Alumni Spotlight: Meet Sandy Oliver Lopez Najera, PhD, building dreams and community

Sandy Oliver Lopez Najera, PhD has received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Award from Chapman University, honoring his outstanding work promoting community empowerment. Lopez Najera is an alumnus of the Doctor of Philosophy in Biostatistics program in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at Keck School of Medicine of USC. He is currently an instructional associate professor of mathematics, and coordinator for inclusive excellence, at Schmid College of Science and Technology at Chapman University.

Lopez Najera is an experienced statistician who has worked across industry and academia, and bringing people together and lifting them up is a calling he is passionate about. At USC, Lopez Najera co-founded the Graduate Society for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, a student organization which has grown to include dozens of members and provides a peer community to graduate and undergraduate students. At Chapman, he has spearheaded campus education following federal policy changes, brought in partnerships with pipeline programs serving local youth, and is serving the local community as an advocate for access to higher education. Wherever he goes, Lopez Najera becomes known for his wealth of knowledge, compassion, and skills in community-building, and he has shaped his career as a vessel to help others.

Can you tell us about your recent Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Award?

The award highlights the efforts of someone that embodies Dr. King’s goals for inclusion. I was nominated by one of my colleagues, and by three students that wrote letters of support for me. One of the students wrote about the mentorship that I provided him outside of class – life mentorship, not just on how to be a good math student. How can we be better people? How can I support you in your professional development goals? Tell me about your family. Anything that you want to process out loud that I can support you with? I try to be there for students that can identify something in me that makes them feel safe, or that makes them feel like they can reach out to me.

How do you initially connect with those students?

I try to get all my students to realize how capable they are, because I typically see non-STEM majors in my classes. I offer a semester project, and an opportunity to present at the Student Scholar Symposium at the end of the semester for extra credit. Sometimes in office hours students might share some personal detail that allows me to envision how I could support them in the realm of my academic role. I try to learn about students’ lives, and if they trust me then a mentorship relationship can begin if they’re open to it. For example, last semester there was a student that was struggling attending class. Anytime students are struggling with attendance, I send them a personal message. I’m not going to judge them for their lack of attendance. I remind them to let me know if there’s anything I can do to support. I kind of had a feeling that the student might be struggling with something at home. So, one day when I did see them in person, I said, ‘hey, is everything okay?’ I think sometimes that’s all they need to really open up. I want to help because I see myself in their struggles, and how hard it is to have your personal life, and then also try to do well in school. I understand that. I want to be a support so that they can go through the process, graduate, be whole and right, and have effective strategies to manage their stress so that they don’t create more damage as they’re trying to achieve.

How did you come to be known on campus?

Very early on, in 2017, I hosted educational forums for the campus community to learn about policy changes taking place. I was educating our campus community on what that means, and on how that’s going to affect students that are currently at Chapman, or incoming students. I held a few forums like that. I also collaborated with campus partners so that we could come up with ways to educate our community and to provide support to this complicated issue. I think that was probably how I began to build a reputation on campus.

“My goal is to bring the campus to the community and bring the community to campus.”

-Sandy Oliver Lopez Najera, PhD

Has helping people and creating community always been something you have been drawn to?

Yes, it always has been. One of my mottos is “If it isn’t there, bring it.” Early on, I worked at a nonprofit organization – back then it was named the Achievement Institute of Scientific Studies, but they recently changed their name to the Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars. It’s a nonprofit organization that recruits students from Santa Ana Unified, which is our neighboring school district. Their purpose is to introduce under resourced students to STEM careers and majors, and to help with college readiness. So, not only are students familiar with a career and a major that they could pursue, but also, how to go about the process. Where do you apply? How do you apply? What is admissions? What is financial aid? All those things. So, as soon as I started at Chapman, I started figuring out ways to bring that organization to campus. My goal is to bring the campus to the community and bring the community to campus. Then we’re good neighbors and partners with our surrounding community. It’s one of the reasons I pursued a PhD – there’s a different level of access and credibility, and I can use that to create some good in my community.

How did you first find biostatistics?

I was in a master’s program in applied mathematics, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I was waiting for something to come through. One of the required courses was biostatistics, and the professor mentioned that if any of us would be interested in pursuing a higher degree in biostatistics, that he knows a man by the name of Stan Azen at USC, and that we could be referred to him. So, I thought, sure why not? I met with Dr. Azen soon after that, and he told me, ‘You seem like a nice guy, and you’re definitely qualified for this program, so I’m gonna help you the best way I can.’ And that was it. I remember walking away from that meeting with such a sense of relief. When I started the program, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. Then I took a course with Dr. Mark Krailo, and said, ‘This is it, clinical trials and research.’ I always want to help people, so I thought I could use whatever skill set I’m developing to help, for example, a community find effective therapies for different conditions that may be afflicting them. I convinced Dr. Krailo to be my mentor, and to this day we still meet to catch up or collaborate, and we’ve become friends. I did work in industry as a biostatistician for about seven years right after graduating, so I did fulfill that desire to contribute to scientific discoveries that could potentially be beneficial for people. I’m grateful for that and for my experience at USC. In addition to the faculty, the staff members created a lot of impactful change for me, finding avenues and resources throughout my time there. They are where a lot of the heart of the institutional community lies, and I’m so appreciative. Biostatistics has opened many doors of opportunity to serve for me. For example, I’ve been a non-affiliated scientific board member of the Southern California Kaiser Institutional Review Board since 2014, helping protect human subjects in research.

What is something that you enjoy about your current position?

Interacting with the students. I have the opportunity to help students change the way they think about the world, and to become critical in the way they select the information they consume. I tell my upper division students – specifically the STEM majors – that either they are currently in a position now, or they will be soon, where people will depend on them to translate scientific, complicated information in a way that the general public can understand so that they can make informed choices, and better decisions about their livelihood. I take that responsibility very seriously in the examples I bring to class.

What advice do you have for students who might want to follow in your footsteps?

You shouldn’t compare yourself to what you see in others’ paths. Sometimes other peoples’ career paths seem very linear, like they figured it out, or like they got a break, and it almost seems impossible from your perspective to repeat the process. I think everybody has different challenges and things that they need to overcome. One day your path is going to seem very linear and easy to others because of all the problem solving and things that you figured out along the way. It took me 15 years from the time I graduated high school to finally get a PhD, so don’t be discouraged. One of the things my dad used to tell me when I would be really down is, ‘One day this is going to change, and you will either arrive there with very little preparation, and nothing to show for the time that you’ve been waiting, or that moment could come, and you could be ready to take advantage of all the opportunities.’ So, I chose to stay ready.