A PUBLICATION OF THE UCLA MEYER AND RENEE LUSKIN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
SU M M E R 2016
PUBLIC POLICY | SOCIAL WELFARE | URBAN PLANNING
A COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SERVICE
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10 a commitment to public service This issue of Luskin Forum is devoted to the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs’ long-standing dedication to engagement with our neighboring communities.
14 student stories: what ucla luskin means to me 16 a living laboratory in watts 18 politics and public service 19 a passion for serving the public departments
2 milestones 6 seen & heard 8 by the numbers
20 in support 22 alumni notes 24 lasting image
A publication of INTERIM DEAN LOIS M. TAKAHASHI EDITORS George Foulsham, Roberto Gudino CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Michael Dukakis, George Foulsham, Herbie Huff, Tae Kang, Alexis Kelly, Marisa Lemorande, Lance MacNiven,
Stan Paul, Breanna Ramos, Adrian Bijan White, Adeney Zo PHOTOGRAPHY Adam Berry, Todd Cheney, Stephane Claus, Roberto Gudino, Marisa Lemorande, Stan Paul, Gus Ruelas, Laura Santos DESIGN ETCH Creative
On the cover: Jorja Leap, adjunct professor of Social Welfare, in Watts, where she is launching a 10-year research project
22 FROM THE INTERIM DEAN As the academic year draws to a close and we begin preparing for Commencement, I am reminded of the incredibly engaged and talented community we have here at UCLA Luskin. With the addition of six faculty members and the conclusion of our dean search, our School has taken great strides forward. Here at UCLA Luskin we continue to expand student opportunities and connect with the community at large. In a year of many changes, we stay committed to what we do best: bridging theory and practice to create community-based research with far-reaching impact. Simply reflect on some of our accomplishments: from grant-funded research on L.A.’s gang members and at-risk youth, to the inauguration of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin. These projects highlight our shared values of diversity, innovation and excellence as we continue to make a difference here at UCLA and beyond.
As our graduate students begin new chapters in their lives, I know they have been changed by their experience at UCLA Luskin. Whether in the classroom or the
In a year of many changes, we stay committed to what we do best: bridging theory and practice to create community-based research with farreaching impact. community, they are at the heart of what we do, and we know they will continue to make us proud in their future endeavors. I would like to thank our extended Luskin family — colleagues, friends and alumni — who support our School in so many ways. It has been a great honor and privilege to serve as your Dean for the past year. Working collaboratively, we can continue our long history of civic engagement, public dialogue and collective problem-solving.
Lois Takahashi
MILESTONES
WELCOME DAY AT LUSKIN SPOTLIGHTS URBAN PLANNING STUDENTS’ RESEARCH Are bike lanes making Angelenos safer? What elements make a street “grand” in L.A.? What exactly is a road diet, and should the City of Angels lose a few lanes? These questions and others were among the subjects of an annual Urban Planning tradition: Careers, Capstones and Conversations. Second-year students in the Master of Urban Planning (MURP) program showcased their research as the culmination of a daylong welcome for admitted Urban Planning graduate students at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Held at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, the event brought together Urban Planning faculty and students, prospective students and
planning professionals to learn from the research efforts of graduating students and to get to know one another. Each year, MURP secondyear students are matched with faculty advisers and organizations representing local, regional and state agencies and nonprofit organizations as well as industry and engineering and consulting firms. MURP candidate Marissa Sanchez, above, focused on the seven elements that go into making a “grand” street in Los Angeles. According to Sanchez, grand streets “enhance the local neighborhood physically, socially and economically by providing a safe place for users to connect, participate and engage their environment.”
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
Social Welfare associate professor Lené Levy-Storms’ cross-disciplinary course “Frontiers in Human Aging” — designed to teach firstyear students what it means to get old — was featured on CNN and in USA Today.
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Urban Planning professor emeritus Donald Shoup wrote a column for the Washington Post on how parking requirements hurt the poor. “We are poisoning our cities with too much parking,” Shoup said in the article.
Public Policy lecturer Jim Newton wrote an Op-Ed column for the Los Angeles Times about why the TV miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson” should be required viewing for America’s police chiefs.
IMPACT
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CARBON ‘UPCYCLING’ A team of interdisciplinary researchers at UCLA has been working on a unique solution that may help eliminate two sources of greenhouse gases, carbon emissions from power plants and concrete production, another major source of air pollution. Their plan would be to create a closed-loop process: capturing carbon from power plant smokestacks and using it to create a new building material — CO2NCRETE — that would be fabricated using 3-D printers. That’s “upcycling.” “What this technology
does is take something that we have viewed as a nuisance — carbon dioxide that’s emitted from smokestacks — and turn it into something valuable,” said J.R. DeShazo, professor of Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.
PLANNING A CITY? TRY OUR NEW APP Thanks to REVISION, a new web application created by the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, anyone
can aggregate data from various public and private sources to create a complete picture of neighborhood change. And they can do it with just a few clicks. “We’ve built a tool that allows a great number
of people the ability to go in and answer questions that they might have about this regional growth phenomenon,” said Juan Matute, associate director of the UCLA Lewis Center and the Institute of Transportation Studies. “To answer these questions before REVISION, it would have taken someone months of technical training and at least a day to gather the relevant information. Now, even people without technical expertise can get a great deal of insight in less than 20 minutes.” REVISION, created with the assistance of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), is dedicated to understanding community change in Southern California.
IN MEMORIAM
Jacqueline “Jackie” Leavitt, longtime professor and professor emerita of Urban Planning, passed away Nov. 27, 2015. An award-winning scholar, Leavitt’s research during her decadeslong career focused on housing and community development policy, among many other urban and social issues.
As in, we’re No. 1! The UCLA Luskin Department of Urban Planning has once again been ranked as the most influential planning school in the country, based on academic citations reported by the Journal of Planning Education and Research.
