EDI Equity Advisors

To realize our mission, the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) works with our invaluable EDI Equity Advisors.

Overview and Members

In June 2014, all schools and academic units were asked to appoint an EDI Equity Advisor, who would take leadership on matters of equity, diversity, and inclusion within their institution. Distributed throughout the University, these Equity Advisors leverage their direct experience with local culture and climate to advise their deans in terms of strategy, policy, training, climate, and accountability.

Roles and responsibilities vary; however, many Equity Advisors play an important role in faculty training, monitoring the faculty search and other hiring processes, improving climate, and consulting on matters of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Although Equity Advisors report directly to their deans, they also work closely with and provide invaluable advice to the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. They constitute an important advisory council for the Office.

If you have a question, concern, or suggestion, please contact your local Equity Advisor.

➡ Equity Advisor Expectations & Compensation Policy Memorandum

➡ Equity Advisor Resources (Equity Advisor access only)

Chair of the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Equity Advisors

Heather Maiirhe Caruso

Associate Dean, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UCLA Anderson School of Management

Adjunct Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson School of Management

Email: heather.caruso@anderson.ucla.edu

A Southern California native, Heather Maiirhe Caruso is a faculty member and assistant dean at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, with a passion for helping people to grow, communicate, and work effectively together. This passion emerged most intensely during her early career as an engineer and executive in a multinational Silicon Valley startup. After witnessing many of the ways diversity can both challenge and enrich organizations, Heather devoted herself to helping leaders rise to the challenges and reap the benefits. This meant leaving her position as Director of Engineering to follow her B.A. in Psychology at Stanford with an A.M. in Social Psychology and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior—both at Harvard—with core interests in facilitating collaboration and inclusion (esp. for diverse teams); managing identity, power, and influence; and strategies for optimal choice, judgment, and decision making.

In 2007, Heather moved to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business to work with the future 2017 Nobel Laureate in Economics Richard Thaler. As partners, Caruso and Thaler co-directed the world’s oldest center devoted to judgment and decision making—the Chicago Booth Center for Decision Research (now the PIMCO Center for Decision Research). Their work helped to bring insights from the global bestseller Nudge to the world, and to produce over $6M in related research over 6 years. During her time at Booth, Heather also partnered with Chicago’s famed improv enterprise, The Second City. Together with senior executive Kelly Leonard, she co-founded the Second Science Project, which builds behavioral research into engaging, improv-based workshops that help leaders more skillfully navigate the uncertainties of today’s diverse and dynamic world. After continuing her work over a decade of teaching, research administration, and scholarship, Heather moved to UCLA Anderson to enrich and expand her expertise.

In her current work, Heather stays connected to the everyday priorities and challenges of the workplace by consulting for private- and public-sector organization leaders across the globe, as well as by teaching classes in the practice of inclusive leadership, communication, and collaboration.