Emabark Magazine Spring 2018

Spring 2018

UCI School of Social Ecology Magazine

Celebrating

25 Years as a School

Exploring the future of: > Social justice > Water management > Mental and emotional health

To embark is a uniquely Californian thing to do, and Social Ecology represents what is uniquely Californian. This state and this school are where people reinvent themselves, where pioneers redefine what is possible, where the ocean’s horizon is always in sight.

Nancy Guerra, Dean of the School of Social Ecology

Spring 2018

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Spring 2018

INSIDE

UCI School of Social Ecology Magazine

Embark Vol. 1, No. 1 Produced by the University of California, Irvine School of Social Ecology Dean of School of Social Ecology Nancy Guerra Associate Dean for Academic Programs Wendy Goldberg

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A Storied History

16 The Long Road Toward Justice

Associate Dean for Research and International Programs Richard Matthew Assistant Dean Greg Reinhard Director of Communications Patricia DeVoe Managing Editor and Writer Aaron Orlowski Design Rene Gauthier-Butterfield

20 Interdisciplinary Water Challenges

3 Dean’s Message 4 Q&A 6 Trending 8 By the Numbers 9 Field Study

10 Around the World

24 Health Through the Lifespan

28 29 30 32

At Work Community Connection Alumni Spotlight Inspired Giving

Contact Have a comment or suggestion?

(949) 824-6094 secomm@uci.edu Embark magazine is a publication for Social Ecology alumni, students and parents, along with community members and anyone interested in science driving solutions to the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.

Embark magazine is printed with soy based biorenewable inks on a recycled paper stock certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Please Recycle.

Printed by Modern Litho and Brown Printing. Modern Litho and Brown Printing are Ameren UE’s Pure Power Partners, supporting the generation of 132,000 kWh of wind power through their commitment to Pure Power and new green power sources. new ab

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Reg#Cent94

Dean’s Message

Embark

verb \ em·bark \ im-bärk \ 1. to set off, to begin 2. to start a journey (often aboard a boat or airplane) 3. to launch into the unknown 4. to forge new paths

As explorers have for millennia, we look to the horizon.

Our school is defined by the searching, the departing, the setting off. Twenty-five years ago, we became the School of Social Ecology, the first school of its kind in the UC system, focused on addressing important social and environmental challenges through interdisciplinary, engaged scholarship. Since then, our faculty members and alumni have played key roles in creating new departments and research programs at UCI in diverse areas including public health, environmental health policy and sustainability. We have been an incubator of innovative research and degree programs. We have fused and re-formed old ideas into original ones, and created novel ideas from nothing. And now, with our eyes on 2042, we are embarking on a bold new journey.

This inaugural issue of Embark magazine marks our 25th anniversary, and the start of that new venture for the next 25 years. In the last quarter century, our school has achieved great things, and we’ve worked hard to identify and address the most pressing problems facing humanity. The next 25 years will be defined by the solutions we generate. Already, our first-rate and widely recognized faculty are solving complex, multifaceted problems across areas such as social justice, water and human health and wellness, as you’ll read more about in this issue.

Stand barefoot on the pebbly bluff in Dana Point or the timbered pier in Huntington Beach or the tumbling sand at Crystal Cove and look across the azul sea and you will see: the world looks to California to see the future. To embark is a uniquely Californian thing to do, and Social Ecology represents what is uniquely Californian. This state and this school are where people reinvent themselves, where pioneers redefine what is possible, where the ocean’s horizon is always in sight.

We hope this magazine captures our spirit of possibility, and that this spirit of possibility captures you.

Join us in discovering new ways of seeing and new ways of solving society’s problems to create a brighter future. Let’s embark together.

Nancy Guerra, Dean UCI School of Social Ecology Spring 2018

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Q&A

Dan Stokols, Founding Dean of the School of Social Ecology

Interdisciplinary

adjective \ in·ter·dis·ci·plin·ary \ in-tәr-’di-sə-plə-ner-ē 1. relating to more than one academic field 2. involving data, methods, concepts or theories from multiple disciplines

Lives in: Irvine, Calif.

Favorite spot on campus: “Merage Plaza because it draws a mix of faculty and students from all of Social Ecology’s departments and colleagues from other schools to meet and socialize.”

Book recommendation: “Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life” by E.O. Wilson

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Q: You joined this fledgling interdisciplinary Social

Stokols: The University of California’s Irvine campus was

Ecology program at UCI in 1973, while completing

only eight years old and I had to look up Irvine on a California

your Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of

map to see where it was located. The idea of “social

North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Did that seem like a

ecology” was unknown. My faculty advisors expressed

risky decision at the time?

their concerns that I might be making a major career

Embark

mistake by opting to join a new untested campus, not to

Q: Over the years, the program and school grew

mention a fledgling, oddly-named academic program.

tremendously and developed three departments.

What major changes did the school undergo in the

Q: In those early years, Social Ecology at UCI was

years after it was formally established?

defined by a group of mostly young scholars mentored

Stokols: From 1970 to 1996, all Social Ecology faculty were

by a small number of senior faculty. What was the

located in the same building — first on the sixth and seventh

energy of that group like?

floors of the Engineering Tower, then on the fourth floor of

Stokols: There was a lot of cross-disciplinary dialogue and

the original Information and Computer Sciences building. It

debate among faculty members trained in many different

wasn’t until 1984 that the Social Ecology I building opened,

fields, and an electric, innovative atmosphere. We had the

and only in 1996 did departments move into separate

sense that we were building something novel in academia:

buildings. Today each of our departments occupies a differ-

a degree-granting unit that trained students to analyze

ent building. Academically, the original program functioned

scientific and societal problems from a broad interdisciplin-

as one committee, but growth led to more decentralization.

ary and ecological perspective. At the same time, we were

And while there are still some school-wide required courses

building the conceptual and methodological foundations

for our students, there are fewer of them to make room for

for the new field of social ecology.

department-based classes.

