MALCS Executive and Coordinating Committees officer election

Each spring, MALCSistas are invited to nominate or self-nominate for a position on the MALCS Executive and Coordinating Committees. Candidates must be active MALCS members. Nomination packets include:

• Application form with contact information;
• 50-word statement detailing engagement with the MALCS organization;
• 100-word statement articulating interest in and qualifications for the desired position; 
• 100-word bio; and
• Headshot. 

Nomination windows typically open in March and close in May. Ballots are circulated six to eight weeks before the Summer Institute, with results announced during the Summer Institute. Terms begin July 31, with the on-boarding meetings often scheduled in August. 

Executive Committee

Chair-Elect (three-year term) 

• Have a minimum three previous years of MALCS participation;
• Support Chairperson in the implementation of policies and procedures of the organization;
• Assume duties of Chairperson in their absence;
• Consult with Webjefa and Communications Committee to make recommendations on editorial policy, publishing, and functionality of MALCS digital presence;
• Solicit perspectives from MALCS Committee members;
• Submit a midyear and an annual report;
• Assume duties of chair in year two and ex-oficio chair in year three.

Secretary (two-year term)

• Keep minutes of all regular and special meetings of the Executive Committee, Coordinating Committee, and National Membership Meeting;
• Manage internal MALCS communication;
• Distribute minutes to the Executive Committee and the membership within 30 days after adjournment of each meeting;
• In collaboration with the Chairperson, prepare agenda for all meetings;
• Compile, organize, and deliver all documents to Administrative Coordinator and to the MALCS archives at UCLAServe as liaison between Coordinating Committee and chapters;
• Collect and keep contact information on chapters, caucuses, officers, and awards;
• Serve as a liaison between the Executive Committee and chapters;
• Keep the chair informed of current chapter contact information;
• Support At-Large Representatives in chapter development; 
• Submit mid-year and annual report.

Treasurer (three-year term)

• In collaboration with the Administrative Coordinator, regularly review, report, and reconcile financial documents and statements for the organization; 
• In consultation with the Administrative Coordinator, advise and consult with the Executive Committee regarding budgetary constraints, financial policy, audits, development strategies and activities; 
• Make recommendations on all routine and non-routine financial matters; 
• Review any items or requests with financial implications made to the organization; 
• Serve on the Summer Institute Program Committee; 
• In the absence of Chairperson, Chairperson-Elect, and Ex-Officio, the Treasurer will facilitate meetings; 
• Submit mid-year and annual report.

Membership Coordinator (two-year term)

• Approve memberships, verify membership status for all elected and appointed positions, and handle membership inquiries;
• Conduct a yearly membership check before the Summer Institute;
• Make recommendations for improved organization management and membership recruitment and management;
• Serve on Summer Institute Program Committee and Communications Committee;
• Assist with Chicana/Latina Studies journal mailing list; 
• Submit mid-year and annual report to the Secretary. 

Coordinating Committee

At-Large Representatives (two-year term)

• Attend the Summer Institute;
• Attend meetings of the Coordinating Committee;
• Identify pertinent topics in relation to their special interest and regions;
• Prepare, report, and submit midyear and annual reports to Secretary;
• Submit announcements and items of interests for the MALCS website or social media;
• Serve as liaison between Coordinating Committee and chapters;
• Help develop local chapters;
• Mentor incoming at-­‐large representatives in duties; and
• Keep the chair and secretary informed of current chapter contact information.

Caucus Representative (two year-term)

MALCS has five caucuses: Graduate, Undergraduate, Afro Latinx, Women’s Indigenous Native, and LBTQ. Each caucus elects its own representative in a caucus-specific election, often held during the Summer Institute. Caucus members interested in serving in this position should attend the respective caucus meetings held during the Summer Institute to express their interest and learn the details of that year’s election process.   

Questions about the nomination and election process can be directed to gro.sclamobfsctd-7e42c1@sanacihc. 

Meet the candidates for the 2026-2027 Executive and Coordinating Committees:

Natalia Deeb-Sossa | Running for Chair-Elect

Dr. Carolina Arango-Vargas (Syracuse University, 2018) is a feminist anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department at the University of Texas, San Antonio. Her research focuses on political agency, violence, and feminist activism among women’s organizations in Colombia, with an emphasis on feminismos populares and a broader interest in Latin America and the Global South transnational feminisms. As a postdoctoral fellow with the Democratizing Racial Justice project (2021-2024), she collaborated with Ethnic Studies scholars and Chicanx/Latinx activists to co-create place-based, decolonial, and feminist pedagogies through initiatives like the Peoples’ Academy and the Ethnic Studies Educator Academy, and co-organized the Decolonizing Education workshop. She co-authored a publication in the Ethnic Studies Pedagogies journal and is currently working on her book manuscript Agency, Violence, and Subjectivity Among Popular Women and Feminist Organizations in Antioquia, Colombia, with the University of Alabama Press.

