UCDC Staff

Executive Director

Tanya Golash-Boza was appointed by the University of California, Office of the President as the third executive director of the University of California Washington program on October 3, 2022. She is a Washington, D.C. native and a Professor of Sociology at UC Merced.

Dr. Golash-Boza has chaired the UC Academic Senate Committee on Affirmative Action, Diversity, and Equity, the UC Merced Committee on Diversity and Equity, the American Sociological Association’s Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, UC Merced’s Reserve Committee on Academic Promotions, and the UC Merced Department of Public Health.

Dr. Golash-Boza has a deep commitment to undergraduate education and to equity and inclusion. She has taught numerous courses and published several books on race, racism, and immigration. She served as Chair of Undergraduate Studies in Sociology and founded the Racism, Capitalism, and the Law Lab at UC Merced. In 2019, she was the recipient of the UC Merced Senate Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentorship. In 2013, she received the UC Merced Academic Senate Award for Distinguished Scholarly Public Service.

Tanya Golash-Boza is a proud graduate of DC Public Schools. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in Philosophy and her masters and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 

Manager,

Academic Internship Team 

Jacob brings over a decade of experience in higher education that includes academic & career advising, teaching, designing & delivering experiential education programs, research, and directing nonpartisan efforts to empower college students to vote in local, state, and national elections. Additionally, he has interned and worked on several campaigns, interned at the U.S. Department of Education, and most recently worked at American University as an instructor and advisor.

Jacob is an alumnus of Iowa State University (’11), where he received his BA in Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies and then earned a MA in Higher Education Administration from The George Washington University (’13). Jacob is a PhD candidate in Higher Education at the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, and his research focuses on the adoption and sustainability of nonpartisan student voting initiatives on college and university campuses.

He and his partner live in the Park View neighborhood of Washington, DC, with their two pups. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, exploring DC restaurants, sharing DC’s vibrant history and culture with visiting friends and family, trivia, and living in the new golden age of television. Jacob is also the founder and an executive board member of Missouri Courage Scholarship, a nonprofit organization which acknowledges, affirms, and rewards the courage of college-bound high school seniors working to enhance the lives of LGBTQ+ people and advance social justice.

Internship Advisor,

Academic Internship Team (AIT)

Dione is a Birmingham, Alabama native, and she relocated to D.C. in 2018 to continue her work in higher education. She received her bachelor’s degree from Ashford University and a graduate certification in Leadership and Management from the University of Maryland.  In her spare time, Dione loves to travel and spend time with her family and friends.

Internship Advisor,

Academic Internship Team (AIT)

Marlee was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona and attended the University of California, Irvine where she majored in history. Participating in UCDC in Spring 2017 and interning at the Supreme Court of the US, Marlee is excited to be living and working in DC again. She enjoys spending her free time reading, listening to music, and hanging out with her friends and family.

Administrator of Academic Services 

Sabrin Said currently serves as the Administrator of Academic Services at UCDC, supporting the curricular side of the academic program. She assists students and instructors as they navigate courses, enrollment, grades, and everything in between.  She is a California native and a proud product of its public education system.  As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Sabrin discovered her passion for education.  After receiving her bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies she became the director of an educational access project that worked to ensure that the underrepresented populations of Los Angeles had access to institutions of higher education.  Sabrin later returned UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies for her master’s in Social Science and Comparative Education.  After completing her degree, she spent the following three years in the classroom at a small start-up high school in the Bay Area.  She now lives and enjoys everything that the DMV has to offer.

Senior Faculty

Manager,

Student Services

Debbie is a southern native from the Palmetto State. She earned her BA in Government and Sociology from Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC before moving to Bloomington, IN to get her MS in Education at Indiana University. Debbie has worked in the UC system (UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego) for almost nine years and had the privilege of participating in an unforgettable trip around the world with Semester at Sea.

Even though Howie – her 8-pound Chihuahua – is already giving her side-eye about winter, Debbie is excited to be back home on the east coast!

