Paloma Vargas

She/Her, They/Them

I am queer and I am a microbiologist and STEM educator. //

I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, on the US-Mexico border. I attended El Paso Community College and received my BS in Biology from the University of Texas at El Paso. I obtained my Master of Science and doctoral degrees from the New York University Sackler Institute for Graduate Biomedical Sciences with a focus on parasitology. I completed a post-doc in microbiology at Northwestern University and worked as a STEM Specialist at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. I currently serve as an Assistant Professor and Hispanic-Serving Institute Director at California Lutheran University. I have been out in my personal and professional lives for almost 20 years.