Goal 1 of the 2023-2028 UCLA Strategic Plan–Deepen UCLA’s Engagement with Los Angeles – signals UCLA’s commitment to partnership and reciprocity with the vibrant and diverse communities of Los Angeles. Realizing this strategic vision will require listening, trust-building, and developing and communicating common understandings. This is the purpose of a new UCLA LA Community Engagement Council. The Council includes representative campus, community, and alumni stakeholders with the ability to guide and communicate an equity-driven agenda for the university’s work with and in the communities of Los Angeles.

The UCLA LA Community Engagement Council facilitates deeper engagement with Los Angeles guided by the principles of inclusive excellence:

  • UCLA seeks to further develop trust and partnership with the people and communities of Los Angeles so that our faculty, staff, and students can collaborate effectively to improve the wellbeing of all Angelenos through meaningful and sustained efforts designed to have lasting impact.
  • UCLA recognizes that to move forward to build this vision of deepened engagement, we will need to rebuild trust and repair harm where the actions of the university have negatively impacted the people and communities of Los Angeles.
  • UCLA centers equity, mutuality, and reciprocity in our community engagement work and in the ways that its actions impact Los Angeles residents, linked to accountability standards.
  • UCLA ensures that community members and partners, particularly in historically marginalized communities of Los Angeles, have significant input to shape the university’s work in Los Angeles. Communities must be recognized as being the repositories for knowledge and experience as well as the owners of their stories and data, and they must be engaged to the greatest extent possible in the development of research questions and data analysis, and in any resulting recommendations.

The UCLA LA Community Engagement Council informs the many elements of the Goal 1 plan, including but not limited to:

  • Advise the UCLA Downtown Program Board to ensure future community access and utilization of the new campus in the historic Trust Building
  • Identify and prioritize critical issues around which UCLA can develop “Social Impact Collaboratives” to support transdisciplinary, community-engaged research
  • Facilitate connections with LA’s multi-sectored network of leaders and community scholars as resources and partners with UCLA faculty, students, and staff
  • Develop strategies to increase community partners’ capacity for effective research partnerships
  • Guide the development of policies and practices to facilitate research administration that recognizes the role of partners in community-engaged research (compensation of partners, ownership of data, IRB protocols, anonymity, etc.)
  • Guide the development of metrics to:
    • Evaluate the quality of UCLA’s community partnerships and the impact of UCLA’s community engagement through collaborative research, community-engaged teaching, and outreach/service activities
    • Track the impact of UCLA’s operational impact on Los Angeles and its residents to ensure that all dimensions of UCLA (including but not limited to land and real estate acquisition, hiring, procurement, policing, etc.) contribute to equity, inclusivity and just outcomes for the residents of Los Angeles.

Composition, terms of appointments and meeting schedule

The LA Community Engagement Council includes representative campus, community, and alumni stakeholders. It is co-chaired by Michelle Caswell, the new Special Advisor to the Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost on Community-Engaged Scholarship, and Paco Retana, Chief Program Officer, Wellnest and President of the UCLA Alumni Association. Members include the following individuals and roles:

  • Michelle Caswell, Co-Chair, Special Advisor to the EVCP on Community-Engagement Scholarship and Professor, Information Studies
  • Paco Retana, Co-Chair, Chief Program Officer, Wellnest

Community organization membership:

Foundation, government, labor, and business membership:

UCLA members:

  • Jennifer Poulakides, Associate Vice Chancellor, Government and Community Relations
  • Shalom Staub, Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director, Center for Community Engagement
  • Tria Blu Wakpa, Rotating representative from Institute of American Cultures
  • Katrina Ward, Executive Director, UCLA Alumni Engagement Innovation
  • Chia-Ying Wong, USAC Community Service Commissioner (to be replaced by Carolyn Wang, newly elected commissioner for 2024-25)
  • Noor Nakhaei, President Graduate Student Association

The UCLA LA Community Engagement Council launched during Fall quarter 2024 and meet at least twice a year. Meetings are held at UCLA Downtown (Trust Building).

Members of the Council will be appointed by the UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost for two-year terms, renewable.