Faculty honored for service

Recognized for providing services for adoptive families,
combating illiteracy and helping the homeless, four faculty members
were awarded the Rosenfield Distinguished Community Partnership
Prize at a ceremony Thursday.

The reception honored Susan B. Edelstein, Michael Prelip, Kevin
McCardle and Concepción Valadez. Each winner received a
$25,000 cash prize to be split with their community partners.

City Councilman Jack Weiss was also honored with the
Distinguished Community Leader Prize.

“The award is really meant to recognize excellence and
work that sometimes doesn’t get recognized,” said Frank
Gilliam, associate vice chancellor of community partnerships.
“(The recipients) have really worked together to develop
ongoing and sustained engaged scholarship.”

The prize money is provided by the Ann C. Rosenfield Fund
through the UCLA Foundation.

Edelstein, the director of UCLA TIES (Training, Intervention,
Education and Services) for Adoption and a lecturer at the School
of Public Health, has worked for 12 years with the Westside
Children’s Center, which provides services to help the
process of adoption.

Prelip, an Assistant Adjunct Professor of the School of Public
Health, became involved with the Greater West Hollywood Food
Coalition by chance. The organization, which provides free meals
and a mobile clinic to the homeless in Hollywood and West
Hollywood, hoped to find volunteers for their cause at UCLA and
contacted Prelip first on a cold call.

The idea for the clinic came from a student Prelip brought to
volunteer.

McCardle, a professor in the UCLA Anderson School of Management,
became involved with Saint Joseph Center, which serves the homeless
and poor of the Westside, through a fundraiser at his
children’s school.

“It’s an organization of compassionate people doing
great work that goes unrewarded,” McCardle said.

Along with Centro Latino de Educación Popular, Valadez, an
associate professor at the Graduate School of Education and
Information Studies, developed a curriculum to help Spanish
speakers become more literate in both Spanish and English. Valadez
said she is committed to the project because literacy is important
in obtaining a job, renting an apartment, and all other aspects of
life.

“Not often enough do we get to do the good stories of the
work that is being celebrated tonight,” said master of
ceremonies Linda Alvarez, a UCLA alumna and local news anchor.