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A LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

On June 13th, I had the great honor of witnessing the Executive HPM Class of 2025 walk across the stage at Royce Hall as they were conferred their MPH and MHA degrees. The number of hours dedicated to studying, research, and pursuing their passion for public health all culminated in this beautiful moment, celebrated not only by our students, but their families, friends, colleagues, faculty, and staff. Congratulations, Class of 2025! The world needs your leadership now more than ever. 

It’s been a big year for UCLA. Julio Frenk was inaugurated as our 7th chancellor on June 5th. The first Latino to be appointed as UCLA Chancellor, Dr. Frenk holds an academic appointment as distinguished professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management within the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. This is very exciting news for all of us, and we can’t wait to see the developments that will surely result from this appointment in our department. 

Even closer to home, I am thrilled to say that Dr. Isomi Miake-Lye is the new Faculty Director of the EMPH Program. An Adjunct Assistant Professor for over six years in the department, she teaches the “Practices of Evaluation in Health Services: Theory and Methodology” course (with Dr. Becky Yano) both in the EMPH Program and the day MPH Program. In the past year, Isomi served as the EMPH Faculty Advisor and has been conducting a thorough evaluation of the program, interviewing and surveying students, alumni, and faculty. Stay tuned for new initiatives. 

The HPMAA “Leaders of Today, Leaders of Tomorrow” Annual Awards Dinner on May 20th was a wonderful night spent in celebration of our community. Dustin Corcoran, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of the California Medical Association, was honored as the Leader of Today Awardee, and our very own Dr. Leah Vriesman was selected as the 2025 Ira Alpert Service Awardee. 

Congratulations to all the ExecHPM scholarship and award recipients, including those joining the honors societies of Delta Omega and Upsilon Phi Delta. A special shout-out to the winners of the 2025 EMPH Sinaiko Business Plan Award, Alvin Wong and Alan Rozet; the Ann G. Quealy EMPH Award Winner, Lisa Edwards; and the MHA Outstanding Student Award Winners, Uma Chandavarkar and Casimir Kwiatkowski. I am so proud of all of you. 

I encourage you to follow us on social media as we’ll be announcing our EMPH fall cohort very soon as well as our newly admitted MHA students. (You can find all our channels on Linktree.) And you’ll hear from us again in October with our Fall Quarterly Update.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer. 

All my best, 

Kyle Sullivan, MSW
Director, Executive Programs in HPM