Community College Advisory Board

The Department of American Studies is very proud to sponsor a Community College Advisory Board.  Four professors, all of whom currently teach in local community colleges and all of whom have strong connections to our American Studies program at CSUF (as former undergrads, grad students, or lecturers), have agreed to serve on this Board. 

The Community College Advisory Board help us to recruit talented majors from community colleges, keeps the department informed about new classes and policies affecting community colleges, and serves as a resource for current CSUF American Studies graduate students who might want to use their MA to teach in a community college.

The four members of this Advisory Board, pictured below, are: Steven Estrada, who teaches Ethnic Studies at Cypress College; Patricia Medellin Gomez, who teaches Ethnic Studies and Chicanx/Latinx Studies at Fullerton College; Bridget Kominek, who teaches English at Fullerton College; and Elizabeth (Beth) Kronbeck, who teaches Social Science, Ethnic Studies, and History at Glendale Community College.

MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD

Community College Advisory Board

Steven Estrada earned his B.A. and M.A. in American Studies from the California State University, Fullerton. In spring 2013 he completed the Comprehensive Exam in the areas of Race, Ethnicity and Class Formation; Work, Leisure and Consumption; and The National and the Global. He began his teaching career “freeway flying” for the CSUF Americans Studies, East Los Angeles College Chicana/o Studies and Cypress College Ethnic Studies departments as an Adjunct Instructor. Steven is now a Professor of Ethnic Studies at Cypress College and currently serves in a variety of campus, district and union roles including: Academic Senate Division Representative, Cypress College Title V Grant Lead Peer Coach, NOCCCD Office of Diversity and Compliance Faculty Fellow, United Faculty (UF) Division Representative and Negotiations Team member, UF Racial Justice and Equity Committee member. He also is a Board member for the Community College Association (CCA), a statewide union and serves as the Co-Chair for the CCA Governance and Faculty Diversity and Equity Committees. Current research and campus work includes comparative race/ethnicity history in the U.S., social justice movements, the history of ethnic studies, educational equity in theory and practice, and the intersections between union work and education.

 

 

 

 

Patricia Gomez is a Chicana feminist scholar, activist, and mentor who earned her BA in Sociology with an emphasis on race and social inequalities from the University of California, Berkeley. She also completed her MA in American Studies from California State University, Fullerton with an emphasis on race/ethnicity, women's gender, and sexuality, and the national and global communities. Grounded in social justice, women of color feminism, and queer of color theories, Patricia has several years of teaching Ethnic Studies courses in a variety of higher education institutions, including Fullerton College.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bridget Kominek is an associate professor of English at Fullerton College, where she has worked as an English teacher since 2007. There, she teaches college writing, critical thinking, and literature classes, particularly American Literature and Children's Literature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beth Kronbeck has been teaching at Glendale Community College since 2007.  She began as an adjunct and was hired full time in 2010.  She has a BA in English from UCLA, a MA in American Studies from CSUF and a MA in History from CSULA.  Her work at Glendale currently includes serving on the Curriculum & Instruction committee, serving on the Academic Senate and acting as the Faculty rep for Accreditation & Planning.  She also currently serves on the Board of Governance for the College of Officer Training, a 2-year College for the Salvation Army.