Individual Award Recipients:
Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie
Sereeta Alexander
Karie Frasch
Adam Hillier
Elisa Diana Huerta
Doaa Hussein
Aimee Larsen
Marco Lindsey
Marques Redd
Sidalia Reel
Wanda Lynn Riley
Jason Smith
Margaret St. John
Ricky To
Elizabeth Wilcox
Team Award Recipients:
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Preparations Team
Cal Answers Principal Investigator Portfolio
Career Center Handshake Experience Team
Equity and Inclusion Admissions Advisory Committee
Hearst Museum Division of Cultural Policy and Repatriation
Individual Award Descriptions:
Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie
School of Law
In Spring of 2016, on the heels of a sexual harassment lawsuit at the law school, the interim dean formed a Staff-Faculty Climate Committee to assess and address issues of workplace climate.
Amatullah volunteered to serve on this committee and has been integral to the success of this effort. As part this work, Amatullah initiated Title IX trainings, creating a relationship with the campus’ Title IX and Path to Care offices to make sure the committee and members of the law school get the training they need. She also formed a Communications Subcommittee which has demonstrably impacted staff’s actual and felt inclusion and connected previously siloed areas within the law school.
Recently she has served as a resource to the Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion, and provided critical informal support to underrepresented groups including post-election support for Muslim students, and support and perspective in the wake of events in Ferguson in 2015.
Amatullah's commitment to inclusion and community engagement has led to her being described as the conscience of the law school.
Sereeta Alexander
Office of Planning & Analysis
Sereeta is an integral senior analyst in the Office of Planning and Analysis (OPA) in the CFO’s office, providing analytical decision support to the campus. Sereeta is recognized for taking on tough subjects and helping to build a culture of evidence, which in turn grounds decision making that puts the well-being of students and campus first.
Sereeta has won praise for her active mentorship. In support of new hires and for Cal-Answers Super-Users across campus, she develops materials, leads and participates in trainings, and holds office hours.
Sereeta’s expertise and credibility have put her in demand across campus. Recently, Sereeta was instrumental in establishing a cooperative cross-departmental relationship between the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office and OPA which includes regular meetings to discuss shared research interests and collaboration on data-driven projects. Her deep understanding of the needs of vulnerable student populations and the important role that financial aid plays in the educational experience of many of our students has been a key factor in the success of this collaboration.
Sereeta has created numerous collaborations with other units and her outstanding reputation as a compassionate and valuable campus partner in turn amplifies the reputation of her department.
Karie Frasch
Office of Faculty Equity and Welfare
Karie Frasch has served as the Berkeley representative, and been a driving force, on the UC system-wide Academic Personnel Recruitment governing board, which has revised the policies for academic recruitments throughout the UC system and overseen the implementation of a UC-wide online recruitment system (AP Recruit). These policies and systems govern the recruitment process for all academic positions on campus, including faculty, lecturers, and academic researchers, and also provide efficiencies and cost savings for campus. Karie has been deeply committed to the fundamental goal of the policy review, to ensure that UC Berkeley, and UC more broadly, fulfill its commitment as an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, exemplifying its mission and vision as an equitable and inclusive community.
Adam Hillier
Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Adam has risen as a strong project manager that has enhanced business processes and use of technology in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Recently Adam’s skills shined as one of Undergraduate Admissions’ primary liaisons with the Student Information System Project. Adam also Recently worked with the Slate technological infrastructure and with multiple colleges to design a tool that would capture the needs of the Berkeley campus. Adam is commended for his ability to learn new technology, work with consultants and programmers, and build connections between various campus stakeholders while continuing to positively drive change. In times of stress, Adam is someone that many seek out because of his ability to understand complex problems and guide staff to workable solutions. He is also described as a mentor who builds trust with his colleagues who then feel comfortable bringing him issues of concern.
Elisa Diana Huerta
Multicultural Community Center
Elisa has helped steward the Multicultural Community Center (MCC) from a little known space at Cal, to a dynamic, accessible, student-led space that has become absolutely critical to the successes of students from low income, first generation, LGBTQ+, persons of color, and other marginalized communities on campus. Under stewardship of Elisa, the MCC is a place where theory meets practice and comes to life, promoting a deeper experiential understanding of material learned in classrooms. Elisa’s impact extends beyond the walls of the center. When students or staff need help navigating the complex structures of UC Berkeley, Elisa is there to make sure they succeed. Multiple students have shared stories of how, when other campus resources failed them, Elisa’s mentorship helped them stay at Berkeley.
