Jennie Luna

Chair-Elect

I humbly accept the nomination for NACCS Chair-Elect and look forward to the opportunity to serve my academic organization, which has also been my academic home for 28 years. Currently, I am a full professor in Chicana/o Studies at California State University Channel Islands. I have been a member of NACCS since 1996. I served as the NACCS National Student Representative as an undergraduate when there was such a position in the structure of NACCS. I have received NACCS student fellowships in the past for my participation in the conference as a graduate student and I have been an active member and participant yearly at the conference.  I am currently a life-time member of NACCS. I have served as the Indigenous Caucus representative for 3 years. I was also the recipient the Antonia Castaneda Prize in 2014. In 2016 I was elected to the board, holding the position of Secretary, and learned a great deal of the inner workings of NACCS as an organization and the work it takes for the annual conference to come to fruition. I am proud of the work I have contributed to NACCS through ensuring that Indigenous perspectives are incorporated into the conference, such as the opening blessing/Land Acknowledgement and most recently, leading the Indigenous Caucus nomination of Roberto Cintli Rodriguez to be awarded the 2024 NACCS Scholar Award. I have been committed to bringing undergraduate students to the conference to carry on the legacy of NACCS and for the past ten years have found funding to bring a strong contingency of students from my institution.

My vision for NACCS is that it will continue to grow as a national organization and carry on the tradition of scholar activism. As the leadership of NACCS continues to shift, it is my goal to keep our organization on track. There are tenuous forces (such as national political agendas) that continue to threaten the livelihood of our discipline and NACCS must be on the forefront of providing a voice and taking a stand on issues that impact our communities and education. For so many scholars in our field, NACCS has been a lifeline and the space where our work and ideas have been valued and given an opportunity to be shared.  Just as NACCS has inspired me since my undergraduate college years, my goal is to continue to train and mentor the next generation of Chicana/o Studies scholars and NACCSistas, so that Chicana and Chicano Studies can continue to be the cornerstone of self-determination, liberation and social action.  I hope to help lead the board in a direction that benefits our discipline, our scholarship, our colegas, students, and communities.

Michelle Tellez

Secretary

Dr. Michelle Téllez is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona. Her public and academic scholarship focuses on transnational community formations, mothering, and gendered migration along the U.S./Mexico borderlands. She co-edited The Chicana M(other)work Anthology: Porque Sin Madres No Hay Revolución (2019) and is the author of Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas: Autonomy in the Spaces of Neoliberal Neglect (2021), winner of the 2023 NACCS Book of the Year Award. In 2022, she was awarded two Mellon Funded Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative Grants for new work on Afro-Chicanx communities and Mexicana/Chicana activists in the borderlands. In 2023, she was named Researcher of the Year by the Women’s Foundation of the State of Arizona.

A graduate of UCLA (B.A, 1996), Teachers College, Columbia University (M.A, 2000) and Claremont Graduate University (Ph.D., 2005), Dr. Téllez was a dissertation fellow in the department of Chicana/o Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2004-2005) and a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Latina/o Studies Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2007-2008).

Leadership: I’m thrilled to run for Secretary of the National Board. I attended my first NACCS conference in 1998 when I was an elementary school teacher in Chula Vista, CA and was organizing with parents and using critical pedagogy in the classroom. I love that NACCS has a broader intellectual commitment that impacted me as a young teacher. I have remained a member since and between 2010-2012, I was Rocky Mountain Foco At-Large Representative. During my time on the board, our organization filed an Amicus Curiae Brief in support of Tucson's Ethnic Studies case and organized nationally against the anti-immigrant legislation that was shaping the state of Arizona at the time. Over a decade later, I would be honored to serve on the board again in this critical moment globally to remain focused on both our intellectual and political commitments that are at the root of our organization.

Vision: NACCS has been at the forefront of our field and has been an important space for exchange and community building. I believe we are in a moment of reinvigoration. This requires critical engagement with each other as members of this organization who believe in its mission and are committed to ensuring its growth and sustainability.
 

Term: 3 years (chair-elect, chair, and past-chair).
Duties:

The Chair-Elect will be directly elected by the general membership to serve for one year before succeeding to become the National Chair. In the Chairperson's absence, the Chair-Elect of NACCS shall perform the duties of the National Chair. The Chair-Elect also serves as the Program Chair for the annual NACCS conference and the Nominations Committee.

To be eligible to run for this office, a candidate for Chair-Elect must: (1) be a member in good-standing; (2) have been a member continuously for the previous four (4) years before assuming office; (3) have had significant, active participation in NACCS; (4) have provided a significant, active contribution to Chicana & Chicano Studies; and (5) have contributed to advance the interests and needs of the Chicana & Chicano community. This person cannot hold more than one National Board office in NACCS at the same time, nor run consecutively for this office.

The chair-elect will then take on the responsibilities of the Chair and then the Past-Chair.

SECRETARY

Term:  Two years

Duties:

 Prepare and distribute minutes of all meetings of the board within 2 weeks of each meeting.  Work with Chair and Executive Committee to prepare agendas for all meetings.  Work with Associate Director to set up conference call meetings.  Maintain the Meeting agendas and minutes, and the Calendar for the Board.  Attend monthly Conference Call meetings, ten months during the year.  Attend midyear meetings, serve on committees as designated, and attend and participate at Annual meeting.  During annual meeting participate in board meetings.  Participate in NACCS for Beginners and the Leadership Orientation, and participate in the general business meeting.  During the annual meetings work with Chair and Executive Director as needed to develop on-site reports and minutes.  Maintains all records of meetings and prepares annual report of minutes and communications for official reporting to meet incorporation requirements. Prepare the annual Statement of Information to be submitted to the Secretary of State (California) identifying the officers of the organization.  Prepare the annual Compliance of Minutes to be filed with the state of California.  With executive committee [Chair, Chair-Elect, Past-Chair, Treasurer, Executive Director and Associate Director] discusses actions to move on board pertinent to the communication and reporting of policies, fiscal well being, maintenance and standing of non-profit standing, etc.

Maintain copies of all official documents of the organization.  Maintain copies of all official annual reports and documents of the organization.  Must be knowledgeable of NACCS bylaws and procedures.