El Camino College Names 2023 Distinguished Faculty and Staff
El Camino College faculty members Laila C. Dellapasqua and Darcie McClelland were recently honored along with staff member Keiana Daniel as the 2023 El Camino College Distinguished Faculty and Staff Award honorees. The outstanding employees were recognized for their dedication to students, the college, and colleagues at the annual Faculty and Staff Award Reception.
An English as a second language instructor at El Camino since February 2020, Laila C. Dellapasqua is a member of the Local Peer Online Course Review (POCR) Team, the Federation Executive Board, and was a distance education mentor. She is also a dedicated community volunteer and is active in several organizations ensuring access and equity in education, including the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, Equity to Action Group Cohort 2, and the Equity Avengers Community of Practice. Dellapasqua earned a master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages from CSU Los Angeles, and a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from UC Irvine.
Darcie McClelland has been a biology faculty member since 2016 and is the current Academic Senate president. She co-chaired a subcommittee for the 2020-2021 President's Advisory Council on Race and Equity and helped select the design team for ECC’s Equity Minded Teaching Institute, among many other projects. She also mentored several award-winning Honors Transfer Program student research projects. At the state level, she participated in numerous committees and was a co-author on papers addressing anti-racism in the California Community Colleges. McClelland earned a doctorate in cell, molecular, and developmental biology from UC Riverside, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of San Diego.
Keiana Daniel has served El Camino in many ways since joining the staff in 2018. She is currently the coordinator and helped create the new Black Student Success Center – supporting the academic, personal, and professional goals of Black students. She also worked with the college’s first-ever Foster Youth Awareness Month and the Black ECC Expo. Daniel’s contributions extend to Outreach and School Relations, Umoja/Project Success, Puente, financial aid/basic needs, FYE, EOPS/CARE, CalWORKs, and Guardian Scholars. She earned a master’s degree in education counseling from San Diego State University, a master’s degree in linguistics at CSU Long Beach and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.