Vickie M. Mays, Ph.D., MSPH, will serve as the Director of the Center. Dr. Mays brings to the center a long history of Principal Investigator status of funded extramural research, including extensive research relevant to health disparities, and a wealth of administrative experience.

Administratively, Dr. Mays has served in a number of capacities that are relevant to this application. As a PI of multi-million dollar grants, she has managed project staffs as large as 16 with responsibility for the budget, personnel, while achieving scientific goals. She served a 4-year term, one year as the Vice-Chair, on the campus IRB. In 1997 she was elected Vice Chair of the Academic Senate, the highest-ranking administrative faculty position. Her Chairship was a three-year (1998-1999) term. As the Chair she had oversight responsibilities for 22 committees including Planning and Budget, Undergraduate and Graduate Council, Faculty Welfare, Research and others. She was responsible for the preparation of the Senate budget of approximately $1 million in operating costs and another $1 million in the faculty grants program and the 15 person staff. During her tenure as the Senate Chair she managed to successfully double funds received from the UCLA Foundation as a contribution to the Faculty Grant’s Program. She was a member of the Chancellor’s Committee on Diversity, the Steering Team of the University’s Outreach efforts to increase minority student enrollment, and drafted the campus response on faculty intellectual property considerations in teaching, research, and creative endeavors. Prior to her election as the Chair of the Academic Senate, Dr. Mays served on three committees that were an integral part of the university’s efforts to overhaul the budget process. On the Responsibility Center Management ad hoc committees she served on cost allocation, customer service and the overall coordinating committee. In 1998 she was selected to attend a six-day UC Management Institute focused on negotiation skills, ethical business practices, and the overall functioning of the UC system. These experiences have given Dr. Mays an excellent knowledge-base of how the university functions, how resource allocations occur, and how to successfully navigate the university system. Equally important is that fact that she has established a number of working relationships with both administrators and faculty across campus that will benefit the Center. For example, as a result of serving as the Chair of the Undergraduate Council, the senate body responsible for instruction and approval of new courses, Dr. Mays is quite familiar with many of the resources listed in the Training Core and has served as faculty in some of the programs.

Copyright © 2004-2011 Vickie M. Mays, PhD, MSPH