UCSB’s Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy has named eight researchers to the 2025-26 Central Coast Regional Equity (CCRE) cohort. A signature program of the Blum Center, CCRE funds community-engaged research that addresses pressing equity challenges across Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties.
This year’s projects span digital literacy and broadband access, wildfire smoke exposure among farmworkers, child labor in agricultural communities, culturally responsive mental health care, the community impacts of satellite infrastructure, worker-centered just transition planning, commuting and job-housing equity, and a Latina/o oral history and digital archive initiative.
The 2025-26 CCRE Awardees are:
- Amy Gonzales, Associate Professor of Communication: Reducing Technology Anxiety and Encouraging Digital Literacy for Low-Income Latino Residents
- Carson Kopper, Graduate Student in Computer Science: Mobile Broadband Performance and Access Trends in the Central Coast
- Ben Olguin, Professor and Robert and Liisa Erickson Presidential Chair in English: Historias: Latina/o Oral Historiography, Community Theater, and Expanding the Latina/o Digital Commons
- Şeyma Özdemir, Graduate Student in Sociology: Invisible Childhoods of Farmworkers’ Children: Child Labor and Educational Outcomes on California’s Central Coast
- Lisa Parks, Distinguished Professor of Film & Media Studies: The Satellite Coast: Community Impacts of Commercial Satellite Launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base
- Haven Parker, Graduate Student at the Bren School: Voices of the Transition: A Worker-Centered Just Transition Strategy for Santa Barbara County’s Oil and Gas Workforce
- Daniela Sarmiento Hernández, Graduate Student in Counseling, Clinical, & School Psychology: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Effectiveness of Digital HEROES with Latinx Families
- Yuyang Wu, Graduate Student in Geography: Understanding the Spatiotemporal Evolution of Local Labor Market Areas in California’s Central Coast
The Blum Center will host a colloquium during Spring Quarter 2026 where this year’s cohort will share their research findings and community-engaged approach. Details to follow.On May 8, 2026, more than 100 people gathered at OASIS in Goleta for the inaugural Central Coast Community Summit, “Bridging the Coast: Building Relationships between Campus and Community.” The event marked the first time UCSB convened community organizations from across the region alongside university researchers, staff, and students for a shared conversation about what meaningful partnership can look like.
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