Dr. Fariba M. Donovan received her medical degree at The Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran and completed her internal Medicine residency at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. She then completed her infectious disease fellowship at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.
During her graduate studies in Japan after her medical school her research focused on C. albicans virulence factors. She later in postdoctoral fellowship focused on Coccidioides urease as a virulence factor and was able to mutate the gene in Coccidioides and constructed a less virulent strain.
She joined the faculty at the University of Arizona in 2017 and has been focusing on early pathogen-host interaction in coccidioidomycosis. She is studying early coccidioidomycosis events to better understand altered or dysfunctional metabolic pathways as evidence of genetic alterations and a risk factor for severe coccidioidomycosis or disseminated coccidioidomycosis (DCM).
Her clinical research focuses on the earlier and improved diagnosis of Valley fever. Her clinical research goals include the development of more rapid, reliable, and cost-effective Valley fever point-of-care testing which will speed up and improve diagnostic accuracy and antimicrobial stewardship. She completed a prospective study evaluating a rapid LFA test for Valley fever diagnosis. Her earlier work has demonstrated the human and financial burden of delays in Valley fever diagnosis. Her work epitomizes the goal of taking basic research and applying it at the bedside for the benefit of the entire community. Additionally, she is studying the host innate immune response to Coccidioides with a focus on the early events in coccidioidomycosis.
Edward M. Ranger, Esq. is a bilingual, bicultural cross-border environmental, natural resources, and trade attorney, licensed in Arizona since 1987 and Mexico since 1993. He holds degrees from the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, UNAM, and Thunderbird School of Global Management.
He is an adjunct professor at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, teaching North American Trade Law and Practice, and formerly taught Environmental Law at UNAM. He has served on the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico’s Environmental and Sustainability committees.
Ranger focuses his academic and professional work on Arizona-Mexico trade, environmental and natural-resource policy, and cross-border economic development. He has developed USMCA policy proposals submitted to the Arizona Governor’s Office and the U.S. federal government.
With two sons born in Mexico and two daughters born in Arizona, Ranger brings both professional expertise and personal experience to his work advancing practical policies and projects benefiting Arizona and the U.S.-Mexico border region.
Eric Garcetti is a former Mayor of Los Angeles and former U.S. Ambassador to India whose career has spanned more than two decades of public service at the local, national, and international levels. He served 12 years on the Los Angeles City Council, including six as Council President, before being elected the 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles in 2013, leading the nation's second-largest city for nearly a decade. In 2023, he was confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to India, where he served until 2025.
Garcetti traces his roots to Arizona, where his family has lived since settling there from Sonora, Mexico, in the late 19th century. His great-grandparents, Jose and Juana Iberri, owned grocery stores in Phoenix and Superior, the Phoenix store standing on the site where Chase Field sits today. They raised 19 children, among them Garcetti's grandmother, who was born in Phoenix. Long before anyone used the phrase "Hispanic-owned business," the Iberris were proving what a family, a storefront, and a lot of hard work could build in Arizona.
Garcetti carried that legacy into his work in Los Angeles, the largest Latino city in the United States. As mayor, he made small business and immigrant entrepreneurship a centerpiece of the city's economic strategy, and led Los Angeles through the largest local infrastructure investment in American history and the winning bid for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
His work for Latino communities extended well beyond city limits. Garcetti founded and chaired the Latino Alliance of Mayors at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, building a national coalition of Latino leaders in city halls across the country. The National Council of La Raza recognized him with its Capital Award. And as Ambassador to India, he became the first Latino ever to represent the United States in one of the world's ten largest economies, strengthening commercial ties between the two nations. It is a long road from a general store in Phoenix to the embassy in New Delhi, but he has never forgotten where it started.
Garcetti is the founder of Accelerator for America, which helps cities scale ideas that work, and serves as the C40 Cities Ambassador for Global Climate Diplomacy. He sits on the board of the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Global Advisory Board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and advises a range of public and private companies. A former naval intelligence officer, Rhodes Scholar, and Columbia University graduate, he is also a published photographer and jazz pianist, and remains, at heart, the great-grandson of Phoenix shopkeepers.