Chancellor's Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence and Equity

December 13, 2017

Dear campus community,

For the past twelve years, the Chancellor's Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence and Equity (CAAIEE) has been presented to UC Berkeley faculty who have an extraordinary record of accomplishment in advancing equity, inclusion and diversity through their scholarship, research, teaching, and public or university service.

It is our great pleasure to announce the two recipients of this year’s award: Lisa García Bedolla, Chancellor’s Professor in the Graduate School of Education, and C. Greig Crysler, Professor of Architecture.

Professor García Bedolla is a passionate scholar and advocate, whose award-winning research on the interplay of educational inequality, Latino politics, immigration, and inclusive political engagement has helped transform policy and practice for marginalized communities at the local, state and national level. From 2010-2014, she directed Berkeley’s Center for Latino Policy Research and she currently serves as director of the Institute of Governmental Studies; in both roles, she has spearheaded the use of interdisciplinary research to address many of today’s most pressing community and political challenges. In addition to her scholarship and public service, Professor García Bedolla is a deeply valued mentor to students and faculty from underrepresented backgrounds, and an outstanding teacher whose courses on race, gender, education, and inequality inspire students to develop their own voices, build understanding across difference, and support underserved local communities.

Professor Crysler has brought visionary leadership to the College of Environmental Design (CED) and the Berkeley campus as founding director of CED’s Arcus Endowment for Gender, Sexuality and the Built Environment and as the College’s first Arcus Chair. Established in 2000, the Endowment sought to bring together teaching, research, and service on LGBTQ issues, architecture, urban planning and social justice. Drawing on his own innovative scholarship and public engagement, Professor Crysler has created a groundbreaking program that includes symposia, scholar in residence activities, research efforts, performance events, awards, student internships, and impactful community projects – and that has grown to integrate gender and sexuality issues with race, socioeconomic status, disability and other aspects of identity. This program has transformed CED and become a model for other institutions. As a teacher and mentor, Professor Crysler engages and supports LGBTQ students across the campus. He also serves as chair of CED’s Diversity Platforms Committee and was the inaugural Director of the Berkeley Connect mentoring program in Architecture.

Professor Crysler plans to use the $10,000 CAAIEE award grant to work with CED’s Office of Undergraduate Advising to develop new college-wide programming concerned with equity and inclusion.

Professor García Bedolla will use her grant to create workshops that bring together graduate students and practitioners to explore strategies for building research partnerships that are both grounded in real-world knowledge and focused on addressing issues of inequality.

Contributions that advance equity, inclusion, and diversity are essential to maintaining UC Berkeley's preeminence as a world-class academic institution. We are proud to work with both of these renowned scholars, and to have the opportunity to present them with this year’s Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence and Equity. Please join us in congratulating Professors García Bedolla and Crysler.

Sincerely,

Carol Christ
Chancellor

Paul Alivisatos
Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost

Oscar Dubón
Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion

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