UCLA Downtown springs to life as 31 community-focused programs prepare to move in

The UCLA Downtown Programming Committee has selected 31 community-focused programs to receive space at the new UCLA Downtown site. The building, located at 433 S. Spring St., is intended to promote community engagement as well as cross-campus collaboration, and to have a positive impact on the lives of both UCLA students and residents of Los Angeles. Of the 31 programs that have been selected, seven are scheduled to begin operating at the downtown location as soon as June.

Related: Chancellor Block and EVCP Hunt announce campus expansion updates on UCLA Downtown programming and the appointment of a new special advisor for immunology initiatives at UCLA Research Park

UCLA Anderson Forecast: Higher interest rates and restrained growth ahead, but the fear of recession fades

The UCLA Anderson Forecast predicts a positive outlook for 2024, with a fading possibility of a recession due to strong national consumer base, expansionary fiscal policy, and new national industrial policy. Despite a slight decline in retail sales and housing, hiring remained strong. The December forecast predicted that the Federal Reserve will decrease the fed funds rate later in the year. In California, the state's GDP grew at a rate of 3.8% from the first to the third quarter of 2023, driven by tech and aerospace industries. Although the writers and actors strikes of 2023 disrupted the entertainment industry, the overall impact of the work stoppages was hard to gauge, given Hollywood’s ongoing adjustments to digital media, streaming, artificial intelligence and new business models.

Related: California economic outlook is good for 2024 | Sacramento Bee

Increase in UCLA 2024 transfer and in-state applicants

The power of experience

An even Bigger Bang: Chuck Lorre’s $24.5 million gift to empower low-income STEM students

The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation has pledged $24.5 million to UCLA to expand the Big Bang Theory Scholarship program for low-income STEM students. The gift will fund the creation of the UCLA Chuck Lorre Scholars Program, which will offer scholarships, mentorship and support services to students beginning the summer before freshman year and continuing through graduate school preparation. The gift will allow UCLA to double the number of undergraduate scholars supported, up to 80 each year in perpetuity.

Diversity in demand: Hollywood Diversity Report

The latest UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report shows that people of color and women — both in the audience and on the big screen — hold the keys to the industry’s survival.

The unvarnished clarity of women’s courage

The U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award is given to women across the world who have demonstrated leadership and advocacy in promoting peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls. These women often face personal risks and sacrifices in their work. In honor of Women's History Month, UCLA Anderson School of Management recognized three of this year's award recipients, Ugandan journalist Agather Atuhaire, Ecuadorian community leader Fátima Corozo and Bangladeshi attorney and Supreme Court advocate Fawzia Karim Firoze. All three have confronted the immediacy of threats and the deadening struggle against slow progress, but they persist, motivated by the knowledge that their communities need them.

Protecting Black mothers before, during and after pregnancy

The UCLA Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education recently hosted a conversation with L.A. County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell. The talk addressed the issue of disproportionately high pregnancy-related mortality rates among Black women in California. According to the California Department of Public Health, Black women continue to face three to four times higher rates of pregnancy-related deaths compared to their peers from other racial and ethnic groups. In her talk, Mitchell highlighted some of the work being done to address this problem.

Related: Webinar recording

New study by the UCLA Pritzker Center examines blind removal, anti-racism in L.A. County child welfare

The Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families at UCLA released a report on the practice of blind removal in the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The report reveals that while the numbers of referrals and child removals were falling, the disproportionality of Black and Brown children in the system remains. The report was unveiled during an event at Mudtown Farms, a community garden in Watts; UCLA Professor of Education Tyrone Howard led the conversation with L.A. County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell; Tamara Hunter, DSW, executive director of L.A. County Commission for Children and Families; Brandon Nichols, director of DCFS; and D’Artagnan Scorza (’13, Ph.D., Urban Schooling), executive director of Racial Equity, L.A. County.

Westwood Village Ambassadors manage safety, cleanliness for community members

‘I feel like myself again’: UCLA clinical trial offers hope for lymphoma patients

At 39, actor Hirotaka Matsunaga was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Over the next four years, he endured two courses of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, but the cancer returned. After receiving treatment in the first-in-human clinical trial of a cutting-edge CAR-T cell therapy, he's now in remission and is without symptoms.

His is just one of many promising cases. CAR-T cell therapy has revolutionized cancer care since its approval in 2017. UCLA Health has played a crucial role in this cancer research, offering commercial CAR T-cell therapy in 2018, and launching a formal program. Now, UCLA scientists are working to make the therapy safer, more effective, and more accessible. Of the 11 patients treated so far in this ongoing trial, ten responded to the treatment and eight achieved a complete response, meaning their tumors went away. Equally noteworthy, none of the patients experienced neurotoxicity, a side effect of conventional CAR-T cell therapies that approximately 40% of patients experience and that in rare cases can be fatal.

Telehealth, access to health care top the agenda as UCLA Health doctors, medical students travel to D.C.

A team of urologists and medical students from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA traveled to Washington, D.C. recently to discuss three primary concerns in their field: cuts to the Medicare physician fee schedule; the sustainability of telehealth services; and the aging population's access to health care. The group met with members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to discuss pressing urologic health issues during the 7th Annual Urology Advocacy Summit in February.

UCLA medical student stories

Meet Christian Wooten. He is a third-year medical student at PRIME-LA, a five-year concurrent/dual degree program that develops leaders in medicine who can address policy, care, and research in healthcare for underserved communities. Growing up in Los Angeles, Christian overcame many obstacles, including gang and drug violence, domestic abuse, and homelessness. He worked as a janitor to support his education at El Camino College, then transferred to UCLA to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor and future surgeon.

How L.A. residents can help capture stormwater  | LAist

As water rates climb, many are struggling to pay for an essential service  | Los Angeles Times

L.A. has big plans to turn a landfill into a wetland, but delays are jeopardizing the project  | LAist

California’s economy to outpace the U.S. | City News Service

Schiff v. Garvey for Senate, Gascón leads DA primary: Recap of CA races | UCLA’s Jim Newton on KCRW 89.9-FM’s ‘Press Play’

UCLA's Kelly Turner on shade equity master plan for rural California desert region  | AP

L.A. County is testing AI’s ability to prevent homelessness | CalMatters

Representation in Hollywood improves, but still not enough | Daily Breeze