I was so honored to have the privilege of shadowing Dean Catron of UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education for a day. I got to sit in on the Dean’s Cabinet meeting, a Continuing Educator’s panel, and the Provost Leadership Council meeting. There, I got to hear insight from every dean and vice chancellor on campus. I even got to speak with the provost and chancellor! My day with Dean Catron truly inspired me, as I believe education is important at every stage in life. UC Davis CPE provides adult learners with the resources they need to further their careers.

Tanishq Abraham

Ph.D. candidate, biomedical engineering

A couple of months ago, my sister, Tiara Abraham (a 16-year-old senior), and I got the opportunity to shadow UC Davis Chancellor Gary May for two days. This opportunity was possible through the Leadership Job Shadow Program, originally started by Chancellor May in 2018.

We started the day indulging in some breakfast at the Chancellor’s Residence to sit in during the Breakfast with the chancellor staff event. This is a monthly event that the chancellor hosts with invited staff members and leadership to have discussions regarding campus staff issues and other campus topics. Along with LeShelle May, Chief of Staff for the Chancellor Karl Engelbach, and Vice Provost Mary Croughan, there were guests from Facilities Management, Office of Research, Staff Assembly, and several other departments. Some of the topics included how the pandemic and remote or hybrid work has brought new challenges but sometimes new opportunities as well for the UC Davis staff. Additionally, the guests discussed social events like Picnic Day and Thank Goodness for Staff, the latter of which I actually did not know about before. Additionally, they discussed that there is room for improvement in helping new staff who started remotely during the pandemic to transition into the in-person workplace and how to better inform them of staff events and opportunities.

After the staff breakfast, we rejoined Chancellor May in his top-floor office at Mrak Hall in the afternoon. We sat in his meeting with the Staff Diversity Administrative Advisory Committee (SDAAC), where he answered staff questions and addressed their concerns. While the chancellor is the head of an educational institution, these meetings were a great reminder that he is also the head of a workplace with more than 21,000 staff, and the biggest employer in Yolo County. It was great to see Chancellor May dedicated to addressing important staff issues and wellbeing, as well as improving UC Davis as a productive workplace. Additionally, the chancellor is passionate about diversity causes at UC Davis. He has led several diversity initiatives including the creation of the vice chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion position. The SDAAC meeting was just another example of his commitment to these initiatives.

Next, we headed to the Strategic Communications department located in the basement of Mrak Hall where we attended a recording of the chancellor’s podcast, Face to Face. This is a podcast where the chancellor invites extraordinary members of the UC Davis community, including staff, students, and faculty. The guest for that day was Dr. Pam Ronald, a distinguished professor at UC Davis who recently won the International Wolf Prize (often termed the Nobel Prize for Agriculture). The recording team swiftly set up our host and guest of the podcast in the dedicated podcast studio. The podcast studio had been in development for a couple of years already but due to COVID-related delays, the show finally started in spring 2021. It was an interesting recording experience and very entertaining to sit in. After recording the podcast, Chancellor May also recorded various other segments to be posted on social media. This was a great opportunity to observe how Chancellor May connects with the UC Davis community through social media.

When the recording sessions wrapped up, we headed back up to the chancellor's office for a few more meetings with the graduate student advisor to the dean of Graduate Studies and the chancellor, and with the Graduate Student Association president. Also present at both meetings was Jean-Pierre Delplanque, the vice provost and dean of Graduate Studies. These monthly meetings are one of the main ways for the chancellor to stay informed about graduate student issues and concerns. Some of the issues discussed included COVID-19 testing, graduate housing, and transitioning of roles the next academic year. As a graduate student myself, it was great to see how involved the chancellor is with graduate student issues. Those were the last meetings that we attended for the day.

The next day, we went to observe the dedication and opening of the UC Davis gateway sign followed by a reception at the Chancellor’s Residence. This new sign, which is sure to become a landmark on the UC Davis campus, was donated by the UC Davis Class of 1968 and was done in collaboration with UC Davis Campus Planning and Environmental Stewardship, and UC Davis Design and Construction Management. Being involved in such campus events is an important part of Dr. May’s duties as chancellor.

