Berkeley
UC Berkeley Business School’s Janet Yellen Named to Lead Federal Reserve
By UC Berkeley Public Affairs
Colleagues and friends at UC Berkeley are celebrating Haas School of Business professor Janet Yellen’s nomination by President Obama to become the first woman to head the nation’s Federal Reserve Board of Governors. If confirmed, Yellen will succeed current Chair Ben Bernanke, who will step down in January 2014.
The Federal Reserve Board is tasked with setting economic policy to promote price stability and employment, which she has described as “not just statistics to me.”
Yellen, the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, taught macroeconomics for more than two decades at the campus’s Haas School of Business, where much of her research focused on unemployment and labor markets, monetary and fiscal policies and international trade and investment policy.
Earlier this year, she was named a Berkeley Fellow, joining an honorific society of distinguished friends of UC Berkeley chosen in recognition of their contributions to the campus. Yellen has served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors since 2010. She was president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco from 2004 until 2010.
She has been a vocal advocate for transparency of Federal Reserve policies and actions. Yellen also chaired the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 1999 during the Clinton administration.
“I could not think of a sharper mind or a more thoughtful citizen to lead the world’s most influential central bank in its effort to regain the economy’s full potential,” said Berkeley-Haas Dean Rich Lyons. “She is part of a rich and proud history of Haas faculty who continue to serve the nation at the highest levels of government.”
Yellen is one of several female Berkeley professors who have successfully challenged the barriers to the White House’s primarily male circle of economic advisers. Like Yellen, her Berkeley-Haas colleague professor Laura Tyson also chaired the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration, and economics professor Christina Romer held the job for four years in the Obama administration.
“Janet Yellen has the knowledge, the experience inside and outside the Fed, the experience inside and outside of Washington and the temperament to lead the Fed effectively, especially in the conditions that the economy faces and will perhaps face over the next few years,” said James Wilcox, a Haas-Berkeley professor and former senior economist at the Federal Reserve.
“By force of her arguments, openness to those of others and record of accomplishments, Yellen has earned great credibility with and the respect of central bankers here and abroad, of economists, of business, of legislators and of policy analysts,” added Wilcox.
A native of Brooklyn, Yellen studied economics at Brown University and earned a Ph.D. at Yale University, studying under now Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics with Yellen’s husband, UC Berkeley economist and emeritus professor George Akerlof, and Michael Spence of Stanford University. Yellen spent 26 years – from 1980 to 2006 – as a Berkeley-Haas faculty member. She taught thousands of undergraduate and MBA students in required macroeconomics courses, and many more in graduate electives in international economics and trade.
Her popularity with students twice earned her the school’s Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, in 1985 and 1988. Yellen also held an affiliated appointment in Berkeley’s economics department.
“I hired her and have been pleased ever since. At the Haas School, her colleagues and students admired her scholarship and her teaching,” said Earl “Budd” Cheit, dean emeritus of Berkeley-Haas. “As a dean, I especially admired her willingness to be an institution builder. To me, her defining characteristic is quiet competence.”
Former Yellen student Juan Manuel Matheu, an MBA graduate from 2004, is the chief executive officer with Banco Falabella in Santiago, Chile. He said he was impressed by Yellen’s “ability to listen respectfully to different points of view, contrast them with her clear ideas and even incorporate part of them in her own thinking.”
Matheu recalled one class in which discussions started in the classroom and ended with Yellen and her students continuing the conversation with pizza in the Haas School courtyard.
“She cares and embodies our values; she is the living example of all four of the Berkeley-Haas defining principles, especially ‘confidence without attitude,” he said.
Activism
Black Repertory Group Needs Volunteers to Help Shape the Next Generation of Artists and Leaders
Legendary performers such as Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover worked with and were inspired by BRG’s founders. More recently, Grammy award-winning artist Kehlani attended the Black Repertory Group Summer Day Camp for several years.
By Sean Vaughn Scott, Special to The Post
For more than 60 years, the Black Repertory Group (BRG) has changed lives through the arts.
Founded in 1964 by educators and visionaries Birel L. Vaughn and Nora Vaughn, BRG has become one of America’s oldest continuously operating Black theater institutions. For generations, it has preserved culture, developed talent, and provided opportunities for young people to discover their voices and their potential.
The results speak for themselves.
Legendary performers such as Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover worked with and were inspired by BRG’s founders. More recently, Grammy award-winning artist Kehlani attended the Black Repertory Group Summer Day Camp for several years.
