About the Deans
Undergraduate Education
Bio:
Begoña Echeverria is the daughter of immigrants to southern California. A native Basque speaker with a PhD in sociology, she is a Professor at UC Riverside’s School of Education. Her publications include “Witches” and Wily Women: Saving Noka Through Basque Folklore and Song (2020) and two historical novels: The Hammer of Witches(2014) and Apparitions (in press). Her docudrama Picasso Presents Gernika blends primary sources with historical fiction to consider the child refugee crisis caused by Hitler’s bombing of the Basque town Gernika in 1937, as well as the artistic journey of Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece, Guernica. In collaboration with UCR’s Department of Theatre, Film and Digital Production, Echeverria has staged three readings of the play, most prominently at UN Headquarters in New York City, to commemorate World Refugee Day (June 20, 2022). She is also a singer-songwriter with the Basque-American musical trio NOKA, with over 60 performances, including at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Kennedy Center, and the Library of Congress.
Undergraduate Education
Bio:
Dr. Robert Ream is Professor of Education and Associate Dean for Student Success in the Division of Undergraduate Education at UC Riverside. After completing postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton University and the RAND Corporation, he joined the UCR faculty in 2004. He later served as Interim Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Programs in the School of Education (2019-2022) and spent a leave (2013–2015) as an Associate Program Officer at The Spencer Foundation in Chicago. Dr. Ream has led grants funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His work examines social capital, trust, and educational and health inequality across K-12 and higher education. Throughout his career, he has focused on building supportive educational communities—through holistic advising, seminars, writing support, service learning, and scholarships—to bolster student achievement and well-being.
Undergraduate Education
Bio:
Wallace Cleaves is Associate Dean in Undergraduate Education and Chair of University Writing at UC Riverside, and he has served as Director of the California Center for Native Nations. He is a member of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Tribe, the Indigenous peoples of the Los Angeles region, and has served in a variety of positions on the Tribal Council, on the board of the Kuruvungna Springs Foundation, and as president of the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy.
Recent publications include: the 13th edition of St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, “Mission Project: Activism on a Smaller Scale,” “Native Land Acknowledgments Are Not the Same As Land,” “A Parable of Things that Crawl and Fly” in Pulp Literature, and the essay “From Monmouth to Madoc to Māori: The Myth of Medieval Colonization and an Indigenous Alternative” in the Indigenous Futures and Medieval Pasts issue of English Language Notes.