Associate Director of Basic Needs
How long have you been at Berkeley?
I arrived at Berkeley in 2019 while I was getting my Master's in Public Policy at the Goldman School. I started my time at the Basic Needs Center in my second semester of graduate school and have been here ever since! After graduating from Goldman, I transitioned to the role of Community Service Coordinator, and now I serve as the Associate Director.
What do you love most about working here?
The students and our partners, we truly could not do this work without them! We are so fortunate to have 35 student staff, nine College Corps interns, and so many volunteers and on-and off-campus partners who do so much to ensure students have their basic needs met! All of them bring a wealth of knowledge, joy, and experience that truly help us better serve students.
What's your job?
As the Associate Director, I work closely with our student leads, our staff, and our partners to improve our outreach, programming, and scaling efforts to ensure students who need access to food and housing resources can get connected to our services. My work also entails working closely with on-campus partners, like Financial Aid and Berkeley Housing, and off-campus partners, including the Alameda County Social Services Agency (which administers CalFresh, CalWORKs, and Medi-Cal) and the basic needs centers across the UC system, to map out partnership opportunities and come up with creative solutions. We’re fortunate to have access to data to better understand the scope of need as well as the data to inform who we serve, and part of my role is to continue to improve our data collection and reporting efforts.
What's a great day at work look like for you?
A great day for me is fueled by coffee from either 1951 Coffee Company or Goldie’s Coffee. It’s a mix of meetings with partners & the team and some quiet project time.
Where's your favorite place on campus?
The Redwood Grove at the UC Botanical Garden is such a great place to walk around or meditate for a bit!