“As I reflect on a year in which DEI faced intense scrutiny, I am incredibly proud of the EGAL team, Advisory Council, students, and corporate partners who have remained steadfast in their commitment to advancing Equity Fluent Leadership. Despite the challenges and uncertainties surrounding the future of DEI, EGAL continues to lead with resilience and purpose, boldly embracing our opportunity to do this important work differently, more effectively, and with unwavering dedication. Together, we are shaping a future where inclusion and leadership are not just ideals, but actions that drive lasting change.”
— Kellie McElhaney, Founder & Executive Director, Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership (EGAL)
Academic Impact
This year, your support has enabled inclusive growth opportunities for our Berkeley Haas students and faculty by:
- Continuing our Equity Fluent Leadership and Personal Brand course, initially designed for student-athletes who are planning to enter contracts with the intent to be compensated for their name, image, and likeness (NIL). The course weaves in Equity Fluent Leadership competencies linked to business value, purpose, and success.
- Offering four EGAL affiliated courses: DEI Leadership Lab: Managing Conflict in Diverse Workplaces, Responsible AI Innovation & Management, Equitable & Inclusive Leadership: Developing a Growth Mindset, and Gender, Equity & Leadership in the 21st Century.
- Engaging the EGAL Student Advisory Board and nine student organizations, including: Association for the Latinx MBA Advancement (ALMA), Berkeley Women in Business (BWIB), Black Business Student Association (BBSA), First Generation Club, HaasAbilities Club, Native American and Indigenous Club, Partnership for Pre-Professional Pilipinxs (P4), Race Inclusion Initiative (RII), and Women in Leadership (WIL).
- Creating opportunities for engagement during new student orientations for incoming full-time and evening-weekend MBA students by leveraging our Belonging Sparks conversation prompts. For full-time students, we even created a custom website and curated prompts for students to get to know their classmates.
- Writing a case study about Google’s Product Inclusion and Equity team, founded and led by Annie Jean-Baptiste. The case study covers how the group was founded, its broad impact across Google, and its continued work today. Be on the lookout for the case study publication in early 2025.
- Promoting and maintaining our case compendium of business school case studies with diverse protagonists and/or on DEI topics.
- Highlighting the work of seven EGAL research grantees on our blog, including Assistant Professor Erica Bailey, Assistant Professor Rachel Gershon, PhD Candidate Silvia Barbareschi, PhD Candidate Jordan Mickens, PhD Candidate Mengyao Huang, Postdoctoral Researcher Antonia Paredes, and Postdoctoral Researcher Joan Jennifer Martinez.
- Hosting our second Research Convening featuring two panel discussions, one with faculty members, and the other with PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, all of whom are EGAL research grantee recipients.
Academic Highlight
Interested in learning how gender stereotypes influence the way power and status are perceived?
Recent research by EGAL Faculty Director and Haas Professor, Laura Kray, published in Psychological Science, explores how gender stereotypes influence the way power and status are perceived. Using Forbes' lists of “World's Most Powerful People” and “World's Most Powerful Women,” Kray and her co-authors found that men are more commonly associated with power—control over resources—while women are linked to status—being admired and respected. These stereotypes are deeply ingrained, as evidenced by experiments showing that powerful men garner more media attention and social media followers, while women with high status receive similar recognition. The study also found that women tend to view themselves as more status-oriented than powerful, possibly due to societal backlash against women seeking power. These gendered perceptions can limit women’s opportunities to wield true power, reinforcing stereotypes that women should be highly respected but not in control of resources.
You can check out the research here: Not All Powerful People Are Created Equal: An Examination of Gender and Pathways to Social Hierarchy Through the Lens of Social Cognition.
Industry Impact
We have been able to advance industry change with your support. This year we:
- Continued selling our Belonging Sparks conversation prompts, complementing our evidence-based playbook on Advancing Belonging in Organizations, which finds that starting meetings with personal prompts can make individuals feel seen and connected. This year we sold over 1,300 decks.
- Finalized our Equitable Product Design Fellowship in partnership with Google and wrote a working paper about the experience—The Value of Inclusive and Equitable Practices in Product Design. This paper outlines the two iterations of a meditation app designed by the fellows: the first leveraged a traditional design process, and the second embedded inclusive and equitable design practices throughout. The paper showcases the fellows' prototypes following these differing processes, explores their insights about the design methodologies and user experiences, and concludes with takeaways.
- Partnered with Meta Reality Labs to develop A Guide for Creating Inclusive Digital Avatars, which is an evidence-based resource created to support anyone looking to design inclusive avatars for virtual experiences. The intended audience for this guide includes product teams and content designers working on products related to virtual identities, including avatars, image searches, labeling, etc. If you missed our launch event for the guide, you can watch it on our YouTube Channel.
- Held our second-annual Equity Fluent Leadership (EFL) Academy, in partnership with Berkeley Executive Education. This program is an unparalleled leadership training designed for visionary business leaders who aspire to further belonging and inclusion at work and drive impactful change.
