Coming soon: our 2024 Awardees!
The Chancellor's Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community were established to honor achievements that contribute in substantial ways to the development and well-being of our diverse and evolving community.
The Chancellor's Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community were established to honor achievements that contribute in substantial ways to the development and well-being of our diverse and evolving community.
Now in it's 20th year, the Chancellor's Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community were established to honor achievements that contribute in substantial ways to the development and well-being of our diverse and evolving community.
Emma Tolliver is a fourth-year undergraduate pursuing a B.A. in Political Science - Public Service and English with a minor in Human Rights Studies. As someone who grew up in a predominantly low-income area of the Central Valley, Emma has developed a passion for public service and recognizes how she can work to support and uplift members of her community by increasing accessibility to education, safety, and resources. She acts as the Director of Research for Article 26 Backpack, where she volunteers to reconnect refugee and at-risk students and scholars with high education institutions. Under her tenure as Director of Research, she created a quarterly newsletter that has been curated to include resources, opportunities, and services that refugee and at-risk individuals can access. Over 600 English language examinations and dozens of fellowship and scholarship opportunities have been distributed to scholars across the world because of the newsletter. Emma also leads collaboration efforts with USAID on a project to expand Backpack’s programming to Burma. Additionally, Emma was the campaign founder and director of the #UCDToursReviseNow campaign, which ensured that UC Davis tours meaningfully engage with the Patwin memorials on campus and include a brief history about the Patwin people on campus tours. Emma is also a 2022–23 research fellow for the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, where she studies student activism by evaluating the experiences of student advocates. From her research, she aims to develop a toolkit that will lower the barriers to civic participation by providing student activists tools that can assist them in their advocacy efforts.
Alexus Roberts Hugghis is a 6th year Ph.D. Candidate in Population Biology, working with Dr. Peter Wainwright to examine how major morphological changes impact evolutionary and kinematic patterns in fishes. As a Black woman in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB), Alexus is no stranger to the systemic obstacles faced by historically marginalized students in STEM. Alexus’ experiences have emboldened her to foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in EEB and higher education, more broadly. Alexus has founded and facilitated middle school and undergraduate outreach programs in an effort to broaden access to STEM fields, including STEM Squad and Graduate School Preview. As an educator, she strives to cultivate a learning environment where her students can challenge themselves, collaborate with peers, and feel that their contributions are valued. Alexus has also organized conferences and professional development programming to provide a support network and advancement opportunities to UC Davis students, such as the Diversity in STEM Conference. Recently, Alexus is leveraging her skills as an equity-focused leader, program developer, and educator to serve as the 2022–23 Advisor to the CBS Dean for DEIJ. Here, the Indiana native is working to develop and implement policies and initiatives in the College of Biological Sciences to support equity and inclusion among its students, faculty, and staff. Most notably, she is facilitating the inaugural Graduate DEIJ Leader Fellowship and Network, managing the new DEIJ Initiative Grant, and leading a seminar on systemic bias in bioethics. Upon graduation, Alexus and her husband are moving to Bern, Switzerland where she’ll work as a postdoctoral scholar with Dr. Ole Seehausen to investigate the mechanisms by which biological diversity arises in African Cichlids and lead DEIJ efforts in their EEB community. No matter her role, Alexus aims to continue supporting the academic and professional success of students, especially women and students of color, throughout her future career.
Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu Ph.D. is a Tongan/Pacific Islander: story-teller, scholar and community organizer. Her community work and scholarship are interconnected and they confront the systemic erasure of Oceania: Pacific Islands communities ( Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian) in spaces of power here in California and throughout the U.S. She is on the organizing committee of the Tongan Women Scholars’ Koka’anga: an Indigenous Tongan transnational feminist organization that supports Tongan women and girls in higher education. She collaborated with Pacific Islander students on this campus to create the “Oceania: Pacific Islands Studies Research Working Group” a space for advocacy and learning of Pacific Islander histories, literature and cultures sponsored by the Native American Studies Department. Niumeitolu will start her new post as Assistant Professor of “Oceania: Pacific Islands Studies” in the Dept of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz in Fall 2023.
Zina Austin is a Project Policy Analyst in the Department of Internal Medicine. As a founding member of Internal Medicine’s Inclusion, Diversity, Anti-Racism, and Equity (IDARE) Committee, Zina fully embodies the principle that diversity and inclusion, while two complimentary concepts, are not interchangeable. As part of her mission to bring inclusivity to the forefront of departmental work, she met with staff from each of the 11 Division within Internal Medicine to better understand their DEI priorities. Recognizing that inclusion is about how we integrate and value diversity and the perspective and opinions it brings, Zina sought to bring the benefits of diverse representation to the IDARE Committee by recruiting Divisional staff, allowing the values and voices of staff members to be consistently centered in the Committee’s work. These efforts doubled the committee membership, resulting in a wider range of representation and improved intra-departmental communication and inclusion.
