Poly’s inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Dr. Michaela Mares-Tamayo ’99

We are excited to announce that Dr. Michaela Mares-Tamayo, ’99, has accepted our offer to serve as Poly’s inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion beginning July 1, 2021.
We are excited to announce that Dr. Michaela Mares-Tamayo, ’99, has accepted our offer to serve as Poly’s inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion beginning July 1, 2021. Michaela is currently the Director of Student Equity at Pasadena City College where her work is focused on student equity initiatives, support programs, and efforts to close equity gaps. Michaela was the first to hold this position at PCC and has worked hard to bring cohesion across the college on behalf of over 27,000 students. Read more...

Early in her career, Michaela was a long-term sub in the Pasadena Unified School District and has continued to teach as she moved into other administrative roles in higher education. She currently teaches a First-Year Seminar at PCC and is a Visiting Scholar at UCLA’s Center for Critical Race Studies. Additionally, she has been a lecturer at UCLA and Cal State-LA in several subject areas, including Mexican-Americans in School, urban education, class, race, ethnicity, and gender. 

After graduating from Poly, Michaela earned a BA in Ethnic Studies and Chicano Studies from University of California-Berkeley. She later received a Master of Arts in Mexican-American Studies from Cal State-LA before earning a Ph.D. from UCLA.

We thank the Search Advisory Committee: Nishat Alikhan, Gretel Barsotti, Ann Diederich, José Melgoza, Eddie Pickett, and Sarah Wolf. Their dedicated work allowed us to conduct a thorough and thoughtful search that engaged various Poly community groups in the midst of unique challenges during this year.

We look forward to Michaela’s leadership to advance Poly’s DEI efforts and priorities. Please join us in welcoming Michaela and her family (back) to Poly!
Back