When Zach Birmingham came to UC San Diego for his graduate degree in international affairs, he already had a love of all things boating. A former merchant marine, he holds a near-coastal, 100-ton commercial master captain’s license and has served on vessels in the Pacific, Middle East and Latin America. So naturally when he graduated in 2011, he took an internship at the Unified Port of San Diego — an internship that ultimately led him to a full-time career in government and civic relations.
Steph Barry, a UC San Diego alumna and global business executive, has been appointed Assistant Vice Chancellor of Alumni and Community Engagement, effective Jan. 29. Barry joins the campus Advancement team following her 19-year tenure at WD-40 Company, where she most recently served as Vice President for Strategic Projects. Headquartered in San Diego, WD-40 Company is a global organization that currently markets its products in 188 countries worldwide.
The University of California, San Diego is an institution known for achieving scientific and creative innovations. So it is no surprise that the Department of Visual Arts broke boundaries and crossed audiences when it recently transformed a 2,500 square-foot, San Diego Art Institute (SDAI) project-space at Horton Plaza into an unexpected home for innovative contemporary art.
In two weeks, UC San Diego Health orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Sonya Ahmed will head to Lillehammer, Norway for the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games. Ahmed is a former elite athlete herself—competing internationally in gymnastics and in collegiate pole vaulting. But this time she’s heading to the world stage not as an athlete, but as a doctor.
UC San Diego will honor African-American history with events throughout February, including art exhibits, lectures, film screenings, spoken word performances and the annual Black History Month Scholarship Brunch. The Feb. 27 brunch will feature renowned filmmaker, actor and activist Danny Glover as the special guest speaker.
Where others might see obstacles, Dejanay Wayne sees opportunity. For the past two months, the UC San Diego undergraduate has taken the initiative to meet one-on-one with campus leadership to share her ideas on how to make the university more welcoming to students of color. As a result of her newfound alliances, she secured bookstore giveaways to help recruit underrepresented students to UC San Diego, introduced ethnic hair and skin products to campus, and is now working to develop a retention program that pairs current undergraduates with first-year underrepresented students.
