The Office of Inclusive Excellence (OIE) recognizes 10 distinctive projects and lead faculty members with the Inclusive Excellence Spirit Awards for 2020. The recipients will receive $5,000 each for their projects to advance inclusive excellence at UCI.

OIE received 19 unique submissions for consideration, with requested funds totaling nearly $90,000. The awardees represent seven academic units and were selected for their topic relevance and promise of assessment and contributions to UCI in at least one of five priority areas. Priorities include: deepening understanding of identities, promoting intercultural competency, sustaining partnerships with community-based organizations, advancing achievement among educationally disadvantaged communities, and/or contributing to positive UCI climate.

Awardees will report on the outcomes of their completed projects by January 31, 2022.

The 2020 Inclusive Excellence Spirit Award Recipients are:

• Lee Bardwell - Department of Developmental and Cell Biology in the School of Biological Sciences - "UCI-HBCU Faculty Seminar Exchange"
• Tonya Bradford - Paul Merage School of Business - "Building Community through the Launch of the Merage School Black Management Association"
• Judith Kroll - Department of Language Science in the School of Social Sciences - "Bilingualism Matters in California"
• Alessandra Pantano - Department of Mathematics in the School of Physical Sciences - "Leveraging the Cultural Capital of UCI Latinx Students to Transform a Mentoring Program for Underserved Kids in the Wake of a Global Pandemic"
• Zachary Price - Department of Drama in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts - "Black Arts and Black Publics - Start Up"
• Cyrian Reed - Department of Dance in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts - "The Moving Manuscript"
• Damien Sojoyner - Department of Anthropology in the School of Social Sciences - "Contested Truths: Archival Formations and the Carceral State"
• Jane Stoever - School of Law - "Teen Dating Violence Prevention: From the #MeToo Movement to Sustained Social Change"
• Candice Taylor Lucas - Department of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine - "Work of HEArt (Health Equity & Art): Increasing Awareness about Black Maternal and Infant Health Disparities through Theatre and Reflection"
• Michael Yassa - Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior in the School of Biological Sciences - "Training of Trainers' Facilitation for the End Racism Initiative"

The annual deadline for Inclusive Excellence Spirit Award submissions is October 31. Additional details about the program and award recipients may be found at: https://inclusion.uci.edu/spirit-awards/.

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Douglas M. Haynes, Ph.D. (Pronouns: he/him/his)
Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Chief Diversity Officer
Director, ADVANCE Program
Professor of History