Zina has greatly benefited from the guidance and mentorship of strong women. It’s her sincere hope to bring that same dedication and encouragement to the greater UC Davis community.
Stephany Sanchez, M.D. is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. She was born in Mexico and grew up in the border town of El Paso, Texas. After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology, she moved to San Francisco to join AmeriCorps as a Health Corps fellow working in healthcare for the homeless in the Tenderloin district. She returned to Texas for medical school at UT Southwestern before making her way to UC Davis for residency. She remained on as UC Davis faculty directing a pathway program at the School of Medicine. In her current role as Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency, she has been intentional in recruitment efforts to diversify the workforce and foster an inclusive learning climate. Dr. Sanchez is a faculty advisor for the resident Diversity, Inclusion, Community Engagement (DICE) committee, and has implemented a diversity equity inclusion curriculum, helped facilitate forums on several equity topics, and developed a coaching program. She also serves on the I-DARE (Inclusion, Diversity, Anti Racism, and Equity) taskforce to catalyze department-based initiatives. Dr. Sanchez practices primary care at the Sacramento County Health Center, a federally qualified health center, and is committed to providing the highest quality care to her largely monolingual Spanish speaking patient panel. Additionally, she has an interest in Obesity Medicine and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine.
Brian Soucek is Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Fellow at the School of Law, where he has taught constitutional law, civil procedure, art law, and asylum/refugee law since 2013. In recent years, Dr. Soucek has written and spoken widely about the constitutionality of DEI statements used in faculty hiring and advancement. As chair of the systemwide faculty committee on academic freedom, Dr. Soucek worked with senate and administrative colleagues to revise and improve UC’s own recommendations on the use of DEI statements. Much of his other recent scholarship and advocacy work has been similarly focused on real and perceived collisions between free speech/academic freedom and nondiscrimination/equality values at colleges and universities. In articles and legal briefs, he has taken on free speech challenges to university harassment policies, academic freedom claims by professors who seek to misgender their students, and philosophical claims about slurs. Dr. Soucek served on the committee that drafted APM-011, the University of California’s trailblazing recognition of the academic freedom of non-faculty academic appointees. And he is currently a member of the Presidential Working Group charged with developing a university-wide anti-discrimination policy for the University of California. Dr. Soucek’s earlier scholarship on sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace won a Dukeminier Award from UCLA’s Williams Institute, recognizing the year’s best articles on sexual orientation and gender identity; his work on those issues was cited to and by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bostock v. Clayton County, the case that established federal protections against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Having received a PhD in the philosophy of art before going to law school, Dr. Soucek also writes about ways aesthetic judgment shapes the law and the law shapes our aesthetic lives. He just completed a three-year term as Trustee of the American Society for Aesthetics, and is currently serving on a committee looking at how to further advance and diversity that organization and the field it represents.
Thu recently graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and was selected as the recipient of the College of Biological Sciences Medal. As an immigrant from Vietnam, Thu has always recognized various socioeconomic and cultural barriers that many immigrants face. She specifically developed a strong passion for promoting health equity which was shaped through her 4.5 years of volunteer experience at the Paul Hom Asian Clinic and the Vietnamese Cancer Awareness, Research and Education Society (VN CARES). At these two non-profit medical organizations, Thu serves as the Patient Assistance Program Co-Director. She helps low-income, uninsured and undocumented patients obtain free brand-name medications, generic medications and medical devices used for chronic condition management. These critical medical resources are acquired through several major projects launched under Thu’s leadership that have saved the underserved patients over $500,000 in total since her appointment. Thu’s ultimate mission is to reduce healthcare disparities through drug development. To continue working towards that, she will be attending UCSF to pursue a PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics in September 2022.
Becca Litman is a final-year MBA candidate at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management (GSM), concentrating on strategy and organizational behavior. She is also a healthcare communicator and project manager at Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan, where she focuses on documentation and process improvement projects to empower Customer Experience employees.
During the 2020-2021 academic year, Becca was the student representative on the GSM Faculty Committee on Diversity, where she prioritized projects that promote inclusion and encourage underrepresented minority candidates to pursue their education at the GSM. She was also a leader in the GSM Action for Diversity initiative’s 21-Week Anti-Racism Challenge, which focused on understanding and rejecting anti-Black racism.
