Leadership and Staff

Dr. Beya Makekau, a first-generation Queer Latina from Sacramento, CA, is the Associate Vice President for Strategic Planning and Networks in the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion. With a focus on multidisciplinary collaborations, transformational change, and radical hope, she leads initiatives like Cal Poly’s Pathway to Becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), the Diversity Partners Network, the Campus Climate Advisory Council, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategic Planning, and City and County Collaborations.  

Before returning to Cal Poly, she served as the inaugural DEI Manager for the City of San Luis Obispo and has extensive experience building and implementing DEI initiatives in higher education, city and state governments, and corporate arenas. Dr. Makekau’s career is dedicated to advancing educational equity, promoting racial justice, and fostering intersectional inclusion. Her leadership is rooted in the deep belief that diversity drives excellence, with equity at its center. She can often be heard uttering the phrase “With Purpose, On Purpose,” encapsulating her commitment to ensuring the voices of communities historically marginalized by systemic inequities intentionally inform the programs and policies implemented at Cal Poly to advance DEI.   

Dr. Makekau holds undergraduate and master's degrees in Ethnic Studies from University of Oregon and San Francisco State, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration from Fresno State. 

Dr. Jennifer Teramoto Pedrotti is the Associate Vice President for DEI Academic Initiatives in the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion (OUDI). In conjunction with the Office of the Provost, and working closely with the Associate Deans for Diversity in each college, Dr. Teramoto Pedrotti leads efforts toward increasing equity in all academic areas across the campus toward the goal of a more inclusive Cal Poly. Additionally, Dr. Teramoto Pedrotti leads assessment and data analysis efforts within the OUDI Office. She will also lead efforts toward the development and maintenance of faculty group, The Collective, beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year.  

Prior to her current position, Dr. Teramoto Pedrotti served as the inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity and Curriculum in the College of Liberal Arts. She came to Cal Poly in 2003 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Child Development and taught and created courses in Multicultural Psychology, Intergroup Dialogues, Introduction to Positive Psychology, and Introduction to Clinical and Counseling Psychology. Her research focuses on the intersections of multiculturalism and positive psychology with an emphasis on the understanding of strengths within cultural context. She is an author of 2 textbooks and 1 edited volume, and her work has been published in many journals in her field.  

Dr. Teramoto Pedrotti holds doctoral and master’s degrees in Counseling Psychology from the University of Kansas, and bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and English from the University of California at Davis.  

Diana Ortiz Giron is the Director of Programming, Communications, and Education for the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion (OUDI). In this capacity, she oversees the office's Student Interns and Graduate Assistant while providing management of the office’s annual signature programming and partnerships. As the Director, she plays a strategic role in advancing internship program development, event tracking and assessment, and works collaboratively with the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, and Employee and Organizational Development to design and launch a staff-facing professional development program. Within OUDI, she also serves as a member of the HSI Implementation Team and the Campus Climate Advisory Group.  

Before this position, Diana held the role of Director of Student Diversity and Belonging, where she oversaw Cal Poly’s Race and Ethnicity and Gender and Sexuality centers. While serving as the Assistant Director for Diversity Education and Support at Harvard College, she oversaw an intergroup dialogue internship program focused on diversity peer education, institutionalized a pre-orientation program for first-generation low-income students, and advanced student services for undocumented/DACA students. As an alumni leader, she helped implement Latinx-centered programming such as the annual Harvard Latinx Graduation. Her experience includes facilitating on topics of social identities, intersectionality, cycle of socialization, community cultural wealth and undocu-allyship. 

Diana's has a B.A. in History with a minor in Chicana/o Latina/o Studies from Pomona College, and a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) in Religion, Ethics, and Politics from Harvard Divinity School. She was born Tijuana, Mexico, raised in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County. Her journey is marked by her background as a first-generation low-income Latina who navigated higher education as a formerly undocumented student and later DACA recipient.  

Biography

Megan Rivoire is the Executive Administrative Assistant for the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion (OUDI). In this capacity, she oversees administrative, budgetary, and programmatic aspects in support of the office’s university-wide mission while also directly supporting the Vice President and Senior Diversity Officer. Given her creative background in marketing and communications, she works with interns to help define, design and uphold the OUDI brand by managing the office’s printed and digital materials. With a passion for bringing to life the office’s value for radical hospitality, she aspires to build the most inclusive, accessible, and joyful spaces of belonging to every OUDI event and program.  

