To our BEST Region community,
It is with mixed emotions that we let you know that Regional Director, Adam Burke will be leaving Berkeley effective 2/18/22, to begin a new role as the CFO of the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of the East Bay. He will be building the financial strategy to support the growth of the JCC’s community impact and has had a lifelong dedication to this organization and from 2013-15, served as the JCC’s volunteer basketball coach. While there is excitement on Adam’s part to begin this next chapter in his career, he admits that leaving UC Berkeley will be bittersweet.
As a UC Berkeley graduate with a B.S. degree in Environmental Economics and Policy, Adam began his Berkeley career some 13 years ago in the Research Administration group in the Research Enterprise Services (RES) organization. Through a series of roles with increasing responsibilities, Adam accepted the honor of serving in his current role as the BEST Regional Director in 2018. Over time, our region has navigated the administrative support for our regional clients and we have made significant service improvements and built a better sense of community across Berkeley’s academic enterprises.
Thanks to our brilliant staff and leaders, together, we have built an administrative support organization that we are incredibly proud of and that is admired by our executive leadership, Dean's, directors, CAO's and faculty. We have succeeded, in a major way, at our goal of improving the RA, HR and purchasing service, expertise and support delivered for departments & ORUs, over 400 faculty, 3.4k staff, students, academics, etc.
While the search for the next BEST Regional Director will launch soon, Maya Serban, our current BEST Contracts and Grants Supervisor has agreed to serve as interim RD, collaborating with our Regional Associate Dean (RAD), Professor Arash Komeili. Maya is an incredible leader with 10+ years of campus experience and will be amazing in this interim role. Please join us in congratulating Maya as she begins this RD support. Additionally, Linda Marmolejo and Danny Reyes will continue to lead our BEST HR teams, Esteban Martinez, John Zurik, Debroah Howard and Sue Logan will continue to lead BEST RA, and Karla Rios continues in her role as BEST Purchasing and Reimbursements Supervisor.
We would also like to thank our BEST leadership team for their unwavering support over the last several years, as well as to our exceptional BEST staff, a group that it and has been, our honor to lead.
Most sincerely,
Adam Berke
BEST Regional Director
Arash Komeili
BEST Regional Associate Dean
Note: A corresponding CALMessage was sent to all staff in Vice Chancellor Administration Division on 2/8/22.