Sometimes we get lost in life between that blurry area of who we are as workers vs. who we are as humans.

We often are seen by others — even self-identify — by our career.

Dustin Calvillo didn’t subscribe to this philosophy.

Oh, to be clear he loved his job as professor of cognitive psychology in the psychology department at Cal State San Marcos. There are no doubts about this. He was dedicated to his research, unselfishly helpful to his colleagues and shared his love for the topics he found fascinating with his students.

But he was the type of person to keep his professional passions just slightly but clearly on a rung below his true loves — family and connecting with life.

Calvillo lost a battle with oral cancer in August. He was 49. After nearly 18 years at CSUSM, his loss has loomed heavy over one of the most populous departments on campus.

But his legacy lives on.

The psychology department will host a celebration of life for Calvillo on Friday, Jan. 16, at the Faculty Center Suite. The gathering runs 2-4 p.m. and will include coffee and light appetizers.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked alongside Dustin in many roles during our years at CSUSM,” said Elisa Grant-Vallone, who worked with Calvillo as a faculty colleague as well as in a collaborative position in her role as the CHABSS associate dean of operations & budget. “He was one of the kindest, most compassionate and thoughtful colleagues I have ever known. We team-taught Introduction to Psychology for several years, and although he was earlier in his career than I was, I often found myself learning from him. Dustin was an exceptional instructor. He challenged his students to work hard while, as a cognitive psychologist, thoughtfully designing a framework that gave them the support they needed to succeed.”

Calvillo served as a professor of cognitive psychology who dedicated his work to advancing our understanding of memory, reasoning, decision-making and the ways biases and misinformation shape our thinking.

A product of the California State University system, he earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Cal State Bakersfield. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in psychology (cognitive and perceptual sciences) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Michelle Vogel Trautt is a lecturer in psychology at CSUSM. She knew Calvillo not only as a colleague but also as a mentor during her time on campus in the master’s program.

“Dustin was kind and welcoming,” Trautt said. “He genuinely cared about others. Over time, as our relationship as colleagues evolved, Dustin became a trusted confidant that I could come to for advice, guidance and encouragement. He was dependable, steady and consistent. He was a great leader without ever having to speak of his own accolades. We just knew we were in good hands with him at the helm. His sense of humor and occasional ‘zingers’ made Dustin approachable and relatable.”

What Trautt remembers most as his student in the graduate seminar was how much he “lit up” when talking about cognitive psychology.

Calvillo was universally seen as being reserved outside of the classroom, a persona that changed when a class or seminar started.

“I found it magical to see him become animated and excited about topics we discussed in our course,” said Trautt, who shared what she referred to as “passing-by hellos” on campus. “Even more so, when he would tell a good cognitive psychology joke and see who would chuckle as a measure of who was understanding our very dense, detailed and rigorous content. If you could laugh at the contextualized joke, he knew you were following along and retaining content enough to appreciate it from a humorous lens. It was really special.”

His academic legacy included more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles-research that will continue to resonate in classrooms, conferences and public discussions about issues that include truth, trust and critical thinking.

Emeritus Professor of Psychology Nancy Caine was already in the department when Calvillo was hired here nearly two decades ago. Caine was coordinator of the graduate program at the same time Calvillo served as department chair so they had overlapping administrative roles, not always easy for a faculty member so dedicated to research and teaching.

Caine noted how his organization and instinct in handling difficult situations made her feel like she had a true friend and partner.

“Dustin epitomized what is, in my opinion, the ideal faculty member at a place like CSUSM,” Caine said. “I really mean that. He was committed to CSUSM as a community, which meant engaging with students, colleagues, and staff on a daily basis. He understood how lucky we all are to have a job that allows us to be part of an academic community where we can be scholars, teachers and contributors to the overall mission of the university — and he did all of those very well.

“He was devoted to the cause of providing opportunities to students from under-represented groups. He set a standard to which every faculty member at CSUSM should aspire.”

Although he was often described as quiet, even shy around campus, Calvillo had an infectious positive demeanor behind a warm smile.

Haylee DeLuca Bishop, the program director for child and adolescent development, interviewed for a faculty position at CSUSM in early 2018. She crossed paths with Calvillo during the search process as he served on the university’s Institutional Review Board.

She recalled that shyness as a first impression that didn’t stick once some time working together passed.

