2026 Outstanding Faculty Innovator in Student Success
California State University Channel Islands
Assistant Professor of Spanish
My work is grounded in the belief that student success begins with belonging. By centering students’ cultural wealth and lived experiences, I seek to create learning environments that affirm their identities and support them in bringing their full selves into higher education."
Maricela J. Becerra García, assistant professor of Spanish, joined California State University Channel Islands in 2020 and has taught courses in contemporary Mexican literature, Latin American cultures and Spanish. She has also worked tirelessly to cultivate students’ sense of belonging.
A double alumna of Cal State Long Beach, Dr. Becerra draws on her own experiences to shape her role as an educator. She was a first-generation and undocumented student who navigated her higher education journey as an English learner and parent.
To foster belonging—which she sees as key to unlocking academic success—Dr. Becerra has designed and taught innovative curricula that affirm students’ linguistic and cultural wealth. She has also pioneered a culturally responsive model of mentoring at CSU Channel Islands that fosters trust between students and faculty, helping students feel seen, supported and connected to the university.
Dr. Becerra has served as faculty lead of the Academic Student Success Engagement Team (ASSET) Scholars program, which provides first-year and transfer students with a support system of faculty and peer mentors. In that role, she redesigned the program to embed culturally grounding practices—again, to foster belonging. The result? Increased retention of first-year students and higher academic standing among those who participated in ASSET.
As a faculty development coach, she brought a culturally responsive mentoring framework to STEMos Juntos, a Title III-funded initiative that aimed to improve the retention of first-generation students in STEM fields. That lens benefited participants in affirming their cultural identities and community knowledge as assets in their chosen field. Dr. Becerra’s efforts also had an impact beyond the life of that grant-funded program, by institutionalizing an equity-centered, culturally responsive model of mentoring within STEM faculty development.
Dr. Becerra’s research focuses on state violence, social movements and memory in Latin America. Her current projects analyze social media as an organizing tool in the contemporary feminist uprising in Mexico.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Chicano/Latino Studies and a master’s degree in Spanish from Cal State Long Beach and a Ph.D. in Hispanic languages and literature from UCLA.