NEW FACES

Abigail Cardona is a Freshman at
Michigan State University and is
interested in Business Finance. She
was born in Lansing but relocated to
Texas and after High school she knew
she wanted to go back to Michigan State
University to do her undergraduate
studies. At only 3 years old, she was
already marching the steps of the Lansing
capital for Hispanic rights; she is not new
to helping raise awareness! For her 15th birthday she created
a fundraiser in lieu of birthday presents, where she collected
toys for Mayan children. While on her birthday cruise her and
her guests delivered these toys to Yucatan Mexico. Every year
since then, she is proud to keep fundraising to help get more
toys to Mayan villages. Abigail is looking forward to going to
Europe and Mexico next year so she can continue to learn about
different ways of life and hopes to find inspiration during her
travel on where to start another toy fundraiser. After graduation
she hopes to continue to travel and start her own business.

SEND OFFS

Jennifer Padilla, student Clerical
assistant, graduated with a Bachelors
in Interdisciplinary Studies and a
Minor in Chicano Latino Studies and
second minor in Theater. Padilla
hopes to work as a paralegal focusing
specifically on immigration issues.
For now, she is focusing on expanding
her lash business “Isashe”. She is
proud to be one of the few Latinas
in Flint, MI to operate a business. Through her business
packaging she spreads her culture and religion. Jennifer
worked at JSRI from October 2021 through July 2022.

SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

Ereisa G. Morales is a first-generation
student from Washington state. In 2019,
she graduated from Eastern Washington
University with a Bachelor of Arts in
Criminal Justice & Sociology. Upon
graduating, Ereisa moved across the
country to pursue a PhD in Sociology at
Michigan State University. Throughout
her academic journey she has identified
three phenomena of interest: race and
ethnicity, substance use, and family.

Ana Lucrecia Rivera is a Mexican-
American Ph.D. Candidate in the
Department of Geography, Environment,
and Spatial Sciences, a member of the
Global Health and Medical Geography
Laboratory, and a recipient of the
Michigan State University Enrichment
Fellowship. She is studying to become
a health and medical geographer,
utilizing geospatial technologies
to analyze climate-social interactions in urban settings,
specifically, how extreme heat weather events impact health
and how these effects vary by demographic, socioeconomic,
and institutional issues. Ana has collaborated with various
research teams, including the NASA-Health and Air Quality
Applied Science (HAQAST) Team, the Mexican Government,
UC Berkeley, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Robin Morales, the working-class son
of two Havana immigrants, was born
in Lansing, Michigan and is currently a
junior in the teacher preparation program
at Michigan State University with a major
in social science education and a minor
in Chicano/Latino Studies. Having had no
Latino teachers in his own K-12 education,
and in reflecting on the countless ways
that Chicano/Latino students can benefit
from representation in the teaching profession, Robin was
motivated to pursue public school education and aspires to teach
future generations of students about Chicano/Latino history
and activism as praxis for their own educational liberation.

NEW JSRI AFFILIATES

Linda C. Halgunseth joined the
Department of Human Development
and Family Studies (HDFS) at Michigan
State University (MSU) as an associate
professor in 2022. Professor Halgunseth
held a joint appointment in HDFS and
El Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean,
and Latin American Studies at the
University of Connecticut (UConn)
from 2012-2022 where she also served
as the Director of Academic Affairs at UConn Hartford. Her
research focuses on parenting and children’s well-being in
Latinx, African American, and Asian American families. She
is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Research on Adolescence
(JRA), and Lead Editor for JRA’s special issue, Truth is on the
Side of the Oppressed: Oppressive Systems Affecting BIPOC youth.
Dr. Halgunseth is Past Chair of the Latinx Caucus of the Society
for Research in Child Development (SRCD), a member of the SRCD Ethnic Racial Issues Committee, and a co-organizer of
the SRCD Special Topics Meeting, Construction of the “Other”:
Development, Consequences, and Applied Implications of
Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism (Puerto Rico). She
received two Early Career Awards: one in teaching from
American Association of University Professors (AAUP),
and one in research from the SRCD Latinx Caucus.
Professor Halgunseth has worked closely with the Latinx
community by serving on the Boards of the Connecticut
Community Foundation and Madre Latina Inc. in Waterbury,
CT; and by creating youth programs with Centro Latino de Salud
Educación y Cultura in Columbia, MO. She also served as a faculty
advisor for the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) at
the University of Connecticut. One of the reasons she joined MSU
is because of the opportunity for strong academic and community
collaborations that support and highlight Latinx families.

Dr. Celeste Campos-Castillo is
currently an Associate Professor in
the Department of Sociology at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Her research examines how new
information and communication
technologies may widen or narrow
existing inequalities, with outcomes
dependent on how well the design and
implementation addresses digital divides
and privacy concerns. The technologies
she examines include social media, telehealth, patient portals,
and electronic health records. The inequalities she examines
are those along ethnoracial lines and gender, and she studies
different age groups, but has a particular focus on high school
aged adolescents. She is a methodologist and uses a range of
research methods, including experiments, surveys, archives,
interviews, and focus groups. Her research appears in academic
journals such as Annual Review of Sociology, Health Affairs, Journal
of Adolescent Health, Journal of the American Medical Informatics,
Journal of Medical Internet Research, Journals of Gerontology, and
Sociological Theory. Her research has received funding from Meta
Research, National Endowment for the Arts, National Science
Foundation, and Technology and Adolescent Mental Wellness
program. In addition, she has received several professional
accolades and most recently received the 2022 Early Career
Award from the Midwest Sociological Society. She received a PhD
in Sociology from the University of Iowa in 2012 and from 2012
to 2014 she was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Institute
for Security, Technology, and Society at Dartmouth College.
In January 2023, she will join the faculty in the Department
of Media and Information at Michigan State University.