2024 Equity Fluent Leadership Case Competition: Advancing Inclusion in the Workplace

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is often in the background of daily events and activities in business — but through the sixth annual Berkeley Women in Business (BWIB) x Berkeley Haas Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership (EGAL) case competition, DEI was brought to the forefront. Participants creatively addressed pressing DEI issues in business and developed solutions to enhance belonging in the workplace.

EGAL’s vision is to empower business leaders to create a more equitable and inclusive society. Its mission is to educate equity fluent leaders to ignite and accelerate change. Through Equity Fluent Leadership, leadership in business is re-centered to break down harmful barriers and champion diversity and inclusion initiatives at Berkeley Haas and beyond. EGAL defines Equity Fluent Leaders as those who examine their own power and privilege and courageously confront uncomfortable truths, increase opportunities and improve access, and drive change towards a more equitable world.

BWIB and EGAL asked undergraduate student participants to provide recommendations on a new tool that can increase DEI and belonging in the workplace. The tool’s focus was inclusivity, creativity, and accessibility by resonating across different intersectional identities, sparking genuine connection among employees while remaining rooted in the goal of inclusion. It also needed to be accessible for those with disabilities, as well as accessible financially and operationally.

Joined by around 100 participating students and 27 teams, esteemed judges Jorge Quezada, Gabriela Moreira, Sabareesh Chinta, and Rohini Sabikhi brought their expertise and insight to the competition, making it a valuable learning experience for all participants. Ultimately, our top finalists came down to Team 7 (1st place): Lauren Chai, Athena Chen, Sia Dihenia and Team 12 (2nd place): Jaansi Parsa, Hannah Mukhtar, Shreeya Julakanti, Alizeh Ali, and Cindy Le.

Team 7’s solution encompassed a digital extension: Extend-a-Hand, consisting of promotions using EGAL’s pre-existing channels, advertising to established Clock-in software companies, and personalizing the product through DEI conventions.

The judges voiced their opinion on DEI initiatives and how they would be looking to implement the ideas proposed by the winning teams in their workplaces. The founder of EGAL, Dr. Kellie McElhaney, was highly impressed by the presentations and was delighted to bring the winning teams’ recommendations back to EGAL to implement.

The Berkeley Women in Business members spearheading the event (Inseo Yang, Haley Hong, Kashvi Jain, Shree Mehta, and Elizabeth Wiley) were beyond grateful to have worked with such a wonderful team from EGAL and BWIB for several months. Kashvi Jain says, “It was so thrilling to see students so passionate about creating change and using their imaginations to make an impact!”

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Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership (EGAL)

At the heart of UC Berkeley's Business School, the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership educates equity-fluent leaders to ignite and accelerate change.