Remarkable Women of UC Merced

Celebrating 27 Faculty, Staff, and Alumnae

Teenie Matlock

Dr. Matlock is one of the Founding Faculty at UC Merced. She’s currently the McClatchy Chair in Communications and Professor of Cognitive Science, she serves at the Vice Provost for the Faculty, and she is a member of the American Indian Council of Mariposa County. She received her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from UC Santa Cruz.

Sonia Johnston

UC Merced Founding Business Officer/Director of Administrative Operations

Nancy J. Burke

Professor Nancy J. Burke leads the Health Equity Research (HER) group. She is a Professor of Anthropology and Public Health, the founding Chair of Public Health at UC Merced. She is also a faculty member of the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Since 2009 Dr. Burke has conducted collaborative research on chronic disease self-management with colleagues at the Universidad de Ciencias Médicas, Facultad Girón in Havana, Cuba. This has resulted in several chronic disease workshops and the development of curriculum and an area of expertise focused on obesity and overweight, the first of its kind on the island.

Dottie Labbock

UC Merced Founding Controller

Valerie Leppert

Valerie Leppert is a Professor at UC Merced and was a founding faculty member in the School of Engineering. She was also the Founding Director for the SoE Engineering Service Learning Program. She received her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern.

Jane Lawrence

Jane Lawrence was the founding Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at UC Merced. As a young and rising professional on the UC Merced campus, Jane made sure to support others and encourage their professional advancement through development opportunities, exuding a natural ability to connect and be open with people. One of Jane’s last charges before leaving campus was to do a gender equity review of staff in student affairs. She gave others positivity and hope about the change one individual can make in an organization when the focus is people.

Lindsay Desrochers

Founding Vice Chancellor for Administration

Maria Pallavicini

Maria Pallavicini was the first female Dean at UC Merced in 2002 and Founding Dean of the School of Natural Sciences. She came from UCSF and is a persistent advocate for all women and people of color in higher education and STEM in particular. Provost Pallavicini is now the interim President and Provost at the University of the Pacific.

Yuriana Aguilar

The first UC Merced undocumented Ph.D. recipient, Yuriana was an inspiration for many undocumented students to pursue grad school.

Luanna Putney

First Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer. Luanna assumed her role at a time when all of the wide-ranging programs that fall under the CECO, from Title IX, to EEO, to the Office of the LDO, and Ethics and Compliance, lacked any developed program or staffing. When she started she literally had no programmatic support staff. She built these programs from the ground up and now oversees a staff of 13 people. While these programs are still leanly staffed compared to our sister campuses, Luanna has built alliances across campus and achieved a record of compliance that parallels any in the UC system. She has been instrumental in establishing UC Merced as a top-tier institution and has served as a champion for ethical, equitable conduct across campus.

Elisabeth Gunther

UC Merced's first dedicated Chief Campus Counsel, Elisabeth Gunther was integral to working through our early physical development issues related to campus growth and was critical to the success of our 2020 Project. Elisabeth also grew the Office of Legal Affairs to include UC Merced’s first robust records management and public records programs.

Sarah Kurtz

Dr. Kurtz is a Materials Science and Engineering Professor at UC Merced. She was just elected to the National Academy of Engineering for her "contributions to solar photovoltaics - specifically, the high efficiency solar cells used in spacecraft and satellites” (quote from Valerie Leppert). From the NAE: "For contributions to the development of GaInP/GaAs photovoltaic cells and leadership in solar cell reliability and quality”. Sarah is UC Merced’s very first NAE member. Prior to coming to UC Merced, Dr. Kurtz was at the National Renewable Energy Lab. She has a PhD in Chemical Physics from Harvard University.

Dania Matos

Dania Matos is the Inaugural Associate Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer leading on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion and overseeing campus diversity initiatives. Her appointment, which began in July 2019, has been critical in honing a conscious strategy on equity, diversity and inclusion and establishing UC Merced as a leader in the development of transformative equity-minded practitioners. She is building the infrastructure from the ground up and building a strategic plan centered on equity and justice. Matos joined UC Merced from William & Mary, where she served as the inaugural Deputy Chief Diversity Officer. She holds an A.B. from Brown University in International Relations and J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. In 2018, she was recognized as one of the “Top 25 Women in Higher Education and Beyond” by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Matos previously was appointed by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to oversee the Virginia Latino Advisory Board. She currently serves as special advisor to the president and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.

Karen Merritt

Director, Academic Planning & Programs

Janet Young

The first Assistant Chancellor and Chief of staff at UC Merced, Janet Young played a huge role in the early days of the UC Merced campus.