Q: Did this interdisciplinary, policy-oriented research —

Q: What were some of the early questions that faculty

and commitment to solving social and environmental

in the School of Social Ecology were trying to answer?

problems — go against the grain of academia at the

Stokols: Faculty and students have always tackled a wide

time?

range of problems. During the 1970s and 1980s, Social Ecology

Stokols: It did. In the 1970s, academia most valued

research teams investigated the human development and health

discipline-based scholarship focusing on scientific

impacts of adolescents’ engagement in part-time work after

discovery rather than solving societal problems. Social

school, older adults’ social networks and loneliness, the roots of

Ecology’s emphasis on training students to analyze research

gang violence and white collar crime, the planning and design of

problems from the perspective of multiple disciplines and

healthy cities and behavioral impacts of environmental stressors

translate their findings into practical problem-solving strate-

such as aircraft noise, traffic congestion and residential density.

gies was quite different. Nowadays, academia seems to have

And that’s just a tiny sampling.

caught up, and there’s a trend toward interdisciplinary and practice-oriented research.

Q: In many ways, the school’s bold approach to research, teaching and problem solving has been

Q: Social Ecology officially became a school in 1992.

vindicated: ecological concepts, interdisciplinary

What kind of hurdles did the Social Ecology Program

approaches and translational research are all touted

have to overcome to do so?

by many universities today. What do you think is next

Stokols: Social Ecology wasn’t included in UCI’s original

for Social Ecology?

academic plan, and we faced long odds to become the first

Stokols: Today most universities around the world embrace

non-traditional program at UCI to organize as a school. The

transdisciplinary, team-based, translational, and transcultural

University of California’s review process for new academic

approaches to research and community problem-solving.

units involves multiple committee meetings and votes, site

Social Ecology’s challenge for the next 25 years is to expand

visits and external reviews, numerous faculty recruitments,

its leadership role by confronting emerging environmental and

ongoing curriculum development and space planning. Our

social problems — for instance, worldwide poverty and social

school proposal and several new degree proposals were

inequality, homelessness, cyber crimes, sustainability threats

reviewed by multiple Academic Senate committees, both on

from global climate change and pollution, and creating healthy

the Irvine Campus and at the systemwide level, along with

communities and “smart” cities.

the UCI Administration, the UC President’s Office, and the UC Regents. The process took three years — at a time when the UC system faced substantial budgetary challenges.

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Trending

Metropolitan Futures Initiative Unlocks Southern California Socio-Economic, Crime Trends with Big Data

How easily can you get from your house to a restaurant or park? In what neighborhoods is crime concentrated?

From what cities are businesses fleeing and to where are they relocating? Where are jobs located, and where are neighborhoods mixed, with people of diverse income, race and age, and with different types of housing and land use?

When properly analyzed, big data can cut through the false assumptions and answer those questions with a level of fine-grained detail and clarity not possible otherwise.

accessibility for residents to those businesses.

It’s a little more accurate to measure the linear distance,

The Metropolitan Futures Initiative at the School of Social

as the bird flies, between a house and all the nearby

Ecology does exactly that, processing huge amounts of data

amenities. But even that doesn’t account for how the street

related to crime, demographic and socio-economic trends in

network actually allows a person to get to those places.

Southern California.

“These insights are valuable for urban planners and others

It’s another thing entirely to map the distance from a particular home to all the amenities in a one-mile radius on

seeking to make cities more livable and equitable,” says John

the street network, and then to do the same thing for all the

Hipp, director of MFI and a professor of both criminology, law

homes in a neighborhood to come up with an average for

and society and urban planning and public policy.

the neighborhood, and then to do the same thing for all the

Uncovering those insights demands detailed analysis and close examination. Take urban accessibility. It’s one thing

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generalize that a higher concentration indicates greater

neighborhoods in the region.

MFI, using cutting edge data analysis methods, took the

to count the number of restaurants, gas stations, parks and

third approach in a recent project looking at urban accessi-

other amenities in a given residential zip code and then

bility in Southern California.

Embark

“These calculations are very computation-

Take, for instance, non-Hispanic white people in the lowest income bracket.

ally intensive. We were basically mapping the

Hipp and his team determined the percentage of people with a bachelor’s

distance between all of Southern California’s

degree in the neighborhood of each non-Hispanic white resident in the lowest

5 million homes and all of the amenities within

income bracket. By then computing the average of all those percentages, they

a mile,” Hipp says. “We were calculating

showed the educational level of a typical neighborhood of a non-Hispanic white

those distances hundreds of millions of times,

person in the lowest income category.

and then plotting that geographically on top

Hipp and his team applied the same method to crime, income, employment

of a map. It’s a sharper picture than other

levels, population density and housing type. They did the same calculations

methods.”

for all income levels and racial and ethnic groups in Southern California —

MFI needs mountains of data to make these

millions of calculations. The end result allowed them to see where neighbor-

calculations. It relies on public tax assessor

hoods were racially mixed, where educated people cluster and where violent

data, commercial databases of business

crime is concentrated.

locations, and crime databases assembled by

“These data give policymakers, social justice advocates and planners a

UCI’s Irvine Laboratory for the Study of Space

rich tool to really see what neighborhoods look like, and how policies can be

and Crime, among other data sources.

effectively leveraged to improve people’s lives,” Hipp says.

For another study, the MFI team sought to find out whether business relocations are actually common, and how far businesses typically move. Using a commercial data source for the years 1997 to 2014, the team located each business in Southern California in a particular year, then determined whether, in the following year, the business was in the same location, shut down or in a different location. They did the same for each year.

Focusing on the businesses that had moved, the team assessed the range of distances of moves, the neighborhood characteristics of the old and new locations, and whether these patterns differed from industry to industry.

“We were able to cut through the generalizations about business relocations, and we found that businesses almost always relocate

Source: MFI report “What makes housing accessible to everyday destinations in Southern California?”

(April 2017)

within the same city, or to adjacent cities,” Hipp says. “This insight is really valuable for economic development agencies and city officials trying to boost growth.”

In a different MFI study examining the relationship between race and income in Southern California, Hipp and his team analyzed demographic and income data in a novel way to pinpoint the average neighborhood composition for individuals in a particular racial or ethnic group and in a particular income category.

The analysis allowed MFI to see neighborhoods from the vantage point of people across the racial and income spectrums.

