UC Spotlight: November 2024

Celesta Billeci, Miller McCune executive director of UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures, was honored with the 2024 County of Santa Barbara Leadership in Arts Individual Award from the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.

Cassie Isaacson, environmental studies undergraduate program coordinator and lead advisor, received the UC Santa Cruz Division of Social Sciences’ Staff Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Kristen Kirksey, Ph.D., MPH, UCSF School of Nursing project policy analyst, received an $84,000 2024 Changemaker in Family Planning award from the Society of Family Planning. The award will support her research around the adaptive practices utilized by Black people in the U.S. to navigate health care in tenuous social and political contexts.

UC Davis Marketing Director Jenny Carrick shared how she is working to advance digital accessibility, including ensuring that digital tools are accessible to prospective students.

Santiago Chambers, director of plant operations at UCI Health ― Los Alamitos, was recognized as a frontline hero by the Los Alamitos Area Chamber of Commerce for his efforts in advancing community safety.

Lindsey T. Kunisaki, the Arts for LA 2024 Laura Zucker Fellow for Policy and Research and research and evaluation specialist at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s Visual and Performing Arts Education program, authored a first-of-its-kind report examining the implementation of Prop. 28 across Los Angeles County school districts.

Jackson Muhirwe, UC Santa Barbara’s chief information security officer and director of information assurance, shared his thoughts on protecting digital spaces and the role of AI.

Karen Grimley of UCLA Health and Anne Marie Watkins of UC Irvine Health were recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as chief nursing officers to know.

UCSF Health Nurse Brian Cunningham, R.N., joined Professor Soo-Jeong Lee, Ph.D., R.N. in presenting their project on stress resilience training for intensive care unit nurses during the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing’s 35th International Nursing Research Congress in Singapore.

UCSF Events Planner Amy Fazio shared the background story of her two unusual cookbooks.

Teams at 10 UC locations — UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Law SF, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UCSF, UC Santa Barbara and UC Office of the President — were recognized for exemplary communications work by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s Best of District VII Awards.

Several teams at UCLA collaborated to produce the 2024 Latinx Welcome event, which featured delicious food and live cultural performances by members of the UCLA community.

The UCSF 2024 Chancellor Awards for Diversity celebrated eight staff, faculty and students for building bridges, dismantling barriers, and creating spaces of innovation and connection.

The UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) welcomed former patients and their families to the NICU reunion.

UC ANR’s Office of Innovation partnered with the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems to host the second annual Farm Robotics Challenge, which drew competitors from colleges and universities throughout the U.S.

The UC Master Gardener program in Orange County offered a “Seed to Supper” training to teach local residents how to grow their own food on a budget.

UC Merced Dining Services partnered with the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education to give student employees an up-close look at sustainable farming and a workshop on locally sourced dishes.

The Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology at UCLA Health partnered with the Los Angeles Chargers to bring cancer patients to a mindfulness and breathwork session at the Chargers’ practice facility.

The UC Davis Graduate School of Management celebrated the 30th anniversary of its part-time MBA program.

UC Santa Cruz staff joined students and retirees in volunteering as poll workers at the main voting site.

Four UC campuses — UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz — were among just 51 colleges and universities across the country to be honored as Hispanic-Serving Institution Leaders for 2024.

UC Davis is now eligible to be one of the nation’s few research-intensive universities designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution.

UCSF Health has relaunched an expanded version of its UCSF Health Atlas, a mapping tool that allows users to measure health inequities in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The atlas includes more than 120 variables from more than 20 data sources – everything from health outcomes to food insecurity, education and historical redlining.

UC Santa Barbara celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Dilling Yang Staff Scholarship. Founded by the wife of Chancellor Henry T. Yang, Dilling Scholarships support staff in advancing their university careers.

UCLA received Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution designation in recognition of its efforts to support underserved Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students.

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives recognized UC San Diego with its prestigious Level 10 designation in the Digital Health Most Wired Survey program.

UC Merced received the 2024 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award for the second time, recognizing its outstanding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz and UCSF will participate in three new National Science Foundation Innovation Corps Hubs, with the shared goal of translating discoveries into new solutions that benefit society and the economy.

For the eighth year running, the Santa Barbara Independent’s annual reader poll has named UC Santa Barbara the region’s ‘Best Place to Work.’

UC San Diego celebrated the opening of the campus’s first fire station — Torrey Pines Fire Station 52.

UCSF Health opened new retail pharmacies at its Mission Bay and Parnassus campuses. They are integrated with health records to provide seamless care for UCSF patients and convenience for people who live and work in San Francisco.

UC Berkeley launched the Berkeley Center for American Democracy to foster research into polarization, inequality, and extremism.

The UC San Diego community gathered for a vibrant Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration featuring a live performance by Danza Azteca Kuahkoat.

UC San Diego has been named a Bee Campus USA member, part of a national program created to support all types of pollinators.