Karina Vega Villa is a researcher, educator, and administrator dedicated to increasing equitable access to science for historically excluded communities. She served as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation (NSF), where her project focused on identifying and analyzing best practices in the merit review process to increase the number of fundamental STEM education research proposals from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Prior to joining NSF, she was the Director of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program at a two-year Hispanic Serving Institution in rural Washington. There, she implemented anti-racist models of teaching and learning to support underrepresented students in STEM. As a member of the STEM Education Innovation Alliance, she advised Washington Governor Jay Inslee and state legislators on STEM education and workforce development initiatives, collaborating with leaders from labor, education, government, and nonprofit sectors. In recognition of her community organizing efforts to address health disparities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic at local, regional, and state levels, she received the Commitment to Immigrant Rights Award in 2021 from the Latino Civic Alliance (WA).