We are pleased to announce that Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson is the Blum Center's new faculty director. Dr. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Black Studies, a cultural historian, past Board President of the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) in Ventura, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, and an advisory board member for the Goldin Institute and the Rosenberg Fund for Children, Johnson’s scholarship and activism intersect across freedom struggles, grassroots movements, and community-based research. She is the author of Spaces of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity (UC Press, 2013), co-editor of Futures of Black Radicalism (Verso, 2017), and co-author of Rings of Dissent (University of Illinois Press, 2025). Deeply engaged in advocacy for farmworkers, tenants, and educational justice, Johnson brings decades of leadership and collaboration to advancing the Blum Center’s mission of linking research, teaching, and social transformation.