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The UCLA Luskin Department of Social Welfare has been ranked No. 12 — and No. 7 among public universities — in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
$3,500$4,000
Estimated median net worth of Mexicans and U.S.-born blacks, based on the new study “The Color of Wealth in Los Angeles,” co-authored by UCLA Luskin professor Paul Ong.
$355,000
Estimated median net worth of white households in Los Angeles, based on the same study. The lead author of the study is Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca MA UP ’02.
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MILESTONES
SIX OUTSTANDING NEW FACULTY The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs has announced the addition of six new faculty for the 2016-17 academic year. The new hires bring to 100 the number of professors, assistant professors, lecturers and instructors at the UCLA Luskin School. “We are thrilled to welcome six new, outstanding faculty to the Luskin family,” interim Dean Lois M. Takahashi said. The new scholars and their departments:
PUBLIC POLICY
SOCIAL WELFARE
URBAN PLANNING
Darin Christensen, assistant professor, from Stanford
Leyla Karimli, assistant professor, from Columbia University
Kian Goh, assistant professor, from Northeastern University
Zachary C. SteinertThrelkeld, assistant professor, from UC San Diego
Laura Wray-Lake, assistant professor, from Penn State University
Michael Manville UP Ph.D. ’09, MA UP ’03 assistant professor, from Cornell University
DECODING THE APPLE BATTLE “This case is going to be incredibly important,” Public Policy professor John Villasenor told a crowd of interested faculty, staff and students who attended his discussion of the Apple vs. U.S. government iPhone standoff. The discussion, held at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, focused on the background of the case in which Apple was ordered by the government to assist in bypassing the security features
of an iPhone 5c used by one of the shooters in the December 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack. Apple opposed the order. “This is a perfect example of why so much of what we do at UCLA crosses these boundaries — technology, policy, law and business — and how it intersects in this way that quite literally is dominating the headlines,” Villasenor said.
ADVANCING WOMEN IN TECH The importance of quality mentorships is one of eight key recommendations in a new Luskin Center for Innovation report about strategies for increasing diversity and retaining women in high-tech careers. The Luskin Center report, “What Are We Missing? Rethinking Public, Private and Nonprofit Strategies to Advance Women in Technology,” is a compilation of feedback from those who attended the 2015 Women in Tech conference at UCLA and a review of salient literature. Eight overarching themes emerged from the literature review and crowd-sourced knowledge from UCLA’s conference. These themes served to guide the report: using data to assess diversity; providing female entrepreneurs with access to funding models that reduce bias; focusing on the hiring process to reduce subconscious biases; standardizing performance reviews; increasing quality mentorship; expanding public-private partnerships; building upon mandate-driven public policies; and commitment to diversity at all levels of leadership.
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FRANKLIN D. GILLIAM, JR. SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD Through the efforts of members of the UCLA Luskin advisory board along with many other donors, the new Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. Social Justice Award, named for the former dean of the UCLA Luskin School, was created to advance research that focuses on issues of racial justice and inequality. Reflecting the School’s mission to bring about social change through academic excellence, this award highlights student scholarship that addresses crucial societal issues. This year’s award recipients are Susanna Curry, a doctoral candidate in Social Welfare; Elizabeth Calixtro, a master of Public Policy student; Kevin Medina, a master of Social Welfare and master of Public Policy student; Nisha Parekh, a master of Public Policy and Law student; Marylou Adriatico, a master of Social Welfare student; and Joanna L. Barreras, Charles H. Lea III and Christina Tam, all doctoral candidates in Social Welfare.
A ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE
GRAND CHALLENGE AWARDS
UCLA Urban Planning students now have the opportunity to spend an academic quarter studying in the heart of Paris, on the city’s historic Left Bank. A new exchange program between the Urban School at Sciences Po and the UCLA Luskin School
J.R. DeShazo
Juan Matute of Public Affairs’ Department of Urban Planning will allow three Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) students to study in Paris for a quarter, while three of their continental counterparts will study at Luskin, according to Alexis Oberlander, Urban Planning graduate adviser. The exchange program was initiated by Urban Planning faculty members Michael Storper and Stephen Commins UP Ph.D. ’88, and Luskin Associate Dean Anastasia LoukaitouSideris, in conjunction with faculty at Sciences Po’s Urban School. “No other Urban Planning program in the United States can offer a similar opportunity to its students,” Storper said.
Three UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs researchers, Brian Taylor UP Ph.D. ’92, Juan Matute MA UP/MBA ’09 and J.R. DeShazo, are among 11 UCLA winners of $1.2 million in competitive research grants awarded through the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge’s Five-Year Work Plan. The grants are for work that furthers the goals of 100 percent renewable energy and locally sourced water for the Los Angeles area by 2050. In addition, Jaimee Lederman, an Urban Planning doctoral candidate, was recently named an LA Grand Challenge Powell Policy Fellow for a research/scholarly project. Taylor and Matute said that their project will study the viability of shared zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) and transportation network companies (TNCs) such as Uber and Lyft “to and from major transit stops to promote both ZEV and transit for commute-related traffic.” DeShazo’s winning proposal will assess whether creating a unified water market out of the current fragmented system of more than 200 community water systems in Los Angeles is a real possibility.
