About The Lawrence
Our Organization
Our Structure
(last updated 7/2022)
The Lawrence is organized into seven groups:
- Director’s Office: Leads the enactment of The Lawrence’s mission and priorities, represents our work to internal and external stakeholders, and advocates for our impact and staff.
- Advancement (Executive Director: Tim Ereneta): Leads efforts to build awareness, engagement and support of The Lawrence mission, priorities and impact with individual and organizational supporters and stakeholders.
- Building (Executive Director: Cory Welch): Leads and collaborates regarding the design, production, and maintenance as a shared resource for building programmatic experiences. Responsible for the safety, security, and infrastructure of the Lawrence’s building.
- Learning (Executive Director: Jessica Parker): Advances Strategic Initiatives through research, design, development in ways that expand knowledge, affect practice, influence policy, and impact people nationally and globally.
- Public Engagement (Executive Director: Claudia Bustos): Designs and operates a sustainable science center business that serves the Bay Area community and offers a learning laboratory for some of the work happening through the Lawrence’s Strategic Initiatives.
- Resource Management (Executive Director: Flori Ramos): Responsible for administrative and financial management of the Lawrence; interfaces with campus-related workstreams.
- Strategy and Planning (Executive Director: Cameron Yahr): Leads coordination across the Lawrence related to business innovation, business development, and planning.
The Groups are overseen by the Director (Rena Dorph), who is also supported by the Deputy Director (Susan Gregory). The Lawrence is overseen by the Vice Chancellor for Research Office (VCRO) at UC Berkeley and the Director reports to the Vice Chancellor.
Strands Structure at The Lawrence
Design: to support Lawrence staff in working collaboratively to improve, innovate, and disseminate our design practices
JEDI: Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion; concerned with centering equity- and justice-focused frameworks, approaches and stances that are fundamental to our programs to inform Group priorities, processes, and practices
Research: to support ongoing research at the Lawrence and develop our capacity to conduct transformative research in STEM education
The strands work across all groups within the Lawrence’s structure. There will be multiple opportunities to get involved at all stages of strand development and implementation.
Resources:
- The Lawrence Working Org Chart
- Org Structure Overview from 7-22-22 All Lawrence staff meeting (includes descriptions of each Group’s work)
The Lawrence Leadership Teams
Executive Leadership Team (XLT)
Comprised of the Lawrence Executive Director, Deputy Director, Associate Director, and the six Group Executive Directors. The XLT provides overall leadership for The Lawrence and is ultimately responsible for policy and budget.
Equity Leadership Team (ELT)
Comprised of a rotating set of volunteers led by three co-chairs the ELT provides organizational leadership to support the advancement of equity at The Lawrence related to 1) our work environment, 2) our products & services, and 3) our community partnerships.
Program Leadership Team (PLT)
Comprised of program leaders across The Lawrence, this team focuses attention on cross-organization program coordination, strategic priority implementation, human resource allocation, organizational capacity building, and balancing program priorities.
Student Experience Leadership Team* (SLT)
Comprised of student staff and managers, in collaboration with The Lawrence’s Human Resources (HR) office. Their primary roles include: (1) supporting the professional development of student staff; (2) providing a feedback structure to influence decision-making related to student work; (3) providing a forum for student staff ideas and input to be shared. Note that this group is on pause for FY23.
Advisory Structure
The Lawrence’s advisory committees connect us with campus and community stakeholders. They include:
- An Advisory Council (AC), which functions similarly to a Board (without fiduciary oversight). This group provides strategic advice and fundraising support for The Lawrence.
- A Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC), which includes faculty members from UC Berkeley who connect, promote, and champion The Lawrence’s work and relationships with campus stakeholders. The Science at Cal Advisory Council includes at least one FAC member and specifically supports the Science at Cal program.
In-development advisory bodies include the Community Advisory Committee and Youth Advisory Committee.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to inspire and engage through science discovery and learning in ways that advance equity and opportunity.
