Cia Ford ’08

In her 30 years at UCLA, Cia Ford has committed herself to serving the campus and the alumni community. The former model and Montana native began as a temp in the film library and then moved into Alumni Affairs in 1990, attaining a French and Francophone studies degree in 2008, while working in various capacities ranging from awards and reunions, marketing and communications and student programming. Currently, she heads the department working with the alumni affinity groups and the professional schools.

Q: Working in Alumni Affairs for so long, you’ve seen a lot over the years. Has there been anything that’s remained constant?
Change has certainly been a constant since I started working here. With new personnel comes new ideas, new ways of doing things. I’m most impressed with how professional the organization has gotten in identifying the interests of alumni.

Q: What are affinity networks and professional schools?
Affinity networks are basically alumni groups who have formed out of a common interest. There are those who we consider legacy groups such as Gold Shield Alumnae who have a rich history of alumni involvement, while others are mostly former student activity groups, whose affinity with the university stems from their participation in activities such as the Student Alumni Association or the UCLA Marching Band. There are many student clubs and activities at UCLA, and some have formed official alumni groups who stay connected with the campus.

Professional schools are the academic institutions on campus who offer graduate or professional degrees, such as the David Geffen School of Medicine or the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. When their alumni graduate, we try and find ways to stay connected with them on behalf of the school because these connections often lead to mutually beneficial resources and opportunities.

Q: How do you try and stay connected to alumni from these groups?
I think the most important thing to do is to listen. It’s important to respect where they’re coming from and understand what they’re looking for before we can find opportunities that will be relevant to each specific group. But in order to listen, we have to first establish avenues of communication. For professional schools, that might look like a quarterly meeting with staff from each school. For the affinity groups, the outreach is more one to one. Or we find ways to support their ongoing programs and events.

Q: What do you find challenging in your current role?
Generally speaking, it usually comes down to the availability of resources and competing priorities. When we’re able to marry the available resources with the group’s needs and the university’s priorities, then we know it’s working.

Another challenge is recruiting young alumni to be the future of some of the affinity groups. Younger Bruins will get involved when they find something about the group is relevant to them. Faculty Women’s Club, for example, is establishing a young professionals section with the hope this will strengthen their engagement base.

Q: What message would you like to convey to alumni reading this article who might belong to one of your groups?

We’re here to serve. We want to hear and understand their needs so we can respond in a dynamic way. We operate in a thought culture of Yes, so we’re ready and willing to have the conversation of how we can help.

To learn more about Affinity Networks and Professional School Networks, visit https://alumni.ucla.edu/find/alumni-networks.aspx.

Cia Ford can reached at 310-206-0684 or ciaf@support.ucla.edu.