WHY DID YOU BECOME A POLITICAL SCIENTIST?
I was first inspired to become a political scientist while an undergraduate at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (UIUC), where I received outstanding mentorship from Professors Dianne Pinderhughes (*Notre Dame), Louis Desipio (*University of California, Irvine) and Todd Shaw (*University of South Carolina). Over twenty years since first meeting these scholars who changing my life, I still pinch myself that I now call them colleagues in our discipline. Prior to pursuing a doctorate, I completed a Master of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and interned at the United States Government Accountability Office (formerly the U.S. General Accounting Office) in Washington, D.C. However, I decided to become a political scientist to have the autonomy to conduct research and teach others about the socio-economic and political issues affecting the lives of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. 

WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF BEING A POLITICAL SCIENTIST? HOW?
In 2015, I became the first woman of color to earn tenure and promotion in the Political Science Department at UCLA. The academic pipeline for people of color in our profession continues to be one of the most challenging aspects of being a political scientist.  This is because for many departments, diversity and inclusion still equals one or perhaps a few faculty of color. This challenges scholars of color to proactively balance their research and teaching goals with broad service demands and intense mentorship of graduate and undergraduates, both inside and outside of their discipline. I work collaboratively to provide opportunities for the next generation of scholars to enter academia, to thrive and to successfully earn tenure. At the undergraduate level, I co-founded The Dianne M. Pinderhughes Foundation , (DMPF, Inc.), a non-profit organization named after APSA’s first African American female President. The nonprofit provides multiple scholarships for undergraduate students, of all backgrounds, to attend and present their research at the Annual Meeting of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS). We hope to inspire a new generation of undergraduates to consider a career of teaching and research at the College/University level. In addition to working with our outstanding students at UCLA, I work with a team of researchers to build the academic pipeline of scholars in political science, and the social sciences more broadly through bringing together a multidisciplinary group of researchers at varying stages of their academic careers as part of a research cooperative. The 2016 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) was the first cooperative, 100% user content driven, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, post-election online survey in race, ethnicity and politics (REP) in the United States. We queried more than 10,000 people in five languages — English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. To include the most comprehensive list of over 350 electoral, civic and policy-related survey questions, a team of 86 contributors from 55 colleges and universities contributed question content. Participating cooperative scholars include junior and senior faculty from small and large research institutions, HBCUs and HSIs, as well as graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Building the pipeline is more than just talk about diversity and inclusion. It is a commitment of time, resources and outreach.