For over 15 years, the Senior Fellows Leadership Program has been helping to prepare UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs students for careers as change agents in the world by pairing them with leaders in their fields as mentors.
Senior fellows, who volunteer their time to meet with students from three departments in the school, work in diverse fields. They range from policy makers and business professionals to nonprofit executives and community leaders.
And many have key roles in the civic life of Los Angeles. Among them are three winners of Tuesday’s election. Sheila Kuehl, newly elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, has been mentoring students at UCLA Luskin since 2008. She's also served as a UC Regents' Professor. Los Angeles County's new sheriff, Jim McDonnell, currently the police chief in Long Beach, has been a senior fellow for two years. Congresswoman Karen Bass, a 1997-98 alumna and senior fellow, was just reelected to her third term as U.S. representative for the 37th District of California, a position she has held since 2010.
This year, the program welcomes six new senior fellows to the class. Included are: A. Barry Rand, CEO of AARP; William Fujioka, Los Angeles County CEO; Mary McNeil, senior operations officer and team lead of global governance practice at the World Bank; Thomas Epstein, vice president of public affairs for Blue Shield of California; Michael Camuñez, president and CEO of ManattJones Global Strategies; and Michelle Los Banos, UCLA diplomat in residence and foreign officer with the U.S. State Department.
“We’re honored to have these new senior fellows in our program who will teach and guide our students,” said VC Powe, executive director of external programs. “But we’re also grateful to have a long list of returning fellows as well. Since 1998, we’ve had over 20 senior fellows return each year to participate again. It's a tribute to how strongly they believe in it.”
Through yearlong, one-on-one mentorships, students learn leadership and professional development skills and pick up solid career advice while also benefiting from opportunities for internships and networking.
Police Chief McDonnell, the sheriff-elect for Los Angeles County, said he chose to participate another year in part because he realized meeting students also benefits mentors. Students bring a “fresh set of eyes” that can help a “mentor tap into fresh approaches they haven’t thought of before,” he said. In addition, mentorship can help to train the next generation of professionals in various fields that are making an impact.
McDonnell encourages his peers to participate in the program, which he calls “a model for what can be done when you take some of the best and the brightest and ensure they are going in the right direction in the field you are in.” He was the keynote speaker at this year’s annual Senior Fellows Breakfast where students meet their mentors for the first time.
Public policy student Rhianon Anderson was delighted to be matched with senior fellow Steve Soboroff, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, because he’s worked successfully in both the public and private sectors – which is what she wants to do when she graduates.
“This program gives you absolutely unparalleled access to practitioners in the field,” said Anderson, who is in her second year of the mentorship program. “It’s the kind of access that you don’t get just in the classroom. It’s ideal to have these complementary components: academic learning in the classroom and access to practitioners from whom you learn real life lessons.”
First-year student Keren Mahgerefteh said she knew about the program prior to enrolling and made it a point to attend the informational session. After seeing the name of Blue Shield of California vice president Epstein on the list of possible mentors, Mahgerefteh decided to apply.
Epstein’s experience matched up with what she hopes to do in the future, said Mahgerefteh, who is now matched with him. “I’m looking to see how it is to have a day on the job in health policy … and how I can get to where he is in the future,” she said.
This is Epstein’s first year as a senior fellow. He has experience both as a government affairs and communications leader for the Public Broadcasting Service and the Disney Channel. He's also been a former special assistant to former President Bill Clinton.
“I hope to be able to learn from the students and hear what they’re thinking about and also be able to give them some career guidance,” said Epstein, who graduated from UCLA School of Law in 1976. “I have very broad interests from health and politics to philanthropy, so hopefully it’s a wide range of things that we all discuss and learn from each other.”
This story has been adapted from one posted on the Luskin School website. Police Chief McDonnell talks about the benefits of the program for both students and mentors in the video below.