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NEW ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR 2 ALUMNI IN TRANSPORTATION

Maddy Ruvolo MURP ’20 was appointed to serve on the board of a federal agency that promotes accessibility, especially in transportation, for disabled people. 

Ruvolo currently works at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. She has spent her career ensuring that disabled people can seamlessly navigate their neighborhood and surrounding areas. 

Ruvolo, 29, is younger than the Americans With Disabilities Act and told the San Francisco Examiner that fact illustrates “how long so many people in the disability community have been waiting for accessibility. We’ve made huge strides, but there’s so much work yet to do.”

In the same article, Ruvolo said she believes San Francisco has been exemplary at offering micromobility — transportation that uses lightweight vehicles, especially electric ones borrowed through self-service rental programs, as an inclusive option for disabled people. With this opportunity to work with the Biden administration, she wants to take that concept and apply it on a grander scale across the country.

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Lupita Ibarra

Lupita Ibarra ’10 MURP ’12 was recently hired to lead the City of Montebello’s Department of Transportation. 

In her role, Ibarra oversees the day-to-day operations of seven local routes, one express route, a semi-fixed-route feeder service, and a dial-a-taxi service. 

Ibarra was previously the senior operations manager in the Transportation Management Center of San Francisco MTA, where she developed operator forecasts, carried superintendent responsibilities within the light rail operating division, and led the development of new initiatives that included route and systemwide studies of service levels, operations, demand and strategic planning. 

In a story posted by TransitTalent, an online site focusing on the transit industry, Ibarra says, “I am very excited to return to Southern California, where I grew up riding public transit … bringing with me a decade of experience managing major transportation systems in San Francisco. My goal is to improve the riding experience for our passengers, which we will achieve through improving the reliability and safety of the system, investing in a modern and sustainable fleet all while making [Montebello Bus Lines] a great place to work.”

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Culver City Mayor Daniel Lee

SOCIAL WELFARE ALUMNUS IS NOW CULVER CITY’S MAYOR

Daniel Lee MSW ’15 is serving his first term as the mayor of Culver City following a previous term as vice mayor.

He became the first African American member of the Culver City Council upon election in 2018.

Lee has said that his inspiration to be of service comes from his grandmother, who participated with Martin Luther King Jr. in the Montgomery bus boycott.

Lee, who earned his doctorate at USC in 2021, is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and California Air National Guard. He was formerly a filmmaker and actor, and, for 17 years, volunteered with El Rincon Elementary School students in an artist and communication program.

He has also been a social worker and a union-affiliated campaign worker. Lee’s current and past affiliations include the Board of Directors for Move to Amend, the Backbone Campaign, Mockingbird Incubator and the Clean Power Alliance.

In addition, Lee served on the Culver City Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee for seven years. He developed a civil rights curriculum that was implemented at the city’s Teen Center to increase young people’s understanding of their country’s history.

 

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Sasha Wisotsky Kergan

URBAN PLANNING GRADUATES RECEIVE STATE APPOINTMENTS

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed two alumnae of UCLA Luskin Urban Planning to new positions with statewide impact. 

Sacramento resident Sasha Wisotsky Kergan MA UP ’10 has been appointed as the deputy secretary of housing and consumer relations at the Business Consumer Services and Housing Agency. This is not Kergan’s first time working at the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s Division of Housing Policy Development. Since 2017, she has held the positions of housing policy specialist, housing policy manager, and data and research unit chief. In addition, she was asset manager at the Oakland Housing Authority from 2015 to 2017. While at UCLA, she emphasized real estate development and finance in her studies.

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Lande Ajose

Oakland resident Lande Ajose MA UP ’95 has been appointed to the California Cradle-to-Career Data System Governing Board. Ajose has been vice president and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California since 2021. She was senior policy advisor for higher education in Newsom’s office from 2019 to 2021, where she chaired the Governor’s Council for Postsecondary Education. Throughout Ajose’s career, she has focused on improving the lives of Californians. She works in state government, private philanthropy and research institutions to do so. Her research interests include addressing issues of inequality through education and employment.

