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Project Team
John Rawlins III
John W. Rawlins III (pronouns: He/Him/His) is a Student Affairs professional with more than 15 years of experience as an administrator and advocate for students, more specifically students of color. He is a Campus Diversity Officer and Director of the UC San Diego Black Resource Center. John was the Director of CSUSM’s Black Student Center at CSUSM from 2019-2022. John also served CSUSM as the Special Assistant to the Chief Diversity Officer in the Office of Inclusive Excellence, as well as the Vice President of the Black Faculty & Staff Association. John is a native of the Washington, DC Metropolitan area and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and his Master of Arts from The Johns Hopkins University. John's passion to support students of color began during his undergraduate career, where he served in many leadership roles in student organizations and campus advisory boards. John’s celebrated career has allowed him to make great impact at Ithaca College, The Johns Hopkins University, and the Corporate Headquarters of his fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. before joining the CSUSM family in 2019. John serves as the 16th and current President of the Cornell Black Alumni Association and on several Cornell alumni boards. John is also an established and noted recording artist in the Gospel music industry and has performed on national and international stages alike with major names in music such as Jazz great Wynton Marsalis and Gospel legend Kirk Franklin.
Shanelle Watkins
Shanelle Watkins serves as the Assistant Director at the Black Student Center. Prior to this role, she was the Coordinator of Black Student Success Initiatives at California State University, San Marcos. As a first-generation college student, Shanelle is very passionate about ensuring that underrepresented students are given access to successfully complete college while maintaining a healthy student life cycle during their college career. A native San Diegan, Shanelle was born and raised in the southeastern region of San Diego and earned her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from California State University San Marcos and her master’s degree in Higher Education Leadership from the University of San Diego. Recently, Shanelle has started the incredible journey to earn her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from the University of California, San Diego. Shanelle’s goal is to become an administrator in the realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the postsecondary education field. With over 10 years of experience in the educational field, Shanelle has played an instrumental role in creating and executing a wide range of programs to enhance the confidence and leadership skills of Black students at the high school, community college, and four-year university levels. Shanelle enjoys reading, spending time with her family, and performing community service work through her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Shanelle has a nine-year-old son who will someday carry on the legacy that she is building.
Jake Northington
Jake Northington is a Lecturer in the College of Science and the Assistant Coordinator for the Black Achievement Success & Engagement in Science (B.A.S.E.S.) Scholars at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton in Spring 2022 with a Master's in Higher Education and from California State University, San Marcos in 2019 with a Bachelor's of Art in Visual & Performing Arts with a concentration in Arts & Technology. While working on his bachelor's, he also attained a minor in Ethnic Studies and a minor in Women's Studies. He transferred to CSUSM in 2016 after graduating from Palomar College. Jake is a military veteran of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and once his service ended, he decided to pursue his passion for higher education. He is an avid digital artist and photographer and used these gifts to support many entities at the university. During his time at CSUSM he infused his love for education and social change with his artistic expression. While in undergrad, he sat on many event panels, created student clubs, actively participated in student government, participated in recruitment and outreach, created and co-created dozens of student events, showed his work in multiple art shows, served as a tutor, and produced (3) photo books to help address social issues on campus, promote inclusion and diversity, and to increase recruitment and retention of Black students. The books are located in the CSUSM Library’s Archives and Special Collections. All of his work on campus over the years led to his developing the idea for this Black Student Center project and he is elated to see it come to fruition. He is grateful to everyone involved.
Dr. Renzo Lara
Dr. Renzo Lara was born in San Diego, California and raised in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. At the age of 10, he moved with his mother to the United States and has called Chula Vista, California his home. Dr. Lara’s upbringing between the international border of Mexico and United States provided life experiences related to transborder identities. Additionally, Dr. Lara is a first-generation college student and has overcome societal as well collegial barriers. Dr. Lara’s cultural upbringing and life experiences has led to his passion which lies in assisting Latin@/x students and family members achieve holistic success. Dr. Lara has over twelve years of experience in: educational programming, event planning, research and assessment, inclusive excellence curriculum design, multicultural community work and higher education collaborative partnership building. Dr. Lara is currently the Director of the Latinx Resource Center at San Diego State University.
