Oral history interview with Dr. Alvaro Vergara-Mery conducted by Barbara Tabach on October 28, 2020 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Alvaro discusses his personal history and his upbringing in both Chile and the United Kingdom before immigrating to the United States; due to political unrest in Chile, he moved to the U.K. where his mother was born before attending university in the United States. Alvaro talks about his work as a medical interpreter for University Medical Center (UMC) as well as his college teaching experience at University of Nevada Las Vegas and California State Berkley.
Oral history interview with Marvelys Lopez Omaña conducted by Monserrath Hernandez and Barbara Tabach on February 21, 2020 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Marvelys Lopez discusses her childhood and growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, where her father owned a toy store. She attended an all-girls Catholic School and from a young age knew that she wanted to be a doctor. In 1993, at the age of seventeen, she was able to study abroad in the United States for one year and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. She returned to Venezuela to attend medical school and while attending medical school she met her husband, who was studying to be a registered nurse at the time. Lopez Omaña recalls volunteering as a firefighter in Venezuela, and discusses the political change that happened in Venezuela during her last years in medical school. She moved to back Las Vegas with her husband in 2003 and began working as a caregiver. She recounts Her first son's birth story, and describes how she became a Certified Professional Midwife.
In 1943, Cleophis Hill Williams was a teenager visiting her mother who had moved to Las Vegas. For most of her young life she had lived with her parents in Muskogee, Oklahoma and Paul Spur/Douglas, Arizona. The same year that she visited Las Vegas, she met her future husband Tom Williams, with whom she had nine children, all born and raised on the Westside. Tom worked construction and built their first home on G Street. For Cleophis, she focused her life on raising her children and, whenever possible, finding some precious time to read.
Dr Leonard Goodall, former president of UNLV, comes from a unique educational background. He was born in Warrensburg, Missouri, a small town of only 6,000 souls, and received 12 years of education in the same building. After high school, he attended Central Missouri State College, which was only about 2 miles from his home. Dr. Goodall earned his master's degree at the University of Missouri, and attended the University of Illinois for his doctorate in political science. He went right into academic life, accepting a job at Arizona State in Tempe on the basis of a phone call. For five years he taught in the department of Political Science and conducted research at the institute. He subsequently moved to the University of Illinois Chicago as instructor and then chancellor (four years), and from there to the University of Michigan Dearborn as chancellor (eight years). In 1979, Leonard accepted a position as president of UNLV. He oversaw the development of the College of Engineering, helped create the UNLV Foundation, and made a number of appointments, such as athletic director, any number of deanships, and academic vice president of student affairs. After his presidency, Dr. Goodall returned to his professorship in public administration and served on many campus committees. He phased his retirement over several years, and was completely out in 2002. Today, Leonard continues to serve on graduate committees for UNLV, and works on the search committee to find a new president.