Women making history

"I was fortunate to have family members with a background in education to serve as role models."

Adriana Briscoe, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, is one of a mere handful of U.S.-born Mexican American scientists in her field. Nationwide, only about 7 percent of STEM workers are Latino.

In 1965, Briscoe’s mother was the sole Spanish-surnamed woman from San Bernardino County, the largest county in the U.S., to graduate from UC Riverside. She became a bilingual teacher who ensured that Briscoe was well-educated. She would take her daughter to the San Bernardino County Museum in the summer, piquing her interest in fossils.

“As a Latina, I was fortunate to have family members with a background in education to serve as role models. Many other Mexican Americans growing up in Colton – which has a school district with 85 percent Hispanic students – were not so privileged,” Briscoe says. “My mother and grandmother both attended Colton High School before me and, like many of its current students, struggled with food insecurity, a challenge that leads some to drop out before graduating.”

Briscoe has never forgotten the influence that her mother and grandmother – also a teacher and the daughter of Mexican immigrants – had on her scientific ambitions. A graduate of Harvard University (Ph.D. in biology) and Stanford University (M.A. and B.A. in philosophy and B.S. in biological sciences), she has gone on to not only produce exhaustive and prolific research on the evolution of butterflies, but also serve as a role model for Latinas interested in STEM. Briscoe’s work has earned her the 2020 University Faculty Award from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education and the 2018 Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science.

"I needed to find others with similar goals, to build teams to strengthen medical education and health systems, and to target efforts where they had a chance to make long-lasting impacts."

When Dr. Cynthia Haq accepted the assignment to train village health workers in Uganda to prevent and manage common illnesses, she could not have predicted the challenges she would soon face. Upon arrival at the Kasangati Health Centre, reality struck. She was the only doctor caring for a rural population of about half a million people. The country was recovering from a brutal civil war, and the health center had not had a full-time physician in over a decade. In a community ravaged by malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, resources such as electricity, running water, medical supplies and drugs were scarce.

Conditions virtually never seen in U.S. children often took the lives of toddlers – 1 out of 3 Ugandan children died before the age of 5. When Haq could not save a 2-year-old from measles pneumonia, a disease that could have easily been prevented with immunization, she resolved to tackle the problem at its very root. Medical care was necessary but not enough.

“If I wanted to make a difference, I needed to look beyond individual patients to design and lead educational programs; to cultivate skills to influence systems of medical education; to recruit, train and retain motivated family physicians and other health professionals where they are needed most; and to raise my voice as an advocate for justice in healthcare,” Haq says. “I needed to find others with similar goals, to build teams to strengthen medical education and health systems, and to target efforts where they had a chance to make long-lasting impacts.”

Her early experiences abroad transformed her career as a family physician. Haq spent the next phase of her career as a doctor-educator in Wisconsin, working with local leaders to promote community health, in addition to seeing patients “from womb to tomb.” She launched health programs in Pakistan, Uganda and Ethiopia – with the help of the World Health Organization and governmental and nongovernmental agencies – and eventually became founding director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Global Health. Currently, Haq chairs and is a clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine at UCI’s School of Medicine, where she oversees medical education and primary healthcare programs to train family physicians to serve in communities near and far.

“When you see that your patients are in critical situations... something inside of you takes over. Your strength and will to continue for them is very amazing. You become their beacon of hope.”

Vianh Hoang, a senior in nursing science, grew up admiring her mother’s commitment to caregiving. A certified nursing assistant who works primarily with hospice patients, Hoang’s mother would often come home and share news of losing cherished people.

“Even though it was so sad, she was still very passionate about it, and that made me wonder: ‘How does she get that feeling from doing that?’ Even when it was heartbreaking, she found so much joy in it,” Hoang recalls. Her own experiences as a patient gave her an understanding of what it was like to be on the other end of the dynamic. When she was 12, a serious infection put Hoang under the 24/7 supervision of nurses who made her feel as if she wasn’t missing out on her childhood, who made the traumatizing event easier to bear.

Now, as a nursing student, Hoang is quite aware of what makes nurses and aides like her mother so special: “When you see that your patients are in critical situations, yes, you feel sad, but something inside of you takes over. Your strength and will to continue for them is very amazing. You become their beacon of hope.”

Hoang has been serving in hospitals around Orange County since she was in middle school. She currently works at West Anaheim Medical Center and volunteers at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Last year, she won the Orange County Community Foundation’s Jennie V. and Marie Cook Scholarship, which awards $5,000 to an engineering, science or health sciences student with a strong history of community service.

The aspiring family nurse practitioner also admires caregivers like her aunt, who selflessly looks after Hoang’s 98-year-old grandmother as she struggles with memory loss. To support people in such difficult circumstances, Hoang has been conducting research in the lab of Jung-Ah Lee, an associate professor of nursing at UCI. There, she explores ways to both improve Alzheimer’s and dementia treatments for the growing population of seniors and reduce stress and depression among those assisting them.

"For me, paying it forward is willing to be vulnerable, to share my fear and discomfort, with the intention of helping other underrepresented individuals take a leap of faith to advance and know that they’ll be supported."

At the core of Paula Smith’s love for sports is a love for forming relationships. Born into a military family that had to move around the world, she played sports anywhere she could, even if there was a language barrier, and made friends. She bowled with her family and also participated in softball, basketball and volleyball.

Although Smith was not recruited to play for a college team, she did not let go of her passion for connecting with others, which she continued to pursue as a marketing major at New Mexico State University. While an undergraduate, Smith worked in the athletics department through a work-study program, and after graduation, she got an internship with the Big West Conference office through an NCAA grant for minorities and women in sports.

Her career quickly took off: Smith rose from compliance intern to director of compliance to assistant commissioner. She was the associate athletics director at UC Riverside from 2001 to 2006 and spent 14 years amassing experience in athletics administration at UCI. And last year, Smith was named director of UCI Athletics – becoming one of just 40 female Division I athletics directors nationally and only the second at UCI.

In her new role, she combines her people skills and appreciation for physical education to produce the best and brightest student-athletes. Recognizing that the NCAA grant opened up opportunities for her that were not available before, Smith tries to do the same for others through leadership and mentorship.

“Accepting and understanding the responsibility of having a seat at the table to influence policies and decisions is key,” she says. “In my own journey, there were times when I delayed advancing my career for fear of failure or not being comfortable saying ‘I’m not sure I’m ready’ and asking for support.

“This is something women do but rarely acknowledge. But men and women have supported and encouraged me countless times. For me, paying it forward is willing to be vulnerable, to share my fear and discomfort, with the intention of helping other underrepresented individuals take a leap of faith to advance and know that they’ll be supported.”