I want to leave the world better than I found it.

When I started my research journey in undergrad, I was confused how my peers blamed raped victims for their experience of violence. It turned into a funded undergraduate research project where over 130 college students received a sexual violence prevention and bystander training. This evolved into my Master’s thesis where I looked to understand how campus leadership, committed to sexual violence prevention, hit consistent roadblocks while trying to implement policies and practices that would support victims of sexual violence.

I was the first student at George Mason University to earn a dual Master’s Degree in Sociology and Women & Gender Studies, I learned during that time I am invested in social change. For a while I said I was a scholar interested in social inequality and intersectionality. However, I understand now I have always been interested in power. Who has it, who shapes it, how it shifts, and how it is used to solidify and undermine structures of domination.

I played a pivotal role in an NSF funded grant to understand non-binary gender identities and wrote a paper arguing that while identity labels, and recognition of those labels, can further experiences of oppression in our society, I found non-binary people were liberating themselves from the confines of the gender binary through the understanding of their own experience with gender. I argue that this liberation is a fundamental part of understanding how structures like gender can be undermined by marginalized communities.

My current research focuses on queer/trans disabled BIPOC who have been historically described as powerless through their oppression and marginalization in sociology. I am curious how people who hold identities that cause them to experience oppression and violence at a concentrated level leverage power for social change and in the fight for liberation.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Intersectional Diversity & Inclusion Trainer
Self-Contracting | August 2019 - Present

  • Operating as a consultant providing organizational analysis and training for organizations to help them meet and exceed their DEI goals and expectations for interns and associate boards

  • Work expands to mediation and conflict resolution in the workplace with a focus on power analysis, problem-solving, and solutions (not punishments)

  • Designed and developed tools to measure organizational progress in DEI training focusing on anti-blackness as a structural component of inequality; Pre & Post Test indicate tools exceed goals

  • Created presentations, pamphlets, and newsletters to inform board members and teams how to effectively move their organizational culture to be safe for BIPOC employees and fellows

  • Designed and presented trainings on beyond the basics DEI knowledge focused on challenging global anti-blackness and ableism

Project Manager for In The Classroom Pedagogy Project
Gender & Society | July 2019 - July 2023

  • Cultivated and designed pedagogy project to make classrooms more inclusive and accessible for students

  • Communicate with stakeholders and students to construct an online learning portal for SAGE published journal Gender & Society

  • Manage project task schedules and completion

  • Developed and designed WordPress site for the project

Policy Research Assistant to Vice President
George Mason University | May 2018 - June 2022

  • Conducts research on topics related to Higher Education and social justice

  • Designs policy implementations related to latinx student access, sexual violence prevention, marginalized student access, diversity and inclusion curricula

  • Provides summaries and annotated bibliographies on relevant literature

  • Works with graphic design websites to create powerpoints and graphs detailing data

Managing Editor
Gender & Society at University of Illinois - Chicago | May 2019 - August 2022

Research Assistant
Sociology at University of Illinois - Chicago | September 2018 - September 2021

  • Determined research question and supported grant writing for a $700,000 NIH grant

  • Designed interview questions and procedure

  • Co-planned public gender conference for the university

  • Worked in a team to create a research project and publication

Graduate Teaching Assistant
Sociology at University of Illinois - Chicago | August 2018 - Present

Graduate Professional Assistant
Women And Gender Studies at George Mason University | August 2016 - May 2018

  • Created diverse programming for the Mason population include Take Back the Night, Fear 2 Freedom, and other major programs

  • Designed flyers, forms, and websites for the department

  • Provided support for students dealing with trauma

  • Sat on the Executive Committee

  • Worked on community outreach with organizations in the DC-area

Graduate Teaching Assistant
Women And Gender Studies at George Mason University | January 2017 - May 2018

Research Assistant
Summer in the Parks Grant | June 2017 - August 2017

  • Assisted with the methodological design of a grant application

  • Completed annotated bibliography on Critical Race Theory

  • Completed annotated bibliography on Collective Memory

Campus Leadership Fellow
Futures Without Violence | August 2015 - August 2017

  • Developed and implemented key Futures programs at my college and university to address dating and domestic violence, reproductive coercion, sexual violence and sexual assault through policy, curricula and community engagement

  • Advocated for policy and curriculum change and negotiated with George Mason University's administration

  • Organized events to raise awareness and support around issues of sexual violence

Assessment Specialist
Wellness, Alcohol, and Violence Education and Services | February 2016 - August 2016

  • Researched bystander intervention scales and developed a scale after review of literature

  • Designed a post-test survey the effectiveness of bystander intervention training several months after participants complete training