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By the Numbers

School of Social Ecology — At a Glance

215

Undergraduate Students

Graduate Students

Field Study Community Partners

57

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$ 3.99 Million 20

Research Expenditures

77

Research Centers and Institutes

407

Staff

2,598

Faculty

24,123

Alumni

2017-2018

Academic Rankings The School is comprised of three interdisciplinary departments: Criminology, Law and Society; Psychology and Social Behavior; Urban Planning and Public Policy.

#2

Bachelor's Degree in Criminology, Law and Society USA Today

Master of Advanced Study in Criminology, Law and Society US News and World Report

#3

#3

Ph.D. Program in Criminology, Law and Society US News and World Report

Ph.D. Program in Psychology and Social Behavior US News and World Report

#19

AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

#24 8

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Master of Urban and Regional Planning Planetizen

Field Study Teaching Kids to Change Lives Team Kids, an Orange County nonprofit organization

donation drives. Kids in upper grades can join the Team

and Field Study partner, empowers children to make a

Kids leadership team to plan a youth-led, low-to-no cost

difference in the world through service learning programs.

fundraising carnival for the entire school.

The kids work alongside firefighters, police and volunteers

Ten years ago, Team Kids became a Field Study partner,

to put on programs and raise money for charity — and

and every quarter the group takes on six students, who

grow into community leaders in the process.

assist with delivering the program at schools. They take

The flagship program is the five-week Team Kids

photos of kick-off assemblies, leadership meetings and

Challenge, which since its inception has mobilized

carnivals, and create program fliers and presentation

more than 150,000 students at more than 35 elementary

materials.

schools throughout Southern California, Arlington, Va.

“Social Ecology students gain direct experience working

and New York. The kids participate in a kickoff assembly,

in the nonprofit sector, and learn how to lead large groups

where they learn about issues such as hunger, homeless-

of elementary age students,” says Julie Hudash, the

ness and literacy. They then raise money and resources for

founder and CEO of Team Kids. “The students bring a fresh

charities such as the American Red Cross, Make-A-Wish

perspective that helps us improve our programs, and they

and the OC Rescue Mission, by participating in weeklong

serve as role models for kids.”

What is Field Study?

>

> >

Every Social Ecology undergraduate student — more than 900 per year — participates in Field Study, doing 100 hours of service at one of more than 215 local partners.

Field Study has been a requirement since 1970, when the Social Ecology program was first founded.

Partners include local nonprofits, city governments, other municipal agencies and several businesses.

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Around the World

Global Service Scholars Cultivate Compassion and Serve Others

Students today yearn for full, meaningful lives of service, and a way to make the world a better place.

They know intuitively what the science is making increas-

the science and practice of compassion. They then enroll

ingly clear: well-rounded, emotionally generous people lead

in an advanced seminar where they develop strategies to

happier lives and have a resilience that enables them to

translate empathy and compassion into an action plan for

keep going in the face of obstacles.

community service. During the summer, they travel to a

The UCI School of Social Ecology, along with the UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation and the Living Peace

their peers.

Foundation, is offering that whole-person education with

“The emerging science of compassion is underscoring

the Global Service Scholars Program, launched in 2017.

how built into our bodies, brains and behavior compassion

The program teaches empathy and compassion to students

really is. You might even say that compassion is a defining

from diverse backgrounds — including minority and first

feature of what it means to be human,” says Paul Piff, an

generation college students — through a combination of

assistant professor of psychology and social behavior, who

classwork and an international service learning program.

is teaching the compassion course in 2019. “Compassion

Students begin the one-year program with a course on

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field site to complete a 4-week service learning project with

Embark

ties communities together.”

“I have a hunger that I think will never die to understand people no matter where they are from.”

“I learned a lot about what it means to be compassionate and that even small, kind actions can make a big difference.”

Centeera Plummer, 2017 Global Service Scholar in Ghana

Asal Yunusova, 2017 Global Service Scholar in Thailand

“What I know for sure is that I want to help the world become a better place.”

Valerie Nguyen, 2017 Global Service Scholar in Peru

In 2017, 23 students went to Peru, Thailand and Ghana,

leaders, and their experience serving in developing coun-

serving in diverse settings including a women’s prison, an

tries gives them valuable personal and career advantages,

orphanage, an elephant sanctuary, schools and hospitals. In

especially if they pursue opportunities in the nonprofit and

2018, the program is expanding to include UC Santa Barbara

international development fields. But students in any career

— a total of 32 students from UCI and UCSB are traveling to

track benefit: they can and do seek to bring compassion into

Cambodia, Nepal and Paraguay.

everything they do.

The eventual aim is to offer the program at all of the UC

“Compassion is a skill that can be taught and cultivated,”

campuses in affiliation with their Blum Centers, and to launch

says Dean Nancy Guerra. “We’re preparing students to make

UC-sponsored field sites around the globe. This year, the

a real difference in the world, and we’re helping them to lead

program is developing a permanent field site in Paraguay, in

better, more fulfilling lives.”

partnership with the social enterprise organization Fundación Paraguaya.

Resilience and compassion allow students to grow as

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A Storied History The program in Social Ecology started in 1970, just five years after UCI was founded as an interdisciplinary campus in the UC system. In 1992, the innovative program was reorganized as a school — the first in the world. Many people have contributed to the school’s growth and success. This timeline is a snapshot highlighting those last 25 years as a school.

1970 The Program in Social Ecology is founded. Arnold Binder serves as the first Program Director and Carol Whalen is hired as faculty.

1989 Drew, Chance and Erin Warmington Chair in the Social Ecology of Peace and International Cooperation is established by The Robert Warmington Family Foundation. Helen Ingram is appointed as the first chair in 1995.

1992 Social Ecology is formally designated as a school by the UC Regents. Three departments and B.A. majors are established: Criminology, Law and Society; Environmental Analysis and Design; and Psychology and Social Behavior.

1970–1996

1996 Social Ecology II building opens.

1970s

1970 The Field Study Program, a unique experiential learning requirement for undergraduate students, is established.

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1980s

1984 Social Ecology I building opens, the first building completely dedicated to Social Ecology activities.

1990s

1992 Daniel Stokols is appointed the founding Dean of the School of Social Ecology.

Social Ecology ran counter to academia’s tendency to silo off into distinct disciplines, and instead bridged disparate lines of thought, viewing social and environmental and environmental problems holistically and systemically. That unique approach has carried forward as the School has grown in the last 25 years.

