Principal Investigator
XingonaDirtScience Lab @ University of San Diego
Claudia Christine E. Avila, Ph.D.
I’m am an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Ocean Sciences at the University of San Diego. I received my PhD in Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Riverside and did a postdoc at the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford. I am originally from Fontana, CA (FoHi alum) and a proud chicana. As a daughter of an avid gardener and granddaughter to farmers, my love for soils comes from my family but my love for science came much later in life. I went to Riverside Community College primarily because they were the only CC with a marching band. At RCC, however, is where I discovered my love of science and bridged the connection between science and the environment. At RCC, I was an active member and president of the Student Sustainability Collective which is the student group that founded the RCC Urban Farm (*where I later got married!). I transferred to UC Riverside and worked as an undergraduate research assistant in Botany and later received my bachelors in Environmental Sciences. Continuing at UCR for my Ph.D, I investigated the mechanisms responsible for sequestering carbon in agricultural soils as management decisions shift due to climate change. I partnered with community farmers in the Riverside area that are particularly concerned with intense drought conditions, many of which were community partnerships I developed as a community college student. During the latter part of graduate school, I became a mom and an adjunct instructor at my alma mater, RCC, and at Cal State San Marcos teaching Environmental Sciences & Studies. As a fellow of the inaugural cohort of the Stanford Earth Postdoctoral Fellowship, I joined the Fendorf group to investigate wildfire-driven transformations of inorganic contaminants in soils. I am now a new professor at the University of San Diego. Outside of academia, I am a proud mama to my son Adolfo Valentín and pet parent to Rafa (dog) and Padme (cat). I love reading dystopian novels and my favorite place to be is the skate park or the roller rink (my roller derby name is Toxic Shock).
Soy profesor de Ciencias Ambientales y Oceánicas en la Universidad de San Diego. Recibí mi doctorado en Ciencias Ambientales en la Universidad de California, Riverside y hice un postdoctorado en la Escuela Doerr de Sostenibilidad en Stanford. Soy de Fontana, California y una chicana orgullosa. Mi madre siempre le he gustado estar en su jardín (o en el rancho en Zacatecas] y con ella empezó mi amor por suelo. Fui al colegio de Riverside Community College, donde estreché mi interés por el medio ambiente y ayudé a crear el Jardín Comunitario de RCC como presidenta del Colectivo de Sostenibilidad de Estudiantes.. Luego fui a la Universidad de California en Riverside donde trabaje en ciencias botanicas y recibí mi licenciatura en Ciencias Ambientales. Durante los seis años de mi doctorado trabaje con colegas increíbles (estudiantes universitarios, graduados, agricultores y profesorxs) y me diverti mucho aprendiendo nuevos técnicas y puntos de vista para encontrar soluciones de las problemas ambientales y aprender de el carbono de suelo y como avisar sociedad en el manejo de este recurso natural. Afuera de ser estudiante, fui profesora de Ciencias Ambientales y Biologia en el colegio de RCC y tambien es Estudios Ambientales en Cal State San Marcos. Y ahora soy nueva profesora en la Universidad de San Diego. Fuera de la academia, soy un orgulloso madre de mi hijo Adolfo Valentín y de mis mascotas Rafa Caro Quintero-Avila (perro) y Padme (gata). Me encanta leer, soy super fan de Star Wars , y casi siempre puedes encontrarme adolorida por mi obsesión con patinar. Invitame a patinar y pistear!