Brian Taylor
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SEEN & HEARD
I’m delighted to speak to Luskin students because they will be the future policymakers. I hope to make a strong case here that we need students who will graduate with a real sense of how important 2015 was for development on our planet.” Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and one of the world’s leading climate justice activists, in her Luskin Lecture in January
The Luskin Lecture Series, intended to enhance public discourse on topics relevant to the betterment of society, more than lived up to this goal in the first half of 2016, with inspirational presentations by Mary Robinson, above, the former president of Ireland, in January, and David Simon, top right on facing page, the former journalist who is now a successful screenwriter and producer, in February. Among those who attended the sold-out Robinson lecture, held in the Charles E. Young Grand Salon, were Meyer and Renee, inset, whose $50 million gift five years ago led to the naming of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
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If you are asked to be on a jury, on nonviolent drug use, and they ask you to send another human being to prison because of this disaster of a drug policy, acquit. No matter what the evidence is, acquit.” David Simon, screenwriter and producer, in his Luskin Lecture at the inauguration of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy
Online voting is not something we are ready for because of security and privacy issues. The ballot must have the highest degree of anonymity. The Internet provides data, not secrecy.” Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State, during a January discussion of the mechanisms and modernization of the voting process, co-sponsored by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the California Association of Clerks and Elected Officials
Hungary is in the eye of the storm. The entire length of the border was used as a permanent border crossing. We are friends of America. You are important — we need you as allies.” Réka Szemerkényi, Hungary’s ambassador to the United States, speaking to Luskin students about the refugee crisis in Europe. Her appearance was part of the UCLA Luskin Senior Fellows Leadership Program
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BY THE NUMBERS
LOS ANGELES COUNTY QUALITY OF LIFE INDEX The first Los Angeles County Quality of Life Index, sponsored by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, debuted in April. Under the guidance of Zev Yaroslavsky, director of UCLA Luskin’s Los Angeles Initiative, the survey of more than 1,400 residents revealed the depth of financial insecurity in Los Angeles County. Respondents rated their satisfaction with up to 40 aspects of quality of life. Funding support for the survey was provided by The California Endowment and Meyer and Renee Luskin.
“ Our survey represents a compelling classand ethnic-based economic story. Latinos in particular are standing out as having fundamental economic concerns.” —ZEV YAROSLAVSKY
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29% RESIDENTS HAVE WORRIED ABOUT GOING HUNGRY IN THE LAST FEW YEARS BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT AFFORD THE COST OF FOOD.
31%
have worried about losing their homes and becoming homeless as a result.
52%
44% OF LATINOS HAVE WORRIED ABOUT GOING HUNGRY
44%
THAT NUMBER JUMPS TO 52 PERCENT AMONG LATINO MEN
OF LATINOS ARE WORRIED ABOUT LOSING THEIR HOMES AND BECOMING HOMELESS. In an issue that bridges the class and racial spectrum, there is widespread concern for the public education system in Los Angeles.
+$150,000 Whites, african americans, college graduates, post-college graduates and those with household incomes more than $150,000 gave a score of only between 50 and 54 (on a scale of 10 to 100) to the quality of public education
OVERALL SATISFACTION SCORE FROM THE SURVEY: 59 luskin.ucla.edu
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COVER FEATURE
A COMMITM TO PUBLIC SERVICE Ready for a civics lesson? This issue of the Luskin Forum is devoted to the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs’ long-standing dedication to engagement with our neighboring communities. Social justice, equity and opportunity remain intrinsic to UCLA Luskin’s research and teaching, but they especially apply to our community efforts. The features in this issue highlight that commitment by our scholars.
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MENT
UCLA MEYER AND RENEE LUSKIN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS luskin.ucla.edu
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PROFILE
A COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES Director Ananya Roy Has an Ambitious Plan for the New Institute on Inequality and Democracy You’ve had several months to process the inauguration events and the incredible twoday launch of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy. Where do you go from here? The inauguration of the Institute in February was a very special occasion. On the one hand, it was a celebration of the long-standing commitment at the UCLA Luskin School to issues of social justice — after all, the institute is
Ananya Roy, director of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy, teaches a class at UCLA Luskin.
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the culmination of that commitment. On the other hand, it signaled the themes and collaborations that will be at the heart of the new work that the institute represents. In the coming year, the Institute will build on the momentum of the inauguration to achieve two main goals. First, we are currently developing a robust agenda of research led by faculty at the Luskin School and beyond. The institute’s mandate is to organize knowledge to challenge inequality. With this in mind, we have explicitly asked for such research to have a strong point of view and, if necessary, to challenge established academic wisdom.
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In particular, we seek to promote research with a public orientation. An important criterion for us is research developed in partnership with social movements and community-based organizing. With this in mind, we have recast the usual academic review process to include not only UCLA faculty but also prominent scholar-activists in Los Angeles. Second, it is our hope that the institute will become an important space for intellectual work and public scholarship by undergraduate and graduate students at UCLA. We are in the process of convening and supporting interdisciplinary graduate student working groups as well as brainstorming with undergraduate students about how the institute can enrich their educational experience. As we do so, we return to two questions among many. What is the role of the public university in social change? How does the commitment to social justice reorient the global university? How did the inauguration inform or help build the agenda for the institute? The scope and purpose of the institute have been developed in close conversation with faculty drawn from many different departments at UCLA and graduate students at the UCLA Luskin School. These advisory boards have articulated our research themes and established the values and principles the institute seeks to uphold. The inauguration sought to demonstrate these themes and values in a public event, for example, by highlighting urban displacement as a worldwide condition and
From left, Roy; Pete White, L.A. Community Action Network; Patricia Hill, Chicago AntiEviction Campaign; Willie (JR) Fleming, Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign; and Ashraf Cassiem, Western Cape AntiEviction Campaign, during the ceremony at the Japanese American National Museum.
PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS
Below, Suzette Shaw, L.A. Poverty Department, listens during the inauguration ceremonies held at UCLA Luskin.
demonstrating how poor people’s movements are fighting evictions and foreclosures. While we could have launched the institute with one of the usual academic superstars who write about inequality, we deliberately wanted to give the stage to those who are on the frontlines of struggle but whose voices are rarely present in the hallways of the university or policy think tanks. Doing so allowed us to convene an audience that stretched well beyond UCLA. The inauguration was attended by faculty and students, by leaders from the nonprofit organizations and foundations, and by members of dynamic social movements. There were thus electrifying moments, for example when Suzette Shaw (L.A. Poverty Department) spoke of her experience as a Skid Row resident and activist, or Ashraf Cassiem (Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign) challenged us to conceptualize poor communities as sites of learning, or Angie Kim (Center for Cultural Innovation) asked how we can rethink and remake the nonprofit industrial complex.
and inequality but also as implicated in producing spatial segregation and racial divides? And if so, how might that change the type of urban planner we care to be? I also have a passion for undergraduate education. I loved developing and teaching a new undergraduate course on “Inequality and Democracy” last quarter. Housed in the Luskin School, it drew students from many different majors. As was the case with my undergraduate students at UC Berkeley, these students want to change the world. I taught the class to expose them to the stubborn persistence of inequality, for example to
What did you learn about the mission of the institute from the students you have worked with this year?
the constant remaking of what author Michelle Alexander has called America’s “racial caste” system. But I also wanted to encourage their enthusiasm for action, to find horizons of hope. My most recent book, “Encountering Poverty,” co-authored with my former colleagues at UC Berkeley, takes on this challenge of “thinking and acting in an unequal world.” It invites undergraduate students to find a space of action that avoids the “hubris of benevolence” as well as the “paralysis of cynicism.” I hope that the Institute will be this sort of space for UCLA undergraduates.
In my first year at UCLA, I have had the opportunity to teach graduate and undergraduate classes. Luskin School graduate students have decisively shaped the work of the institute, generously sharing their ideas and aspirations. Our conversations have often returned to this question: How does the theme of inequality disrupt how we are trained in our disciplines and professions? For example, how do we see the profession of urban planning not simply as the solution to problems of poverty
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PROFILE
STUDENT STORIES: WHAT UCLA LUSKIN MEANS TO ME We asked a graduating student from each of UCLA Luskin’s departments — Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning — to tell us what the School of Public Affairs has meant to them as they prepare for what comes next in their lives. Their stories are inspiring.
The Meaning of Epic By Tae Kang, MPP Class of 2016
Those who know me are aware of my fondness for the epic. The epic film. The epic “social gathering.” The epic Quiz Bowl. And yes — the epic story. These past two years at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs have afforded me plenty of epic opportunities. It’s not every morning that you and a former presidential nominee and governor have to chase a hive of bees from his office. It’s not every six-hour road trip that culminates in the eating of a steak. It’s not every spring break that you get to travel to Japan to meet ministry officials, have kindergarten students perform “Aladdin,” and
grams. A lot of Google Docs. A sizable fortune spent on coffee at LuValle. A sizable fortune of free pizza eaten. There were evenings working on a stats or econ problem set that I would worry about my grades. Through the solidarity of my cohort, I endured. There was a time I thought about quitting the program. But thanks to small conversations with staff, I did not. There were days when the burdens of being a TA or working the Applied Policy Project seemed too heavy. But then we would just put everything aside to go eat Korean BBQ. The world seemed a bit brighter. What was ordinary is transformed to be epic. Most mornings and evenings these past two years, I waited for the arrival of the Big Blue Bus. On that ordinary
“ It’s not every spring break that you get to travel to Japan to meet ministry officials, have kindergarten students perform ‘Aladdin,’ and wear samurai armor.” wear samurai armor. It’s not every networking event that you get to meet Julia Louis-Dreyfus — Elaine Benes from “Seinfeld” and the current star of the HBO series “Veep.” Yet when I truly reflect on my time here, I am struck by my gratitude for all the ordinary events. I will remember our conversations about policy windows and moral hazard. How we discovered confidence intervals and the Pareto principle. We formed soccer and football teams. We binged on countless TV shows. A lot of Insta-
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bus and each bus ride, I would see cultural and policy issues unfold. Millennials plugged into their phones. The homeless and mentally ill. The immigrant mother and son going to work and school. The unemployed job applicant. People trying to put food on their table. People trying to find their way in the world. What could be more ordinary than that collection of people? But in fact, what could be more epic and a better reminder of the work that needs to be done? To paraphrase Chair Mark Peterson, let us begin our epic work.
Turning Childhood Dreams Into Reality By Alexis Kelly, MSW Class of 2016
Sitting in my first 8 a.m. class of graduate school, I viscerally remember my emotional combustion of trepidation, excitement — and pure fright. From that day forward, I have recognized my own transformation from student to practitioner. The Luskin program is committed to training leaders who rally against socioeconomic injustices for the most disadvantaged communities. I remain
In conjunction with my first-year internship performing school-based social work, I became certified as a crisis advocate for the Los Angeles Rape and Battering Hotline through the Peace Over Violence organization. Moreover, as an intern for the Psychiatric Mobile Response Team, I performed emergency psychiatric evaluations to determine whether a person is a danger to themselves or others, or suffers from grave disability in need of involuntary hospitalization to ensure their safety. These experiences ignited my passion in mental health stigma reduction, access to care and empowerment for vulnerable
“ The Luskin program is committed to training leaders who rally against socioeconomic injustices for the most disadvantaged communities.” humble and supremely grateful for the world-renowned faculty, comprehensive curriculum and enriching practicum experiences. I am continually using an anti-oppressive critical lens to empower clients to advocate for themselves as they learn how to access and navigate environmental systems. Furthermore, the Luskin program has bestowed upon me a trailblazing attitude through its myriad of professional opportunities.
populations. Through the financial support of the Title IX CalSWEC Mental Health Stipend and the James and Judy Bergman Family Mental Health Fellowship, I can continue my work in public mental health upon graduation. Luskin has turned my childhood dreams into a reality and I am honored to call myself a proud Bruin. As my mother always says, “The world is your canvas and you decide how to use the paintbrush.”
