Project HOPE Staff

Meet the Project HOPE Staff

Dr. Chace Tydell, Pre-health Coach - Dr. C. Chace Tydell earned her doctoral degree from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. She was a veterinarian for 15 years in LA and Orange County in the specialty of small animal emergency and critical care. Motivated by her interest in the role of the immune system in health and disease, Dr. Tydell accepted a post-doctoral post at in the medical school at UC Irvine where she identified a novel anti-bacterial protein of the mammalian immune system. On the strength of this work, Professor Tydell was awarded a 5-year NIH research grant at the California Institute of Technology. At the end of her research appointment, Dr. Tydell began teaching at Caltech, Occidental College and Pasadena City College. She has been part of the full-time faculty at Cerritos College for four years, teaching anatomy, physiology and biology. Professor Tydell also maintains her position as lecturer in physiology at the California Institute of Technology. She is a member of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions. In her new role at Cerritos, Chace is intent on maximizing the success of our pre-health students by serving their academic and career needs.To download a copy of Dr. Tydell's pre-health advising curriculum vitae, please click on the following link: Dr. C. Tydell, Pre-health Advising Curriculum Vitae (CV). 

Rocio Casillas, Counselor - received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Southern California and a Masters of Arts degree in Counseling from Loyola Marymount University.  She has been counseling at the community college level since 2000.  After completing her education, she worked as a part-time counselor at Santa Monica College, Fullerton College, and Santa Ana College before coming to Cerritos College.  In 2003, she came to Cerritos College as the full-time Project HOPE Counselor.  In 2005, she made a move to central counseling.  She is now one of the Health Occupations Counselors as well as the co-counselor for the Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Division.  Along with these duties, she also counsels TS3P students and does online counseling for the college.  Recently she was elected Instructional co-chair. She teaches Counseling 10, 50 and 200 as part of the Learning Communities program.

Danylle Williams-Manser, Program Assistant II - received her Associate of Arts degree in General Education and Political Science from Cerritos College, her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Psychology from California State University Dominguez Hills and her Master of Arts in Political Science from California State University Long Beach. In addition, she holds teaching credentials in Social Science and English. She has ten years of teaching experience, a job which not only involved daily classroom instruction and all of its numerous related duties, but also encompassed everything from curriculum and program development to fundraising, as well. In 2008, Mrs. Williams-Manser was hired as a Program Assistant II at Cerritos College for the Adult Education Department to help run the Building Trades and Construction Industry Pre-apprenticeship Program, then in 2009, she became part of the Pathway Programs Department in which she helped conduct community outreach for the department's various programs and assisted with the development of promotional materials and the organization/coordination of various events/projects, many of which were geared toward high school seniors and out of school youth. In July of 2010, Mrs. Williams-Manser became the Program Assistant II for Project HOPE, where she assists with the daily operations of the program.