Congratulations to Carina Galicia on receiving a 2021 UC Berkeley Excellence in Management Award! Galicia is the Director of Student Services for the Biosciences Divisional Services, which oversees undergraduate and graduate student advisors in the Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) and Integrative Biology (IB) Departments. 

Every year, the campus recognizes Berkeley's exemplary managers and supervisors. This year's Excellence in Management Award theme is "Leading in Difficult Times." It highlights leadership that encourages and demonstrates resilience, inclusiveness, compassion, adaptiveness, work-life balance, and well-being/morale.

Galicia was nominated by Monica Albe (IB Graduate Student Services Advisor), Hannah Bloom (MCB Graduate Student Services Advisor), Eric Buhlis (MCB Graduate Finance Specialist), and Carlos Garcia (MCB Graduate Student Services Advisor). In their nomination letter, they say Galicia embodies all the characteristics of this year's theme.

"Carina cares about people – the students, the faculty, her staff, all of us." Even during challenging times, she's been able to rapidly learn new systems and incorporate new policies into practice that ensures students, faculty, and her staff have access to the information and resources they seek. Recently she learned of a need for an equitable way for trainees to share their concerns with the department and improve advisors' ability to advise students. She collaborated with students, postdocs, faculty, and her staff to implement an anonymous reporting form on the MCB website that utilizes existing campus online tools to create a rapid response system. 

Guided by kindness, she treats everyone with respect and dignity. From working with her staff to strategize new timelines and programming around the pandemic to listening to students' needs and challenges and working towards a solution without judgment or condemnation, she inspires and encourages the best in her staff and the students she serves. 

The nomination team says, "Although all of us aren’t in the same department (Hannah, Eric, and Carlos are in MCB, Monica in IB), we have bonded and have each other’s backs because of Carina’s encouragement of teamwork and camaraderie." 

Galicia and the other awardees will be honored during the Excellence in Management Virtual Awards Ceremony on May 4, 2021. Learn more about the award here.