Meet Our Team

Alicia Cortez, MSW, MA
Dean of Equity and Engagement
- Pronouns: She/Her/Herself
- CortezAlicia@deanza.edu

Chesa Caparas
Faculty Coordinator, Jean Miller Resource Room
- Pronouns: She/Her/Herself
- CaparasFrancesca@deanza.edu
Chesa also teaches classes in English and Intercultural Studies. In her classes and
her community work, she uses an intersectional feminist framework to resist systems
of inequality. Her research interests include hip-hop pedagogy, representations of
women in pop culture, and post-humanism in the digital age. She loves art, music,
and food, and tries to incorporate all of these things into the work she does.

Tony Santa Ana (Ed.D. Student)
Program Coordinator
- Pronouns: He/His/Himself
- SantaAnaAnthony@deanza.edu
Tony is a community organizer, artivist, educator and globetrotter who seeks to contribute to humanity. He is also an instructor in Intercultural Studies. Tony's research interests include education, critical pedagogy, youth studies, global citizenship, indigenous rights, spirituality, ethnic studies, transformational learning, Hip Hop, Pin@y scholarship and experiential learning.

Adriana Garcia
Administrative Assistant
- Pronouns: She/Her/Herself
- GarciaAdriana@deanza.edu
Adriana is the Xicana Administrative Assistant for the Office of Equity, Social and Multicultural Education. For over 20 years, she has helped developed or supported the collective efforts of organizations and committees dedicated to workers and immigrant rights campaigns and womyn wellness through a human rights and social justice lens. She also upholds international solidarity with local people’s movements such as police brutality, gender equity, indigenous rights, racial justice and environmental justice, and makes it a point to involve art in the process. More recently she has been humbled by her role as a conscious working mother of color to an amazing 6-year-old first-grader!