Past Residents
2007 Residents
Meera Chary, B.S. is currently an MBA candidate at the Haas School of Business. Prior to joining Haas she worked with a small non-profit organization based in San Francisco called GreatSchools as an Outreach Program Designer, creating a program to bring educational resources to low-income parents. Before joining GreatSchools. Meera was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Uganda, working with the Ministry of Education as a Teacher Trainer and community developed worker. In Uganda, her work was primarily focused on educational development, public health education, and small-scale economic development. Meera graduated from UC Berkeley in 2002 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and is originally from Ohio.
Joe Harrington is a first-year MBA student at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Currently he is the co-president of the Leadership in Education Club, whose mission is to raise awareness of career opportunities in the education sector for MBA's. Prior to Haas, Joe was a marketing manager for Working Assets, the socially-responsible telecom company, where he developed and executed customer acquisition efforts for Working Assets' Wireless phone service. Joe also served on the board of the Mission Leaning Center, a San Francisco non-profit which administers reading programs for undeserved youth. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998. Joe enjoys travel and nature, particularly backpacking, backcountry camping and snowboarding.
Jeff Kang, B.A. is a first year MBA student at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley with a focus on strategy. Prior to Haas, Jeff graduated with a Bachelor in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 and went on to Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington, D.C. where he served as a systems analyst consultant to government and commercial clients. In 2006, Jeff also provided project management support to Ashoka's Integrated Technology Initiative as a consultant. He is currently engaged in various organizations and initiatives at Haas including the Leadership in Education Club, Net Impact, Young Entrepreneurs at Haas (YEAH) and the Global Social Venture Competition.
Vasanth Mohan, Ph.D, is an M.B.A. student at the Haas School of Business. Originally from India, he graduated from Bharathiar University (PSG Tech) with a bachelor's degree in Metallurgy, and a doctoral degree in Materials Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He has more than 8 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, and was most recently with Advanced Technology Materials, Inc. Vasanth is also a member of the community service committee at Haas, and is an active volunteer in the Bay Area for the last two years supporting a variety of social and environmental causes.
Michele Sutton, B.A., M.Ed., is an M.P.P. candidate at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Since graduating from Duke University in 2003, Michele taught second grade in Laveen, Arizona for three years as a member of Teach for America. While teaching she served as Chair of the School Leadership Team, worked as the Elementary Literacy Resource Coordinator for Teach for America-Phoenix, and earned a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Arizona State University. During the summers she worked as a Corp Member Advisor and Literacy Specialist at the Teach for America Summer Institutes. At the Goldman School, Michele is concentrating on issues of education and income inequality.
2006 Residents
Michael Abbott, B.A., is in his first year at Haas School of Business. In 2000 he graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in Mathematics and Business Economics. Following undergrad, Michael worked as an actuary, providing retirement consulting and analysis for clients nationwide. In 2004, he was a founding team member of Bartel Associates, a boutique consulting firm established to meet the retirement needs of the public sector. He returned to school in order to focus on public education and non-profit finance in order to transition his career to his passions – working with underprivileged youth, and the improvement of public education. Michael is a lifelong volunteer and coach, and has been a mentor for the past 4 years.
Gina Banks, B.A., is in her first year of study at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Gina was born in Austin, Texas and raised in Moraga, California. In 2003, she graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a dual degree in Government and French. During her college career, she worked for Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez and House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Gina also participated in a study abroad program in Paris, taking classes at Institut Catholique. After graduation, she worked for Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Judiciary Subcommittee in Washington, D.C. In addition, she volunteered for “Everybody Wins,” a mentoring program that focused on increasing the reading skills of underprivileged children. Gina enjoys yoga, volleyball, softball, and ballroom dancing.
