Biography

Jenessa Shapiro passed away in 2019 after a years-long fight against breast cancer. She was one of those people with an inner light you could see. One constant in her life was a desire to elevate others, and she demonstrated this in myriad ways. As a junior faculty member in Psychology, she recognized the holes in our graduate training and created a professional socialization seminar for doctoral students, which students continue to regard with gratitude. As a scholar, she devoted her work single-mindedly toward identifying and eliminating the barriers that inhibit members of underrepresented minorities from fulfilling their potential. As a colleague, she was generous, positive, and collaborative. She was present and eager to contribute even when she did not have to be.  And after she got sick, she remained all of those things. As serious as it became, she never let her disease define her. When she lost her hair due to chemotherapy, she bought a variety of wigs, including a bright pink one. Despite her illness, she continued to show up to contribute to the UCLA community, paler but shining just as bright. She remains an inspiration.