Regional Leadership

Vincent Rodriguez-Ruiz is a Central Valley native. He was born and raised in Visalia, CA, and graduated from Fresno State with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Vincent is a Lifetime Member of SHPE and has been actively engaged within the organization over the past 9 years. He has served as President of the SHPE Fresno State Chapter, Regional Student Representative, and is currently the President of the SHPE Fresno Professionals. While Vincent has been the President, the Fresno Professionals have received 2 Blue Chip Awards, and was selected as the 2018 SHPE National Small Chapter of the Year at the SHPE National Conference in Kansas City, OH. Vincent currently works as a Distribution Operations Engineer with Pacific Gas & Electric. As an Operations Engineer Vincent’s main responsibility is to ensure customers receive safe and reliable electric power. This includes providing real time support during storms, fires, or unforeseen emergencies. As a Central Valley native, Vincent is passionate about STEM outreach to rural agricultural communities. He aspires to provide access to tools and resources to communities who do not have a strong focus in STEM. During his free time Vincent enjoys running. He has completed 8 half marathons, and 1 full marathon.

Alexis Hernandez was born and raised in the city of Ejutla de Crespo, Oaxaca, in the southern region of Mexico where he spent the first 7 years of his childhood at the care of his grandparents. From a young age, Alexis – one of four siblings – witnessed his parents financial struggle to raise a family of 5 when he migrated to the United States and resided in Santa Maria, CA, which motivated him to push forward and fueled his desire to pursue higher education. Today, he is attending the California State University, Chico where he is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and is expected to graduate in May 2020. In addition to his academics, Alexis has been an active community member at CSU, Chico since his freshman year participating in extracurricular activities and leadership programs such as Latinos in Technical Careers, Latinos in Science & Engineering, the MESA Engineering Program, the Freshman Leadership Opportunity, the Wildcat Leadership Institute, and taking on lead roles during his two research internships in the college of engineering, the Materials Research Society and the Collegiate Wind Competition engineering team. While attending Chico State, Alexis has served his community through interactive programs hosted by the Latinos in Technical Careers and the Wildcat Leadership Institute that aim to kick-start the interest of low income, underrepresented communities in considering a career in STEM. He is currently looking forward to the opportunity to continue serving the Latino community through the appointed position of Region 1 Student Represented for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). Alexis has maintained himself active in societies alike since his freshman year. When he is not on campus working on his academics or working in a collaborative setting, you can find Alexis delighting himself to a book on space and future spaceflight, working on his ideas, watching the latest Marvel Cinematic motion picture, running at his local gym, or dinning at a student-favorite restaurant enjoying the company of friends and family.

Santiago was born and raised in Southern Los Angeles. He is currently attending California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo pursuing a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering with a thesis in Supersonic/Hypersonic Aerodynamics. He currently serves as the Alumni Relations officer for Cal Poly SHPE chapter and continues to be involved with his community back home by giving talks at his high school about Cal Poly to increase enrollment of minorities at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Throughout his undergraduate career, he has participated in programs such as Upward Bound, Cal Poly SLO Summer Bridge Program, and Engineering possibilities in College where he has mentored first generation high school students in their studies and how to apply to colleges, recent first generation high school graduates attending Cal Poly SLO during the fall on notetaking, learning, and social skills that will help them during their college education and professional endeavors, and finally providing high school students with an insight into engineering through a summer camp where students learn about different engineering disciplines through hands on activities and workshops. These experiences as an undergraduate student has instilled a belief of giving back to his community by leaving behind a road so that others can follow and providing guidance to those wishing to leave their mark. Upon graduating, he hopes to one day start a company in hypersonic weapon defense systems and launch vehicles for space insertion while providing mentorship and scholarship programs to students of all demographics especially those from disadvantaged communities. He strives to one day be a SHPE National Leader to give back to the SHPE community that has helped him throughout his undergraduate and graduate education by being a Board Member in hope of promoting community involvement in disadvantaged communities to keep young minds away from gang life and giving them role models to look up to. During his spare time, Santiago spends it weightlifting, learning how to program, reading, writing, and learning how to start and manage a company.

Arturo Lopez was born in Michoacan, and moved to Santa Rosa, CA with his family when he was 8 years old. During his time in high school, he found his interest in STEM and technology, by interacting with tech, and by learning about the field of engineering. He attended community college at Santa Rosa Junior College where he completed his lower division courses in STEM. At community college, Arturo was part of the Puente Program where he learned about tying his values and personal and academic goals to his community. Arturo transferred to UC Santa Cruz as a Computer Science major and is expecting to graduate 2019 with his Bachelor’s degree. He is currently working at the Transfer Center on campus at UC Santa Cruz, where he works with the Cultivamos Excelencia HSI program which is committed to increasing the transfer rate of underserved students from San Jose Community College. He is also working as an Android Developer for a startup in Santa Cruz, Novateur Inc. Arturo also enjoys staying active by playing soccer and working out at the gym.