Richard Kravitz appointed director of UC Center Sacramento
June 22, 2015 •
Richard L. Kravitz, a professor in the UC Davis School of Medicine, has been appointed the director of the University of California Center Sacramento (UCCS), a systemwide program managed by the Davis campus.
Kravitz served as interim director of the center since mid-August 2013, stepping in after Professor Robert Huckfeldt returned to the UC Davis Department of Political Science after serving in the role for three years.
During his tenure as interim director, Kravitz led a review of the center’s mission and vision through a strategic visioning process that involved the UCCS Advisory Committee and UCOP leadership. The resulting 2014 strategic plan includes a goal of increasing the number of students enrolling in the program, enhancing the student experience, building an active alumni network and increasing the center’s research dissemination efforts in the service of evidence-based public policy.
Additionally, with the generous support from donors Kevin and Kim Bacon, Kravitz established the UCCS Bacon Public Lectureship and White Paper Competition. The program emphasizes evidence-based research and analysis around a major public policy problem facing the state of California. The winner presents his or her research at a public lecture at the center before a broad range of stakeholders. The research is also broadly disseminated by the center.
UCCS is located one block from the capitol and offers academic programs in public policy and journalism to students from throughout the 10-campus system. The director reports jointly to the UC and UC Davis provosts. Kravitz’s appointment is for up to five years.
“Richard has crafted an exceptional vision for the center, and I am tremendously excited about the future of the center under Richard’s outstanding leadership,” said UC Davis Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph Hexter.
“His energy is infectious, and his ambitions for the center are exciting to students, faculty, alumni and center supporters,” noted UCOP Vice Provost Susan Carlson.
Kravitz joined UC Davis in 1993, served as director of the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research from 1996 through 2006, which he grew from a small startup to a thriving organized research unit which at the time of his departure had 20 staff members, 100 faculty affiliates and over $3 million annually in research grants. Today he serves as co-vice chair for research in the Department of Internal Medicine.
In his own research, he studies patients acting as agents for improving their own quality of care, the causes and consequences of physician behavior and the improvement of mental health care in primary care settings. His research has been continuously funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Nursing Research since 2002.
Kravitz has written extensively for health foundations and federal and state agencies and serves as co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Internal Medicine. He has twice won Academy Health’s Article of the Year Award (1993 and 2006) and the Society of General Internal Medicine’s Best Research Paper of the Year Award (2006). He was the 2014 George Engel Awardee for Outstanding Research Contributing to the Theory, Practice and Teaching of Effective Healthcare Communication and Related Skills.
Kravitz is a graduate of Stanford University and the UCSF School of Medicine. He completed additional clinical and research training at UCLA, where he served on the faculty before coming to UC Davis. He is a fellow in the American College of Physicians and Academy Heatlh.
