Today I have the privilege of sharing with you an interview I did recently with Dr. Mayra Padilla—Mayra has an amazing story and I am very honored that she accepted to be a guest in the podcast.

In this plática we talked about her family’s migration from Jalisco, about growing up in Richmond, in a low-income barrio and having to deal with some of the gang violence and drugs in the neighborhood but also finding community. She shared that although no one in her high school expected her to go to college, she developed a strong love for math that kept her engaged, and even after getting pregnant in the 11th grade, getting married young, dropping out of community college the first time she tried, she never gave up, every time she felled she got up again, she continued her education, and eventually earned her PhD in Neuroscience from UC Berkeley. After a career in science doing research, she decided to come back to Contra Costa College where she has served in various positions.

Key Points

* Roots in Richmond: Childhood, Migration, and Survival

* Education, Pregnancy, and Finding Her Way Back to School

* Science, Neuroscience, and Understanding Trauma

* Coming Home: Community, Mentorship, and Social Justice

Music

Jazzaddict’s Intro by Cosimo Fogg (201) https://soundcloud.com/cosimo-fogg Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/jazzaddicts-intro Music promoted by Audio Library

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