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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BRC Index
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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.
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“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. Spring 2018
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By the Numbers
School of Social Ecology — At a Glance
215
Undergraduate Students
Graduate Students
Field Study Community Partners
57
7
16
-1 7
$ 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
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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. Spring 2018
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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
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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. 14
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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.” Spring 2018
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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. 28
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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
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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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