Cate Wilson is the Interim Deputy Director of Programs. She earned an MA in Religion and completed her PhD, both from Claremont School of Theology. She joined the Institute in 2016. In addition to community engagement and outreach, she draws on 15 years of experience as a line-producer and production manager in the film and television industries contributing to project management for the education department. She earned her PhD in Practical Theology from Claremont McKenna College.

Karen Kim is the senior researcher and evaluator for the USC Shoah Foundation. She was previously a faculty member at CSU Fullerton; education director for a National Science Foundation funded center at UCLA; researcher and evaluator of several large-scale, multi-institutional grant projects; and research administrator for the Directors Guild of America. Dr. Kim earned her Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Zovaira Rodriguez is the Procurement Specialist for the USC Shoah Foundation and has been with the institute for 3 years.  She works within our Operations Department overseeing and managing all purchasing requests along with vendor intake, setup, and requesting payments. Prior to the Institute, Zovaira received her Bachelors in Criminal Justice with a Minor in Anthropology from the California State University of Los Angeles.

Cynthia Schirmer currently oversees the finances and business operations of the Institute. She has worked for the Shoah Foundation since March 2016. Prior to that, Cynthia worked as the Shoah Foundation’s Business Officer (while employed at the Dornsife Business Office) from December 2013 thru December 2015. Cynthia has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of La Verne, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Computer Science from Cal State Fullerton.

Alex Paiva Jr is a programmer helping build the Dimension in Testimony platform by using AI services to allow for an interactive experience with testimonies from survivor. Previously in his career Alex has worked on building and implementing enterprise level applications. He received a BS in Computer Engineering degree from California State University Northridge. 

Larina Palacpac supports the financial management of the Institute by assisting in account reconciliation, budget development and financial reporting. Prior to joining USC Shoah Foundation, Larina worked as a Budget/Business Technician at the USC Dornsife Business Office for six years where she was responsible for processing procurement orders and reimbursement requests for a high-volume research intensive department. She received her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from the University of Southern California.

Alan Auyeung oversees the collection, management and transfer area of broadcast video equipment; administers educational, instructional and reference materials collections; and provides services for patrons including ensuring requests for distribution copies of the archive are fulfilled.  Prior to joining USC, Alan worked at a Los-Angeles area post-production technical support service provider for 20 years as an Electronic Technician, with experiences in post-production systems and equipment repair, maintenance, and troubleshooting.

Hoan Tran oversees the data archival and storage infrastructure for the Institute’s content. Hoan has experiences in software dev-ops, systems engineering, system administration, and information systems security.