Patricia A. Turner, vice provost for Undergraduate Studies, has been appointed director of The Reinvention Center at the University of Miami, a center whose mission is to examine issues central to undergraduate education and ensure that undergraduates attain the knowledge and skills they need to be educated and productive citizens.

Turner will continue in her vice provost role at UC Davis, at a 50-percent appointment. She also will remain a professor in the departments of African American and African Studies, and American Studies.

"Reinvention is not new," Turner said. "Higher education has historically reinvented itself in response to demographic, cultural and technological changes.

“I am thrilled at this opportunity to bring together creative thinkers from diverse backgrounds to examine issues central to undergraduate education, lead studies to identify those aspects of undergraduate education that are particularly problematic, and recommend strategies to address them."

Turner has served as vice provost for Undergraduate Studies since 1999. In this position, she is responsible for guiding and coordinating undergraduate academic programs and for serving as the principal liaison between the administration and faculty on undergraduate program matters.

Turner joined the UC Davis faculty in 1990 and served as director of the American Studies program in 1997-98 and director of African and African-American Studies from 1998 to 2000. From 2004 to 2006 she served as interim dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies.

She serves on the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges's Commission on Access, Diversity and Excellence, and on the executive board of the American Folklore Society. She served on The Reinvention Center’s executive board from 2007 to 2010.

Turner is the author of four books: Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African-American Quilters; Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America, with Gary Alan Fine; Ceramic Uncles and Celluloid Mammies: Black Images and Their Influence on Culture; and I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African-American Culture.

She has served as a consulting scholar on several documentary film projects. She conducted research for and appeared on camera in two Marlon Riggs' films: Ethnic Notions, which received a national Emmy Award in 1989 for best research in a documentary; and Color Adjustment, winner of a 1992 Peabody Award.

Most recently, she was interviewed for the documentary Portrait of the Artist: Riché Richardson, a quilter.

Print, radio and television journalist frequently go to Turner for her commentary on issues related to folklore and popular culture. She has been interviewed for stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal newspapers, as well as Newsweek magazine and many other prominent publications.

She has done dozens of radio interviews, including features on “Fresh Air,” “Talk of the Nation” and “All Things Considered.”

She has appeared on television on the NBC and CBS nightly news programs, and The O'Reilly Factor. And her book I Heard It Through the Grapevine inspired a story on ABC Television's 20/20.

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Professor Michelle Yeh has taken a leadership role at the Education Abroad Center, as director of the UC Davis component of the systemwide Education Abroad Program. She also serves as the campus's director for Non-UC Study Abroad.

Her appointments to both posts took effect Oct. 1, as announced by Vice Provost William B. Lacy, who leads University Outreach and International Programs.

Yeh, of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, succeeds Professor Charles "Chip" Lesher of the Department of Geology.

Yeh teaches Traditional Chinese Poetry (in Translation), Traditional Chinese Poetry (in Chinese), Modern Chinese Poetry (in Chinese), Modern Literature of Taiwan and Great Writers: Texts and Contexts.

Over the past two decades, she has served as director of the East Asian Studies Program, department chair of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and interim director of both the Humanities Institute and the National Taiwan University EAP study center.

She completed a doctoral degree in comparative literature at the University of Southern California, and has done postdoctoral work in Chinese and Western poetics. Her work on various Asian and European literary traditions is reflected in numerous publications.

Said Lacy: “Michelle will work closely with deans, chairs, and faculty of schools, colleges, divisions and departments in facilitating and stimulating the development of curricular offerings which advance the campus objectives of academic integration of the educational abroad experience into the general education and academic major requirements.”

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Patricia Johnson, a captain in the UC Davis Fire Department, has been named interim fire marshal for the Davis campus.

She joined the department nine years ago and has served as assistant fire marshal. She has 20 years of experience in the fire service, including 11 years with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

Her appointment as interim fire marshal is part of a reorganization that puts a full-time marshal on each campus: Davis and Sacramento. Previously, Assistant Fire Chief Wes Arvin covered both campuses as fire marshal.

The reorganization also separates fire prevention from fire operations. So, whereas Arvin led a fire prevention program that was part of the Fire Department, Johnson leads a prevention program that has been moved to Safety Services, within Administrative and Resource Management.

On the Sacramento campus, under Arvin’s leadership, fire prevention is part of Facilities Administration.

Fire prevention responsibilities include building inspection, preconstruction plan review and building occupancy certification, as well as fire alarms and fire extinguisher maintenance. The Davis campus has nine fire prevention officers, while the Sacramento campus has five.

Only the Davis campus has an actual Fire Department, for tactical response to fires and their suppression, and hazardous materials response — and this unit is consolidating with the city of Davis Fire Department. The Sacramento campus is served by the City of Sacramento Fire Department.

The consolidation does not take in fire prevention programs.

“The scope of fire prevention services for a research university is of a much different nature than a municipality,” said Nathan Trauernicht, who formerly served as interim chief of the campus Fire Department and whose new job under the consolidation is assistant fire chief.

“We have new construction, student housing, labs, athletic stadiums and theatres, and a range of other oversight responsibilities that aren’t a factor for the city,” he said.