Juanita Brown, 2006 M.P.P. candidate, is in her final year of graduate study at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC-Berkeley. She has ten years’ consulting experience which includes a two-year stint with the education reform nonprofit Partners in School Innovation. She has worked with numerous Bay Area public and independent schools on various change initiatives that include curriculum development, strategic planning and workshop design. In 2000, Juanita supplemented her consulting career by joining Wells Fargo Bank’s technology services division where she provided executive-level assistance and then business systems consultation for four years combined. Currently, she is involved in a graduate-level field project with Oakland Unified School District, studying some of its most recent reform efforts. Originally from Chicago, Juanita is also a performance theater artist and creative writer. From 1996-1997, she traveled to Ghana, West Africa, to study, volunteer in a K-12 school and train with a dance company. Juanita holds a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Stanford University.
Nancy Chen, B.A., is a first-year MBA student at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Most recently, she worked as an in-house process improvement consultant at Countrywide and previous to that she was a restructuring consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and FTI Consulting. Originally from Pasadena, California, she graduated from Pomona College with degrees in Psychology and Economics and coordinated the annual alumni volunteer day for the Southern California region for three years. She is currently pursuing an emphasis in the Nonprofit and Public Management Program at Haas.
Ellen Martin, B.A., is an M.B.A. candidate at the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Since graduating from Yale University in 1997, Ms. Martin has worked in administrative and programmatic functions for arts and education organizations in Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay Area. Most recently, Ms. Martin worked as the assistant director of institutional giving for UC Berkeley’s art museum and film archive, where she shared responsibility for fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and project planning. As an undergraduate, she was an Americorps teaching fellow (1996-97) and artistic director of the Yale Children’s Theater. At Haas, Ms. Martin is the co-chair of the Global Social Venture Competition, and actively involved in the Education Club, the Net Impact Club, and the Consulting Club. She also serves on the boards of the World of Good Development Organization, (an advocate for development of fair trade pricing standards in the artisan craft industry) and Root Division (a community arts organization based in the Mission District of San Francisco).
Brian Pick is currently studying for a Master in Public Policy degree at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Originally from suburban Chicago, Brian spent two years teaching second grade in San Jose as a member of Teach for America. During his first year of teaching, he obtained a teaching credential through San Jose State University. Prior to teaching elementary school, he graduated from Princeton University with an AB from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. While working toward his degree, Brian studied abroad at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. His academic interests include education policy, poverty & inequity, and public management. He also enjoys rollerblading, traveling, and listening to music.
Jacqueline Pohl, B.A., is an MBA Candidate at the Haas School of Business. Jacqueline grew up in San Diego, California. In 2001, she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in development psychology from Duke University. Over the past four years, she partnered with parents and tutored children at the SCORE! Educational Center in San Francisco. At Haas, Jacqueline serves as the co-founder and president of the Education Club and the judging chair of the Global Social Venture Competition. She also enjoys photography, travel, and hiking.
Delphine Sherman is a second-year student at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to attending business school, she spent three years as a Senior Consulting Associate at Cambridge Associates, an independent consulting firm which provides advice on investment and financial planning issues to institutional investors. At Haas, outside of her coursework, Delphine is focused on promoting and growing the Nonprofit and Public Management Program. She is the Student Director of the Board Fellows Program, which places MBA students on the Boards of nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area. She was the Chair of the Nonprofit Alumni Dinner last year, an event which had over 250 attendees. Additionally, she is a Board member of two local organizations: Ronald McDonald House, San Francisco, and NamasteDirect, a microcredit nonprofit which provides first-time loans to rural women in Guatemala. Delphine graduated from Dartmouth College Phi Beta Kappa in 2001. She enjoys sports such as skiing and tennis and especially traveling internationally and learning about new cultures.
Anna Utgoff graduated from Princeton University in 2001 with a degree in history. She taught middle school from 2001 to 2003 as part of Teach for America's New York City corps. She then worked as a senior analyst for DFI Government Consulting, where she performed quantitative program evaluation work for the Department of Homeland Security. Ms. Utgoff will graduate from the Haas School of Business with an MBA in 2007.