Meet Our Team
Co-Principal Investigators
Dr. Christine Whitcraft
Professor, Biology
Christine.Whitcraft@csulb.edu
Dr. Whitcraft has over 15 years of experience as a faculty member and marine ecologist at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ. As a faculty member in both Biological Sciences and Director of Environmental Science and Policy (ES&P), she focuses her research on how human activities impact coastal ecosystems and how we can work collaboratively to design solutions to large-scale environmental challenges.
Dr. Whitcraft's teaching includes a range of upper-division biology and environmental sciences courses, including Conservation Biology, a service-learning course with a focus on helping convert students' desire to save the earth into practical, solution-oriented actions with local community partners. Connections with these same community partners provide the backbone to her wetland research.
Dr. Juan M. Benitez
Executive Director, Center for Community Engagement
Juan.Benitez@csulb.edu
Dr. Benitez has over 25 years of experience as a faculty member and in university leadership at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, leading efforts around community and civic engagement and the public good. As a faculty member of Latinx History, he has helped to lead community-centered, placed-based initiatives throughout Southern ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñin partnership with organizations like the ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñEndowment, the ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñCommunity Foundation, and the Advancement Project.
At the Center for Community Engagement, he oversees campus-wide community engagement programs, projects and initiatives such as but not limited to: service learning (and other high-impact practices), community-based participatory and action research and key campus-community partnerships, activities and events. He has helped raise over $3 million toward community and civic engagement projects in the region; working with hundreds of community organizations and groups, thousands of students and community members, faculty, educators and other key stakeholders and systems leaders.
Dr. Beth Manke
Professor, Human Development & Director of the Long Beach Community Internship Program
Beth.Manke@csulb.edu
Dr. Manke has over 20 years of experience building institutional capacity at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ for equity-anchored undergraduate internship programming. As a faculty member, Dr. Manke served as coordinator for HDEV 470, the required internship course in Human Development and directly supervised over 400 students in their internship placements. As Associate Dean for the College of Liberal Arts, she created a centralized internship office and a college-level internship course.
In 2021, Dr. Manke initiated the Long Beach Community Internship Program (LBCIP), a collaborative effort between ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ and Long Beach nonprofits, which closed the loop on the Long Beach Promise and built bridges back to the community for students to work, live, and thrive. To date, the program has placed 166 student interns with over 60 nonprofit organizations. To support LBCIP, Dr. Manke has raised over $350,000.
Her current internship efforts are focused on the College Corps program at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, the scholarship of internship programming in higher education (including her recently published book with Routledge), and the newly launched Academic Internships Office housed in the Center for Community Engagement where Dr. Manke serves as the Senior Faculty Fellow.
Staff
Michelle Chang
Director, Academic Internships Office, Center for Community Engagement
Michelle.Chang@csulb.edu
Michelle brings a wealth of experience in the area of internships and career readiness. She was formerly a staff member in the Career Development Center and served as the Internship Specialist in the CLA Dean's Office for several years where she built and ran a very successful college-wide internship program.
She is the co-founder of the Long Beach Community Internship Program and Design Your Long Beach, whose mission is to provide access to and equitable participation in local paid internships for Long Beach hailing students. Additionally, she supports multiple campus-wide internship initiatives.
As the Director, Michelle will help to establish and lead an Academic Internships Office within the CCE. She will provide the necessary institutional infrastructure to support, scale, and sustain equity-anchored academic internship programming that will advance student success across ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ.
Kristal Domme
Internship Program Assistant
Kristal.Domme@csulb.edu
Kristal is an alumna of ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, graduating with a degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice in 2021. She brings a wealth of internship experience to College Corps @ the Beach: she is an alumna of the Long Beach Community Internship Program (LBCIP), completing a semester-long internship with Transformational Living Homes, and served as the Student Outreach and Communications Coordinator for LBCIP for eight months following graduation.
Anayantzy Hernandez
Administrative Support Assistant
Anayantzy.Hernandez@csulb.edu
Anayantzy is a ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ alumna, she graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and policy. She is also an alumna of the Long Beach Community Internship Program (LBCIP), offered at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, where she completed a semester-long internship at the Aquarium of the Pacific, focusing on conservation efforts for shark and ray species. Her experience in LBCIP allows her to provide valuable insight into the dynamic between host sites and fellows, student time management, and managing unforeseen challenges/expectations.