Jennifer Ho
Jennifer Ho is the Communities and Cultures Archivist at California State University San Marcos. Her work focuses on minoritized people in archival collections and in the archives profession.
Sean Visintainer
Sean Visintainer (he/him) has been working in special collections librarianship for ten years, and is currently the head of Special Collections at the California State University San Marcos University Library. Sean believes strongly that collaborative efforts such as post-custodial collecting and community archives are a foundational undertaking for libraries, archives, and museums in order to create better contextualization and representation of their constituent communities.
Student Interviewers
Ayana Ford
Ayana Ford is graduated from CSUSM in 2023 with a degree in psychology. She is currently enrolled in the Masters of Counseling Program at San Diego State University. She is from Moreno Valley, California. She loves animals and considers herself a dog person. She is a proud plant mom with about 25 plants. She enjoys learning about black history and culture on campus. Most days you can find Ayana reading a book or listening to a vinyl record. Her favorite color is yellow, and she enjoys traveling and sampling various coffees around the world. Her goal is to become a psychologist and work in communities that lack access to quality mental health care.
Sierra Jenkins
Sierra Jenkins graduated with a History M.A. from CSUSM and is currently running an oral history project at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. She is from Los Angeles, where she earned her bachelor's degree in history at Cal State Northridge. She loves to read fantasy novels and frequent museums. Her favorite part of working on this project was being able to learn about the people who were integral to establishing the Black Student Center (BSC). Because of Covid, at the time of the project Jenkins had yet to go on campus or get to know the faculty or students outside of her program, so she appreciated being able to talk to those central to the BSC.
Sylvia Ramirez
Sylvia Ramirez was born and raised in San Diego. She received her BA in History from California State University San Marcos in 2018 and is currently continuing her education in the MA History program at CSUSM. Public history has become an area of interest for her over the years. She is most interested in libraries, artifact preservation, and diversifying the field of history through broadening the representation of historical sources and perspectives within archives. Because of these interests, she has also decided to pursue a Master of Library and Information Science to gain more knowledge of libraries and archives. She is currently employed as the digital archivist at Rancho Santa Fe Historical Society. Aside from school and work, she enjoys cats, books, pesto, hiking and paranormal podcasts.
Student Workers and Interns
Ernest Cisneros
Ernest Cisneros is a 4th year student at CSUSM studying Social Sciences with a primary field of United States History and secondary fields of Communication and Political Science. Ernest was a student worker for the University Library's Special Collections Department from 2020-2022. Ernest is also on the Board of Directors of the CSUSM Associated Students Inc., as a College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral & Social Sciences Representative, representing over 10,000 students of the university.
Lynda Vernia
Lynda Vernia is graduate of CSUSM, earning a BA in History with a minor in Global Studies in 2000. Currently, Lynda is a PhD student in History at UC Riverside, focusing on British Imperialism in the 19th century. Lynda’s research centers on Britain's post-abolition period and the continuing connections to forced labor in the United States, West Africa, and Asia, as well as the long-term legacies of these connections to our current day society.
Quincy Dash
Quincy Dash graduated with a degree in Business Administration from CSUSM in 2020. Quincy served as president of the Black Student Union (BSU) during his academic journey, and was a student assistant at the Black Student Center and the University Library's Special Collections department.
Library Technology and Library Outreach
Amanda Dalgleish
Amanda Dalgleish is the Web Developer and User Experience Specialist at California State University San Marcos Library. Coming to CSUSM in 2015, she has focused her efforts on the front-end development of the various library content management systems.
Ian Chan
Ian Chan (retired) served as Head of Library Technology Initiatives and Development at California State University San Marcos (CSUSM). Ian has lead project teams in the implementation of a variety of web-based applications including ArchivesSpace, Omeka, WordPress networks, Confluence, JIRA, Hyrax, and Alma.
Jamie Higgins
As the Library’s Public Affairs and Communications Specialist, Jamie Higgins is responsible for photography, graphic design, and marketing library services, programs, and events. Jamie has worked for CSUSM since November 2019. She has a master’s degree from California State University, Long Beach in Public Arts Administration. Her professional interests include using storytelling and marketing to increase student engagement and learning.
