Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Showing 1-50 of 78 Results
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Carlos Valencia
Undergraduate, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
BioCarlos Valencia was born in 2006 in Camarillo, California. He is determined to change the world. Carlos graduated from Adolfo Camarillo High School in 2024 and is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree at Stanford.
Carlos loves learning about robotic technology and has worked on numerous projects related to the field. Most notably, in the summer of 2024, he worked with L5 Automation, a robotics company based in La Cañada, CA, in Olmos, Peru where he helped develop harvesting platforms for one of the largest agriculture producers in Peru.
Outside of robotics, Carlos enjoys volunteering and public speaking. In 2022, he delivered a TEDx speech titled "Avocados Rot," detailing the importance of valuing opportunities in life. In 2022 he was awarded the Bronze Volunteer Award from the American Red Cross for his volunteer contributions. Additionally in 2023, Carlos was named Camarillo Youth of the Year.
Carlos plans to develop adequate education for future generations. He also enjoys playing soccer, running, and hiking. He hopes to uplift those around him and make the world a better place. -
Eric Van Danen
Director of Communications, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Current Role at StanfordDirector of Communications, Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE)
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Cassaundra Vergel
Senior Committee and Project Manager, VPO PGP Operations
BioCassie Vergel is a Senior Committee and Project Manager in the Vice Provost's Office in VPUE. Prior to her current position, she worked as a Committee and Project Manager in Residential Programs in VPUE and served as a Program Associate in Residential Education supporting the dorms in Stern.
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Kirsten Isabel Verster
COLLEGE Lecturer
BioHumanities Resume:
TBD
Teaching Resume: TBD
PhD/Science:
While most of us are familiar with vertical transfer (e.g. I get genes from my father and mother), I find horizontal gene transfer (HGT) - exchanging genes between species - far more compelling. Imagine if you ate a jellyfish and the next day you glowed in the dark and had poisonous stingers! The prevalence of HGT in natural history, and its ability to suddenly create incredible phenotypes in animals, is becoming more apparent every year. I am currently studying HGT of cytolethal distending toxin B in insects in the Integrative Biology Department at University of California - Berkeley. I discovered that cdtB was transferred into the genomes of several drosophilid and aphid lineages (Verster et al 2019, Molecular Biology and Evolution). I also recently found that cdtB (in addition to other toxin genes) was transferred into an agriculturally devastating clade of insects known as midges - and, interestingly, that living in the same habitat may increase the likelihood of HGT between organisms (Verster and Tarnopol et al 2021, Genome Biology and Evolution).
Education
BA, Spanish Literature, University of Florida, 2014
BA, Zoology, University of Florida, 2014
PhD, University of California - Berkeley, 2022
Postdoc, Stanford University, 2022 - 2024
COLLEGE Lecturer, 2024-present
