Board of Directors

Olukemi Sawyerr, Ph.D., is the State Chair and Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education Women’s Network Southern California. She is the inaugural Associate Vice President for the Office of Academic Innovation (AI) and professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Cal Poly Pomona. AI curates opportunities for experiential learning, discovery, and innovation. Dr. Sawyerr is leading the career and professional readiness initiative to prepare Cal Poly Pomona students for the future of work, human and civic engagement. She is the Principal Investigator on Cal Poly Pomona’s National Science Foundation I-Corps Site grant, and the NSF CPP INVESTS grant. Her current research interests focus on entrepreneurship education and its impact in higher education and has appeared in multiple peer-reviewed journals and national and international academic and professional conferences. She holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Texas Woman’s University and a doctoral degree from the University of North Texas. 

Shanthi Srinivas, Ph.D., is Past State Chair of the American Council on Education Women’s Network Southern California. She has more than 35 years of higher education experience having held a variety of administrative and faculty positions at Cal Poly Pomona including Presidential Fellow for Leadership Excellence. Her contributions include serving as a faculty member, department chair, Associate Dean, and Associate Vice President of academic planning and faculty affairs.  Her work facilitating faculty learning communities involved mentoring numerous faculty, many of whom are serving in campus leadership and administrative positions. Most recently she served as the Interim Dean of the Jack H. Brown College of Business & Public Administration at CSU San Bernardino where she successfully oversaw the college transition to in-person instruction after the pandemic.  She was instrumental in establishing a named corporate partner for a degree completion program that raised significant funds for the college and is the first of its kind in the CSU.

Menna Bizuneh, PhD, is the Chair of the Advisory Council of the American Council on Education Women’s Network Southern California. She is an Associate Professor of Economics at Pitzer College in the Claremont College Consortium and the Director of the Claremont Faculty Leadership Program (CFLP). Currently she serves as the chair of the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) for Pitzer College. Dr. Bizuneh is a recipient of the CHAS Pedagogy grant and has been an invited speaker among others at the United Nations Association of Pomona Valley, Lawrence University, Georgia State University, and the International Trade and Finance Association. Prior to her current position Bizuneh was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the College of St. Benedict| St. John’s University (CSB|SJU). She has also taught at Georgia State University. Bizuneh’s primary research and publication is in the field of international finance, in particular the formation and the decision to join monetary unions. Bizuneh’s prior experience outside academia includes working for a consulting firm, Mather Economics, and the African Development Bank (AfDB). She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Georgia State University in 2012 and M.S. in Economics from the University of Illinoi at Urbana-Champaign. She also holds a B.S. in Industrial and Systems (ISyE) Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Economics from Emory University. 

Shokoufeh Mirzaei, Ph.D., is Member at Large on the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education Women’s Network and Chair of the Marketing Committee. She is Professor and Chair of Cal Poly Pomona's Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering department. Before joining Cal Poly Pomona, she worked as a senior analytics consultant for CGN Global, a management consulting firm. Since joining Cal Poly Pomona, she has worked as a Faculty Fellow with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Edwards Air Force Base. Dr. Mirzaei joined the ACE Women’s Network in 2017 and has served in different capacities. Recently she led the effort to develop the Network's first bylaws.

ODessa-Elise Downing, Ed.D., became a member of the American Council on Education Women’s Network Southern California in 2015. She currently serves the Network as the Recorder for the Board of Directors, a Planning Committee member, writer, and newsletter editor. As a Student Affairs Practitioner of 14 years, she is the Assistant to the Executive Director and interim Budget Analyst within University Housing Services. Dr. Downing is committed to promoting   the importance of Student Success through Co-Curricular Programs, Data Analytics & Quantitative Analysis, sharing personal narratives through storytelling, Critical Race Theory (and counter-narratives), Intersectionality, and Transformational Leadership. As a first-generation college graduate, Dr. Downing holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Cal State LA and a M.S. in Organizational Leadership from Southern New Hampshire University. She earned her doctorate in 2019 from Cal Poly Pomona. Her postdoctoral research focuses on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) as well as Women in Leadership. 

Bharti Sharma, Ph.D., is the Provost Fellow for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at California State Polytechnic University Pomona. Before coming to Cal Poly Pomona, Dr. Sharma did her post-Doctoral research at the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Dr. Sharma believes that one of the best aspects of being a CSU faculty is the opportunity to serve a diverse student body, something she is greatly passionate about. She regards "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging" as four essential pillars of an educational institution. Dr. Sharma is a strong advocate for "gender equity." She serves as Chair of the STEM Women Faculty Networking Events committee at Cal Poly Pomona. She has been a committee member of the ACE Women's Network of Southern California since 2019. Currently, she serves as the Chair of the Event Planning Committee.  

Beth Lesen, Ph.D., is the Vice President for Student Affairs at California State University, Long Beach. In this role, her portfolio encompasses 40 different departments and programs, including but not limited to the Women’s and Gender Equity Center, Multicultural Affairs, Access Services for Students with Disabilities, Basic Needs, Mental health and Well-being, Student Leadership and Development, Housing and Residence Life, and the University Student Union. In her time as Vice President, Beth has led CSULB Student Affairs through managing the COVID-19 pandemic, launched a university-wide comprehensive mental health plan, dedicated fiscal and human resources to expanding cultural resource centers, and established the first division wide equity task force.  Beth is currently a Member at Large on the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education (ACE) Women’s Network Southern California and has served on the ACE Women’s Leadership Network Board in Northern California and also serves on the NASPA Women in Student Affairs knowledge community. 

Tara Giblin, Ph.D., is Member at Large on the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education (ACE) Women’s Network Southern California and Chair of the Nomination Committee. She has been the Dean of Mathematics and Sciences at Orange Coast College (OCC) since 2014.  She was the recipient of an ACE Fellowship in 2018, during which she spent her one-semester site visit in the President’s office at Cal Poly Pomona focusing on the student transfer process from the four-year institution perspective.  She has worked with the Fortune Women’s network to provide unique mentoring experiences for young women and has helped to organize the Southern California Community College Science Deans group.  Prior to OCC, she served as tenured faculty and department chair at Stephens College, a women’s college in Columbia Missouri, where she mentored students in research related to lead contamination.  She earned the best student research award from the Tri Beta Biological Honor Society.  She was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar position to teach Biochemistry at the Patan Academy of Health Sciences in Kathmandu, Nepal. She earned her B.S. in Biology from the University of Illinois in Urbana and Ph.D.  in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri.  She has done postdoctoral research at the USDA and University of California-Riverside in environmental microbiology.

Francine Ramirez serves as the Director of Administration in the Office of the President at Cal Poly Pomona. With over 27 years working at Cal Poly Pomona, she manages the office support staff, oversees budget/fiscal management, and human resource activities for the Office of the President. Francine provided executive support to the Vice President for University Advancement, including administrative board support for the philanthropic auxiliary, University Educational Trust, served as scholarship coordinator for the President Council and Partners in Education scholars programs, as well as collaborated with alumni, donors, community leaders, legislators, and other campus constituents. Served as a paralegal for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Denver, CO. She earned her B.A. in Applied Studies from Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, CA.