2004 Distinguished Professor Elizabeth F. Loftus is elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

1997 The Roger W. and Janice M. Johnson Chair in Civic Governance is established. Mark Baldassare serves as first chair.

2005 The Center for Psychology and Law is established. Elizabeth F. Loftus serves as the founding director.

1997–2009

2001 Martha and James Newkirk’s generous endowment establishes the Newkirk Center for Science and Society.

2004 The Center for Law, Society and Culture is established.

Susan Bibler Coutin serves as founding director.

1990s

2000s

2005 The Center for Evidence-Based Corrections Corrections is established.

Susan Turner and Joan Petersilia serve as the founding co-directors.

2004 The online Master of Advanced Study in Criminology, Law and Society is established.

Henry Pontell serves as the founding director.

1999 C. Ronald Huff is appointed the second Dean of the School of Social Ecology.

2004 The master’s program in the Department of Planning, Policy, and Design breaks into the national rankings at #5 in planning by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.

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2010 Valerie Jenness is appointed as Dean of the School of Social Ecology.

2011 The Master of Public Policy program is established.

George Tita serves as the first director.

2014 Richard Matthew is appointed director of the UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation.

2015 The online master’s program in Legal and Forensic Psychology is established.

2010–2015

2014 The undergraduate major in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society is ranked #1 nationwide by USA Today.

2010s

2010 The School celebrates the new Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway building.

2014 The Post-Baccalaureate Program in Psychology and Social Behavior is established, under the direction of Joanne Zinger.

2014 Water UCI is established. David Feldman serves as the center’s founding director.

2011 The Fudge Family Foundation establishes the Fudge Scholars.

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2016 The School of Social Ecology welcomes 10 new faculty members, one of largest faculty cohorts for the School.

2018 The Ph.D. program in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society is ranked #3 nationwide by U.S. News and World Report.

2016 Nancy Guerra is appointed the Dean of the School of Social Ecology.

2017 The graduate program in Psychology and Social Behavior is named the No. 19 graduate psychology program among public universities in the country by U.S. News and World Report.

2015–2018

2016 The National Registry of Exonerations, an internationally recognized research, education and policy project, moves its primary institutional home to the UCI Newkirk Center for Science and Society.

2010s

2015 Online Master of Advanced Study in Criminology, Law and Society is ranked #1 nationwide

by U.S. News and World Report.

2016 Richard Matthew, Professor of Planning, Policy and Design, is appointed as the School’s first Associate Dean for International Programs.

2016 The Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research moves to UCI, under the direction of Douglas A. Granger.

2017 The Global Service Scholars program, a collaboration between the School of Social Ecology, UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation and the Living Peace Foundation, is launched.

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Treading the

Long Road Toward Justice Social Ecology professors shine a spotlight on ineffective policies and misapplications of the law.

The pursuit of justice is winding, difficult and, in many cases, anything but just. Misinformation about crime trends drives bad policy, fines and fees subjugate poor people, trials turn on false evidence and prisoners suffer under inhumane conditions.

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Professors in the School of Social Ecology are studying every step in the ladder toward justice, and their research promises to make the criminal justice system more fair for all. Problems arise from the very beginning: when policies are first made, often with little regard for science.

Anti-immigrant policies, which have abounded recently, are driven by an

Justice noun \ jus¡tice \ jə-stəs \ 1. the administration of the law 2. the quality of being impartial, fair, equitable or morally righteous

assumption that immigrants commit more crime than native-born people.

That assumption is false, according to research by Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology, law and society.

In a meta-analysis of 51 studies that examined the relationship between immigration and crime, Kubrin found that immigration does not raise crime in communities, and is actually 2.5 times more likely to be associated with lower crime levels than higher ones.

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Sykes says. “Poor people who are unable to pay routinely owe hundreds or thousands of dollars for relatively minor offenses with low base fines.”

Sykes is currently interviewing court personnel such as judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, clerks and probation officers to assess how they understand the system of monetary sanctions in California.

Other, more serious crimes result in arrest, which can cause severe mental health effects, according to research

by Naomi Sugie, an assistant professor of criminology, law and society. Every year, 12.2 million people are arrested, only a fraction of whom — 2.2 million people — are incarcerated. But even for those who are sent to prison, the arrest experience accounts for more than half the mental “We need to base policy on the best available information,” Kubrin says. “Sometimes, the evidence hasn’t been

health impact associated with prison.

“The stigma, powerlessness and alienation that come

collected or analyzed in time for policymakers to act. But

with being arrested, not to mention the time-consuming

much of the time the evidence is there, it just has to be

bureaucratic process and uncertainty about the future, take

heeded.”

a severe mental toll,” Sugie says.

For years after Proposition 47 was implemented in 2014, it was blamed for upticks in crime in California, despite no rigorous analysis linking the two. Many people assumed that since the measure lowered prison populations — by reclassifying certain drug and petty theft crimes from felonies to misdemeanors — it must have caused a rise in crime.

That’s not correct, according to another study by Kubrin that compared California crime levels post-Prop 47 to the crime levels of a synthetic control group.

“We seem to be going backwards, at least at the national level,” Lynch says. “At the state level, we’re still seeing a lot of bipartisan cooperation on a more humane, more fair and less costly criminal justice system.”

For most people, the first contact they have with the criminal justice system is facing a speeding ticket or paying for a parking violation.

A dense web of fines and fees, called monetary sanctions, can end up entrapping the poor in the criminal justice system, according to research by Bryan Sykes, an assistant professor of criminology, law and society, who is on a multi-university team examining monetary sanctions in eight states, including California.

Collection fees, court-ordered treatment programs, court

Trials themselves are subject to misapplications of justice. Testimony from eyewitnesses can be inaccurate, as Elizabeth Loftus, a distinguished professor of social ecology, has demonstrated.

Loftus first started doing experiments in the 1970s showing how easy it is to plant false memories in individuals’ minds. In the 1990s, many plaintiffs started bringing to court claims of abuse or other traumas — based on repressed memories from childhood. Loftus quickly grew

and conviction fees, penalty assessments, restitution fines,

famous in her field for giving expert testimony based on

probation costs and interest can all cause the base fine to

her research that memories could be planted in people, not

soar beyond legislated values for an offense.

only in young children, but also adults, through suggestive

“Many Californians are forced to make difficult tradeoffs between paying their monetary sanctions or buying groceries, paying rent and purchasing other necessities,”

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questioning and other techniques.

