Beth Cohen, director of the Academic and Staff Assistance Program, is leaving the Davis campus for a similar post at UC Santa Barbara.

Cohen

Her move stems from her work on that campus, with ASAP’s clinical director, Rory Osborne, after the shooting deaths of six students in May 2014.

“In working with senior leadership at UCSB it became clear that UCSB has a continuing need for additional counseling resources, and Beth has agreed to provide leadership in expanding the scope and depth of the ASAP program for the Santa Barbara campus,” Steve Green, manager, Employee and Labor Relations, said in a Dec. 29 memo.

“This is a marvelous opportunity for Beth, and one in which she will be able to continue to use her unique skills and knowledge to better our university,” said Green, who added that Cohen’s resignation is effective Jan. 31.

Cohen joined ASAP in January 2006 and became the director in October 2007. During her time here, “she’s established herself as a trusted and reliable colleague, providing amazing support to the Davis campus,” Green said.

As an organizational psychologist, she built out the ASAP business model to include broad counseling support to organizational units suffering from poor or dysfunctional work climates.

On an annual basis, ASAP now “touches” nearly 6,000 campus clients, with 50 percent of those contacts being individual counseling and the other 50 percent being departmental consults and debriefs addressing some form of workplace stress or trauma.

Cohen also serves as member of the Workplace Violence Prevention Committee (chairing it from 2011 to 2013), assisting the campus with her broad knowledge of violence risk assessment to reduce the risk in our workplace.

“I think I can safely say we have all benefited from her honest and generous work in helping our campus community,” Green said.

•••

Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education Carolyn de la Peña has changed her name to Carolyn Thomas. Read a two-minute interview with her, describing her role and accomplishments to date, some of the challenges ahead, and how Undergraduate Education contributes to student success at UC Davis.

•••

After designing multimillion-dollar public spaces, serving as urban designer for the Presidio National Park and studying in Norway, Lucas Griffith ’00 has returned to the Davis campus to help chart its future look.

Griffith

As the new campus planner, effective Nov. 10, he’s working with Bob Segar, assistant vice chancellor of Campus Planning and Community Resources, to update the Long Range Development Plan.

The plan will respond to anticipated growth in student enrollment and specify how the campus might expand. It will take two years to update, Griffith said.

“Working for UC Davis is a dream come true,” Griffith said, citing the diversity of the campus community full of people who take a deep look at every topic.

Griffith, a San Francisco native and fifth-generation Californian, returns to Davis after studying landscape architecture here, then earning a master’s degree in the same subject at UC Berkeley.

“To me landscape architecture is everything outside your window,” he said. “It’s everything between buildings. There’s a lot going on in that space.”

As an urban designer, Griffith worked for the Presidio Trust, which manages the Presidio of San Francisco for the National Park Service. He also worked for legendary landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, whose works include Sea Ranch (Sonoma County), the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and the Sigmund Stern concert meadow in San Francisco. 

In late 2008, Griffith returned to Norway, where he had once taken a summer class, to study urban development at the University of Stavanger. His doctoral research examined public space in contemporary neighborhood developments.

•••

Karen Beardsley, a Peace Corps veteran, has been appointed the director of the UC Davis program that works with Humphrey Fellows from around the world. They are experienced professionals who come to the campus for 10 months of nondegree study and professional experiences.

Beardsley

Beardsley’s post with the UC Davis Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program is a 20 percent appointment. She already serves as the managing director of the Information Center for the Environment, in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, and she is splitting her time between the two posts.

“Her position in ICE and her past experience in the Peace Corps have provided her with opportunities to work with non-native English-speaking students, as well as mid-career international professionals,” said Adrienne L. Martín, interim vice provost of the Office of Global Affairs, who made the appointment.

“Her significant knowledge in the areas of climate change, natural resources management and geographic information systems offers relevant experience to this position, plus she has an excellent grasp of the program and the fellows’ profiles.”

In developing activities and programs for the fellows, the Humphrey program office works with academic units in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the College of Engineering; the schools of Education, Law and Veterinary Medicine; and UC’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources; and regional professionals and leaders.

Beardsley is a UC Davis alumna, with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in geography. She has a master’s in geography from UC Santa Barbara.

Follow Dateline UC Davis on Twitter.