Colleagues,

With great pleasure, I announce that Juliann Emmons Allison, Professor in the Department of Society, Environment, and Health Equity (SEHE), will begin a new role as the Associate Dean for the Social Sciences, effective July 1, 2026.

In this portfolio, Juliann will join the College’s senior leadership team. Her specific role includes primary responsibility for academic operations and faculty success in the departments of Anthropology, Economics, Ethnic Studies, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. She will share with Associate Dean Kiril Tomoff similar responsibilities for the Departments of Black Study, Gender and Sexuality Studies, History, and SEHE. I have extended to Juliann a specific mandate to support the acceleration of our research enterprise across the social sciences, including our new Social Sciences Laboratory. She has also accepted responsibilities to lead a thorough examination of the academic mission and financial sustainability of our non-degree-granting research centers. 

Juliann earned a doctorate degree in political science from UCLA and an MFA from Antioch University. Prior to her arrival at UCR in 1997, Juliann was on faculty at SUNY Binghamton.

Her history at UCR includes serving as a founding faculty member in the School of Public Policy and, later, in SEHE. She has held key leadership positions across UCR, including Chair of the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Director of Global Studies, and Special Advisor to the Provost on Sustainability. Other notable campus accomplishments include extensive service in the Academic Senate, where she has chaired three committees: Diversity and Equal Opportunity, Educational Policy, and Planning and Budget.

Inspired by her outdoor interests and environmental activism, Juliann’s research and teaching focus on energy policy and the environmental and social consequences of land use decisions. Her current research examines the sustainability of the Southern California warehousing industry, social equity in the renewable energy transition, and environmental conservation among outdoor recreationists. This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the American Alpine Club, the California Department of Transportation, the California Energy Commission, and the Coachella Valley Mountain Conservancy. Her recent scholarly publications include Unsustainable: Amazon, Warehousing and the Politics of Exploitation and The Oxford Handbook of Energy Politics. 

I am grateful to have such an accomplished and engaged scholar-advocate on the team. I extend thanks to the search committee chaired by Jennifer Merolla, Director of the Social Sciences Laboratory. 

Please join me in congratulating Juliann as she prepares to assume this new leadership position.

Yours sincerely,

Daryle Williams
Professor of History and Dean
College of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
University of California, Riverside