Lorena González identifies as a Xicana with lineage from the P’ureh’pecha people of Michoacán, México. Lorena’s lived experiences of growing up in San Francisco’s Tenderloin and Mission District and her 20+ years as a Danzante Guerrera in the Méxica tradition have been at the center of and informed her 27+ years as a community college educator and scholar activist for decolonial equity, racial and social justice.  Currently, Lorena is a tenured faculty member in Counseling and La Raza Studies at Contra Costa College in Unceded Lands of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and the Confederate Villages of Lisjan  (aka as San Pablo, CA).  Lorena received double Bachelors’ Degrees from UC Berkeley in Psychology and Chicano Studies with a minor in Education as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology from Notre Dame da Namur University. Most recently, Lorena earned two post-graduate certificates in Student Affairs in Higher Education Administration from UC Berkeley Extension (2021); Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University (2022); a 2024 recipient of Culture Clash 40th Anniversary Golden Jalapeño Award and is a current member of La Onda Bajita/Brown Table Discussions Crew.

Karen Roybal is director of the Hulbert Center for Southwest Studies and an associate professor of Southwest Studies at Colorado College. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with specializations in Southwest Studies, Archival Studies, Chicanx and Latinx literature and history, and Cultural Studies. Roybal authored Archives of Dispossession: Recovering the Testimonios of Mexican American Herederas, 1848-1960 (University of North Carolina Press, 2017) and co-edited New Transnational Chicanx Perspectives on Ana Castillo (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021). Her current book project extends her research on nineteenth-century dispossession enabled through settler colonial structures to address continued cycles of spatial/physical displacement of marginalized communities.

Esther Díaz Martín is an assistant professor in Latin American and Latino Studies and Gender and Women Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago and author of Radiophonic Feminisms: Latina Voices in the Digital Age of Broadcasting (2025). She is a co-principal investigator in the Latinx Sound Cultures workgroup (soundinglatinx.com) and contributor to the Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative. At UIC, she develops a digital humanities project (latinxsoundmap.com) mapping Chicago’s Latinx soundscapes with her undergraduate students. Her recent article in Aztlán titled, “Schizophonic Corrido Soundscapes” listens closely to the intersection of gender, legacies of colonial violence, and emerging forms of sonic resistance in contemporary corridos. Her forthcoming chapter in the Melissa Castillo-Garsow’s edited volume ¿Y Yo También? Latinas Respond to #MeToo (2026) centers the sound of feminist rage as heard in Latina podcasts. She has been a member of MALCS since 2014 and recently re-activated the UIC/Chicago chapter. 

Lupe Escobar is Assistant Professor of English and of Gender, Race, and Identity at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research is situated at the intersection of Latin American and Latinx literary studies, visual culture, and human rights, with a focus on decolonial feminisms. She is the author of Decolonial Witnessing: Cold War Afterlives in Latin American and Latinx Testimonios (University of Texas Press, 2026). 

Carolyn González is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Chicanx Literatures at California State University, Monterey Bay. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles in Hispanic Languages and Literatures. Prior to joining CSUMB, she was an Assistant Professor of Spanish at The College of Idaho. She is a mother to a teen daughter, a cuddly chihuahua and two temperamental house bunnies. 

Dr. Mixchel Angela Domingues (they/her) is a multiracial-white Chicana. Her main focus is leadership in bridging early childhood ecology, culture and learning. Other areas of interest include Reggio Emilia approach, (re)materialism, inclusive identity studies, critical mixed race studies, Chicana studies and critical feminist post humanism. Her work supports early childhood educators to critically examine and resist historically constructed, normative views of multiracial children, their families, schools, and communities. They are currently germinating REMEDIO, a creative reuse cultural education center at CSU Fresno. 

Bianca N. Haro-Villa, PhD, a Chicana feminist educator-scholar-activist, is the daughter of immigrant parents from Guadalajara, Jalisco. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her research, grounded in Chicana/Latina feminist theories and methodologies, is informed by the lived experiences of her brothers, and focuses on educational inequity, race and gender, and the school-prison nexus. Bianca’s commitment to research is paired with a dedication to organizing with and for community. She is currently collaborating with Gente Organizada, a community-led social action nonprofit organization in Pomona, California, as a researcher and board member. Bianca’s agenda is a lifelong commitment to centering the voices of youth who are often overlooked in research, policy, practice, and social justice efforts.

Pau Nava (they/them) is a Chicana feminist public humanities artist-scholar focused on Latine visual culture and QTBIPOC self-publishing practices in the Midwest. They earned a PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan and are a postdoctoral research fellow for the International Center for the Arts of the Americas. As a community archivist, they have contributed to digital humanities projects including Chicana por mi raza and Mexican American Art since 1848. They are an alumnus of the Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program and Newberry Library seminar ‘The Archive: Theory, Form, and Practice’. They are a zine artist and spoken word poet who runs the DIY publishing project Venadito Press. Their zines have been exhibited at festivals such as New York Feminist Zine Fest, Midwest Queer & Trans Zine Fest, and other national gatherings. Their zines are held in collections including the Barnard Zine Library and Trumbullplex Zine Library.