Proud to Be a UCLA Luskin Bruin By Lance MacNiven, MURP Class of 2016
During my junior year at Loyola Marymount University, I made it my goal to gain acceptance to and attend UCLA Luskin’s Department of Urban Planning. Needless to say, receiving that thick envelope in the mail was a culmination of my studies.
other academic matters. My cohort helped support me on this journey. They were a great group of students to work with in the classroom and a lot of fun outside of the classroom. I look forward to maintaining our network and partnering on projects on the outside.
“ My cohort helped support me on this journey. They were a great group of students to work with in the classroom and a lot of fun outside of the classroom.” The Department of Urban Planning has exceeded my expectations. Professors challenged me with intriguing assignments that helped me develop new skills and knowledge. Staff members — especially Alexis Oberlander and Jennifer Choy — were very supportive and helpful in my pursuit of internships, funding and
When I entered the program, I was a bright-eyed student who was unsure of where I wanted to go with my career. As I exit the program, I am confident that I have the tools to be an effective urban planner. I credit much of my success to the program and the resources that it provided. I am very proud to be a Luskin Bruin. luskin.ucla.edu
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PROFILE
A LIVING LABORATORY IN WATTS
Social Welfare scholar Jorja Leap launches a 10-year project in Watts with the twin goals of providing help for community nonprofits and research opportunities for Luskin students By George Foulsham Above image: Jorja Leap in Watts with Michael “Big Mike” Cummings, executive director of WeCareOutreach and a member of the first leadership cohort for the UCLA Watts Leadership Institute.
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Jorja Leap MSW ’80 has worked in Watts since 1978, when she was a young, visionary social work student at UCLA. Thirty-eight years later, the adjunct professor of Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs is still finding ways to help a community that knows and trusts her. “There is a truism in Watts that members of the community will say over and over again: Watts is different,” Leap said. “Ideas are received in two ways: very positively and with suspicion. Due to the
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credibility I hope I have there as having been part of the community, we usually get a great reception. There is a deep bedrock there.” Leap’s latest project, the UCLA Watts Leadership Institute, will address the needs of what has been called the “nonprofit desert” in Watts. That desert was discovered as part of a 2013 report by the UCLA Luskin Center for Civic Engagement. “There has been the very strong work of a handful of nonprofits — most importantly the 50-year-old Watts Labor
Community Action Committee — but it was still important to build the strengths of indigenous leaders,” Leap said. Thanks to a $200,000 award from the California Wellness Foundation and Julio Marcial, program director for Cal Wellness, Leap has crafted a 10-year initiative to build a comprehensive infrastructure of nonprofits in Watts and use it as a model for other communities to confront nonprofit deserts and build indigenous leadership. “I went to Julio and told him that if we really began working at a granular level, where I would lead a group of coaches, graduate students and people who were involved in the community — to help coach some of these nonprofits who
“It is a tremendous opportunity for community-based research,” Leap said. “Watts has it all: economic marginalization, poverty, the need for a community infrastructure, urban planning issues, policy issues, underperforming schools and the threat of displacement through gentrification. It is a hotbed of potential research and service activity for Luskin. This is to build indigenous leadership in Watts, but a whole lot more — to reinforce and synthesize what the mission of Luskin is and what we are doing in the Los Angeles community.” Leap and her staff are in the process of choosing the first cohort of Luskin students and community leaders who will work on the project over the next several years. Their commitment
Watts has it all: economic marginalization, poverty, the need for a community infrastructure, urban planning issues, policy issues, underperforming schools and the threat of displacement through gentrification. It is a hot bed of potential research and service activity for Luskin. are trying to find their footing and start walking — we could get results,” Leap said. “I see this as a bridge for economic development.” The project will fulfill two vital missions. The first, of course, is helping nonprofits in Watts with support for basic tasks such as identifying sources of funding and creating a board of directors. “Watts has a rich history of community activism and organization,” Leap said. “It is complex, nuanced and effective. But it has been hard to take that strong community activism and harness it into the nonprofit world. In building the social capital of Watts, we hope to help increase their already vibrant social efficacy.” The second will be providing a “living laboratory” for Luskin graduate students. “They are going to be learning while they are teaching,” Leap said. “How do we help these small nonprofits move toward sustainability? Some of them have only one funding source. Our whole idea is how to look at a panorama. And then there’s my little hidden agenda: How is research going to help you do your job better?” As living labs go, Watts might be one of the best out there for Luskin students.
begins this summer. “We are already meeting with them individually,” Leap said. “We’re beginning strengths and needs assessments. We’re hoping next year to offer a class in nonprofit management that will track alongside this. What occurs in the classroom will reverberate in this community.” Leap and colleagues — including her project partner, Luskin alum Karrah Lompa — also are putting together an advisory board, which will include Watts community members as well as colleagues from the Luskin School. “While we will have some outside advisers, the majority of the advisory board is coming from within the community,” she said. “Traditionally, people think of Watts as an African-American community, but the demographics have changed. Not only are the nonprofit leaders we are identifying African-American, we are also identifying emerging Latino leaders in the community.” Ask Leap why she has devoted so much of her life and academic pursuits to South Los Angeles and Watts and she has a quick, simple answer: “I can’t not do it.” She added, “I really do feel a commitment to South Los Angeles in general and Watts in particular. As much as I have worked there and tried to help, it is also a community that has given me an education, an insight and relationships. It is part of the way I can repay my debt.”
