UCLA Luskin Public Policy Alumni Elected to Office
Four UCLA Luskin Master of Public Policy alumni have turned their records of civic engagement into successful bids for public office. The following MPP grads were elected or reelected in November:
- Isaac Bryan MPP ’22 won reelection to his seat in the California State Assembly and will continue to represent District 55 in Los Angeles.
- Bryan “Bubba” Fish MPP ’24 is the newest member of the Culver City City Council.
- In Colorado, Lindsay Gilchrist MPP ’12, won a seat in the state House of Representatives.
- Guadalupe “Lupita” Gutierrez MPP ’23 is the first Latina elected to the Waterford City Council in Stanislaus County, California.
UCLA Luskin Doctoral Students Awarded Fulbright-Hays Fellowships
Two UCLA Luskin PhD students have been awarded fellowships through the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program.
Juan Carlos Jauregui of Social Welfare and Andrés F. Ramirez of Urban Planning are among 15 UCLA graduate students to be named Fulbright-Hays fellows, the most chosen from any research university nationwide for the fourth year.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Fulbright-Hays program allows doctoral candidates to study aspects of a society or societies, including their cultures, economy, history and international relations. UCLA’s 2024 Fulbright-Hays fellows come from diverse disciplines and will conduct their research in Colombia, Egypt, Guinea, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Nigeria, Spain and Taiwan.
Jauregui will study in the Amazonian region of Loreto, Peru. His research will explore intersectional stigma, mental health and HIV treatment engagement among LGBTQ+ young people living with HIV in Loreto. The project will prioritize knowledge that will improve community-based services and interventions that address the mental health and HIV care needs of this vulnerable population.
Ramirez will conduct fieldwork in Colombia. His research will examine how Indigenous struggles for urban citizenship challenge property regimes and reconfigure the relations between state and Indigenous people. Working alongside Indigenous urban communities in Bogotá, he will identify oppositional urban planning practices between the state and Indigenous groups, as well as forms of Indigenous sovereignty in the city.
The Evolution of Black Neighborhoods, Through a Hip-Hop Lens
A new book by UCLA Luskin Professor Michael Lens examines the characteristics and trajectories of Black neighborhoods across the United States over the 50 years since passage of the Fair Housing Act.
In “Where the Hood At?,” Lens uses the growing influence of hip-hop music, born out of Black neighborhoods in the 1970s, to frame a discussion of the conditions that have allowed these communities to flourish or decline.
Published this week by the Russell Sage Foundation, the book reveals significant gaps in quality of life between Black Americans and other racial and ethnic groups, and also shows that neighborhood conditions vary substantially region by region. For example, Black neighborhoods are more likely to thrive in the South but are particularly disadvantaged in the Midwest and Rust Belt.
Lens offers several recommendations for policies designed to uplift Black neighborhoods. One radical proposal is implementing programs, such as tax breaks for entrepreneurs or small business owners, that would encourage Black Americans to move to prosperous communities in the South and consolidate their political and economic power. He also calls for building more affordable housing in Black suburbs, where poverty levels are lower than in central cities.
Lens is a professor of urban planning and public policy, chair of the Luskin Undergraduate Programs and associate faculty director of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. His research and teaching explore the potential of public policy to address housing market inequities that disadvantage low-income families and communities of color.
UCLA Luskin MSW Student Receives CSWE Grant
UCLA Luskin master of social welfare student Liza Li has been awarded a Minority Fellowship Program grant by the Council on Social Welfare Education (CSWE), the national association representing social work education in the United States, based in Arlington, Virginia.
In October, Li traveled to Kansas City to attend CSWE’s annual national program meeting to receive the award, which includes a $10,000 stipend as well as support and leadership skill training opportunities for the fellowship year.
CSWE’s minority fellowship program supports the mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to increase the number of individuals trained to work with underrepresented and underserved racial and ethnic minority persons dealing with mental health and/or substance abuse disorders.
As an MSW student, Li’s focus is on addressing mental health disparities and promoting the well-being of the aging Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population.
“My research and practice focus on supporting older adults and their families by enhancing mental health accessibility and awareness,” said Li, who also holds a master’s degree in educational psychology from UC Riverside.
She said she aspires to become a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) in California and to provide culturally competent mental health and social support to AAPI older adults and other immigrant families with limited resources.
“As a first-generation Asian American, I am committed to giving back to my community and beyond.”
UCLA Evaluates L.A.’s Plan to Invest Billions in Wastewater Recycling Infrastructure
As urgency grows to develop climate solutions, a new UCLA report confirms that the wastewater recycling plans for the nation’s second-largest city would make Los Angeles more resilient and self-reliant during droughts or disasters that cut off outside water supplies.
Using a new methodology to evaluate hundreds of thousands of scenarios, the UCLA research team, led by the Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI), found that the Los Angeles city plan would significantly boost local water resilience, minimize risks of aging infrastructure and uncertain water imports, and dramatically reduce drought- and earthquake-driven water shortages.
Los Angeles’ wastewater treatment plan, Pure Water Los Angeles, would create a renewable local water source of more than 250,000 acre-feet of clean drinking water, enough for more than half a million households annually. To support the city’s goal to recycle all wastewater by 2035, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power committed to invest at least $6 billion in the infrastructure project, previously titled Operation Next (OpNEXT).
Supporting local water supply transitions is not just needed in Los Angeles. Other cities dependent on imported water, such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, as well as densely populated urban areas around the world can use the new methodology to shape their own water solutions.
Learn more about the Luskin Center for Innovation’s research initiatives on local water supply and wastewater infrastructure.
U.S. Governance Challenges Put Election Integrity at Risk, Report Finds
With two weeks to go until the U.S. presidential election, a new analysis highlights critical governance challenges that threaten the efficacy of the American political system.
“Declining democratic accountability means that the power of the American people’s voice will be diminished — both in terms of electoral voice and the power of social institutions to check elected officials once in office,” according to the report authored by researchers from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute and the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany.
Based on data from the latest Berggruen Governance Index, the report finds that both democratic accountability and state capacity have sharply declined in the U.S. since 2015.
Particularly in key swing states such as North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia, declines in democratic norms — including curtailment of voting rights in some instances — could lead to “critical consequences for electoral integrity,” the authors caution.
The report also notes that an “outsized role of money in politics” has been exacerbated by landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have removed limits on electoral spending and increasingly marginalized the voices of average citizens.
Regarding state capacity, the report finds a broad and steady erosion since 2000, occurring across the sectors of fiscal capacity, coordination capacity and delivery capacity. Weakened state capacity negatively affects the U.S. government’s ability to respond to crises or natural disasters. This can lead to popular anger and increasing frustration with government efficacy, the report says.
— Democracy News Alliance
