New Guggenheim fellows; nursing certification program

April 11, 2023

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (center) tours UCI Health’s Irvine medical center construction project. (Photo: Steve Zylius/UCI)

UCI ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis visits UCI

As part of her tour of California universities and colleges, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis visited UCI on Monday. The outing culminated with a tour of the Mesa Court housing community led by five resident advisers. Kounalakis (above in blue suit) was shown a suite in the Mesa Court Tower, and she viewed the site in parking lot 5 that will house the Mesa Court Residence Hall Expansion project – a new dorm for first- and second-year undergraduates. Joining her on the tour of Mesa Court were Chancellor Howard Gillman, Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan, Vice Mayor Tammy Kim and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Willie Banks Jr. The Mesa Court Residence Hall Expansion will house 300 students when it opens in 2026. Kounalakis said projects funded by the state’s grant program at the UC, Cal State and community college levels will meet the need for more on-campus housing.

Tobar and Betancourt named Guggenheim Fellow

UCI writers and scholars Héctor Tobar (left) and Roland Betancourt have been awarded 2023 Guggenheim Fellowships. Betancourt is a professor of art history and author of three books, including Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender and Race in the Middle Ages. The fellowship will support his “Queer, Byzantine: Camp, Excess, Aesthetics” project, which will result in a book that explores the ways in which queer artists and authors have deployed the art and culture of the Byzantine Empire across the 20th and 21st centuries to imagine a queer alternative to the Western Middle Ages. Tobar is a professor of English and Chicano/Latino studies and author of six books, including Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine. The fellowship will support his project “The Los Angeles Novellas,” a series of works of short fiction about the history of the Los Angeles metropolis and its future.

Merage launches online certification for chief nursing officers

The COVID-19 pandemic put extreme stress on society, healthcare and nursing, with repercussions that could be felt for decades. Many nurses took early retirement and others exited the profession altogether, leaving numerous institutions facing staffing challenges, including a shortage of executive leaders. In response, UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business will launch an online chief nursing officer certificate program on June 14, in partnership with Emeritus, an educational platform designed to prepare people for executive roles. The program is being led by Maritza Salazar Campo (left), an assistant professor of organization and management in the Merage School, and Patrick Patton, system chief nurse executive at UC San Francisco Medical Center.

EVENTS

API Initiative: The Unspoken Rules - Conversation with Merage School Alumni
Thursday, 4 p.m. (sponsored by Paul Merage School of Business)

Online Lasik Surgery Seminar
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. (sponsored by Gavin Herbert Eye Institute)

Hacking Student Success: Sustainability Challenge
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. (sponsored by ANTrepreneur Center)

Visit today.uci.edu to see and submit event listings. Events of general interest will be shared in UCI Digest two days before they occur.

#UCICONNECTED

@TammykimOC tweeted: Today I joined California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis to tour the site of UC Irvine’s Mesa Court Residence Hall expansion project. I am proud to support this project which will help address the demand for affordable on-campus housing by providing 300 plus UCI undergrads the opportunity to live and thrive on campus.

#UCIconnected spotlights student, alumni, faculty and staff photos, essays, shoutouts, hobbies, artwork, unusual office decorations, activities and more. Send submissions via email or post on social media with the #UCIconnected hashtag.

UCI IN THE NEWS

Note: Some news sites require subscriptions to read articles. The UCI Libraries offer free subscriptions to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Orange County Register and The Washington Post for students, faculty and staff.

This Is the One Supplement You Should Stop Taking With Food, According to Experts

Parade, April 10
Cited: Mahtab Jafari, professor of pharmaceutical sciences

How Over-the-Counter Narcan Can Help Reverse Opioid Overdoses

Scientific American, April 11
Cited: Jonathan Watanabe, professor of clinical pharmacy

Why Does the U.S. Care More About Taiwan’s Democracy Than India’s?

Foreign Policy, April 10
Cited: Vinayak Chaturvedi, professor of history

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