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PROFILE
Politics and Public Service
A Q&A With Mark A. Peterson, chair of UCLA Luskin’s Department of Public Policy Can you give us some perspective on how this year’s presidential campaign compares with others in America’s past? We tend to be looking at this election as having a certain kind of outrage about it, a level of anger in the presidential campaign that is certainly taking people by surprise. If we look at American history, though, there have been plenty of campaigns that have been pretty hardnosed and hard-hitting. We can go through American politics and find times that were even more challenging to the democratic process. In 1800, campaigners were dealing with the fact that we had the Alien and Sedition Acts. In 1789 it became a crime to say anything “false” about the government or people in the government. We have not had this kind of campaign in a long time. We haven’t had either party really presenting an outsider anywhere near similar to Donald Trump. We had a businessman running independently, Ross Perot, in 1992, but Perot was running as a quirky independent focusing on the debt. He was a personality, he was a character and had a folksy way about him, but nothing that fits the profile of the narcissism that surrounds Trump. Some would say that the Republican race has altered the paradigm of American politics. Are we indeed at a pivot point or is this just an anomaly because of the specific candidates involved? The concern we have is that there is something in the Trump campaign that is tapping real anxieties — we haven’t come out of the Great Recession with middle-class incomes going up or people feeling secure in their jobs. There is a real fear that people have, and it goes beyond Donald Trump and will persist after him. What I am really worried about, though, is that a segment of his supporters are concerned about how the country is changing in ways that people on this campus would find to be a positive set of changes for the country: growing multiculturalism, a population that brings together a diverse range of backgrounds and interests and makes the world a more enriched experience for many people. These are the kinds
of people who like living in Los Angeles and New York, who like a brew of all different kinds of backgrounds. For others in the country, these developments are not a positive — to them it’s frightening. What they are responding to is a sense that the country they knew, liked and wanted is disappearing. The other part of my concern is the even darker side — that we are seeing more and more evidence that what Trump has been tapping into, for some, is a level of connection to the political and governing process that is fairly simplistic, which sees a great need for change and believes that change can come about in our complex system through the hands of a single authoritarian individual. The irony is a lot of these supporters have forgotten Article I, II and III of the Constitution that establish separate institutions that share power within a checks-andbalances system. What advice do you have to those students who are interested in entering public service? It is a noble calling. I tell the students that their commitment and passion, their goal for a better society — however they define it individually — is needed today more than it has ever been. For all the worries that I have raised, they are the kinds of folks going into the community, working in nonprofits or at the government level, whether in the United States or a foreign country, who are needed. This is a world in which their talents, their expertise, are more important than ever. It is only through applying their analysis that we are able to solve very difficult problems. They also must have an appreciation for how important it is to engage in an open politics that is respectful of others. One of the things I say to them every year is that they are going to go into a world in which there are a whole series of hard things they have to confront, but they are not going to be alone in their passion. They will not be alone in their desire to move policy in different directions. There are going to be a lot of people who not only share a desire for change but who might have the authority to make decisions, and they may not share their views. Part of being a professional and having the kind of impact that would be beneficial for society is to know how to grapple with those conflicts with others.
By Sharon Hong
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A Passion for Serving the Public By Michael Dukakis
Twenty-one years ago, Kitty and I first began coming to UCLA to teach at what at that time was the very new UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research. Putting the new school together was not easy. It required persuading the urban studies and social work programs at UCLA to join with something called “public policy” to create a new graduate school on campus. It took work, a lot of meetings and the strong support of Chancellor Chuck Young, but it happened, and Kitty and I have been coming out here for the winter quarter ever since. It has been a great treat for us, and not just because winters in Southern California are so lovely. To be able to work with some first-rate people on both coasts — I teach at Northeastern University in Boston the rest of the year — and share my thoughts and experience in public service with some wonderful young people, who I hope will be the next generation of public servants in this country, is a rare privilege indeed. I teach both undergraduates and graduate students here at UCLA, so let me tell you a little bit about both groups. My graduate students are a very impressive bunch who come from all over the country and have usually had experience in the public or nonprofit sectors before they start their graduate studies. They are all headed for careers in the public sector, and they are a pleasure to get to know and teach. My goal is to help them develop the skills they need to be excellent public servants. I use the case method extensively with them, and most of them appreciate the chance to get deeply into real-life cases that reflect the challenges hard-working public servants have to resolve every day. My undergraduate students usually have little or no experience in politics or public sector work, but they do have a lot of interest in it. I co-teach some 60 undergraduates with Professor Dan Mitchell in a course called “California Policy Issues.” We work our students hard, but we also make sure that they have a chance to meet some fine leaders in the public and nonprofit sectors. We also pitch them hard on the opportunity to serve in public life. We urge them to take advantage of the UC program that makes it possible for them to do an internship in Washington, which will give them some real-life experience in the nation’s capital. If we strike a spark of interest in public
service careers, we do our best to guide and mentor them along that path. In the course of their work with us, I try to share some of the lessons I have learned over a career that now spans decades. This is what I tell them: First, there is nothing more fulfilling or satisfying in life than being in a position where you can make a difference in the lives of your fellow citizens. A career in public service makes that possible. Second, you need to develop consensus-building skills without which one cannot be effective in public life. I speak from experience. When I first was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, I joined a state government that was one of the three or four most corrupt in the country. My legislative tenure was all about trying to clean up that mess and bring integrity to the Massachusetts State House. Unfortunately, while I was a passionate talker, I wasn’t a very good listener. It wasn’t until I suffered a painful defeat for re-election as governor that I started listening, and it really made a difference. It’s one of the reasons I was a much better governor the second time around. Third, public service is great fun. One meets an extraordinary range of people and interests. One learns every day. One makes lifelong friendships that are very special. Finally, I spend a lot of time talking to my students about the importance of integrity in public life. There is one critically important rule: You accept nothing of value from anybody other than the public agency or institution that pays your salary. It seems to be working. Dan and I have had the great satisfaction of seeing dozens and dozens of our students enter public life professionally at every level of government. Thanks to their training and education here, they are doing great work. Two of them are already members and committee chairs in the California Assembly. For a retired politician, there is nothing better. I hope I will be able to do that for a long time to come. Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic nominee for president and the former governor of Massachusetts, is a visiting professor in the UCLA Luskin Department of Public Policy.