“The criminal justice system relies so heavily on eyewitness testimony,” Loftus says. “The growing realization

that eyewitnesses aren’t always reliable really shook the

tors deny nearly all grievance requests filed by prisoners,

system.”

leading to a deep sense that the system is problematic as a

Sometimes, new evidence emerges years after conviction.

Since 1989, nearly 2,200 people have been exonerated,

venue for redress.

Prisoners file grievances for an array of reasons, and

according to the National Registry of Exonerations, a project

sometimes in life-or-death circumstances, such as when

hosted by the School of Social Ecology that documents

temperature soars in the cell blocks and medical treatment

cases of people who were wrongly convicted of a crime

is delayed. Other times, they’re appealing allegations of

and then cleared based on new evidence. The registry was

misconduct that result in delays in prison release dates,

founded in 2012 and moved to the School in 2017.

effectively prolonging the time they spend behind bars.

In the last decade, criminal justice reforms have spread

One of the most severe punishments that prisoners are

around the country, with punishments growing less severe

subjected to is solitary confinement. After a series of violent

and incarceration declining in many states. In the last year,

events in prisons across the United States, including the 1971

however, there have been signs that the Department of

Attica prison revolts in New York State that left 43 inmates and

Justice is reverting to seeking the harsh punishments of the

guards dead, prison officials started building maximum secu-

1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

rity facilities and locking inmates they perceived as dangerous

In particular, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made it a policy priority to seek stiffer punishments for drug crimes,

in solitary cells, sometimes for years at a time.

Keramet Reiter has documented the rise of long-term

according to Mona Lynch, a professor of criminology, law

solitary confinement and its effect on the human psyche,

and society who has studied federal drug crime laws.

especially the conditions at the maximum security Pelican

“We seem to be going backwards, at least at the national level,” Lynch says. “At the state level, we’re still seeing a lot

Bay State Penitentiary in Northern California.

“Modern solitary confinement is better than the squalid

of bipartisan cooperation on a more humane, more fair and

and unsanitary dungeons of centuries past, but it’s still a

less costly criminal justice system.”

cruel punishment,” Reiter says. “Prisoners can be locked

Reformers have also focused on unfair and sometimes harsh and inhumane conditions in prisons. Research by Valerie Jenness, a professor of criminology, law and society, and Kitty Calavita, a Chancellor’s professor emerita of

in solitary indefinitely on the whims of prison officials, and the prisons are usually hundreds of miles from major cities, so people don’t know about it. We really need to shine a spotlight on this issue.”

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Water noun \ wa¡ter \ wȯ-tər \ 1. a colorless, odorless liquid that descends from the clouds as rain and forms streams, lakes and oceans 2. a major constituent of living matter 3. the source of life and the substance that links all things

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The Interconnecting Substance:

Solving Interdisciplinary Water Challenges Too much water, too little water, unclean water and unmet demand for water: managing the most elemental of resources will be one of the defining challenges of the coming decades. It’s a challenge the School of Social Ecology is poised to meet — and generate solutions for.

Water resource challenges intertwine the physical,

in desalination, advanced water conservation and

biological, engineering and social sciences. Their

water reuse. Water UCI is growing partnerships in

solutions demand interdisciplinary approaches that

Israel to study different methods of tackling water

take into account not just the location and amount

challenges in semi-arid regions.

of water, but the way people interact with it.

Water UCI, a cross-disciplinary collaborative

“In Israel, there is much more acceptance of technological solutions such as desalination

effort housed at the School of Social Ecology, spurs

and reclaiming sewage, while in California we’re

on those solutions by bringing together engineers,

much more rooted in practices and using man-

ecologists, economists, social scientists and other

agement tools to conserve and allocate water,”

experts from across the campus.

Feldman says.

“In the past, universities tended to study water as an engineering problem. Where do we put the dams and where do we put the pipes? How do we move water from the Sacramento Valley to the Central Valley?” says Dave Feldman, the director of Water UCI. “The engineers have discovered there are lots

Water UCI is working with UCI partners and other universities in studying ways to harvest

and lots of ways to manage water, but what’s really

stormwater as a resource while

important is public acceptance, trust, confidence

preventing pollution.

and environmental and social equity.”

Social science can answer questions about equitability and fairness such as when regulators try to

Water and energy are inextricably intertwined,

reduce water use through higher pricing or shutting

especially in California, where a quarter of the

off taps, or imposing restrictions on use.

state’s energy production is devoted to moving,

“That’s the growing set of issues in California.

Water management is a social problem, and applying water policy isn’t just about installing a set of widgets. It’s more complicated than that,” Feldman says.

Water UCI is cultivating an array of partnerships with universities and agencies around the world, across the state and in Orange County.

Israel and California, two semi-arid regions, are both heavily urbanized, with large agricultural sectors. Both are on the leading edge of innovations

treating and heating water. Water UCI is studying the water-energy nexus in California and across the Western U.S. by partnering with UCI’s Advanced Power and Energy Program.

The majority of Californians live in the south, most of the state’s water is in the north, and an enormous irrigation-dependent agriculture sector lies in the state’s middle. The completely re-engineered system that conveys water around the state is incredibly complicated.

Nicola Ulibarri, an assistant professor of urban

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planning and public policy, is studying that system, and is part of a team that recently received a $3.7 million grant to do so.

Ulibarri will develop models for four Central Valley watersheds to better manage water storage, water quality and groundwater sustainability — especially as climate change causes greater variance in precipitation and higher temperatures, and as the population grows.

Orange County’s water agencies are among the most forward-thinking in the country; the county has an advanced aquifer recharging system that uses recycled FloodRISE team members do field work in Newport Beach, a potential flooding hotspot.

wastewater, and Irvine was among the first cities in the country to recycle lightly-treated wastewater for landscaping.

Water UCI is partnering with local water agencies to examine how to better integrate desalination, stormwater capture, conservation and other management tools into an integrated water resource management system.

