Thank You, Susana Gallardo!

By MALCS Executive Committee: Mónica Torres, Theresa Delgadillo, Rita Urquijo-­Ruiz, Ester Hernandez, Marivel Danielson, Judith Flores Carmona, Lupe Gallegos Diaz.

Early in 2013, the MALCS Executive Committee accepted Susana Gallardo’s resignation as Webjefa. The Executive Committee of MALCS would like to take this opportunity not only to express our appreciation for Susana’s many contributions to to promoting the mission and goals of MALCS in her fifteen years of service but also to honor her for creating a distinct digital presence for MALCS by awarding her a life-­time membership in MALCS.

Susana took over the administration of our organization’s website in the late 1990s from Kathy Blackmer Reyes, who created the first MALCS webpage. When Susana became responsible for the site, she created an entirely new site with important subdivisions dedicated to Leadership, History, Summer Institute and our Journal. As Webjefa Susana secured the domain names and server space for MALCS and related websites to exist, and three years ago created an entirely new online “.org” architecture for us and migrated our website from the previous “.net” architecture. Before that, however, Susana created the dynamic “blog” feature of the organization’s website, where members shared news as well as CFPs and job ads, commented on current events and posted interesting news from other websites. Susana was the motor behind this feature of the site which our members quickly became accustomed to reading and checking and which undoubtedly contributed to the dynamism and stability of MALCS. In recent years, Susana created a MALCS presence on Facebook now largely managed by MALCS Secretary Judith Flores Carmona and Chair Elect Rita Urquijo-­Ruiz (where the job ads and call for papers that members share with each other have migrated) and assisted in developing the Mujeres Talk site focused on original research and commentary. Both of these recent developments, in which Susana played an important part, have also expanded member participation in the organization. Susana spearheaded MALCS technology initiatives such as MALCSmail, an email service for members on the Google email platform that she also oversaw and administered. At the Summer Institutes in recent years, Susana reached out to MALCS members to join in blogging for the website with a “how-­to” workshop.

When she began as Webjefa, Susana was a graduate student in the Religious Studies Department at Stanford University, where she completed her Ph.D. in 2012. On the way, she joined the staff at San Jose State University and became a mother. Between dissertation research and writing, motherhood and university teaching, Susana managed to find time to make an absolutely critical contribution to growing and promoting MALCS: building a strong MALCS digital face online. The stability and strength of MALCS as well as our ability to continue to attract new members and to carry out our mission and goals owes much to the outstanding work of outgoing Webjefa Susana Gallardo. Susana, we thank you!