Southern California Husky Events

Maya Tolstoy is a marine geophysicist specializing in seafloor earthquakes and volcanoes and the Maggie Walker Dean of the University of Washington College of the Environment. Over her more than 30-year career as a researcher, professor and administrator, Tolstoy has dedicated herself to furthering our understanding of the fundamental processes of our planet and advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in academia. Before joining the UW, Tolstoy was a professor at Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and previously served as the interim executive vice president and dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences at Columbia.

Tolstoy has led 18 research expeditions at sea as chief or co-chief scientist and has 66 peer-reviewed scientific publications, including 10 in the journals Science or Nature. She also has led or co-led over $22 million worth of federally funded research. The recipient of the Wings Worldquest Sea Award honoring women in exploration, Tolstoy also was a finalist for NASA’s 2009 Astronaut selection. She recently completed a six-year term on the National Academy Committee on Solid Earth Geophysics and was honored by the American Geophysical Union as the Birch Lecturer in 2016.

Born in New York and raised in Scotland, Tolstoy earned her bachelor’s degree in geophysics from the University of Edinburgh and her doctorate from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Tolstoy’s interest in marine seismology was ignited during an undergraduate internship, which included the opportunity to sail on a research vessel, an experience that propelled her career as a scientist, teacher and academic leader.

Rishi Sugla is a research scientist at the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group. His work is transdisciplinary and combines elements of science, marine ecology, environmental justice, and storytelling/communications. Rishi is interested in how historic legacies of inequity and oppression can be addressed throughout the process of creating and implementing climate adaptation plans. He has worked closely with frontline communities struggling against extractive industries and climate impacts to build collective power. Rishi hopes to use his position at the Climate Impacts Group to create new projects and programs that continue to amplify the work and capacity of frontline communities and land and water protectors. Rishi received his Ph.D. in Earth Science from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Jennifer Baez specializes in the visual, material, and religious culture of Latin America and the African diaspora under the global Spanish empire. She is an assistant professor of art history in the UW School of Art + Art History + Design. She received her Ph.D. in art history from Florida State University, where she taught courses in museum studies and the history of African art. Her current book project on the miraculous icon of the Virgin of Altagracia in colonial Hispaniola is a microhistory exploring intersections between Marian devotion, artistic practice, race, and the formation of Spanish Creole origin stories. She is also interested in contemporary Caribbean and Latinx art, and writes on monuments, heritage, and issues of gender, race, and representation.

Her work has appeared in several journals and academic platforms including Hyperallergic, Small Axe, Arts, Smarthistory, and in the Art & Architecture ePortal of Yale University Press (forthcoming). Several grants and fellowships have supported her research, including a Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation award. She was also selected to participate in the 6th annual Curatorial Foundation Seminar hosted by the Mellon Foundation and the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York City. She is currently working on an exhibition on salt and cross-cultural artistic exchange in the Black Mediterranean.

Founded in 1996 by Dr. Robert Gumbiner, MOLAA is the only museum in the United States dedicated to modern and contemporary Latin American art. Through ground-breaking exhibitions, educational programs and cultural events, MOLAA expands the knowledge and appreciation of modern and contemporary Latin American art and culture and promotes a cross-cultural dialogue.