Olga Nuñez, director of Fresno State Educational Talent Search - Fresno, was recently appointed chair of professional development for the WESTOP [Western Association of Educational Opportunity Personnel] Region for the 2025-26 term, representing TRIO professionals across Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.

In this role, Nuñez will be responsible for organizing and coordinating activities that enhance the professional development of WESTOP members, including offering of new resources, training opportunities and networking connections to TRIO programs throughout the Western U.S. and Pacific territories.

WESTOP is one of 10 regional associations dedicated to the professional development and support of educational equity professionals. Its mission includes advocacy for the TRIO movement, which prioritizes educational opportunities for low-income, first-generation and students with disabilities. With six chapters across the region, WESTOP provides members with opportunities to collaborate, share best practices and contribute to the national TRIO effort.

Dr. Jenny Banh, professor and Asian American Studies coordinator, Department of Anthropology, has released the book, "Fantasies of Hong Kong Disneyland: Attempted Indigenizations of Space, Labor and Consumption."

This book examines the attempt to transplant Disney's "happiest place on Earth" ethos to Hong Kong. The situation poses special challenges for a leading American culture corporation’s efforts to manage space, labor and consumption to achieve local adaptation and business success in a nominally Communist region in China.

It is available now in multiple formats from the publisher, Rutgers Press, and in hard cover-only format on Amazon. Read a review of the book on a blog by Sally Pirie.

Banh just published “COVID-19 Racism and American Chinese Restaurants 2019–2022 Exploring American Chinese Restaurants as Symbolic 'Canaries in the Coalmine' Indicating Anti-Asian Hate” in the Journal of Overseas Chinese. She also wrote a chapter, "Asian Disneyland, Local Community Reactions, and the Role of Cultural Spaces" in the book "Why the Magic Matters: Discovering Disney as a Laboratory for Learning."