 

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Maria Rosario Jackson

URBAN PLANNING ALUMNA LEADS NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

Urban Planning alumna Maria Rosario Jackson Ph.D. ’96 has been confirmed as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, becoming the first African American and Mexican American woman to lead the federal agency. 

“The arts are critical to our well-being, to robust economies and to healthy communities where all people can thrive,” said Jackson, a professor at Arizona State University who has served on the National Council on the Arts since 2013. 

For more than 25 years, Jackson’s work has focused on understanding and elevating arts, culture and design as critical elements of strong communities. 

She has served as an advisor on philanthropic programs and investments at national, regional and local foundations, including the Los Angeles County Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. She serves on the board of directors of the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County, among other organizations, and her work appears in a wide range of professional and academic publications. 

She also taught a UCLA course on arts, culture and community revitalization. 

Jackson grew up in South Los Angeles and credits her parents with instilling a love of the arts in her family.

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Aurea Montes Rodriguez

MSW ALUMNA SPEAKS DURING UCLA CHANGEMAKERS SUMMIT 

UCLA Luskin alumna Aurea Montes-Rodriguez BA ’97 MSW ’99, participated in March 2022 in the UCLA Alumni Association’s three-day summit, known as Changemakers.

The summit is designed to empower attendees to gain the knowledge needed to champion diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Montes-Rodriguez is executive vice president at Community Coalition. 

She spoke virtually along with other UCLA alumni: John Ho Song ’85, executive director, Koreatown Youth and Community Center, and Henry Perez ’00 MA ’03, associate director, InnerCity Struggle. 

Montes-Rodriguez has worked at Community Coalition for more than 20 years. In 2017, she was named Social Welfare Alumna of the Year, an award that honors Joseph A. Nunn, a UCLA alumnus and former vice chair and longtime former director of field education for UCLA Social Welfare.

Born in Mexico and raised in South Los Angeles, Montes-Rodriguez developed a passion for creating change at the local level. She has been a key leader responsible for building Community Coalition’s youth programs to fight for educational equity, leading efforts to keep children in family care and out of the foster care system, helping to build organizing capacity in South L.A., and leading a capital campaign to transform the organization’s headquarters into a state-of-the-art hub for community organizing.

In Support Meyer Luskin sharing life lessons is among recent events, gifts and fellowship efforts

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Meyer Luskin, benefactor and namesake of the Luskin School of Public Affairs, spoke to UCLA students about leadership skills and responsible entrepreneurship at a March 3 gathering held in person and via Zoom.

Luskin shared stories from a long and varied career in investment advising, oil and gas, rental cars, beauty schools and, ultimately, the recycling of food waste. Scope Industries, the company he has led for more than six decades, turns tons of bakery goods that would otherwise have gone to landfills into food for livestock.

“Meyer is a businessman who invented a business, and that’s not common,” UCLA Luskin Dean Gary Segura said at the event. “Meyer had an idea, and his idea was to take something most people threw away and make it into something useful.”

Luskin’s talk included stories from his own UCLA education, which was interrupted by a tour of duty during World War II, and his experiences facing anti-Semitism as a young businessman. Luskin advised students embarking on their careers to examine their motivations, acknowledge conflicts of interests and uphold the highest ethics.

“You have to be retrospective about yourself,” he said. “You have to take time to think about what you’ve done and where you’re going and who you are and what you want.”

He encouraged those blessed with success in business to act responsibly and generously.

“The first principle is get good people, pay them well, think about them,” he said. “When you do something that’s right, it comes back and helps you. … It just works that way in a long life.”

Meyer and Renee Luskin also visited with many of the student fellows currently receiving their financial support while pursuing UCLA degrees, an opportunity that is a meaningful highlight for the Luskins and students that had not been able to take place face-to-face for two years because of the pandemic.

Panelists were Jarrett Barrios, Nina Revoyr and Ruby Bolaria-Shifrin, all of whom work in the philanthropic sphere.

SPEAKERS DISCUSS EQUITY, DIVERSITY DURING FIRESIDE CHAT

“Foundations and Racial Justice — Creating the Pathway for More Equitable and Inclusive Communities” brought together philanthropic leaders on March 31 for a virtual discussion of the critical role that foundations play in funding and working together for a more equitable and inclusive society.

