We are committed to keeping the community informed about our progress on key initiatives. Below are our latest updates.
Key Highlights
July 2021
New member of the Haas School Board – Realizing a Gap In Representation
Haas made a commitment and concerted effort to identify and invite Haas Board members who identify as African American. Eric McKissack, BCEMBA 04, independent board director and longtime private investor, has accepted our invitation to join our board. McKissack joins Monica Stevens, FTMBA 96, Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo Merchant Services, and Frank Cooper III, BS 86, Senior Managing Director & Global Chief Marketing Officer at BlackRock, as the first African American members to serve on the Haas Board.
We decided to postpone the appointment of two Board members who identify as Native American, First Nation, and/or Indigenous Latinx until the next Board recruitment cycle. In the interim, we have been actively developing a pipeline of candidates and have a working group focused on DEI policies and practices within the Board.
FTMBA Admission – Enhancing Outreach To Prospective Students: 
FTMBA Admissions and Haas partners hosted 350+ prospective Black and Latinx MBA students from the Management Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT) organization. The MLT weekend seminar was hosted at and showcased Berkeley Haas, and supported MLT fellows in their application preparation (a commitment from the 2019 DEI Action Plan)
Brand Marketing team’s analysis on Berkeley Haas DEI web strategy recommends highlighting resources for underrepresented communities, sharing admissions data more transparently on the web site, and reducing emphasis on broad, sweeping commitment statements. Their work will help inform significant updates to the diversity web pages across our school’s website.
KEY UPDATES:
In early August, our Berkeley Haas HR team launched a staff engagement survey to establish a baseline of Belonging
Our degree programs, alumni relations, and some of the research centers conducted an internal inventory of their guest speakers over the past year, to help establish a baseline and increase representation of speakers.
Our Development & Alumni Relations team is actively working with alumni leaders to establish a framework for identity-based alumni affinity groups.
In partnership with our HR Team and associate deans for faculty, we are continuing to make progress on finalizing the job description to hire a DEI consultant for faculty teaching support.
March 2021
New EWMBA Fellowship with the SF/Bay Area NBMBAA chapter
We leveraged the existing Berkeley Haas educational partnership with the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) to develop this new fellowship to launch in the Fall ’21 admissions cycle (matriculating Fall ’22).
Syllabus developed for “Business Communication in Diverse Work Environments”
Our faculty in the Management of Organizations group, led by Professor Laura Kray, developed the curriculum for this new FTMBA core course requirement. The course offers an evidence-based set of tools to make the workplace more equitable and will launch in the 2021-22 academic year.
New members of the Haas School Board
Monica Stevens, FTMBA 96, Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo Merchant Services, and Frank Cooper III, BS 86, Senior Managing Director & Global Chief Marketing Officer at BlackRock, have accepted our invitation to join the Haas School Board. They are the first African American members to serve on the Board, and while their three-year term officially begins on July 1, 2021, they have already started to participate.
Initiatives and Actions
Increasing Representation
- FTMBA Admissions engaged with these new strategic partners to increase the application pool: American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), American Association of Undergrad Women Equity Network (AAUW), and Admit.me Access.
- FTMBA and EWMBA again opened up Cal Advantage with specific outreach to underrepresented Berkeley alumni communities and expanded Accelerated Access globally with targeted outreach to URM and women’s communities across top feeder schools and undergraduate institutions with significantly more diverse populations (including HSI’s and HBCU’s).
- Haas Development and Alumni Relations Office released the case for Diversity Scholarship Fund.
Lifelong Learning
- Established ‘Task Force for DEI Core Competency Skills for MBAs in December and have continued to meet monthly. The taskforce is tasked with identifying the DEI-related knowledge, core competencies and skills MBA students will be expected to develop in order to lead inclusive teams and organizations in a global environment. It will also provide recommendations to the school based on their findings.
- Members include Asst. Deans Jamie Breen (MBA for Working Professionals) and Pete Johnson (Full-Time MBA); Professor Laura Kray (Faculty Director for Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership); Lecturer Veselina Dinova (Accounting); Sevita Qarshi, MBA ‘22; Hector Preciado, EWMBA 11; Eric Moy (Associate Director of Academics); and Interim Chief DEI Officer Élida M. Bautista.
- MBA for Executives launched a yearlong “Inclusive Leadership” pilot. 30 EMBA students started with the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) assessment and will engage in small group and individual coaching to address their IDI growth areas.
- Social Sector Solutions and International Business Development courses provided MBA students with professional management consultation opportunities on client’s DEI-focused strategic business problems
- Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership developed and distributed Case Compendium for diverse case protagonists and launched the Professor Pledge for DEI in Business School Cases.
- New Online Teaching Strategies to Promote an Equitable and Inclusive Learning Environment is a new faculty resource created by Haas Digital staff and Professor and Associate Dean for Learning Strategies Jenny Chatman.
- New Thinking at Berkeley Haas speaker series addressed a range of topics in business, economics, and inclusion.
Belonging
- HR, in partnership with the DEI team, has secured a vendor and identified survey items for staff Belonging survey. It will launch prior to May 2021.
- Annual Berkeley Haas Alumni Council meeting focused on the Haas School’s DEI priority and breakout discussion groups formed plans for launching alumni identity-based affinity networks
- The Undergraduate Haas Business School Association (HBSA) held a two-part Anti-Bias & Anti-Racism training for leaders from all campus business student organizations. 276 students attended the workshop to increase equitable recruiting practices. Sponsored by the DEI Office and the Undergraduate Program Office.
- 65 staff and senior leaders from more than two dozen different units across Haas participated in the Chancellor’s 21-day-turned-12-week Anti-Racism Challenge and facilitated conversations.
- Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics staff and faculty developed an anti-racism learning circle, co-creating norms, and rotating facilitation.