The tide keeps bringing Mark Gold back to UCLA.
He was born at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, a place that was also the site of his son’s life-saving operation. Gold also received all three of his degrees from the university.
After spending years as the president and public face for Heal the Bay, an organization that advocates for coastal protection and preservation, Gold is returning to UCLA once again ““ this time to be an associate director for external relations of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, a position created just for him.
“I have been a part of something that has made such a big difference locally,” Gold said. “But I am ready for a new set of challenges.”
Despite his new responsibilities at UCLA, Gold will retain his position on the board of directors at Heal the Bay, an organization he has worked with for 25 years. Gold said he plans to remain invested in Heal the Bay, in much the same way he has always been connected to UCLA.
“I’m always here,” Gold said. “Heal the Bay, UCLA or family ““ it’s a pretty simple life so far.”
Gold started volunteering for Heal the Bay in 1986 after meeting founding president Dorothy Green in a UCLA urban planning class. After becoming Heal the Bay’s first paid employee in 1988, he continued to move up the organization’s hierarchy, eventually becoming president in 2006.
During his 25-year career with the organization, Gold spearheaded projects to help improve the water quality of the Santa Monica Bay, which at the time was affected by fish with tumors and sewage spills that would shut down entire beaches.
Gold is probably best known, however, for his Beach Report Cards ““ a system that grades every beach on the West Coast for water quality on a weekly basis.
While working at Heal the Bay, Gold also taught classes at UCLA and has been on the board of the institute for the last four to five years, he said.
The move to UCLA was a mutual agreement between Gold and the university, he said.
The department eagerly awaits Gold’s arrival on Jan. 30, said Glen MacDonald, director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
Gold’s extensive experience in the environmental community will help the institute with its relationship with the external community, including donors, foundations, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, MacDonald said. His years of expertise will also help in working with the UCLA Coastal Center, which encompasses all of the institute’s coastal and marine projects.
At UCLA, Gold will also spend time teaching “Leadership in Water Management,” a class that teaches students the science and importance of water quality, which he has taught before. Gold lectures alongside Paula Daniels, former Los Angeles public works commissioner. The class has been offered since 2010, with funding from the Annenberg Foundation, the same foundation after which the USC School for Communication and Journalism is named.
Cliff Gladstein, former president of Heal the Bay and current secretary, has known Gold for over 25 years. Together they are the only remaining board members from the early days of the organization.
Having collaborated with Gold on numerous important marine and environmental issues of the day, Gladstein said he has become familiar with Gold’s integrity as both a scientist and a person. Without Gold’s insistence that Heal the Bay “get the science right,” Gladstein said he does not think the organization would have become nearly as effective as it is today.
“UCLA is lucky to have pried him away from Heal the Bay,” Gladstein said, laughing.
But Gold noted that he has not, in fact, left Heal the Bay behind.
“It’s not like I can turn my back on something I put my heart and soul into for so long,” Gold said.