As we head back to school, both for my elementary school-aged children and the university writ large, I am reflecting on educational journeys. 

Land-use impacts health. Control is local. In California, a planning document, called a “general plan” sets forth zoning and policy goals for each city and county. Communities collaboratively create such plans through many years of public meetings. The resulting general plan determines where and how much development will occur as well as what type of development (eg.

What does climate justice action look like? Imagine a world with more trees, green space, community gardens, clean energy, bike lanes, and beautified urban spaces. We are saying yes to cleaner air and water for all and with a special focus on historically disadvantaged communities. We are saying yes to sustainable and equitable development. We are saying yes to uplifting grassroots activist movements and to regenerative agriculture.

I accepted the Center for Regional Change Faculty Director position with great enthusiasm for both the legacy of the Center and its potential to further policy-oriented scholarship throughout California.

For the past several years, the CRC has enjoyed a collaboration with the California Coalition for Rural Housing (CCRH) as a way to support affordable housing developers, advocates, and policymakers at the frontlines of affordable housing production, preservation, and protection across the state. Based in Sacramento, CCRH is one of the oldest low-income housing coalitions in the country, working to promote and preserve affordable housing and sustainable, healthy communities throughout Rural California.

Dear CRC Community,

In addition to the work that the CRC does in the community, we often collaborate with other Centers and Departments on campus to produce research that matters.

If we’re to live up to our own time,

then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made.

That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.

It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit.

It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.

-Amanda Gorman reciting “The Hill We Climb”

Dear CRC Community,

Dear Colleagues,

For the past 15 years, directing the Center for Regional Change has been a singular passion and honor. In that time we built the organization into a leader in action-oriented research and engagement on issues of social, racial, economic and environmental justice. We have informed regional and state policies related to youth health and well-being, drinking water, cumulative environmental hazards, transportation, housing, and economic development and helped transform UC Davis into a center of excellence on engaged scholarship.

Dear CRC Community,