Alba K. Estrada López

Alba K. Estrada López was born in Sinaloa, Mexico. When she was nearly a year old, her family immigrated to the small, agricultural town of Greenfield in the Central Coast of California. Alba then attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she graduated (2018) with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and double minor in Mexican Studies and Spanish.

During her time at UCLA, Alba carefully chose work-study and volunteering experiences that allowed her to focus her social justice efforts around normalizing and increasing access to higher education to underprivileged students from marginalized communities. Key experiences included being a member and director of: Projecting Minds, an after-school non-profit that mentored inner-city elementary school students; the Community Activities Committee, a funding committee for student volunteer organizations; and the Center for Community College Partnerships, an organization that aims to increase the success of community college students within four-year institutions.Through her multidisciplinary undergraduate education and first-hand experiences, Alba began to understand the intersectionality between science, education, social justice and the lack thereof in certain communities. 

In her second year as a Conservation Educator at Point Blue Conservation Science, Alba will be continuing her influence in making Students and Teachers Restoring A Watershed (STRAW) program's environmental education more inclusive and culturally relevant. Among other amazing experiences, Alba will continue to lead and improve full class lessons and restoration days in Spanish and coordinate the second year of her fellowship capstone pilot project, a project aimed at uplifting the diversity found in community colleges to the environmental field by providing a summer internship to serve as a career pipeline. Her second year will include developing new partnerships as well, as Alba was selected for Youth Outside's Rising Leaders Fellowship, a year long program that aids educators in designing and understanding the intention of culturally relevant curriculum. 

In her free time, Alba enjoys a good science-fiction book and show, discovering good music and art, and since moving to Sonoma County, enjoys the very accessible natural wonders, and can (occasionally, not frequently enough to say often) find her checking for ticks on a hiking trail.