We are committed to keeping the community informed about our progress on key initiatives. Below are our latest updates.
- 2023 DEI Strategic Plan Status and Tracker (PDF)
- 2022 DEI Strategic Plan Status and Tracker (PDF)
- 2021 DEI Strategic Plan Status and Tracker (PDF)
- 2018 Action Plan Status Report (PDF)
Key Highlights
2023
Racial Equity Post-Doc Fellowship
Felix Owusu joined Berkeley Haas as a Postdoctoral Scholar, specializing in economics and public policy. His research integrates data science, field experiments, and quasi-experimental methods to examine the impact of law and bureaucratic processes within law enforcement agencies, particularly concerning issues of race and class disparities. Previously, he completed his PhD in Public Policy at Harvard University, during which he contributed as a Data Scientist at the Metropolitan Police Department and The Lab @ DC. His role involved devising protocols to release police stop data to the public and exploring non-law enforcement strategies for enhancing public safety.
Disability Advocacy
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the passage of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and National Disability Awareness Month, the Berkeley Haas DEIJB
office in partnership with the UC Berkeley Disability Cultural Community Center hosted a panel discussion on the “History and Future of Disability Advocacy”. Leading this discussion was the UN’s manager of the Technical Secretariat, Ola Abualghaib, Berkeley Haas alumnus and Founder & President of Pineda Foundation/World Enabled Dr. Victor Pineda, (BS 03) as well as Berkeley Haas Director of Inclusion & Belonging, Katrina Koski, Andy King, Graduate Assembly Representative; Disabled Students Advocacy Project Director, moderated by Ben Perez, Berkeley ‘13.
Anti-Racism Training for Haas Managers
In the summer of 2023, 80% Berkeley Haas managers attended the Anti-Racism Practices in a Leadership and Coaching Context training. Through the leadership of Chief DEIJB Officer Élida Bautista and her partnership with the Northern California UC CORO Leadership Collaborative group, this initiative underscores the commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion principles within the organization. It’s essential for leaders and supervisors to have access to tools and knowledge that enable them to foster anti-racist environments, and this workshop signifies a significant step towards that goal. Such initiatives are crucial in driving meaningful change and promoting a culture of belonging within the professional realm, aligning with the core principles of DEI that Berkeley Haas is passionate about.
Other Tactical Updates
In 2023 a comprehensive task force was created with team members representing the Haas faculty, DEI office, the MBA program offices and the senior leadership team to develop a competency model for DEI skills across the Haas MBA programs. This task force will oversee the implementation of the recommendations that developed from their convening.
A similar task force has been created for the undergraduate program, with recommendations soon to follow.
There was a convening of an inaugural group of Latinx Alumni to discuss the strategies and needs for creating the first ever Berkeley Haas identity based alumni affinity group. These conversations will be utilized as a pilot to formulate a standard operating procedure for creating other identity based alumni affinity groups in the future.
Haas staff members have the opportunity to enroll in a virtual anti-racism curriculum (entitled the “Anti-Racism Challenge” or “ARC”) that takes place yearly. There is also a team that convenes regularly to identify other asynchronous offerings that can be taken year round.
2022
Increased diversity among new Faculty
Nine new assistant professors have joined the Haas School of Business faculty this year. Seven of them are women; one is Black, and one is Latinx. Assistant Professor Sa-kiera T.J. Hudson, a queer Black woman, will teach the core Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion course at Haas this spring. Assistant Professor Ambar La Forgia teaches leading people in our Evening Weekend MBA program. The new faculty bring a range of research topics that will increase our DEIJB academic scholarship, such as understanding policy impacts on inequality (Backus), incentives in scientific decision making and the production of new knowledge (Stein), illicit supply chains that undermine social/environmental goals (Wijnsma), unequal social hierarchies, emotions, and stereotypes (Hudson), health care sector managerial processes that impact pricing and clinical performance (LaForgia).
Faculty support around DEI
This fall, Berkeley Haas hired Dr. queen jaks to the role of Diversity Instructional Support Consultant. The DEI instructional support consultant is a new role and source of support for faculty, offering classroom observations, consultation on DEI curriculum implementation and teaching practices, and developing faculty learning opportunities as needed. Dr. jaks earned her PhD in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University, and brings experience teaching DEI in business courses. This is a half time position embedded in the school-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team, and will be partnering with EGAL to leverage their work in her role.
Racial Equity Post-Doc Fellowship
A DEI gift by Berkeley Haas alumnus Allan Holt made it possible for us to develop a 2-year, postdoctoral fellowship focused on Racial Equity in Business, bringing added expertise to our academic community. Merrick Osbourne will be the Fellow, and he will be joining Berkeley Haas December, 2022. This postdoctoral fellowship will help us deepen the DEI expertise in our curriculum, and simultaneously build a more diverse pipeline of faculty in business. Fellows will have the opportunity to focus on their research publications and teach; both of which will make them more competitive for faculty roles.
First African American Faculty member receives Tenure
This fall, following a rigorous process and a strong endorsement by the Berkeley Haas ladder faculty, Associate Professor Conrad Miller became the first African American to earn tenure at the school. Associate Professor Miller, who came to Berkeley Haas in 2015, teaches “Data and Decisions” at both the graduate and undergraduate level. He has won numerous awards for his research, as well as having over 300 Google citations for his thought leadership in economics.
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.