Maria Garcia Mendez
Student Assistant
Maria.GarciaMendez-SA@csulb.edu
Maria is a Human Development major with a Political Science minor, set to graduate in Spring 2026. Maria previously completed a year-long internship with Long Beach Gray Panthers as part of College Corps Cohort #3, where they contributed to designing workshops and engaging with the community. They are currently participating in College Corps Cohort #4, interning with Linc Housing to support housing justice initiatives.
In addition to their College Corps work, Maria is an active member of Days for Girls, a ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ club that sews menstrual products and donates them to individuals experiencing period poverty. They also served as a Career Peer Advisor at the ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ Career Development Center, where they provided career guidance to a diverse range of students.
Faculty Fellows
Dr. Michael Carlson
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Michael.Carlson@csulb.edu
Dr. Michael Carlson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, where he joined the faculty in 2023. As an oceanographer, his research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of microbial death in the ocean and how these processes influence the health and functioning of marine ecosystems. His lab develops and applies genome-informed tools to study the ecology, physiology, and evolution of microorganisms and their predators, parasites, and viruses.
He teaches classes in introductory marine biology and biological oceanography. He is passionate about engaging students in the practice of science, from fieldwork to data analysis, and encourages them to take advantage of the marine resources of Southern California. He mentors students with a wide range of interests, helping them see how their experiences can make a difference both locally and globally as scientists, educators, and environmental stewards.
Dr. Christine El Ouardani
Associate Professor, Department of Human Development
Christine.ElOuardani@csulb.edu
Dr. Christine El Ouardani has been a faculty member in the Department of Human Development for the past ten years. Her research has largely focused on child development and mental health in the United States and Morocco. More recent research has focused on parental well-being and somatic treatments for healing trauma. She has also worked with local non-profit organizations on developing their UX and evaluation research capacities and is also an evaluation researcher for the Center for Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness on campus.
In addition to teaching courses on qualitative methods, childhood and child mental health, and life course in the Middle East, Dr. El Ouardani has enjoyed developing and teaching department and college-level internship courses over the past eight years. She has also served as the Human Development internship coordinator.
Dr. Claudia López
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Claudia.Lopez2@csulb.edu
Dr. López is an Associate Professor in the department of Sociology, teaching at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ for over 7 years. As a professor and practitioner of qualitative methods, Dr. López is focused on two research interests: 1) the impacts of high-impact practices on non-traditional students; and 2) the housing experiences of vulnerable populations in cities. She was a co-investigator on the HIPs@ the Beach project which examines the impact of high-impact practices on the ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ students' success.
She is the founder and Principal Investigator of House It SoCal, a community-engaged, student-led collaboration project that examines the housing experiences of vulnerable populations in Southern California. Using student-led and participatory approaches, Dr. López is an expert on community-engaged research methods to gather data on lived experiences in the 21st century. From student success to housing, her research addresses important equity issues, from local to global scales, that contribute to the university's mission and have national to international impact.
Dr. López was a College Corps site supervisor from 2022-2024 and is currently a College Corps Faculty Fellow for 2024-2025. She has served as a faculty research mentor on campus in the University Research Opportunity Program (UROP), University Honors, and McNair programs, working one-on-one with over 25 ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ students over the last 7 years, and was awarded the Advancement of Women Award from the ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ President's Commission on the Status of Women for her contributions to research, mentorship, and service.
Dr. Lisa Sparks
Lecturer, Department of Health Science
Lisa.Sparks@csulb.edu
Dr. Sparks is a multi-ethnic female who has over 20 years experience as a public health professional and faculty member in the Health Science Department. In this capacity she has over 15 years experience in undergraduate- and graduate-level programming directly working with students in their internship placement and developing and fostering relationships with community-based organizations, institutions, and agencies across Southern CA. With her students, she stresses the importance of cultural competency and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
She has a special interest in first-generation student success focusing on academics and physical and mental well-being. Dr. Sparks also serves as a faculty member on ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ's Student Health Advisory Committee and the CHHS's Health and Wellness Advisory Board.
Campus Partners
This work is made possible by the contributions from the following ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ units.
