Stanislaus State effort will go to Central Valley residents to study social-justice issues
Connecting with Central Valley residents on the region’s most pressing issues is Anysia Mayer’s mission as inaugural executive director of Stanislaus State University’s Community Equity Research Center.
The Community Equity Research Center (CERC), formerly known as the Center for Public Policy Studies, provides a space for social-justice issues to be examined through participatory action research. That means the expert researchers will be those experiencing the issues.
CERC will be housed at the Turlock university’s campus in Stockton. Mayer will have the support of outgoing co-directors of the Center for Public Policy Studies, John Garcia and Kelvin Jasek-Rysdahl, who will work as faculty researchers.
Community members, including students, can take part by bringing issues to the center’s attention and participating in the research process. There will also be undergraduate and graduate fellowships in the coming future.
Though the center launched this month, remodeling and pandemic restrictions have postponed its in-person grand opening. Mayer’s role will be to connect with faculty, community members, nonprofits and other stakeholders that are the pulse of the Valley to identify problems and arm them with knowledge so they can take action.
Despite years of experience in education and research, Mayer said she was surprised to learn she was the top candidate. “I didn’t think it was going to be me but … it’s the right time for the university to be serious about outreaching to the community and developing deep and trusting relationships,” she said.
Mayer will continue her duties as professor for the doctoral program of educational leadership at the university, as she has for the past seven years. In an interview with The Bee, Mayer shared her and her colleagues’ passion for equity research.
“I love to talk about this work… we’re kind of nerds in that way,” she laughed.
In a written announcement of Mayer’s appointment, Stanislaus State President Ellen Junn said, “Dr. Mayer, professor of advanced studies, has led collaborative research projects consistent with the CERC mission, including working with high schools in Stockton Unified School District as a researcher and as a development partner for the Stockton Collegiate International School.”
Mayer also has served as a principal investigator for the National Science Foundation and the National Education Association. In 2006, she received her doctorate from the University of California, Davis.
While she grew up in Southern California, she’s been in the northern part of the state for nearly half her life, as her husband, a Stockton native, and family have moved to the area since.
The center has community connections that have reached out to it, said Jasek-Rysdahl, an economics professor at Stanislaus State, but it’s not something that was actively reciprocated by the center. That’s because its former research method didn’t take into account the experts experiencing the issues, he said. That will change once Mayer gets out into the Central Valley and builds coalitions.
“It’s really about getting out there and talking to and listening to as many people in the communities as possible,” he said.
Garcia, chair and director of the master of social work program at Stanislaus State, said he feels Mayer is ready for the role, as she’s developed the needed relationships with the university, faculty and the community to make the center successful. He said it’s through Mayer’s relationship building that research topics will come about.
“The person who takes on this position has to understand that the center is not about them,” he said. “The community is the center of this and Anysia gets that.”
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
