Poet, scholar, teacher and the child of a naval officer, Sharon Elise grew up “crossing color lines” as the first African American in many a classroom as her family moved from coast to coast during the fervor of the Civil Rights Movement. As a graduate student and then professor, she pushed to bring issues of racism to the center. At CSU San Marcos since 1994, Elise led Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies and now serves as Chair of Sociology, where she created a new concentration in Critical Race Studies as well as developing related courses. The first “SLAM” winner of San Diego in 1998, she also brought the language and practice of Sociopoetics to CSU San Marcos. Her research interests include Black students’ college experience, Black identity and culture in Latino context, and examinations of faculty service in the CSU. She writes and publishes poetry, including her work, “Black Out of a Tight White Space.” The breadth of her activism on behalf of race and gender diversity led to her award of the first President's Award for Inclusive Excellence and Diversity at CSU San Marcos.