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Inclusive and Thriving Campus Community Committee

UCSC has long been a voice for inclusion and forward thinking in all realms of the academic enterprise. Our campus has made significant strides in the past decade to support student access and success and to recruit and retain a more diverse faculty and staff. Yet like all institutions, UCSC has opportunities to improve the ways we address issues of structural racism, xenophobia, ableism, and other barriers that impact our members unequally, as recent events have demonstrated. Our students, staff, and faculty continued to advocate in the wake of Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements for campus to uphold its values. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about changes in how and why we work. And in the wake of the CZU Complex Fire, it is impossible to deny that the impending climate emergency has had salient and profound costs that have been unequally borne by low-income communities and communities of color. It is in this context that we must situate our strategic planning effort.

We seek to embed principles of diversity, equity and inclusion because we aspire to extraordinary outcomes in research, scholarship and creative activities, teaching,and other related pursuits. Excellence can only be achieved when the members of our campus community feel respected, valued, and welcomed. The committee will create opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to discuss how the campus should approach improving the diversity, equity, and inclusivity of our campus as reflected in its overall climate over the next decade. Venues for discussion might include town hall meetings and open forums, both in-person and online, as well as focus groups and surveys.The cross-cutting themes of equity, social justice and academic excellence should be central to every aspect of the committee’s work and meaningfully integrated into all of the committee’s outputs.

Read more about the Inclusive and Thriving Campus Community Committee in the committee charge.

Committee membership

Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Dean of Arts, co-chair
Anju Reejhsinghani, Vice Chancellor, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, co-chair
Shiva Abbaszadeh, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Needhi Bhalla, Associate Professor, Molecular, Cell, & Developmental Biology
Jessica Bulleri, Campus Wellness Program Manager, Risk Services
Alvaro Cardenas, Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
Colette Chriqui Grey, Manager, Talent Acquisition
Grace Delgado, Associate Professor, History
Angel Dominguez, Graduate Services Counselor, Student Achievement & Equity Innovation
Patty Gallagher, Professor, Theatre Arts
Marcella Gomez, Associate Professor, Applied Mathematics, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Baskin Engineering
Adrienne Harrell, Learning and Talent Development Manager
Karlton Hester, Professor, Music and Director Of Jazz Studies
Christine Hong, Chair, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
Nancy Kim, Executive Director, Resource Centers
Johannes Kuzmich, Graduate student representative
John Jota Leaños, Professor, Film and Digital Media
Herbie Lee, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Heather Lefebvre, Human Resources Manager, ITS-Resource Planning & Management
Yat Li, Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry
Judit Moschkovich, Professor, Education
Psi Padhya, Undergraduate student representative
Ravi Rajan, Professor, Environmental Studies
Christina Ravelo, Distinguished Professor, Ocean Sciences, Associate Dean of Physical and Biological Sciences
Lenora Willis, Executive Director for African, Black, Caribbean Student Success
TBD, Big 5 student representative
TBD, Big 5 student representative

Staff Support

Asia Valdivia, Special Assistant and Project Manager, Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion