Biography

Dr. Richard Andalon teaches undergraduate courses with the UCLA Department of Sociology and other university departments that offer elective courses for the sociology major, including psychology, education, labor studies, and Chicana/Chicano Studies.  Prior to returning to UCLA at the start of 2018, he was at the University of Southern California (USC).  At the start of 2008, he joined USC and began teaching under the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary Department of American Studies & Ethnicity and managing student services programs under the university’s campuswide Division of Undergraduate Education and Division of Graduate Education.  Between 1997 and 2007, he studied at UCLA and earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees, including a doctorate, and began his early career at the university as an instructor, advisor, and administrator.  He was recruited by USC in late 2007, where he had the opportunity to further enhance his career over nearly a decade through various teaching, research, and administrative experiences.  During the 2013 – 2014 academic year at USC, he took a sabbatical and studied at Harvard University, where he earned a series of professional certificates.  He returned to USC after this sabbatical.  Since 2004, alongside his academic and professional experiences, he has actively served out in the community under a variety of volunteer advisory positions, specialized consulting contracts, and appointed leadership roles.

Dr. Andalon’s areas of academic interest include the sociology and psychology of education, social stratification and socioeconomic mobility, workforce and labor studies, entrepreneurship and social organizational enterprises, immigration and social acculturation, and qualitative research and survey methods.  Most of the undergraduate courses he teaches are related to these interest areas.

Dr. Andalon’s research focuses on investigating the sociocultural and psychosocial experiences of students as they navigate through two critical junctures of the educational pipeline: from high school to college and from college to the workforce. He studies students’ socio-personal traits, socio-environmental influences, and social peer networks. He looks for the manifestations in students’ lives relating to individual agency, identity development, and community support. He investigates how such manifestations cultivate a sense of self, facilitate social integrations, and promote achievement and success. In his research, he is especially attentive to the experiences of students from first-generation college backgrounds, low socioeconomic levels, and recent immigrant statuses.

Dr. Andalon is most passionate about serving as a classroom instructor and advising and mentoring college students. At both UCLA and USC, alongside his teaching appointments, he has held management leadership roles. He has gone above and beyond when serving under various administrative roles at the university-level and out in the community.

Dr. Andalon has served as a senior advisor and director under UCLA Student Affairs with the Division of Enrollment Services and Division of Campus Life. His UCLA administrative work has included experiences with admissions, registration, counseling, financial aid, career services, and extracurricular activities.  He has served as a director and an associate dean under USC Academic Affairs with the Division of Undergraduate Education and Division of Graduate Education. At USC, among his administrative work, he was responsible for an undergraduate student program referred to as the McNair Scholars Program, which is sponsored by the federal government and receives grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education. This program operates at multiple universities across the country. Dr. Andalon, along with the support of other faculty and administrators, used the McNair program model to found and establish the privately funded USC Research Gateway Scholars Program, which, like McNair, provides undergraduates with graduate school preparation, research training, stipends, scholarships, and mentorships. He was also an administrator of the EDGE Fellows Program, which was sponsored by the federal government and received grant funding from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (NSF – SBE). This collaborative program involved USC, Stanford University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Texas A&M University. Under the special administrative appointment as a dean representing USC through this four-university collaborative, he designed and administered EDGE, which provided graduate students with stipends, fellowships, research training, mentoring services, and career advisement. After the federal grant support ended for this program, it continued with private funding from USC under the name of Academic Professional Development (APD). Dr. Andalon, along with the support of other faculty and administrators, organized and established the office infrastructure to administer APD.

In the community, Dr. Andalon has served as a board member and chairman of Learning Enrichment and Academic Resources Network (LEARN), which is a community-based educational equity and youth-focused social services nonprofit operating in various Los Angeles County cities. He has served as a senior consultant and program specialist with the Los Angeles College Promise (LACP), which is part of the California College Promise (CCP) statewide initiative that makes possible a community college education at no cost to students and their families.  He has served as senior consultant and director of registration advisement, admissions outreach, and financial aid/scholarships at Antioch University Los Angeles (AULA), which is part of a consortium of progressive U.S. universities dedicated to advancing social justice through their teaching, research, and community engagement.  He has served as a lead advisor and coordinator of other Los Angeles area youth and college student programs, including the California Student Aid Commission Financial Aid Awareness and Outreach (FAAO) and the United Way Pathways to Colleges and Careers (PCC).  He has served as a senior counselor and manager under the University of California statewide Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP), which works with youth through college preparation programs in the City of Los Angeles. He has served as a founding program advisor, instructor, and coordinator under the UCLA Career-Based Outreach Program (CBOP), which provided academic advisement, employment guidance, and mentoring services to Los Angeles area K-12 youth and college students.

Guided by entrepreneurial and social justice principles, Dr. Andalon has helped identify, write proposals for, and manage a variety of grant funding awards, including multi-million dollar awards, from nonprofits and state and federal agencies.  The following are examples of organizations he has engaged with under pursuits primarily aimed at securing funding for student services programs, and, secondarily in some cases, for research projects:  the California Department of Education, California Department of Social Services, California Community Colleges Office of the Chancellor, University of California Office of the President, United Way of California/Greater Los Angeles, Fidelity Investment Foundation, Southern California Edison, United States Department of Education, United States Department of Homeland Security, National Institute of Health, and National Science Foundation.

Dr. Andalon received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from UCLA. His undergraduate studies in the social sciences focused on sociology, political science, and education. His graduate studies in education focused on the sociology of education, psychosocial research, and sociocultural adaptation. He also attended Harvard University, where he acquired a series of professional certificates from the Institutes for Higher Education (HIHE). His professional studies included curriculum design and development, program assessment and evaluation, policy analysis and implementation, nonprofits and organizational development, and management and leadership.

Over the years, Dr. Andalon’s service and leadership have been recognized at both UCLA and USC. His civic engagement and professional work have also been acknowledged out in the community by the Los Angeles City Mayor’s Office, Los Angeles City Council, Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, Los Angeles Community College District, and Los Angeles Office of the California Parent Institute for Quality Education. He has had the opportunity in communities across California and the United States to provide consultations under the areas relating to his academic scholarly interests, administrative leadership experiences, and community service pursuits.

Dr. Andalon is a lifelong resident of the State of California, having been born in the City of Los Angeles and raised primarily in this city and in neighboring communities.