Dean Gary Segura served as moderator. Panelists were Jarrett Barrios, senior vice president of strategic community and programmatic initiatives for the California Community Foundation; Nina Revoyr, executive director of Ballmer Group’s philanthropic efforts in Los Angeles County and California; and Ruby Bolaria-Shifrin, director of housing affordability at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

“If we always wait until we are sure,” said Revoyr about making decisions in unfamiliar circumstances, “we’re never going to do it.”

The event was organized by the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) committee of the Luskin School advisory board and schoolwide departmental leadership in support of UCLA Luskin’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion funds. 

The financial support provided to students from underrepresented backgrounds advances the goal of diversifying the fields of public policy, social work and urban planning, providing several types
of support: 

  • Funded internships with nonprofit community organizations that otherwise couldn’t afford to provide a paid internship. This is a double win: The student gets paid while gaining professional experience, and the community organization gets a funded temporary position.
  • Student fellowships, allowing students to devote more time to learning instead of having to hold down a job or being saddled with an unsustainable debt load.
  • Creation of these fireside chats to support opportunities for students to meet in small groups with professionals in the field. The goal is to discuss pressing social issues and the i mplication on their work within public affairs.

In addition, board members Laura Shell, Vivian Rescalvo, Lourdes Castro Ramirez and Jacqueline Waggoner hosted a salon focused on EDI fundraising on May 3 at Shell’s home. The salon is an extension of the EDI efforts by Ramirez and Waggoner highlighted in the previous issue of Luskin Forum.

Los Angeles city planner Ken Bernstein, right, gave remarks at a Senior Fellows event in the fall. Photos by Mary Braswell and Amy Tierney

MENTORS, MENTEES CELEBRATE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF SENIOR FELLOWS 

The Luskin School celebrated 25 years of mentorship and meaningful engagement through the Senior Fellows program on May 24. 

The mission of the premier leadership career training program is to engage prominent leaders as role models for graduate students from UCLA Luskin Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning. The program features policy, public service and community leaders who serve as mentors to guide Luskin students toward careers in the public interest.

The special occasion also provided an opportunity to honor and reflect upon the work of VC Powe, who was the heart of the program for years prior to her death in 2020. Her leadership, dedication and finesse in matching Senior Fellows to students was integral to its success. 

In recognition of the 25th anniversary and in memory of VC, the school also launched a successful fundraising campaign that raised over $25,000 to help sustain and grow this valuable program. The funds are being used to support programming and supplemental internship stipends
for students.

New scholarships for undergraduate public affairs students were established thanks to gifts from UCLA alumna and former congresswoman Lynn Schenk, left, and H. Pike Oliver, a UCLA Luskin Urban Planning alumnus.

NEW SCHOLARSHIPS BENEFIT PUBLIC AFFAIRS MAJORS

Several well-deserving students were selected as the first recipients of two new undergraduate scholarships beginning in the spring quarter. 

Established by UCLA alumna and former congresswoman Lynn Schenk, the Congresswoman Lynn Schenk Capstone Scholarship in Public Affairs will support students completing the required experiential learning capstone opportunity during their senior year. UCLA Luskin undergraduate majors participate in a three-quarter experiential learning capstone program that integrates the classroom and community. This experience gives students the opportunity to build practical expertise while also deepening understanding of their coursework.

The second award was established by H. Pike Oliver MA UP ’73 as the H. Pike Oliver Scholarship in Public Affairs to support students from underrepresented communities with an interest in addressing complex interdisciplinary issues related to urban and regional development. Students pursuing the public affairs degree are deeply engaged in learning skills and gaining knowledge that will improve how people live and help communities thrive. 

Like Schenk and Oliver, donors can create scholarships through current-expenditure or endowed gifts, providing essential support
to students whose academic promise and career goals embody the mission of the Luskin School.

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Students, colleagues and friends gathered to honor the legacy of transportation scholar Martin Wachs. Photo by Mary Braswell

URBAN PLANNING CELEBRATES 50 (PLUS!) YEARS AT UCLA

Half a century after the study of urban planning got its start at UCLA, alumni, faculty and friends returned to campus to celebrate the program’s enduring focus on activism and equity. 

