Pullias Doctoral Grads Ready to Make Their Mark

This May, five Pullias Center doctoral candidates will graduate from the USC Rossier School of Education. We would like to offer our sincerest congratulations to Steve Desir, Jude Paul Matias Dizon, Theresa E. Hernandez, Aireale J. Rodgers and Deborah E. Southern as they continue their professional careers. Now, with doctoral degrees in hand, these new grads reflected on their time at the Center and share their future plans.

Steve Desir

Steve Desir will continue collaborating with Julie Posselt and the broader Equity in Graduate Education team. He will conduct research and facilitate professional development opportunities for faculty, staff and administrators participating in the Consortium for Equity in Graduate Education. In the future, he will continue working on producing and translating research that can advance racial equity in higher education. On his time at Pullias, Steve commented, “At Pullias, I always appreciated my check-ins with Zoë Corwin about anything and everything happening in the postsecondary transition space for young adults in California. Stopping by the Pullias office to see Diane and Monica was always a joyous occasion, their calming presence and knowledge about everything USC made navigating the institution that much easier.”

Jude Paul Matias Dizon

Jude Paul Matias Dizon will be joining the Rutgers Graduate School of Education as an assistant professor. He will publish from his dissertation research on policing and racism in higher education. Building off this work, he will continue to explore the connections between higher education and the carceral state, and the implications for racial justice. Jude is “grateful for the many research opportunities afforded by the Pullias Center, especially in working with Drs. Adrianna Kezar, Adrian Huerta, and the incomparable Zoe Corwin.” In addition to gaining research experience, Jude enjoyed working with several amazing colleagues. He treasures his friendships with Dr. Marissiko Wheaton, Dr. Maria Romero-Morales, Jordan Harper, Maritza Salazar, Christine Rocha, Elif Yucel and Theresa Hernandez. 

Aireale J. Rodgers

Aireale Rodgers will be a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the HEAL Project. She will continue to build a program of research using sociocultural learning theories and critical theories of racialization to examine how people and organizations learn. Specifically, she plans to explore how interpersonal and organizational learning can be organized and remediated to facilitate race-conscious, justice-oriented institutional change in higher education. Aireale shared that her best experience at the Pullias Center was co-teaching with Drs. Tatiana Melguizo, Adrian Huerta, Zoë Corwin, Elise Swanson and future Dr. Jordan Harper. ”I learned so much about myself as an educator during these teaching experiences,” Aireale said.

Deborah E. Southern

After earning her Ph.D., Deborah Southern will be a University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow with the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and Higher Education & Organizational Change program at UCLA. As a postdoc working with Dr. Mitchell Chang, she will build upon her dissertation findings to further learn how leaders notice and disrupt whiteness within their graduate schools and programs. During her time with Pullias, Deborah enjoyed working with faculty and peers, particularly via collaboration on research teams. 

Congratulations to our 2022 graduates! As the Pullias Center continues into the summer, our researchers, faculty and staff welcome you to visit our Projects page, follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin), and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with the Pullias Center’s graduates and research.