Essay: How do you identify? Tell us about your background and/or heritage (350 words).

I identify as a Mexican female from a rural town on the U.S.-Mexico Border. My background is between countries, cultures, languages, and customs. My roots run deep in northern Mexico and southern Arizona. I value my role as a daughter, neighbor, leader, and community member.

I identify as a first-generation college student. I come from a long line of scientists tied to their environment through intergenerational knowledge. Yet, I am privileged because I had the opportunity to obtain a formal education. This characteristic sets me apart from my relatives.

I identify as a community member from an environmental justice community that frequently experiences helicopter research, where researchers come and go, and nothing changes for these communities. The experience influenced me to become an environmental scientist, passionate about community-engaged methodologies. A handful of well-published articles argue that people like me must lead justice research.

I identify as that female scientist who generates friction in academia. I enter the Ivory Tower, and mouths murmur and shoulders shrug. My hair is labeled "unruly" by beauty corporations, my vocabulary is labeled "informal" by university gatekeepers, and my research is labeled "soft" by scientific colleagues. These are my assets and my advantages.

I have identified as an agent of change since I was a young adult attending Arizona's poorest performing high school. I do this naturally because of where I am from and what I have seen living in a place that bridges two distinctive economies and hosts numerous environmental issues. Because of this, I innately relate to communities in the field, and I do not innately relate to the scientific elite in meetings.

I am an interdisciplinary scientist because I learned various disciplines, which I believe are necessary to tackle the overwhelming multifaceted problems facing environmental justice communities.

I am a female scientist with more to say than the words I have typed in peer-reviewed journals.

I am a science leader with the privilege to pave the way for others that feel unruly, informal, and soft at times.