SRS Leadership Team

Dr. Maruth Figueroa serves as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Retention and Success at UC San Diego. In this role, Dr. Figueroa provides leadership to this cluster, creating a culture of success for UC San Diego's students through educational opportunities that are strengths based, invested in community building, and foster equitable educational experiences for students.

Dr. Figueroa has over fifteen years of experience in higher education in a variety of institution types, supporting student retention for historically underrepresented students, closing the opportunity gap and increasing graduation rates. Most recently, Dr. Figueroa served as the Interim Associate Vice President for Retention, Academic Advising, and Learning at California State University, Dominguez Hills. In this role, Dr. Figueroa was responsible for student retention and graduation, academic advising and support programs, peer coaching, first-year and transfer experience. During her tenure at CSUDH she provided leadership and direction that contributed to many accomplishments, including improved retention rates, improved six-year and four-year graduation rates, decreased degree deferrals, and decreased DFW rates for bottleneck courses. All of this success was made possible through inter-divisional collaborations and inter-institutional partnerships.

A first-generation college graduate, Dr. Figueroa is committed to collaborations and partnerships that put students first. Her research interests include access and equity for underserved student populations, AB 540/undocumented/DACAmented students, leadership and spirituality development on college campuses. Dr. Figueroa earned her B.S. in Business Administration, Marketing and Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Higher Education Administration from the University of Southern California and her M.A. in Communications from California State University, Fullerton. She is a member of National Association for Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), and the College Reading & Readiness Association (CRLA).

Dr. Maricela Alvarado serves as the Director of Online Student Experience (OSE). She has over 18 years of experience in higher education in various Student Affairs areas including Student Conduct, Upward Bound, Educational Opportunity Program, Summer Bridge, Student Life, and Fraternity and Sorority Life. She has developed and led college initiatives related to student success, specifically in the areas of improving advising, retention, graduation rates, and closing the achievement gap of underrepresented students. She is a first-generation college graduate, having earned a bachelor’s degree in human services with a mental health emphasis from California State University, Fullerton, and a master’s degree in public policy and administration from California State University, Long Beach. She earned a doctorate in Higher Education Leadership at Azusa Pacific University (APU), where she was the inaugural recipient of the Presidential Fellowship. Maricela’s research centers on issues of equity, transformational practices, and becoming a student-ready practitioner.

David Artis, Ph.D., Dean of Undergraduate Research Advancement, came to the Undergraduate Research Hub (URH) in November 2000, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. There he had served as a faculty member, graduate school administrator and Director of Academic Services in the School of Public Health. At UC San Diego, he has overseen steady growth in the number of URH programs and services, including coordinating more scholarship opportunities for students in all fields, increased participation in URH-sponsored undergraduate research conferences, and more collaborative program efforts with other campus units. Dr. Artis is a graduate of Yale and Stanford.

Christina Medina-Ramirez, Ph.D. serves as the Director for the Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS). She has over 10 years of experience in developing and leading programs that support the success of students from entry into college through transitions into graduate school. Her career at Hunter College of the City University of New York included roles as the Principal Investigator of an NSF-HSI Institutional Transformation Grant (Project FRESH: First-year Retention & Equity in STEM at Hunter), Inaugural Director of the Skirball Science Learning Center and Professional Development Coordinator of the NIH-NIGMS RISE Program. Dr. Medina-Ramirez is a Brooklyn, NY native and a first-generation college graduate who received a B.S. in Biology from St. Francis College and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her professional mission is dedicated to promoting equity, inclusion and social justice in higher education and this commitment has been recognized by awards including the Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Diversity Fellowship, the AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award and selection to the Linton-Poodry SACNAS Leadership Institute.

Juanita serves as the Director for Student Success Programs (SSP). She has over 20 years of experience working in higher education in the areas of student life, leadership development, multicultural education, new student orientation, family services, first year experience, and academic advisement. She is a PhD candidate in Higher Education/Student Affairs at the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University (CGU). Juanita’s scholarship and practice is informed by being the first women in her family to pursue postsecondary education. This experience has also been vital for fostering her interest and advocacy around issues of access and equity in both curricular and co-curricular contexts and their effect on shaping college student outcomes. Juanita earned a M.A. in Education from Claremont Graduate University; a M.S. in Counseling with an emphasis in student development in higher education from California State University, Long Beach; and a B.A. in Liberal Studies from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is in the process of completing her doctoral dissertation research which focuses on community college math faculty perceptions of the teaching practices that foster math learning success in students in developmental courses.