SDSU Transborder Lunch & Learn

Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Amanda Marino, Ph.D., joined SDSU in 2021 after ten years of experience in public accounting. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Master’s in Taxation from Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, before beginning her career in Deloitte’s real estate tax group in Boston. She has also worked in financial services with KPMG, Ernst & Young, and Rothstein Kass in Bermuda, Los Angeles, and New York City.

Although she has worked across many areas of tax, Dr. Marino specializes in corporate and partnership taxation, particularly within investment management firms. She earned her Ph.D. in Accounting from Drexel University in Philadelphia. Her research focuses on tax legislation and multinational corporate behavior, the determinants and effects of tax avoidance, and gender and racial (in)equity in accounting and taxation.

Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, video games, watching baseball, and playing roller derby. She is passionate about teaching taxation to help students build financial intelligence and explore new career opportunities.

Dr. Luis Alfredo Ávila López holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa in Culiacan, Mexico, a Master’s degree in Economics from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, in Chengdu, China and a Ph.D. in Global Development Studies from the Autonomous University of Baja California in Tijuana, Mexico. He served as a Taxpayer Ombudsman before the Mexican Tax Administration Service (SAT) in Tijuana, Baja California.

Dr. Ávila López has held several academic leadership positions, including Coordinator of the Tax Area (2018), Coordinator of the Master’s Program in Taxation (2019), and currently serves as coordinator of the Master´s in Financial Intelligence. He has professional experience in transfer pricing at Crowe. He is a Level I member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNI) and holds an active PRODEP Profile. He has received the Academic Excellence Award from the Mexican Association of Public Accountants.

He is a Full-Time Professor at the Autonomous University of Baja California, Faculty of Accounting and Administration, and at the University Center for Legal Studies, teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels. His courses include Financial Mathematics, International Finance, and Probability and Statistics at the undergraduate level, and Research Methodology and Fiscal and Financial Planning at the graduate level. Dr. Ávila López is the author of several books, as well as book chapters and articles published in outreach, specialized, and indexed journals. He has collaborated with Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) and serves as a radio host for the program Check-In.

Dr. Jorge Galván is a full-time professor at the Faculty of Administration and Accounting at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, where he oversees the exchange of faculty and students. He teaches courses in International Finance and Economic Environment at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Prior to his academic career, he served as a Planning Coordinator at Pioneer Speakers for four years, managing budgetary, production, and sales responsibilities. He also worked with the Tijuana government, within the Secretary of Administration and Finance, as an analyst focusing on administrative and organizational matters.

Dr. Galván holds a Ph.D. in Global Development Studies, with a dissertation examining the influence of the Washington Consensus on Public Finance in Mexico. He earned his Master’s degree in Corporate Finance from CETYS University and a Specialty in Finance from UABC. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from UABC.

Dr. Lluvia Flores-Rentería is a Mexican-born evolutionary ecologist and Professor of Biology at San Diego State University (SDSU), where she directs the Plant Evolutionary Ecology Lab and serves as Director of the interdisciplinary and international initiatives such as SDSU NextGen program and the Binational Studies Program. Her work bridges evolutionary biology, ecology, and sustainability, with a strong focus on binational collaboration across the U.S.-Mexico border engaging tribal communities.

She earned her M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in experimental sciences, ecology, and evolution, and completed postdoctoral training at Northern Arizona University and Western Sydney University before joining the SDSU faculty, where she advanced to full Professor.

Dr. Flores-Rentería’s research examines how evolutionary and ecological processes shape plant responses to environmental stress, particularly under climate change. Integrating phylogenetics, molecular and population genetics, reproductive biology, and ecological experimentation, she investigates the evolution of breeding systems, hybridization, phylogeography, plant-insect-microbe interactions, and drought adaptation. Her work combines field and greenhouse experiments with next-generation sequencing to uncover the genetic and environmental mechanisms underlying plant resilience and community dynamics in our cross border region and beyond.

Through her lab, she mentors undergraduate and graduate students in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of plant genetics, environmental change, sustainability and community actions. Her widely published and cited scholarship advances understanding of plant evolutionary ecology while informing sustainability, education, and food systems initiatives in cross-border contexts.