Reappointment of Wendy Slusser as Associate Vice Provost for the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center
UCLA Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
To: Administrative Officers, Deans, Department Chairs, Directors, Vice Chancellors and Vice Provosts
Dear Colleagues:
Following a customary five-year administrative review, Chancellor Block and I have asked Wendy Slusser to continue as associate vice provost for the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center (Semel HCI). I am pleased to inform you that she has accepted the reappointment.
The review committee commended Wendy for her effective and charismatic leadership and significant achievements in the past five years, during which she brought together a diverse range of campus constituents to advance Semel HCI within and outside UCLA and led the transformation of the initiative into a center. Due to her efforts, Semel HCI is now widely recognized as a model not only for the rest of the University of California system, but also nationally and internationally. Her strong commitment to advancing academic excellence led to the establishment of a food studies minor and graduate certificate program, as well as courses in food politics, food justice and life skills. To stimulate the education and research focus of Semel HCI, Wendy organized summits on food, mind-body health and Proposition 64. To reduce health inequities, Semel HCI leaders and members of the campus community launched initiatives such as a campus Diabetes Prevention Program that is now a UC-wide program, a community garden that supplies the UCLA Community Programs Office Food Closet and the creation of the first campus teaching kitchen.
Under Wendy’s leadership, Semel HCI plans to continue to build the momentum for infusing a culture of health throughout the UCLA community and beyond. To expand its transdisciplinary research mission, the center will focus on the subject of health as it relates to the mind, the body and the planet. It aims to be a thought leader on college campuses in California and across the United States, develop infrastructure and operations to support and sustain health and well-being programming, and train the next generation of leaders in health and well-being.
Please join me in congratulating Wendy on her many accomplishments in this role to date and extending our appreciation to her.
Sincerely,
Scott L. Waugh
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost