A new UC Davis program, the Center for the Study of Regional Change, will foster research on the pressing issues facing California's Central Valley and Sierra Nevada. It gets off to a quick start with a June 4-6 conference on building sustainable communities.

The conference, "Building and Celebrating Connections for Sustainable, Healthy and Just Communities," will bring together on the UC Davis campus university researchers from the social and natural sciences with representatives from community groups to learn about successful projects in nutrition education, gardens for health and community vitality, community-based natural resources stewardship, and innovative agricultural projects.

The UC Agriculture and Natural Resources division, with academic personnel from many county UC Cooperative Extension offices and at UC Davis, is the primary sponsoring partner for the event.

The first director of the UC Davis Center for the Study of Regional Change is Jonathan London, who has a master's degree in city and regional planning and a Ph.D. in environmental science, policy and management, both from UC Berkeley. His research addresses issues of social equity and community participation in rural development and environmental justice.

The Center for the Study of Regional Change is a program of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. It was originally conceived and championed by the late Ted Bradshaw, professor of human and community development at UC Davis, who envisioned collaborative partnerships between the university and community stakeholders to foster interdisciplinary research on sustainable regional change. London assisted Bradshaw in developing the original center proposal. They were responsible for building relationships with key community supporters such as David Hosley, president and general manager of Sacramento's KVIE public television station, who has been an ardent supporter of regional planning.

For information about the Center for the Study of Regional Change or the June conference, contact London at (530) 752-2733, jklondon@ucdavis.edu.