Maria Linares
Student Trustee
CSU Fullerton
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VIRTUAL PLATFORM
Panel Moderator
Dr. Laura Talamante
Gender Equity Task Force Co-Chair
Please join us for a discussion of the importance CSU women's leadership on the Board of Trustees with Student Trustees Krystal Raynes and Maria Linares.
The CSU Board of Trustees was created in 1960. Ms. Kathleen A. Carlson served as the first Student Trustee from 1976 to 1978. Since that time twice as many male student trustees have served as female student trustees. However, six out of eight of the student trustees appointed since 2014 have been female.
Come and learn from our current female student trustees about the significance of their voices in the CSU system and in state and national advocacy.
Student Trustee
CSU Fullerton
Student Trustee
CSU Bakersfield
Maria Linares
Student Trustee
CSU Fullerton
Maria Linares is a Latina first-generation college graduate, raised in an immigrant household in a working-class neighborhood in Santa Ana. She is a wife, a mother of three, a Girl Scout volunteer, and an experienced and passionate student advocate. Linares was a member of the Cal State Fullerton Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Board of Directors from 2018 to 2021, serving as chair during the final year of her term. In 2019, she received her bachelor's degree in sociology with a minor in political science and is currently a graduate student in the Master of Public Administration program at CSUF. Linares is a member of Psi Beta, a national honor society for community college students, and a CSUF Pa'lante Fellow for 2021-22.
Her advocacy work includes supporting an on-campus food pantry and a credit/no credit grading opportunity for students during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also sponsored several ASI resolutions aimed at increasing scholarships for undocumented students; support for formerly incarcerated students, international students and students with disabilities; and mental health resources. In addition, she has advocated for graduate students and a campus Social Justice & Equity Commission. In 2019, she was recognized as the ASI Student Advocate of the Year for her extraordinary commitment to students.
Linares hopes to work in higher education, advocating for students through legislation. In five years, she sees herself applying for a doctorate in public policy or working in legislative affairs.
Krystal Raynes
Student Trustee
CSU Bakersfield
Krystal Mae Raynes is a Filipina first-generation college student. She is majoring in Computer Science and Business at California State University, Bakersfield since 2017. She has held multiple campus leadership positions from 2018 to 2020, including Interim Vice President of Legislative Affairs, Vice President of University Affairs, and Director of Legislative Affairs for Associated Students Inc. She served as Social Justice and Equity Officer with the California State Student Association from 2019 to 2020. Raynes also was an intern at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities for the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, in 2019 where she worked closely with food insecurity experts.
Currently Raynes works as a Supplemental Instructor for the CSUB Computer Science department. After she graduates, she hopes to pursue a masters in public policy as a Capitol Fellow at Sacramento State. She hopes to work in Sacramento or DC as a policy analyst.