Office of the Dean
Abel Valenzuela Jr.
Dean of Social Sciences
Abel Valenzuela Jr. was appointed dean of social sciences effective May 2024. A member of the UCLA faculty since 1994, Valenzuela is a professor of labor studies, urban planning and Chicana/o and Central American studies and the most recent past director of UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, working with colleagues to build labor studies and enhance research and engagement through the newly named James Lawson Worker Justice Center.
Caleb “Q” Na
Associate Dean, Finance & Administration
As associate dean, Caleb “Q” Na serves as the Chief Administrative and Financial Officer for the UCLA Division of Social Sciences. Q manages the overall academic and administrative resources of the Division which is home to approximately 300 ladder faculty and 9,000 undergraduate majors and 800 graduate students. Q has been with the division since 2014, and has been employed at UCLA since 1994.
Muriel C. McClendon
Associate Dean, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Muriel McClendon is Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the Division of Social Sciences. In that capacity, she works with Dean Valenzuela on a variety of matters including, but not limited to, the faculty search and hiring process and issues concerning climate in the Division. As an Equity Advisor, she also works with the office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She received her B.A. in History from Yale, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Stanford.
Michael Lofchie
Associate Dean, Academic Personnel
Mike Lofchie is the associate dean in the Division of Social Sciences and has been a member of the Political Science Department since the 1960s. He specializes in the political economy of developing countries; his latest book is The Political Economy of Tanzania: Decline and Recovery (Pennsylvania, 2014). As associate dean, he conducts preliminary reviews of academic personnel cases.
Eric Avila
Associate Dean, Research
Eric Avila is an urban cultural historian, studying the intersections of racial identity, urban space, and cultural representation in twentieth century America. He began his undergraduate education at UC Berkeley in 1986 and left that institution with a Ph.D. in History in 1997. Since 1997, he has taught Chicano Studies and History at UCLA. and holds an affiliation with the Department of Urban Planning.
Andra Kim
Executive Assistant
As executive assistant to the dean, Andra provides administrative and business support to the office of the Dean of Social Sciences; acting as the primary point of contact for incoming communications and requests, and managing various aspects of division projects and events. Andra holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University.
Michelle Anderson
Executive Director of Projects and Resource Management
Divisional Officers
Mike I. Lee
Chief Information Officer Director of Social Sciences Computing
Jenny Huynh
Chief Contracts and Grants Officer CAO of Social Sciences Grant Support
Jenny Wang
Budget Analyst
Jenny has been at UCLA since 2004 and came to the Dean’s office in 2015. As the Senior Budget Analyst in the Division, she administers divisional resources within a multi-fund environment in the three broad budgetary areas: instruction, operating, and faculty recruitment & retention. She has a B.A. in History from Shanghai Normal University.
Aimee Villarica
Academic Personnel Analyst
Aimee joined UCLA in December 2011 as an Administrative Specialist at the Academic Personnel office in the Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine. She moved to the College of Letter and Science in September 2016 to accept a position as the Divisional Academic Personnel Analyst for Social Sciences. Aimee oversees the academic personnel review process for ladder faculty and temporary academic appointment and advancement actions. She reconciles and submit final clearance for personnel employment actions, recruitments, leaves, range adjustments, etc. in EDB, UCPATH, OPUS and UC Recruit. Aimee graduated with a B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines.
External Affairs
Peter Evans
Assistant Dean of Development
Peter has been in the UCLA Division of Social Sciences since 2011, assuming the role of Executive Director of Development in 2018 and the role of Assistant Dean of Development in 2023. In his role at UCLA, Peter oversees all major gift fundraising activities for the Division. Prior to joining UCLA, Peter worked at J. Paul Getty Museum for eight years after serving as business manager for several entertainment companies.
Kristina Hordzwick
Marketing Specialist
Kristina has been with the UCLA College since June 2014. Kristina interned for the art education outreach program at the Guggenhiem Museum in Bilboa, Spain and later continued her career as the marketing, communications, branding, and graphic design director for a large financial firm in Nevada. In her role as Senior Marketing Manager for the UCLA College, she is responsible for strategizing, directing, designing, and implementing effective marketing, media relations, content, and identity programs and campaigns across a wide range of media. She received her bachelor’s degree in art from the University of Reno, Nevada.