2022 NOW Conference Presenters

Alex Gomez (he/him)

Alex Gomez, Director of Talent Acquisition, is a Cal alum. He has been at UC Berkeley for 23 years, moving from a student to an administrator. Alex received his BA in Anthropology and, since graduating, has been working in the recruitment and talent acquisition space. Alex was the inaugural recruitment supervisor when Shared Services at Berkeley was established and built the team, as well as processes, from scratch. He sponsored the creation of Berkeley Executive Search in partnership with HR leadership. He is passionate about bringing in talent to support the missions of...

Amy Azuma (she/her)

Amy Louise Casey Azuma (she/her) brings a heart-centered approach to her roles as L&S College Adviser and Lead of the L&S Sophomore Outreach and Engagement Team. She is deeply committed to naming and amplifying the incredible gifts, skills, and experiences of her students and colleagues. In addition to 1:1 advising, Amy co-created Sophomore Success in L&S, a series of unit-bearing courses that engage cultural wealth and developmental advising approaches to build spaces that foster self-reflection and belonging. The sophomore programming has supported hundreds of...

Charlotte Cowden (she/her)

Charlotte Cowden is Associate Director on the Principal Gifts and Strategic Initiatives team at University Development and Alumni Relations. She provides holistic support to the Assistant Vice Chancellor with a special focus on prioritizing workflow, strategic projects and team priorities. Additionally, she helps advance philanthropic relationships with donors in Asia and is responsible for planning and executing comprehensive stewardship for Berkeley’s top donors and families. She has been a proud UC Berkeley staffer since 2012 and has held a variety of roles on campus in...

Charron Andrus

Charron Andrus received her B.S. in Organizational Leadership from Biola University and her M.A. in Gerontology from the University of Southern California. She has been with the University of California for 10 years, serving at both the Davis Health and Berkeley campuses. Currently she oversees the Information Security Office at Berkeley as their Associate Chief Information Security Officer.

Charron’s focus is on advocating for a diverse, inclusive, and equitable faculty, staff, and student body; and her passion is on engaging in and creating...

Clarissa Fermin

Clarissa first worked as an Employment Assistant in Central Human Resources in UC Berkeley in 2001. She had the pleasure of being a part of the PeopleSoft eRecruit Project Team implementation and was a witness on how our paper application process moved into an electronic process. This ignited her interest in business process analysis and has become fascinated by how technology can be a backbone behind efficiencies and improvements. Clarissa also worked in the Discrimination Complaint Resolution Office as a project analyst on a special assignment and in 2004, she transferred...

Colin Gerker-Junsay (he/him)

Colin works with individuals, pairs, cross-functional initiatives, in-tact teams, and organizations to maximize talent development and success potential. Colin is a Senior Talent Strategy Partner on the People & Organization Development Team in Berkeley People & Culture. He’s also the co-chair of the Cal Coaching Network (...

Cynthia Pristash (she/her)

Cynthia Pristash is an instructional designer with a background in graphic design that blends visual design, multimedia, and innovative technologies to enhance learning. She received her bachelor's degree in Print Management from the Engineering and Applied Sciences College at Western Michigan University and Masters in Education and Learning, Design, & Technology from Penn State University.

As a previous adjunct professor at Pennsylvania College of Technology, corporate trainer, entrepreneur, and current Admission Counselor...

Danny Ceballos (he/him)

Danny Ceballos, MBA, MAOD, is the CEO of Unleashed Consulting – and is a seasoned organizational leader, management trainer, and executive coach with 25 years’ experience in for-profit and nonprofit management.

Danny has worked with hundreds of highly motivated middle and senior managers to excel in their performance - to bring lasting change and high impact strategy execution to their teams and organizations. He specializes in DEI work - “building better bosses” with his training and coaching work.

Danny believes...

Eleanor Pepples

An innovative strategist in California, a state with the fifth-largest economy in the world, Eleanor has expertise in creating, leading, and developing collaborative, high-performing teams.

She also dedicates her time to growing nonprofits. Eleanor is the Bay Area Chair of the Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance which connects, engages, and consults with individuals and organizations poised to make a significant difference to society, locally, nationally, and internationally. These individuals typically found, fund, work in, or volunteer for...

Faye Snowden (she/her)

Faye Snowden has 21 years in higher education serving in various information technology leadership and senior project management roles. Faye’s entire career has been focused on the information technology field. Her broad experience includes computer operations, help desk design, implementation and leadership, infrastructure (network and telecom) leadership, project and program management, business analysis, and teaching project management. She is currently the manager of the Technology Program Office for Berkeley IT.

During her career, Faye has...