Dorothy Leland

Dr. Leland was Chancellor at UC Merced from 2011-2019. She shepherded the university through a significant growth phase, including the development of the 2020 project, and was a strong advocate for DACA students at UC Merced. Before coming to UC Merced, she was President of Georgia College & State University. She has a PhD in Philosophy from Purdue. Her creativity and leadership in developing and executing the 2020 project turned UC Merced's prospects around.

Karen Akerson

UC Merced Founding Budget Director

Peggy O’Day

The first woman to be promoted from Associate Professor to Full Professor at UC Merced (2005), Peggy O'Day is one of the thirteen founding faculty of UC Merced, as well as the School of Natural Sciences, Environmental Systems Graduate Program, Sierra Nevada Research Institute. She is also the founding lead of the Earth Systems Science undergraduate program (2004-09) and the founding chair of the Academic Senate Graduate Council, Committee on Research (2003/04), and the founding chair of the Life and Environmental Sciences Bylaw 55 Unit (2011-12), which paved the way for the creation of the LES department. She served in key leadership roles during the critical formative years of UC Merced including: Vice-chair (2005-2007) and Chair (2007-2008) of Academic Senate Undergraduate Council (2007/08); Chair, Committee on Promotion and Tenure (2008/09); Chair, Senate Committee on Rules and Elections and Secretary of the Merced Division (2008-2010); Vice-chair (2011-12) and Chair (2012-13) of the Academic Senate; Chair of Life and Environmental Sciences Department (2016-2019).

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe

Prof. Berhe is a world-recognized soil scientist and highly sought out leader and speaker on scientific issues having to do with soil, climate change, and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in higher education. She is a product of the UC system with a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, followed by UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley and UC Davis; before moving to UC Merced as Assistant Professor in Soil Biogeochemistry in 2009. Prof. Berhe is the first black person to be hired for a tenure-track position at UC Merced and was the first black woman to receive tenure and to be promoted to Full Professor. The first black Endowed Chair in UC Merced’s history. Prof. received numerous international awards and recognitions including NSF CAREER award, Bromery Award and Fellow of the Geological Society of America; and was selected to the inaugural class of the New Voices in Science, Engineering, and Medicine by the US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (US NASEM).

Zulema Valdez

Zulema Valdez is the Associate Vice Provost for the Faculty and Professor at UC Merced. Valdez was appointed to such a role at UC Merced in 2018. Professor Valdez holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at UCLA. She is the author of two books, three edited volumes, and dozens of research articles on immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurship, health disparities, and racial and ethnic relations. She has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, and the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UCSD, and grants from the National Institute for Health, NSF/American Sociological Association, the UC Center for New Racial Studies, and many others.

Marjorie Zatz

First woman dean (and first full-time dean) of graduate education at UC Merced. First at UC Merced to be named a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology. First at UC Merced to be named Top 35 Women in Higher Education by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Trudis Heineke

Director, Physical Planning & Budget

Carol Tomlinson Keasey

Carol Tomlinson-Keasey was serving as vice provost for academic initiatives in the University of California Office of the President in 1998 when she was named by then-UC President Richard Atkinson to organize and direct the planning effort for a new UC campus, which had been authorized by the UC Board of Regents in 1988 and sited in Merced in 1995. In 1999, Tomlinson-Keasey was appointed as founding chancellor of UC Merced and she immediately immersed herself in the arduous process of persuading legislators, business and community leaders, educators, interest groups and others that a major, UC-caliber research university in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley would bring lasting benefits to a largely underserved region of the state. She held a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a professor at the university's School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts.

Anne Zanzucchi

The Associate Dean of SSHA and a Teaching Professor, Anne has held, with distinction, a variety of leadership roles at UC Merced and the UC system. Anne has been a significant contributor to UC Merced since the campus opened. She was instrumental in the growth and development of the Merritt Writing Program, the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning (which was the Center for Research on Teaching Excellence when it started). She was integral to establishing assessment on our campus and in turn initial accreditation. She has held multiple leadership positions in the Academic Senate, including the chair of the systemwide Committee on Education Policy, and for which she won the Senate’s Dr. Fred Spiess Distinguished Service to the Senate award. She was specifically asked by her colleagues to chair a graduate group through a very rough time. She is a core part of the fabric of UC Merced – a truly exceptional individual who embodies the best of UC Merced’s founding faculty. Her fingerprints are everywhere on our campus.

Jan Mendenhall

Interim Director, Community Relations

Kathleen Crookham

Former County Supervisor and a long time supporter and advocate for UC Merced. She has been instrumental in the campus’s success.

Rita Spaur

Rita Spaur was the founding Chief of Police at UC Merced in 2005. We believe she is the first woman in the world to start a Police department. She built the department from the ground up, hiring one of the most diverse forces in the system. One of her proudest accomplishments is starting the Police department mentor program which matches UCM students with 5-6th graders in the community. Rita retired at 66 after 10 years as Chief, in 2015.