UC Press 2024 Annual Report (TEST)
From Our New Executive Director
As the relatively new executive director of the University of California Press, I am delighted to share this annual report with you. The report highlights some of the Press’s accomplishments during the 2023–24 fiscal year, as well as our vision for the future. The creation of this annual report itself is a bit of a milestone. As with so much of what we do, it is the culmination of a highly collaborative, team-driven approach. In these pages, you will find a wealth of information about the Press’s innovative and impactful publishing programs and new, exciting initiatives aimed at cementing broader partnerships both within and outside the University of California.
After 26 years serving UC Press in various capacities, I have been honored to take over the leadership of this amazing organization. In the role of executive director, I inherit the legacy of an impressive publishing program that has been a vital part of the University of California for over 130 years. As I have met with my Press colleagues over the last year to hear their ideas about how to advance the Press into a transformative new era of publishing, one theme has surfaced again and again: staying true to our mission. This mission—publishing books and journals that shift paradigms in the arts, sciences, humanities, and social sciences, with a focus on social justice—is the north star for our programs. This year, it led to groundbreaking new books such as Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger’s collection Fighting Mad: Resisting the End of Roe v. Wade and Matthew D. Morrison’s Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States.
On the journals side of the house, we launched a new collaboration with the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center to publish their long-running journal Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, starting in January. We hope this will lead to larger collaborations with the UC campuses as we launch a new publishing services venture.
Beyond our publishing programs, the Press is renewing its efforts to engage and cultivate a community of philanthropic supporters through the UC Press Foundation. The chair of our Foundation Board of Trustees, Michelle Ciccarelli Lerach, along with the other trustees, has brought dedication and energy to the Press’s fundraising efforts in support of our distinctive publishing programs. This year, the Foundation sponsored author events on both the Santa Barbara campus and in San Diego as the Press sought to broaden its fundraising network. We also welcomed a new director, Amanda Todd, to the UC Press Foundation, and a new development officer, Nada Shalaby, to our fundraising team. The generous support of donors is required in order to maintain our commitment to advancing our independent, nonprofit, progressive publishing mission. This support also helps undergird our commitment to innovative programs such as our FirstGen program, which seeks to cultivate and support the work of first-generation scholars—those who are the first in their families to receive a college degree.
I am honored to work alongside a strong and diverse team of dedicated professionals who are critical to advancing the Press into a new era. We know that transformative trends such as a shift to open access publishing models and an increased reliance on tools driven by artificial intelligence will become the norm. We collectively will need to position ourselves for this future while maintaining our commitment to publishing top-quality scholarship, pursuing an equity-focused agenda, and growing and expanding our output. This is a tall order—but if any university press is up to the challenge, it is the University of California Press. I thank all of our authors, journal editors, donors, board members, booksellers, staff members, and the many others who contribute to the success of our programs for your continued partnership and support.
Erich van Rijn
Executive Director
University of California Press