Recently, Elisa has initiated programs outside of the day-to-day scope of the MCC including a writing workshop she facilitated for undocumented students that culminated in the anthology “It Was All A DREAM: Writings by Undocumented Youth at UC Berkeley”, and a cross-campus “Student of Color Retreat” where students from isolated pockets at Cal came together to build community.
Doaa Hussein
Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Doaa has been a part of Undergraduate Admissions for the last two years, both as a member of the SIS Project, and as a team member of the Undergraduate Admissions office. During that time she has become recognized across the UC system and beyond for her expertise in managing technology change. Doaa demonstrates exceptional strength in redefining business processes, improving efficiency, and enhancing user experience. She approaches this work with trust and creativity, remaining nimble and adaptable.
In just one example, Doaa reduced helped reduce an undergraduate transfer-application from 65 forms (one for each major) down to 11 simple and usable forms, incorporating user-friendly interactivity to ease the student experience, and greatly reducing the maintenance load for the admissions staff.
Doaa has been an invited speaker at national conferences of admissions staff, representing Berkeley before crowds of over 2000 attendees. None of this is typical for a back-end admissions technologist, but Doaa is known for her willingness to lead, mentor, and teach, and her approach has delivered innovation while enhancing Berkeley’s reputation.
Aimee Larsen
Academic Senate
Founded in 1920, the Budget Committee acts to maintain the excellence of the Berkeley faculty by ensuring that faculty members are assessed on their merits, according to standards of excellence that are consistently applied across campus. The Budget Committee handles roughly 900 personnel cases per year.
Aimee Larsen is the Budget Committee’s repository of expertise, responsible for providing guidance on policies and precedents, some dating back decades. Aimee reviews and edits BC documents and manages the workflow of the BC, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks, and maintaining a high standard of security.
In the past few years, Aimee has implemented process improvements that both maintain the high security standards and vastly improve efficiency. Aimee developed processes and guidelines for using campus licensed web applications to streamline faculty review cases. To improve the process of assessing requests for new faculty positions, Aimee worked to clearly align Budget Office source data with the FTE allocation process, shortening the process by up to five days. The resulting approach has been very well-received by committee members, and Aimee’s speed and accuracy have been described as super-human.
Marco Lindsey
Haas School of Business
Marco helps foster an equitable and inclusive community at Haas. His volunteer initiatives are extensive, including being a mentor and sponsor of the UCB Collegiate 100 organization, teaching a Financial Literacy course for the African American Male Pipeline Project, being the keynote speaker for Upward Bound Math/Science Banquet and making himself available as a Black Student Scholarship Mentor. This is just a partial list of his involvement during the just he past year. He also convened campus-wide Black Graduate Student leaders meeting, created and facilitated Black Haas MBA/UG group, and delivered Equity and Inclusion Advisor Presentation. This kind of support for inclusion, equity and change is hard to find. Simply put, he makes Haas and Berkeley a better institution.
Marques Redd
School of Public Health
Marques manages multiple programs at the School of Public Health, performing daily administrative tasks as well as supporting current students and recruiting future ones. As the initial contact to many prospective students, he has helped Berkeley to recruit a diverse group of the most competitive students in Public Health and Health Policy.
For current students, his ability and determination to secure supporting resources is legendary, one student revealed that Marques was able to secure dissertation funding that surpassed even what the student’s advisors and committee members were able to provide. Another cited his help securing the space and necessary resources to support a homeless outreach program.
Marques also took on the responsibilities of preparing the entire School of Public Health for the Academic Program Review and accreditation review. These reviews are complex, detailed and vital to demonstrating the rigor and quality of the SPH’s programs and are key to sustaining the reputation of the SPH and the University.
Marques Redd’s efforts ensure that the Health Policy PhD program and Doctor of Public Health program remain among the nation’s top doctoral training programs. And his tireless work supporting the development of students as it relates to teaching, research, and public service is a stellar example to others and the embodiment of UC Berkeley’s values. These results would be an exceptional impact spanning a career at UC Berkeley. Marques has been with us for only one and a half years, and we look forward to more great things.
