Dr. Arturo Zavala is a Professor of Psychology at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). As an undergraduate, Dr. Zavala participated in the Leadership Alliance's Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP) at Yale University and attended the first Leadership Alliance National Symposium in Washington, DC in 1995. He earned his bachelor's degree in psychology and master's degree in general experimental psychology from California State University, San Bernardino, and his Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Arizona State University. Dr. Zavala's research focuses on the functional consequences of early exposure to psychoactive drugs and later susceptibility to drug abuse, as well as the role of serotonin and glucagon-like peptide 1 in modulating the effects of drugs of abuse. His lab combines neurochemical, molecular, and pharmacological approaches with animal behavioral models to better understand the neural basis of addiction. Dr. Zavala is also the Co-Director of the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) program, which aims to increase the number of underrepresented students entering biomedical and health-related research careers. As Co-Director, Dr. Zavala has led efforts to increase CSULB's research capacity and infrastructure, designed and implemented a program to diversify the faculty, and mentored undergraduate students in his lab before sending them to doctoral programs in Neuroscience. Dr. Zavala received the CSULB Distinguished Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity (RSCA) Mentoring Award and the National Hispanic Science Network's National Award of Excellence in Mentorship for his involvement in research with undergraduate and graduate students.