UCLA Fielding professor elected to senior leadership position with UCLA Academic Senate

Dr. Catherine Sugar, a professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics, has been elected to serve as vice chair of the UCLA Academic Senate for the 2026-27 academic year and is expected to serve as chair in 2027-28.

“I am honored, excited, and very much humbled to have been elected to this new Senate leadership role and will do my best to serve the entire UCLA community,” said Sugar, who also has faculty appointments in the Department of Statistics and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. “There are a multitude of challenges facing UCLA, and higher education broadly, ranging from financial pressures to the rapid emergence of new technologies, but there are also enormous opportunities for innovation and advancement.”

The Academic Senate is the organizational structure through which UCLA faculty share in the governance and management of the university. In particular, the Senate has authority over degree and enrollment requirements and is responsible for the establishment and review of academic programs. It also has a formal advisory role on personnel decisions and a range of other administrative matters. 

Sugar, elected May 4, previously served as the chair of UCLA Fielding’s Faculty Executive Committee and the UCLA Undergraduate Council, and is currently the chair of the UC Systemwide Educational Policy Committee. As vice chair of the Senate, she will succeed Dr. Tim Groeling, a professor of communication, who will serve as the Senate’s 2026-27 chair.

“I get to use math to try to improve people’s health,” Sugar said. “My collaborations with faculty across campus from many different fields has given me insight into the many challenges facing researchers in the current environment.”

A graduate of Pomona College and Stanford University, Sugar’s research in statistical methodology and data analysis focuses on finding patterns in complex multimodal and/or longitudinal data, which are particularly relevant to public health and medical problems. Her primary area of application is psychiatry - she runs the statistics and data management core for the UCLA Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Development - but she has been involved in collaborations in areas ranging from health services research to infectious diseases to cancer.

“Catherine Sugar’s exceptional accomplishments in her research and service roles at our school and university position her well for this new role,” said Dr. Ron Brookmeyer, dean and distinguished professor of biostatistics at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “I have worked closely with Catherine, during her time as chair of the Faculty Executive Committee at UCLA Fielding and as a colleague in our shared academic department; I’m certain that the university’s Academic Senate will continue to thrive during her tenure.”