NOW Conference

Next Opportunity at Work (NOW) Conference Speakers

Laura Hassner

Strategic Advisor to the Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer
Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

Laura Hassner is the strategic advisor to UC Berkeley’s Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer. In this role, she manages the Berkeley Changemaker™ and co-instructs The Berkeley Changemaker, an undergraduate course whose first offering enrolled almost ten percent of UC Berkeley’s incoming first-years. Previously, Laura was ...

Tina Herod

Senior Prospect Analyst
University Development & Alumni Relations, UC Berkeley

Tina Herod is in her fourth year as a senior prospect analyst at UC Berkeley where she supports the College of Environmental Design. Prior to this, she was the Director of Research and Relationship Management at Playworks where she supported the national and city teams, and was the Associate Director of Research at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California prior to that. After nearly twenty years of work in academic, corporate, and public libraries, in 2001 she segued into development as an analyst at UC Irvine. In her free time, she...

Aryn Jackson

Summer Sessions, Study Abroad, & Lifelong Learning IDEAA Intern
Berkeley Regional Services, UC Berkeley

Passionate about expanding opportunities for underrepresented students, Aryn most recently served as Summer Sessions & Study Abroad IDEAA Intern where she worked on various diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives including developing identity-based resources for Black & African-American students, conducting a marketing assessment, and helping organize Combating Anti-Blackness staff workshop.

Aryn earned her BA in Black Studies from UC Santa Barbara and AA in Communication Studies from Citrus College; while an undergraduate, Aryn...

Thembi Jackson

Director of Events
Berkeley School of Law

Thembi Anne Jackson is the Director of Events for the Berkeley School of Law, the DEIB Staff Coordinator, and serves on the steering committee for the Staff Circle on Anti Racism at the law school. Thembi is a Berkeley alum and a first generation college graduate and professional. She joined the staff at UC Berkeley in 2005. Thembi’s professional goals include fostering positive change to create a university community grounded in respect for others and an appreciation of diverse ideas and opinions.

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Cristy Johnston Limón

Social Sector Leader
Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

Cristy Johnston Limón joins Berkeley Haas as a serial social sector leader having most recently held executive director roles at national poetry and spoken word organization Youth Speaks, Oakland based performing arts organization Destiny Arts Center, and San Francisco economic development organization in San Francisco, Excelsior Action Group. Her professional experience includes real estate and community development, public policy as a legislative aide, and nonprofit leadership with a focus on organizational change. Cristy grew up in San Francisco and is...

Claire-Marie Kooi

Student Engagement Programs Manager
College of Engineering, UC Berkeley

Claire-Marie Kooi is the student engagement programs manager in the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley. Although her degree is in science, Claire-Marie has actively pursued opportunities to advocate for and work with underrepresented students in all STEM disciplines. In her current role, Claire-Marie oversees programs such as Engineering Scholars as Engaged Scholars ((ES)2), which engages students at the intersection of environmental justice, social justice, and engineering. In addition, she is also the founding director of the First Generation Mentor Program and Transfer Mentor Program...

Ying Kuah

People & Organization Development Lead
People & Culture, UC Berkeley

Ying Kuah (she, her) is program manager, instructor, instructional designer, and coach who is passionate about helping people grow, both personally and professionally, through fun and interactive workshops, e-Learning, and 1-on-1 coaching. In her current role in People & Culture, UC Berkeley, Ying helped hundreds of people managers and HR professionals to grow to be a better communicator, consultant, change manager, trainer/facilitator, and coach through engaging workshops. Ying also co-founded ...

Jolie Lam

Administrative Officer
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Berkeley

Jolie Lam, MBA, PhD, is the Surgical Robotics / Digital Health Program Manager in the CITRIS and the Banatao Institute. She was a Programmatic Officer for the Foundations of Machine Learning at EECS; and she previously worked as an Academic Officer for the Guizhou-Berkeley Big Data Innovation Research Center at the School of Social Welfare.

Jolie was from Hong Kong, and had worked in Mainland China for multinational companies for five years. Previously industries which she had worked in included financial publishing,...

Rich Lyons

Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer
Haas School, UC Berkeley

Rich Lyons is UC Berkeley’s Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer. From 2008 to 2018 he served as dean of UC Berkeley's Haas School where he currently holds the William and Janet Cronk Chair in Innovative Leadership. He was acting dean of the Haas School from 2004 to 2005 and executive associate dean from 2005 to 2006. For the two years prior to serving as dean he was the Chief Learning Officer at Goldman Sachs. He received his BS with highest honors from UC Berkeley (business) and PhD from MIT (economics). Before (re)joining Berkeley, Rich was for six years on the...

Michael Mansfield

Undergraduate Academic Advisor
Theater, Dance & Performance Studies, UC Berkeley

Michael Mansfield is undergraduate academic advisor and faculty in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. He is beginning his 15th year as artistic director of Berkeley Interactive Theater, a social justice theater company creating educational training experiences in the complex arenas of race, class, sexuality, ability, and status, for universities, medical centers, and other institutions. The company’s work is grounded in the pedagogy of Augusto Boal. He has been a dance “teaching artist” in Bay Area grade schools since 1995. Michael partners with...