Equity Champions

2021 Equity Champion Awards

The Equity Champions program was created to recognize and celebrate those who make significant contributions to inclusiveness at De Anza – and to advancing the college's vision of equity, social justice and multicultural education. The program is sponsored by the Equity Action Council, a college shared governance group.

And the 2021 Award Recipients Are ...

Click each name to learn more about these award winners!

• Student: Brittney Tran
• Classified professional or supervisor: Mallory Newell
• Faculty member: Chesa Caparas
• Administrator: Moaty Fayek
• Team, department or program: Black Faculty, Staff and Administrators Network (BFSA)
• Elder: Mayra Cruz

We're celebrating these outstanding recipients of the 2021Equity Champion Awards to recognize the individuals and groups making significant contributions to inclusion at De Anza College and to advancing the college’s vision of equity, social justice and multicultural education.  

Student: Brittney Tran 

• President, De Anza Student-Athlete Advisory Council
• (she/her/hers)

Brittney is a Biological Sciences major who hopes to pursue a pre-med program at a four-year university. An avid athlete with strong people skills, she is a member of the De Anza intercollegiate Soccer and Badminton teams and served as president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council.

In that role, she helped organize town hall meetings on racial and community service activities for students to assist deserving families in the community. She's also a peer mentor for Mentors @ De Anza. 

Classified Professional or Supervisor: Mallory Newell

• Supervisor of Institutional Research and Planning
• (she/her)

Mallory has provided leadership for the Office of Institutional Research and Planning since 2010. She has made a priority of sharing data across the campus, making it accessible for planning, decision-making and evaluation of programs, while promoting its use to shine a light on equity gaps and to identify strategies for addressing gaps and supporting our students. 

While recognizing that equity work is never complete, the Institutional Resarch office strives to tell the equity story in new ways.

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Faculty member: Chesa Caparas

• Instructor, English, IMPACT AAPI, FLOW; Faculty Coordinator, Women, Gender and Sexuality Center
• (she/they)

Chesa teaches in English and Asian American Studies and is in the IMPACT AAPI and FLOW Learning Communities. As the faculty coordinator for the Women, Gender and Sexuality Center (formerly the Jean Miller Resource Room), she has organized events and promoted an inclusive environment for all – especially for women, LGBTQ+ students and other members of marginalized groups. In her classes and her community work, Chesa uses an intersectional feminist framework to resist systems of inequality.

Chesa was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study digital literacy in the Philippines. She is a writer, dancer, mother, partner and aspiring Tarot card reader, who says she misses singing in her car during the long commute to De Anza from her home in Berkeley. 

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Administrator: Moaty Fayek

• Dean, Business, Computer Science and Applied Technologies
• (he/him)

Moaty is dedicated to students and to closing equity gaps through a combination of empathy and data-driven strategies. His efforts include emailing words of encouragement to at-risk students, using his own funds to purchase textbooks for students to borrow, and creating the Business lab as a space where students can study and receive homework help.

Moaty is a former professor, department chair and graduate adviser at California State University, Chico, and was interim Vice President of Workforce Development and Institutional Advancement at Foothill College. He has also been an entrepreneur and business owner who maintains strong ties to the tech industry.

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Team: Black Faculty, Staff and Administrators Network (BFSA)

BFSA is an organization of committed and active members who identify as Black, African American, Afro-American or individuals of African ancestry or descent. Its purpose is to build and maintain a well-connected community among Black employees and students by providing resources, support, networking, scholarships, fundraising and programs that emphasize the legacy and traditions of the African American community – including events and activities for Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month. 

Through its advocacy efforts, the BFSA works to promote an environment of cultural sensitivity, equity and social justice throughout the De Anza campus.

(From left: Melinda Hughes, Derrick Felton, Deborah Taylor, Glynn Wallis and Chrissy Parker of the BFSA)

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Elder: Mayra Cruz

• Instructor, Child Development and Education
• (she, her, ella)

Please check back to learn more about this new award and its first recipient!

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Award Criteria

We recognize that there are multiple ways of demonstrating commitment to these values. The individual or team being nominated should also embody the spirit and principles reflective in the criteria below. The following are examples of ways nominee(s) exemplified their commitment to equity:

• Promoting a deeper understanding of equity by advancing best practices in their respective office and/or program
• Exhibits leadership qualities in their work through collaboration, courageous conversations, inclusion through an intersectional lens, and fosters accountability.
• Prioritizes student needs and advocates for systemic and institutional change to address them to ensure equitable opportunities.
• Serves as a creative and equity-minded decision maker in the shared governance process
• Fosters practices that help bridge the student equity gaps.

Feel free to reach out to Adriana Garcia at EquityOffice@deanza.edu for any questions.

Learn more about EAC