Stormwater, in particular, poses a unique problem in the vast urbanized region of Southern California, where irregular and occasionally heavy rainstorms sometimes overwhelm flood management infrastruc-

High tides reach the top of the current flood defenses at Balboa Island in Newport Beach in December 2012.

ture and where pollutants wash off streets into coastal estuaries. Water UCI is working with UCI partners and other universities in studying ways to harvest stormwater as a resource while preventing pollution.

Rising sea levels and more intense storm surges increasingly threaten property and, potentially, lives. The UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation’s FloodRISE program is promoting coastal resilience by mapping flooding hazards in two of Southern California’s largest estuaries: Newport Bay and the Tijuana River.

FloodRISE makes flood threat informa-

Maura Allaire, an assistant professor of urban planning and public policy, studies municipal water quality.

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tion available to city officials, businesses

The FloodRISE team is mapping flood risk in La Paz, Mexico (pictured) and other places using aerial drones.

and citizens with vibrant maps and other communications

issues can deeply affect communities across the country.

strategies.

Maura Allaire, an assistant professor of urban planning and

“This type of nuanced, granular information is key to pre-

public policy, analyzed water quality violation hotspots and

venting flooding, and the economic disruption it brings,” says

identified the types of water utilities that tended to violate

Richard Matthew, director of the Blum Center. “With climate

standards more frequently, such as small rural utilities.

change, these problems are only going to grow more severe.”

“Even though such major crises are rare, a sizeable popu-

The Blum Center is also using aerial drones to map flood

lation drinks water each year that fails to meet national water

hazards in locations around the world, starting with projects

quality standards,” Allaire says. “By better understanding the

in Nepal, Malawi and Mexico.

trends and where these concerns occur, we can prioritize

Water challenges extend beyond destructive floods. As the

interventions and drive real change.”

water quality crisis in Flint, Mich. made clear, water quality

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Social Ecology Faculty Study Mental and Emotional Health Through the Lifespan Young people today live in a plugged-in world unknown to previous generations, income inequality threatens to disrupt society and the largest living generation — the Baby Boomers — is entering old age.

Society is changing, and the methods of cultivating mental and emotional health for all people will have to change as well. Social Ecology professors are on the cusp of it all, doing

Rook, the chair of the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior.

Lab-based psychological research often can’t capture

research to understand what drives mental and emotional

the nuances of those social ecologies. And undergraduate

health and how to improve it, from childhood to adolescence,

students on campus — a common subject pool for many

adulthood to old age.

psychological researchers — don’t reflect the varied places

Social Ecology faculty take a unique approach by examining an individual’s social and physical environment — the social ecology that surrounds them.

“Human health doesn’t happen in a vacuum and it’s not

and situations in which people live.

“We seek, as much as possible, to be conducting research out in the community where people are actually living their lives, whether that’s with underserved popula-

sealed off from the outside world. The psychology of an

tions, immigrant communities, elderly people or any other

individual is profoundly influenced by the ecologies of the

groups,” Rook says.

families or institutional environments they’re in,” says Karen 24

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Health noun \ helth \ 1. a condition of thriving, of being sound in body, mind or spirit 2. complete physical, mental and social wellbeing 3. a state of balance within a person and between a person and their environment

Jessica Borelli, an associate professor of psychology and social behavior, connects research with lived experience both in research and in her clinical practice. Regularly seeing clients raises new questions for Borelli, prompting novel research pursuits, including about the mental health of children, and especially how children react to parental stress.

“My best ideas for research originate in questions I am struggling to answer within my clinical practice,” Borelli says.

“I also approach therapy from an evidence-based slant, and bring all my research-based knowledge into work with my clients.”

On campus, Borelli directs The Health, Relationships, and Intervention — or THRIVE — lab, which focuses on how social relationships influence emotional and physical wellbeing, and in particular how differences in care during childhood affect people’s ability to experience and express their own relationship needs.

Borelli seeks to understand the impacts parents have on

are warning about rising rates of depression and suicide.

But Candice Odgers, a professor of psychology and social behavior, points out that in many ways, teens are doing better than they have in decades past. Alcohol consumption, smok-

the ability of their children to withstand stress, as well as how

ing, violence and teen pregnancy are down. High school

emotional regulation predicts susceptibility to mental illness

graduation and college attendance rates are up.

through a person’s life. It turns out that it is often parents’

Emerging evidence shows that some time online is good

well-intentioned solutions to supposed problems that cause

for teens, counterbalancing older studies associating large

long-term difficulties for children — not the problems them-

amounts of time online with anxiety and depression. The

selves, Borelli has found.

greater concern today, Odgers says, is the different types of

“Parents often try to help anxious children avoid anxietyinducing situations, when the children really need to lean into the stress, and build up their tolerance to withstand stress,”

online experiences teens of different socioeconomic backgrounds are having.

“Low-income teens spend more time on screens and are

Borelli says. “Parents and children both need to lean into

likelier to have negative social media experiences that spill

negative and positive emotion. It’s there for a reason. Coax it

over into in-person fights, arguments or trouble at school,”

out, and try to understand the message it is giving you.”

Odgers says. “This is very concerning. Parents, schools and

The smartphone-saturated and social media-driven world

communities need to be engaged with these kids.”

that young people face today is very different from a gener-

The transition to adulthood is when youth have a chance

ation ago. Many parents worry about the effects of this new

to move up in society or to tumble down. Jutta Heckhausen,

digital culture on youths’ mental health, and some scholars

a professor of psychology and social behavior, along with

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Jessica Borelli, left, directs The Health, Relationships, and Intervention — or THRIVE — lab.

her team, is trying to determine how much an individual can

low-income people experience happiness as it relates to

actively influence his or her social destiny.

their connections with others, such as love and compassion.

“The way U.S. society is set up, many determinants of

Piff also studies the importance of awe, which imbues people

success are outside the control of young people — the

with a broader sense of meaning and purpose, and is associated

income level of their families, the schools and neighbor-

with better health and wellbeing, in addition to socially connect-

hoods they’re in,” Heckhausen says. “But our intervention

ing people to both others and the world around them. Even

studies show that when struggling students engage more

fleeting moments of awe — towering trees, patterns of light on

with goals, it can improve academic performance.”

the water, transcendent music or art — cause people to feel

The kids who do the best in the end are those who have long-term ambitious goals for education and who give it

less entitled and more compassionate.

