Integrity, Consistency, Strength through Coalition

Tara-Lynne Pixley for GSA Vice President for Diversity, Service, Equity and Inclusion

 

An East Coast native, Tara Pixley grew up in Atlanta and lived in several Southern cities prior to moving to San Diego. As a first-generation college student and child of Jamaican immigrant parents, she has always considered education and citizenship integral to social responsibility. As such, Tara has been committed to working within student governments and service organizations since elementary school.  Tara has a breadth of experience in various industries including theatre and dance but has been a professional journalist for seventeen years, working as a writer, copy editor, photographer and editor. Most recently she was a photo editor for Newsweek and CNN.com.

 

Tara came to UCSD after earning an MFA in Photography and MA in Arts Administration from Savannah College of Art and Design. After working for numerous news publications and teaching Media Literacy and Photography to students ranging in age from 8-60, Tara became determined to effect change in both documentary/journalistic production and media education. Following this revelation, she headed to a PhD program in hopes of infiltrating the inner annals of the ivory tower. She is currently a third year Communications PhD student at UCSD. Her research in the fields of TV, film and documentary studies looks at contemporary visual journalism industry practices/practitioners and considers the role of the visual media producer in sociocultural construction/dissemination.

 

Tara became a GSA rep in 2013 and a member of the Diversity Committee, Childcare Oversight Committee and Cultural Student Organization Council in 2014. She was driven to participate in the student governing bodies of the university, to represent parents and underprivileged groups who frequently get lost in the UC system’s political machine.  In the last two years she has worked with the Graduate Division Climate and Grad Life Interns to plan and implement multiple parent-focused events, University Centers events, diversity-focused talks and networking dinners.  She has worked closely with the VP DSEI and GSA reps to identify issues affecting grad parents and to institute policy changes that will positively affect the lives of the student parents and their children.  If elected as VP DSEI, Tara will build on her relationships with the Graduate Division, the VC EDI’s office, GSA, Diversity Committee and the Cultural Student Organization Council, utilizing those partnerships to produce a more equitable social and academic environment for all graduate students. Furthermore, she will work to bridge gaps in administration/grad student, faculty/grad, undergrad/grad and Humanities/STEM relationships, emphasizing the power of compromise and community to make this university an example of how to achieve strength and excellence through diversity.