Elma Gonzalez

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Good mentors are often defined more by what they give than by who they are. But occasionally, effective mentoring flows from a teacher’s credentials, both personal and professional, as is the case with Elma González, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, who is the inaugural winner of the Distinguished Teaching Award for undergraduate mentorship.

An ethnic Mexican who picked crops as a child, González overcame almost Promethean odds to go to college, eventually earning a Ph.D. and dedicating her life to research and teaching. For almost 10 years, she has been the director of UCLA’s Minority Access to Research Careers program, a federal plan that provides financial support to 12 UCLA undergraduates annually, helping them prepare for graduate and doctoral studies.

Having successfully undertaken such a journey herself, González has a remarkable ability to advise students about the benefits of higher education. “Her passion for the longest time has been involving underrepresented students with the concept of graduate study,” said Judith L. Smith, vice provost for undergraduate education. “Many of these students don’t have family members who have gone on to graduate studies, and she is very effective at building with them a culture of both understanding and expectation.”

— Ajay Singh, UCLA Today