Sidalia Reel
Staff Diversity Initiative
Sid is a tireless change agent, working to address issues with campus climate and make UC Berkeley a more equitable and inclusive workplace. Sid is recognized for creating the annual NOW conference, which each year gives hundreds of staff a forum to focus on their career growth. Additionally, last year she established and co-facilitated the “Whiteness, Power and Privilege” study groups, where staff gather monthly to learn more about white identity and its impact on campus and beyond. Recently Sid helped these study groups translate learning to action, crafting a letter of inquiry to UCPD which resulted in study-group members being invited to a swearing-in of officers, and leading to conversations around police training initiatives. Sid was invited to serve on a police hiring committee. While police killings of African Americans has been drawing national outrage, Sid and her study groups have opened new communication channels that will bear fruit for a long time to come.
Sid is commended for leveraging limited resources by building collaborative partnerships, recruiting volunteers, and mentoring colleagues. Sid’s efforts have been instrumental in building campus commitment to equity and inclusion, and growing the cohort who contribute to this vitally important work. Her leadership is making UC Berkeley a more welcoming, inclusive and supportive environment.
Wanda Lynn Riley
Audit and Advisory Services
As Chief Audit Executive and Risk Officer, Wanda Lynn’s position inherently entails a broad impact; but it is in how Wanda Lynn embraces, envisions, and tirelessly executes her work that she demonstrates an exceptional initiative and positive impact.
Wanda Lynn displays innovation in mentorship and fosters opportunities for cross-functional dialogue. She developed “Bridging the Gap,” a monthly gathering “to allow UC Berkeley leadership, faculty, and staff to excel together by providing a forum to discuss emerging and hot button issues, foster an open exchange, and inform decision makers.”
Wanda Lynn is also recognized for her profound commitment to the University’s mission of public service. A central example of this is the Chancellor’s Office community service project initiative, BearHUGS, which Wanda Lynn spearheaded and continues to coordinate. Examples of projects to date include: helping Berkeley students in need during the holiday season, preparing food at a local food bank for delivery in the community, and the collection of school supplies for children living in foster care or in shelters.
Guided by a belief in the importance of service and integrity, she has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to enhancing Berkeley’s mission and reputation, and to mentorship across campus.
Jason Smith
University Development and Alumni Relations
Jason developed a new role within the Cal Parents Program, focused on parent volunteers (Cal Parent Ambassadors), to provide engagement that is more meaningful. Ambassadors assisted in serving a Rec Sports organized Thanksgiving dinner to 300 students without the means to return home. Last December, Ambassadors kept the campus food pantry operating during RRR and Final Exam weeks, serving 824 students. Jason was also instrumental in raising funds for EOP to sponsor a December holiday meal for 400 students with only two-week’s notice. He has advanced the Cal Parent program significantly, expanding the scope and impact of its work for Berkeley in engaging with and encouraging philanthropy from parents of Cal students. As a mentor, Jason builds trust and takes an active interest in uncovering and cultivating individual strengths across the team, to serve program goals and to help us each expand professionally – all of which feeds back into serving the team’s efforts for Berkeley.
Margaret St. John
Goldman School of Public Policy
Since Meg joined the Goldman School of Public Policy in August of 2015, she has made an outstanding contribution to enhancing the mission, programs and financial sustainability of the School. Meg was tasked with creating a self-supported degree program and this project allowed her many exceptional qualities to shine through. She started with a blank slate, and in a single year launched, admitted and staffed a program serving 25 mid-career students with a one-year Master Degree in Public Affairs, and at the same quality of our main Master of Public Policy program. The benefits of Meg’s efforts have rippled across campus, and her success in removing bureaucratic roadblocks has become the precedent for subsequent revenue generating programs. This is a stunning achievement, but there’s more. This new degree program was not budgeted to “break-even” until three years into operation. With Meg’s leadership, Goldman School of Public Policy was able to break-even during the program’s first year.
