Uklejas Help Establish CSULB Center
for Ethical Leadership

Long-time CSULB supporters Mick and Louise Ukleja have donated a substantial gift toward a $2.5 million endowment to establish the Center for Ethical Leadership at CSULB.

Alumnus Mick Ukleja is the founder and president of LeadershipTraQ in Cypress and a member of the university's Board of Governors. Louise Ukleja is president of Opportunity Schools, which delivers programs for private school students with learning challenges.

The Uklejas' past campus donations have been directed toward the athletics program, Disabled Student Services, the President's Scholars Program and the College of Business Administration.

Acknowledging the generosity of the couple's gift and assistance in raising additional endowment funds, CSULB received approval from the CSU board of trustees to name the center the Ukleja Center for Ethical Leadership.

"The Uklejas' support of the Center for Ethical Leadership will not only impact our campus, but will greatly enhance the public dialogue of how ethics influences our lives on a daily basis,¨ said CSULB President Robert C. Maxson.

With a goal of becoming the preeminent seat of applied business and professional ethics among public universities in the western United States, the center is housed in CSULB's College of Business Administration. The center assists companies and not-for-profit organizations in advancing the practice of ethical leadership.

Designed as an interdisciplinary organization, the center will draw upon the collective expertise of faculty and administrators from all of the university's colleges as well as its Division of Student Services.

The center will be the first named center of its kind in a California State University business school and is another first for the CSULB College of Business Administration, which received the 2002 California Prospector Award from the California Council for Excellence for commitment to quality and continuous improvement.

Professor Selected for Fulbright Research Chair

Political Science Professor Ron Schmidt is spending this fall as a 2005-06 Fulbright Scholars Program Research Chair at the University of Montreal.

The program is part of a new series of research chairs established in cooperation with the Fulbright program and the Canadian government.

The Fulbright is the U.S. government's flagship program in international educational exchange for promoting "mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries of the world.¨ Fulbright grants are made to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities.

Schmidt is conducting a comparative study of immigrant settlement policies between Canada and the United States. He then will continue a yearlong sabbatical from the Political Science Department to complete a co-authored new book, already in progress, on the impact of recent immigration on U.S. racial politics.

Transportation Technologies Center
Named for Maritime Attorney James Ackerman

The Center for the Commercial Deployment of Transportation Technologies (CCDoTT) has been named in honor of the late James Ackerman, an internationally renowned maritime lawyer who helped launch the center.

Ackerman, who practiced in the Long Beach area for 50 years, helped lead the way in establishing CCDoTT in 1995. He assisted in securing more than $30 million in federal funding for the center, and he developed the framework that enabled CSULB to engage in research and development related to transportation, particularly as related to the Long Beach and Los Angeles port areas.

Now known as the James Ackerman Center for the Commercial Deployment of Transportation Technologies, CCDoTT is a research and development center located within the CSULB College of Engineering. It focuses on the problems, requirements and opportunities associated with commercial and military transportation.

CCDoTT functions as a partnership of academic institutions, government and commercial corporations. It was formed to enable the Department of Defense (U.S. Transportation Command), the Department of Transportation (Maritime Administration), and other partners to leverage advanced technologies in solving defense and commercial transportation infrastructure problems; conduct research and development for defense and commercial transportation infrastructure initiatives; and provide a technology transfer between the Department of Defense and commercial industry.

On hand for the unveiling of the new NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, Evaluation and Leadership Training were (l-r) Associate Professor and Co-director Britt Rios-Ellis; Monica Lozano, publisher and CEO of La Opinion and NCLR board chair; Carlos A. Ugarte, co-director of the center and deputy vice president for health at NCLR; Janet Murguia, president and CEO of NCLR; U.S. Rep. Grace Napolitano; Ron Vogel, dean of the College of Health and Human Services; Robert C. Maxson, CSULB president; Gary Reichard, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs; and U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis.

Center for Latino Community Health Unveiled

A newly established center at CSULB designed to develop programs to better serve the health care needs of Latino communities officially opened its doors in June. The Center for Latino Community Health, Evaluation and Leadership Training is a collaborative effort between CSULB and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and was established with a $500,000 appropriation from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus with strong support from the Congressional Hispanic Task Force on Health.

The NCLR/CSULB center will work to develop health programs for underserved Latino communities, provide technical assistance to community-based organizations, and offer training for health professionals with a special emphasis on increasing the number of Latinos in health care leadership positions. NCLR houses a number of current projects that focus on improving the health of the Latino community on the local, regional and national levels.