They serve as examples of the robust resources that our faculty and staff provide for our students, as they open doors to research, graduate education and careers in STEM for our richly diverse student body.

We are proud to share yet another incredible example of how CSUN alumni are blazing trails and fueling change across our nation. The powerful story of alumnus and photojournalist Julio Cortez ’06 (Journalism) describes his journey to winning the Pulitzer Prize for capturing a watershed moment in America’s reckoning with racial injustice after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.

It has been a privilege to join this dedicated community of learners, educators and proud alumni. I am humbled by the opportunity to lead an institution with such a deep commitment to empowering human potential. We are not just impacting individual lives on campus — we are changing family trees. Thank you for your continued support of our students and our mission.

With gratitude,

Erika D. Beck, Ph.D.
President