  • Created a readiness for change pre-test to administer to students to determine if they are ready to complete bystander intervention training

  • Analyzing data using SPSS after bystander scores are received

  • Provided counseling to survivors

Research Intern
Women and Gender Studies Center at George Mason University | January 2016 - August 2016

  • Researched topics on intimate partner violence

  • Organized events on race and gender utilizing a sociological and feminist lens

  • Assisted in organizing and running the annual Women & Gender Studies Conference

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Instructor - Sociology 305: Social Problems
University of Illinois - Chicago | January 2022 - Present

Instructor - Sociology 100: Introduction to Sociology
University of Illinois - Chicago | June 2021 - Present

Teaching Assistant - Sociology 105: Social Problems
University of Illinois - Chicago | January 2019 - May 2019

Teaching Assistant - Sociology 224: Gender & Society
University of Illinois - Chicago | August 2018 - December 2018

Invited Lecturer - Integrative Studies 446: Art, Beauty, and Culture
George Mason University | March 2018

Teaching Assistant - Women and Gender Studies 410/610 Feminist Research Methods
George Mason University | August 2017 - December 2017

Co-Instructor - Women and Gender Studies 406/506 Gender, Power, Violence & Bodies
George Mason University | January 2017 - May 2017

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

2024
Vega, mav. "Gender Journeys and Liberation for Non-Binary individuals" Paper Presented at American Sociological Society Annual Conference. March 2024.

2019
Vega, Mary Ann. "Feminist Approaches to Researching, Preventing, and Addressing Campus Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence." Presented at Sociologists for Women in Society Winter Meeting. February 2019.

Vega, Mary Ann. "Constitutive Violence: Native Women, Sexual Violence, and Assimilation into Whiteness." Accepted to the 2019 Southern Sociological Society Annual Meeting. April 2019.

2018
Vega, Mary Ann. "Shifting Attitudes: Measuring Factors that Successfully Reduce Rape Myth Acceptance in College Students." Presented at 2018 Southern Sociological Society Annual Meeting. April 2018.

2017
Vega, MaryAnn. "Starting with Intersectionality, Ending with Change: Intersectional Activism and Sexual Assault Prevention." Presented at 2016 Leadership Mason Conference at George Mason University. October 2016.

2016
Davis, Shannon N., Alysia Blake, Felicia Garland-Jackson, Amanda J. Reioux, and MaryAnn Vega. "Gender, National Identity, and Political Participation: A Cross-National Analysis of Voter Participation." Paper presented at the Gender Research Conference, George Mason University

2015
Vega, Mary Ann. "Can Campus Climate Change? Rape Myth Acceptance and The Impact of Bystander Intervention." Paper presented at Politics of Gender and Justice Women and Gender Studies Conference at George Mason University April 2015.

Vega, Mary Ann. "Can Campus Climate Change? Rape Myth Acceptance and The Impact of Bystander Intervention." Undergraduate Research Symposium at George Mason University. April 2015.

Vega, Mary Ann. "Can Campus Climate Change? Rape Myth Acceptance and The Impact of Bystander Intervention." Paper presented at OSCAR URSP Symposium at George Mason University. May 2015.

Vega, Mary Ann. "Can Campus Climate Change? Rape Myth Acceptance and The Impact of Bystander Intervention." Poster presentation Celebration of Student Scholarship at George Mason University. May 2015.

Vega, Mary Ann. "Can Campus Climate Change? Rape Myth Acceptance and The Impact of Bystander Intervention." Presented at 2015 Interventions: Women's Studies in Action Symposium at the University of Maryland. October 2015.

INVITED PRESENTATIONS

2024
Invited Panelist, black and Trans Community in Philanthropy, Funding Forward 2024.

Invited Lecturer, Intersectionality, Anti-Blackness & Fatphobia. George Mason University.

2017
Invited lecturer, Intersectionality. Futures Without Violence. August 2017.

2016
Invited panelist, Rape Myth Acceptance. George Mason University, Patriots in Action, March 28, 2016.

2015
Invited panelist on Healthy Masculinities, Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Multicultural Education and Men Can Stop Rape, October 28, 2015.

Invited panelist on Domestic Violence on College Campuses, 2015 AAUW Virginia/West Virginia States Conference, April 18, 2015.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Distinguished Alumni Award - George Mason University - Spring 2019

Dean's Challenge Award - George Mason University - Spring 2017*
*Nominated for this award, simultaneously without consultation by both academic departments

Distinguished Quill Award for Inclusion and Social Justice - George Mason University - Spring 2017

Undergraduate Grant OSCAR URSP - Spring 2015
"College Students and Victim Blaming Sexual Assault Victims"

Alpha Kappa Delta - Honor Society Membership