With undergraduate enrollment topping more than 5,700 students, the UCI School of Social Sciences is the largest bachelor’s degree-serving unit on campus. Critical to the exceptional educational experience of this large student body are the school’s award-winning student programs which span mentorship and career readiness opportunities, leadership development training, and graduate school guidance and preparation. The school has created a new leadership position that will oversee these programs, and beginning July 1, Matt Huffman, sociology professor, will be the inaugural associate dean of student programs in the School of Social Sciences.

“An experienced academic administrator and a dedicated undergraduate teacher, Matt has just the right mix of qualities to take on and give shape to this new role in support of our students,” says Bill Maurer, social sciences dean.

Huffman joined the UCI faculty in 1999 following completion of his Ph.D. in sociology at UC Santa Barbara and a one-year visiting assistant professorship at The George Washington University. He’s held multiple leadership roles on school and campus committees including his service as chair of the Department of Sociology from 2014-2020 during which time he consolidated the department’s position among the very top sociology programs in the country, enhanced the diversity of its faculty, and grew its extramurally funded grant portfolio. As a researcher, Huffman explores patterns of gender and racial inequality within and across organizations and labor markets, with his most recent work focusing on how the changing nature of public sector employment has affected racial inequality. His findings have been published in journals such as the International Journal of Sociology, Social Problems, the Journal of Marriage and Family and others. His 2015 study, “The Parity Penalty in Life Course Perspective: Motherhood and Occupational Status in 13 European Countries,” coauthored with sociologists Anja-Kristin Abendroth and Judith Treas and published in the American Sociological Review, earned recognition as the American Sociological Association’s Outstanding Article in both the Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility and Aging and the Life Course Sections.

In his new role as associate dean of student programs, Huffman will work alongside Jeanett Castellanos, associate dean of undergraduate affairs, who oversees the school’s undergraduate advising, general social science courses and leads the social policy and public service major while also serving as point person for curricula and pedagogical approaches and planning and enrollment management activities in social sciences.

“With associate deans Castellanos and Huffman in place, we will have a dynamic duo who will ensure exceptional undergraduate academic planning, enrollment management and academic counseling, and value-added programming to connect our students with each other, our alums and the community,” says Maurer. “I could not be more excited about what is in store for our students.”