That quiet exterior melted to form a professional bond that eventually had DeLuca Bishop and her husband spending time playing bar trivia while also going to the movies and San Diego Padres and Waves games with Calvillo, his wife Angelica Rocha (a former research associate and assistant director for student support in CSUSM’s Office for Training, Research, and Education in the Sciences) and their daughter Vivian.

“He was the exact colleague I wanted to be,” DeLuca Bishop said. “He was around. He was present. He was available to his students, available to his colleagues. He was a hard worker, incredibly prolific, amazing scholar, but also a great teacher. Students loved him. He was just the whole package. So when I looked at Dustin, I was like, that's pretty much where I want to be if I can.”

Calvillo spent time as department chair, which took him away from some of his scholarly work to be replaced by leading a diverse group of faculty.

He was a natural leader, but both DeLuca Bishop and Caine made it clear it wasn’t his first choice for a career move.

“It was no secret,” DeLuca Bishop said. “He didn't really want to be a department chair. But he stepped into it because he knew he needed to. It was what the department needed at the time, and he was great at it. You couldn't tell him he was great at it. He couldn't hear that positive feedback very much. But he was great at it.”

Said Caine: “Dustin didn’t like being chair. He loved doing research and teaching, both of which had to take a back seat while he served his term.  But he recognized his obligation to take his turn ‘at the helm,’ and as is true of Dustin in every way, he did the job very well.”

He may not have loved his time as department chair, but there was no hiding his true passions. He enjoyed traveling, playing golf, sailing, camping and watching sports, especially soccer and baseball.

But his love for those activities increased tenfold when he could do them with loved ones.

Beyond his professional achievements, Calvillo was a devoted family man who was happiest when he was with his loved ones.

“One of my fondest memories of Dustin was seeing him as a dad,” Grant-Vallone said. “One time (Vivian) had an unexpected day off from preschool, so he brought her along to a search committee meeting. He set up her lunch box and toys, patiently answered her quiet questions, and the love between them lit up the room. Dustin will be deeply missed by everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.”

Now 7, Vivian no longer has her father around, but she has his academic work that hopefully will help her understand his career passions that went beyond showing up to an office 8-5.

“He accomplished a lot, and that's something I've been thinking about in general,” DeLuca Bishop said. “That's one thing I'm happy about. Viv, when she gets old enough, she can go read everything he's ever published. His legacy can live on in that work as well.”

And when she wants to learn about the legacy he left behind beyond campus, the family, friends and colleagues he left behind will have plenty of stories to share.

“It's just a huge loss,” DeLuca Bishop said. “And I feel it every day. I think about him every day still. He’s such a huge loss and he was my go-to person whenever something happened in the department or something I just wanted to vent about. He got it because he did the same job. And so he would know what I was feeling in a way that a lot of other people couldn't, including my partner. So, he was my go-to guy.”

Jennier Lozano is a psychological science graduate student at CSUSM who works in both the MBARC and Misinformation and Memory labs, led by Assistant Professor Lisa Graves and Calvillo, respectively.

As an undergraduate transfer student, she took Calvillo’s cognitive processes course. It was a transformative moment in her life to witness his enthusiasm with understanding human cognitive processes.

Being mentored by Calvillo, which included attending the Western Psychological Association Convention in Riverside in 2023 with his lab, helped her discover her own research interests while solidifying her desire to pursue graduate school.

“As his graduate student, his support, guidance and mentorship have had a profound and long-lasting impact on my life,” Lozano said. “I remember sitting in the back of the class thinking about how fortunate I would be to have an academic mentor like Dr. Calvillo, who was so caring and kind toward all his students. Three years later, I had the privilege to be co-mentored by him and Dr. Graves as a graduate student. I will forever be grateful for his unwavering and invaluable support, encouragement, guidance, and dedication.”

The ironic part of living a full and meaningful life is that we don’t get to pick what people remember about us.

So we build our legacy through showing up. Some days we show up and inspire with our work and through our relationships, while other days we’re simply lucky to show up at all.

Dustin Calvillo showed up.

He showed up for his colleagues and his students. He showed up for people he cared about.

And that’s enough.

“He was just the guy you wanted around,” DeLuca Bishop said. “He was considerate of other people. He would volunteer to make sure someone else didn't have to. He was careful with his words. He cared about his students. He cared about everyone. He was just a thoughtful individual but also a deep, intelligent, bright human being. He was really trying to address problems he saw in the world and trying to improve things, trying to make things better. He saw things going in a direction he fundamentally disagreed with, and he was trying to do research around that. He’s just one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met and in every sense of the word.”

