Meet the Staff

Darren Lipomi, PhD
Faculty Director | ideadirector@ucsd.edu | Faculty Page | Research Page

Darren is responsible for leading and managing the IDEA Engineering Student Center team to deliver student developmental services across the entire Jacobs School of Engineering student body. He provides strategic planning and leadership to fulfill the overall goals of the IDEA Engineering Student Center, including the development, diversity, enrichment, inclusion and retention of engineering students.

Gennie Miranda 
Director of Operations | gbmiranda@ucsd.edu

Gennie has overall responsibility for coordinating, developing and promoting initiatives to advance the diversity, enrichment, inclusion and retention of all engineering students at the Jacobs School of Engineering. She guides staff members in the planning, coordination, staffing, budget, and resources management for all IDEA Engineering Student Center programs.

Lisa Trahan
Director of Strategic Initiatives and Assessment | ltrahan@eng.ucsd.edu

Lisa provides expertise in evaluation and assessment to guide the development of IDEA Engineering Student Center strategic initiatives and to assess the impact of the Center's programs on student retention and success. She provides strategic and administrative leadership to develop, revise, and assess new programs within the Center.

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Alejandra Arguelles
Program Coordinator | marguelles@eng.ucsd.edu

Alejandra serves as an advisor for the Triton Engineering Student Council (TESC) within the IDEA Engineering Student Center. She coordinates the Jacobs Scholars Program and oversees student organization matching funds, she provides programmatic support to student development workshops, leadership development, and programs for newly admitted students.

Ruben D. Rodriguez
Program Coordinator | r1rodriguez@eng.ucsd.edu

Ruben serves as an advisor for student diversity organizations (NSBE, SHPE, SWE, WIC and oSTEM) within the IDEA Engineering Student Center. In addition, he oversees programs that promote inclusion, community engagement, leadership development, and academic success; through newly admitted student programs, student development workshops, commencement events, and summer transition programs.

Jessica Baldis
Academic Success Coordinator | jbaldis@ucsd.edu

Jessica coordinates programs at the IDEA Engineering Student Center that foster proactive academic engagement of undergraduate engineering students to academic services that emphasize student persistence, including summer success programs, learning communities, and specialized workshops on succeeding in engineering.

Sinai Cota
Sloan Scholars Program Assistant | sicota@eng.ucsd.edu

Sinai supports the Sloan Scholar Program with the nomination process of the awarded scholars; and organizes professional development events for the STEM scholars. She also supports graduate student life at the Jacobs School of Engineering through her work with the Jacobs Graduate Student Council, Jacobs Undergraduate Mentoring Program, Engineering Graduate & Professional Scholarly Talks, and diversity graduate student recruitment.

Sara Eckardt
IDEA Student Center Coordinator | seckardt@ucsd.edu | 858-246-1556

Sara provides administrative, logistic, and fiscal support for the IDEA Engineering Student Center's programs and activities. This includes many of the programs and events that support student success within the Jacobs School of Engineering.  She oversee the Student Travel Fund and is the advisor to the Jacobs Graduate Student Council. Sara also coordinates the IDEA Center's communications, office operations and courses.