UC Community Engagement Network

Our History

All In Conference Speaker

Why We Exist

Today, we face new challenges that will require reimagining the public purpose of higher education for decades to come.

These include the need to attract and retain a more diverse faculty that better mirrors society, to improve experiential learning opportunities in ways that connect with a majority-minority student body, and the urgency to convince a skeptical public of higher education’s mission.

As the world’s preeminent public university system, the University of California can lead this transformation. Engaged research, evidence-based decision-making, and community capacity building — all arenas where the UC’s expertise can make a difference — will be critical to scaling up solutions to complex challenges like climate change, social injustice, and health disparities.

In response to these challenges, faculty formed the University of California Community Engagement Network in 2020.

Our Impact

Founding Members

Our founders are experienced practitioners who have worked with community partners while building more equitable systems for academic-community collaboration.

Michael Rios is professor of landscape architecture + environmental design in the Department of Human Ecology at UC Davis where is he is also a faculty member in the Community Development, Education, and Geography graduate programs.


Michael Rios

Professor of landscape architecture + environmental design

Department of Human Ecology

UC Davis

Tessa Hill is part of the Bodega Ocean Acidification Research (BOAR) group at Bodega Marine Laboratory, which aims to understand the impact of ocean acidification on native species.


Tessa Hill

Professor in the UC Davis Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences

Bodega Ocean Acidification Research (BOAR) group at Bodega Marine Laboratory
UC Davis

Emily J. Ozer is a Professor of Community Health Sciences at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Professor Ozer teaches graduate courses in behavioral science theory, mental health, community interventions and program evaluation. Her research interests include school-based health promotion and prevention programs, post-traumatic stress disorder and community-based participatory research.


Emily Ozer

Professor of Community Health Sciences

UC Berkeley School of Public Health

Now assistant vice provost and executive director of the UCLA Center for Community Engagement, Staub is officially retiring in June. He joined UCLA in 2018 for the opportunity — and the challenge — to make community-engaged learning a cornerstone of the student experience. He's helped UCLA accomplish that and much more, including gaining national recognition for our faculty in community-engaged scholarship. He also led and managed the implementation of Strategic Plan Goal 1: Deepen our engagement with Los Angeles, which has been incorporated into the chancellor's UCLA Connects flagship initiative.


Shalom Staub

Assistant Vice Provost

and Executive Director of the UCLA Center for Community Engagement (Retired)

Meet Our Network

Responding to the times

Community engagement is not new to the University of California given the distinctive mission of the university to serve society. As evidence of the need to deepen and integrate community engagement into our mission, the UC Office of the President sponsored a 2005 symposium resulting in the report, Promoting Civic Engagement at the University of California: Recommendations from the Strategy Group on Civic and Academic Engagement. Building on these efforts, the University of California Community Engagement Network (UCCEN) was formed in 2022.

A steering committee and initial work groups were established resulting from a facilitative process to identify shared challenges across the UC system and to build a robust, asset-based network to develop actionable solutions and share best practices to advance our public mission and magnify collective impact through reciprocal and mutually beneficial community engagement. These work groups included a focus on academic personnel (reward structures, promotion, and tenure), best practices (sharing and organizing internal resources), and advocacy (raising visibility and engaging partners).

Areas of Change
Our Impact