Alan Llavore | Office of Marketing and Communications | (909) 537-5007 | allavore@csusb.edu
Rachel Estrada sat at the head of a long conference table in a room on the fourth floor of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences as university administrators, faculty members and staff came into the room to join her students.
Tomás D. Morales, Cal State San Bernardino president, who led the group into the room Thursday morning, announced that he was there to recognize an outstanding member of the university faculty for their work. “And today,” he said, “I have the pleasure to share with you that the 2024-25 Outstanding Lecturer Award is going to Rachel Estrada.”
With that, Estrada, a lecturer in the university’s School of Social Work, covered her mouth with both hands in surprise as the room filled with the sound of applause and cheers.
Morales said it is a university tradition to present these outstanding faculty awards through a surprise declaration. The president and fellow faculty members come right in and interrupt a classroom, lab or lecture hall to make the proclamation in front of the faculty member’s students, giving them the opportunity to witness their professor being honored.
“Rachel, you are incredible,” the president said. To those assembled, he said, “So, Rachel is receiving this award based on her exceptional instruction, capacity to engage students, and just extremely positive feedback she received from those she has taught.”
He added later, “You are truly impacting the Inland Empire and addressing the many needs that our community has. I can go through them. You know them quite well. And I just am so proud of what you represent – our faculty, our staff, our students – out in the Inland Empire.”
Estrada was visibly moved, her voice breaking as she spoke. “I'm really proud to be where I am today, to have the experience that I have out in the field, to layer my work, to be able to offer that to my students, to be ever present,” she said. “It has been a journey, so it takes a village. So everyone that's ever around me in my professional career, I owe a lot, because believe me, I see things in you and I adopt them, the things that I enjoy, the things I like, the things I think will make me better. I hope to keep doing that.
“What an honor,” Estrada said. “I’m so humbled.”
The award comes with a $1,000 Faculty Professional Development Grant, being honored at the Faculty Recognition Luncheon and recognition at the awardee’s spring college commencement ceremony.
Estrada’s master of social work degree is from CSUSB, “with an emphasis on children, youth and family. She's from CSUSB – she’s a fellow Coyote and one of our own!” Morales said. “In addition, she earned the Diplomate in Clinical Social Work or DCSW, the highest level of expertise and excellence for clinical social workers. She is the only member of the CSUSB School of Social Work to hold the prestigious DCSW.”
Estrada also has a bachelor of science in social work from California State Polytechnic University of Pomona.
In addition to her distinguished practice career, Estrada’s most significant contribution to the region may be the 25 years she has spent teaching and mentoring approximately 400 social work students in practicum or internship. She began teaching at CSUSB as a faculty liaison, or instructor who manages and evaluates the practicum experiences for a group of 12-15 students, who are placed from 16-20 hours per week for nine months at a variety of local agencies.
A colleague and nominator noted that Estrada’s consistently high student evaluations, or SOTEs, and positive classroom visits portray her as a competent and compassionate teacher who upholds high professional standards while emphasizing the need for students to practice self-care and boundary setting.
In fact, she regularly stays in touch with her students after graduation, helping them navigate first jobs, job transitions, and most importantly, pursuit of clinical licensure, which requires a minimum of two years post-MSW training.
One of her students wrote, “Professor Estrada’s support during this course has been priceless; her encouragement to move forward and keep strong during the challenges of practicum has made all the difference.”
Another noted that she seems particularly skilled at “promoting self-care and realistic expectations” to avoid burnout in social work practice.
Morales remarked on the widespread impact Estrada has had on the students with whom she’s worked throughout her teaching career. He said that he’s told community leaders that “you cannot walk into a nonprofit organization, a social services organization, a school, a hospital and not find CSUSB social workers, nurses, teachers. We're part of this community; 75% of our alumni live in Riverside or San Bernardino County.”
He then turned to Estrada and said, “And so your work is truly extraordinary. We are blessed to have you on our faculty. Thank you.”
Provost Rafik Mohamed, sharing what he learned about Estrada from Deirdre Lanesskog, director of the School of Social Work, added: “Our faculty and agency partners believe it would be hard to find a social services agency in the Inland Empire with no connection to Rachel as her former students work – and she put it in all caps – EVERYWHERE!”
The 2024-25 committee is headed up by chair Gisela Bichler (School of Criminology and Criminal Justice). Other members include Sara Callori (representing the College of Natural Sciences), Ying Cheng (representing the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration), Yawen Li (representing the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences), Shafiq Rahman (representing the College of Arts and Letters), and Viktor Wang (representing the James R. Watson and Judy Rodriguez Watson College of Education).
In addition to her work at CSUSB, Estrada has served the Inland Empire’s most vulnerable residents over the past 27 years via roles with Kaiser Permanente, San Antonio Regional Hospital, DaVita Dialysis, East Valley Special Education, Youthbuild, Ballard Rehabilitation Hospital, and in private practice.