Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, Vice Chancellor Graduate Studies

The Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies provides coordinated and full-time leadership over all aspects of graduate education. The position reports to the Executive Vice Chancellor and has responsibility for the Academic Senate Program Review process, academic administration and leadership, strategic planning and budgetary authority, external relations, and liaison with campus Academic Senate. The Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies is a member of the Chancellor's Executive Committee, and serves as the campuswide advocate for the advancement of graduate education and works to insure that standards of excellence, fairness and equity are maintained across all graduate programs.

Professor Claudia Mitchell-Kernan has served as Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Division at UCLA for 14 years. She also formerly served as Director of UCLA's Center for Afro-American Studies. Professor Mitchell-Kernan is an anthropologist by discipline and has a joint academic appointment in the departments of Anthropology, and Psychiatry and Biobehavorial Sciences. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and her B.A., and M.A. degrees from Indiana University. She was a member of the faculty at Harvard University before coming to UCLA in 1973. Much of Professor Mitchell-Kernan's early work was in the area of linguistic anthropology and includes studies in Samoa and Belize. Her seminal research in the late 1960s and early 1970s on speech patterns of African Americans continues to be widely cited. She is also known for her work on Caribbean cultures, the sociocultural aspects of mental retardation, and the "male shortage" in the African American community. She currently conducts research on marriage and family formation patterns in the United States. Dr. Mitchell-Kernan served on the the Graduate Record Examination Board from 1994 to 2000 and as chair from 1999 to 2000. She also served on the National Science Board from 1994 to 2000 and chaired the Science and Engineering Indicators Subcommittee from 1996 to 2000. She recently served in Washington, D.C. as the Dean in Residence for the Council of Graduate Schools/National Science Foundation, from March to July 2005.

Office Vice Chancellor, Graduate Studies