University of Miami President Julio Frenk, a Mexican-born global health expert, will be UCLA’s next chancellor and the first Latino tapped to lead the country’s top public research university, winning approval Wednesday by the regents of the University of California – as the campus faces a time dark divisive protest.
Frenk, 70, will bring deep expertise in public health, a medical degree and experience as a former Mexican health minister to the Westwood campus — equipping him to oversee a comprehensive network of hospitals and clinics alongside a large academic enterprise of 46,700 students. Frenk has also proven to be an outstanding fundraiser, leading a $2.5 billion campaign for the University of Miami’s centennial next year and his fourth contribution as Harvard’s dean of the school of public health — helping to secure a historic $350 million endowment gift.
Frenk will succeed Chancellor Gene Block, who will step down July 31 after 17 years in office that included steering UCLA through the financial crisis and the global pandemic to reach new levels in expanding enrollment, diversity, philanthropy and research funding.
Frenk won’t take the reins until January 2025. Darnell Hunt, UCLA’s executive vice chancellor and provost, will serve as interim chancellor until after Block returns to his faculty position as a researcher in sleep cycles and circadian rhythms.
The UC Regents unanimously approved Frenk’s appointment, which was recommended by UC President Michael V. Drake. He will earn an annual base salary of $978,904.
“At an important moment for higher education, returning to the public sector to lead one of the top research universities in the world – including one of the 10 largest academic health systems – is an exciting opportunity and a great honor for me,” said Frenk. in the statement after the vote. “I look forward to extending my lifelong commitment to public service in education and health care to the vibrant, diverse, and cosmopolitan community that is Los Angeles.”
Frenk is coming to UCLA at a very difficult time, as protests over the Israel-Hamas war, labor disputes, faculty overload and the ongoing pandemic blues have plagued the campus. Despite UCLA’s top academic ranking and status as the nation’s most applied university, many campus members report what they call unprecedented division, acrimony, burnout and malaise. The division was reflected in a close but unsuccessful faculty vote to censure Block and mistrust his leadership’s handling of the university’s response to pro-Palestinian encampments and mob attacks.
In several recent interviews with UCLA faculty and students about their hopes for the next chancellor, an issue that came up was the need to unite the fractured campus.
“Historically, I don’t think we’ve seen this much division – it’s difficult to hold society together,” said Andrea Kasko, UCLA Academic Senate chairman. “The next chancellor needs to rebuild trust with everyone, listen to a lot. The community needs to heal.”
Frenk’s background may well be up to the task. As the son of a German Jewish father who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s, he had a personal sensitivity to antisemitism; He also praised the power of tolerance, inclusion, generosity and kindness, saying that Mexicans sacrifice displaced families and help them succeed.
“Universities are more important than ever – especially as we move into this complex environment with discourses that can separate some groups of society from others,” he said in an interview a few years ago at Thrive Global. “We must be a symbol of using reason to deal with differences in a respectful way – to be able to accept diversity in all dimensions. But that diversity must be accompanied by the idea that we can tolerate different perspectives, because they also include different opinions.
Frenk, however, has not dealt with pro-Palestinian protests and strong counterprotests that have ignited violence, aggressive police actions, arrests and student disciplinary cases at UCLA and other campuses across the country. University of Miami students have not organized a pro-Palestinian camp; A campus talk two months ago by survivors of the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel appeared to be without protest.
At UCLA, Frenk would also face controversy over policing and safety practices. While UCLA leaders have been criticized for failing to secure enough law enforcement to prevent attacks on pro-Palestinian protesters on April 30 and May 1, others have been highly critical of the current level of policing.
Carlos Santos, an associate professor of social welfare, said the new chancellor must address concerns about what some campus members see as the use of police force and punishment against peaceful protesters.
And how Frenk will transition from a career at a smaller private university — the University of Miami has 18,000 students — to the larger public UCLA and the 10-campus UC system remains to be seen.
At UC Berkeley, for example, the faculty advocates for an internal candidate to replace Chancellor Carol Christ, given the complexities of the campus, and get one in the business school Dean Rich Lyons, who will take the helm July 1. Some UCLA faculty have raised the same question. about the ability of outsiders to capture and manage UC’s largest campus with no experience in the system.
Shane White and Michael Meranze, former chairs of UCLA’s Academic Senate, said faculty numbers have never outpaced student enrollment, leading to greater workloads and burnout. Between 2011 and 2023, UCLA’s student enrollment increased by 18.8% but Academic Senate faculty members grew by less than 2%.
In addition, Kasko said, staff shortages have left faculty with fewer bureaucratic tasks, resulting in less time for teaching and research.
The three faculty leaders also said graduate students must be better supported with funding or campuses will have to shrink their numbers and risk losing young intellectual talent critical to UC’s powerful research enterprise.
“We need more classes, faculty and graduate students,” White said. “We are supposed to be the brain trust for Silicon Valley’s next inventors and startups to deliver what society needs.”
James Steintrager, chair of the UC system’s Academic Senate, said Frenk’s ability to navigate the worlds of university research and health care delivery makes him an excellent fit for UCLA. “The pool of candidates to lead this premier public university is excellent, but Dr. Frenk stands out for his unique combination of academic, medical, administrative, and political expertise,” he said in a statement.
Among the students, many mentioned the cost of housing, food, transportation and other financial needs as a constant problem. Adam Tfayli, president of UCLA’s student body, said the next chancellor should pay more attention to these needs and be more accessible to students to listen to their concerns, such as campus safety and the constant feeling of alienation from the pandemic and distance learning.
“The current campus climate is at an all-time low,” he said. “People shouldn’t be connected.”
Frenk addressed these needs at the University of Miami when he took office in 2015. In his opening speech, he announced two major commitments: creating 100 new endowed positions to attract and retain the best faculty, and raising support for students to meet 100% of their financial needs.
He also praised the activities of the students. In a column for the University of Miami’s student newspaper, he praised the students — some of whom graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 people in 2018 — for advocating against gun violence. He said his “refusal to remain silent in the face of violence and intimidation” was inspiring.
Frenk’s greatest professional passion is global health. A fourth-generation physician, he earned his medical degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1979. He also received a master’s degree in public health and sociology and a joint PhD in medical care organization and sociology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Frenk served as health minister under President Vicente Fox from 2000 to 2006 and is credited with introducing universal health insurance, Seguro Popular, which increased access to health care for millions of uninsured Mexicans. He increased access to family planning and contraception — which drew criticism from some conservatives. He also worked as a senior for the global health program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and as a director at the World Health Organization in Geneva.
At Harvard, Frenk is credited with balancing the public health school’s budget, diversifying research and helping to secure a $350 million endowment, the largest in Harvard’s history.
Frenk is married to Felicia Knaul, a health economist; the couple has two children. In addition to scientific articles, he has written two children’s books about the human body, and enjoys opera, cycling, football and soccer.
“Dr. Frenk has demonstrated a strong commitment to the health and well-being of people, institutions, and systems around the world,” Drake said in a statement. “His leadership will build on the growth and strength the campus has achieved on Chancellor’s Block and accelerate UCLA’s great trajectory of service to Los Angeles, the state, and the world.”