A celebration of life for CSUSM professor Dustin Cavillo will be held 2-4 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 16, at the Faculty Center Suite

Sometimes we get lost in life between that blurry area of who we are as workers vs. who we are as humans.

We often are seen by others — even self-identify — by our career.

Dustin Calvillo didn’t subscribe to this philosophy.

Oh, to be clear he loved his job as professor of cognitive psychology in the psychology department at Cal State San Marcos. There are no doubts about this. He was dedicated to his research, unselfishly helpful to his colleagues and shared his love for the topics he found fascinating with his students.

But he was the type of person to keep his professional passions just slightly but clearly on a rung below his true loves — family and connecting with life.

Calvillo lost a battle with oral cancer in August. He was 49. After nearly 18 years at CSUSM, his loss has loomed heavy over one of the most populous departments on campus.

But his legacy lives on.

The psychology department will host a celebration of life for Calvillo on Friday, Jan. 16, at the Faculty Center Suite. The gathering runs 2-4 p.m. and will include coffee and light appetizers.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked alongside Dustin in many roles during our years at CSUSM,” said Elisa Grant-Vallone, who worked with Calvillo as a faculty colleague as well as in a collaborative position in her role as the CHABSS associate dean of operations & budget. “He was one of the kindest, most compassionate and thoughtful colleagues I have ever known. We team-taught Introduction to Psychology for several years, and although he was earlier in his career than I was, I often found myself learning from him. Dustin was an exceptional instructor. He challenged his students to work hard while, as a cognitive psychologist, thoughtfully designing a framework that gave them the support they needed to succeed.”

Calvillo served as a professor of cognitive psychology who dedicated his work to advancing our understanding of memory, reasoning, decision-making and the ways biases and misinformation shape our thinking.

A product of the California State University system, he earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Cal State Bakersfield. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in psychology (cognitive and perceptual sciences) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Michelle Vogel Trautt is a lecturer in psychology at CSUSM. She knew Calvillo not only as a colleague but also as a mentor during her time on campus in the master’s program.

“Dustin was kind and welcoming,” Trautt said. “He genuinely cared about others. Over time, as our relationship as colleagues evolved, Dustin became a trusted confidant that I could come to for advice, guidance and encouragement. He was dependable, steady and consistent. He was a great leader without ever having to speak of his own accolades. We just knew we were in good hands with him at the helm. His sense of humor and occasional ‘zingers’ made Dustin approachable and relatable.”

What Trautt remembers most as his student in the graduate seminar was how much he “lit up” when talking about cognitive psychology.

Calvillo was universally seen as being reserved outside of the classroom, a persona that changed when a class or seminar started.

“I found it magical to see him become animated and excited about topics we discussed in our course,” said Trautt, who shared what she referred to as “passing-by hellos” on campus. “Even more so, when he would tell a good cognitive psychology joke and see who would chuckle as a measure of who was understanding our very dense, detailed and rigorous content. If you could laugh at the contextualized joke, he knew you were following along and retaining content enough to appreciate it from a humorous lens. It was really special.”

His academic legacy included more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles-research that will continue to resonate in classrooms, conferences and public discussions about issues that include truth, trust and critical thinking.

Emeritus Professor of Psychology Nancy Caine was already in the department when Calvillo was hired here nearly two decades ago. Caine was coordinator of the graduate program at the same time Calvillo served as department chair so they had overlapping administrative roles, not always easy for a faculty member so dedicated to research and teaching.

Caine noted how his organization and instinct in handling difficult situations made her feel like she had a true friend and partner.

“Dustin epitomized what is, in my opinion, the ideal faculty member at a place like CSUSM,” Caine said. “I really mean that. He was committed to CSUSM as a community, which meant engaging with students, colleagues, and staff on a daily basis. He understood how lucky we all are to have a job that allows us to be part of an academic community where we can be scholars, teachers and contributors to the overall mission of the university — and he did all of those very well.

“He was devoted to the cause of providing opportunities to students from under-represented groups. He set a standard to which every faculty member at CSUSM should aspire.”

Although he was often described as quiet, even shy around campus, Calvillo had an infectious positive demeanor behind a warm smile.

Haylee DeLuca Bishop, the program director for child and adolescent development, interviewed for a faculty position at CSUSM in early 2018. She crossed paths with Calvillo during the search process as he served on the university’s Institutional Review Board.

She recalled that shyness as a first impression that didn’t stick once some time working together passed.