During some free time between meetings and events, I asked Chancellor May a few questions about his role as a chancellor. Especially, since we both share a background in engineering, it was particularly insightful to hear about his experiences. I learned that the chancellor role differs from other leadership roles in that it is more campus-wide and community focused, and being a clear communicator is an especially important trait to have. This is in contrast with a role like the chair of a department or even the dean of a college, which is instead mainly focused on intra-departmental and collegial issues. Additionally, it is very much a 24/7 job, with the chancellor sometimes having important dinner or lunch meetings on the weekends, and national trips. For example, he mentioned a trip the following week to Washington, D.C., to meet with other higher education leaders and also to discuss campus and education issues with federal government officials. When I asked how his previous engineering education and academic life have influenced his experience as a chancellor, he noted that those experiences have provided him with problem-solving and analytical skills that have served him well in his current role.

Overall, it was awesome to see Dr. Gary May “chancell-ing”. We were lucky to be able to see various facets of his role, from interacting with staff, faculty, graduate students, and alumni. Additionally, as a fellow engineer who is interested in pursuing leadership roles later in my career, this experience was especially valuable to me, as I gained some useful tips from the chancellor. This experience has given me a new appreciation for the role the chancellor has in running our campus and helping support our community.

Tiara Abraham

Undergraduate, music major

Towards the end of my last quarter at UC Davis, my brother, Tanishq Abraham, and I had the opportunity to job shadow Chancellor May. We have known Chancellor May for around four years and he has been incredibly supportive of our educational journey at UC Davis as the youngest Aggie students he has met. My brother and I joined the campus as transfer students at 13 and 14 respectively. As a 16-year-old senior and 18-year-old Ph.D. candidate, it was inspiring to watch Chancellor May simply chancell-ing. And lucky for us, the day surely was eventful!

On a beautiful spring morning, we arrived at the Chancellor’s Residence at 8.30 am for a Staff Assembly breakfast. Although I am not a breakfast person, I enjoyed oats with orange jam along with some pastries. At the breakfast, the staff discussed various topics, from Aggie Square, a project dear to Chancellor May, to some of the staff’s favorite Aggie events, including Picnic Day and Thank Goodness For Staff. It was nice to experience the diversity and unique personas across the table and simply hear their experiences and issues important to them.

After the breakfast, my brother and I had an hour break before we came back to Chancellor May’s office to observe a couple of meetings. The first meeting was with the Staff Diversity Administrative Advisory Committee (SDAAC) that meets on the third Thursday of every other month. The chancellor provided the welcome remarks and discussed his Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Vision. I think it’s accurate to say that he was as excited to have us as his student shadows, as he gave a little shout-out during the meeting. But more importantly, it was admiring to see Chancellor May passionately talk about increased diversity and inclusion on campus. As he mentioned in the meeting, “diversity is everyone’s job.”

During the short break between meetings, we got to chill out with the top man of the campus and enjoy the view from the balcony of Chancellor May’s fifth floor Mrak office. After the half-hour break, Chancellor May had a couple of check-in meetings with the Graduate Student Association president and Graduate Student Advisor to the Dean and Chancellor (GSADC). Topics discussed included housing and COVID response.

From the top-most floor of Mrak to the basement, we were able to be a fly on the wall during the recording session for a ”Face to Face” segment with Distinguished Professor and plant pathologist Pam Ronald. Despite initial technical difficulty, the interview turned out quite well as Chancellor May and Dr. Ronald discussed her recent accolade, the International Wolf Prize in Agriculture, sometimes considered as the “Nobel Prize of Agriculture,” and how she is changing the world with her important research. Afterward, Chancellor May stayed to record a short video message on a similar topic, food insecurity, and UCD’s partnership with the Yolo Food Bank.

Although the day had come to an end, our job shadow experience did not. The next day, we were able to join the unveiling ceremony for the Class of 1968 Gateway on Howard Way and Russell Boulevard, followed by a reception at the Chancellor’s Residence. As a current Aggie, it was humbling to see the ‘68 alumni show their love for the Aggie community through this thoughtful gift, which will be one of the iconic places where future grads take their graduation photos.