Faculty embody ASU's commitment to diversity

November 21, 2007

ASU students, staff and faculty have the opportunity to see and understand the world from different perspectives thanks to the diverse and international faculty at ASU.<separator></separator>ASU’s efforts to promote and encourage diversity are visible in the Oct. 23 edition of the magazine Poder y Negocios, which highlighted one hundred university professors – six of them from ASU – that were born in Mexico and now teach and work in the United States.<separator></separator>The six ASU professors featured were chosen for their backgrounds and the diversity of their expertise.<separator></separator>“Most of the professors that we interviewed feel that by working or expanding their education in the USA they are able to contribute more to Mexico than if they had stayed in their native country,” says Ana Lalinde, journalist for Poder y Negocios, one of the most established and widely distributed financial magazines in Mexico and Latin America.<separator></separator>“It was important to show the public that migration occurs for different factors – an important and positive one is education,” adds Lalinde.<separator></separator>The expertise of the featured professors range from mathematics and sustainability to education and engineering, and their stories of how they arrived at ASU are as wide and diverse as their backgrounds.<separator></separator>“I came to ASU to be a part of a public university that gives access to a wider spectrum of the U.S. population,” says Carlos Castillo Chavez, a Regents Professor. “ASU’s mission includes the empowerment of one of the largest Mexican and Mexican-American populations in the nation. Michael Crow’s model of the New American University offers the best educational options for large segments of the Latino Population in the United States.”<separator></separator>Ernesto Fonseca, an architect for the ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family, says that ASU offers an arena to interact and exchange ideas that will create bridges to understand and effectively cooperate between countries and societies.<separator></separator>“There is no better way to understand other cultures than by getting to know members of other cultures, and a every effective way is through direct faculty and interaction,” says Fonseca. “Universities offer a great forum in which diversity of individuals and ideas are welcome, and this is extremely important because through exposure and understanding of different point of views, the chances of positive commercial and intellectual relationships greatly increase.”<separator></separator>Featured faculty members (from right to left): Gerardo Chowell Puente, School of Human Evolution and Social Change; Edgar Ramirez de la Cruz, School of Public Affairs; Carlos Castillo Chavez, Mathematics and Statistics; Conrado L Gomez, ASUP Education; (Front row) Rene Villalobos, Industrial Engineering; Ernesto Fonseca, Stardust Center.<separator></separator>Adriana Sanchez, <a href="mailto:adriana.sanchez.1@asu.edu">Adriana.Sanchez.1@asu.edu</a> (480) 965-9579 Media Relations

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