UC Spotlight: October 2024

Approximately 2,000 Bruins — including new and continuing students, faculty, staff, leadership, alumni, parents, and community members — participated in the 16th annual UCLA Volunteer Day. Activities included cleaning headstones, painting schools and parks, distributing free clothes and school supplies and and gardening.

UC Irvine Health Nurse Manager Murial Moyo was honored with a 40 Under 40 Award from the Greater Irvine Chamber of Commerce.

The UC San Diego Staff Association honored the contributions of nearly 300 after-hours staff members at the annual Celebrate the Night event.

UC Davis Head Football Coach Tim Plough (Davis ’08!) sat down with Chancellor May to talk about his connections to the university and returning to Aggie football.

Doug Carlson shared how overseeing play clocks and scoreboards at sports events to ensure accuracy and fairness reflects his duties at UCSF as registrar and assistant vice chancellor of Student Information. 

Rameen Talesh, UC Irvine’s associate vice chancellor of student life and leadership, as well as dean of students, was selected as a 2025 NASPA Pillar of the Profession for his outstanding contributions to student affairs.

A web application security testing course created by UC Berkeley faculty and staff is receiving industry awards and acknowledgment.

Chief Information Security Officer Drake Chang, UCLA, shared tips for protecting against phishing, ransomware and other cyber threats.

UC Merced Chef Maria Maravilla has been sharing her famous pozole with the UC Merced community for the last 19 years.

The UC Davis Career Center updated its name to help make more students aware of its services and purpose.

UC Irvine Health recognized Rosey Vu, Rafael Mendoza, and James Needham with DAISY and Sunflower Awards for going above and beyond for patients and colleagues.

Veronica Fematt, UC Santa Barbara’s first-ever Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) Director, shared her perspective on UCSB’s HSI designation, her goals, and how her personal experiences fuel her passion for educational equity.

UCLA Nurse Lindsay Brant shared how she works with clinical staff to honor patients who are near death by creating meaningful ways to celebrate each person.

UC Irvine faculty and staff connected with the local community and shared information about the university’s athletics, academics and health services during the 23rd annual Irvine Global Village Festival.

UCLA IT Services completed a 15-month project designed to make the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s IT services better, safer and more efficient. 

Cassie Isaacson, Environmental Studies Undergraduate Program coordinator and lead advisor, received a Staff Award for Outstanding Achievement from UC Santa Cruz’s Division of Social Sciences.

The UC Irvine Pathway Project, a partnership between the UC Irvine School of Education and Division of Continuing Education, is providing professional development to English teachers across the country.

Jacquelyn Rollins, project manager for the Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology, shared her passion for providing compassionate, thoughtful care to cancer patients.

U.S. News and World Reports released its 2024-25 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings on Oct. 8, recognizing University of California Health children’s hospitals among the top 10 overall regionally and the top 50 nationally in several pediatric specialties. 

The Center for East-West Medicine, which pioneered blending Western medical expertise with Traditional Chinese medicine, celebrated 30 years at UCLA Health.

UC Merced welcomed Big Rufus — a 10-foot-long bronze statue of UC Merced’s bobcat mascot that is a celebration of the university’s fierce independence and courage.

UC Riverside broke ground on its new four-story, 100,700-square-foot Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Facility.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital revitalized its bone marrow transplant program. UC Davis Health is the only provider of this service for children in the Sacramento area.

UC Merced is partnering with the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority to collaborate on efforts to mitigate climate impacts.

Vizient Inc. recognized UC Irvine Medical Center as a top performer for high-quality inpatient and ambulatory care in its prestigious annual Quality and Accountability Study.

UC San Diego launched the Wildfire Science & Technology Commons — a central hub for data, models, computing resources and expertise related to wildfire response. 

The UC Davis Pediatric Heart Center’s Pediatric Echocardiography Laboratory has been re-accredited by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, covering pediatric and congenital transthoracic, pediatric and congenital transesophageal and fetal echocardiography. It is the only center in the Sacramento region with accreditation in all three areas.

UCLA Health opened a new adult asthma program in Thousand Oaks. A diverse team of health care providers will provide patients with personalized approaches to asthma care, management and prevention.

UC San Diego has launched the Fusion Engineering Institute, which is focused on making sure humanity’s recent advances in fusion science translate into safe, abundant and affordable clean energy. 

UC Davis Health opened the PATH (Promoting Accessibility to Healthcare) Glassrock Blood Draw Clinic, which is dedicated to helping child patients with autism, Down syndrome and other neurodevelopmental conditions have a safe and successful phlebotomy experience.