Meet the BE-STELLAR Mentor 5

Meet the Be-stellar mentor 5 

Dan Dekraker

BE-STELLAR Mentor (2021-present)

Daniel DeKraker is a full-time faculty member and chair of the Earth Science Department. Prior to working at Cerritos College, Daniel taught high school earth science, biology, and chemistry. He also serves with the American Meteorology Society offering K-12 teachers graduate-level courses in Meteorology, Climate Science, and Oceanography.  He loves helping his students use real-time data to better understand the Earth System.


Tor Lacy

BE-STELLAR Mentor (2021-present)

Tor Björn Lacy is a tenured professor of geology at Cerritos College. He has led the Earth Science as Department Chair, served on various committees, and is currently serving his third term as a Faculty Senator. He also works with the Teacher TRAC program teaching future teachers and students in the President Scholars Academy, mentoring students as part of the BE-STELLAR program, and developing middle school and high school faculty professional development workshops. Tor recently wrote a field trip guidebook,Earth Science Field Trips in Southern California, and teaches the class Geology: Creation of the Joshua Tree Landscape through the Desert Institute of Joshua Tree.His goal as an educator is to deliver inclusive and comprehensible instruction that helps his students appreciate why Earth looks the way it does and what drives the physical changes to Earth’s surface over time. With this greater understanding of the workings of Earth, he hopes students will gain a deeper appreciation for our amazingly unique planet, which will motivate them to be environmental stewards.Tor was raised in Whittier, transferring from Rio Hondo Community College to earn a BS in Geology at UCSB. After working as an environmental and engineering geologist for three years, he accepted an offer to teach science at Katherine Edwards Middle School. During his seven years at ”Edwards,” Tor attended graduate school at CSULB to earn a teaching credential and an MS in Geology. This extraordinarily demanding period of his life, teaching full time by day and going to school at night while researching during summers, resulted in tremendous intellectual and professional growth, which in turn, lead to being hired as a full-time professor at Cerritos, a position he had once referred to as “the dream job.”Tor lives in Long Beach with his wife and two children. He loves outdoor activities, like hiking, surfing, camping, and traveling, as well as listening to music, socializing with friends, and watching the Dodgers and Lakers.


Nicole Iwaz

BE-STELLAR Mentor (2021-present)

Nicole Iwaz is a full-time faculty member in the Earth Science Department. Prior to discovering her passion for teaching, she worked as a geologic technician aboard an oceanographic research vessel and as a geologist at an environmental consulting firm. She then found her dream job teaching at Cerritos College. She loves helping her students gain a better understanding of the world around them and supporting their journey toward achieving their goals. 


Scottie Henderson

BE-STELLAR Mentor (2021)(2022)

Scottie Henderson (Dine´) was destined to be a science geek.  His father named him after his favorite engineer character on Star Trek.  When Scottie was very young, his family lived in Hawaii for 3 years, where he spent countless hours exploring tidepools with his mom. Scottie started his undergraduate education in his hometown of Espanola, New Mexico.  While at Northern New Mexico Community College (now Northern NM College) he realized that he wanted to focus on the biological sciences. After graduating from NNMCC he applied and was accepted into the University of California at Santa Cruz where he declared Marine Biology as his major.  Scottie was later accepted into the Ph.D. program at the University of Washington in Seattle where he studied marine invertebrate life histories. He spent the next several years at the beautiful UW Friday Harbor Marine Laboratories studying weird and wonderful organisms.  
 
Throughout his educational career Scottie realized how important it was for him to work closely with his mentors.  He has participated in various activities that focus on mentoring undergraduates and graduates.  He has been a member of SACNAS (the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science) since he was an undergraduate at UCSC and has had students that he worked with present at SACNAS and other scientific conferences. 
 
Currently, Scottie is Chair of the Biology Department at Cerritos College with an adjunct appointment at California State University Fullerton.


Alejandra Calderon

BE-STELLAR Mentor (2022-present)

Alejandra Lopez Calderon is a member of the Mathematics department at Cerritos College. She is a Mexican immigrant who was a Cerritos College student for 5 years. During this time, Alex started working as a math tutor, discovered her passion for teaching and changed her major to math. She went on to receive a B.S. in Pure Mathematics and a M.S. in Applied Mathematics. 

She has worked with various programs at Cerritos College since 2012: as a tutor for the Math Success Center, as an instructional aid for the Math Learning Center, as a tutor/mentor for the summer program Stats in Motion, and now as a math instructor, Math Club advisor and Be-Stellar mentor. 

She is ecstatic about her work and giving back. She loves giving students the help, resources, guidance, and support needed to achieve their academic goals.


Ken Chen headshot

BE-STELLAR mentor (2022)

Kevin Chen is a member of the Chemistry department at Cerritos College. He teaches elementary and general chemistry. Prior to teaching at Cerritos College, he was teaching all sorts of chemistry courses at nearby community colleges and universities. Before Kevin became a professor, he did research at CSU Fullerton (organic chemistry) and UC Irvine (chemical biology). It is at those two institutions that Kevin fell in love with mentoring and helping students achieve their academic goals. He is very happy to have to opportunity to continue mentoring students at Cerritos College. His hobbies are playing basketball, video games, and scuba diving. 


Amy Moskun

BE-STELLAR Mentor (2021-2022)

Amy Moskun is a member of the Chemistry department in Cerritos College.  She teaches General Chemistry and Elementary Chemistry.  Prior to teaching, she studied atmospheric chemistry and used lasers to study chemical reactions on the time scale of molecular motion.  She loves working with the students and colleagues at Cerritos College.  She finds helping students learn about chemistry and grow academically and personally to be incredibly rewarding.  She is grateful to have a career that is rewarding and a job she loves!