Paul Drake is the academic administrative leader of the Division of Social Sciences, comprised of nine academic departments - Anthropology, Cognitive Science, Communication, Economics, Ethnic Studies, Linguistics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology - each with a range of undergraduate and graduate programs. The Dean also oversees several interdisciplinary programs, including African and African-American Studies, California Cultures in Comparative Perspective, Cognitive Science, Comparative Immigration Studies, Critical Gender Studies, Education Studies, Human Development, International Studies, Latin American Studies, Law and Society, Middle East Studies, Science Studies, and Urban Studies and Planning.

Among other responsibilities, Dean Drake sets divisional goals; develops long range plans for the division; promotes high academic standards in instruction, scholarship and creative endeavors; promotes the needs of an outstanding, diverse faculty and student body; provides assistance to departments and programs in resource and space needs; facilitates academic recruitments and advancement of faculty; works with the administration, Academic Senate, and other academic units in the maintenance, innovation, development and implementation of needed programs; and represents the Social Sciences in various forums at the local, state and national levels.

Dean Drake, the first recipient of the Institute of the Americas Chair for Inter-American Affairs, is an internationally recognized scholar and teacher in the field of Latin American studies and a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at UCSD. He is also an Adjunct Professor in History and in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in international studies from Miami University, Ohio in 1966 and a doctorate in history from Stanford University in 1971. He joined the faculty at the University of Illinois in 1971 and was named director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies from 1979 - 1984, where his contributions as an administrator and academician brought him national attention.

In 1984, Dean Drake came to UCSD. Since then he has been elected president of the Latin American Studies Association. In addition, he presided as chair of the Latin American Committee of the Social Science Research Council, and he was a visiting professor at the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, Oxford University in England, the Universidad Catolica in Chile, and the Instituto Juan March in Spain. He also served as the director for UCSD's Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, a founder of the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, chair of the Department of Political Science, and interim director of the Center for Research in Educational Equity, Assessment, and Teaching Excellence. He became Dean of Social Sciences in 1995.

Dean Drake's scholarship focuses on Latin American Political economy, with a specialization on Chile. He is the author of Socialism and Populism in Chile (winner of the Herbert Bolton Prize for the best book of the year in Latin American History); The Money Doctor in the Andes (winner of the Bryce Wood Prize for the best book of the year in Latin American Studies); and Labor Movements and Dictatorships (winner of the Hubert Herring Prize for the best book of the year in Latin American Studies). He has edited or co-edited 7 other books, including Elections and Democratization in Latin America; Money Doctors, Foreign Debts, and Economic Reforms in Latin America; The Struggle for Democracy in Chile; and The Origins of Liberty; and State and Society in Conflict. He has also contributed over 50 articles to journals and anthologies. His current research examines democracy in Latin America.

Throughout his career, Dean Drake has been recognized as an outstanding teacher. He has been the principal advisor to several Ph.D.s He was named Distinguished Professor of the Year at UCSD in 1991.