- Custom-designed and led two Equity Fluent Leadership Academies for over 200 leaders at Regeneron in partnership with Berkeley Executive Education. The program included sessions such as Equity Fluent Leadership: Mindset, Strategies & Tools and Conflict Lab: How to have courageous conversations around DEI.
- Delivered the Inclusive Management: High-Performance Culture program to Cadence employees, in partnership with Berkeley Executive Education. This program focused on key leadership skills such as talent recruitment, performance management, team communication, delegation, and people development. Over 11 sessions, we had around 400 employees attend globally.
- Facilitated our second iteration of the Inclusive Leadership Academy (ILA), hosted by the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging within People and Culture at UC Berkeley. This program focuses on equipping supervisors and managers across campus with the knowledge and skills to foster inclusive and equitable work environments. Participants worked on building self-awareness, cultivating inclusive leadership practices, and addressing systemic workplace challenges.
- Continued partnering with five organizations to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion including Regeneron, BlackRock, Dome Construction, Google, and Meta.
- Re-designed our EGAL Resources Hub, which is our external website that hosts our interactive tools and strategic resources that help leaders develop their equity fluency.
Industry Highlight
In partnership with Berkeley Executive Education, we custom-designed and led two impactful Equity Fluent Leadership Academies at Regeneron, engaging over 200 leaders. This voluntary program represents a significant commitment from both Regeneron and its employees, and under the leadership of Smita Pillai, it stands as the largest and most dedicated EFL Academy we've hosted to date.
We are excited to continue our partnership with Regeneron in 2025 and are looking forward to our upcoming Women's Leadership Academy. At a time when many organizations are scaling back, Regeneron is boldly reaffirming its commitment, setting a powerful example for others.
Community Impact
Your contribution has also allowed us to amplify Equity Fluent Leadership by:
- Partnering with the UC Berkeley’s Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (OIE) to host the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Competition. This competition centered around OIE’s mission, increasing the awareness of their resources, as well as prioritizing inclusivity and diversity within the student’s interacting with innovation and entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley. 83 students participated.
- Co-hosting Catapulting Talent DEI Progress Through Artificial Intelligence, which brought together thought leaders, AI experts, university faculty, and DEI advocates to explore the integration of Artificial Intelligence into Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategies.
- Jointly hosting our third annual Women’s History Month Ask Me Anything event, in partnership with the Berkeley Haas Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging Office. Highlighting various Berkeley Haas staff, panelists discussed their personal journeys, challenges they have faced and overcame, how they empower themselves and others, and how they use their intersectional identities in professional settings.
- Hosting Bridging the Gap: Financial Literacy & Equity Fluent Leadership, in collaboration with Women in Leadership, which brought together financial experts and leaders to explore the intersections of financial literacy, inclusion, and leadership.
- Continuing our partnerships with the Women in Leadership (WIL) & Berkeley Women in Business (BWIB) student organizations to host the annual Women in Leadership Conference and Women in the Workforce conference, respectively.
- Sponsoring the Equity Fluent Leadership Case Competition, in partnership with Berkeley Women in Business (BWIB). This year’s competition focused on developing unique ways to enhance inclusion and belonging in the workplace. 100 students participated in this year’s competition.
- Hosting our fourth annual EGALapalooza event which highlighted various aspects of EGAL’s work and provided opportunities to engage with DEI student organizations. The event featured our Equity Fluent Leadership Award presentation, presentations from Alica Del Valle Rash (Global Head of Diversity and Belonging at Airbnb) and Jess Blackshaw (MBA student & Poet). The event concluded with a fun performance from Haasies, The Wardrobes. With over 180 registered attendees, this was our most attended EGALapalooza yet.
Community Highlight
With continued support from EGAL’s founder and Executive Director, Kellie McElhaney, the Equity Fluent Leadership Award recognizes Berkeley Haas alumni who demonstrate Equity Fluent Leadership, organizational impact, and advance the center’s mission of educating Equity Fluent Leaders.
We were honored to present this year’s award to Breona Jenkins, MBA ‘19 at our EGALapalooza event in the fall. Known as a “master at creating community,” Bree’s approach, rooted in creativity, compassion, and curiosity, has made her a beacon of inclusivity.
“At Berkeley Haas, we believe that developing inclusive leaders who champion equity is essential for business success in the 21st century. Your support of our Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership (EGAL) is helping us transform how we prepare the next generation of leaders. Our students engage with cutting-edge research on workplace equity, participate in experiential learning programs, and develop practical skills for building organizations where everyone feels included. The results speak for themselves: Our graduates are taking on leadership roles across industries and reshaping workplace cultures. Thanks to donors like you, we can expand these transformative educational experiences to provide more fellowships for diverse student leaders. Thank you for your partnership."
— Jennifer A. Chatman, Interim Dean, Berkeley Haas School of Business