Prior to her position in OUDI, Megan worked as the Coordinator for the Cal Poly Center for Service in Action where she oversaw student-led service initiatives. Concurrently, she served as the Regional Coordinator for AmeriCorps VIP where she worked with an annual cohort of AmeriCorps Fellows placed at a variety of campus and community nonprofit partners focused on bolstering volunteer infrastructure. Before transitioning into higher education, she brings to Cal Poly almost a decade of working in local non-profit and marketing organizations in program management, development, and creative strategy. This included working as the Event and Communications Manager for RISE (now Lumina Alliance) where she oversaw the planning, marketing strategy, and implementation of major fundraising initiatives and events; and working as a Creative Strategist & Project Manager for Verdin as part of the account team and design department.  

Megan is a Cal Poly alum from the College of Liberal Arts with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in Art and Design and a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. She grew up in a lot of different places and is now living the dream of staying in SLO and never leaving! 

Biography

Dr. Sarah Macdonald is a sociologist and educational developer who has a passion for creating more equitable and inclusive teaching and learning environments. She serves as the Assistant Director in the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT) at Cal Poly and is Senior Director of Innovative Pedagogies in the Office for University Diversity and Inclusion (OUDI). Sarah draws on her background in sociology to provide evidence-based guidance to individual faculty, departments, and colleges to support educational equity, inclusive teaching, and to enhance diversity in the curriculum. Sarah runs workshops for faculty on topics such as: microaggressions in the classroom, providing equitable academic support, classroom climate, and other inclusive and equitable teaching practices. In 2024, Michel Estefan, Jesse Cordes Selbin, and Sarah Macdonald won the Scholarly Contributions to Teaching and Learning Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Teaching and Learning for their article "From Inclusive to Equitable Pedagogy: How to Design Course Assignments and Learning Activities that Address Structural Inequalities," in Teaching Sociology, 51(3). 

In addition to her work in CTLT and OUDI, Sarah is also a lecturer in the Social Sciences Department at Cal Poly where she teaches undergraduate courses. Prior to coming to Cal Poly, Sarah served as an instructor at University of California, Berkeley and Mills College; held a National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored postdoctoral position in the Graduate Division at the University of California, Berkeley; and worked for several years as a Teaching Consultant in Berkeley’s Graduate Student Instructor Teaching and Resource Center. Sarah holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in Sociology and Russian from Smith College. 

Biography

Dr. Kelly Bennion is the BEACoN Research Faculty Fellow for the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion. Since 2020, she has run the BEACoN (Believe, Educate & Empower, Advocate, Collaborate, Nurture) Research Mentoring Program, a university-wide program in which underrepresented students are funded to work one-on-one with faculty mentors on research projects and participate in professional development events. The program culminates in the annual BEACoN Spring Research Symposium, bringing together faculty and student researchers across all six colleges. 

In addition to her role with OUDI, Dr. Bennion is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Child Development. Her research aims to elucidate the factors that promote successful memory using a combination of behavioral, eye tracking, and electroencephalographic approaches. She is particularly interested in the effects of several real-life variables (e.g., emotion, stress, motivation, sleep) on memory consolidation. 

From February through August 2024, Dr. Bennion served as the Interim Associate Dean for Diversity and Curriculum for the College of Liberal Arts, in which she was responsible for DEI, curriculum, and assessment for the college. She also serves as the Associate Director of the University Honors Program, in which she assists with curriculum, teaching, semester conversion, and program review. Further, she serves as the UNIV 100 Coordinator for Cal Poly Scholars, in which she coordinates the curriculum and trains instructors and learning assistants for all sections of the fall orientation class. Lastly, from 2019-2022, Dr. Bennion co-chaired the working group investigating "Teaching and Learning How to Live and Work in a Diverse World" for Cal Poly's reaccreditation by WSCUC. 

As a first-generation woman of color in STEM, Dr. Bennion is especially grateful for all the mentors in her life, past and present. She is thrilled to be in so many roles at Cal Poly that allow her to support students in this way.