Only at Comic-Con can a UCLA student affairs leader suit up as a 7-foot alien hunter for cosplay, then pull a Superman-to-Clark Kent transformation in time to lead a panel discussion about using comics, movies and geek culture to make college more inclusive, inspiring and fruitful.
There’s even time between these metamorphoses to look for “My Little Pony” exclusives with his daughter, already a Comic-Con veteran at age 6.
Since 2011, Brian MacDonald, who is the executive director of communications and organizational development for UCLA Student Affairs, has worked with a collective of educators to bridge higher education and pop culture through comics, games and media. The organization, called GeekEd, has grown into a Comic-Con mainstay, creating programming around identity, mental health, ethics and more.
Several Bruins will participate in this year’s GeekEd panels, which take place this weekend at the Comic-Con Conference for Educators and Librarians at the San Diego Central Library. These off-site events are free and open to the public.
MacDonald is among a number of panelists from UCLA taking part in Comic-Con 2025 programming, both at the library and in the main convention hall. Newsroom caught up with him to discuss GeekEd’s growth — and by extension, the unique opportunities UCLA’s people and programs have gleaned from having an open channel to the world’s biggest fandom showcase.
You joined the GeekEd team the same year of its inception. How did that come about?
In 2011, I was at San Diego Comic-Con — I was working at Rutgers University at the time — and there were a handful of people within my network who had proposed to the convention to do a panel around being a nerdy college student. While there were certainly a lot of nerdy properties and fandoms becoming mainstream at that time, being on a college campus and liking comics and being super into gaming and things like that was still a pretty unique perspective. Our initial panels were really focused on how we make college campuses more welcoming for people who are super nerdy, and how to encourage people to tap back into the things they were and are really passionate about to spark creativity.
As we grow up, we’re told, “Don't play with Legos anymore, don’t watch cartoons,” and other things that are natural to grow out of. But some of these things can really tie into identity and passions.
How has GeekEd expanded in its partnership with Comic-Con?
Since that first panel, GeekEd has gone through a tremendous amount of growth. Comic-Con International is a nonprofit, and education is in its mission. It’s very important to those running it to do things for public benefit and to lift higher education. We fit right in with their desire to continue to grow in those areas. GeekEd came up with four panels, and then it further expanded with the inclusion of K-12 educators and topics.
They've always had a university faculty research program at Comic-Con, and so that continues. But at the San Diego Library, which is sort of our little off-site location, there are now four days that bring together educators and librarians. And you don’t need a Comic-Con badge to attend our panels!
What unique benefits do you think UCLA and its people bring to the mission of not only GeekEd but also Comic-Con?
GeekEd has team members from all over the U.S. But those of us who make up the collective that run it are from UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and USC, so a good ratio of Southern California roots. As we continue to expand GeekEd’s presence, the work there has inspired nerdy campus programs here out of UCLA Student Affairs. There was a Geek Week that happened in 2023 that was really popular. We have students at UCLA who are very passionate about a lot of different things, and also a rich alumni network of folks in the entertainment industry, specifically within pop culture.
Then there have been a few people who really stand out at UCLA who have embodied what GeekEd really means. One of them is definitely Drea Letamendi, who is leading a new initiative out of the Student Affairs counseling center to move the campus mental health crisis response from UCPD to a mobile crisis unit led by trained clinicians. Drea was a UCLA postdoc in 2013 and came into her studies of human behavior because of a love for and connection with superheroes and comics. We had met through Comic-Con, and I had initially brought her on board to work in residential life when I was over there. She’s been instrumental in illustrating how someone who's extremely credentialed and respected across a number of different fields has used pop culture, comics and film not only as a way to gain inspiration for her own professional accomplishments, but also to pull in examples from these narratives and media that align with the values that she brings into her work, especially around representation, inclusion and equity.
With Drea’s help, and of course a number of other folks here at UCLA, we've been able to bring students to Comic-Con almost every year. We've had several dozen of these students participate on panels and utilize the experience for networking within their fields.
Besides Comic-Con, what other programming happens at GeekEd throughout the year?
In years past, we've been at different higher ed conferences and pop culture conventions. Some of us have done leadership development and other types of training for educators, offering particular perspectives in terms of inspiring others, workplace performance, professional development and belonging. We continue to explore how to bring these concepts to other organizations within education, especially for those who can't necessarily come to San Diego.
How do you hope UCLA’s role in Comic-Con’s programming evolves in coming years?
I would love to find a “pie in the sky” somewhere in which I could see a UCLA undergraduate or graduate student internship that contributes to Comic-Con planning. The Comic-Con organization is a small team, and they're very busy. So why not have five or six students helping through an internship with learning outcomes associated with their chosen field or contributing to their career development? Whether it's studying fandom, studying human behavior or studying gaming, there’s a business piece to this, and obviously marketing.
We're also always looking for new ideas. Maybe somebody associated with UCLA — whether a faculty member, student affairs educator or another staff person or an alum — has an idea about a potential Comic-Con-to-UCLA connection and will reach out after reading this!