Ricky To
Office of the Registrar
Beginning in Fall 2016, campus departmental schedulers began using our new Student Information System. Ricky has proven to be a guiding light during this transition. Ricky’s mentorship has made this new system, a sea change from the previous Student Information System, less intimidating for everyone who uses it daily. Through frequent mailing-list postings, Ricky has explained how the system works, and most importantly, what we can do to make it function as efficiently as possible for us.
Colleagues praise his screen shots as works of art in themselves, and say insurmountable problems with scheduling or other aspects of the student systems melt away with Ricky’s empathetic and carefully written out explanations.
Through his commitment to understanding this new system, and helping others understand, Ricky has become a resource to the entire campus, enabling innovation, and efficiency. Turning the tide against a wave of initial frustration and resistance to change, Ricky’s efforts are helping Berkeley make the most of this significant technology investment.
Elizabeth Wilcox
Central Human Resources, Learning and Development
Elizabeth has transformed advising at Cal in endless ways and has built and sustained a truly inclusive community of practice. Elizabeth created the enormously popular and innovative Advancing Practice Workshop series, which delivered, since it started three years ago, 44 unique workshops in five core knowledge areas and 70% of our target audience has participated in this voluntary program to date. This year alone, nearly half of the target audience (201 of 446 advisors) has participated. Recognizing that not all advisors were able to attend these workshops during scheduled times, she created the Advancing Practice Pop-ups program bringing workshops directly to advisors, creating and promoting access to development opportunities. Elizabeth also created a new communication platform called “Take 5”, a weekly Monday morning blog. Elizabeth continues to actively develop original presentations to further thinking in the advising field. Recently her presentation at the National Academic Advising Association regional conference, “Not an Easy Place: New Strategies for Helping Anxious Students Cope”, won the Best of Region 9 conference presentation award. As a result, she was invited to present at the National level.
Josephine Williamson
Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences
Josephine does not just talk about taking care of employees: her actions embody that principle. She supports over 100 faculty, oversees EECS’ budget, and supervises 13 direct and 34 indirect staff. Josephine knows every one of the 65 EECS staff personally and provides mentoring and leadership at all levels. She is particularly successful at promoting from within, creating access for diverse staff, finding resources for equity and advocating for staff. After discussing concerns about the heavy staff workload in a rapidly growing department, she put through multiple equity increases, job reclassifications, instituted flexible schedules, and hired additional staff, all in a budget crisis. She also provided workshops on micro-aggressions, transgender issues, and work-style differences. Josephine has fostered a great sense of community among her staff and created a rich atmosphere of respect, loyalty and honesty.
Team Award Descriptions:
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Preparations Team
Gary Bogus, Laura Hansen, Michael Meyers, Scott Orloff
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Preparations Team is the group charged with the installation of the exhibitions in the museum galleries, as well as the handling and management of the museum’s collection at four off-site facilities, transportation from donors and lenders, and maintaining the collection of outdoor sculptures on campus.
The Preparations Team is recognized for their safe, economical and timely execution of the BAM/PFA’s move of their art collection, frame collection, audio visual equipment inventory, and shop facilities. The team inventoried, crated, and packed thousands of works that had not been moved in decades. Without their experience, teamwork, and creativity the museum’s recent move would not have been impossible.
The Preparations Team simultaneously moved forward with BAM/PFA’s ambitious schedule of over 40 exhibitions in the past 3 years, including the nationally acclaimed exhibition, “The Possible” in which the majority of the museum was turned into an interactive artist experience that not only took creative problem solving for installation, but three months of upkeep and management, as well as the highly challenging inaugural installation of “Architecture of Life,” a 30,000 sq foot exhibition of artworks in the newly finished museum building.
Their often ingenious work enhances the reputation of UC Berkeley, and helps establish the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive as a benchmark for what a museum should be.
Cal Answers Principal Investigator Portfolio
Quin Bligh, Peter Cava, Sameer D'Souza, Frances Kendall, Jeremy Linneman, Naresh Meda, Aswan Movva, Teal Sexton, Jenny Su, Heidi Van Yang, Heidi Wagner
Cal Answers PI Portfolio Projections has dramatically changed the research administration process on campus.
