UCLA Professor, Civil Rights Leader Gary Orfield Elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Gary Orfield, Distinguished Research Professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning at UCLA and the co-director of the UCLA Civil Rights Project, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Each year, the AAAS Council elects members whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science, or its applications, are scientifically or socially distinguished,” according to a statement from the organization.

The selection as an AAAS Fellow honors Professor Orfield for his “distinguished scholarly contributions to the study of race as it relates to education, for leadership in promoting research on civil rights, and for extra-academic efforts to promote racial equality.” 

A scholar and leader in the field of civil rights for nearly 40 years, Orfield was the co-founder and director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project and has served as co-director of the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA with UCLA Research Professor Patricia Gándara since the organization’s move to Los Angeles in 2007.  His central interest has been the development and implementation of social policy, particularly the impact of policy on equal opportunity for success in American society. 

“Professor Orfield's research has illuminated the field. He makes clear that segregation—and its disadvantageous impacts on the education and opportunities of people of color—is far from over, and that the struggle for civil rights must continue,” said Christina Christie, Wasserman Dean at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. “In the face of ongoing legal and political efforts that fuel the re-segregation of our schools and seek to limit the rights and opportunities of Black and Latinx people, Gary remains one of the most impactful and optimistic academic leaders I know. I can think of no one more deserving of the honor of being elected an AAAS fellow.”    

Orfield’s research includes more than 12 co-authored or co-edited books since 2004, and scores of articles and reports plumbing issues of race, segregation, education and opportunity. In addition to scholarly work, he has served as an expert witness or special master in more than three dozen class action civil rights cases, on school desegregation, housing discrimination and other issues, and as consultant to many school districts, federal, state and local governments, civil rights groups and teachers organizations.  

Orfield and various collaborators have organized amicus briefs to the Supreme Court on major school and affirmative action decisions over the last two decades. Most recently, he authored “The Walls Around College Opportunity:  The Failure of Colorblind Policy,” published by Princeton University Press (2022).