ISU ROTC

Army ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) offers opportunities and challenges that can put you on the fast track to success in life. You'll develop the confidence, self-esteem, motivation, and leadership skills you'll need regardless of your career plans.

ROTC is an elective course that provides a combination of academics and important hands-on training. You'll be offered physical and mental challenges, geared to help you succeed in college and beyond. You will learn teamwork, confidence, leadership, and be given responsibilities, such as training and leading younger cadets, administering the Army Physical Fitness Test, leading training labs, and more.

The skills and responsibilities given to you as a cadet will prepare you for life after college. In addition to our on-campus training, we offer instruction in adventure training like mountaineering, rappelling, and orienteering.

Miren Gabiola

Miren Gabiola is a senior studying Music Education and Vocal Performance at Idaho State University. Miren has been involved in several productions at ISU. In February 2023, she performed the role of The Fairy Godmother in the ISU production of Massenet’s opera, Cendrillon. Most recently, Miren was selected as a Finalist for the NATS National Competition and placed second in the Upper Treble Classical category.

David J. Archuleta

Archuleta is a lifelong resident of Idaho, with the exception of a two-year stint with the Comanche Nation as its general manager for gaming. He has an extensive background in both media and law work, having started in radio when he was 16 and returned to the Shoshone-Bannock reservation in his early 20s as a public relations officer. He also worked as news director for a radio station in Chubbuck and later joined the staff of the Sho-Ban News as a reporter, winning the Overall Excellence award for hard news reporting from the Native American Journalists Association. That was followed by being a correspondent for National Native News.

His career switched to law when he began working as a tribal court advocate. Archuleta became chief advocate and a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Bar Association. He served as the tribe’s chief prosecutor from 1998 – 2000 and, later, as associate tribal judge. He now works in private practice. During those years, he also worked in a program that administers low-income home heating assistance.

Sonia Martinez

Sonia Martinez is the Director of Undergraduate Research and Diversity at Idaho State University (ISU) for the Office for Research Outreach and Compliance. In this role, she collaborates with faculty and key campus student services on undergraduate research opportunities, programs, and community initiatives. Her office sponsors the annual ISU Undergraduate Research Symposium and supports the Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research. Sonia believes everyone deserves an opportunity to participate in career-building programs that contribute to a student’s success in school and after graduation. She is passionate about mentoring underrepresented minorities interested in pursuing undergraduate research across disciplines on/off campus, particularly in STEM. Along with career-building opportunities, she supports leadership development by co-advising the ISU chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), a nationally recognized student organization.

Caitlin McGraw

As a proactive learning and development specialist offering ten years of experience in science, education and professional development education, I enjoy the creativity in designing and implementing effective career development and STEM-related technical training programs that align with strategic organizational goals. I strive to consistently improve employee experience and outcomes by finding new and innovative ways to connect people to the information they need to succeed in their career. My compassionate interpersonal communication and investment in others’ personal growth and professional achievements drives upward employee mobility and career success for a diverse demographic of professionals within an organization.

Dr. Carrie Bottenberg

Dr. Bottenberg's interests involve the disciplines of geology, remote sensing and GIS. Using InSAR techniques, she studies the movement of the Earth's crust to detect volcanic inflation and deflation.  She also models tectonic plate motion in 3D visualization software to understand rifting environments. Specifically, she has worked in Afar, Ethiopia to study the kinematics of the African, Arabian and Somali plates. Other research interests include environmental geochemistry and the effects of heavy metals in streams and exploring past volcanic activity on the Snake River Plain in Idaho using remote sensing and field based studies.

Danielle Wylie, PhD

ISU Director of Upward Bound Programs

Danielle is a first-generation college graduate from a low-income background, a TRIO alumna, and an advocate for students from underrepresented and under-supported backgrounds. After growing up in rural Appalachia, becoming a TRIO McNair Scholar at Indiana University of Pennsylvania was critical to being accepted to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where she earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy in 2014. She then taught and researched at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Mississippi State University. At Mississippi State, Danielle was a philosophy professor and the Undergraduate Coordinator for philosophy majors. Her love for Upward Bound and decision to return to TRIO was inspired by her four summers working as an academic and residential counselor and as a philosophy instructor for the Upward Bound program at Saint Francis University. She has been with the ISU TRIO Upward Bound Programs since 2020.

Devaleena S. Pradhan, PhD

Dr. Pradhan is an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University, in Pocatello, USA since 2018. Since 2019, she is also an Assistant Editor of the journal, Integrative and Comparative Biology, Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry. In 2014, she earned her PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior from Georgia State University under the mentorship of Dr. Matthew Grober after which she pursued her postdoctoral training at University of California, Los Angeles (2014-2018) in Dr. Barney Schlinger's lab. She was a lecturer at California State University, Dominguez Hills (2017-2018). She completed her K-12 schooling in India, after which she joined University of British Columbia for her B.S. in Biology. She then spent about a year at Department of Fisheries and Oceans in West Vancouver and eventually went back to University of British Columbia to pursue a M.S. in Zoology from under Dr. Kiran Soma. She also received the Dorothy Skinner Award by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in 2015, which recognizes women scientists in the early stages of their career for high scholarship. As part of ISU's Undergraduate Committee, in 2019, she founded "This is Biology" a professional development series for students. She is currently serving as Chair of the Undergraduate Committee.

Rod Furniss

District 31B Representative

Representative Rod Furniss graduated from Rigby High School. Furniss earned an associate degree in business from Brigham Young University of Idaho in 1983 and a bachelor's degree in finance from Idaho State University in 1985. His career experience includes working in insurance sales and as a land developer. Furniss served as the president of the Idaho Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the Idaho Falls Estate Planning Council, and the Education Foundation School Dist. #251.

Jessica Hunter

College of Eastern Idaho (CEI) Medical Assistant Program Manager /Instructor

Jessica has been a Certified Medical Assistant for over 12 years and has worked in urology, gastroenterology, and specialized in oncology. She is a Tedx speaker, educator, and mother of 7 amazing kids.  Her personal hobbies include travel, kayaking, and art.  She enjoys spending time with family and meeting new people. Her love of teaching and the healthcare field have been combined into one amazing medical assistant course at CEI. Medical assisting is a fast paced, fun, never boring, in high demand job.  She loves to work with community and industry leaders to stay in touch with the changes and demands of the Medical Assisting world.

Dr. Steven L. Shropshire

Dr. Shropshire came to ISU in the Fall of 1991 from Washington State University where he received his Ph.D. in physics. He has taught introductory physics, practicum in physical science, modern physics, theoretical mechanics, solid state, the Jr. and Sr. physics labs, nuclear instrumentation and methods, mathematical methods for physics, statistical physics, seminar in physics, graduate methods in theoretical physics, and graduate classical mechanics.

Dr. Shropshire's research interests are in physics education and teacher training.  He is a recognized expert in physics demonstrations and demonstration safety.

Osciel Salazar

Associate Director of ISU's College Assistance Migrant Program

Mia Benkenstein

ISU Animal Facilities Manager

Katie Leishman

ISU Center for New Directions Student Success Navigator, Special Populations Project Coordinator

Larry Murillo 

In developing myself as a professional I am most passionate about understanding American Indian cultural health practices and how they relate to the modern health care system. What can these practices teach mainstream about the spritual, internal and natural approaches to health care. I have spent 30 years working in Native American communities working with medically trained health professionals and those that provide cultural health practices for various communities. The information I have collected over the years needs to be organized and written in the form of articles and books. I am interested in creating opportunities to begin doing that type of work.