Women Making History

Highlighting women of Texas Tech who are taking their place in history.

By Texas Tech University

March 31^st, 2023

In observance of Women's History Month, we spent March shining a light on accomplished women at Texas Tech. Each has made a mark not only in their field of study, but beyond. We have featured an infectious disease specialist who helped lead the way on COVID-19 testing, an advocate for change in the state's foster care system, a nutritional scientist on the cutting edge of obesity research, a rising star in the world of astrophysics, an Honors College hero devoted to high-achieving students, an Innocence Clinic attorney pushing to right legal-system wrongs, an engineer tackling climate change, a professor changing the narrative around mariachi, and a communicator dedicated to exposing the impact of misinformation. We hope you enjoy these stories as much as we enjoyed crafting them.

“A lot of people talk about the American dream and reviving the American dream. It’s there. It’s at your fingertips. It’s just the amount of work somebody is willing to put in. You can really be whoever you want to be if you’re willing to put in the work. I refuse to think that I’m entitled to anything besides what I’ve worked for.”

Cynthia Reinoso Webb

“These are very tough problems, but they are pressing ones to address because we don’t really have that much time. It’s basically a race to see what we can do during our limited time here.”

Ting Lin

“I tell students to get involved in the university and make sure you ask a lot of questions. For me as a first-gen student, I didn’t know much, and I didn’t get a lot of guidance. It was asking questions and figuring it out on my own. Now we have services that specifically serve first-gen students and I encourage them to take advantage of those.”

Wendoli Flores

“I had to stick to my guns. This was different from the opera experience. I didn’t feel called to be an opera singer, but I felt called to do this. I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me I didn’t belong.”

Lauryn Salazar

“We’re all born with an inquisitive nature. Somewhere along the line, that gets stifled, but that’s exactly what makes a great reporter. That’s why I tell my students to question everything.”

Lucinda Holt

“My research, teaching and service have been shaped by diverse life experiences and by the people who have made those experiences possible. I have lived in different countries and cultures and, thus, I seek to discover what lies beneath our multidimensional lives, to improve and advance the lives of underserved youth, and to serve the community and society at large.”

Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo

“My major reaction (to the Horizon Prize) was feeling so grateful for my community, that there would be people who would support me that way. Seeing your work is recognized and there are people out there who didn’t know about it and to be nominated for it, was amazing. I feel very grateful to the people I worked with.”

Alessandra Corsi

“Every single case is a Mount Everest, because once you’re convicted, boy howdy! You know, whenever you have a degree of usefulness, and people from high school or people that you have nothing really to do with, they'll be like, ‘Hey, you’re an attorney, right?’ And I always tell them, ‘If you need the kind of help I can offer, you are in the deepest water possible. You are in an ocean.”

Allison Clayton

"Our goal is to find ways to reduce obesity, a very complex disease. We would like to either prevent it, reverse it if it's already there or at least reduce it because that would lessen all the other negative effects on the body.”