University Communications

Fall 2002
Man on the Street
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Franklin Gilliam is leading UCLA’s effort to strengthen ties between the campus and the broader community around it.

By Cynthia Lee
Photography by Diana Koenigsberg

These days, Franklin Gilliam is living life on the fly.

As UCLA’s new associate vice chancellor for community partnerships, he is spearheading the university’s "UCLA in LA" initiative to strengthen ties between the campus and the community and to enhance the quality of residents’ lives. One day, he’s welcoming Los Angeles public school students to UCLA where they are getting help in math and science, another he is talking to the command staff of the Los Angeles Police Department about UCLA’s commitment to work with the LAPD on the importance of mass communications in building strong relationships between the department and the broader Los Angeles community. Over the past few weeks, he has conferred with members of the Los Angeles school board and with community and religious leaders — people close to the heartbeat of the city, such as Monica Lozano, president and chief operating officer of La Opinión and a University of California regent; John Bryant, chairman and CEO of Operation Hope; and Stewart Kwoh ’70, J.D. ’74, president and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

His task is enormous. Throughout UCLA’s history, the university has been knitted into the city’s fabric, working to resolve pressing issues and problems. Today, thousands of UCLA students, faculty and staff participate in some 200 campus programs that serve the community in far-reaching ways. But until Gilliam’s appointment, there was no central person to coordinate this massive effort that focuses the university’s vast resources, manpower and expertise on critical community issues such as health care, child and family wellness and the arts.

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