Appointment of Christina Christie as Wasserman Dean of the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Christina (Tina) Christie as Wasserman Dean of the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies (Ed&IS), effective April 1, 2021.

A UCLA Ed&IS alumna and faculty member, Dr. Christie is professor of education and has served as interim dean of the school since July 2020. Prior to her appointment as interim dean, she served as chair of the Department of Education (2016–20) and head of the department’s social research methodology division (2011–16). Before her appointment at UCLA in 2010, she served for nine years on the faculty at Claremont Graduate University.

A scholar of program and policy evaluation, Professor Christie’s research focuses on understanding evaluation as a method for facilitating social change. She has served as a lead investigator on more than 30 grants and contracts totaling approximately $33 million to study education, child maltreatment, and health behavior programs. She is the former director of the UC Educational Evaluation Center, which had sites at seven UC campuses, and serves as co-investigator on the National Institutes of Health Diversity Program Consortium’s Coordination and Evaluation Center. Currently an advisory board member for the Latina Researchers Network, she has served on the board of directors of the American Evaluation Association and as an advisory board member for the Annie E. Casey Foundation Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Connections Program.

Professor Christie teaches Ph.D., Ed.D., M.A., M.Ed., and undergraduate students and has chaired or co-chaired more than 40 dissertations since joining the UCLA faculty. Recognized for her commitment to building a strong organizational community, she was awarded UCLA Staff Assembly’s Faculty/Staff Partnership Award in 2018. She has been recognized with distinguished career awards by two leading associations, as the recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s 2018 Research on Evaluation Special Interest Group Distinguished Scholar Award and the American Evaluation Association’s 2019 Research on Evaluation Distinguished Scholar Award. She earned her Ph.D. from UCLA; her M.A. and M.Ed. from Teachers College, Columbia University; and her B.A. from the State University of New York.

I want to thank the search/advisory committee members for assembling an outstanding pool of candidates and for their roles in recruiting Tina. Jennifer L. Mnookin, dean of the UCLA School of Law and Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Professor of Law, was the committee chair. Other members were:

• Ron Avi Astor – Marjorie Crump Professor of Social Welfare; professor of education
• Mitchell J. Chang – professor of education and of Asian American studies
• Eddie R. Cole – associate professor of education
• Anne J. Gilliland – professor of information studies; associate dean for information studies, Ed&IS
• Rashmita S. Mistry – professor of education; vice chair for undergraduate education, Ed&IS
• Ellen J. Pearlstein – professor, information studies and the UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials
• Jody Z. Priselac – adjunct professor of education and associate dean for community programs, Ed&IS; chair, UCLA Community School Shared Governance Council; member, UCLA Lab School Board of Advisors
• Cecilia Rios-Aguilar – professor of education; associate dean for equity and inclusion, Ed&IS

Chancellor Block and I are grateful for Tina’s distinguished service as interim dean during the past eight months. Both in this role and as department chair, Tina has proven to be a strong leader and an effective administrator, and we are confident that the school will reach new heights with her at the helm. Please join us in congratulating Tina and welcoming her as dean of the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies.

Sincerely,

Emily A. Carter
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost