Palm Desert Center

MFA Faculty and Student Publishing Updates

"The Coachella Review," the literary journal of UCR Palm Desert, is accepting submissions online at TheCoachellaReview.com. Submissions can include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short films and interviews.

MFA Low Residency student Tiffany Hawk landed essays in the Los Angeles Times  & The New York Times recently.  Click the links to read her stories.

Low Residency MFA professor William Rabkin's third novel, "The Call of the Mild," was published in January, 2010, and his fourth novel, "A Fatal Frame of Mind," will be published in August 2010.  

MFA professor David L. Ulin has an essay on Joan Didion's "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" in the March/April 2010 issue of the "Columbia Journalism Review." He is working on two new books: "The Lost Art of Reading," which Sasquatch Books will publish in November 2010; and "Cape Cod Noir," due out in Spring 2011, which he is editing as part of Akashic Books' series of noir anthologies.

MFA professor Andrea Seigel will publish her latest novel "The Kid Table," on September 14, 2010.  Additionally, Montecito Pictures, Ivan Reitman's production company at Paramount, has optioned film rights for the book.

MFA Low Residency professor, Jill Alexander Essbaum's most recent chapbook, "The Devastation," was published in late 2009 by Cooper Dillon Books.  Her poem, "Apologia," was chosen for inclusion in the anthology "The Best American Poetry 2010."  

A portion of MFA professor, Deanne Stillman's book, "Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West," has been optioned for a film by the actress Wendie Malick and the entire book has also been optioned for a documentary by Academy Award nominee Henry Ansbacher.

Hitting the shelves in Fall 2010 is MFA professor Rob Roberge's book of short stories, "Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life," on Red Hen Press.  Additionally, he has recently published work in "Black Clock/11" and he published the anthology "OC Noir." 

The MFA program is offered in two formats at UCR Palm Desert; a traditional, full residency program and a new two-year low residency program where students come together twice a year for a 10-day residency period and interact electronically between residency periods. Visit MFA for more information.

Executive MBA Faculty Profile: Richard S. Savich, Ph.D., C.P.A.

Richard S. Savich was drawn to teach in the inaugural MBA class at UCR Palm Desert five years ago after leaving a consulting firm because he wanted to help others. "I had a few good mentors and I wanted to emulate them," he said.

Savich is the Academic Director of the EMBA program at UCR Palm Desert and an instructor in the program. His teaching philosophy is to give students the ability to think about theories and how they apply directly in business. 
 
"The inaugural EMBA class has a small cohort of students with vast experience," said Savich.  "We are trying to prepare them for general management positions by taking advantage of their functional expertise and augmenting it with leadership and strategy."  
 
"What I like most about this group of students is their ability to ask pertinent questions and try to apply what I teach into their own business philosophy," said Savich.
 
When asked about future plans for the newly formed EMBA program, Savich said, "This program will continue to grow.  We have had over 200 inquiries for next year's program.  This speaks well for what we have established.  UCR's EMBA program will soon become one of the best in southern California."

Savich, Ph.D., CPA, is President and Founder of ABKO Consulting and member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and California Society of CPAs. In addition to his professional credentials, Savich has published more than thirty books and articles in various academic and professional journals around the world. He has consulted on six continents and in over three dozen countries. His focus lies primarily in management accounting, but has expanded into information systems, executive education, and most currently, strategic and long range planning in organizations.
 
The Executive MBA program offered at the UCR Palm Desert Center not only offers a flexible and convenient way to earn an EMBA degree, it also provides students with the opportunity to learn from and gain hands on experience with expert faculty members in their field of study. Many of the faculty have been educated at the world's leading universities and serve on the editorial boards of the leading journals in business administration. They are experts in their respective fields and they share their valuable expertise and rich experience with students.
 
To learn more about the Executive MBA program, attend a free information session. The next session is Tuesday, March 23rd. The session begins at 5:30 p.m. at the UCR Palm Desert Center. Parking is free and refreshments will be provided. For more information or to RSVP, call 760-834-0975. To learn more about the Executive MBA program click here. 

