Open Rank Professor in Climate Change and Community Health

Climate change is perhaps the most pressing public health threat facing communities in California and the world, with both immediate and long-term implications. Climate change may affect health through weather-related hazards, and through its effects on livelihoods and other life-sustaining systems. The current and future health impacts of climate change are not randomly distributed throughout the population, but rather disproportionately affect regions, communities and individuals who already bear a burden of negative social determinants of health due to factors such as racism and colonialism. As a result, while tradeoffs may exist between addressing climate change and other public health priorities, a range of policy solutions and interventions exist that can simultaneously mitigate climate change or improve climate resiliency while also addressing other social determinants of health or enhancing community capacity. Combating climate change, whether at the global or local scale, raises extraordinary political, ethical and collective action challenges that require science-based innovation and interdisciplinary solutions. While these approaches must cut across important domains of existing community health expertise, they also require scholars with understanding of the climatological, geophysical and political dimensions of climate change and the ability to collaborate with other disciplines.

The UCLA Department of Community Health Sciences thus seeks an emerging or established expert in climate change and community health who can stimulate research and practice, train and mentor undergraduate and graduate students, and engage in interdisciplinary scholarship and training. Among many possibilities, scholarly activity in this area could seek to identify health burdens posed by climate change and increase climate resilience across the lifespan, advance equitable solutions that prioritize the needs of those who are most affected by climate change, and/or support communities to better adapt to climate change and become more resilient to future threats to their well-being. We welcome candidates who work domestically or internationally. We also welcome those who would be willing and able to collaborate with faculty in other departments such as Environmental Health Sciences, Geography or Urban and Regional Planning. We would encourage successful applicants to affiliate with campus-wide initiatives such as UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IOES), Center for Public Health and Disasters, Center for Healthy Climate Solutions, Sustainable LA Grand Challenge or UCLA Downtown. We welcome candidates whose experiences in research, teaching, and community service have prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence.

The Department of Community Health Sciences (CHS), one of five departments within FSPH, is concerned with social and behavioral research applied to health, health promotion, and public health practice. Our focus is on programs, policies, and actions that can promote health in the context of social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental factors. The faculty is multidisciplinary and includes those whose primary training is in the social sciences, behavioral sciences, medicine, nutrition, demography, economic, and health promotion and education.

QUALIFICATIONS
Candidates must hold a doctoral degree in public health, social and behavioral sciences, or related disciplines (e.g., PhD, ScD, MD, DrPH or equivalent) by the time of appointment, 07/01/2025. They must also demonstrate: (1) independent research and peer-reviewed publications in areas central to the issues of climate change and community health; (2) documented (or potential for) success in obtaining extramural funding; (3) interdisciplinary research collaborations; and (4) a commitment to excellence in teaching and mentorship.

SALARY RANGE
The posted UC Salary Scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and/or step at appointment. The salary range for this position is $78,200-$205,400, negotiable based on experience. Salaries must be approved by the Chancellor. Consistent with recent hires, and based on experience, it is expected that this base amount will be supplemented by an additional 50-55% off-scale rate, equal to a maximum off-scale range of $121,200 to $318,400. This salary does not include other components of pay raised through extramural funds, which would yield compensation that is higher than this range.

Questions about this position may be emailed to search committee co-chairs, Dr. Randall Kuhn (kuhn@ucla.edu) or Dr. David Eisenman (deisenman@mednet.ucla.edu).

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
To be considered for this position, applicants must submit the following documents no later than November 17, 2024

● Curriculum Vitae (C.V.): Your most recently updated C.V.
● Cover Letter: Letter addressed to the search committee, which highlights your interest in, qualifications for, and fit with this position.
● Statement of Research: A research statement highlighting scholarly contributions of recent research and plans for the near future.
● Statement of Teaching: Teaching statement outlining your teaching philosophy, classroom and/or mentorship experience, and description of courses you would like to teach at UCLA. You may also choose to include previous teaching evaluations.
• Statement of Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Statement addressing past, current, and/or potential contributions to diversity through research, teaching, and/or service. To learn more about how UCLA thinks about contributions to equity, diversity, and inclusion, please review our EDI Statement FAQ document: https://ucla.app.box.com/v/edi-statement-faqs.
● References: Contact information for at least three professional references. Please complete and upload the Reference Check Authorization Release Form. We will solicit letters of recommendation at later stages of the search process.

The University of California is committed to creating and maintaining a community dedicated to the advancement, application, and transmission of knowledge and creative endeavors through academic excellence, where all individuals who participate in University programs and activities can work and learn together in a safe and secure environment, free of violence, harassment, bullying and other demeaning behavior, discrimination, exploitation, or intimidation. With this commitment as well as a commitment to addressing all forms of academic misconduct, UCLA conducts targeted employment reference checks for finalists to whom departments or other hiring units would like to extend formal offers of appointment into Academic Senate faculty positions. The targeted employment reference checks involve contacting the finalists’ current and prior places of employment to ask whether there have been substantiated findings of misconduct that would violate the University’s Faculty Code of Conduct. To implement this process, UCLA requires all applicants for Academic Senate faculty positions to complete, sign, and upload the form entitled “Authorization to Release Information” into RECRUIT as part of their application. If the applicant does not include the signed authorization to release information with the application materials, the application will be considered incomplete. As with any incomplete application, the application will not receive further consideration. Although all applicants for faculty recruitments must complete the entire application, only finalists (i.e., those to whom the department or other hiring unit would like to extend a formal offer) considered for Academic Senate faculty positions will be subject to targeted employment reference checks.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status.

For the University of California’s Affirmative Action Policy, please visit https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/apm/apm-035.pdf.

For the University of California’s Anti-Discrimination Policy, please visit https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/1001004/Anti-Discrimination.