Social Impact

Maureen Orth’s 60-Year Fight for Education Innovation in Colombia Comes Full Circle at the BSE

May 5, 2026

In the fall of 1963, a man with a bullhorn showed up at Sather Gate and changed Maureen Orth’s (B.A. Political Science ‘64) life.

He was recruiting for the newly minted Peace Corps, and Orth—a self-described news junkie who had studied six years of French and not a word of Spanish—had just one condition: “Have you got programs for urban people?”

They did. A few months after graduating, she was on a plane to a city she had never heard of, Medellín, Colombia, with no idea that decision would define the next six decades of her life.

More than 60 years later, she has...

https://bse.berkeley.edu/maureen-orth-foundation-bse

Cognitive Science student building a platform to help stroke patients

April 22, 2026
By Bessy Gomez

Initially motivated by a stroke in her family, Cognitive Science student Tvisha Nepani wanted to improve health outcomes for stroke patients. She developed the idea for a remote AI-powered physical therapy platform to help stroke patients recover through rehabilitation.

Known as ReMotive Health, the technology also allows patients to monitor their recovery between doctor’s visits. Nepani pitched her startup to investors at the Berkeley Accelerator and Startup Incubator in Cognitive Science’s (BASICS) Fall Pitch Day.

...

Where training meets care: Berkeley Psychology Clinic supports East Bay residents plus Cal students

April 13, 2026
By Jessica Park

For more than six decades, the Berkeley Psychology Clinic has trained doctoral students for careers in mental health by supervising them during therapy for the East Bay community at large as well as UC Berkeley students.

Over time, the clinic’s mission has become even more important as treatment costs have risen and access to care has remained uneven. Today, it continues to provide mental health services for adults, children and students at affordable rates, who often lack reliable insurance coverage to seek private therapy.

The...

Philosophy alum Sarah Douglas on her lifelong effort to program computers to understand meaning

April 3, 2026
by Alexander Rony

Technological advancements and ethical debates dominate the media’s coverage of artificial intelligence. AI pioneer and 1966 Cal alum Sarah Douglas asks the sort of big questions — on knowledge, meaning, and consciousness — that are often overlooked by companies and can only be answered in a philosophical context. Unfortunately, the rapid velocity of AI development has outpaced society’s capacity to consider these questions....

A college internship changed Henry Sohn’s life. He’s now helping Berkeley students secure their own.

July 15, 2025
by Alexander Rony

Henry Sohn didn’t know what he wanted to do in college. At first, he was considering medical school, but an eye-opening hospital experience and a serendipitous internship at Apple altered the course of his life. Taking two breaks from UC Berkeley, Sohn ultimately completed his bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1992.

It was a good time to enter the Bay Area’s tech scene. Sohn leveraged his Apple internship into jobs at...

Psychology Professor creates strengths-based framework addressing Black youth suicide

March 26, 2026
By Jessica Park

Over the past two decades, suicide rates among Black adolescents have risen 144% — the largest of any racial group, according to UC Berkeley Psychology Professor Jasmin Brooks Stephens. While most research on youth suicide focuses on factors that put youth at risk, Stephens’ work emphasizes strengths, community and hope as powerful tools to protect mental health.

Published recently in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, Stephens’ paper — “...

Shining Lights Program tackles gender equity in STEM with new cohort

February 19, 2026
by Alexander Rony


As a postdoctoral physics researcher, Elizabeth Dresselhaus had found many excellent networking groups for young women scientists — but she longed for a structured environment to learn professional skills and strategies. So, when she received an email about joining UC Berkeley’s Shining Lights Program’s first cohort, she thought it was the perfect opportunity. The semester-long leadership development fellowship aims to help more...

These Berkeley researchers may stop the next pandemic — if we let them

January 30, 2026
by Alexander Rony

Moving labs can be a stressful time for any researcher. For integrative biology professor Cara Brook, her July arrival at UC Berkeley was complicated by the sudden loss of nearly half a million dollars in federal funding.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) eliminated a portion of her innovative research award...

A gorilla doctor working to prevent the next pandemic

January 29, 2026
by Alexander Rony


Tierra Smiley Evans travels to some of the world’s most remote forests to protect its largest inhabitants from microscopic threats. Her work involves caring for mountain gorillas and Asian elephants while examining mosquitos and humans for deadly diseases.

Smiley Evans holds both a Ph.D. in infectious disease epidemiology and a doctorate of veterinary medicine. This background gives her a unique perspective on emerging...

Tulika Singh: “Borders are not going to stop diseases. Ultimately, we are part of the same planet.”

January 29, 2026
by Alexander Rony

Tulika Singh is a postdoctoral scientist in UC Berkeley’s Harris Research Program, which is run by Professor Eva Harris. Singh was motivated to help others by her family’s history rising out of poverty in India. She studies mosquito-transmitted viruses like Zika and dengue that disproportionately harm poor people in tropical regions.

Singh spoke with UC Berkeley writer Alexander Rony about the life-saving work done by...