Rosenfield Distinguished Community
Partnership Prize
2008 Recipients
The Ann C. Rosenfield Distinguished Community Partnership Prize honors UCLA faculty and staff whose partnerships with community organizations have made a positive difference in the lives of Southern Californians. Four cash awards of $25,000 are made to recognize collaborations of UCLA and community partners that epitomize the spirit of UCLA in LA.
The 2008 Community Leader Award recognizes Elise Buik, President/CEO, Greater United Way Los Angeles.
The Ann C. Rosenfield Fund also made a special award to recognize and support Adjunct Professor David Gjertson and the Los Angeles Aquatic Search and Rescue Unit, Inc. a non-profit organization which works in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Emergency Services Detail of the Special Enforcement Bureau.
Additional information about the Rosenfield Prize program.
Joan
Rosenbaum Asarnow
Professor, UCLA Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
and Hathaway-Sycamore Child
and Family Services
Through training leaders on how to intervene with suicidal youth, and in turn teaching these leaders to train and supervise 75 other treatment providers, this collaborative project has provided a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between research and practice, and improve quality of care and outcomes for youth and families in Los Angeles County. Although the work has centered on the Hathaway-Sycamores partnership with UCLA, Professor Asarnow and her team has also engaged multiple community partners through a community forum, dissemination newsletter and presentations at local and national meetings. Also, UCLA students have been involved throughout the project and have had opportunities to participate in partnership activities, research, trainings and community forums, as well as to present results of the project at professional meetings.
Yoram Cohen
Professor, UCLA Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
and Committee to Bridge the Gap
Dr. Cohen and his study team inform the public of the implications
of scientific findings to the understanding of the environmental
and health impact of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. In collaboration
with the Committee to Bridge the Gap, Dr. Cohen has been able
to communicate his research findings to the community. Their scientific
studies, community involvement, and work with local officials and
California State representatives have had a major impact on the political
debate regarding the future of the toxic site. Providing scientific evidence
of the site’s toxicity, Dr. Cohen’s expertise in environmental and chemical
science enabled the longtime concerns of the public to be heard by state officials.
His research has culminated in the presentation of his findings to numerous public
meetings and at an April 5, 2007 briefing for public officials at the invitation
of State Senator Sheila Kuehl.
Marjorie Kagawa-Singer
Professor, UCLA Public Health, Community Health Sciences
and Families in Good Health/St. Mary’s
The work of Professor Kagawa-Singer, in collaboration with Families in Good Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center involves research and advocacy for early cancer screening among underrepresented Asian communities. Supported by the California Breast Cancer Research Program, Professor Kagawa-Singer’s research has played a key role in the improvement of mammography screening rates among Hmong women, a group that has had one of the lowest rates of all ethnic groups. Her partnership with Families in Good Health has culminated in the promotion of breast and cervical cancer screenings among seven monolingual Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander populations in Los Angeles, Orange, San Francisco, and Alameda counties.
Jose Luis Valenzuela
Professor, UCLA School of Film, Theater & Television
and Latino Theater Company at THE NEW LATC
As Artistic Director of the Latino Theater Company at THE NEW LATC,
Jose Luis Valenzuela has been responsible for developing its artistic
vision and organizational mission, translating THE NEW LATC ideals
into artistic programming and overseeing its implementation. THE
NEW LATC builds and develops smaller ethnically-specific theater
companies into companies that produce professional Equity theater;
produce and present theater that represents the diversity of Los
Angeles; and create a Summer Conservatory for youth that nurtures
and develops aspiring theater artists to successfully compete for
entrance into theater programs in major universities.
Gail Wyatt
Professor, UCLA Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
and To Help Everyone Clinic, Inc.
T.H.E. Clinic is one of the few non-profit health care clinics in Southwest Los Angeles, serving part of a dense urban area of over one million people, almost one-third of whom are uninsured. T.H.E. Clinic has garnered longtime support from all levels of government as well as such major public policy institutions as the University of California, Los Angeles, California Foundation, United Way, Drew University, and the California Family Health Council, to name only a few. The collaboration between T.H.E. Clinic and Professor Wyatt began over 30 years ago while she was collecting her dissertation research, assessing stress among African American mothers and children. (See a graphic representation of that 30-year collaboration here.) Her contribution to the development of standards of care at T.H.E. Clinic began while the clinic was in its developmental stage. Recently, Professor Wyatt’s partnership with T.H.E. Clinic has been characterized by a mutually beneficial relationship of scholarship and community work, in which T.H.E. Clinic has been able to implement the vital research provided through Wyatt’s leadership in the UCLA Sexual Health Program, the UCLA AIDS Institute, and the Women’s Health Initiative.
The Rosenfield Prize Program is supported by the UCLA Foundation Ann C. Rosenfield Fund under the direction of UCLA alumnus David A. Leveton.
Photos by Rachel Benioff
