Identity-Based Staff Orgs

Staff Orgs image

Staff Organizations work together to offer individuals the opportunity to become more involved in campus life. 

The identity-based organizations celebrate the diversity of our staff members, while also offering a safe space on campus to share, support, and learn about each other. We encourage staff to be involved in many of these organizations as they are a great way to meet new colleagues outside of your division, find mentors/mentees, learn new skills, and develop leadership skills.

Leaders of these staff organizations sit on the Council of Staff Organizations (CSO), while five ethnic staff organization leaders (Alianza, APASA, BSFO, MENASA and NAIC) sit on the Coalition of Ethnic Staff Organizations (CESO). 

Each year, the leadership of each staff organization is asked to complete a short annual planning process with the organization’s membership to provide to the organization’s sponsor. This process is a guided strategic exercise that allows the sponsors to properly support the goals of each staff organization related to community engagement and strengthening of membership. Annual plans are presented in July, with a mid-cycle check-in in December / January.

Identity-Based Staff Orgs

  • Alianza
  • Alliance for Disability Access (ADA)
  • Asian Pacific American Systemwide Alliance (APASA)
  • Berkeley Staff Veterans Organization
  • Black Staff & Faculty Organization (BSFO)
  • Cal Women's Network (CWN)
  • LavenderCal
  • MENASA (Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian)
  • Native & Indigenous Council (NAIC)

Executive Sponsorship Program

In 2023, DEIB launched the inaugural Executive Sponsorship Program. It is a two-year program that pairs Vice Chancellors and Vice Provosts with leaders from identity-based staff organizations sponsored by People & Culture.

This partnership enables the Chancellor’s Cabinet to better understand and be more responsive to the needs of historically marginalized and/or underrepresented communities and for staff organization leaders to elevate their concerns directly to the highest level of the organization.

The Executive Sponsorship Program also plays a key role in connecting our senior leaders with the members of these organizations in ways that otherwise do not exist, serving to remove some of the historical/systemic barriers to access - particularly with respect to sponsorship and mentorship - that these employees often experience.

Identify-Based Staff Organization Sponsor
Lasana Hotep