A Message from UCLA Wasserman Dean Tina Christie

Welcome to the spring 2025 issue of the Ed&IS Magazine. We are excited to share with you a set of articles that collectively highlight what we see as the true heart and soul of the School of Education and Information Studies.

We begin with two essays that were designed to convey our admiration, affection, and appreciation for our dear friend and colleague, Jeannie Oakes. Among so many other ac­complishments, Jeannie was Presidential Professor Emerita in Education Equity at UCLA; she founded UCLA Center X and the University of California All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity (UC/ACCORD), and she co-founded the UCLA Institute of Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA). As importantly, she mentored hundreds of UCLA students over the years and likely inspired thousands more.

We lost Jeannie on April 25, 2024, but her work and spirit boldly live on in the work we do. In the two articles we have included here, we aimed to capture just a taste of the countless ways that Jeannie influenced the direction of our school and the lives of so many scholars, practitioners, community organizers, and others.

This issue also highlights the work of Professor of Education and Heyman Endowed Chair Lori Patton Davis, in a Q&A and book excerpt about her new edited volume, “Embracing Queer Students’ Diverse Identities at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A Primer for Presidents, Administrators, and Faculty.” In this volume, which is framed by the publish­ers as “both a call to action and a resource,” the diverse contributors describe the particular challenges of serving LGBTQ+ students; in so doing, they encourage those within HBCUs as well as higher education scholars and scholar-practitioners to actively engage in supporting queer students in HBCU contexts.

Next we share an excerpt from “Resurrecting the Black Body: Race and the Digital Afterlife,” by Associate Professor of Information Studies Tonia Sutherland. Here, Sutherland, who is internationally recognized for her work in Black archival practices, explores death and remember­ing in the digital age. In particular, she reflects on images that capture the violent deaths of Black Americans, the history of commodification of Black bodies, and the potential for alternate forms of remembrance that are unique to Black cultures. The publisher describes her book as not only the “first critical examination of death and remembrance in the digital age,” but also “an invitation to imagine Black digital sovereignty in life and death.”

We also shine a spotlight on the important collaborative work being done by the UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families. The Pritzker Center is a “bridge from UCLA into the neighborhoods across the region,” drawing on the expertise of researchers and community leaders to tackle systemic issues within L.A. County’s child welfare system. There are currently more than 20,000 youth engaged in the child welfare system in L.A. County, in­cluding more than 13,000 in foster care. As such, the Pritzker Center prioritizes making con­nections between UCLA and area nonprofits, K–12 systems, other educational institutions, and government agencies in order to “elevate the life trajectories of children and young people” in the foster care system.

Finally, Sarah Bang, Director of P–12 School Partnerships at UCLA Ed&IS, reflects on volunteering at Nora Sterry Elementary during the week Marquez Elementary merged onto their campus after the Palisades fire. Ed&IS has strong ties to Nora Sterry through its TIE INS program and Teacher Education Program. Sarah’s words are must-read. You can read her full reflection on K–12 education after the wildfires on our website.

We hope this issue of the magazine gives you a sense of the important work that mem­bers of our community are engaged in as well as the ways in which every individual has the potential to shape our mission, our programs, and our thinking.

In unity

–Tina