Roxy Cruz (she/they) is an Indigenous scholar (Nahua/kitse cha´tña/Zacateco) and a National Science Foundation & Ford Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a plant physiological ecologist with a specialized background in plant-water relations, plant response to climate change-induced drought, cloud forest ecology, and stable isotope biogeochemistry. As a postdoctoral researcher, she studies widespread tree mortality, specifically in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), the most broadly distributed tree species in North America.

Roxy has a deep commitment to broadening the participation of underrepresented and historically marginalized groups in the sciences and providing opportunities for others to cross exclusionary boundaries the way that her journey allowed her to do. Raised in East Los Angeles (Kizh lands) and now based in the East Bay (unceded Huichin Ohlone land), she completed her bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College, CA in Environmental Science and her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in the Dept. of Integrative Biology with Dr. Todd Dawson. Roxy loves to climb trees, both for research and for fun.