Meet our staff

Mariel Martin
Director of Student Diversity Programs
518-580-8212
mailto:mariel@skidmore.edu

Mariel received her B.A. in Sociology from Shippensburg University and her Master's Degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. She is excited to embark on her eighth year at Skidmore as Director of Student Diversity Programs. Over the past seven years, Mariel has worked in Residential Life and taught classes about oppression in the U.S. and a First-Year Seminar Course about the history of diversity at Skidmore and within higher education. Her research and academic background focus on educational experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth and motherhood, role negotiation and kinship formation in lesbian-parented families. Most recently, Mariel's interests include anti-racism strategies, issues of whiteness and privilege, and the intersections of race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Stop by Case Center 224 and meet her!

Victoria Malaney
OSDP Fellow
518-580-8213
vmalaney@skidmore.edu

Victoria Malaney received her B.A. cum laude in English-Spanish and minored in Dance & Latin American Studies from Skidmore College. At Skidmore, Victoria was peer-facilitator in the Intergroup Relations Program. After college, Victoria enrolled in the national community service program, AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) in Albany, NY. During her first year as an AmeriCorps*VISTA, she worked a Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany and developed a re-entry mentoring program for women coming out of incarceration in Rensselaer County, NY. Additionally, she wrote several local and federal grants for their basic needs programs. Victoria committed to a second year of national service fighting poverty as an AmeriCorps*VISTA Leader at Siena College in the Office of Academic Community Engagement where she served as the Coordinator for Training and Enrichment. Victoria is passionate about social justice and is thrilled to be back at Skidmore as a Fellow in the Office of Student Diversity Programs. In her spare time she loves to dance ballet, travel, and spend time with family.

Jovany Andujar '13
Student Assistant

Jovany was born and raised in New York City, living in the neighborhood of Harlem. Much of Jovany's time at Skidmore has been spent engaging with diversity and social justice issues. As a senior sociology major, he has spent much of his academic studies focused on gender/sexuality and race issues. He was a facilitator for the Intergroup Relations (IGR) program in 2010-2011. Due to his positive experience with the program he will be minoring in IGR. He has also worked with student clubs since his first year at Skidmore, as an eboard member of both Raices and the Skidmore Pride Alliance. He has been with Raices for four years and has held various positions on the eboard. His work with the club has been one of his greatest accomplishments at Skidmore. He is also currently the SGA VP of Diversity Affairs and chairs the Committee On Diversity Affairs where he and its members help plan various diversity related events and initiatives. He is an avid fan of television and enjoys almost all forms of reality TV.

Regina Ellis '13
Student Assistant

Regina was born in Jamaica, West Indies and raised in Queens, NY. She is majoring in Sociology and is a candidate for the IGR minor. Additionally, she is a member of Ujima Step Team and United Minds.

Attending Skidmore College has made the intersections between her race, ethnicity, immigrant and gender identities more salient. Regina works for OSDP because its mission to create a pluralistic and inclusive environment is her vision for this world. Additionally, OSDP provides a space for her to unravel and grapple with the many systematic and institutional forms of oppression that plagues our environment. Regina’s sociological interests include social identities, environmental and food justice, and how power/social control operates. She has studied abroad in Ghana and hopes to travel to Southern Asia very soon. Her short-term goal is to create films from her perspective that educate, decolonize our minds, and challenges the social systems and institutions we live in. Her ultimate goal is to use her musical (this girl can saaang) and visual artistic talents to distort the normative, hegemonic lenses that many may see the world through.

Regina likes to hug small & large cuddly animals and likes the colors blue, yellow, green, and orange. She also loves to meet new people – so if you wanna have random chit-chat sessions about social justice –or life in general, please stop by.

Danny Pforte grew up in East Cambridge, MA and attended the public high school Cambridge Rindge and Latin.  His experience at Skidmore has transformed his political consciousness toward Marxist and 'third world' decolonization and revolution. Danny works for OSDP because it provides him with one space where he can openly pursue these interests. His major in social work and he loves to read about politics, play basketball, and learn from others. He also loves political organizing. Danny helps organize and lead The United Minds on campus. Most of his work attempts to place an antiracism and anticolonialism to a class analysis.  After college he plans on seeking employment in social work or the labor movement while also doing grassroots political work whenever possible. Some other fun facts about Danny: He loves cute animals, he want to travel to Cuba, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe, and he considers the liberation of all people worth dying for.

"If you stop struggling, then you stop life." - Huey P. Netwon

Regina Shepherd '14
Student Assistant

Regina is a native New Yorker from the Bronx. As a Skidmore student she is studying to receive her B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy.

Her areas of interest include "race" relations and inequality. She has found that an understanding of the nature of truth is integral to an understanding of how one exists in the world - that it is our constant confrontation and unfamiliarity with truth that first stimulates our affinity to it. On her search for truth she has found that things promoting honest, loving interaction are fertile ground for the evolution of humanity and is even more crucial to ending the suffering and oppression devouring our world.

She also spends her time thinking critically about the future of the world and the potentialities of the younger generation to affect the trajectory of history. Her experiences in higher education have led her to question the interaction between the collegiate setting and how it affects the trajectory of the lives of students as well as those that are not exposed to higher education. Being exposed to the opportunities afforded by higher education, she has become concerned about the young minds that have not had the opportunity to develop in the direction of self-improvement, specifically in inner-city environments. This particular demographic of young men and women are denied the opportunity to play and grow intellectually because of the conditions they live in, ultimately leaving them victim to a violent cycle that perpetuates oppression. In her free time she enjoys researching facts about leopards and employing different methods of thinking in the brainstorming of solutions for the young minds that hold a most bleak and unpromising future on their shoulders. The time she spends as a Skidmore student is key to her finding practical ways to combat the shroud of hopelessness looming above the world that threatens to decimate the promise of her generation.

 "The condition of truth is allowing suffering to speak." -Cornel West