Dr. Alexandra Colón-Rodríguez is a neuroscientist postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, where she works with Dr. Rebecca Calisi-Rodríguez. In addition to research, Dr. Colón-Rodríguez is very passionate about science outreach and mentoring. Experiencing first-hand the limitations in research and neuroscience education in Puerto Rico led her to seek opportunities to help increase the exposure of this field while targeting historically marginalized populations like herself. As a result, she has mentored more than 30 scholars in neuroscience research. In addition, she has developed several mentoring and outreach programs, including the Bridge to Neuroscience Workshop to increase exposure to neuroscience for the Hispanic population and the Northern California Society of Toxicology Mentoring Program. Since joining UC Davis, she has been actively involved in science outreach from K-12 to undergraduate students and has done so through in-person and virtual workshops. More recently, she founded the STEAM100X35 initiative, which focuses on amplifying the work of Puerto Rican women in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) and encouraging the next generation through outreach activities. Through her work as a scientist, mentor, and educator, Dr. Colón-Rodríguez hopes to inspire others, especially those from historically marginalized populations, to pursue a career in STEM.
María Blanco is the director of the University of California’s Immigrant Legal Services Center. The first of its kind in the nation, its innovation is to bring immigration services directly to the campuses to ensure retention and graduation of first-generation students. Her primary areas of expertise are employment law, civil rights law and policy, voting rights, education law, and immigration law and policy. With one foot in legal academia and the other in legal practice and policy, she has been at the head of premier legal organizations whose mission is access to justice and advancing constitutional rights for all. She was a lead lawyer in a seminal case that extended Title VII law to undocumented workers in California, and in another employment case, represented the first group of women in history to enter the San Francisco Fire Department. She served as a commissioner on California’s first Independent Redistricting Commission, which produced congressional and legislative maps after the 2010 Census. She was appointed to the education transition team for President Obama in 2009, where she reviewed the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. She serves on the boards of the California Endowment, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Centro Legal de La Raza in Oakland, and until recently, the Public Policy Institute of California. She earned her BA and JD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Carreón is the son of immigrant parents with roots in Guerrero, Mexico. He is a Teacher Educator at the University of California, Davis. His interests include teaching and researching within a decolonial and social justice framework to disrupt how discourses of race, culture, ideology, and power affect BIPOC communities. Current topics include effective teaching practices of Latinx youth; Ethnic Studies; Teacher Education; and Culturally Sustaining practices. Dr. Carreón has over 15 years of experience as an Educator, and is currently dedicated to develop Grow Your Own Teacher programs where local communities can create pathways for students to become teachers. He currently lives in Napa with his life partner Angela and his two daughters, Florentina and Camila.
Dr. Johnson’s research portfolio reflects her commitment to improving the quality of care for underserved children. Her interdisciplinary research program is focused on race and racism and its impact on child health. She is currently exploring root causes of inequities in the healthcare and early childhood education settings, including research on racism and bias and its impact on the health and well-being of children.
Dr. Johnson’s personal background played an influential role in shaping her career trajectory. Her experiences as a student in under-resourced urban public schools served as an early lesson in social inequities and fostered her interest in public policy. As a student at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, she was exposed to the interface of medicine and policy and participated in a fellowship with the New Jersey Department of Health in the Office of Minority and Multicultural Health. She pursued a career in Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) to combine clinical mastery with health services research that creates a platform to help children have equal access to opportunities that allow them to attain the highest quality of health. She completed her PEM fellowship at the University of Pittsburg, where she also received her Master of Science degree in Clinical Research.
Dr. Frederick Meyers is the Director of the Center for Precision Medicine and Data Sciences and professor of internal medicine/hematology-oncology at UC Davis School of Medicine. His service to the University has included 12 years as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine followed by 7 years as Executive Associate Dean and Vice Dean of the UC Davis Medical School. Dr. Meyers currently serves as the president of the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS), a national organization. He was also recently appointed president of CARES, Center for Aids Research Education and Services in Sacramento. In sum, he is a very well-respected internist, oncologist, an expert in precision medicine, and an academician with outstanding records of mentoring and of representing the UC Davis School of Medicine at the national level, publishing frequently on clinical effectiveness research topics.
Hendry Ton, M.D., M.S., is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at UC Davis Health and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. He served as the Director of Education at the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities where he led the development of a training program to help health care leaders make culturally transformational changes at academic, county, and state health organizations. He is also the founding medical director of the Transcultural Wellness Center of Asian Pacific Community Counseling; a community clinic that specializes in serving the mental health needs of Sacramento’s diverse Asian and Pacific Islander communities.
