This article originally appeared in the fall 2019 edition of the School of Education's magazine, Advancing. To view a PDF, click here.
OCEAN Donors: Bill and Pat Podlich
For decades, William F. Podlich, the former PIMCO CEO and current UCI Trustee has sought ways to support schools and improve educational outcomes. He’s found a perfect match in OCEAN.
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William F. Podlich was instantly drawn to OCEAN because of its unique, cooperative structure that improves school performance and creates opportunities for underrepresented students to achieve their American Dream.
“I’ve been trying for more than 20 years to find things that I think will improve the performance of public schools,” Podlich said. “I’ve been a longtime supporter of selected charter schools because I feel they have the ability to innovate and act independently of the bureaucratic structures that can be imposed by school district management. The OCEAN collaboration involves both charter schools and innovative traditional schools and hopefully will produce some very interesting outcomes that can be shared widely.” Podlich and his wife, Pat, are funding a partnership at three separate school sites: Katella High School in Anaheim; Williard Intermediate School in Santa Ana; and TLC Public Charter School in Orange. |
Bill and Pat Podlich. The couple funds three partnerships in the OCEAN network.
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Associate Professor Penelope Collins and doctoral student Maricela Banuelos worked at Katella High this past year, focusing on ways in which the diverse student body expresses and engages with the school’s TED-talk-like research project, “Katella Talks.”
Associate Professor June Ahn and doctoral student Ha Nguyen partnered with Willard Intermediate. The partnership worked on several projects centered around student-adult connectedness, including the creation of a “connectedness dashboard” that measures how well the teachers know each of the 712 students.
TLC Public Charter is joining OCEAN in fall 2019. The school opened its doors to 55 students in fall 2018, and is unique among Orange County schools in that it places gifted students, students who develop typically, and students with special needs in the same classrooms.
“I think TLC and the research that OCEAN will produce from the partnership will be of a lot of interest to the traditional public school districts,” Podlich said. “That, in turn, should result in some really good, additional collaboration.
“The goals set for this network – developing innovations that improve pathways for underrepresented students – those are things that everyone should be happy to collaborate on, and to share and gain from one another.”
Podlich – whose father was a professor of education at Arizona State University – has always been interested in education. He serves as a trustee for the UCI Foundation, and is on the board of directors at UCI Beall Applied Innovation.
A graduate of Claremont McKenna College – where he also serves as a trustee – and the University of Southern California, Podlich began his career at Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1971, Podlich helped organize Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) in Newport Beach, and served as its CEO until 1994. He retired from the company in 2008.
Podlich believes that OCEAN can be especially successful because it connects the faculty and doctoral students directly with the school administrators and students. From that, targeted research can be produced, he said.
“These partnerships can help dictate what professors study and the best ways to disseminate research into the public school system,” Podlich said.
“If this goes well and there are some topics we can discuss in the educational community as a result of our work, then we can interest other funders in the country and rollout similar networks in different places. Then we can start something that would become a regional or national movement.”
Associate Professor June Ahn and doctoral student Ha Nguyen partnered with Willard Intermediate. The partnership worked on several projects centered around student-adult connectedness, including the creation of a “connectedness dashboard” that measures how well the teachers know each of the 712 students.
TLC Public Charter is joining OCEAN in fall 2019. The school opened its doors to 55 students in fall 2018, and is unique among Orange County schools in that it places gifted students, students who develop typically, and students with special needs in the same classrooms.
“I think TLC and the research that OCEAN will produce from the partnership will be of a lot of interest to the traditional public school districts,” Podlich said. “That, in turn, should result in some really good, additional collaboration.
“The goals set for this network – developing innovations that improve pathways for underrepresented students – those are things that everyone should be happy to collaborate on, and to share and gain from one another.”
Podlich – whose father was a professor of education at Arizona State University – has always been interested in education. He serves as a trustee for the UCI Foundation, and is on the board of directors at UCI Beall Applied Innovation.
A graduate of Claremont McKenna College – where he also serves as a trustee – and the University of Southern California, Podlich began his career at Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1971, Podlich helped organize Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) in Newport Beach, and served as its CEO until 1994. He retired from the company in 2008.
Podlich believes that OCEAN can be especially successful because it connects the faculty and doctoral students directly with the school administrators and students. From that, targeted research can be produced, he said.
“These partnerships can help dictate what professors study and the best ways to disseminate research into the public school system,” Podlich said.
“If this goes well and there are some topics we can discuss in the educational community as a result of our work, then we can interest other funders in the country and rollout similar networks in different places. Then we can start something that would become a regional or national movement.”