Long before international recognition, Kehlani performed on the BRG stage. During a summer day camp production of “Princess and da Frog,” she portrayed Ray, the lovable firefly whose light guided others through the darkness. Her journey is proof that today’s camper may become tomorrow’s artist, entrepreneur, educator, or leader.
Located at 3201 Adeline St. in Berkeley, BRG continues that mission through its Youth Summer Day Camp of the Arts.
BRG is currently accepting applications and maintains an open enrollment program. Students may enroll throughout the summer as space permits and immediately become part of the BRG family.
We are also proud to be a multicultural opportunity program, welcoming children and families from all backgrounds, cultures, and communities. Through theater, music, dance, public speaking, visual arts, technical theater, and leadership development, students gain confidence, discipline, creativity, and lifelong skills.
As our programs grow, so does our need for volunteers.
We are seeking community members to assist with youth mentoring, registration, costumes, set construction, painting, props, ushering, photography, social media, marketing, technical theater, and fundraising activities. Whether you volunteer for a few hours or throughout the season, your support directly impacts the lives of young people.
BRG also partners with churches, civic organizations, alumni associations, fraternities, sororities, and community groups through theater party fundraisers, group sales, and buy-out performances. These partnerships have helped organizations raise funds while supporting arts and cultural programming.
The theater also serves as the home of the Berkeley NAACP Chapter, which meets every second Saturday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m.
For more than six decades, the Black Repertory Group has remained committed to one belief: every child deserves an opportunity to shine.
The next great artist may already be among us.
The next Kehlani may already be walking through our doors.
We invite you to volunteer, enroll, participate, and become part of the legacy.
For more information please go to www.blackrepertorygroup.com, call (510) 652-2120, or email info@blackrepertorygroup.com
Sean Vaughn Scott is the director of the Black Repertory Group.
Bay Area
UC Berkeley Named Top Public University in the U.S. and No. 7 in the World by ‘U.S. News’
Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014. “A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.
The 2026 Best Global Universities rankings evaluated 2,250 research institutions from more than 100 countries
By Lila Thulin
U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Berkeley No. 7 in its 2026 list of the best global universities, which assesses more than 2,250 research institutions worldwide.
Berkeley also claimed the honor of top public university in the U.S.
Released on Monday, the list evaluates universities from more than 100 countries on 13 metrics such as global and research reputation (as reported by academics and peers) and number of highly cited scholarly papers.
Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014.
“A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.
The rankings also assess a university’s strength in various subject areas; these assessments are separate from U.S. News’ 2026 Best Graduate Programs rankings released in April.
This year, Berkeley was named in the top three nationally in seven subject areas – environment/ecology, ecology, water resources, physics, computer science, chemistry, and engineering – and in the top five for a total of 17 subjects. Subject rankings are based heavily on scholarly publications and citations as well as reputation.
In September, U.S. News also released its 2026 Best Colleges list, in which Berkeley was also named the No. 1 public institution among American universities.
That honor joins other accolades judging campus to be the best public university in the country, such as those from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education.
Arts and Culture
Farwest Region Deltas Celebrate Centennial With “September Breakfast” Honoring Vivian Osborne Marsh
The region was established in 1925 under the leadership of Vivian Osborne Marsh, who became its first Regional Director. Marsh was a pioneering scholar and civic leader, earning recognition as the first Black woman to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.
By Antoinette Porter
Hundreds of members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and their guests gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley, to mark the 100th anniversary of the sorority’s Farwest Region.
The region was established in 1925 under the leadership of Vivian Osborne Marsh, who became its first Regional Director. Marsh was a pioneering scholar and civic leader, earning recognition as the first Black woman to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.
Marsh went on to serve as Delta Sigma Theta’s 7th National President, where she launched the sorority’s National Library Project to expand access to books in underserved Black communities in the South. During her presidency, the organization also became a prominent voice in the civil rights movement, lobbying Congress to pass anti-lynching legislation.
Bak in the Bay Area, Marsh devoted her career to advancing educational opportunities, mentoring young people, and strengthening community life. That commitment continues to shape the region, which supports initiatives in education, social justice, and economic development. Current projects include raising scholarship funds for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, voter education campaigns, and health and wellness programs.
A century after its founding, the Farwest Region of Delta Sigma Theta remains active across California and other western states, carrying forward Marsh’s vision of service and advocacy.
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