Patricia O’Brien, an award-winning historian and long-time university administrator, became executive dean on July 1, 2004. Pat is an expert on modern French history and in nineteenth and twentieth century social and cultural history. She has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Humanities Center as well as a UC Regent’s Faculty Fellowship. She has twice held the prestigious post of directeur d’études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Prior to her UCLA appointment, Pat served as Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at UC Riverside. Before that, she was the director of the UC Humanities Research Institute at UC Irvine.

Pat earned her masters and doctorate degrees in history at Columbia University. Among her books are The Promise of Punishment: Prisons in Nineteenth Century France and Societies and Cultures in World History. She is working on The Political Culture of the French State in theNineteenth Century. Her professional review affiliations include the Fulbright Program National Screening Committee for France and Belgium, the National Science Foundation, and the Chateaubriand Fellowship Committee. Pat has served as principal investigator on major grants, including a Getty Senior Research Grant, a Koret Foundation Grant and a Ford Foundation “Crossing Borders” Grant.

The UCLA College includes six divisions: humanities, physical sciences, social sciences, life sciences, underegraduate education, and the UCLA International Institute. The College encompasses 34 departments, 40 specialized programs, and 130 undergraduate majors and undergraduate degrees that span research and training in the liberal arts and sciences. Twenty-seven of the College's academic departments are ranked among the top 20 nationally in their fields.