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IN SUPPORT
Remembering The Generosity Of Paul Terasaki
Paul Ichiro Terasaki, who spent three years with his family in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II before becoming a three-time UCLA graduate, a pioneer in organ transplant medicine and a longtime supporter of the campus, died January 25. He was 86. Terasaki, professor emeritus of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, developed the test that became the international standard method for tissue typing. The procedure, which assesses the compatibility of organ donors and recipients, has been used for all kidney, heart, liver, pancreas, lung and bone marrow donors and recipients for the past 40 years.
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Thanks to the generosity of Paul Terasaki and the Terasaki Family Foundation, in recent years several groups of UCLA Luskin students traveled to Japan during spring break for study trips. They met with policymakers and other officials and learned about issues in public policy, social welfare and urban planning in Japan. The excursions introduced UCLA Luskin students to “the real Japan� and allowed them to have insight into practical policymaking. As a result of the trips, lasting professional partnerships were created and a robust cohort of Japanese nationals is currently pursuing professional degrees from UCLA Luskin.
A Gift From The Pollak Family
A Social Welfare Connection
June and George Pollak recently made a generous gift of real estate to support faculty research at UCLA Luskin. “Since we don’t have children, our legacy is to support higher education,” June said. “We previously have made gifts of property to our other alma maters, so now we are happy to donate our home to UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in recognition of the Master of Public Administration degree George received from UCLA back in 1951.” After receiving his MPA from UCLA, George had a career with the U.S. Navy R&D Administration in Southern California, in the underwater warfare area. June is a former professor of English who taught at Cal State Fullerton. When the Pollaks recently downsized from the Orange County home in which they had lived for nearly 40 years, they worked with UCLA to establish a Charitable Remainder Unitrust, a gift planning arrangement that provides them with an immediate charitable income tax deduction and an annual income stream for their lifetimes. They also have the satisfaction of knowing that UCLA Luskin ultimately will receive support for faculty research.
Helen Reid, a Social Welfare alumna from 1961, met late last year with Tammi Chaparro, a Social Welfare student graduating this year. Helen generously provided fellowship support because she wanted to help current SW students. What a treat to see two SW professionals, 55 years apart, get together! If you’re a Social Welfare alum interested in supporting the work of current SW students, please let us know. We are eager to help you make that happen. And thanks to Helen Reid for her generosity.
For information on the UCLA Legacy Society, please visit www.legacy.ucla.edu.
For more information contact Kate O’Neal at koneal@luskin.ucla.edu.
UCLA LUSKIN BOARD OF ADVISORS, including new members of the board, gathered earlier this year to discuss strategies for supporting the School. First Row: Maureen Stockton, Joanne Kozberg, Marcia Choo, David Fisher, Susan Rice, Meyer Luskin, Michael Dukakis, Jill Black Zalben, Annette Shapiro Second Row: Keenan Behrle, Michael Fleming, Kevin Sagara, Michael Mahdesian, Leonard Unger, Daniel Maldonado, Charles Gatchell MPP ’05
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ALUMNI NOTES
UCLA LUSKIN ALUMNI REGIONAL RECEPTIONS UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs partners with regional hosts to invite alumni, donors, and friends to join us in cities across the U.S. Our regional receptions provide a place for alumni from all three departments to connect and learn about the latest UCLA Luskin initiatives and programs. Follow us on social media to learn when we will be in a city near you. Images, clockwise from top left: Regional host, Eric Shaw BA ’98 & Ian Elder MURP ’12 — Washington, DC Regional Reception Kathy Dixon MA UP ’93, Amy Vetal MURP ’12, Diana Benitez MURP ’16 — Washington, DC Regional Reception Karen Ward MSW ’14 & Deseree Bohanan MSW ’10 — Bay Area Regional Reception Nelson Esparza MPP ’15 — Los Angeles Regional Reception
JOSEPH A. NUNN SOCIAL WELFARE ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR AWARD Marvin J. Southard DSW ’83 was honored with the Joseph A. Nunn Alumnus of the Year Award at the annual UCLA Luskin Social Welfare Alumni Gathering on May 14. More than 100 alumni, faculty and friends attended, many from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH), where Dr. Southard served as director for 17 years. When Dr. Southard retired from LACDMH in 2015, the budget had grown to $1 billion, the agency served more than 200,000 consumers annually, and LACDMH was the largest public mental health agency in the country. The breadth of Dr. Southard’s impact throughout L.A. County and California has been tremendous, as evidenced by his participation and chairing of efforts including Children, and Families First–First 5 L.A., Southern California Mental Health Directors Association, Kern County Network for Children and California Social Work Education Consortium. He also is a past president of the California Mental Health Directors Association. Dr. Southard is committed to social work education and always finds time to mentor students, providing personal supervision and guidance. Many of his interns have stayed at LACDMH as administrators, where they continue to benefit from his leadership and mentorship. One of those interns is
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Marvin J. Southard (left) and Joseph A. Nunn (right)
Luis Quintanilla MSW ’12, who now works in countywide resource management for LACDMH. “Dr. Southard taught me the ability to use that social work instinct or gut gained from years of experience to make balanced decisions and effectively lead. He’s a giant of a person, but it’s his spirit that is inspiring.”