Joel (any pronouns) is a 4th year undergrad double majoring in American Studies and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. They have worked at the LGBTQIA Resource Center for three years, during which she has engaged in extensive advocacy work, programming, and outreach around equity for LGBTQIA folks. He presented to the UC Regents in May 2019, speaking on the experiences of trans and non-binary students and how the UC can provide better support for these communities. Joel also acts as a liaison between the LGBTQIA RC and local non-profit Davis Phoenix Coalition by facilitating an LGBTQ+ Youth Group in Davis.
Jasmin B.T. McInerney is a Ph.D. Candidate in Civil Environmental Engineering. She studies environmental fluid mechanics with autonomous underwater vehicles. Jasmin has served on the UC Davis Society of Women Engineers executive council since she petitioned for the creation of her position of Graduate Student Representative in 2017. Jasmin is also the Secretary for the Society of Water and Environment Graduate Students. In both of these roles, she seeks to build a community of graduate students that is inclusive and supportive to stem the leaky pipeline of women in STEM. Jasmin also participates in outreach, engaging with the wider community, especially girls, promoting STEM. Upon completing her doctoral studies Jasmin wants to continue to use autonomous underwater vehicles to explore polar regions.
Arielle Gire-Dumas grew up along the Sacramento River Delta, in Rio Vista, California. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Southern California. She then obtained her medical degree from the University of California, Davis and subsequently matched into residency here in Obstetrics and Gynecology. As a resident, Arielle has been involved with community outreach and has been instrumental in the creation of the OBGYN department’s first Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Curriculum. She also founded and organized a Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the department, which includes residents, faculty and nursing who focus on cultural humility, drawing attention to the impacts of implicit bias, and promoting a safe and welcoming environment for staff and patients at UCD.
Blake’s pronouns are he/him/his. He is the Sexual Well-Being Health Promotion Specialist at Student Health & Counseling Services (SHCS), and has been in the sexual health field for almost a decade. In his role at SHCS, he founded and chaired the Healthcare Equality Index Workgroup and co-chaired the LGBTQIA+ Task Force (with Jessica Wilson, RD), which were created to improve healthcare access at SHCS for queer and trans students. In 2019, SHCS was named a Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality by Human Rights Campaign; UC Davis was the only UC campus to achieve this status in 2019, and was one of only three college health centers to do so nationally. Blake currently serve as the Chair of the American College Health Association's Sexual Health Promotion and Clinical Care Coalition, which works to improve the sexual health and well-being of college students.
Alecia K. Eugene-Chasten is the Founder and the Chief Executive Officer for the Urban Advocates and Achievers, (UAA) and is recognized for her leadership and innovation in the development of the “Student Achiever Resource Program”, designed for marginalized students to receive an equitable education and prepared for college and 21st Century Career Technical opportunities.
This award recognizes departments for taking the initiative to champion diversity and inclusion across their units by including Diversity Education and other initiatives as part of their organizational and staff development plans.
Emergency Medicine | Nathan Kupperman, Kara Toles
Human Resources | Karmen Fittes, Lyndon Huling, Christine Lovely
Academic Affairs | Phil Kass, Binnie Singh
Information & Technology, UC Davis Health | Charron Andrus, John Cook, Matthew Foster, Daniel Marenco, Sylvie Ngoyi, Johnny Preyer, Clyve Soriano, Stefan Toma
Special Recognition Category
Maisha Winn, Center for Transformative Justice in Education
Lawrence Winn, Center for Transformative Justice in Education
Special Recognition Category
Ralph Hexter, Office of the Chancellor and Provost
Philip Kass, Academic Affairs
Raquel Aldana, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Colleen Clancy, Dept of Physiology and Membrane Biology, School of Med
Cynthia Pickett, Academic Affairs
Binnie Singh, Academic Affairs
Academic Senate
Colleen Clancy, Dept of Physiology and Membrane Biology, School of Med
Academic Federation
Jann Murray-Garcia, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing
Graduate Student
Briana Rocha-Gregg, Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Undergraduate Student
Evan Dumas, Dept of Biotechnology
Staff
Fatima Malik, Center for Reducing Health Disparities
Department Category
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Department of Internal Medicine
Student Farm
Academic Senate |
Dr. Natalia Deeb Sossa, Chicana and Chicano Studies
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Academic Federation |
Dr. Jorge Garcia, Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine
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Graduate Student |
Hung Doan, Plant Pathology
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Postdoctoral Student |
Dr. Lauren Libero, Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Davis MIND Institute
