People

David Ackerly is a climate change biologist and professor in the departments of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and Dean of the Rausser College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley. Ackerly’s research group studies the impacts of climate change on biodiversity in California, and post-fire forest dynamics in mixed hardwood and oak woodlands. He has focused on the importance of spatial climate heterogeneity at landscape and regional scales to enhance resilience and facilitate range shifts for native plants and animals. Ackerly is a recipient of the 2011...

A celebrated chemist, accomplished administrator, and longtime member of the Berkeley community, Paul Alivisatos assumed the role of Executive Vice Chancellorand Provost (EVCP) for the UC Berkeley campus on July 1, 2017.

In addition to his role as EVCP, Alivisatos is the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the founding Director of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute, and Director Emeritus of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), where he remains a senior faculty scientist. He also holds professorships in UC Berkeley’s departments of chemistry...

Lisa Alvarez-Cohen is the Vice Provost for Academic Planning, Fred and Claire Sauer Professor, and past Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and of the Faculty Senate at UC Berkeley. Cohen’s research focuses on biotransformation and the fate of environmental water contaminants, environmental microbiology and ecology, bioremediation, biological wastewater nutrient removal, and the application of molecular and isotopic techniques for studying environmental microbial communities. She has won many awards, including the China 1,000 Talents National Award, the ASCE Simon W...

A leader in the field of computational materials science, Mark Asta is widely regarded for his accomplishments in academia and administration, as well as in research.

Born in Tucson, Arizona, Asta was raised in California’s Central Valley, a region his family has made home for five generations. He is a “triple bear,” having received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from UC Berkeley in 1988, 1990 and 1993, respectively. He spent time as a staff scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California, before turning to academia in 2010. He held faculty appointments at Northwestern...

Jocelyn Banaria is the Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate. Jocelyn is returning to Berkeley from the UC Office of the President, where she was Assistant Director of the systemwide Senate. Her ten-year career at UCOP followed four years at UC Berkeley, where she worked in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Admissions and Enrollment. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Development Studies from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Education, with specialization in Educational Administration and concentration in Higher Education, from the University of Hawaii.

B.S. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988 Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1993 Postdoctoral fellow at Yale University with Professor Alanna Schepartz from 1993-1996 Wesleyan University chemistry faculty in 1996 University of Illinois chemistry faculty in 2006 Joined the University of California, Berkeley, in 2011. Recipient of the Rudolph Anderson Postdoctoral Fellowship (1993-95) Recipient of the Donaghue Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (1995) Recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2002-2004) Recipient of the...

Professor Bentley brings over 25 years of experience in optometry, public health, and education. As dean, she oversees the school’s academic programs, research initiatives, and community outreach.

Before coming to Berkeley, Professor Bentley served as professor of optometry, deputy dean of the Faculty of Health and director of the Centre for Vision and Eye Research at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

She has an extensive background in strategic planning and program management, as well as a deep commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Her research...

Responsibilities:

Manages general inquiries & speaking requests

Coordinates briefing materials for EVCP and senior staff

Oversees students worker program

Interface for office communications

Facilitate EVCP signatures & approvals

Contact Wayne for general inquiries, speaking requests, and to provide briefing materials.

Professor Michael D. Bolden is the Dean of UC Berkeley Journalism.

Formerly the CEO and Executive Director of the American Press Institute (API), Bolden has had a distinguished career that has taken him from the New Orleans Times-Picayune to the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle, the John S. Knight Fellowship program at Stanford University and API. He has worked as a local reporter and national editor, a teacher and nonprofit leader.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, as director of culture and operations, one of the organization’s masthead editors, he helped the newsroom respond to...

George W. Breslauer was born in New York City on March 4, 1946. He received his BA, MA, and PhD degrees in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1966, 1968 and 1973, respectively. In 1971, Professor Breslauer joined the faculty of the Department of Political Science, University of California at Berkeley, as a specialist on Soviet politics and foreign relations. He advanced through the ranks to full professor of political science, was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award of the Division of Social Sciences in 1997, and was appointed Chancellor’s Professor in 1998.

Professor...

Yerdua (Yeri) Caesar-Kaptoech (she/her) is the Assistant Dean of Administration and Finance, and serves as the Chief Administrative Officer and Chief of Staff for the Social Sciences Division. With over 19 years of experience within the University of California system at UC Berkeley and UC Office of the President, Yeri has excelled in roles across student services, program management and administration, and academic operations. Yeri is passionate about access to higher education and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is committed to integrating these principles into her work. In...

Jennifer Chatman is the 16th dean of the Haas School of Business. Previously, Chatman held the Paul J. Cortese Distinguished Professorship in the Management of Organizations (MORS) Group.

In her research, teaching, and consulting work, she focuses on how organizations can leverage culture for strategic success and how diverse teams can optimize performance. Her award-winning research has shown, for example, how emphasizing innovation in the context of a strong culture increases firms’ financial success, how narcissistic leaders create organizational cultures lower in collaboration and...

Jennifer Tour Chayes is Dean of the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society at UC Berkeley. Jennifer led the establishment of this college – the first new college at Berkeley in more than 50 years. She is also Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Information, Mathematics, and Statistics. Before joining Berkeley in 2020, Jennifer was Technical Fellow at Microsoft, where she led research programs for more than 20 years and was founder and managing director of three interdisciplinary labs: Microsoft Research New England, New York City, and Montreal. These labs were...

Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13 ^th Dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law.

Prior to assuming this position, from 2008-2017, he was the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at University of California, Irvine School of Law. Before that he was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University from 2004-2008, and from 1983-2004 was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School, including as the Sydney M...

Both Renee Chow's practice and research focus on the intersection between architecture and its locale. One problem for contemporary design is to link the structures of the city and landscape with their individual pieces — to design how each affects and is affected by the other. In making pieces of our cities — highways and streets, parks and buildings — our current architectural culture too often strives for a degree of formal autonomy from surrounding circumstances. The experience of a city becomes a cacophony of competing markers. The local experiences of neighborhood textures, district...

Carol Christ began her term as the 11th chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley on July 1, 2017 and retired as Chancellor Emerita on June 28, 2024. A celebrated scholar of Victorian literature, Christ is also well known as an advocate for quality, accessible public higher education, a proponent of the value of a broad education in the liberal arts and sciences, and a champion of women’s issues and diversity on college campuses.

Christ spent more than three decades as a professor and administrator at UC Berkeley before serving as president of Smith College, one of the country’s...