Prior to the implementation of PI Portfolio Projections, Faculty spending plans were created in excel spreadsheets, with data from multiple systems manually entered, increasing the risk of error. Research Administrators did not have access to data from the Human Resources system, instead relying on past payroll data to make projections for future salary expenses. There was no standard process and turnover of staff in Research Administration was high.
This team delivered an integrated set of standardized tools and corresponding business process guides for Research Administrators and faculty to manage their financial activities. The system provides an accessible place to create and utilize projections and verify actual expenses.
The project navigated challenging political waters to drive consensus for a standard business practice for managing Faculty funds and spending plans. The technical team proposed and implemented an innovative low cost solution with an intuitive interface and enhanced functionality. Effective change management secured significant adoption, with currently over 400 Faculty accessing their spending plan using PI Portfolio.
The entire Research Administration division of Campus Shared Services adapted their business processes to make use of PI Portfolio Projections, and the system has gained the attention of other campuses and consulting organizations.
Career Center Handshake Experience Team
Michelle Campbell, Andrew Green, Caitlin Green, Brian Guerrero, Patricia Norton, Santina Pitcher, Ben Warner, Janet White, Dara Ziegelmeier
The Handshake transition team in UC Berkeley’s Career Center has enhanced the career-services experience of all undergrad, grad-student and alumni job-seekers, as well as their prospective employers by launching a technology platform that incorporates machine learning and cutting-edge functionality. The Handshake transition team was a cross-functional effort within Career Services, which also needed to partner with units across UC Berkeley and UCOP including the Registrar, Risk, the Controller’s Office, the campus Chief Security Officer, and Legal. By understanding the needs of students through focus groups, and by using a formalized evaluation of available tools, the team was able to pursue a rapid negotiation timeline with the campus partners. By adopting a new tool offered by a young startup organization, this team has enabled UC Berkeley to better meet the expectations of both students and employers, and this enhances Berkeley’s mission and reputation.
The team’s commitment to innovation and adaptability shined in their creative approach to self-governance. This helped the team rapidly roll out the new technology, and yielded over 15,000 account activations within only 7 months of launch, with over 90% of those participants making their profiles available to employers.
The Handshake Experience team is now sought after by other campuses within the system and across the country for advice regarding technology evaluation and successful implementation.
Equity and Inclusion Admissions Advisory Committee
Phenocia Bauerle, Yvette Flores, Miya Hayes, Marsha Jaeger, Amy Jarich, Daniel Kodmur, Garrett Naiman, John Quame Patton, Susan Pendo, Nikko Roxas, Lisa Walker, Ronald Williams, Rita Zhang
The Equity & Inclusion (E&I) Admissions Advisory Committee was formed so that reading and assessment of student applications is done in a more nuanced, culturally-fluent and equitable way. This is critical work, given the campus’ commitment to recruiting the very best students to Berkeley, and the opportunity gap between affluent students from high-resource schools and communities and low-income, educationally underserved students.
The committee worked tirelessly and effectively under a very tight timeline, as the committee was assembled in the beginning of fall and needed to submit recommendations before the beginning of the Admission reader training in November. The process was a stellar example of partnering across university units, and the work of the committee relied upon and was deeply respectful of the incredible work done in Admissions.
The committee produced a series of implementable recommendations for addressing implicit bias and expanding cultural fluency and equity in the admissions evaluation process, thus supporting the campus in its efforts to admit a highly talented and diverse freshman class.
Hearst Museum Division of Cultural Policy and Repatriation
Jordan Jacobs and Martina Smith
The expertise marshalled by the Division of Cultural Policy and Repatriation is critical in the Hearst Museum’s continued implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)—a source of conflict at various points on the Berkeley campus since its passage in 1990. With one of the largest NAGPRA-implicated collections in the United States, the Hearst Museum’s compliance with the statute and its evolving regulations remains a continuing priority. CPR has also positioned the Museum to address policy issues outside of NAGPRA, including compliance with established industry guidelines, international legal standards, and federal laws pertaining to the provenance of new and newly-acquired collections.
While the challenges are daunting, CPR has also seized on new opportunities to build sustainable relationships with descendant communities. A New York Times article, “Museums Confront the Skeletons in Their Closets,” cited the Hearst Museum’s approach as a successful counterexample to that of European museums--recognition that elevates UC Berkeley’s reputation as a leader in the field.