La Casa has two full-time professional staff members that help set the vision of the center, which is heavily influenced by current student needs while honoring the center’s history and legacy. La Directora and the Associate Director supervise La Casa’s student staff, advise affiliate student organizations, support individual students, manage center operations, host events and programs, engage in collaborations across campus, serve on a variety of committees, and much more.
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Eileen M. Galvez Directora of La Casa Cultural (Pronouns: She/Her/Hers/Ella) Eileen Galvez is an Assistant Dean at Yale College and has been Directora of Yale’s La Casa Cultural de Julia de Burgos: the Latine Cultural Center since 2015. She is Salvadoran American, making her the first Central American director of La Casa. She is a first-generation college graduate, and grew up low-income in South Central Los Angeles. In her role, Eileen brings a wealth of experience having worked for nearly fifteen years passionately advocating for students, working alongside them, and partnering with faculty, staff, alumni, and community members. Eileen is a scholar-practitioner, and is a Ph.D. candidate of Higher Education at Colorado State University. Her scholarly work examines colonial functions of the academy, and she centers Central American epistemologies, histories, cultural practices, and knowledge production to inform her analysis. Eileen holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.Ed. in Counseling & Guidance from Texas State University. |
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Maryam Parhizkar Interim Assistant Director of La Casa Cultural (Pronouns: She/Her/Hers/Ella) Transitioning into interim role as of July 2024, covering for Associate Director while on parental leave. Maryam joins La Casa as Interim Assistant Director in Fall 2024. While a Ph.D. candidate in the departments of American Studies and African American Studies, she has worked with Yale students as a Teaching Fellow; Graduate Writing Fellow in the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning; and Graduate Affiliate with Ezra Stiles College. She also holds over a decade of work experience in the cultural sector in New York City, advocating in various capacities for artists across mediums committed to social justice. In addition to being a scholar of race, empire and aesthetics, she is an accomplished poet and occasional literary editor.
Maryam holds a B.A. in English from Columbia University and an M.A. in American Studies from the CUNY Graduate Center. Born and raised in Houston, Texas to working-class Salvadoran and Iranian parents, she has resided in the northeast for nearly two decades.
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Carolina Dávila Associate Director of La Casa Cultural (Pronouns: She/Her/Hers/Ella) On parental leave as of August 2024 until further notice. Carolina joined La Casa and Yale in June 2017 as Assistant Director and was promoted to Associate Director in April 2022. She is a Davenport fellow and manages certain operations and planning opportunities for the Student Engagement unit. From April 2020 until April 2021, she was an Interim Program Manager for Student Organization at Yale College. Carolina is involved with professional organizations, such as NASPA and ACPA, focusing her engagement in equity- and identity-based opportunities. Prior to Yale, Carolina was a Residence Hall Director at the University of Connecticut (UConn) in Storrs, CT. Carolina became a mami in summer 2021 and is expecting bebé numero dos summer 2024. Inspired by her own transition into parenthood and the support she received, Carolina became a certified doula in August 2023. With an increasing interest in supporting sutdent-parents in higher education, Carolina worked with the Office of Facilities to install a baby-changing station in La Casa’s ADA bathroom. Carolina is Afro Boricua, a native of Puerto Rico via Boston, and identifies as a first-generation low-income college graduate. Carolina received her bachelor’s degree in Communication Disorders with a minor in Spanish from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. |
