UC Merced Magazine | Volume XIX, Issue VII

Former interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Marjorie Zatz was one of many who worked hard to advance the campus from R2 to R1.

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We’ll get to why Becerril was in Bavaria in a moment. e San Diego native earned a bachelor’s in environmental science at UC Merced in 2011. ree years later, she was hired by the university’s Office of Research and Economic Development to work on grant proposals. While working full-time, she began studying at CSU Stanislaus for an MBA with an emphasis on strategic planning. Her work with the research community influenced the thesis subject. “I knew we had everything we needed, but I wanted to lay down the strategic planning, what it would take for UC Merced to take that next step,” Becerril said. Crunching national data from sources such as Carnegie and the National Science Foundation, she compared UC Merced to five universities that jumped from R2 to R1 in 2015. Becerril concluded that UC Merced was capable of achieving R1 in 2025. Nailed it. “I found out from friends who are faculty there. ey knew this was a very important topic for me,” Becerril said. “I’m a Bobcat forever.” A year a er securing her MBA, she changed jobs at UC Merced and worked for three years as a principal planner

in the land use department. “It was a step in the right direction,” she said on the Zoom call from Germany. She is now a Ph.D. candidate researching e orts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in road tunnels, focusing on government policies and efficient economic models that would make the tunnels environmentally sustainable. Becerril said her alma mater’s R1 achievement “underscores the dedication to fostering a robust research environment and a commitment to academic excellence.” Finding the Story in the Numbers Most people look at a financial report and see... numbers. Endless. Brain-numbing. Numbers. Amanda Preston-Nelson looks at a financial report and sees stories: dollars flowing from one pair of hands to another; schools adding degrees in biochemistry, neuroscience, and aerospace engineering; and labs hiring graduate students to expand the frontiers of knowledge. In January 2021, UC Merced activated a new campus-wide financial management system. Various deadlines dropped the cutover into the center of the pandemic. What followed was a protracted challenge to convert certain data from the old system and to maximize the new one’s advanced capabilities.

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