UC Irvine Black Thriving Initiative Cluster Hiring Program
Advancing the Well-Being of Black Communities
The UCI Black Thriving Initiative Faculty Cluster Hiring Program recruited scholars that focus on understanding anti-Blackness and interrogate structural racism in its myriad forms, such as:
- The lived experience of anti-Black racism and associated inequalities in diverse institutional domains
- The collateral consequences of racism, historically and in the present era
- Public policy solutions to structural racism in criminal justice, education, the built and natural environment, health and wellness, urban planning, etc.
This program was designed to build on the hiring priorities of UCI’s academic units while paving new paths for research and creative expression, teaching and learning, and community engagement.
The Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research (CEHDR) is an interdisciplinary research center based in the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health at UC Irvine Public Health at UC Irvine. CEHDR was founded in 2021 as a result of the UC Irvine Black Thriving Initiative Faculty Cluster Hiring Program to expand scholarship focused on the experiences of Black American communities as they relate to environmental justice. The center has 29 affiliated faculty spanning a range of disciplines across UC Irvine, including Public Health, Medicine, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Urban Planning and Public Policy, Nursing, Anthropology, and Pharmacy. CEHDR is directed by Dr. Karen D. Lincoln and supported by Dr. Bryan Gaines, the Center Coordinator.
Director
Karen Lincoln, Professor
Faculty hired through the BTI cluster initiative:
Associate Professor, Department of Health, Society and Behavior, Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering
Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, CEHDR Director
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences
Infrastructure Equity Cluster
The Infrastructure Equity BTI Cluster initiative builds on existing strengths to position UCI as a national leader in addressing social, environmental, and racial disparities in infrastructure planning, design, and implementation. Historically, the negative impacts of infrastructure investments have been disproportionately borne by Black communities and other marginalized groups.
Director
Doug Houston, Professor
Faculty hired through the BTI cluster initiative:
Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy, School of Social Ecology
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering
Professor, School of Law
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth System Science, School of Physical Sciences (begins July 1, 2025)
At every crucial juncture in our nation’s history, Black authors, artists and other creative workers, especially from Los Angeles and the greater Southern California region, have produced new narratives, images and social practices that challenge systemic anti-black racism and affirm Black life and humanity. Their works, broadly conceptualized by the term poetic justice, elevate the level of public conversation on how the history of slavery, segregation, and mass incarceration directly affect virtually every civic and social institution, including higher education. Hiring under the theme of poetic justice, our Cluster will build stronger connections between UCI and community-based institutions that focus on the production and preservation of Black history, culture and art. Focusing on this nexus between UCI and California’s cultural economy, poetic justice will support the creative talents of Black Southern Californians, students, faculty, staff and other system-impacted people on our campus and beyond, build sustainable arts and culture industry careers, and promote campus- and societal-level visions of reparative justice.
Co-Directors
Mercy Romero, Associate Professor
Coleman Collins, Assistant Professor
Faculty hired through the BTI cluster initiative:
Professor, Department of African American Studies, School of Humanities
Assistant Professor, Department of Studio Art, Claire Trevor School of the Arts
Associate Professor, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, School of Social Ecology
Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing, Paul Merage School of Business
Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, School of Social Ecology (begins July 1, 2025)