Assistant Manager,

Student Services

E’llecse is a California native who has spent their years in the Northern, Southern, and Central Coast parts of the state. They earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies with a minor in Black Studies from UC Santa Barbara, where they also spent the first two years of their professional career as an Assistant Resident Director. Through both her work and her studies, E’llecse has found great passion in the intersection of community, belonging, and environment. The desire for a new and unique experience (along with its charming, unbridled honesty) brought E’llecse to the East Coast ready to explore, invest, and empower more changemakers for a collectivist future.  

Coordinator of Student Development

Fabiola was born in Lomé, Togo. From Elementary school through college, she alternated between Santa Rosa, CA, and Lomé. She later transferred to UC San Diego where she earned her BA in International Studies and discovered her interest in communications. As a UCSD student, she studied abroad in Accra, Ghana (UCEAP) and interned with the Wilson Center, Africa Program as a remote UCDC student in fall 2020. After graduating, she moved to Togo for 1.5 years where she interned with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Togo and worked as the Marketing Manager of L’Atelier by Venavio, an event planning company. Fabiola is excited to finally be at UCDC in person. She can’t wait to visit all the historical sites, museums, and travel around the east coast.

Coordinator of Student Development

Rishika grew up in Montville, New Jersey, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her Bachelor of Science in Biology at UCLA. She was involved in student government, community service, and neuroscience research while at UCLA. Rishika has previously worked for USAC as Chief of Staff for the Community Service Commission, as a student researcher for the National Endowment for the Arts Research Labs, and as a Resident Assistant for two years with UCLA's

Office of Residence Life. During the summers, Rishika worked as a Summer Experience Leader for UCLA Summer

Sessions, inspiring high school students to pursue higher education. Rishika enjoys dancing in classical Indian and American street styles in her spare time. She can't wait to visit various brunch spots, cafes,

local snowboarding mountains, and historic sites in Washington D.C.!

Manager,

Campus Relations and External Affairs

Mike was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and spent nearly a decade living in Chico, CA attending, and then working at CSU, Chico before moving to Washington, DC in 2011. Mike currently serves as the Director of Promotions and Recruitment; managing all of the UCDC communications, promotional items, social media, and working with the campuses to recruit the best and brightest students for the program.

Prior to joining UCDC, he worked as a Study Abroad Advisor at his alma mater, CSU, Chico, as the East Coast University Relations Coordinator for the University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC), and as the Head of Global Partnerships with The Intern Group. He enjoys spending his free time cooking, traveling, listening to music, watching baseball games (Go SF Giants and Washington Nationals!!!) and enjoying time with his nephew, sister, family, and friends.   

Social Media and  Communications Specialist

Prior to her role as Social Media and Communications Specialist at UCDC, Ms. Hoyle served as the Communications and External Affairs Manager at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, the first and only public performing arts high school in DC. She served as the primary media contact for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and the Ellington Fund where she promoted the performances and fundraising events of these two entities; as well as supported the school’s strategic vision through media outreach, community outreach, and social media campaigns. In her free time, Tyler enjoys attending local cultural and art events around DC, trying new food, and spending time with friends and family.

Manager,

Facilities

Mac Hamlett serves as the Manager of Building and Housing Services.  In this capacity, he oversees the Parking, Events, Residential Services, Information & Technology, and Facilities of UCDC.  Mac has been with UCDC for more than 19 years.  He received his bachelor’s degree from Randolph-Macon College.  In his spare time, Mac operates as a role player and surveillance role player for multiple private contractors providing training support for clients.

Facilities Coordinator

Manager,

Finance & Administration

Budget Analyst

Melissa was born in Sacramento, California, and raised in Davis, California. She lived there for 35 years, and then moved to Maryland to be closer to family. Before joining UCDC as a Finance Analyst, most of her professional career was in the veterinary field where she worked as a Veterinary Technician helping our furry friends. Most recently her career has shifted to the accounting and finance field where Melissa can pursue her passion for numbers. With her next car she hopes to have 11235 on the license plate, which is the first five numbers of Fibonacci Sequence. In her free time, she enjoys hand quilting and other crafts, as well as watching movies, gardening, babysitting her indoor plants, baseball, spending time with her two grown daughters, and her not so nice 6 year old Chihuahua mix, Bella. Grrrr…

Manager, IT

Network Engineer

Systems Administrator

Network Services Administrator