Throughout the spring quarter, several of the nation’s thought leaders on urban planning and environmental justice shared their scholarship in a series of lectures. The commemoration included reflections on the legacy of the late Professor Martin Wachs, a renowned educator, researcher and influencer of transportation policy and planning. 

The celebration culminated on May 14 with a keynote speech by Dolores Hayden, a scholar of the history of the American urban landscape, followed by a festive gathering in the UCLA Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden outside the Public Affairs Building that houses the Luskin School.

Alumni and friends are encouraged to support the Urban Planning department’s current top priority: student fellowships. By contributing to this fund, you help allow students to devote more time to learning instead of having to hold down a job or being saddled with an unsustainable debt load.

Dean’s Message

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As some of you know, the Luskin School is a bit unusual compared with other institutions. 

The juxtaposition of Social Welfare, Urban Planning and Public Policy sets us apart from most other universities where schools of Social Work and schools of Public Policy are often standalone units, while Urban Planning rests in Design, Architecture or Environmental colleges. Policy and planning can occasionally be found together, but to have the three disciplines together makes the Luskin School something of a unicorn.

This is to our benefit, I believe. When I share our vision with donors, scholars and prospective students, I talk about our unique capacity to examine human well-being from different levels and units of analysis. At UCLA Luskin, we are interested in individuals, families and organizations; municipalities, metros and regions; states, nations and the globe. This is a strength. But to make use of this variety of perspectives, we require places — real and virtual — for faculty with these perspectives to share, cooperate and collaborate. This is the key virtue of our centers and institutes — to serve as a locus of dialogue and collaboration across the entire School.

The Luskin School is blessed to have sizable clusters of faculty interested in housing and homelessness, transportation, the environment, health and mental health, youth and child development, criminal justice and policing, international policymaking and its impacts, race, class and inequality, and so much more. What these various foci have in common is that each has faculty and student researchers in more than one department and, in some instances, all three. In order for the School to have its greatest impact, as a locus for pathbreaking research and to provide the best possible training for our students at every level, breaking down the organizational silos is critical.

In addition, nearly all UCLA Luskin centers/institutes have active participation from faculty outside of the School, within which the research unit provides a mechanism of collaboration and interdisciplinary dialogue. Today, faculty from dozens of departments and programs across nearly every division/school on the campus participate in one or more UCLA Luskin research center.

In this issue of Luskin Forum, we highlight some of the excellent work being done by these centers and institutes, and the ways in which that work advances the mission of the Luskin School. 

And there is much, much more to come.

Forward!

Gary

Battle of Wits Returns to In-Person Glory

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After two years marked by dogged perseverance as a pandemic-compliant virtual competition, the ever-entertaining annual Super Quiz Bowl returned to its rightful place as a face-to-face-to-farce battle of useless knowledge and quick-wittedness on May 26 inside the Public Affairs Building.

As UCLA Luskin Director of Events Tammy Borrero said in an email to staff and students: “The competition remained fierce and over the top!”

The roomful of fierce over-toppers consisted of seven teams representing all three graduate departments, with staff and faculty being well-represented.

Having someone with inside knowledge at their table, such as Public Policy staff members Cristy Portlock and Kevin Franco, certainly benefited some teams during a round of competition that focused on Luskin School trivia. Erin Collins from the dean’s office had no problem deducing the three Ds in D3 Initiative (Diversity, Disparities and Difference, of course). And the student competitors of Doing it for the Clout had little trouble figuring out how to piece together jigsaw pieces to re-form a photo of teammate Mark Peterson, professor and incoming chair of Public Policy.

Urban Planning alum Khristian Decastro helped her team, The Perceptrons, get off to an early lead, and Associate Professor Adam Millard-Ball, a Quiz Bowl first-timer, helped another team of urban planners, CEQuizzers, rally into a tie with just one round to go.

In the end, however, Super Quiz Bowl 2022’s bronze, silver and gold medals — actually red, blue and gold ribbons — all went to teams from Public Policy. (Disclaimer: Those listed as registered participants below may not reflect actual participants because of some last-minute seat shuffling and, well, COVID.)