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Undergraduate Student |
Samantha Y. Chiang, ASUCD
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Staff
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Dr. Lina Mendez, Associate Director of the Center for Chicanx and Latinx Academic Student Success Center
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Special Recognition Award |
Barbara Ashby, Manager, Worklife and Wellness
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Community Achievement Award |
Cassandra Jennings, President and CEO, Greater Sacramento Urban League, Sacramento
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Department Recognition
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Academic Senate
Lorena B. Oropeza, Associate Professor, History
Academic Federation
Koen Van Rompay, Professional Researcher, California Nattional Primate Center
Graduate Student
Marisella M. Rodriguez, Political Science
Postdoctoral Student
Alberto L. Aguilera, Nutrition
Staff
Katherine J. Parpana, Academic Counselor, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Honorary Service
David A. Acosta, Associate Vice Chancellor, Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UCDHS
Department Recognition
This award category was added in recognition of departments for taking the initiative to champion diversity and inclusion across their units by including training as part of their organizational and staff development. These efforts are in support of the UC Davis Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, and it is our hope that the campus community will be inspired by these departments’ proactive measures in operationalizing our Principles of Community, and in striving towards a more diverse and inclusive UC Davis.
The departments recognized today have taken a leading role in integrating diversity and inclusion in their staff development. In the last two years, they required their entire department staff to participate in training, which also supported each employee’s development as part of the EPAR process.
These training opportunities began with individuals who ultimately brought about change to their entire departments. After participating in the Office of Campus Community Relations’ annual Diversity Awareness Workshop, these individuals worked with their department leaders and with OCCR to organize a training series on topics including cross-cultural communication, generational differences, conflict management, implicit bias, and living the Principles of Community. Furthermore, these departments and their dedicated staff have remained committed to fostering greater inclusion in the workplace, and OCCR has proudly partnered with them to provide ongoing training opportunities as they continue to prioritize diversity and inclusion in their development.
Today, we recognize these departments, and especially the individuals within them who have led the efforts to champion diversity and inclusion education among their staff and colleagues. We are honored to present each department with the Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity and Community.
Accounting & Financial Services |
Michael Allred, Associate Vice Chancellor Finance Rebecca Hartman, Business Office Administrative Assistant Jennifer Carmichael, Manager |
Shared Services Center |
Sara Reed, Director Megan Glide Villasenor, Operations Manager |
Development & Alumni Relations |
Shaun Keister, Vice Chancellor Kari Woodard, Program Manager Debra R. Coleman, Business Manager |
Academic Senate
Edward Callahan, Associate Dean Academic Personnel, UCDHS: Medical Dean's Office
Academic Federation
Kupiri Ackerman-Barger, Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCDHS: Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing
Graduate Student
Orlando Carreon, Associate-In, Student, Language, Literacy, and Culture, School of Education
Undergraduate Student
Juli Apte, Junior, Services for International Students & Scholars, Global Affairs
Staff
Cara Harwood Theisen, Educational Specialist, Center for Educational Effectiveness
Honorary Service
Griselda Castro, Deputy Director, Office of the Provost
Academic Senate
Tonya Fancher, Physican, UCDHS: Division of General Medicine
Academic Federation
Carol Hom, IGERT/Academic Coordinator, Department of Evolution and Ecology, College of Biological Sciences
Judith Kjelstrom, Director, Biotechnology Program, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Post-doc Fellow
Amandeep Kaur, Fellow, Chancellor & Provost Office
Marcus Tang, AB540 Center, Law School
Graduate Student
Lauren Jabusch, Graduate Student Researcher, Biological & Ag Engineering, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Undergraduate Student
Ana Maciel, Junior, Chicano Studies, College of Letters and Science
Staff
Nathan Ellstrand, Office Coordinator, Cross Cultural Center
Community Member
Sandy Lynne Holman, Business Community, The Culture C.O-O.P. and United in Unity, Davis
Academic Senate
Barbara Horwitz, Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Behavior
Academic Federation
Suzanne Eidson-Ton, M.D., M.S., Family and Community Medicine
Post-doc
Dr. Carolina Balazs, Environmental Justice and Drinking Water in California
Graduate Student
Cristian Heredia, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Undergraduate Student
Kriti Garg, Letters and Science Dean's Office
Staff
Tanya Whitlow, Engineering Dean's Office
Community Member
Georgia West, Underground Books, Sacramento