Steve Roussos, Ph.D., MPH leads operational and administrative functions for the new UC Merced Blum Center. Working closely with the executive team, he is establishing a clear understanding of the center’s role on and off campus, developing a sustainable plan for growth and expansion, building an enthusiastic network of academic and community partners and ensuring UC Merced’s team exceeds its goals and objectives.
Roussos has more than 15 years of academic and community leadership in public health and community development. He holds a doctorate in child psychology and human development, and a master’s in public health. His current work aims to understand and improve how organizations and community partnerships influence population-level outcomes, especially those outcomes disproportionately affecting vulnerable and underrepresented communities.
At UC Merced, he also co-leads the Resource Center for Community Engaged Scholarship (ReCCES), supports community-based research development through the Health Sciences Research Institute and teaches and mentors students in the rapidly growing public health section.
He co-founded ReCCES and the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities. He helped establish and lead several local, regional and national efforts in social-justice research and culturally and linguistically appropriate services. In 2003, he co-established and led the Community Partnership Alliance, an initiative for formal, longer-term, community-academic collaboration to improve UC Merced’s effect on Merced County’s educational, economic, health and civic engagement goals.
In 2006, he co-established and co-led the Community-University Research and Action for Justice, a regional effort to ensure actionable research to improve equity and prosperity in the San Joaquin Valley.
Throughout his work, there is an attention to how organizations and communities learn to identify and address the conditions that matter most to their well-being and evolution. A guiding principle of his research and civic work is to ensure meaningful and sustainable collaboration between community and academic partners. Roussos has a strong capacity for network building and his history of empowerment within academic and community sectors provides an important foundation for relationships and vision for the Blum Center.