Third place — Quiz Queens (Marium Navid, Richard Diaz, Lily Cain, Maneesha Horshin, Stacey Hirose), Public Policy

Second place — Risky Quizness (Chinyere Nwonye, Colin Ries, Jessee Espinosa, Jesse Ostroff, Ronaldo Avina), Public Policy

Winners — Doing it for the Clout (Abhilasha Bhola, Nick Perloff, Connie Kwong, Sydney Saubestre, Mark Peterson), Public Policy

Unlike during the virtual years, there was no individual competition.

Here are the historical results:

  • 2013: Urban Planning
  • 2014: Public Policy
  • 2015: Urban Planning
  • 2016: Public Policy
  • 2017: Social Welfare
  • 2018: Public Policy
  • 2019: Social Welfare
  • 2020: Social Welfare and Urban Planning
  • 2021: Public Policy
  • 2022: Public Policy

As always, Grad Night funding was bolstered by participation, and Borrero said Social Welfare shared in 40% of the proceeds by fielding a team against the previously mentioned PP and UP. Urban Planning took the audience attendance award, with Public Policy sweeping the other categories — faculty/staff/alumni attendance and team participation.

View photos from the event (and get inspired for next year’s competition) in this Flickr album:

Quiz Bowl 2022

 

Public Policy Students Take On the Health Care Digital Divide Effort to widen access to telemedicine is one of 15 immersive projects aimed at developing policy solutions for real-world clients

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By Mary Braswell

When Sophia Li decided to apply to graduate school to pursue her interest in health policy, she could not have known that the field would soon be upended by a protracted global health emergency.

Along with most of her peers in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs’ master of public policy program, Li began her studies in September 2020, when COVID-19 had already taken more than 1 million lives worldwide and the arrival of vaccines was still months away.

When the time came to embark on the public policy program’s exacting capstone project, Li chose to focus on an inequity brought into sharp focus by the pandemic: As they isolated in their homes, more people turned to telemedicine for their health care needs — but that option was not available to people who lacked computers, smart phones and internet service.

“The pandemic really did shine a light on the possibilities that telemedicine brings,” Li said, “but it also showed that, while the upper half are benefiting from this, what does this mean for the lower half that have these barriers to access?”

Li was part of a team that explored this question on behalf of their client, the nonprofit Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. On an evening in May, Li and teammates Stacy Songco, who is earning a master of public policy and a doctorate in medicine, Xinyuan Qi, Ziyi Wei and Yixuan Yu boiled down a year’s worth of policy research and analysis into a 20-minute summary.

They were among nearly 70 second-year students to complete 15 applied policy projects this year, a rite of passage before receiving their UCLA master of public policy degrees. The capstone projects challenge students to find solutions to real-life policy dilemmas on behalf of clients in Los Angeles, across the state and nation, and around the world.

Networking with UCLA Luskin alumni had connected Li with the Community Clinic Association, which supports 65 neighborhood clinics in underserved areas. At the time, the nonprofit was “just dipping their toes into the digital divide issue,” she said.

The team spent months speaking with medical staff, local policymakers, internet service providers and, of course, the patients themselves. The conversations took place via Zoom because of COVID restrictions, but also in person, to make sure those without the means to gather virtually would be heard.

By year’s end, the team had developed more than a dozen recommendations, including the creation of a new role of digital navigator — a clinic staff member trained to guide individuals through the often-confounding world of broadband access, as well as benefits they may be entitled to, which change from ZIP code to ZIP code.

The students proposed a mechanism to receive federal funds for this new position. They stressed that information should be provided in multiple languages, and not just online but in printable formats, for those unable to access the internet. And they quickly determined that unlocking digital doors would open up a world of services and opportunities beyond telemedicine.

One of their focus groups spoke of their experiences with the California Lifeline program, which provides discounted landline and cell phone services to low-income households. While some found it confusing, “we had one unhoused individual who said, ‘Actually, you know what? I can walk you through all the paperwork, I can talk to you about how to use this,’” Li said.

“If people from the community could tap their experiences to guide others and receive compensation as a digital navigator, imagine the possibilities.”

The project culminated in a full published report for the Community Clinic Association and a formal presentation before Luskin faculty, staff and students, including the team’s advisor, Public Policy chair Martin Gilens.

