Spotlight series: Meet the people behind UCLA’s strategic plan

With the October 2023 launch of Creating the Future: UCLA's 2023-28 Strategic Plan, the university outlined five primary goals for strengthening and expanding its impact on campus, in local communities and around the globe.

Those goals are: deepening UCLA's engagement with the diverse and dynamic city of Los Angeles; expanding the university's global influence; developing key structures and initiatives to help UCLA advance cutting-edge research and creative activities for the greater good; capitalizing on new teaching approaches and technology to elevate instruction; and adjusting UCLA processes, culture and infrastructure to help the university meet these other aims.

This spotlight series is part of an ongoing effort to highlight the "people behind the plan" - Bruins who are creating the future at UCLA by advancing the strategic plan's goals and priorities. Please check back often.

'Four walls don't make a classroom': Joe Way is transforming learning technology

On paper, Joe Way's job at UCLA might sound like he's implementing wall-sized transparent computer screens and holographic telepresence on campus. And if that technology were readily available today, there's no doubt he would be bringing it to Westwood.

Until then, UCLA's executive director of digital spaces is working to make technology more consistent across campus and planning future digital infrastructure to benefit the Bruin community. Think video systems in residence halls - similar to those in hotels - that learn users' habits and needs or digital wayfinding signage that better integrates emergency messaging on campus.

Way, who joined UCLA almost a year ago, has plenty of experience in educational technology. His current role in UCLA IT Services was created to help lead the Digital Campus Roadmap - an initiative providing the pathway for an information technology support model that helps advance goal 4 of the UCLA's Strategic Plan: to elevate teaching in a way that centers on inclusive excellence.

"Four walls don't make a classroom: Learning can happen anywhere," said Way.

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Brija Johnson is helping expand UCLA's entrepreneurial ties in the region

The process of commercializing solutions coming out of UCLA starts long before the paperwork and lawyers. Bringing the campus's innovations to market, and ensuring its growth and service to the community, begins with the people who sow seeds of collaboration between Bruin networks and who see to it that these pathways continue to grow.

One of these people is Brija Johnson, executive director of UCLA Ventures and its community of UCLA entrepreneurs and venture capitalists that supports UCLA's entrepreneurial ecosystem. The program moved under the UCLA Technology Development Group in 2023, at which point Johnson, who had been with the group as a technology scouting manager since 2021, inherited the venture program's 209 members made up of alumni, friends and affiliates of the university.

A new program Johnson is heading, Bruin Founders, will launch this spring, offering aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators one year of guidance from mentors and support from alumni and affiliates. Newsroom spoke with Johnson about the mentor-in-residence program model, plus how her unit sets the groundwork for inspiring the next generation of Bruin entrepreneurs to help advance goal 1 of UCLA's strategic plan: to deepen the university's engagement with Los Angeles.

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Kaya Mentesoglu's technological creativity helps UCLA map its global impact

For more than two decades, Kaya Mentesoglu has served UCLA's International Institute with key IT technology support, including creating and enhancing the web presences for the institute's many centers and programs.

Directly supporting goal 2 of the UCLA strategic plan - expanding our reach as a global university - Kaya is developing exciting, multi-dimensional ways to bring our worldwide impact to life. Here, he discusses his work as a digital storyteller and pride in his true Bruin family.

"My work includes leading a data team that directly supports UCLA's strategic goal to expand our reach as a global university," Mentesoglu said. "We are actively building on an existing data warehouse and collecting numbers, facts and impact stories. The International Institute's activities, specifically our interactive global map, address some of the near-term priorities of the strategic plan, including coordinating global activities across UCLA and assessing and documenting the impacts of UCLA's global engagement."

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Gerrie Zvara leads continuous process improvement for more effective, efficient campus

With 18 years of service at UCLA, Gerrie Zvara is now assistant director for organizational effectiveness and development with UCLA Administration. In that role, she is leading the "continuous process improvement" effort to advance goal 5 of the UCLA strategic plan: become a more effective institution.

"I lead a team under Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck that supports all nine of the operational functions within the unit, with relation to strategic planning, continuous process improvement, change management and leadership development.

"In my role, I lead the implementation of key initiatives that are designed to create a high-performing work environment for UCLA Administration. We gather data to assess levels of engagement and work conditions to ensure a productive workforce. We partner with departments to look for ways to operate more efficiently and effectively and to focus on developing our future leaders.

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