Community Member Milestones
- Celebrating a promotion:
Christopher Barragan
In April 2025, Christopher was promoted to director of the Center for Student Success, a new office designed to integrate student support services including Caltech Accessibility Services for Students (CASS) and the CARE team, where Christopher formerly served as the case manager. Under Christopher’s leadership, the new center will ensure that these programs and their associated staff members are effectively coordinated to provide all students with the resources they need to achieve their goals at Caltech and beyond.
- Welcome to Caltech:
Michael Soriano
Michael joined Caltech as director of hotel operations at The Athenaeum on April 28, 2025. Michael previously served as director of housekeeping at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena, and he brings extensive experience in high-end hotel services at various various properties throughout California, including Napa, Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles, and Beverly Hills.
- Celebrating a promotion:
Vincent Ton
Vincent has been promoted to program manager in the Student-Faculty Programs (SFP) Office in April 2025. In this expanded role, Vincent will manage SFP’s communication strategies and build upon mentoring opportunities while continuing to work closely with all students, faculty, staff, and campus partners to deliver impactful undergraduate research experiences for those at the Institute.
- Welcome (back) to Caltech:
Vivian U
Vivian U (BS ’06) joined Caltech as an associate scientist at IPAC in February 2025, where she has taken up the role of the proposal team lead for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Previously, Vivian was an assistant astronomer at UC Irvine, where she led a research group that studied black hole–galaxy co-evolution with the James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck Observatory telescopes.
- Welcome to Caltech:
Ken Lee
Ken joined Caltech as the Institute’s new chief investment officer (CIO) on April 15. As a member of the senior administrative leadership group, Ken will oversee Caltech’s investment strategies and manage its approximately $4.5 billion investment portfolio. Ken has more than 25 years of experience in the financial sector, most recently at Children’s Health System of Texas.
- Celebrating a promotion:
Shayna Chabner McKinney
Shayna has been promoted to associate vice president, strategy implementation and chief communications and external relations officer in the Office of Communications and External Relations (formerly Office of Strategic Communications). In addition to her innovative leadership of the Institute's communications efforts, Shayna will liaise with Caltech's colleagues and federal officials in Washington, D.C., assume responsibility for Caltech's partnership with JPL's office of legislative and government affairs, and integrate the Institute's posture across all communications and external relations work.