Avalos joined CSUSM in 1991 and was active under the umbrella of emeritus professor as artistic mentor and union advocate until his passing. He was often the first person whom new faculty engaged with on campus, initiating conversations that drew out ideas and created connections with fellow faculty; and he held our campus memory, reminding newcomers of the university’s foundation on radical interdisciplinarity. Campuswide, Avalos was known for his strolls with colleagues, his signature synthesis of ruminating walks and talks while making salient connections across ideas and with passersby from all areas of campus. He introduced generations of faculty and students to the murals in Chicano Park and served as faculty adviser to the Danza Azteca and Ballet Folklorico student groups on campus. Avalos was a mentor and collaborator to his colleagues in the arts; he contributed last year with an oral history about the border for the artwork of Cognate Collective, the collective composed of Misael Diaz and Amy Sanchez Arteaga, and collaborated with Lucy HG Solomon and CSUSM students on a performative study of the equinox, presented at grade schools in 2017. 

Avalos gained a national and worldwide reputation for his multimedia and avant-garde art that focuses on border and labor-related issues, often advocating for the rights of Mexican immigrants, raising concerns over police brutality, and protesting a racist anti-immigration movement that burgeoned dramatically in the 1990s. Many of his works are in permanent collections, including those of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He made a political statement with the artwork “Donkey Cart Altar” (1985) when he placed it in front of the San Diego federal courthouse to protest that immigrant laborers working to feed their families were being treated as criminals. Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. ordered the work, which he deemed a “security risk,” to be removed, with the ACLU rallying to defend Avalos’ freedom of expression in a court filing against the judge – a filing that was ultimately dismissed. Avalos petitioned to the Supreme Court in David Avalos and Sushi, INC. vs. Gordon Thomposn, Jr., et al. While the Supreme Court did not take up the case, it garnered national attention. 

Beginning in 1988, Avalos worked alongside artists Louis Hock and Elizabeth Sisco, and he also collaborated with Deborah Small (CSUSM professor emerita) and James Luna, developing artworks that addressed the complex issues of immigrant labor, border politics and multiculturalism in California. “Welcome to America’s Finest Tourist Plantation” (1988) – designed by Avalos, Hock and Sisco as a rear advertising panel and placed on nearly half of the city’s local buses – taunted San Diegans leading up to the Super Bowl, held in January that year. Publicizing the plight of undocumented workers, the artists turned the artwork into a major media event, asserting art’s right for free expression. Avalos became known for his conviction that artists have the responsibility to interact with their environment and community. “Art Rebate/Arte Reembolso” (1993) by Avalos, Hock and Sisco, a public art project that involved distributing $10 bills to undocumented workers in San Diego, aimed to challenge the perception that undocumented workers negatively impact the economy by highlighting their contributions and providing an art rebate in leu of the tax rebate that the workers could not claim, despite paying taxes and into Social Security. Commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and Centro Cultural de la Raza, the project sparked debate and criticism in local and national media and in Congress. 

A descendant of one of the oldest families in National City (his mother’s family arrived in the 1910s and his father’s family arrived in the '20s), Avalos was an instigator of creative ideas whose art and activism became a fixture within National City’s rich community of Chicano/a artists, activists, scholars and educators. He attributed his rise in political consciousness to his upbringing: “… I think that that consciousness came only with my involvement with the civil rights organization in my hometown, National City, the Committee on Chicano Rights” (Smithsonian oral history interview with Avalos, 1988). A Vietnam-era U.S. Army veteran stationed in West Germany in the late 1960s, he connected with veteran students and he valued the education that the G.I. Bill afforded him, at San Diego State and later at UC San Diego, where he contributed illustrations to a student newspaper called Voz Fronteriza. He worked at the Chicano Federation and in 1978 he began working at the Centro Cultural de la Raza and with the Committee on Chicano Rights. At the Centro Cultural de la Raza, he worked with multidisciplinary artists throughout the 1980s, and with Victor Ochoa and Michael Schnorr (plus the collaborative entities Cinewest Productions and Poyesis Genética), he co-founded the Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo, which he described as “a collective focused on the dynamic balance of U.S.-Mexico absurdities.” Avalos’ art provocations and teachings will long be remembered by students and colleagues alike. 