Elementary School in Mecca Benefits from Holiday Book Drive

The holidays may be behind us, but Christmas came in January for many students at the Saul Martinez Elementary School in Mecca when the school received the 750 children's books that were collected by the Coachella Valley Literacy Network during the 2nd Annual Holiday Book drive.
 
The Coachella Valley Literacy Network was established by UCR PDGC to improve literacy rates in the Coachella Valley by encouraging diverse approaches that promote the desire to read. The group is made up of representatives from literacy services in the Coachella Valley. Its goals include providing resources and educational opportunities that involve the community; facilitating the exchange of best practices; and celebrating literacy through an annual community festival. 
 
Saul Martinez Elementary School was selected at the suggestion of a community member. Carol Rondeau, Student Facilitator at Saul Martinez, was extremely happy and excited that her school was selected this year.  She said they encourage all of their students to build a home library and that the donated books will allow many of their students to get started on collecting books at home. 
 
The Network is pleased to have been able to facilitate another successful book drive and wants to extend a special thank to all the community members and organizations that donated books.The public is invited to attend the second season of free screenings of public art-themed documentary films. The series begins on Thursday, January 21, with “The Gates,” and continues with screenings on the third Thursdays in February, March, and April. The films are presented by the City of Palm Desert Public Art Department and the University of California, Riverside Palm Desert Center. The screenings will be held at 6 p.m. at UCR Palm Desert, 75-080 Frank Sinatra Drive in Palm Desert.

NEWS FROM UCR: New Stem Cell Facility Opens

Stem cell research at the University of California, Riverside is about to gather speed thanks to the establishment of a new Stem Cell Core Facility (SCCF) – a shared facility providing infrastructure, equipment, and trained personnel for doing stem cell research that ordinarily would not be available in most laboratories.

The SCCF, located in Noel Keen Hall, had its grand opening on Friday, Jan. 29.

More than 200 visitors from all over Southern California attended the celebration that included tours of the Core labs, demonstrations of the facility’s new equipment, posters on stem cell research being done at UCR, information on how to get started in stem cell research, and contests with prizes for the best posters and images. Several vendors demonstrated their products related to stem cell research.

“We are the only such core facility in the Inland Empire,” said Prue Talbot, the director of the Stem Cell Center and the SCCF. “Such a facility is needed on campus to give an opportunity to UCR researchers who are interested in doing stem cell research but who don’t have a facility for it. The facility also greatly benefits labs on campus that are already doing research on stem cells but that lack the expensive equipment the SCCF has to offer.”

The SCCF was funded primarily by a grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The $2.8 million grant helped construct the 2000-square-foot facility, purchase state-of-the-art equipment, and manage day-to-day operations.

Talbot expects the SCCF to produce breakthroughs in stem cell research at a much faster pace than before, assisted by its Nikon BioStation CT incubator with a powerful microscope that already has generated useful data in conjunction with video bioinformatics. UCR is the first institution in the country to purchase the Nikon BioStation CT technology.

Approximately 10 laboratories on campus will use the SCCF. The facility is open also to scientists not at UCR. Users will be recharged for supplies at a fair price.  

Photo Description: Prue Talbot (center), director of the Stem Cell Core Facility and the Stem Cell Center, talks to visitors at the grand opening of the Stem Cell Core Facility, Jan. 29. Photo credit: UCR Strategic Communications.

Holiday Campus Closure Dates for UCR Palm Desert

The UCR Palm Desert Center will be closed Thursday, March 25 and Friday, March 26. 

What's Happening at UC Riverside

It's not just the world-class faculty and facilities that make UC Riverside the place to be - it's also the thriving arts community, the one-of-a-kind special collections and lecture series that attract experts from around the world. It's the concerts, film festivals, dazzling dance performances, and thought-provoking theater. To learn more about these events and more visit UCR Happenings.  

Become a "Fan" of UCR PD on Facebook 

Stay connected with UCR Palm Desert and our more than 100 Facebook fans on UCR Palm Desert's Facebook page.  Find us on Facebook.com by searching "UCR Palm Desert" or visit palmdesert.ucr.edu and click "UCR Palm Desert on Facebook," on the bottom right side of the page.