Where are you from?
Santiago, Chile/Miami
What do you do?
I use principles of social justice to empower marginalized people to be their whole, authentic selves. I also guide people of power and privilege to fully integrate marginalized people into the workplace. I’m a scientist, so I operate mostly within science and tech spaces, but my work can be applied to any industry.
What’s your why?
I’m a Latina immigrant who grew up in poverty, so I do not fit the image most people associate with science. In grad school, I was made to feel like I did not belong, an outsider who should be grateful to occupy the same space as my white male peers. My biggest dream was to be an astrophysics professor, but after four years in that toxic environment, I grew to hate my science - a result of my brain associating my negative experiences to my research. I vowed that I would never let that happen to others like me.
Who's your ideal client/customer?
I prefer to work with people of privilege and power who recognize that they are failing their marginalized employees, but do not know where to start. I used to believe I needed to educate the white, privileged people around me about race - an exhausting task with very little reward. At some point I realized that my energy was better spent on the marginalized people who really needed support - and those who influence their work environment.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was younger, there were hardly any images of powerful Latinas in media, so I overly identified with white women in books, movies, and television. Ally McBeal was a popular show in the late 90s, so 9-year-old me wanted to go to Harvard Law School and become a lawyer.
What’s the worst career advice you’ve received?
A very established white female professor at an Ivy League school tried to convince me not to leave astronomy by telling me to just “keep my head down” and “suck it up” because that’s how she had gotten to where she was.
Tell us about a time you’ve had to “make lemonade” in your business.
At the welcome reception for a symposium where I was an invited speaker, a white professor came to me to express his “concern” for his PhD student (a Black woman) and her research progress. The next day, that woman came to me for advice and told me what was really going on: her advisor had been discouraging her for months and was trying to push her out of the program. Her story was so similar to my own that I went back to my hotel and cried in the bathtub for two hours. Then I rewrote my entire talk and gave a searing exposé about how incidents like this had colluded to push me out of astronomy - the first time I ever spoke publicly about my grad school experience. That talk is now my signature presentation for new clients - and the student transferred to a much more supportive PhD program.
What are your favorite apps?
I have so many!
Marco Polo: a video messaging app that helps me keep in touch with friends and mentees
Be Focused Pro: a pomodoro timer app that syncs across devices
Native Land: a map that shows the Indigenous people whose land we occupy so I can give them an acknowledge before each of my speaking engagements
Evernote: only the best note-taking app EVER. It’s search feature even works on images of hand-written notes!
Pocket: a place to keep all the articles I want to read. It has a feature that reads the articles aloud so I can listen while doing chores! I save all the articles from the Sunday Sesh to Pocket as soon as it reaches my inbox.
How can we get in touch with you?
Follow me on Instagram (@scientificamericat, @moveboldly) and Twitter (@jazztronomy).