Julian Samora Research Institute

Current Staff

Rubén Martinez, Director
E-Mail: mart1097@msu.edu
Dr. Rubén O. Martinez became Director of the Julían Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University on Sept. 1, 2007. He is a nationally known scholar with expertise in the areas of higher education, race and ethnic relations, and diversity leadership. His areas of specialization include leadership and institutional change, education and ethnic minorities, youth development, and environmental justice. He was formerly Professor of Public Administration at the University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA), where he also served as Director of the Center for Policy Studies.

Dr. Martinez has published and lectured widely in the areas of leadership, organizational transformation, race and ethnic relations, education of ethnic minorities, and environmental justice. In 1993, he and Adalberto Aguirre, Jr., published a monograph entitled Chicanos in Higher Education. Their most recent work is a monograph titled "Diversity Leadership in Higher Education."

Dr. Martinez previously worked as a consultant on multiple community projects sponsored by, among others, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Ford Foundation, Pfitzer Foundation, Anne E. Casey Foundation, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. He has also served on higher education accreditation teams and has visited several institutions across the country on accreditation site visits. At UTSA he implemented and coordinated the Hispanic Leadership Program in Agriculture and Natural Resources, a pioneering leadership program involving the U.S. Forest Service, the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, and Texas A&M University System.

In 1997-1998, he served as President of the Western Social Science Association. During 1994-95, he served as an American Council of Education Fellow, studying issues in higher education and serving as an administrative intern in the Office of the President at the University of Southern Colorado.

Dr. Martinez has held a full-time faculty appointment since 1984, and has also been a senior academic administrator, department chairperson, director of two research institutes, director of a learning center, graduate coordinator, faculty sponsor of several student organizations, including La Despedida, Alpha Lambda Delta, MEChA, the Sociology Club, and the Alpha Kappa Delta Honors Society chapter, Zeta of Colorado. He also has served as president of faculty governance organizations, chairperson or member of several student success and advocacy committees, a member of the University of Colorado Faculty Senate, vice-chair of the University of Colorado Faculty Council, chairperson and member of the CU and UCCS Minority Affairs Committee, member of the CU Mission 2000 and Faculty Futures Review Committee, member of the executive board of the Western Social Science Association, member of the site coordinating committee of the National Association for Chicano Studies, and member of the Race Relations Committee of the Pacific Sociological Association. In the community, he has worked with several high schools to develop multicultural learning environments, and has served as chairperson and member of the Colorado Springs Human Relations Commission, member of the Colorado Springs JTPA-Private Industry Council, member of the 4th Judicial District's Diversity Task Force, and member of the Colorado Judicial Advisory Council to the Chief Justice and Administrator of the Colorado Court System. Until recently, he served on the Resource Advisory Board of Kelly USA in San Antonio.

Sharonda Chaney, Departmental Aide
E-Mail: chaneys3@msu.edu
Sharonda Chaney is a freshman at Michigan State University majoring in social work. She serves as a departmental aide for the JSRI, working on multiple projects for the division. Originally from Flint, Michigan she relocated to Bay City to complete high school while living with her adoptive parents. Chaney now resides in Flint with her biological family.

William Escalante, Research Assistant
E-Mail: escalant@msu.edu
Mr. Escalante is a third year doctoral student in the Sociology Department at Michigan State University. His current work examines Día de Los Muertos celebrations in the Midwest region of the United States, addressing the question of how human beings reaffirm their cultural identity in new geographic locations. Conceptually, Mr. Escalante is interested in culture, religion, migration, race, and ethnicity in the United States and México.

Anita Garza, Staff
E-Mail: garzaa@msu.edu
Anita Garza is JSRI's Office Manager. She coordinates the day-to-day activities of JSRI, handles financial and clerical responsibilities, and supervises the department's undergraduate workforce. She and her two sons live in Lansing.

Dennis Hampton Jr., Staff
E-Mail: hampto46@msu.edu
Dennis Hampton Jr. serves as JSRI's office manager. He works on website/publication development and oversees all of the supervisory, human resources and budgetary processes in coordination with the Institute's director. Hampton is a graduate of Michigan State University with a B.A. in advertising.

Dr. Pilar Horner, Faculty
E-Mail: phorner@msu.edu
Dr. Pilar Horner holds a joint appointment with the School of Social Work and JSRI. Her areas of specialization include neighborhoods effects, substance use and misuse, history of social welfare policy, and organizations. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan Joint Social Work and Sociology program.

Jean Kayitsinga, Visiting Scholar
E-Mail: jean.kayitsing@ssc.msu.edu
Dr. Jean Kayitsinga is a sociologist demographer for JSRI. He received his Ph.D. in sociology at Michigan State University in 1999. His areas of specialization include rural sociology, sociology of families, demography, research methods, and statistical methodologies.

Christian Ramirez, Research Assistant
Christian Ramirez is a doctoral student with the Chicano/Latino studies program in the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University. His research interests center on the intersection of race, ethnicity and identity. More specifically, his interests are concerned with the emerging ‘new majority’ comprised by people of color in the U.S. and how Mexican descendants challenge the historical binary analysis of White and Black.

Dilshani Sarathchandra, Research Assistant
E-Mail: sarathch@msu.edu
Dilshani Sarathchandra is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University (MSU). Her areas of interest are science and technology studies and risk communication. She obtained her B.S. in plant biotechnology from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and her M.A. in sociology from Michigan State University. She worked as an information coordinator at the Biotechnology Education and Information Center (BEIC), University of Colombo, in partnership with the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotechnology Application (ISAAA). Currently she is a program manager in MSU's World Technology Access Program (WorldTAP) and offers an annual international short course in science and technology communication for local and international visiting scholars and professionals.

Dr. Daniel Velez Ortiz, Faculty
E-Mail: velezda@msu.edu
Dr. Daniel Vélez Ortiz is an Assistant Professor at MSU with a joint appointment in the JSRI and the School of Social Work. His areas of research are in mental health services, community service integration, Latino older adults, and organizational factors. He is from Puerto Rico and has been in the Midwest since he left the island to study at Purdue University where he earned an A.S. in Organizational Leadership and a B.A. in Psychology. He earned an M.S.W. and a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.