This month on Face to Face with Chancellor May, the chancellor turns the microphone around to interview a student who recently interviewed him.
Chancellor Gary S. May was the first guest on student Mahiri Moore Jr.’s new podcast last December, and now Moore is appearing on the latest edition of Face to Face.
Moore is a sophomore with his own nonprofit organization, Moore Truth More Change, focused on engaging Black and Latinx youths.
His podcast with the chancellor was his biggest surprise of the past year, Moore said during his appearance on Face to Face, where he and the chancellor discussed the ways in which Moore’s organization helps people and how the student became so driven at a young age.
“I used to try to [tell] my friends: ‘Hey, you know, let's go clean up at the playground after we get off the swings. Or let's go do this and let's go do that,’” Moore said. “And it'd be like, ‘Oh, come on Mahiri, like we're just trying to relax.’”
He said he learned at a young age to back up his talk with actions, and now community cleanups are one of the main actions hosted by Moore Truth More Change. The organization also runs book drives, including a recent one that collected more than 1,500 books — with a total value of more than $20,000 — for Southern California kids.
As an added bonus to comic book fans like May, Moore sometimes dons a Black Panther costume to distribute books.
During this month’s “Hot Seat” section of Face to Face, Moore asked May how he’d found success as a leader at UC Davis.
After joking that he was glad he was seen as successful, May said his success comes from the people around him.
“We have people that are part of the Chancellor's Leadership Council and others around the campus who are really subject-matter experts in their field — and I listen to them,” May said. “They advise me, and we make decisions using a consensus-based approach that's really been helpful for the whole university, not just for me.”
May also provided his own advice for Moore to succeed. Watch the full interview in the above video.
THE REST OF FACE TO FACE
Four other episodes of Face to Face With Chancellor May are available to watch. They feature:
- Akshita Gandra, a senior majoring in cognitive science who founded The Revival Zine, an online publication focused on giving a voice to college students from around the country writing about feminism and social justice.
- Theanne Griffith, an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, School of Medicine, who is also a children’s book author.
- Jennifer Gross, the head coach of the women’s basketball team.
- Richard Michelmore, director of the UC Davis Genome Center of the architect of the university’s rapid on-campus COVID-19 testing.
Media Resources
Cody Kitaura is a News and Media Relations Specialist in the Office of Strategic Communications, and can be reached by email or at 530-752-1932.