That quiet exterior melted to form a professional bond that eventually had DeLuca Bishop and her husband spending time playing bar trivia while also going to the movies and San Diego Padres and Waves games with Calvillo, his wife Angelica Rocha (a former research associate and assistant director for student support in CSUSM’s Office for Training, Research, and Education in the Sciences) and their daughter Vivian.

“He was the exact colleague I wanted to be,” DeLuca Bishop said. “He was around. He was present. He was available to his students, available to his colleagues. He was a hard worker, incredibly prolific, amazing scholar, but also a great teacher. Students loved him. He was just the whole package. So when I looked at Dustin, I was like, that's pretty much where I want to be if I can.”

Calvillo spent time as department chair, which took him away from some of his scholarly work to be replaced by leading a diverse group of faculty.

He was a natural leader, but both DeLuca Bishop and Caine made it clear it wasn’t his first choice for a career move.

“It was no secret,” DeLuca Bishop said. “He didn't really want to be a department chair. But he stepped into it because he knew he needed to. It was what the department needed at the time, and he was great at it. You couldn't tell him he was great at it. He couldn't hear that positive feedback very much. But he was great at it.”

Said Caine: “Dustin didn’t like being chair. He loved doing research and teaching, both of which had to take a back seat while he served his term.  But he recognized his obligation to take his turn ‘at the helm,’ and as is true of Dustin in every way, he did the job very well.”

He may not have loved his time as department chair, but there was no hiding his true passions. He enjoyed traveling, playing golf, sailing, camping and watching sports, especially soccer and baseball.

But his love for those activities increased tenfold when he could do them with loved ones.

Beyond his professional achievements, Calvillo was a devoted family man who was happiest when he was with his loved ones.

“One of my fondest memories of Dustin was seeing him as a dad,” Grant-Vallone said. “One time (Vivian) had an unexpected day off from preschool, so he brought her along to a search committee meeting. He set up her lunch box and toys, patiently answered her quiet questions, and the love between them lit up the room. Dustin will be deeply missed by everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.”

Now 7, Vivian no longer has her father around, but she has his academic work that hopefully will help her understand his career passions that went beyond showing up to an office 8-5.

“He accomplished a lot, and that's something I've been thinking about in general,” DeLuca Bishop said. “That's one thing I'm happy about. Viv, when she gets old enough, she can go read everything he's ever published. His legacy can live on in that work as well.”

And when she wants to learn about the legacy he left behind beyond campus, the family, friends and colleagues he left behind will have plenty of stories to share.

“It's just a huge loss,” DeLuca Bishop said. “And I feel it every day. I think about him every day still. He’s such a huge loss and he was my go-to person whenever something happened in the department or something I just wanted to vent about. He got it because he did the same job. And so he would know what I was feeling in a way that a lot of other people couldn't, including my partner. So, he was my go-to guy.”

Jennier Lozano is a psychological science graduate student at CSUSM who works in both the MBARC and Misinformation and Memory labs, led by Assistant Professor Lisa Graves and Calvillo, respectively.

As an undergraduate transfer student, she took Calvillo’s cognitive processes course. It was a transformative moment in her life to witness his enthusiasm with understanding human cognitive processes.

Being mentored by Calvillo, which included attending the Western Psychological Association Convention in Riverside in 2023 with his lab, helped her discover her own research interests while solidifying her desire to pursue graduate school.

“As his graduate student, his support, guidance and mentorship have had a profound and long-lasting impact on my life,” Lozano said. “I remember sitting in the back of the class thinking about how fortunate I would be to have an academic mentor like Dr. Calvillo, who was so caring and kind toward all his students. Three years later, I had the privilege to be co-mentored by him and Dr. Graves as a graduate student. I will forever be grateful for his unwavering and invaluable support, encouragement, guidance, and dedication.”

The ironic part of living a full and meaningful life is that we don’t get to pick what people remember about us.

So we build our legacy through showing up. Some days we show up and inspire with our work and through our relationships, while other days we’re simply lucky to show up at all.

Dustin Calvillo showed up.

He showed up for his colleagues and his students. He showed up for people he cared about.

And that’s enough.

“He was just the guy you wanted around,” DeLuca Bishop said. “He was considerate of other people. He would volunteer to make sure someone else didn't have to. He was careful with his words. He cared about his students. He cared about everyone. He was just a thoughtful individual but also a deep, intelligent, bright human being. He was really trying to address problems he saw in the world and trying to improve things, trying to make things better. He saw things going in a direction he fundamentally disagreed with, and he was trying to do research around that. He’s just one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met and in every sense of the word.”