She has taught at Minot State University in North Dakota, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and University of California, Irvine.

“My undergraduate degree is in anthropology. I was very interested in culture as an undergraduate. When it came time to apply for graduate school, I didn’t feel right studying native peoples around the world. I wanted to study different American groups, so I went into sociology,” said Dr. Starr.

Her specialty is social movements.

She joined the Greyhound family because “being from a disadvantaged background, I liked that ENMU was a working class university with a diverse student body. I wanted to help students like myself.”

She wants to help students get ahead in their lives and make them more curious about the world around them.

“I really wanted to help students see the “invisible” cultural stuff that surrounds us,” said Dr. Starr.

She loves when her students say, “I thought this was going to be boring, but it’s not.” It is what she lives for.

“College wasn’t a part of my family culture. My parents were high school graduates who thought school was only for the rich, and I absorbed that attitude without thinking about it,” said Dr. Starr.

When she was twenty-three she complained that she hated her job to her roommate and she said, “Why don’t you go back to school?”

“Predictably, I said ‘Because school is for rich kids.’ Then she gave me the answer that changed my life. She told me I could get Pell Grants and California State grants to go back to community college. I started there, transferred to UCLA as an anthropology major, and then went on to U.C. Irvine for my Ph.D. in sociology,” explained Dr. Starr.

She considers her department chair, Suzanne Balch-Lindsey, to be a wonderful mentor.

“She knows so much about the university and its policies and procedures. I really learn a lot from her,” said Dr. Starr.

She is engaged to Matthew Kauffman, a computer programmer, and they are getting married this May.

“After I met him he decided to come back to ENMU to get his bachelor’s, so you may see him in your classes,” said Dr. Starr.

She enjoys playing guitar and bass, cooking, foreign languages and travelling.

She grew up in Tustin, California, in Orange County.

“We were surrounded by people far more affluent than us, so it was a bit strange,” said Dr. Starr. “I grew up in the 1970s, so it was more rural then. There were orange groves everywhere. As I got older, it was nice being near Los Angeles, so I could go see all my favorite punk bands.”