Other capstone projects completed by the class of 2022 dealt with how to protect the rights of car wash workers, whether to expand the number of seats on the Los Angeles City Council, how to balance public health and humane treatment of asylum seekers at the border, as well as homelessness, mass transit, criminal justice and more.

“It’s an immersive experience. The students value that, and the marketplace also values that,” said Wesley Yin, an associate professor of public policy and economics who has served as coordinator and advisor in the applied policy projects program.

“There’s a professionalism that makes it much more than a class project,” Yin said. “It equips students with the rich experience and knowledge to seamlessly integrate into an organization.”

Li said her team emerged with unexpected areas of expertise. “The digital divide is a really complicated issue that has everything from some little niche funding source that you need to know about, to complex infrastructure issues and these really technical things that you need to understand,” she said.

As she looks toward graduation, Li reflects on the turns in her education that brought her to this point.

She transferred from Chaffey College to UC Merced, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in public health, then managed the rigors of earning her master of public policy at a time of pandemic. Selected as a Presidential Management Fellow, Li will spend the next two years in a program that helps train young scholars to become the next generation of leaders in federal government.

“It’s been a lot of these 90-degree turns that keep putting me on the right path,” Li said. “So let’s go explore new things.”

View photos of this year’s applied policy project presentations on Flickr.

Applied Policy Projects 2022

Nancy Pelosi Addresses Undergraduates at UCLA Luskin Commencement Speaker of the House offers keynote remarks during School’s in-person ceremony

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Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a member of Congress for more than three decades, gave the keynote address at the 2022 undergraduate commencement ceremony at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. 

Now in her fourth term as speaker, Pelosi made history in 2007 when she was the first woman elected to serve in that role. After serving as speaker for four years, she was House minority leader for eight years beginning in 2011. She returned to the position of speaker in 2019, when Democrats regained the House majority.  

Pelosi spoke during the UCLA Luskin ceremony that started at 3 p.m. on June 10 on the patio outside of UCLA’s Kerckhoff Hall. A crowd of up to 1,000 graduating students, family members and other invited guests had been anticipated.  

“Nancy Pelosi is a renowned leader who has skillfully guided California and the nation through some trials and tribulations — and many triumphs — during her long career as a public servant,” said Gary Segura, dean of the Luskin School. “She has also been a trailblazer in Congress and a role model for those who, like many of our students, may aspire to hold public office someday.  

“I know she will inspire our graduates to continue their quest to make a meaningful difference in the world.”  

As House speaker, Pelosi has championed legislation that has helped to lower health care costs, increase workers’ pay and promote the nation’s economic growth.  

She has represented California’s 12th District in San Francisco as a member of Congress since 1987. She has led House Democrats for 19 years and previously served as House Democratic whip. 

In 2013, Pelosi was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Seneca Falls, New York, the birthplace of the American women’s rights movement. 

Working with then-President Barack Obama, who called Pelosi “an extraordinary leader for the American people,” she led the House’s passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in early 2009 to create and save millions of American jobs in the wake of a worldwide recession. Pelosi also led the passage through Congress of the landmark Affordable Care Act.  

She has promoted legislation related to banking reform, consumer protection and funding for students. She has fought for women’s rights and sought to end pay discrimination. Pelosi’s many legislative accomplishments also include efforts to promote better nutrition for children and food safety. 

Many of her efforts align with UCLA Luskin’s mission to promote social justice, including her efforts to repeal discriminatory policies such as the “don’t ask, don’t tell” prohibition against gay and lesbian people serving openly in the military. 

The Luskin School is known for turning research into action, conducting academic studies that often lead to policy solutions. Many faculty, for example, are engaged in seeking ways to mitigate the growing effects of climate change. Pelosi has long been active in environmental causes, and she is known for 1989’s “Pelosi amendment,” which has become a tool to assess the potential environmental effects of development globally.  

Pelosi graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. She and her husband, Paul Pelosi, a native of San Francisco, have five children and nine grandchildren. 

The Luskin School also hosted commencement for students earning graduate degrees at 9 a.m. on June 10. Actor, activist and UCLA alumnus George Takei was the keynote speaker. 

Learn more about the 2022 Commencements at UCLA Luskin.