ALUMNI ACCOLADES Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed MPP ’07 was honored by the White House as a Champion of Change for Asian American and Pacific Islander Art & Storytelling. Dr. Debra Duardo MSW ’96 has been named superintendent for the Los Angeles County Office of Education and was the consensus pick of the county Board of Supervisors. S. Jolene Hui MSW ’11 was named director of membership for the National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter. Samuel Lau MA UP ’94 was appointed by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as the managing director for its Hong Kong Disneyland Resort theme park. Kirsten McLaughlin MPP ’05 has been promoted by Cox Communications to market vice president for Santa Barbara. Erica Shehane MSW/MPH ’08 was promoted to director of research & evaluation at Special Service for Groups (SSG) based in Los Angeles. Andy Sywak MPP ’09 became the City of Manhattan Beach’s first economic vitality manager. Richard Willson Ph.D. ’91 received the Provost Award for Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities at Cal Poly Pomona. UCLA ITS advisory board member Allison Yoh UP Ph.D. ’08 MA UP ’02 took the helm at the Port of Long Beach as director of transportation planning.
WOMEN MAKING MOVES: GENDER & THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF TRANSPORTATION By Herbie Huff MURP ’11 In March, Women’s History Month, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies convened Women Making Moves: Gender and the Changing Landscape of Transportation to celebrate the rise of strong women in the transportation field in Los Angeles, and to elevate the voices of three rising leaders: Lisa Schweitzer UP Ph.D. ’04, assistant professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy; Tamika Butler, executive director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition; and Chanda Singh MA UP ’10, policy analyst at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. CicLAvia and the L.A. Cleantech Incubator co-sponsored the event. Herbie Huff MURP ’11, research associate at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, began the evening by listing some of the many noted female alumni of UCLA’s transportation degree programs. Among them are the current chair of Urban Planning at UCLA Luskin, Evelyn Blumenberg UP Ph.D. ’95 MA UP ’90; the director of transportation planning at the Port of Long Beach, Allison Yoh UP Ph.D. ’08 MA UP ’02; and the editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, Sandra Rosenbloom MPA ’67. “Transportation planning is a male-dominated field, but it doesn’t feel like that at UCLA,” Huff said. Martin Wachs, distinguished professor emeritus of Urban Planning, moderated the panel. He brought to it a history hearkening all the way back to the adventures of women travelers such as Alice Huyler Ramsey, who became a sensation when she drove across the country in 1909. Since then, Wachs noted, women have been banned from NASCAR for winning too many races and we created a stereotype of women as bad drivers. He asked: “A woman is the director of Los Angeles’ Department of Transportation; women are on the board of L.A. Metro; a former U.S. secretary of transportation and several California secretaries of business and transportation were women. Women are heads of airlines and railroads. Are women fully at home in transportation leadership roles or are there still battles for recognition and inclusion that need to be fought?” Schweitzer, Butler and Singh are, it seems, at home in their leadership roles and still fighting a battle for recognition and inclusion. The three spoke to an at-capacity room filled largely with transportation planning and policy professionals. The conversation was a frank and personal one. At the same time, it was always connected to the relevant contemporary policy issues in which these women are engaged as professionals: complete streets, equitable access and mobility, and the changing nature of transportation in the Los Angeles region. Members of the audience asked questions about navigating the field and the workplace, and many hands remained raised when it was time to end the panel. The conversation continued long into a lively reception, with a soundtrack courtesy of Michelle Obama’s Girl-Power Spotify Playlist.
MPP ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR The UCLA Luskin Department of Public Policy will honor Charles “Chuck” Gatchell MPP ’05 on Oct. 4 as its alumnus of the year. Gatchell, based in Portland, Oregon, is Vice President of Run Natural at Nike, where he leads the design, development and product marketing functions for one of Nike’s largest businesses. With a passion for “thinking big, game-changing innovation, enabling and unleashing creativity, sustainability, purposedriven organizations and human potential,”
Gatchell embodies the kind of leader, we are proud to have as part of the UCLA Luskin family. He received his B.S. in Management from UC Berkeley where he also ran crosscountry and track, and then earned an M.S. degree in accounting at the University of Virginia before receiving his Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Gatchell is the first MPP alumnus to join and serve on the UCLA Luskin Board of Advisors.
Chuck Gatchell with his children and wife, Melissa, who received her masters and doctorate in Public Health at UCLA.
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LASTING IMAGE
A POWERFUL STATEMENT Bernard Brown, a UCLA dance student, performed during the inauguration of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy, held in February at various campus locations and the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles. Brown’s dance at the museum was one of several dramatic presentations that highlighted the mission of the new institute. For more on the inauguration and the institute, please turn to pages 12 and 13.
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Andy Yan MA UP ’01, Nat Lowe MURP ’12, Sarah Tseng MURP ’11
Aravind Moorthy MPP ’06, Erin Murphy Colligan MPP ’07
Chancellor Merkel, President Obama, Stephen Cheung MSW ’07
Sumiyah Mshaka MSW ’04, Joseph A. Nunn SW PhD ’90 MSW ’70
Kate Mayerson MURP ’12
Celeste Drake MPP/JD ’02, Robert Reich, Theron Jones MPP ’00
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Victor Santiago Pineda UP PhD ’10
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UCLA LUSKIN DEAN’S ASSOCIATES ARE OUR CLOSEST FRIENDS, SUPPORTING STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS, PROGRAMS AND OTHER CRITICAL NEEDS THROUGH LEADERSHIP GIVING OF $2,500 OR MORE ANNUALLY. Dedicated, engaged and committed, Dean’s Associates deepen their connection to our school through unique events such as Dean’s Associates Salons. Hosted by our generous supporters, recent topics include: >> “A
Tale of Two Cities: Why Los Angeles Lost its Economic Mojo,” an intimate conversation with Professor Michael Storper;
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Professor Gets Schooled by the Gangs of L.A.: Public Safety, Gangs and Violence” featuring adjunct professor Jorja Leap MSW ’80.
Together, we help change the world, one person, one project, one place at a time.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Kate O’Neal, Assistant Dean, External Relations, at koneal@luskin.ucla.edu | 310-206-5773