Katia Del Rio-Tsonis
Being the Mentor She Wish She Had
Katia Del Rio-Tsonis has been a caring and driven professor at Miami University for over 20 years now. Dr. Del Rio-Tsonis teaches two courses that align with her areas of research - how an embryo develops and a cancer biology course, alongside some special seminars. She is very involved in campus organizations, such as Latin American Studies (LAS), Association of Latinx Faculty and Staff (ALFAS), and a faculty advisor for Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). “In recent years, ALFAS has been extremely active and has reached out a lot. [There are] lots of activities and [the organization] tries to keep us all together. [ALFAS] keeps the community alive and I am grateful for that.” Her membership in these groups give Del Rio-Tsonis a sense of belonging and identity, which can be difficult to find for minorities in a rural environment such as Oxford, Ohio.
Early Life in Mexico
Del Rio-Tsonis grew up in Mexico and describes her childhood as “very happy and very peaceful.” She remembers roaming around, biking to friends' houses with the youthful freedom we all loved. She went to a wonderful series of schools and still keeps in touch with the lifelong friends she met there. Del Rio-Tsonis acknowledges that this degree of freedom and security that she experienced as a kid is not possible anymore in this current day and age. She mentions how upsetting the current income inequality, corruption, and crime in Mexico is: “It is different from what I remember when I was growing up…our country is very divided between extremes.” (Learn more about the Mexico Del Rio-Tsonis grew up in here)
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Relocating To The U.S.
Del Rio-Tsonis moved to the U.S. in 1981 with her entire family in order for her and her siblings to pursue higher education. She describes the move from Mexico to San Diego as not being a gigantic cultural shock. Southern California is infused with Latinx food, art, languages, and community. Del Rio-Tsonis had a strong support network of family there, and her transition was eased by having studied English since elementary school. When she received her degree in biology and biochemistry in 1986, she was posed with the decision to move back to Mexico with her entire family or stay alone in California. Being a woman in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Del Rio-Tsonis felt the opportunities in the U.S. were stronger than they would be in Mexico, mainly due to grant possibilities and her then-future plans of attending medical school. “It was the hardest decision ever in my life to see them [her entire family] all leaving.”
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She got a job at a cancer research foundation in La Jolla and it was there where she met her husband. After getting married, she and her family made the move to Indiana in 1988 and the next year to Dayton Ohio. She worked in labs there alongside her husband on tissue regeneration. During this time, Del Rio-Tsonis was also completing her PhD through a program in Mexico that allowed her to do her courses and most of the lab work in the U.S., but required her to travel to Mexico every six months to take her exams for the program. At that time, she just had her daughter. Since her family still was living in Mexico, her frequent trips back for exams and lab work made life a lot easier in terms of childcare and allowing her to connect with family and friends in Mexico on a frequent basis, although the back-and-forth traveling was pretty tough on a new mom pursuing her PhD.
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Life In the Midwest
When Del Rio-Tsonis applied for a position at Miami University, she described the interview process as very fun and she was impressed with the academic environment. She was hired in 1999 and has consistently strived to be a role model for all students, especially students who are Latinx. Del Rio-Tsonis loves her job and the research projects she leads regarding lens and retina regeneration. “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is really important to me.” She embodies this value by recruiting many Latinx students in her research lab and staying “keen on getting Latinx students from other countries [besides Mexico]” and increasing the overall diversity of students in the Biology department as much as she can.
“It was the hardest decision ever in my life to see them [her entire family] all leaving.”
“It is important that once you're in a position of power to reach out and share your experiences."
The initial move to the Midwest from California made accessing Latinx culture a lot more difficult. Besides the literal geographic distance, diversity seems to be sparse in southern Ohio. When Del Rio-Tsonis first became a part of Miami University, she had to make a conscious effort to find the Latinx community. She found her sense of belonging and identity through bonding with fellow Hispanic individuals in Oxford and Dayton, in addition to her late husband’s Greek cultural circle in Dayton. Now, she is a very well connected member of the Latinx community. Del Rio-Tsonis did not have a female Latinx role model to look up to at
Del Rio-Tsonis working in the lab with researchers.
Miami when she first got here, but she is now that mentor for many students. Being a Latinx women in STEM can be a lonely position to be in. It is very important to her that she continues to illuminate the path for students of diverse backgrounds to have opportunities and success in STEM. “It is important that once you're in a position of power to reach out and share your experiences…The helping hand is there.”