USD-Magazine-Spring-2025

“ I try to go to places that help enhance my understanding of this world. The museum does the same — you are traveling in your heart and mind. That’s the experience

“I feel a great responsibility as a person of color to ensure that we are a welcoming pathway to the park — where everyone feels the park belongs to them and they feel included. I’m very proud of the work we are doing.” Ovalle has more than three decades of experience in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. She is currently a chief strategy and governance advisor at the Qualcomm Institute, a multidisciplinary institute that brings together faculty researchers and scientists from across the University of California system, as well as industry, to tackle the world’s largest problems with technology at the forefront. “Our job is to really look at the next big thing, the world’s most complex challenges and then solve them by using tools that don’t yet exist.”

Ovalle has long been a proponent of volunteer work. For her, it began as a 14-year-old girl donating time in the University Heights Public Library (they would go on to hire her for a 12-year career). Providing spaces for people to access information and ways to find themselves is critical to personal growth and community building, she said, crediting her mother, a career educator, for instilling that lesson through service and an appreciation for art and culture. “To be a museum for everyone, you have to create a sense of belonging,” she explained. “For me, it was that cultural representation I felt when I walked into the museum for the first time. In this role, we are creating a meaningful space with the community for everyone to feel a part of our community.” — Matthew Piechalak

you’re going to get here because you’re being exposed to all of us.”

sandiego.edu | 45