We are committed to keeping the community informed about our progress on key initiatives. Below are our latest updates.

Key Highlights

2024

The Berkeley Haas Thrive Fellow Programs

The summer of 2024 marked the inaugural year of the Haas Thrive Fellows MBA pipeline program, which brought together students and professionals for a year-long deep dive into the intense MBA admissions process—everything from prepping for entrance exams to mapping a career trajectory to developing a personal narrative to applying for financial aid to bolstering interviewing skills. In June, this program that is helping students navigate acceptance into top-tier MBA programs celebrated its first cohort of graduates.

Advancing Leadership at Berkeley Haas Through Anti-Racism Training

Berkeley Haas began the year with an initiative aimed at fostering a more inclusive and equitable community. Leaders from across the school participated in the Haas Manager Training: Anti-Racism Practices in a Leadership and Coaching Context, a program designed to equip participants with actionable tools and a shared language for advancing anti-racism within their leadership roles. This training emphasized the importance of integrating anti-racism as a continuous, active practice, encouraging self-reflection and intentionality in interactions. By adopting this framework, leaders at Haas are committing to creating a more inclusive culture that empowers everyone in the community.

Central to this training was the focus on increasing psychological safety—a critical element for innovation and collaboration. Through thoughtful reflection and active coaching techniques, leaders explored ways to support their teams while fostering a sense of belonging. This initiative represents a significant step forward in the Haas School’s ongoing commitment to its defining leadership principles and values. By prioritizing anti-racism in its leadership development, Haas continues to pave the way for meaningful and lasting change.

Black History Month Celebration

In February, Berkeley Haas honored Black History Month by hosting the Haas Black Community Social, an event that brought together nearly 100 registered attendees from the Haas community and its supporters. This gathering served as a valuable networking opportunity, fostering connections among Haas alumni spanning multiple generations, as well as students, staff, and faculty.

The evening featured inspiring remarks from Monica Stevens, a distinguished alumna, and Elida Bautista, the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer at Haas. Their insights highlighted the importance of building an inclusive and supportive community, making the event a memorable celebration of Black excellence and connection within the Haas network.

Berkeley Haas Heritage Month Celebrations

In 2024, the Berkeley Haas DEIJB team hosted staff- and faculty-focused “Ask Me Anything” sessions to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Black History Month, Disability Awareness Month, Women’s History Month, and Latinx/Chicanx Heritage Month. These events featured leaders from the UC Berkeley campus and provided Haas faculty and staff with opportunities to learn about the historical context and lived experiences of individuals who identify with these communities. The Berkeley Haas DEIJB team has been organizing these sessions for several years, engaging hundreds of members of the Berkeley community in the process.

Celebration of new newly formed Berkeley Haas Latinx Alumni Chapter

In September, the Berkeley Haas Development and Alumni Relations team, in collaboration with Somos Haas Alumni (the newly formed Berkeley Haas Latinx Alumni Chapter), invited the entire Berkeley Haas Chicanx/Latinx community—including alumni, staff, faculty, and students from all degree programs—to an evening of community, connection, and celebration in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Dozens of attendees from diverse backgrounds participated in this inaugural event held in downtown Oakland.

New Board Chairperson

Berkeley Haas appointed Elena Gomez, BS 91, CFO, Toast, Inc as the new Chairperson for the school’s advisory board. CFO Gomez is the first latina to be named as the chairperson. This aligns with the schools DEI Strategic Plan initiative to increase the diversity of the Haas board membership. 

New Postdoctoral Scholar Alex Figueroa

Thanks to a generous gift from Haas alumnus Allan Holt, Berkeley Haas welcomed its newest Postdoctoral Scholar, Alex Figueroa. Alex serves as the Postdoctoral Scholar in Racial Equity at Berkeley Haas, where her research focuses on the inclusion of marginalized populations in organizations and the influence of individual and organizational moral systems on these topics.

Alex completed her doctoral studies at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah in May. She has now joined the Berkeley Haas Management of Organizations group, bringing her expertise and dedication to advancing equity and inclusion in organizational settings.

Restorative Justice Training for Berkeley Haas Staff

At the start of the fall semester, the Berkeley Haas DEIJB team partnered with the UC Berkeley Restorative Justice Center to host the first-ever restorative justice training for Haas staff at all levels. This groundbreaking session focused on strategies to repair harm within a higher education context and foster greater inclusion among community members.

During the training, attendees explored the principles and significance of restorative justice, learned practical methods for implementation, and engaged in real-life scenarios to apply these practices. The session provided valuable tools and insights to help staff address situations that call for restorative justice, equipping them to build a more inclusive and supportive community.

Breaking Barriers: Antisemitism and Islamophobia Workshop

Dr. Imani Romney-Rosa Chapman, founder and director of imani strategies, LLC, and Dr. Amer F. Ahmed, a renowned organizational strategist, recently led a transformative virtual workshop on antisemitism and Islamophobia for the Berkeley Haas community. As dynamic leaders in equity and inclusion, both facilitators brought their expertise and compassion to this engaging two-hour session, addressing the complexities of these pressing issues and providing actionable strategies to foster understanding and tolerance.

The workshop offered participants a deep dive into the societal shifts that have fueled Islamophobia, particularly surrounding pre- and post-9/11 contexts. It also explored contemporary manifestations of antisemitism in the United States, equipping attendees with a well-rounded perspective on these intertwined challenges. Approximately 80 participants walked away with practical tools to promote understanding within their communities. Feedback highlighted their ability to identify modern-day antisemitism, their enhanced understanding of the rise of Islamophobia, and their grasp of the historical origins and current demographics of Jewish communities.

This impactful session showcased the power of dialogue and education in dismantling prejudice, encouraging attendees to carry forward the lessons learned to create more inclusive and compassionate spaces.

2023

Inclusive Teaching at Haas

‘Empathy and curiosity:’ How queen jaks is helping Haas make teaching more inclusive

 

 

 

Racial Equity Post-Doc Fellowship

Felix Owusu. Post doc FellowFelix 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 DEIJBDisab 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

DEI Instruction support

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

Conrad Miller

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.