UCI social scientists are at the forefront of research, teaching and service in support of diversity, equity and inclusion. Beginning fall quarter, anthropologist Angela Jenks will be taking on the campus-level role of associate vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion in the UCI Office of Inclusive Excellence where she’ll oversee OIE's educational programs, including directing the DECADE (Diverse Educational Community & Doctoral Experience) mentor program and leading the Inclusive Excellence Certificate Program. The opportunity leverages her research expertise in improving the cultural competence of U.S. health care, leadership experience as the school’s past vice associate dean of faculty development and diversity, and countless hours of service teaching and supporting first-gen and minority students.

Filling her shoes in social sciences as vice associate dean of faculty development and diversity is sociologist and award-winning researcher Rocío Rosales who specializes in work on international migration, immigrant and ethnic economies, race and ethnicity, law and society, and Latinas/os. For the past year, she was an appointed UCI Inclusive Excellence Professor, a role in which she helped organize and run faculty development activities while mentoring faculty in grant-sponsored activities. In her new post, she’s looking forward to focusing on community building among faculty of color, faculty retention, navigating department interactions, and mentorship activities alongside associate dean Anita Casavantes Bradford.

Elevating campus efforts

"I'm honored to join the Office of Inclusive Excellence and build on my work expanding inclusive educational opportunities and supporting faculty development and wellbeing,” says Jenks. “I look forward to working with faculty, staff, and students across campus to advance OIE's mission of dismantling systemic barriers and promoting equity and inclusion at UCI." 

Supported by the National Science Foundation and other grants, her research at the intersection of anthropology and medicine has taken Jenks to medical schools, managed care organizations and hospitals where she’s explored the understandings of culture and race that are incorporated into efforts to address health disparities.

In the classroom, she annually teaches seven undergraduate courses for the medical anthropology minor, and she’s taught graduate courses in medical anthropology, pedagogy for future professors, and for the UCI Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC).

Her departmental service includes helping revamp the anthropology honors program, a four-year stint as the coordinator of the master’s program in Medicine, Science, and Technology Studies while teaching the graduate program’s proseminar, and a leadership role on the Undergraduate Committee, which she directed from 2018-2020.

She also contributes to the broader field of anthropology through past roles as a scholar in residence for Cultural Anthropology, one of the field’s main academic journals, and the launch of an online open access Teaching and Learning Anthropology journal - for which she serves as editor in chief - which shares articles, films, digital materials, syllabi and more with teachers who can also then exchange important ideas, reflections and support.

Her work has earned her recognition with the 2017 Teaching Assistant Instructional Development Award; as the 2017 Dean’s Honoree for Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction in the School of Social Sciences; the 2018 Provost's Teaching Fellowship; the 2019 Academic Senate Early-Career Faculty Award for Teaching; and the 2021 American Anthropological Association Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Jenks received her Ph.D. in medical anthropology through a joint program with UC Berkeley and UCSF and joined the UCI faculty in 2013.

Advancing school success

With her move to a campus-level leadership role, Jenks leaves the School of Social Sciences diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in good hands with Rosales as vice associate dean.

“I'm excited to be stepping into the role of vice associate dean of faculty development and diversity and continuing the great work done by Angela Jenks alongside associate dean Anita Casavantes Bradford,” Rosales says. “UCI does a wonderful job of recruiting the most talented scholars to our university, and in this role I hope to help foster a community where these scholars can find support and continue their professional development -- all while focusing on equity and inclusion.”

Rosales’s research has been featured in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Ethnic and Racial Studies, and funded by the American Philosophical Society, John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Mellon Mays Foundation.

She earned the American Sociological Association Distinguished Book Award from the Latinx Sociology Section in 2020 for her book, Fruteros: Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community in Los Angeles, in which she tells the stories of Los Angeles street vendors and the complex structure of their paisano social networks that have both helped and hindered their new lives in the U.S. The same work earned her an honorable mention for the ASA Thomas and Znaniecki Book Award in 2021.

Rosales earned her Ph.D. in sociology at UCLA and joined the UCI sociology faculty in 2014.