Alumni

A spate of suicides drew this alumna back to UC Berkeley to confront mental health issues in academia

April 22, 2025

The academic year 2013-14 changed the direction of Wendy Ingram’s life. Over the course of a few months, four members of the UC Berkeley department in which she was a graduate student died by suicide: an undergraduate student, a doctoral student, a post-doctoral fellow and a faculty member.

The tragic events left many in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) reeling, but Ingram also found that the suicides prompted co-workers to share their own mental health issues. She discovered that, like herself, about half the people she talked to had sought therapy at some point...

The New Leader Scholarship: An Interview with Bill and Ruth Goldman

March 6, 2025

For over two decades, the Goldmans have nurtured a community of scholars from disadvantaged backgrounds who might otherwise never have found their way to academic success. These “diamonds in the rough,” as Ruth calls them, often arrive feeling like imposters but graduate as leaders. With Ruth’s experience as a Holocaust survivor and first-generation college student guiding their approach, the Goldmans have created a program that offers funding, mentorship, emotional support, and lifelong connections. Most remarkably, their scholars have achieved a 100 percent graduation rate, and...

Political Science alumnus gifts $100K to launch fund for first-generation Social Sciences pre-law students

March 12, 2025

After graduating from Cal with a double major in political science and rhetoric in 1982, Walter Brown went straight to law school and has been practicing law for the past 40 years. While he has supported UC Berkeley in various ways since then, he realized last year that he wanted to give back more meaningfully.

Brown and his wife, Denise, decided to create a $100,000 fund for first-generation pre-law students through the Social Sciences Career Readiness Internship Program (SSCRIP)....

Roxana Wang Named Berkeley’s Twentieth Schwarzman Scholar

January 29, 2025

Roxana (Qinhong) Wang, a recent graduate of the UC Berkeley class of 2024, has been awarded a 2025-26 Schwarzman Scholarship. Wang, who studied Comparative Literature and Ancient Greek and Roman Studies in the College of Letters & Science, was selected as one of 150 scholars from a pool of nearly 5,000 candidates. She is Berkeley’s twentieth recipient of the award since its inception in 2013.

“Many highly qualified Berkeley students apply for the Schwarzman Scholarship every year, so it is impossible to predict who will be offered a place...

Berkeley Sociology paper shows the difficulty in landing a job for college grads with criminal records

April 11, 2024

In today’s job market, a college degree is often seen as a pathway to success, promising greater opportunities and higher chances of employment. But for individuals with a criminal record, the reality can be starkly different.

UC Berkeley Sociology alumnus Michael Cerda-Jara explores the challenges formerly incarcerated individuals face while seeking employment in a study published in Sociological Science titled "Criminal Record...

UC Berkeley study uncovers the mafia’s role in Italy’s wildfire crisis

December 9, 2024

Over the past few years, raging wildfires in Italy have become a common and deadly occurrence. In Southern Italy, intense, record-breaking heat waves and dry scirocco winds create the perfect conditions for wildfires—both natural and coordinated.

In the paper “Land on fire: The spatial production of the mafia,” published in a special issue of "New Geographies of Organised Crime" in Criminology & Criminal Justice, UC Berkeley Geography Ph.D. student Lauren Pearson links...

Leon Litwack honored with new speaker series

January 31, 2025

UC Berkeley’s Department of History is recognizing one of its most beloved professors with a new speaker series devoted to African American history. The series extends the legacy of Leon Litwack, a trailblazing scholar who taught generations of students to peer behind the curtain of whitewashed narratives and learn difficult truths about their country’s past.

Few areas of scholarship are as contentious — and...

African American Studies alumna redefines Black women’s humor as a genre of discourse in new book

April 17, 2025

UC Berkeley African American Studies Alumna J Finley began her career researching reparations and the legacy of slavery. But after studying how Black people navigate and resist oppression, she was eventually drawn to a subject – and a form of resistance – that was personally meaningful to her: comedy. As someone long drawn to comedy shows, Finley committed herself to collecting and honoring the stories Black women tell about themselves by becoming an audience member, critic and comedian herself.

Based on her research and experiences, Finley...

WILC Co-Chair Cynthia Larsen: “It's all about finding your passion and purpose”

March 18, 2025

Cynthia Larsen ’88 J.D. ’91 is a big Cal fan. The former teacher and current academic support director met her husband at a punk show at Cal, and the couple named their daughter after architect and famous alum Julia Morgan.

When Larsen returned to the Bay Area from living in Virginia for 25 years, one of the first things she did was reconnect with UC Berkeley. This connection led Larsen to join and eventually co-chair...

Giving back to UC Berkeley Social Sciences is my family tradition

January 6, 2025

Stephan and I met in 1989 as undergraduates at UC Berkeley’s Social Sciences Division, just before the destructive Loma Prieta earthquake struck. It’s an easy anniversary to remember.

He was a political science major, and I was studying history. Stephan had plans to attend law school, but I was uncertain about my path after graduation. People often asked me, "What will you do with a history degree?" Back then, it seemed like people assumed history majors could only go into teaching.

Our time at Cal reshaped our...