Since opening in 1968, The Lawrence Hall of Science (The Lawrence) has been at the forefront of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning. Dedicated to excellence, effectiveness, and innovation in STEM learning, we are a field leader, and one of only a few science centers affiliated with a top-tier public research university. We design all our programs and products to have impact beyond the walls of The Lawrence. For over a year, we worked collaboratively to create this new strategic plan, to help stay at the cutting edge of the STEM Learning Field. With over 100 voices from our community represented in this work, we are proud to share the results of this strategic inquiry with you.
The need for far-reaching STEM education and engagement by diverse thinkers and doers is more important than ever. This is our blueprint to achieve that critical mission: to inspire and engage through science discovery and learning in ways that advance equity and opportunity.
We will use the plan to put our values into action through our commitments, to direct how we work using our mindsets, and focus on priorities that shape the future through our strategies. All of our work going forward will thoughtfully connect to these commitments, priorities, and mindsets.
This plan is a living document, and we invite you to celebrate and explore with us as we work together to build a better, inclusive, and sustainable future.
Strategic Plan
Our strategic priorities direct our focus, driving all our actions to achieve our mission.
What we do
Global Issues
We engage people in meaningful learning, evidence-based thinking, dialogue, and action related to STEM issues with global implications.
Social Justice
We advance social justice through STEM learning, practice, research and policy.
Impact
We achieve impact by designing and scaling effective STEM learning models and advancing practice, research and policy.
How we do it
Partnerships
We build and sustain mutually beneficial, deep and meaningful partnerships and collaborations that achieve shared goals, global scale and impact.
Financial Health
We need long-term financial health and organizational sustainability to achieve our mission.
Organizational Well-being
We create an equitable, healthy, vibrant and supportive organization that enables us to thrive both individually and collectively.
Our Commitments
Our Commitments guide us: they are our values and our vision of a better future. As we pursue our mission, we continually ask ourselves: are we achieving our commitments?
Inspiring Tomorrow
The Lawrence Hall of Science inspires people with the power of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to understand the past, make meaning in the present, and shape the future. While we engage learners of all ages, we are especially focused on our work to inspire and prepare young people and the adults who support them.
Equity
The Lawrence Hall of Science inspires and engages through science, discovery, and learning. These efforts hold no value without honoring the diverse perspectives, knowledge, and experiences of the communities with which we aim to partner.
Science
At the Lawrence Hall of Science, we think of science as a way of constructing explanatory accounts of natural phenomena and designing solutions.
Organizational Mindsets
Our mindsets shape the way we respond to situations. Our implementation efforts will include intentional attention to cultivating these mindsets throughout our organization.
Mindset 1: We Value, Embody and Foster Scientific Habits of Mind. We value, embody and foster scientific habits of mind, as described in our science statement. These habits of mind include both being evidence-based thinkers while also, critically, being open to new evidence and new interpretations of evidence. The iterative process of building knowledge comes from engaging in the learning cycle, which encourages connection, exploration, construction of understanding, and application, reflection and re- engagement. This mindset is a cornerstone of why and how we do what we do.
Mindset 2: We are UC Berkeley’s Public Science Center. As UC Berkeley’s public science center we: (1) embody the values, spirit and mission of UC Berkeley; (2) provide a window into Berkeley’s cutting-edge research, exciting discoveries, and transformative innovations; (3) foster community engagement with science literacy and the “big ideas” that form conceptual building blocks for scientific discoveries and innovations; and (4) pursue the “Berkeley Effect”—what happens in Berkeley changes the world.
Mindset 3: We Understand there is No Monolithic Public. When we consider our role in fostering public engagement with science we understand that having a monolithic view of “the public” will not enable us to meet our goals. What is known as “the public” is actually a collection of diverse people, from diverse backgrounds, in diverse communities, with diverse perspectives and complex realities that shape if, when, how, why they may engage with science and in science learning. Our public engagement strategies must engage people where they are at in ways that are meaningful to them.
Mindset 4: We Prioritize Broad Implementation for Impact. In keeping with the spirit of “The Berkeley Effect,” our work changes the world of science learning and opportunity (see Impact priority discussion later in this document). In practice this means that we are not primarily direct service providers. Our goal is to create models or conduct research. While we might create and implement direct service offerings such as floor exhibits or public/community programs, we do so as part of achieving this larger impact goal.
