Diversity & Inclusion

The beat of drums and the scent of cedar filled UC Merced’s Conference Center as acclaimed chef, author and activist Sean Sherman shared stories of tradition, resilience and culinary innovation during “Flavors & Stories: A Fireside Chat with the Sioux Chef.”

The New York Times bestselling author and founder of North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) engaged the audience in a conversation about his journey to revitalize Indigenous cuisine and reconnect communities with the ingredients and methods that sustained their ancestors for generations.

In the United States, 20 percent of the population is Latino. By 2050, it’s expected that one in three people will identify as Latino. But less than 7 percent of doctors come from a similar background.

Dr. Michael Galvez, a board-certified pediatric hand surgeon at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera County, is on a mission to change that number. In 2022, he cofounded National Latino Physician Day, which is aimed at raising awareness and is part of an effort to increase the minority health care workforce.

Fifteen years ago, UC Merced was designated as a Hispanic-serving institution. And though recent developments at the federal government have left what that designation means in limbo, the mission of serving the university’s largest demographic has remained unchanged.

More than 53 percent of undergraduate students are Hispanic, and 71 percent of enrolled students identify as first-generation (a student whose parents did not complete four-year college degrees).

Following recognition as a Top 25 university by U.S. News & World Report, UC Merced has once again earned national acclaim, this time from the Wall Street Journal. In its 2026 report of the Best Colleges in the U.S., the highly respected media outlet has named UC Merced the 14th best college in the nation.

UC Merced’s upward trajectory shows no signs of slowing as the university has cracked the Top 25 of U.S. News & World Report’s best public schools in the nation.

The annual survey, which evaluates nearly 1,700 national public and private colleges and universities, also placed UC Merced No. 57 overall among all universities and No. 3 in the nation for social mobility.

The University of California, Merced, has received the 2025 Higher Education Excellence and Distinction Award from Insight Into Academia magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education. The annual HEED Award is a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to academic excellence, belonging and community building across all levels of campus life.

UC Merced will be featured, along with 60 other recipients, in the October 2025 issue of Insight Into Academia magazine.

When Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe arrived at UC Merced in 2009, she and her husband, Professor Teamrat Ghezzehei, were leaving major research institutions to join a brand-new campus in California’s Central Valley. It was a leap of faith — one made easier by the Sierra Nevada Research Institute.

UC Merced physics graduate student Sameen Yunus has been awarded a prestigious fellowship allowing her to spend the next three years working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, conducting experiments and simulations that could lead to faster fusion ignition.

The UC-National Lab In-Residence Graduate Fellowship is designed to help graduate students complete their theses. Yunus, a third-year Ph.D. candidate, will work on experiments that complement her computational work in Professor David Strubbe’s lab.

Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development Gillian Wilson has been named a 2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

Being elected an AAAS Fellow is one of the most prestigious honors awarded by the association. Wilson is one of only eight astronomers honored this year.

Shannon Lee – whose extensive resume includes roles as author, producer and legacy-keeper of her father, martial arts icon Bruce Lee -- visited UC Merced on March 6 as a special guest speaker. The event, held in recognition of Women’s History Month, spotlighted her career highlights, not only as Bruce Lee Foundation chair and Bruce Lee Family Companies CEO, but her many creative endeavors that are introducing her father’s philosophies and artistry to new generations of martial arts fans.