Voices that Echo

About the event

Join WSU Alumni who have gone on to make a difference in our communities and share their experiences: including working in the fields, forging new paths as activists at WSU, and using their education to create a more just society.

ABOUT OUR PANELISTS

Enrique Cerna

Enrique Cerna is a veteran journalist who has worked in Seattle media for more than four decades. Cerna worked for 23 years at Cascade Public Media’s KCTS 9 and retired in February 2018 from his role as senior correspondent. Prior to joining KCTS in 1995, he worked as a reporter, producer and host for KOMO Radio and Television and KING Television.

At KCTS 9, Enrique produced and hosted award-winning current affairs programs and documentaries. He produced and reported stories for national PBS programs, provided election analysis for the PBS NewsHour, moderated U.S. Senate, Congressional, Gubernatorial, and Mayoral debates. In addition, he produced and reported documentaries covering critical social justice and civil rights issues, the environment, immigration and documented the history and contributions of Latinos in Washington State.

Enrique has earned ten Northwest regional Emmy awards. The Seattle Weekly honored him with a 2003 Editors’ Choice selection as Best TV Host. In 2006, Seattle Magazine named him one of the most influential people of the year for his broadcast work. And in 2008, the Zeta Pi Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate fraternity established by African Americans, awarded Enrique its Community Service Award for coverage of communities of color. In addition, the Minority Executive Directors Coalition honored him with its 2011 President’s Award and the Seattle Chapter of the National Latino Peace Officers Association awarded him its Outstanding Community Service Award in 2012. In 2013, he was inducted into the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences Northwest Chapter’s Silver Circle for his contributions to the television industry. In 2016, Enrique was honored by the U.S. Mexico Chamber of Commerce Northwest Chapter Executive Board for his coverage of Washington State’s Latino community and by AFP Advancement NW for his 15 years as emcee of National Philanthropy Day, Washington State’s largest celebration of philanthropy. In 2022, he was inducted into the WSU Murrow School of Communication Hall of Achievement.

Active in the community, Cerna was appointed to the WSU Board of Regents in March 2020 by Governor Jay Inslee. He also serves on the Board of KUOW public radio. Over the years, he served in numerous other boards such as the Washington State Historical Society Board of Trustees, the Yakima Valley Museum Board of Directors and King County Television’s Citizens Advisory Committee. Cerna also served on the boards of United Way of King County, the World Affairs Council of Seattle, Seattle City Club and the Chief Seattle Council’s Scout Reach program. He was the co-chair of the successful Plaza Roberto Maestas Capital Campaign which raised more than 40 million dollars to build low income affordable housing on Seattle’s Beacon Hill.

Enrique grew up in the central Washington community of Wapato. He is a 1975 graduate of Washington State University.

Celestina Barbosa-Leiker

• PhD in Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
• MS in Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
• BS in Psychology, Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA

Dr. Celestina Barbosa-Leiker is a Professor in the College of Nursing and Executive Vice Chancellor at Washington State University Health Sciences Spokane. Dr. Barbosa-Leiker’s research focuses on substance use in underserved populations. Her research has demonstrated gender differences in the measurement of opioid withdrawal, relapse while in treatment, and predictors of relapse. Her additional line of research focuses on the transition from pregnancy to parenthood in women with substance use disorders. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary research team to assess mothers, infants, and healthcare providers in order to better care for women with opioid use disorders, as well as for women using cannabis during pregnancy. Her NIH funding largely focuses on the link between psychological risk factors (stress, depression, and substance use), quality of life, community, and brain aging in American Indians. The results of these studies will help better educate healthcare providers, inform policy, and improve standards of care. Dr. Barbosa-Leiker has served in leadership positions at WSU for the past 7 years and is an elected board member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences. Dr. Barbosa-Leiker has been selected as a Notable Woman of STEM by Washington STEM, is a YWCA Woman of Distinction in STEM, and was awarded WSU’s Samuel H. Smith Leadership Award in 2022 in recognition of her demonstrated leadership in higher education.

Juan Garcia

• BA Hospitality Business Management WSU 2010

Juan Garcia was born in Cancun, Mexico and was five years old when he moved to Quincy, WA with his parents when they immigrated to Washington State. For his first job, he weeded bean fields to pay for school supplies. His parents encouraged him to pursue higher education so that he wouldn’t have to work in the agricultural industry. Their encouragement and the experience of working in the fields kept him moving forward. He is the oldest of three children, and the first in his family to earn a high school diploma and an undergraduate degree.

Before enrolling at WSU, Garcia  worked a full-time night shift at a food processing plant while attending classes at Wenatchee Valley Community College. Pursuing his associate’s degree was made more challenging because of the physical toll of working overnight. However, it prepared Garcia for WSU and gave him the time management skills required to maintain a job while enrolled at WSU. All of his hard work paid off when he was able to study abroad in Italy for a semester. Garcia immersed myself in a new culture, learned the language, and lived as one of the locals.

Today, Garcia is married and has two boys, aged three and five months. His family lives in Pullman, and he currently works as a business advisor at the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, serving the Palouse region. Additionally, he serves on a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee for the City of Pullman. The obstacles that Garcia has overcome have given him the opportunity to grow as an individual in all areas of life; he is very proud of it all.

Sonia Isabel Lopez-Lopez, PhD

• Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Technology
• Masters in Teaching
• Masters in Foreign Languages
• B.A in Education

Dr. Lopez-Lopez is a Spanish professor in the School of Languages, Cultures, and Race. She teaches Spanish for Heritage Speakers, Spanish for Vet Med Students, for Health professionals, and advanced grammar among other courses. Dr. Lopez-Lopez is the co-director of the Hearts in Motion, a study abroad program that takes students to Guatemala every year to volunteer in free clinics for underserved communities. She is also the head of the Spanish Section and the coordinator of the STAMP test for language minors and majors. Dr. Lopez-Lopez has served as the faculty co-chair for CLFSAA- Chicano, Latino Faculty, Staff, and Allies Association, and participates in La Bienvenida, and retention and recruitment fairs and activities around campus. Dr. Lopez-Lopez was the guest speaker for the closing ceremony at the C.A.S.H.E conference last year in Pullman.

Last April, Dr. Lopez-Lopez was recognized with the President’s Awards for Leadership, for her leadership and service at WSU. She is a student advocate who likes to get involved and to make a difference for our Latin and Hispanic community.

I am from Colombia and came to the United States back in 2004 to learn English. I come from a family of eight. My parents completed only second and third grades of elementary school. I am a first-generation student, and the only one in my family, including all my extended family, with a graduate school degree. Navigating college and graduate school life as a first-generation international Latina has not been easy. I am the mother of five children with a full-time job. I want my students to see me and have the reassurance that if I can do it, they can do it too.