Academic administrators have tremendous potential not only to facilitate multiple dimensions of success within their campus communities, but also to help those who comprise our broader communities (local, nationally, and globally) flourish. I believe that outstanding higher education administrators lead directly and indirectly in ways that empower faculty, staff, and administrative colleagues…and ultimately, of course, students, to thrive. They are propelled by a strong sense of self, the clarity of their values, and the transparency of their intentions and actions. They are committed to engaging with an open mind and heart. They are comfortable challenging themselves and others to question their assumptions and to think differently, expansively, and creatively about how all of us (and, thus, our campuses) can be better and do better. They are skilled in envisioning, initiating, and facilitating change processes that are fueled by the collaborative energy of people who have diverse perspectives, talents, backgrounds, and roles. Their strong commitment to learning and growing (both personally and professionally) coupled with their capacity for listening, strong sense of equanimity, empathic nature, and intolerance for injustice mesh seamlessly with their tremendous energy and immense talent for connecting diverse people and ideas. They are an extraordinary force for catalyzing action, and, during times of uncertainty and angst, they are a stable, calming, and otherwise steadying presence.
Ultimately, I believe that campus communities characterized by trust, teamwork, and mutual respect are essential for promoting dynamic thinking, personal empowerment and, ultimately, meaningful action. As such, my administrative work is grounded in relationship building and talent development.
Since 2008, I have served as assistant vice provost (recently retitled assistant dean) for undergraduate education at UCLA, with a portfolio that has encompassed educational research, accreditation, and student success. In Summer 2015, my responsibilities expanded to include providing leadership for UCLA Honors Programs, which serves roughly 4,000 students annually. In response to the opportunities and challenges of 21st century higher education, we are now in the midst of an ambitious endeavor to rigorously transform our approach to honors education. While continuing to administer our traditional College Honors Program, we have also launched (in Fall 2018), the new College Scholars Program, which draws on UCLA’s unique resources as a major public research university.
As elaborated in our College Scholars Themebook, the program centers on signature approaches to learning that are interdisciplinary, experiential, integrative, and illustrative; ways of being that encompass the values of inclusivity, self-awareness, curiosity, independence, resilience, generosity, and distinctiveness; and habits of doing that emphasize collaboration, creativity, and innovation.
Based on the strength of the program’s conceptual design, its projected potential to facilitate holistic student learning and development, and the positive feedback students and colleagues shared with program review team members during our site visit, the Academic Senate recommended that campus leadership “support identification of the Honors Programs as an exemplar of excellence for UCLA” and projected that, with appropriate support and continued work on multiple fronts, UCLA Honors Programs is poised to become “a national and global leader in honors education.”
Exercising Leadership for Social Change
Within my personal life and professional pursuits, my commitments to embracing approaches to learning, ways of being, and habits of doing that advance equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging are longstanding. I recognize that our life circumstances and experiences impact how we see ourselves, how we view others, and how we engage (consciously or otherwise) with myriad dimensions of difference. I believe in engaging difference with open minds and hearts; embracing inclusive excellence such that individuals’ developmental needs and dynamic ways of thinking, learning, and living are respected, supported and celebrated; and working actively both to identify and remedy experiential and outcome disparities.
I also believe that amidst all of our differences and dimensions of potential divide, we share within the essence of our humanity many common hopes, concerns, passions, dreams, and responsibilities. Within the contexts of my administrative and academic work, this is the vantage point from which I engage with students and colleagues. Moreover, this is the foundation upon which I continue to be committed to becoming a less biased version of myself and otherwise enhancing my capacities for creating environments that enable students and colleagues to thrive academically, personally, and professionally, both individually and collaboratively.
Events both recent and long-recurring have highlighted for me in tremendously powerful ways the pernicious inequities and injustices that pervade our society and have strengthened my resolve to doing my part, daily, to create a world that is more empathic, compassionate, equitable, and just.