Alumni Awards Recognize Three With Ties to Luskin School Debra Duardo, Sheila Kuehl and Kristen Torres Pawling are honored for their service to UCLA and their communities

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By Manon Snyder

The UCLA Alumni Association will pay tribute to policymakers, activists and other leaders for their lifelong dedication to bringing Bruin values into the world.

Of the seven 2022 UCLA Award honorees who will be recognized at a May 21 ceremony at the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center, three have ties to the Luskin School of Public Affairs:

Debra Duardo — UCLA Award for Public Service

Duardo is a triple Bruin who earned her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies and Chicana/o studies in 1994, her master’s in social work in 1996 and a doctorate in 2013 from what was then called the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. In 2013, she was named UCLA Luskin’s Joseph A. Nunn Social Welfare Alumnus of the Year.

After having to drop out of high school to work full time and postponing higher education until her late 20s, Duardo has dedicated her career to ensuring a safe environment for underrepresented students. Duardo worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 20 years and in 2016 was appointed Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools by the county board of supervisors, where she continues to pursue equity for 2 million students.

Sheila Kuehl — Edward A. Dickinson Alum of the Year

Kuehl earned her bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA in 1962. She is a former University of California Regents’ Professor in public policy at UCLA Luskin, where she received the Ruth Roemer Social Justice Leadership Award for her work in homelessness.

Kuehl has been a lifelong trailblazer for women’s rights and queer representation in politics. In 1994, Kuehl was the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to the California Legislature, and throughout her many tenures in public office, she has passed important bills advancing the rights of disenfranchised communities in Los Angeles County and California as a whole. She will retire from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this year. Kuehl has been previously honored by UCLA in 1993 with the UCLA Award for Community Service and in 2000 with the UCLA Award for Public Service.

Kuehl attended UCLA at the same time as she was filming “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” playing the character of Zelda Gilroy. Upon graduation from UCLA, she became an associate dean of students. In addition to her position as a Regents’ Professor at UCLA Luskin, Kuehl taught law at UCLA, USC and Loyola Law School.

Kristen Torres Pawling — Young Alumna of the Year

Pawling completed her bachelor’s degree in geography and environmental studies from UCLA in 2009 and her master’s in urban and regional planning in 2012. She served as an executive fellow in the office of the chair on California climate change policy in Sacramento, where she also joined the Sacramento Alumni Network and helped grow its young alumni program. Pawling brought her expertise to the climate crisis as an air pollution specialist for the California Air Resources Board Transportation Planning Branch and helped the Natural Resources Defense Council’s urban solutions department implement its strategic plan in Los Angeles. She is currently the sustainability program director for Los Angeles County.

Other 2022 UCLA Award honorees are:

UCLA Alumni Band — Network of the Year

Monica Ebeltoft — Volunteer of the Year

Alberto Retana — UCLA Award for Community Service

A. Wallace Tashima — UCLA Award for Professional Achievement

Read more about all of the 2022 UCLA Award Recipients.

Gary Segura Reappointed to 2nd Term as UCLA Luskin Dean

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Gary Segura will be continuing as dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

An announcement to the UCLA campus was issued May 5 by Michael S. Levine, interim executive vice chancellor and provost. Here is the text of that announcement:

Following the customary administrative review, I am pleased to share that Gary Segura has been reappointed for a second term as the dean of the Luskin School of Public Affairs. The review committee praised Dean Segura for his leadership skills, his commitment to faculty excellence and diversity, and his pioneering efforts to elevate and expand his school’s academic offerings.

Since his appointment in 2016, Dean Segura has fostered within the Luskin School a deep commitment to academic excellence and to equity, diversity and inclusion that has led to a highly diverse pool of students in the school’s programs and the appointment of renowned scholars in areas such as poverty and inequality, immigration, criminal justice, education policy and more. In 2021, Luskin School faculty members were among the top 2% for scholarly citations worldwide in their respective fields. The Luskin School is one of the most diverse schools of its kind in the UC system and amongst public affairs programs throughout the country.

