Jun 22, 2021

Dear colleagues,

I am delighted to announce the recipients of the inaugural UCI Inclusive Excellence Term Chairs.

As was noted in the call for nominations last winter, the purpose of the Inclusive Excellence Term Chair program is to leverage the research and creative capacity of the campus to deepen understanding about and responses to designated national imperatives. Aligning with the ambitious UCI Black Thriving Initiative (BTI), the theme for the inaugural cohort (2021-2022 through 2023-2024) is Black Thriving.

BTI recognizes and responds to anti-Blackness as an existential threat to our society. As a university-wide response, BTI mobilizes the campus community to confront anti-Blackness, advances understanding about the Black experience and drivers of well-being and links the future of UCI to the success of Black people and Black communities.

A review committee evaluated nominations from across the campus, identifying outstanding candidates based on their distinguished research, teaching and service contributions in advancing the Black Thriving theme. I agree with their assessments.

I am therefore pleased to recognize the inaugural cohort of Inclusive Excellence Term Chairs. They are:

  • Associate Professor Tonya Bradford, Paul Merage School of Business
  • Professor Kaaryn Gustafson, School of Law
  • Associate Professor Jessica Millward, Department of History, School of Humanities
  • Associate Professor Davin Phoenix, Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences
  • Associate Professor Bryan Sykes, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, School of Social Ecology.

The term of each chair appointment is three years. Each chair comes with an annual $30,000 allocation to support programmatic activities initiated by incumbents and implemented in coordination with the Office of Inclusive Excellence.

I want to extend my thanks to the participating schools for their faculty nominations, the review committee for their valuable service to the campus community, and Vice Chancellor Douglas Haynes for his leadership in developing this program.

Please join me in congratulating our inaugural cohort of Inclusive Excellence Term Chairs.

Sincerely,

Hal Stern
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Chancellor’s Professor, Department of Statistics