Berkeley

Berkeley Perk: A Team Dedicated to Employee Health and Wellness

Published

7 years ago

January 30, 2019

Kim Guess, UC Berkeley’s registered dietitian, teaches employees at the Haas School of Business how to make no-cook chia pudding, chia jam and an orange poppyseed salad, during a cooking class sponsored by Be Well at Work. (UC Berkeley photo by Jeremy Snowden)

By Will Kane

Kim Guess works for UC Berkeley. Her job is to make sure her colleagues — all 8,300 staff and 3,800 faculty — eat enough fruits and vegetables. She offers cooking classes, runs an “Ask a Dietitian” email advice line and oversees a new policy ensuring the campus offers more healthy options.

Guess, a registered dietitian, works for Berkeley’s Be Well at Work program, a collection of services run through University Health Services to help staff and faculty with nettlesome issues like raising a family, balancing technology use, buying a house, dealing with the death of a loved one, caring for an aging parent or avoiding workplace injuries, among other topics.

All staff and faculty on campus have access to the classes, one-on-one counseling sessions and wellness programs. For free.

“When it comes to people’s finance, there can be a question of how you look for help or where you begin,” said Karen Patchell, who runs Be Well at Work’s financial literacy programs. “We try to make that easy for you.”

Patchell regularly gets questions about saving for retirement or building a down payment fund and connects employees with financial counselors from Fidelity Investments, Berkeley’s retirement plan administrator, or Bank of the West, the campus’s official bank.

“A lot of times people think buying a home in the Bay Area is impossible, and then they meet with one of the counselors and they start to see that it might be possible,” she said. The counselors can also help with issues like paying down credit card debt or saving money.

Mallory Lynch, meanwhile, spends her day making sure employees don’t get injured at work. She’s one of two full-time ergonomists — they call themselves the posture police — who coordinate a team of deputy workstation evaluators across the campus.

“Each office should have one,” she said of the evaluators. “Find out who they are and ask for an evaluation. Eighty-five percent of injuries come from people using their mouse incorrectly.”

And cost shouldn’t be a barrier. Lynch’s office has a matching fund to help cash-poor departments buy ergonomic mice, keyboards or new chairs.

“The stuff doesn’t cost that much,” she said. “You can’t afford not to do it because then you get hurt and then your morale suffers. The idea is to fit the job to the worker. If someone is having pain or discomfort, they should talk to their supervisor.”

And yes, you should eat more vegetables, said Guess, the campus dietitian.

“Whenever possible, try to make half your plate fruit or vegetables,” she recommended.

“That can make the biggest difference. Ask yourself at each meal, how am I going to get those vegetables in there?”

But changing diet can be easier said than done, Guess acknowledged. She can help with that too.

She runs a six-week behavior-change class called “I CAN!” that includes nutrition classes, a cooking seminar, a grocery store visit led by Guess and before-and-after fitness assessments.

“We want you to feel healthy and well,” she said. “That’s why we’re here.”

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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.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Photo by Keegan Houser/UC Berkeley.

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.

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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.

Published

10 months ago

September 14, 2025

Oakland Post

Farwest Regional Director, Kimberly Usher, Mayor Barbara Lee, US Representative Lateefah Simon, and Farwest Regional Representative, Radiya Ajibade. Photo courtesy of Farwest Regional Photographer Vicki P. Love.

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.

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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Arts and Culture

Cal Performances Presents Angélique Kidjo & Yo-Yo Ma in Sarabande Africaine at UC Berkeley Greek Theatre on Aug. 30

On Saturday, Aug. 30, the pair will debut the Bay Area premiere of Sarabande Africaine, joined by pianist Thierry Vaton, percussionist David Donatien, and special guest Sinkane. The program illuminates centuries of musical interplay between African traditions and Western classical forms, using the Baroque sarabande dance, and its African ancestor, the Congolese spirit dance Zarabanda, as a gateway to exploring the deep, interconnected roots of global music.

Published

10 months ago

August 25, 2025

Oakland Post

Angelique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma. Wikimedia photos.

By Carla Thomas

On Labor Day weekend two of the world’s most celebrated musicians and cultural ambassadors, Grammy Award–winning vocalist Angélique Kidjo and legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma join forces for an evening of music, history, and cultural dialogue at UC Berkeley’s historic Hearst Greek Theatre.

Both Kidjo and Ma have built careers not only as great performers but as passionate advocates for cultural understanding. Sarabande Africaine is as much a conversation about shared heritage as it is a musical performance, blending genres, geographies, and histories.

“Every day there are moments when all of us can feel we are on the inside of something and also when we feel we are on the outside of something,” said Yo-Yo Ma. “To be able to understand both at the same time and oscillate between the two gives us a larger perspective on the world.”

“If your mind is open, and there is no fear, it’s easier to listen, and to question yourself,” said Kidjo.

The upcoming performance is presented within Cal Performances’ Illuminations: “Exile & Sanctuary” series for the 2025–26 season. The production explores exile as more than just physical displacement, but a disruption in identity and belonging, while sanctuary represents both refuge and the creative space where new connections and communities can take shape.

Cal Performances’ Illuminations bridges performances with UC Berkeley’s academic research, pairing the arts with conversations about urgent global issues.

Kidjo’s continued partnership with Cal Performances includes her 2021–22 artist-in-residence, premiering her music-theater work Yemandja, set in 19th-century West Africa during the transatlantic slave trade.

She also participated in the Bias in Our Algorithms and Society panel alongside campus leaders like Jennifer Chayes, and joined the Black Studies Collaboratory for a dialogue on music, diaspora, and the world.

She has since returned to Berkeley for multiple performances, most recently in 2024 at Zellerbach Hall.

Yo-Yo Ma’s history with Cal Performances spans decades, beginning in 1997. One notable project includes the 2018 performance of Bach’s complete cello suites at the Greek Theatre, a testament to his devotion to creating “transformative concert experiences in iconic spaces.”

For tickets and more information, visit calperformances.org.