For the first time in university history, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will have a Latino chancellor.
On June 12, UCLA President Michael V. Drake announced Julio Frenk will serve as the university’s next chancellor. Frenk is a global health expert and currently serves as president of the University of Miami. He will succeed current Chancellor Gene Block who is planning to return to teaching and conducting research.
The seven-month long search for UCLA’s next chancellor involved an advisory committee chaired by Drake, university faculty, staff, students, alumni, and others. The university said the search process yielded a strong and diverse pool of candidates. In a statement, Drake said Frenk demonstrated a powerful commitment to the health and well-being of people, institutions, and systems around the world.
“His leadership will build on the growth and strength the campus has achieved under Chancellor Block and accelerate UCLA’s brilliant trajectory in service to Los Angeles, the nation, and the world,” said Drake in the statement.
While at the University of Miami, Frenk guided the university through the pandemic and helped to turnaround its academic health system. Among his achievements as president at the University of Miami include orchestrating a $2.5 billion fundraising campaign for the university. Under Frenk’s leadership, the University of Miami was inducted as a member of the Association of American Universities, an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education.
Outside of his work as a higher education administrator, Frenk is a public health and sociology professor. He worked as co-chair of the Lancet Commission of the Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century, and has authored 196 papers in academic journals, 182 articles in magazines and newspapers, and 29 books.
“At this crucial moment for higher education, returning to the public sector to lead one of the top research universities in the world — including one of the 10 largest academic health systems — is an exciting opportunity and a great honor for me,” said Chancellor-designate Frenk. “I look forward to adding my lifelong commitment to public service in education and health care to the vibrant, diverse, and cosmopolitan community that is Los Angeles.”
Frenk also served as federal secretary of health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. During that time, he reformed the country’s health system and helped to expand access to health care for more than 55 million people.
Frenk is set to begin his role as UCLA’s new chancellor in January. Until then, Darnell Hunt, UCLA’s executive vice chancellor and provost, will serve as interim chancellor when Block steps down from his position at the end of July.
“Dr. Frenk is an excellent choice to take up UCLA’s chancellorship,” said Block in a statement. “He is widely respected across academia and well-known as an exceptional thinker, an administrator of considerable ability and a brilliant public health leader. UCLA is in great hands, and I am certain that our university’s star will rise even higher under him.”