Over the last five years, Dean Segura has helped to cement the Luskin School’s status as a leader in research, teaching and practice across the areas of social welfare, urban planning and public policy. Recognizing growing demand for his school’s programs, in 2018 he led the development of the undergraduate major in public affairs, which provides a multidisciplinary foundation in social science theories, data collection and analysis. Additionally, the school launched a certificate program in data analytics in fall 2021 and added a new dual master’s degree program offered jointly by our Urban Planning Department and the Urban School of Sciences Po in Paris.

Dean Segura also co-founded the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative in 2017 to address inequities and spread awareness of the most critical domestic policy challenges facing Latinos and other communities of color. The initiative received $3 million in ongoing annual state funding for its research, advocacy and mobilization efforts.

We are grateful to have such a dedicated leader as Dean Segura at the helm of the Luskin School. Chancellor Block and I look forward to his continued efforts to strengthen and advance the public affairs disciplines at UCLA and to the impact his work will have on diverse communities near and far.

Please join me in congratulating Dean Segura on his accomplishments over the past five years and in wishing him success throughout his second term.

Sincerely,

Michael S. Levine
Interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

Rose Bowl Honors Former Chancellor Young

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The Rose Bowl Stadium dedicated the UCLA Home Locker Room in honor of Charles E. Young, former chancellor of the university and professor emeritus of public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Young served as chancellor from 1968 to 1997. In 1982, he selected the Rose Bowl as the home of Bruin football. “While it was 40 years ago, the decision to use the Rose Bowl Stadium as the home field of UCLA football still stands out in my mind as one of the more important decisions I made regarding UCLA Athletics during my tenure as chancellor of UCLA,” Young said. “The boost that gave to UCLA football in the 1980s under Terry Donahue and to all fans of UCLA Athletics remains vivid in my mind even today.” A Pasadena Now article noted that the ceremony honoring Young’s contributions to UCLA and the city of Pasadena comes as the Rose Bowl, opened in 1922, is marking its centennial year.

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School Rises to Top 12 — and Top 10 for Social Work — in U.S. News Graduate Ranking Enhanced reputation is an indicator of ongoing work to meet and exceed high expectations for Luskin School and its Social Welfare programs.

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UCLA Luskin’s overall ranking is in the top dozen among public affairs graduate schools in the nation based on the latest U.S. News & World Report ratings released today, including a Top 10 ranking in the social work category.

The School tied with other prestigious programs — Princeton, NYU, Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon at No. 12 and at No. 9 in social work with Case Western Reserve University.

“I am proud of the work that the Luskin School has done and continues to do. This ranking among national public affairs schools is just one indicator of the Luskin School’s continued growth and ongoing work to maintain and exceed our high expectations,” Dean Gary Segura said. “And the leap into the Top 10 for Social Welfare is a gigantic achievement! These reputational enhancements reflection the hard work and the continuing commitment of, and to, our UCLA and UCLA Luskin community, faculty, students, staff and all those that support and contribute to our mission,” he said.

“I am thrilled that our peers have rated us one of the top 10 social work programs in the nation,” said Laura Abrams, chair and professor of social welfare. “In the last five years, we have streamlined our Master of Social Welfare curriculum into three areas of concentration and incorporated several new elements, such as Intergroup Dialogue and the second-year capstone research projects.”

Abrams also noted the recruitment of new faculty members who are doing cutting-edge teaching, scholarship and community-based work.

“Dean Segura has been incredibly supportive of our expansion and increasing our visibility on the national stage. I couldn’t be more pleased to see our MSW program being honored in this way,” Abrams said.

Among public universities, the UCLA Luskin Social Welfare program is now one of the top six nationwide and the top two in California.

The School — with graduate departments in Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning, and a Public Affairs undergraduate program — also received high marks for subcategories that include urban policy (No. 7), social policy (No. 7), public policy analysis (No. 13) and health policy and management (No. 12).

The 2023 rankings of public affairs programs are published in 2022 based on peer assessment survey results from fall 2021 and early 2022. U.S. News surveyed deans, directors and department chairs representing 270 master’s programs in public affairs and administration, and 298 social work programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the Council on Social Work Education. The National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work supplied U.S. News with the lists of accredited social work schools and programs, plus the respondents’ names.

See the full list of the 2023 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools, published today.

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