The UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES) is pleased to introduce Professor Adrienne Nishina as the new chair of the Department of Human Ecology. She started her new role July 1. 

Nishina has been with the department’s faculty since 2006. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nishina’s research focuses on adolescent peer relationships, and she explores how having friends from different ethnic backgrounds impacts overall well-being and development. She has also published studies on the personal and surrounding factors that influence how bullying can lead to issues with mental health, physical health and school performance. She also enjoys sharing her research techniques with students in her courses, for example, HDE 120: Research Methods, which helps students understand and evaluate research in human development. 

One of her goals as chair is to think of creative new ways to focus on helping students build skills needed as they embark on their careers. She said the beauty of being such a diverse department with programs in human development and family studies; landscape architecture and environmental design; and community and regional development, students can be encouraged to collaborate across disciplines and given opportunities to boost their communications skills.

“When they go off into the workforce and become a teacher, or community organizer, or landscape architect, it’s nice to know people who go into fields that are different than yours,” she said. “It would be nice for people to feel like graduating from UC Davis, from human ecology, is a strong part of their identity. I’d like to think of ways to promote that and maybe that’s by keeping in touch with alumni and shaping our majors based on what recent alumni are experiencing in the workforce.”

Supporting faculty research

In her new role, she also hopes to build community partnerships that foster meaningful dialogue, allowing department faculty to share their expertise to help address local needs. She’s highly impressed by her colleagues' dedication to examining complex and significant challenges.

“Every single faculty member is doing research that has direct ties to improving the lives of people locally, nationally and/or globally,” she said. “Many people would shy away from some of these daunting challenges, and I think it’s so cool that we have faculty in our department who are taking them on and are fearless in that way.”

The department also has two vice chairs: Associate Professor Noli Brazil and Professor Brett Milligan.

Nishina replaces Mary Delany, who served as interim chair since last September when Leigh Ann Simmons stepped down as chair to join faculty at the UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. Delany has spent 26 years at UC Davis, including as chair of the Department of Animal Science, interim dean and CA&ES executive associate dean before retiring in 2020. She will work alongside Nishina through the month of August to help with the transition and then plans to go back into retirement to spend time with her grandkids, garden and volunteer in her community.

Nishina, who praised Delany for her leadership during the past year and Simmons for all her work in the role before that, said she’s excited to take the helm.

“My colleagues are doing such important work that I’m just really excited to be working with them and I’m looking forward to what we can do,” Nishina said.