Ché L. Abram named Chief of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health
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The UC Berkeley School of Public Health is delighted to announce the appointment of Ché L. Abram, MBA, as Chief of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Abram will begin her term on May 24, 2021.
An Oakland native, Abram has 20 years of experience in higher education with a commitment to community engagement. She considers herself a culture shifter by moving race and equity initiatives forward, a transformational leader by centering the needs of her partners in decision-making, and a changemaker as a longtime advocate for K-12 BIPOC students in the Oakland Unified School District. She brings the lens of intersectional identities and restorative practices to her work, engaging people at all levels of the university in race and equity initiatives.
Abram’s career began in higher education admission and recruitment. Most recently, she held the role of Associate Director of Diversity at Samuel Merritt University (SMU). In that role, she focused on implementing systemwide diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, providing impactful programming to address the social and structural determinants of health, and retaining and promoting BIPOC identities.
Abram received the SMU Dr. Cornelius Hopper Diversity Excellence Award in 2015 for her diversity leadership and strong advocacy for students. In 2020, she was named Staff of the Year by the Samuel Merritt Student Body Association for her commitment to inclusive excellence for all members of the SMU community.
In her personal life, Abram can be found organizing around the educational needs of students within the K-12 sector, hosting a podcast series and creating programming for the nonprofit organization BlackFemaleProject, and motivating youth to pursue their dreams by exposing them to various creative and career opportunities. She received her BS in business management and MBA in management and leadership from Holy Names University. Abram is a mother, thrives on stand-up comedy, and her most sacred self-care practice is spending time near water.