Mindset 5: We Are a Learning Organization. We are a learning organization–an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge (e.g. practice, models, research), and at modifying our approaches to reflect new understandings and insights. Accordingly, we should invite, expect and embrace change, iteration, improvement, and evolution.
Mindset 6: We Walk our Talk. We enact internally what we seek to promote externally. Some examples of how this mindset shows up in our work: we consider all decisions (from program to personnel) through an equity lens; we use research-based procedures and processes; we evaluate our own work and our own programs; we use frameworks like design and learning cycles with our own internal arrangements.
Mindset 7: We Connect Past, Present, and Future. We find the history of what science has made possible motivating. We connect history to progress by linking the legacy of past generations, to the vision of current individuals and communities, to the possibilities of tomorrow. We evolve our mission and work in ways that honor the past, are relevant for the present, and inspire the future.
Mindset 8: We Care for the Health of Our Planet. We care for the health of our planet and the people living on it we prioritize strategies that promote a healthy planet. As an organization that prioritizes engaging people in meaningful action related to global issues, we must always prioritize the health of our planet. This means that anytime we have a choice, we choose earth-friendly approaches.
Mindset 9: We Embrace Disruption as an Opportunity for Innovation and Progress. Educational reformers historically have sought to disrupt the status quo in pursuit of improvement and innovation. We must let this moment of disruption (and others that follow) inspire and catalyze us to take advantage of opportunities and work toward a paradigm shift that fosters a more just, sustainable, and equitable world.
Initiatives
Our four Centers chart our path from rigorous research to far-reaching education and engagement.
Center for K-12 Science
We advance policies, systems, and high-quality instructional materials to prioritize science teaching and learning.
Center for STEM Pathways
We transform STEM learning and career pathways to reimagine science discovery and innovation.
Center for Environmental Learning
We advance environmental literacy and justice through STEM learning in formal and informal education systems.
Center for Transforming Science & Society
We transform public engagement with global issues and the
scientific concepts that underpin those issues.
Strands
Strands promote collaboration across Lawrence groups as an additional layer of distributed leadership responsibility. The four strands include Design (current lead: Lee Bishop), JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion; current lead: Ben Koo), and Research (current lead: Eric Greenwald).
Resources:
- Distributed Leadership presentation from 9-6-22 All Lawrence
- Strand presentation from 10-18-22 All Lawrence
Initiative presentation from 1-24-23 All Lawrence
Land Acknowledgement
Written
The Lawrence Hall of Science acknowledges that our building, as part of the UC Berkeley campus, sits on the territory of xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County.
We recognize that every member of the Berkeley community has, and continues to benefit from, the use and occupation of this land, since the institution’s founding in 1868. Consistent with our values of community, inclusion, and diversity, we have a responsibility to acknowledge and make visible the university’s relationship to Ohlone people and their unbroken relationship with the East Bay.
As members of the Berkeley community, it is vitally important that we not only recognize the history of the land on which we stand but also, we recognize that the East Bay Ohlone people are alive and flourishing members of the Berkeley and broader Bay Area communities today.
Spoken
The Lawrence Hall of Science, and the entire UC Berkeley campus, sits on the territory of xučyun (pronounced hooch-yoon), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone people, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County.
We recognize that every member of the Berkeley community has, and continues to benefit from, the use and occupation of this land, since the institution’s founding in 1868. Consistent with our values of community, inclusion, and diversity, we have a responsibility to acknowledge and make visible the university’s relationship to Native peoples.
As members of the Berkeley community, it is vitally important that we not only recognize the history of the land on which we stand but also, we recognize that the East Bay Ohlone people are alive and flourishing members of the Berkeley and broader Bay Area communities today.
Sharing this land acknowledge is important, as it acknowledges the first people of the East Bay and their unbroken relationship to this land. This acknowledgement reminds of the commitments the Lawrence Hall of Science is making in collaboration with the Ohlone community through our partnership with ‘ottoy (OH-toy) Initiative to share specific, place-based East Bay Ohlone ways of being and knowing at this site.
Suggested Email Signature
I acknowledge that the land I live and work on is the territory of xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people.