Emily Cavazos
Digital Portfolio
About Me
My name is Emily Cavazos. I was born in San Antonio, Texas- Tonkowa and Coahuiltecan land- and currently reside in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Dakota, Ojibwe, and Sioux land. I graduated from Macalester College in 2016 where I received a degree in Biology and Art History. I officially moved to Minnesota in 2017 to work at the MNDNR through Conservation Corps. After my service year ended, I worked at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA). In 2018 I began working at the Science Museum of Minnesota with the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) doing evaluation coordination. My main interests are in community building, social justice and the environment. I am currently enrolled in the MGIS program at the University of Minnesota. In my personal time, I enjoy hiking, photographing plants, and creating art. In fact, I took the photo of the passionflower pictured above while in my hometown!
My Strengthsfinder
Below are my five most dominant themes of talent in rank order from the Clifton Strengths-Finder Assessment. Hover over each bubble to read more. My results accurately reflect that I am emotionally intelligent, action-oriented, inquisitive and adaptable. I have a unique perspective that many people in the STEM field do not which is communication skills, the ability to visually communicate ideas and an understanding of systems of oppression and the importance of rectifying these issues.
"You are a keen observer of other people’s strengths. This helps you build productive teams. You know instinctively that the secret to great teams is casting by individual strengths so that everyone can do a lot of what they do well."
#1: Individualization
"You hear the unvoiced questions and anticipate the need. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings - to themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life."
#2: Empathy
"You believe that action is the best device for learning. You make a decision, you take action, you look at the result, and you learn."
#3: Activator
"You are inquisitive. You collect things. Yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity."
#4: Input
#5: Adaptability
“You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.”
GIS Work
As my final project of my graduate degree, I worked to consult with an organization and create a geospatial product that would meet their needs. Upon discussing with Southwest Workers Union in San Antonio, Texas, we decided that I would revamp their 2015 Climate Justice report by updating the information and making it more accessible by formatting it as a storymap collection and adding dynamic web maps. This collection included 7 storymap sections and a web map with printing and data downloading capabilities.
The book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia by Sabrina Strings, documents the evolution and creation of anti-fatness as a system that originated through anti-blackness from Europe with the construction of racial categories and the Enlightenment era belief that fatness was evidence of “savagery” and racial inferiority. This story map locates in space the various primary sources and individuals cited as shaping anti-fatness as we know it today based on the extensive research documented in a crucial text that came out in 2019.
Using Minneapolis, MN as a case study, my group used the SafeGraph Social Distancing Metrics dataset to assess the social distancing patterns of various Minneapolis neighborhoods Crucial to this visualization was examining which neighborhoods are composed primarily of civilians who exhibited part/full-time work trends, and what census demographics make up each neighborhood. By parsing out work-based socialization, we created a map product that depicts which city areas are skirting social-distancing responsibilities primarily due to leisure-oriented outings, and examined the demographic spread in those areas. The end product is an accessible web map product which we hope facilitates public awareness and action against the settler colonialism and racialized capitalism being perpetuated as people neglect to effectively take precautions.
Other Work
EVALUATION WORK
In 2019, I presented at the Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA) conference on the work I had been doing to conduct culturally responsive evaluation with(in) the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC), focusing mainly on the production of a Theory of Change.
This article discusses both the direct youth work and theoretical efforts that I was a part of enacting during my time working at the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC).
In 2019, the KAYSC evaluation team was able to effectively produce a comprehensive report not only laying out all of the evaluation data we collected but also providing context within the Out-of-School Time, STEM, and Education sectors.
I created this brief overview summarizing the evaluation data that had been collected about the KAYSC programming. This report was created to be shared with multiple audiences including the youth that the program served and the funders of the program.
NATURAL RESOURCES WORK
Article: Ecosystem structure and function in two branches of an eastern Minnesota, USA, trout stream
During my last semester in college I was able to take a class where we spent the semester conducting research on two branches of a stream in eastern Minnesota. We were able to take trips to the stream to conduct water quality assessments, to collect water samples, and to mark fish for the data we cited in this article. This experience allowed me to learn a lot about the extensive process of doing research including the field work, the lab assessments, and the article writing aspects. This article was published in the Journal of Freshwater Ecology in July 2016.
Contact Me
Thank you for exploring my portfolio! Please feel free to reach out to me with any inquiries.