Piff is working on ways to apply his research to people’s

their all to attain them — even if they start out with pretty

daily lives, and is helping promote awe and compassion on

mediocre grades in school. These kids also tend to have

campus at UCI through an awe-based intervention.

strong beliefs in their own ability and effort, and don’t lean on luck or the help of influential people in their lives.

Into adulthood, socioeconomic status also affects how

“Ultimately, the things that yield the most benefits are those that connect people to others, behaviors that strengthen relationships,” Piff says. “After all, it is the

people experience happiness, according to research by Paul

strength of our social relationships, the depth of our social

Piff, an assistant professor of psychology and social behavior.

connections, that contribute the most satisfaction to our

Wealth doesn’t make people happier than those without it.

own lives.”

Rather, high-income people tend to feel happiness related to themselves, such as pride in their achievements, while

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As Baby Boomers, one of the largest generations in history, enter old age, pressing questions are arising about the

aging process and how to maintain health in older adulthood. Though older adults report more positive emotions, old age is also a time of almost unavoidable decline — physically and cognitively.

For older adults, management of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, can be challenging. People have to change an array of behaviors, such as diet and exercise, which can be difficult to both start and maintain, says Rook, who is also a professor of psychology and social behavior. Other people — friends, family — may notice the changes in behavior, such as shifts in diet.

An older person’s social ecology can have profound effects on their ability to overcome challenges.

“Are those people supportive? Critical? Are they helping manage the chronic illness, or are they making it more difficult?” Rook says. “A person’s physical and social environment can affect and amplify chronic illness and so many other conditions.”

When Teenage Development Collides with Criminal Justice Intellectually, teenagers resemble adults, but as any parent knows, they’re not. Teenagers haven’t yet fully developed the ability to think long term or resist peer influences.

That gap between intellectual ability and emotional control helps explain why teens get into such mischief, and, sometimes, why they break the law. It also has ramifications for how society punishes law-breaking teens, according to Elizabeth Cauffman, a professor of psychology and social behavior.

In one study, Cauffman tracked 1,300 youth who had committed serious felony offenses between the ages of 14 and 17 for seven years to see if they reoffended — or if they grew out of criminal behavior as they developed.

Only 9 percent persisted at a high rate of offending into their 20s.

“Most kids, even when they commit very serious crimes or do very dangerous things, grow up and grow out of crime,” Cauffman says. “But we still lock up young people as if they were adults. That has consequences, affecting their mental and emotional health.

There’s a better way.”

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At Work

Professor Doug Granger: In some places, acquiring blood samples and other

Bioscience Research here

traditional specimens for scientific research just isn’t

in the School of Social

feasible or advisable. Athletic competitions. Military

Ecology.

exercises. Zoos. Impoverished communities. Often

Doug Granger is the

it’s easier and more realistic to collect a saliva sample,

institute’s director and a

which can yield information about infectious disease

Chancellor’s professor

and chemical exposure, DNA and levels of hormones,

of psychology and social behavior, public health, and

enzymes and proteins — but without the needles.

pediatrics. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D.

The library of such biomarkers that can be measured in

degrees from UCI , pioneered salivary bioscience while

saliva is growing rapidly, and much of the pioneering research

at UCLA and Johns Hopkins University, and moved the

is running through the UCI Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary

institute to UCI in 2016. This is his workplace.

Hundreds of investigators worldwide rely on the expertise, training and analysis the institute’s laboratory provides for saliva samples. So, Granger and the institute’s faculty and fellows are involved every day in scientific studies on a wide range of topics.

Researchers measure and record levels of various biomarkers in the saliva, including the stress hormone cortisol, a nicotine metabolite called cotinine, inflammation signalers called cytokines, and a surrogate marker of sympathetic nervous system activity called alpha-amylase.

A bank of 10 ultra-cold freezers in the back of the lab each house tens of thousands of samples at negative 80 degrees Celsius to protect sample integrity until they’re thawed for analysis. Here, a bed of dry ice keeps samples frozen while they are being prepared for analysis.

Handheld and electronic liquid handling devices allow institute staff to carefully dispense very small volumes of saliva needed for the measurement protocols, and enable them to move multiple samples at once. The analysis techniques often require less than one-eighth of an eyedropper drop of saliva.

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Community Connection UCI Hosts MIT Solve Workshop The task seems insurmountable: use technology to solve

The solutions come next, from hundreds of innovators

the world’s social and environmental problems. Major ad-

recruited from UCI and Orange County to submit solutions to

vances in technology are opening new possibilities, but there

these local challenges.

are a multitude of problems and limited time and resources.

So the first step is to choose which problems to tackle.

The top solutions will then be sent on to MIT Solve for their international competition. Last year, MIT Solve received

That’s exactly what 45 local UCI and community thought

submissions from 1,000 innovators; MIT Solve’s goal this

leaders did at a February event co-hosted by the School of

year is to double that number. Finalists are announced in

Social Ecology and the Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation in

August, and they pitch their solutions in September.

partnership with MIT Solve, an MIT-led effort to solve global challenges.

“We talk about solving problems, but we must make sure our research and innovative ideas are translated into

Participants gathered around tables to define actionable

solutions to real-world problems,” says Nancy Guerra, the

challenges in four key areas chosen by MIT Solve: frontlines

dean of the School of Social Ecology. “Partnering with MIT

of health, empowering educators, coastal communities and

Solve provides an important venue and framework to build a

the workforce of the future. The local participants sought to

community of solvers at UCI and be part of a larger national

tailor the challenges to specific issues facing Orange County

and international network.”

today — issues that lend themselves to high-tech solutions.

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Alumni Spotlight We Care For Each Other:

Alum Seeks to Help Anteaters in Need

Today, Jennifer Friend is a School of Social Ecology graduate (‘95), a former law firm partner, the CEO of a 22-person nonprofit and the chair of the UCI Alumni Association. And she has big plans for how Anteaters can and must take care of the next generation, especially those facing hurdles during college.

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But growing up, Friend’s family alternated between a stable middle-class lifestyle and crashing in motels — as her family slipped into homelessness.

