Michelle Popowitz

Michelle Popowitz, JD, MPH, began working at UCLA in 2001 in the School of Dentistry administration. She was recruited to work for the Vice Chancellor for Research in 2011. In April 2012, she and former colleague Jill Reddell started a pilot program to catalyze team research on campus, which blossomed into the campus-wide UCLA Grand Challenges initiative and now consists of two Grand Challenges. Michelle is frequently invited to talk about this experience, as UCLA is the first campus to commit to solving a specific Grand Challenge goal. In 2017, she co-authored the Report on University-Led Grand Challenges and started a Community of Practice for universities working in this space — both efforts funded by a grant from the Schmidt Family Foundation. She recently served on an APLU workgroup focused on Public Impact-Focused Research. Prior to joining UCLA, Michelle worked as a transactional attorney and in hospital administration.

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