An active member of the National Latino Research Center advisory board as well as a faculty associate of the center and longtime California Faculty Association chapter rights representative, Avalos stood in solidarity with the NRLC and CFA throughout his career and was a vital mentor and colleague, providing invaluable guidance and inspiration to generations of faculty, staff and students. The School of Arts, NLRC, CSUSM’s CFA chapter and Center ARTES collectively remain committed to continuing the legacy of Avalos both on campus and in the community. A committed thinker, he never stopped learning, always probing others about their understanding of the world. Prescient in his artmaking about contemporary politics, Avalos continues to move new generations of thinkers and creators with his percussive art and legacy of activism.  

Avalos is survived by his wife, Veronica Enrique Avalos, their four children (Xima, Tona, Graciano and Adrian) and grandson, Leon, and in the campus community, his cousin Fredi Avalos. In May of this academic year, the School of Arts will commemorate David Avalos as artist, thinker, professor and provocateur, with an opportunity to share reflections on his impact on the community and on the arts in the border region and beyond. Further communication about this opportunity to celebrate Avalos and his lasting impact at CSUSM will be shared across the campus community. 

To hear Avalos in his own words across the years, you are invited to follow the links below: 

Interviews in Califas: Chicano Art and Culture in California (1983)

David Avalos on his work Loteria Chicana “La Placa” (1983)

 Oral History with David Avalos, Smithsonian Archives of American Art (1988)

 David Avalos on Chicana/o Art (2007)

 Charla with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2021)  

David Avalos ¡Presente! 

Dr. Welch began his illustrious career after earning a Ph.D. from UCLA and completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. In 1970, he joined the faculty of the University of Houston's Department of Chemistry, where he quickly established a pioneering research program. His work focused on the synthesis of complex natural products, many of which were previously only obtainable through laborious extraction from natural sources. His innovative research not only advanced the field but also attracted significant funding and talented students.

In 1990, Dr. Welch joined California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) as a professor and the founding faculty member of the Department of Chemistry. He played a pivotal role in designing the chemistry major and developing a curriculum that has endured and met the highest standards of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Welch’s foresight in integrating undergraduate research into the degree program enriched the educational experiences of countless students, ensuring they were well-prepared for both industry roles and graduate studies.

During his tenure at CSUSM, Dr. Welch served as the department chair for more than 12 years, where he was instrumental in hiring additional faculty and staff members, mentoring and supporting colleagues, and leading the design and outfitting of the Science Hall 1. His contributions to the department and the university community were vast, including serving as the first Academic Senate Chair and fostering strong relationships with colleagues at regional community colleges.

Beyond his academic and professional achievements, Dr. Welch was deeply committed to his students. Known for his high standards and compassionate support, he constantly sought to improve his teaching methods to enhance student success. His passion for organic chemistry and dedication to his students left an indelible mark on the university and the many lives he touched. He will be remembered for always planning thoughtfully and leading with kindness. Dr. Welch was an exceptional mentor to new faculty; providing advice but letting them find their own way. In addition, his soft spoken and kindly nature was essential to his promoting a sense of collegiality in the department. His foresight in designing microscale laboratory experiments resulted in a program that was both more affordable and more environmentally responsible than the vast majority of chemistry programs at the time.

Dr. Welch is survived by his loving wife, Elizabeth, and his daughter, Melody Welch Vander Straten and her husband, David, and their two daughters. He is also survived by his first wife, Elaine, and his brother, Dennis Welch. His legacy will continue through the countless students and colleagues he mentored, the research he inspired, and the programs he established. A memorial service will be held on Oct. 10 at 1:30 p.m. at Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Steven C. Welch Outstanding Graduate in Chemistry Award Fund at give.csusm.edu/stevencwelch .

Together, we honor Dr. Welch’s profound impact on both his field and the academic communities he served.

Sincerely,

Jackie Trischman

Dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Apply online by Friday, May 25 at: https://tinyurl.com/OER-flip

• Dates of class sessions: July 23-27
• Time for each day: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Contact ids@csusm.edu for more information.

This national event is the only gathering of its kind that provides innovative ideas and tools for faculty who wish to include palliative care concepts in courses and experiences for undergraduate and graduate students. Nationally renowned experts in palliative care will be sharing their research and innovations. Anyone with a faculty appointment or position, or who conducts research in institutions of higher learning, post-secondary education or training programs, or organizations, who is engaged in palliative care education and/or research is invited!

Please spread the word, attend and invite colleagues to attend!

https://csupalliativecare.org/symposium/