OUDI Staff and Fellows

Biography

Diana Ortiz Giron is the Director of Programming, Communications, and DEI Education for the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion. In this capacity, she oversees the office's DEI 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 DEI 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 for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in Instruction in the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology at Cal Poly and is a Staff Fellow in the Office for University Diversity and Inclusion. 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. 

Biography

Dr. Joni Roberts is a certified health education specialist who sits at the intersection of being Black, an immigrant, and a Caribbean woman residing in the U.S. Within the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion (OUDI) she serves as the Black Initiatives Faculty Fellow and a Faculty Associate for DEI in Teaching in the Building Toward Equity faculty development program.  

The Black Initiatives program is a part of the CSU-wide initiative to improve student success among black students on its campuses. This program aims to increase enrollment of black students on campus, improve recruitment & retention of black students, faculty, and staff, and improve the campus climate for individuals within this demographic. The Building Toward Equity faculty development program was developed in collaboration with the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, which scaffolds DEI learning to develop faculty awareness, knowledge, and skills. Building Toward Equity faculty development program was developed in collaboration with the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology 

In addition to her role with OUDI, Dr. Roberts is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology & Public Health, where she leads the sexual & reproductive health research lab on campus. Her research has involved leading projects that examine how various social determinants (e.g., discrimination, work, health access) affect health and identify structural solutions in partnership with communities to address health inequities. She is particularly interested in the effects of culture and health decisions among marginalized populations.