Dean's Leadership Council - Emeritus Members
The Dean’s Leadership Council serves as an advisory board to Gillian Hayes, Dean of the Graduate Division and Vice Provost for Graduate Education at UCI. The council was founded nearly a decade ago and each member serves as a significant leader in either academia, industry, or both. They aid the Dean and Graduate Division in moving graduate education forward, implementing programs, and strategies to make sure UCI graduate students are set up to thrive.
Sandra Loughlin
Dr. Sandra Loughlin is a researcher and administrator at UCI from 2012 until she retired in 2019. Her research focused on the effects of drugs on the developing brain, with a particular interest in the effects of tobacco constituents on adolescent brains. Loughlin has published over sixty papers in peer-reviewed journals and edited a book entitled Neurotrophic Factors.
During her work at the UCI Graduate Division, Dr. Loughlin drew on her scientific expertise to create and lead Graduate Resource Center programs on professional development, including mentoring, teaching, public speaking and leadership. She also assisted UCI students in the preparation and submission of competitive fellowship applications.
Loughlin earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego, while also obtaining a B.A. in Psychology, University of California, San Diego
Manuel Puentes
Manuel Puentes career spans over 40 years, concentrated in areas of transportation engineering, including highway operations, advanced transportation technologies, and community and legislative relations. More recently, since his founding of ITS Consensus, consulting engineers, Manny has served as consultant in areas of transportation development, legislative affairs, and related public policy and community relations. In his early career following a short tenure as a project engineer with the City of San Clemente, California he joined the Automobile Club of Southern California where over a period of 30-years he served as traffic engineer, transportation engineer, community relations, and public affairs manager. Through these positions with the Auto Club his over-arching function was as liaison with technical, legislative and public policy agencies and with community officials and organizations. Additionally he was engaged in a variety of special projects, including representing road users at university-level Human Factors
research programs and in teaching transportation operations curriculums for California’s Institute of Transportation Studies. During his tenure with the Auto Cub he pursued his advanced degree through UCI’s Graduate School of Management and in 1993 earned a Masters of Business & Public Administration (MBPA).