GSA Executive Officers: Fall 2024 and Spring 2025
President
Rachel Casper
Email: rcasper2@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Rachel is a 3rd year doctoral student in Cognitive & Information Sciences. She studies lexical and sentence processing in bilinguals. As a student with an invisible disability, she strives to advocate for all underserved groups. As president, she interfaces with the administration on behalf of graduate students and facilitates GSA meetings and action items.
Internal Vice President (Vacant)
External Vice President
Mohit Saraswat
Email: msaraswat@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Academic Affairs Officer
Genevieve Egbunno
Email: gegbunno@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Genevieve is a doctoral candidate in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Program. Her research seeks to examine conflicts in homes resulting from women’s quest for financial independence. As Academic Affairs Officer, Genevieve is responsible for representing Graduate students and communicating their academic concerns to the campus administration towards a better learning environment.
Internal Communications Officer
Gaonoucci Vang
Email: gvang33@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Treasurer
Cayce Fylling
Email: cfylling@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Public Relations/Community Outreach Officer
Kunle Adewole
Email: aadewole@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Kunle is a 4th year doctoral candidate in the chemistry and biochemistry program. His research within the Merg lab focuses on the supramolecular assembly of bionanomaterials from peptide building blocks for potential applications in bio sensing, cargo delivery, and heterogeneous scaffolds development. As the Public Relations/Community engagement officer, he coordinates GSA events, ensures that graduate and professional student community are updated on relevant issues and activities, and also facilitates community outreach between UC Merced and the city of Merced.
International Affairs Officer
Omowumi Omole
Email: oomole@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Omowumi is a 2nd year Interdisciplinary Humanities doctoral student. Her research area is in Cultural Anthropology. She aims to understand the nexus between religion and the legislation of women’s bodies in Nigeria by studying how participants in Pentecostal churches’ marriage classes engage with, adopt or contest women-centered legislation such as laws on marital rape and women’s bodily autonomy. As the International Affairs Officer at GSA, Omowumi is responsible for representing the interests of international graduate students to the GSA and promoting awareness of international graduate and professional students’ issues to the university community.
Climate, Diversity and Equity Officer
Leo Niehorster-Cook
Email: lniehorster-cook@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Leo is a doctoral student in the department of Cognitive & Information Sciences. They study how interactions between individual minds give rise to large-scale social phenomena such as collective action, group conflict, and communication systems, with a focus on formal modeling techniques. Within the GSA, Leo focuses on providing community support to programs that make the University a more inclusive and welcoming space. Outside of school, they're a community organizer and an avid fan of science fiction.
Solidarity Officer
Claudia Johnson
Email: cjohnson78@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Claudia is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Sociology department, returning to graduate school after a career in college/career pathways and community college administration. Her current academic research is on the effects of systemic racism on communities of color, particularly the policing of families through social welfare systems. As the Solidarity Officer, Claudia liaises with the graduate worker union, UAW 4811, on issues pertaining to graduate student labor.
Legislative Affairs Officer
Andrew Martin
Email: amartin462@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Andrew is a 2nd year doctoral student in Sociology. He studies higher education, institutions, and the debt collection. He is currently examining the debt collection policies and practices of public and private colleges in California. As the GSA's Legislative Officer he monitors and identifies bills being developed within the state assembly. He regularly engages with UC Merced graduate students to learn their needs and concerns and express them to campus administrators and state legislators.
Social Media and Graphics Design Officer
Elsie A. Cortes
Email: ecortes7@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Elsie is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Applied Mathematics department. She is part of the CLOVERS group, and her current research projects involve the development of models for optics problems in physics for applications such as invisibility cloaking. As the Social Media/Graphic Design officer, Elsie’s role includes managing the GSA’s social media presence and assisting other graduate student organizations with graphic design needs.
Undocumented Affairs Officer
Jai Mica Vaca
Email: yperezrojas@ucmerced.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Jai is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Sociology department. His research focuses on how the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy affects post-secondary university DACA students’ perceived mental health and well-being. As an Undocumented Affairs Officer, Jai is responsible for ensuring that undocumented professional and graduate students are informed and receive equal treatment and opportunities. Additionally, his role is to create and maintain a safe environment for the undocumented professional and graduate student community.
