Lady Elli (she/her/hers) is a first-generation college student at the University of Arizona and a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines. She is a third-year undergraduate studying Public Health with an emphasis in Global Health and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Among her fellow undergraduate students, Lady Elli is known for her involvement in numerous organizations that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). During her term as the vice president of the Filipino American Student Association (FASA) from Academic Year 2020-2021, she introduced and promoted DEI initiatives in the organization through workshops like the Black and Asian American Allyship conversation and #StopAsianHate talk. Because of her work, she was granted the Emerging Student Leader Award by the Asian Pacific American Student Affairs cultural center during her second year at the University of Arizona.
Currently, she serves as the president of the Pan Asian Council, the first officially recognized Asian Pacific American and Desi American (APIDA) coalition at her campus. During her term, she has advocated for more support for cultural and resource centers on campus by serving as one of the lead authors of the “Nugent Tabling Ban Letter.” She also spearheaded the APIDA Heritage Week Celebration, a week-long celebration of APIDA identity and culture with events such as APIDA club fairs, movie night, cultural games, and potlucks.
During her terms as a Senator-At-Large from the years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 at the University of Arizona, she was able to create resolutions regarding anti-sexual harassment trainings and initiatives as well as the promotion of the land acknowledgment within club constitutions. She is an Access, Wellness, and Relational Determinants of Student Success (AWARDSS) research fellow at the University of Arizona and her research revolves around cultural centers, student retention rates, and more funding for multicultural programs.
Lady’s professional involvements include serving as a peer mentor for Arizona’s Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholar (TRiO ASEMS) program, a success program for first-generation and low-income students in the STEM fields and health sciences. She is also a student researcher at the Skin Cancer Institute through the Undergraduate Biology Research Program (UBRP), and she works with students through success programs as an undergraduate teaching assistant for SAS 100, a MATH 100 success course.