Slide 1
[Video recorded Spring 2025. On the screen is DEVII, who has long, dark hair, a dark sweater, and glasses. Behind them is an image of a green field with cows and a blue sky with clouds.]
DEVII: Welcome to Being Mixed-Race in the Workplace. This four-part series explores perspectives and experiences of UC ANR employees who identify as being mixed-race or having mixed ethnicity. I’m your host, Devii Rao. I’m a livestock and natural resources advisor with UC Cooperative Extension. In this first episode, our five interviewees will introduce themselves and we’ll discuss the significance of their names.
Slide 2
[On the screen is CHRISTINA, who has long, brown hair and a green sweater. Behind them is an image of the Golden Gate Bridge.]
CHRISTINA: My name is Christina Marie Becker and I am a program policy analyst in the program planning and evaluation unit. Um, so we do a lot of accountability reporting for the USDA, but we also provide trainings for evaluation to folks all across ANR. I’m headquartered in Oakland. So, I am, uh, white and Mexican. Um, my-my dad’s family, they’re a mix of a lot of different European countries. Um, and then my mom’s family is all Mexican. Becker is German, so I think my name kind of hides part of my identity, um, because I also present as white.
CHRISTINA (cont’d): Um, I’m not sure how that impacts how people interact with me. I think my impression is that me being a woman has a bigger, uh, impact on how people interact with me than knowing if I’m white or Mexican.
Slide 3
[On the screen is GREGORY, who has short, gray hair, a blue vest, and a red button-up shirt. The background is blurred.]
GREGORY: My full name is Gregory Codle Ira. And, uh, my role at UC ANR, I’m the director of the UC Environmental Stewards Program, which is the home of the California Naturalist Certification Course and, uh, the new climate steward certification course. That’s a statewide program. So I’m based in Davis, um, at the Second Street office. You know, I would say that, uh, I am, uh, racially, I-I-I tend to check the, uh, either the white Caucasian box or, uh, multi-race. I’m choosing multiple races, Asian and, uh, Caucasian, or-or white. Now, um, ethnically I consider myself Filipino. Um, and, you know, I’m-I’m half Filipino.
GREGORY (cont’d): My father’s from the Philippines. Um, and, uh, my mother’s mostly Irish. So, you know, my name typically is—comes across as Greg or Gregory Ira. And, um, I think a lot of people, well, I get a lot of—in a lot of occasions, I get people mixing my first name and last name. They think my name’s Ira Gregory, and so that’s always kind of an interesting, um, thing to go over with folks, uh, when-when they’re looking at my name. Um, the last name, uh, Ira, is a little bit unusual.
GREGORY (cont’d): It-it’s, you know, in the Philippines it’s pronounced EERA, um, but when my father came to the U.S. he didn’t bother correcting everybody and, uh, he just went with what everybody called him and-and so they just went with EYE-RA. And it was as we grew up and we-we used Ira. But yeah, it’s an interesting story and, uh, and there’s a lot of interesting conversations and I-I-I think I-I’ll-I’ll take that as a—as a benefit to have a nice conversation about, uh, maybe my, uh, ethnicity, um, when, uh, when I’m meeting with someone new.
Slide 4
[On the screen is RITA, who has long, brown hair, and glasses. The background is blurred.]
RITA: My full name is Rita Louise Clemens. I am an area county director, uh, which is a fairly newer position created, uh, where I am 100% administrative, uh, and I cover three counties in Southern California: San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties. I’m headquartered in, uh, Riverside, uh, California. I live in San Bernardino County. Um, I identify—well, I let individuals know I am of mixed race. I am Mexican and German. Uh, when I self-identify on applications, though, I typically choose, um, either Latino or Mexican descent. Just because when it gives the option for white, it says non-Hispanic.
RITA (cont’d): And so I usually do not select that as an option, or, uh, if there is opportunity of more than two races, um, I will select that. But my name is, I don’t think, reflective so much of my, um, heritage so to speak. You-you hear the name Rita Louise Clemens and you—if you did not see me, I don’t know if you would know kind of what nationality to expect from it. Um, my maiden name is Garcia. Um, so I think, uh, a lot of times with my maiden name, it-it was very reflective of my Latin, uh, ancestry.
RITA (cont’d): But with my husband who is also of mixed race, um, his, uh, mother’s maiden name is Barrero and his father’s name is Clemens. And so, um, I-I think I have a unique name that kind of matches my uniqueness.
Slide 5
[On the screen is now the credits]
Interviewees in order of appearance: Christina Becker, Gregory Ira, Rita Clemens. Project concept, interviews, and editing by Devii Rao. In collaboration with Elizabeth Moon, Director of Workplace Inclusion and Belonging and with the DEI Advisory Council. Interviews recorded and video completed in 2024.