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.

Marizel Dávila Figueroa, Research Consultant
E-Mail: davilam1@msu.edu
Dr. Dávila Figueroa's areas of research interest include minorities in the United States, culture and diversity, cultural competency particularly as it relates to minorities, community program development, hegemony and its effects on the agency of disenfranchised and marginalized populations, health, disenfranchised populations, social capital, and the capabilities approach. Dr. Dávila Figueroa is from Puerto Rico. She graduated from Purdue University where she earned two bachelor's degrees, one in hospitality management and the other in sociology with a focus on law and society. She earned both her master's degree in leisure studies and her Ph.D. in recreation, sports, and tourism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is involved with several community organizations including the Lansing Latino Health Alliance and the Capital Area Health Alliance.

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.

Dilshani Sarathchandra, Faculty
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.

Ricardo Borromeo, Student Employee
Ricardo Borromeo is a sophomore at MSU majoring in humanities prelaw. He participates in the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) Scholars Initiative, which provides support services to students of migrant and seasonal farm worker families. He also works as a departmental aide for JSRI, where he is learning about the challenges facing Latino communities, including immigrants and migrants. Born in Veracruz, Mexico, and raised in the U.S., Ricardo has experienced both Mexican and American cultures, and is bilingual and bicultural. He began working in a chicken processing plant to help support his family at the age of eighteen and has seen firsthand the discrimination and abuse experienced by Latino workers in that industry. Growing up, he also witnessed the many hardships Latino immigrants encounter when coming to, or trying to remain in, the U.S. Ricardo ultimately hopes to obtain a law degree so that he can help address the forms of individual and institutional discrimination suffered by minorities in this country. Last spring he participated in the Alternative Spring Break Program, traveling to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where he helped paint the houses of the poor and provided other forms of assistance. He plans to participate in the program this coming spring as a site leader.