Dear Trustees,
Thank you again for a productive board meeting last month. As a reminder, the minutes from the February 23 meeting are saved in the Trustee Resources Box folder and the livestream recording can be viewed here.
We cannot express enough how grateful we are for your continued partnership, which is immensely critical especially as we prepare to launch UC Merced's first comprehensive development campaign. We look forward to dedicated discussions at our in-person board meeting in June on how the board and each trustee can support the success of the campaign and ultimately help us achieve our shared vision for 2030.
Before then, we do hope to see many of you at various events throughout the spring, including those hosted by your fellow trustees. Thank you for all that you do to support our unique research and programs and introduce others who may be interested in getting involved. We also hope that many of you will join our students and alumni in meetings with state legislators to advocate on behalf of UC Merced. More information on the 2022 Advocacy Initiative is included below.
As always, please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or comments.
Warmest regards,
Ed, Lisa, and Stephanie
E. Edward Klotzbier, JD
Vice Chancellor
President, UC Merced Foundation
Lisa Pollard Carlson
Associate Vice Chancellor
Vice President, UC Merced Foundation
Stephanie Sia
Director, Foundation Board
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Full Board Meetings
Wednesday, June 22, 2022 | 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Work Group Meetings
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem WG | RSVP
Thursday, March 24, 2022 | 11:00 am
Connections & Engagement WG | RSVP
Friday, April 1, 2022 | 1:00 pm
Advocacy & Awareness WG
April TBD
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2022 UC Merced Advocacy Initiative |
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The 2022 UC Merced Advocacy Initiative is kicking off in April, and we invite you to take part by joining one or more meetings with state legislators and/or their staff.
Building relationships with elected officials is crucial to the success of UC Merced and our students. Your championing of UC Merced and our collective mission helps build those relationships by providing perspective on our unique campus and offerings, and validating our core vision on how to grow the University equitably and sustainably. Painting that portrait is more critical this year than ever before, with several important initiatives on the legislative docket that could transform UC Merced by helping us expand our offerings to more Californians and supercharge our strategic plan and its goals.
Seven meetings have been scheduled thus far, and we will continue to add meetings to the list and calendar as they are confirmed. You may sign up for meeting slots on the sign-up sheet here. Please also complete this Google form to share your general availability. To ensure adequate and strategic coverage across meetings, we may shuffle participants based on relationship and district residence.
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Staff Update: Terisa Roesler |
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We are pleased to share that Terisa Roesler has recently stepped into a new role as Executive Director of Major Giving. Terisa oversees our major gifts program and manages the frontline development staff. Along with Marci Gordon, who oversees institutional giving, Terisa works closely with Associate Vice Chancellor of External Relations Lisa Pollard Carlson in support of our fundraising efforts.
Terisa re-joined External Relations in September 2020 as our first Southern California director of development, having served as a member of the development team here from 2006-2010. Terisa has also worked at UC Davis and UC Riverside. Prior to re-joining UC Merced, she spent eight years at San Diego Zoo Global, where she served as the Senior Manager of Individual Giving. Originally from Merced County, Terisa grew up in Dos Palos and traces her family roots in the area back to the late 1800s.
A roster of key contacts from the Philanthropy & Strategic Partnerships team can be viewed here.
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We appreciate the board's generosity and annual support through the Trustees' Impact Fund. Contributions to the 2022 Fund and other funds that are meaningful to you can be made online here or by completing and mailing this form.
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Tri- Valley Innovation Fair |
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Saturday, March 19, 2022
Alameda County Fairgrounds | Pleasanton, CA
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
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Thanks to Vice Chair Monya Lane, Mobi the Mobile Maker Lab is heading to the Tri-Valley Innovation Fair with the CITRIS team! The UC Merced Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute’s hallmark outreach program is NexTech Robotics, which makes computer science accessible and fun to students across the San Joaquin Valley. UC Merced engineering students will share their passion for problem solving by offering two activities on robots and coding. Attending youth will drive clawbots and learn about sensors and will be able to work with the clawbots to achieve a game goal. Attending high-school students will gain quick exposure to python coding and problem solving through a set of computers with a computer scientist.
Mobi was made possible through the generous support of the UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees, Joseph Gallo Farms, and HP Inc.
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Vital & Alice Pellissier Family Distinguished Lecture Series |
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Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Reception: Administration Building Room 306 | 5:00 pm
Lecture: Dr. Vikram and Priya Lakireddy Grand Ballroom | 6:00 pm
September 14, 2015 -- A day that marked one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of our lifetimes -- the detection of ripples in the fabric of space that reached us from the violent collision of two black holes over one billion years ago. This ushered in a new era of astrophysics in which scientists can now “hear” cosmic events using gravitational waves that distort space and time, proving predictions made by Albert Einstein nearly 100 years ago. Come join us to hear about how more than 1,000 scientists from around the world worked for decades to forever change the way we explore the universe.
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Merced Vernal Pools & Grassland Reserve Tours |
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Friday, April 1, 8, 22, or 29
9:00 am - 11:30 am
Join us for a tour of the UC Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve and learn about the Reserve’s natural history, geology, ecology, land management (cattle grazing), stewardship (monitoring of threatened and endangered species), and ongoing research activities. Come experience displays of blooming flowers, like meadowfoam and wild hyacinth, and observe birds, like the red-tailed hawk and Canada goose, among other wildlife.
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Love's Labor's Lost
April 22-24, 2022
Yosemite National Park, Curry Village
Shakespeare in Yosemite was founded in 2017 to bring short, accessible, and free productions of Shakespeare’s plays to Yosemite National Park for Earth Day and Shakespeare’s birthday each April. The 2022 show is uniquely adapted for Yosemite National Park, based on Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost, and is set in 1969, with groovy music and costumes, and an evocation of the first Earth Day. Please reach out to us at ucmfoundation@ucmerced.edu if you have questions or would like to attend.
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Monday, April 25, 2022
5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Join Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz for the Opening Reception of the National Parks Institute and meet the world’s next generation of park leaders from around the globe, as the seminar explores the topic of "Parks as Instruments of Diplomacy, Tolerance and Peace."
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Delia S. Saenz, will join UC Merced as vice chancellor and chief diversity officer. She will begin this spring. Saenz comes to Merced from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University, where she is chief diversity officer and holds a faculty position in the Department of Psychology and the Hispanic Research Center. She has previously served as a vice president for inclusion, equity and leadership development at Bennington College and began her career on the psychology faculty at the University of Notre Dame.
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The new UC Merced Bobcat STEM Scholars Program, funded by a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), will provide four years of scholarship support for up to 10 eligible incoming students per year who declare majors within the university’s School of Natural Sciences (SNS). The review panel will also focus on building a diverse cohort with representation from across the SNS majors and with demographic diversity representative of the campus population.
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UC Merced’s Student Alumni Association (SAA) is partnering with the Office of Alumni Relations to host a month-long initiative dedicated to building a culture of philanthropy on campus. Student Philanthropy Month empowers students to raise funds and engage in community service activities that promote the Bobcat community's charitable work and make a difference.
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UC Merced is committing to provide Los Angeles high-school students the tools and guidance to attend college. The university is embarking on a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the federally funded Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) to increase the number of low-income students who graduate from high school prepared to succeed in postsecondary education and lifelong learning.
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The Northern California Chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation has named UC Merced its newest partner university. ARCS, a national organization established and operated entirely by women, is committed to the advancement of science in the United States by financially supporting distinguished graduate students in science, technology, engineering, math and medical research disciplines at its partner institutions.
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