Faculty

Robert S. Spich is a senior lecturer of management and international business at UCLA Anderson School of Management where he is a faculty member in the Global Economics and Management area. His teaching specialty covers courses in international management, emerging markets, negotiations and cross cultural issues in global business. With a bachelors degree in international relations from Lafayette College, Dr. Spich continued his professional formation with field experience in economic development projects and technical assistance for the Peace Corps in Chile and the Agency for International Development in Washington D.C. After earning both his MBA and Ph.D. in management and international business from the University of Washington in Seattle, Dr. Spich was recipient of several research and teaching fellowships to Latin America from both the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University as well as the Fulbright Scholars Program.  In addition to his teaching, Dr. Spich has been named as Faculty Program Director of the Center for International Business Education and Research at UCLA Anderson. As a consultant, Dr. Spich has worked with such companies as Hughes Space and Communications, Northrop-Grumman, The Governor's Principle Leadership Institute at UCLA, ENEL of Italy, Amgen, Akzo-Nobel, Disney, Isabella Fiore, Sierra Systems and the Getty Conservation Institute of the Getty Museum.

Michael Brown is a real-estate investor/operator and social entrepreneur.  Mike began his career as a heavy equipment operator, advancing through the ranks and into construction management.  More recently, he worked as an acquisitions analyst with The Ratkovich Company, one of Los Angeles' premier real estate developers.   Currently, Mike runs a small real estate investment firm, Pelican Holdings, which provides workforce rental housing to lower middle income families throughout Southern California.  Mike is an active member of the Urban Land Institute's LA chapter, where he works and writes on issues of controlling urban sprawl, green building, and homelessness.  He is a founding board member of Ocean Healing Group, a nonprofit organization which takes paraplegic youth and their families on action sports vacations throughout the world.  Mike is an expert adventurer, surfing, skiing and mountaineering internationally in his free time.  He holds a B.A. in English Literature from The Colorado College, and an M.B.A. from The Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

Paul Bunje is the Executive Director of the UCLA Center for Climate Change Solutions, where he works to bridge the gap between research science and decision makers to help society respond and adapt to the challenges of climate change. Previously, Dr. Bunje was a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. While in Washington, DC, he designed and refined policy on climate change, water resources, and ecosystem services. He is trained as a biologist, having received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley; his research investigated the climatic and genetic mechanisms producing species diversity. Dr. Bunje has lived and worked in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific, providing first-hand insight into the diverse political and cultural environments in which scientists and policy makers implement environmental protections. Dr. Bunje is also a co-founder of Conservation & Climate Security International and the Science and Technology Electoral Politics Interest Network.

Chien-Ming Chen is a postdoctoral scholar at the UCLA Institute of Environment. He has a PhD in Management Science from Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands. Before starting his PhD, he worked as a production supervisor of AU Optronics Corp. His research work, which focuses on evaluation and design of complex operational systems, has appeared in several academic journals, including Production and Operational Management, and European Journal of Operational Research. His research interests include: efficiency measurement methods, environmental issues in management, supply chain management, and operations research.

Jordan Karubian is the Latin America Director for the UCLA Center for Tropical Research. He is a behavioral ecologist who tackles basic and applied questions in avian ecology and conservation from an evolutionary perspective. In Australia, he has investigated the evolutionary causes and consequences of male polymorphism in the Red-backed Fairy-wren, a small passerine. In Ecuador, he researched how social biology affects ecological processes like seed dispersal in the endangered Long-wattled Umbrellabird. In addition to research, his work in Ecuador has a strong applied component including training, education, and involvement of local residents and young biologists at local, national, and international levels. In both projects, he has adopted a blend of observational and experimental techniques that range from morphological and demographic studies to molecular and phylogenetic analyses. This combined approach has helped to elucidate general evolutionary principles of behavioral ecology.

Nurit Katz is UCLA's first Sustainability Coordinator. In this position she is working to foster partnerships among academic, research, and operational departments and further the goals and initiatives of the campus sustainability program. Before starting in this position she founded the UCLA Sustainable Resource Center in 2005 to provide resources for the community on sustainability. As Director of the program she hosted numerous events that brought together leaders in the public and private sectors. She then served as President of the Graduate Students Association and helped Dr. Charles Corbett to develop a new interdisciplinary graduate certificate program- Leaders in Sustainability.  After graduation she helped launch the new UCLA Center for Corporate Environmental Performance. She has worked on a variety of sustainability projects including a project for the City of Los Angeles that focused on transit-oriented development along the Expo Light Rail Line. Her essay on the topic was published in the UCLA Anderson Forecast's "Solutions for Our City".  Nurit holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Masters in Public Policy from the UCLA School of Public Affairs. She is a boardmember of the Los Angeles Professional Chapter of Net Impact, an international organization focused on using business to create a positive social impact. Nurit received her BA in Environmental Education at Humboldt State University and after college taught with a number of education programs including an innovative Farm-to-School program that provides a healthy lunch as part of an integrated curriculum that uses local food systems as a context for learning. She continued to work on nutrition and health issues with the UCLA Center for Research, Education, Training, and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities. Her final masters project focused on expansion of the UCLA Johnson & Johnson Management Development Institute, a program that provides management capacity building for HIV/AIDS service providers in Africa.

Alexis Lantz is currently completing her MA in Urban Planning with a focus on Transportation and Urban Design. Her primary interests are alternative transportation modes (biking, walking, mass transit). Specifically she is interested in designing communities to promote alternative transportation modes and foster environmental and economic sustainability. She has worked on numerous 'Safe Routes to School' Grants for San Bernardino, Riverside, and Coachella Valley counties as a design associate with Ryan Snyder Associates. She is active in the Los Angeles cycling community as a cyclist and an activist.

Iris Lee joined Deutsche Bank Alex Brown in July 2004.  She is a Vice President in the Portfolio Consultant Group.  Iris is trained on the full array of investment products and works closely with the Investment Strategy Group in order to assist Client Advisors in determining the appropriate asset allocation and investment solutions for their clients.  Prior to joining Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, Iris worked for an investment team at Goldman Sachs where she was in charge of cash management and equity trading.  Iris graduated with honors from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a B.A. in Economics, a minor in Policy Studies and a Specialization in Computing.  Iris is currently in the Masters of Business Administration Program at the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.  Growing up in Hawaii has influence Iris’s interest in sustainability. 

Neil Lessem is a PhD. Candidate in the department of economics at UCLA. His current research looks into the determinants of demand for green products. Neil believes economics provides a great tool set for looking at the world. To him, the core insight of economics is that people follow incentives – so to understand why people or firms are engaging in actions that lead to a poor outcome for themselves or society, we just need to understand where their incentives lie. Apart from economics, Neil enjoys mountain biking, volleyball, hiking, cycling and soccer. Originally from South Africa, Neil obtained an honours degree in business and economics at the University of Cape Town. 

Jenny Trucano is a market researcher for Rare Conservation in Washington, DC, where she works to identify the coral reefs, forests, and other ecosystems that are most in need of protection.  She has also worked for the National Park Service and a county environmental affairs office.  She recently graduated from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where she studied sustainability and nonprofit management.

Ryan Vaughn is a PhD candidate in the economics department at UCLA.  His interests are in Urban, Real Estate Economics and Environmental Economics.  Ryan is published in the fields of Environmental and Resource Economics. 

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