Message from the President

Bianca L. Guzmán, PhD, is currently the director of Go East LA, a presidential campus initiative promoting college and career success in the "pre-school through 20" educational pipeline on the east side of Los Angeles administered out of the Center for Engagement, Service, and Public Good at California State University Los Angeles (Cal State LA).

Guzman is an ecological community psychologist who received her doctoral degree from Michigan State University. She is the former chair of Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies at Cal State LA. In 1987, Guzmán founded a non-profit organization called Choices.  The main goal of the Choices program is to promote health and education in Latino communities. Choices is an active program on the campus of Cal State LA and students participate as research assistants, interns and community engagement volunteers. Guzman is currently a senior research fellow at Boston University at the Massachusetts Institute for College and Career Readiness (MICCR) where she works with the District of Barnstable on Cape Cod to examine how individualized learning programs contribute to student success. 

Guzmán has written numerous articles that have been published in peer reviewed journals in her three primary research areas:  substance use; sexual health; and educational outcomes - or as she refers to them, "drugs, sex and honor role." She has also edited a book entitled "Latina Girls: Voices of Adolescent Health in the U.S." 

Guzmán is a product of a public school education in California. She attended California State University, Los Angeles and received both a Bachelor’s degree in developmental psychology and a Master’s degree in social psychology. Guzmán was born in Guatemala and was an undocumented student throughout her elementary and high school years. 

Finally, Guzmán has two daughters. Her oldest daughter attends UC Santa Cruz and her youngest daughter attends the Los Angeles County for the Arts High School located on the campus of Cal State LA.