Six family members would squeeze into a single room, making studying almost impossible. Friend, the eldest of four, pushed through, participating in Model U.N., speaking at her high school graduation and enrolling at Golden West College.

Project Hope has since grown from serving 65 kids with a programming budget under $600,000 to actively serving 400 kids with a $2.6 million budget.

The organization has moved more than 900 kids and parents out of homelessness.

By getting good grades and meeting other requirements,

Ecology have proven crucial in solving the complex problem

she was automatically accepted at UCI, and she transferred

of child homelessness, in which multiple systems interact:

in. But her family’s financial hardships and evictions weighed

public education, housing, juvenile justice, health and trans-

on her credit score, preventing her from securing student

portation.

loans. So she paid her way through college, holding down

“I was diving into all these different, seemingly disconnected

multiple jobs, rushing from work to class and back again, and

systems to create a solution that weaves them all together and

graduating in seven years.

that ultimately ends generational homelessness,” Friend says.

She went on to earn a law degree at Whittier Law School,

“It’s not just housing. Consistent with the focus of the School

and worked for several years as a lawyer, then was brought on

of Social Ecology, you have to look at everything as part of a

in 2013 as the CEO of Project Hope Alliance, which provides

larger whole.”

services for homeless kids.

Project Hope has since grown from serving 65 kids with a

Now, Friend wants to take the skills she’s learned as a nonprofit leader and apply them to meeting the needs of

programming budget under $600,000 to actively serving 400

Anteaters. More than half of those who enroll at UCI are first

kids with a $2.6 million budget. The organization has moved

generation college students and many others come from

more than 900 kids and parents out of homelessness.

low-income families. Students struggle to secure food and

The intellectual skills Friend gained at the School of Social

housing, and guilt can creep in as they wonder whether they should be doing more to help pay family bills or siblings’ school fees.

Friend lauds UCI’s FRESH Basic Needs Hub, a studentstarted, alumni-supported project to ensure in-need students have access to food. Friend envisions alumni helping with more services for students, such as an oncampus mental health clinic, housing provided for lowincome students or a mentorship program to help students get their first jobs.

“Many students can’t ask a parent how to do college, or can’t ask for financial support because their family is struggling to get by,” Friend says. “We need to be that family network for our fellow Anteaters. We need to understand that their needs are complex and interconnected, and most of all, we need to care.”

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Inspired Giving

$1 million gift Carol Kupers Whalen dedicated her career to Social Ecology. Her gift will support students and research for decades to come.

Carol Kupers Whalen, the first faculty member hired

institutional and cultural contexts — such as schools,

into the then-program in Social Ecology, recently gave

families and peer groups — affecting the lives of children

the school $1 million through her estate. The donation

with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. A meticulous

endowed the Carol Kupers Whalen Fund, which will

researcher, Whalen conducted groundbreaking studies

support undergraduate and graduate students and faculty

on the effects of ADHD medications on a youngster’s

research in perpetuity.

self-perception, academic performance and relationships

Whalen joined the Program in Social Ecology in 1970,

with peers. She also examined how classmates, parents

the year it was founded, and served as a professor of

and teachers viewed the abilities of a child taking ADHD

psychology and social behavior — with a joint appoint-

medications.

ment in psychiatry and human behavior — until her 2011 retirement. She died in 2016 at age 73.

Whalen earned a B.A. at Stanford University and a Ph.D. at UCLA before coming to UCI, where she played a key role in hiring many subsequent faculty members.

“Social Ecology grew and thrived

“Carol truly believed in the mission of Social Ecology: to use interdisciplinary science to understand how the inter-

because of the commitment of

connected contexts of people’s lives affect their health and

faculty such as Carol.”

of life,” says Karen Rook, the chair of the Department of

wellbeing — and to use that knowledge to improve quality Psychology and Social Behavior, who knew Whalen as a

“This is an enormous gift from a person who had a major impact on our school, and it will help future students and

commitment of faculty such as Carol.”

faculty members carry on her vision,” says Nancy Guerra, the

Whalen held administrative and membership positions on

dean of the School of Social Ecology. “Carol’s legacy lives on

Academic Senate committees — among many other leader-

in the minds and hearts of her students, colleagues, friends

ship and governance roles at the university — and from 1989

and family.”

to 1998 was chair of the Department of Psychology and

The fund, established in 2016, continues to significantly support student and faculty research through the contri-

Social Behavior.

“Carol consistently exhibited quiet, warm, selfless

butions of numerous colleagues and friends. In honor of

leadership, and she took great interest in mentoring grad-

Whalen’s memory and vision for faculty research and student

uate students and advancing the careers of junior faculty

achievement, additional donations are being accepted.

members,” Rook says. “She sparked a love of research

Whalen’s research epitomized the distinct approach of social ecology, with its focus on the various social, 32

colleague. “Social Ecology grew and thrived because of the

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in many students and inspired them to see research as a means of making a difference in the world.”

Breakfast Speaker Series

Daybreak Dialogues Breakfast Speaker Series

The new 2018/2019 season of Daybreak Dialogues will kick off in October.

Join the ChangeMakers and community members for a provocative and educational slate of conversations featuring:

October 2018

April 2019

Yelling at Walls!

Reclaiming Humanity in Our Prisons

Political and Election Bias Ahead of the 2018 Midterm Elections

Effective and Humane Prison Reform for the New American Reality

Peter H. Ditto, Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior

Keramet Reiter, Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society and Law

January 2019 Water We Doing about the California Drought?

Coping with Our Never Ending Water Crisis David L. Feldman, Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy and Political Science To receive updates on these future Daybreak Dialogues, please join our mailing list at: bit.ly/2JC1JaK

Are You a ChangeMaker?

Do you work to make the world a better place?

Do you envision solutions to pressing challenges?

Do you believe in the transformative power of education?

ChangeMakers, Social Ecology’s premier support group, are dedicated to bolstering the research, science and teaching that tackle society’s most pressing social and environmental problems.

Learn more about ChangeMakers at: socialecology.uci.edu/changemakers

By joining ChangeMakers, your membership will support students and faculty generating real-world solutions to help make our world a more vibrant place.

Social Ecology organized as a school during the 1992-93 academic year with a unique interdisciplinary approach to research, teaching and learning. The School is committed to science driving solutions to today’s most pressing social and environmental problems.

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