More than 20 employees alleged that the dean of UCLA’s continuing education program bullied and verbally abused them, according to a 2022 third-party investigation.

The investigation – commissioned by UCLA Campus Human Resources – found that Eric Bullard, the dean of UCLA Extension, violated the UC’s Guidance on Abusive Conduct and Bullying in the Workplace.

UCLA reappointed Bullard in July 2025 for five more years.

“Dean Bullard is commended for his advocacy, resilience through pandemic-era challenges, and continued dedication to building a model of continuing education,” said Darnell Hunt, who received the investigative report in 2023, in Bullard’s reappointment announcement.

The Daily Bruin reviewed the 153-page final report, obtained 20 emails that spoke of the alleged abuse and interviewed six former leadership staff members who worked at UCLA Extension before and throughout Bullard’s first term as dean and alleged that Bullard created an abusive and toxic work environment.

Bullard did not respond to an interview request and directed UCLA Extension Strategic Communications to manage his response. The Bruin then submitted questions to UCLA Extension Strategic Communications and received a four-sentence emailed statement from UCLA Media Relations a month later.

“Dean Bullard completed a comprehensive five-year administrative review that included a positive assessment of his leadership and the organization’s direction,” a UCLA spokesperson said in the statement.

UCLA Extension – the university’s continuing education division – provides online and in-person certificate and specialization instruction for working adults and college students. It also oversees the Study Abroad at UCLA program, which allows international students to earn transferable academic credits.

Patricia Galea, UCLA Extension’s former executive director of strategic communications and marketing, made one of the complaints that triggered the 2022 investigation into Bullard. Galea – who worked as a marketing instructor for over 10 years at UCLA Extension – said Bullard encouraged her to apply to her director position.

After roughly two years under Bullard’s leadership , Galea went on medical leave for mental health reasons and later filed a worker’s compensation claim for emotional injury, she said. A psychiatric evaluation attached to the claim assessed that it was unsafe for Galea to work around Bullard.

“I never knew what to expect from him,” Galea said. “He was very unpredictable and explosive.”

Galea alleged that Bullard frequently disparaged her coworkers – including members of her team and other employees who spent years with UCLA Extension – during her one-on-one meetings with him. Galea said she believed Bullard was skeptical of collaborative employee projects that he was not explicitly involved in, alleging that he once removed tens of thousands of dollars from her budget without notifying her.

Bullard removed the thousands of dollars from her budget to give to an outside communications agency because Galea’s department did not have the capacity to fulfill a branding project, he said in the third-party report. Bullard added that both budgets were part of the UCLA Extension master budget.

“He would just be very autocratic,” Galea said.

Anthony Solana Jr. – UCLA Campus Human Resources’ director of employee and labor relations – said in a March 8, 2023, email to Galea and Hunt that the investigation found that Bullard intimidated UCLA Extension staff in meetings, repeatedly threatened their jobs and frequently humiliated and undermined staff.

“It was conduct that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to a legitimate business interest,” Solana said in the email.

Noncompliance with the UC’s Guidance on Abusive Conduct and Bullying in the Workplace can result in employment consequences including termination, informal counseling and performance evaluations, according to Section 4E of the code. UCLA Media Relations did not answer specific questions about whether Bullard faced any consequences from his code violation.

Ric Zappala, a former director for the department of humanities and sciences at UCLA Extension, filed a complaint against Bullard in 2022. He also alleged that Bullard would deliberately disparage employees who were not present in meetings. Bullard was so disrespectful to Zappala for asking a question on his first day working on a committee that three committee members reached out separately to check on his well-being, Zappala alleged.

Bullard became the dean of UCLA Extension in 2020 against the recommendation of a candidate review committee, according to a committee email obtained by The Bruin. Ten UCLA Extension leadership staff members comprised the committee, including the director of human resources.

The staff noted in their evaluation that Bullard declined to answer questions, interrupted the committee and became agitated during his interview. The evaluation strongly recommended that the candidate search continue beyond the finalists reviewed, including Bullard, then-dean of professional and global education at California State University, Los Angeles. The committee sent its notes and recommendation to then-Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Emily Carter and then-Chancellor Gene Block.

UCLA Media Relations did not respond to questions about the duration and parameters of the candidate search or the final decision-making process behind hiring Bullard.

“Whatever the university wants to do, they do,” Zappala, a committee member, said. “They don’t necessarily take our advice or listen to what our needs are.”

Multiple UCLA Extension staff members also alleged that Bullard was hostile and unreceptive to feedback during their tenures.

Tara Neuwirth, the former director of the study abroad program at UCLA Extension, alleged that Bullard responded harshly to her disapproval of an expansion of the study abroad program. She had significant concerns about the high cost and lowering of admission standards, but Bullard dismissed them, she alleged.

“He was saying to me, ‘If you don’t agree with me on every point, you’re a failure,’” Neuwirth said.

Jennifer Mandel, a former program director for college counseling and access at UCLA Extension who was laid off in June 2025, alleged that Bullard ignored her program management expertise and regularly threatened her job.

“Dean Bullard never came to me and said, ‘Jennifer, you run the second-most successful program at Extension, tell me how you do everything,’” she said. “‘What’s your philosophy?’ He never did that.”

UCLA Extension has undergone recent restructuring, with the institution laying off 23 employees and eliminating their staff positions in June 2025 amid budget challenges. Bullard said in a July 2025 emailed statement that UCLA UCLA Extension laid off the employees to align with the institution’s priorities and financial responsibilities.

Many former staff members alleged that their negative experiences with Bullard left them skeptical of UCLA’s accountability measures and burnt out from seeking justice. They alleged that Bullard’s behavior ultimately pushed them out.

“The last 18 months of my job at Extension was a job in a culture that was fear-based,” Mandel said.