Kristine (Tina) Garza, PhD Position: Secretary Current Term: 2008 – 2010 Website: http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=7708

Committee Chair: Nominations Committee, Student Presentations Committee, Student Programs Committee
Committee Member: Executive Committee, Program Committee

Institution: University of Texas El Paso
Department: Biological Sciences
Position: Associate Professor
Field: Immunology
Specialization: T Cell – APC Interactions

Tina is a third generation U.S. born ‘Chicana’ and is from El Paso, Texas. As a freshman student at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, TX, she was advised by a professor to consider science as a career. He convinced her to apply for an undergraduate summer research training program to which she was accepted. Tina spent the summer between her freshman and sophomore year (1988) at the University of California at Irvine through the auspices of The National Chicano Council for Higher Education (NCCHE). Particularly significant that year, she became a member of SACNAS and attended her first SACNAS conference. Inspired by her research and SACNAS experience, she returned to St. Mary’s seeking other research opportunities. She was accepted into the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program, conducting her thesis at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, in the field of molecular immunology. She spent the summer between her junior and senior year at the University of Colorado at Boulder conducting research in cell biology. As a result of these experiences, Tina’s research interests have remained in cellular immunology.

Tina graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in 1991 with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. Before graduating, she was presented with the National Science Foundation Science Achievement Award. Tina then matriculated into the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. She spent six years in Virginia, claiming to have loved and hated graduate school at the same time. She states that it was extremely difficult to be away from family, friends, and culture but she loved the work she was doing. She was supported by the National Science Foundation Minority Predoctoral Fellowship and the National Institutes of Health MARC Predoctoral Fellowship. In 1997, Tina obtained her doctorate in Microbiology, specializing in Immunology. She then left the country to conduct her postdoctoral studies at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and was supported by the National Science Foundation through the NSF-NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. She attended SACNAS conferences off and on throughout graduate school and her postdoctoral fellowship, when funding and time allowed. She says that SACNAS allowed her to remain grounded in her cultural identity while excelling in her science and empowered her to triumph over another year.

Tina then returned home to El Paso in 2000 to join the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas El Paso . Her research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that lead to the initiation and progression of adaptive immune responses, with emphasis on the effect of external factors such as leptin, nicotine, and nanocarbon particles on dendritic cell and macrophage function and their ultimate impact on immunity. Her work is supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. In addition to maintaining a full lab of graduate and undergraduate students as a means of mentoring students, Tina also holds several leadership positions locally and nationally that contribute to the strength of research mentoring including: Program Director of The UTEP Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates in Molecular and Cellular Biology , Program Director of The Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Program , Faculty Advisor to the Paso del Norte SACNAS Student Chapter, membership in the Biology Research Experience for Undergraduates Leadership Council Steering Committee (established by the Biology Directorate of the National Science Foundation), membership on the National Institutes of Health Minority Programs Review, and member and chair of several SACNAS student-based committees. Tina attributes her past for her current success and interests: “I have been exceedingly fortunate to have had the exceptional guidance of dedicated and caring mentors as well as the love and support of my family. Their personal involvement in my education contributed greatly to my advancement as a scientist. I know, from personal experience, the obstacles a minority student must overcome and I know of the importance of exceptional mentoring. As a result, I have always wanted to become involved in minority science education. Working at UTEP and with SACNAS has been a tremendous opportunity to give back. I am grateful to all my students and colleagues for making my professional life such a wonderful and meaningful experience.”

To contact the SACNAS Board of Directors email: info@sacnas.org (please include “Board of Directors” in the subject line). For information regarding participation in the leadership of the organization, future SACNAS elections, and nominations procedures, see the elections page.