People
McNair Scholars Program Staff
Melvin Oliver
Melvin Oliver is the Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prior to coming to UCSB, he was Vice President of the Asset Building and Community Development Program at the Ford Foundation. This program helped to build human, social, economic, environmental, and interpersonal assets among poor and disadvantaged individuals and communities throughout the world. From 1978 to 1996, Dr. Oliver, an expert on racial and urban inequality and poverty, was a member of the faculty at UCLA, where he was named the California Professor of the Year for his “extraordinary dedication to teaching and commitment to students.” Dr. Oliver is the author (with Thomas M. Shapiro) of Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality (Tenth Anniversary Edition, published 2008), which has received awards from the American Sociological Association and the Society for the Study of Social Problems, as well as 4 co-edited volumes and over 50 scholarly publications. Dr. Oliver received his BA at William Penn College and his MA and PhD at Washington University, St. Louis. He serves on the Board of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. and is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Division of Behavioral and Social Science and Education at the National Research Council and the National Poverty Center, University of Michigan.
Beth Schneider
Beth Schneider is the Director of the McNair Scholars Program and Professor of Sociology at UCSB. She is affiliated faculty in the Department of Feminist Studies. Her primary research areas include sexuality and gender studies, political and social movements, and health. Her books include The Social Context of AIDS (with Joan Huber), Women Resisting AIDS: Feminist Strategies of Empowerment (with Nancy Stoller), and The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (with Peter Nardi). She is the lead author of the UCSB report on campus climate for LGBTQ students, staff and faculty. Dr. Schneider served for ten years on the Editorial Board of the international journal Sexualities, for four years as the Editor of Gender & Society, one of the top five journals in gender and women’s studies, and is currently chair of the Sexualities Section of the American Sociological Association. In addition to her work with McNair, Dr. Schneider is the Co-Principal Investigator for NSF grant “Diversity Initiative for Graduate Study in the Social Sciences”. In the local community, she is the President of the Board of the Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee.
Monique Limón
Monique Limón, Assistant Director of the McNair Scholars Program, holds a MA in Education from Columbia University and a BA from UC-Berkeley. She came to the McNair Scholars Program after serving as the Director of Diversity, Recruitment, and Retention for the UCSB Graduate Division, where she engaged in long-range planning in support of diversity, outreach, recruitment and retention efforts for all graduate departments on campus. Prior to Ms. Limón’s work at UCSB, she served as the Student Program Advisor for California Student Opportunity and Access Program (CAL-SOAP) at Santa Barbara City College. She has a strong record of involvement in the university and the local Santa Barbara community, currently serving as a Santa Barbara School Districts Trustee. Previously Ms. Limón served on the Board of Directors of Hermanas Unidas Inc., New Beginnings Counseling Center, Adelante Charter School, as a Commissioner of the Santa Barbara County Commission for Women, and as a Katherine Harvey Fellow of the Santa Barbara Foundation.
Micaela Morgan
Micaela Morgan, Program Coordinator of the McNair Scholars Program, holds a MA in Chemistry from UC Santa Barbara and a BS from UC Santa Cruz. She came to the McNair Scholars Program after completing graduate school. Previously, Ms. Morgan had served for a time as the Program Coordinator for UC Santa Cruz’s ACCESS Program, which is a Baccalaureate bridge to the biomedical sciences for community college students transferring to the university, and as the Administrative Coordinator for the Crews Research Group. Ms. Morgan has been a Teaching Assistant at UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College. As an undergraduate she was a SURF intern and ACCESS fellow. Her passion is helping student’s achieve their academic goals.
Ellen Broidy 
Ellen Broidy, Writing Consultant, holds a PhD in U.S. History from UC Irvine and an MA in Library Science from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining McNair, Dr. Broidy was the head of the Collections, Research and Instructional Services Department at UCLA's Young Research Library. In addition to her McNair responsibilities, she also teaches a graduate course in Women's Studies at UCLA and provides editorial and research services as well as dissertation coaching.
Graduate Mentors
Todd Raymond Avellar
Todd Raymond Avellar is a counseling MA/PhD student in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at UCSB. Todd is a 2010 UCSB McNair Scholar alumni where he graduated with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Applied Psychology. Todd strives to develop and apply mental health services for underserved sexual and ethnic minorities through community based participatory research and clinical work. Todd serves as a Teaching Assistant and guest lecturer both in his own department and in the Department of Feminist Studies.
Nichole Garcia
Nichole Garcia is a MA/PhD student in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at UCSB. She received her BA in a self-created major entitled Gendered-Ethnic studies at the University of Utah in 2010. As a McNair alum, Nichole, conducted research in regards to how non-bilingual Chicanas/Latinas negotiate their ethnic/culture identities while navigating through institutions of higher education. Her research interests include Chicana feminist epistemologies and pedagogies, Critical Race Theory in education, and language and identity formations. Nichole serves as a Teaching Assistant for Chicana feminism and Chicana/o culture.
Carlos Jimenez
Carlos Jimenez is a PhD student in the Department of Film and Media Studies at UCSB. He received his BA in Radio, Television & Film at DePaul University in 2009. Through the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) he conducted research at the Ohio State University on the use of humor in Chicano films, and through a grant from DePaul University he studied abroad in Beijing, China focusing on underground filmmaking. His research interests include ethnic humor in contemporary American Cinema, media objects in the Latino sphere, and Latinos during the silent era. He has served as a Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Film Industry, Media Criticism, Magic Lantern, Early Sound Cinema and also Silent Cinema for his department.