Marsha Jaeger | 150 Years of Women at Berkeley

tbd After more than 32 years on the Berkeley campus and 21 years of leading the Center for Educational Partnerships (CEP) within the Division of Equity & Inclusion, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Educational Partnerships Marsha Jaeger retired in 2020. Marsha began her tenure at CEP in 1999 and has devoted her career to educational equity and college access for underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation-to-college students. Over the last two decades, CEP has become a national leader in college access and developed innovative, highly successful college-preparation service models. CEP partners with more than 135 schools and 70 community colleges to provide programming and services to over 75,000 students and their families each year while engaging with thousands of counselors, teachers, and school administrators. CEP builds a “college-going culture” within its partner schools and districts to support students as they pursue their goal of attending the University of California and other institutions of higher education. More broadly, CEP has supported thousands of students and families on successful pathways to and through postsecondary education. She has been an invaluable adviser and a champion for CEP and the division.

In addition to her role as AVC, for most of the past three years, Marsha has served as Interim Chief Financial Officer and Divisional Finance Leader (DFL) for the Division of Equity & Inclusion. She took on these additional responsibilities to help preserve divisional resources for direct student services and guided the division through the past four campus budget development cycles. Due to her role in creating and building the Division of Equity and Inclusion at UC Berkeley, Jaeger has gained recognition and support from a wide range of local and national foundations.

According to Yvette Flores, interim CEP vice chancellor for educational partnerships, under Jaeger’s leadership, CEP has grown from five programs with about 35 staff members to 11 programs with more than 75 staff members and 51 college advisor fellows.One of the programs Jaeger said she is most proud of is UC Berkeley’s Destination College Advising Corps, which is a fellowship for recent college graduates who are interested in exploring the field of college access. “The power of the Destination College Advising Corp is that students in high school are able to work with advisers who have had many of the same experiences and can be role models for what’s really possible,” Jaeger said. “It makes their aspirations seem more real and more attainable.”

According to Jaeger, her favorite memories involved working closely with “amazing” leaders and colleagues and “so many awesome” students. “Most of my good memories are attached to overcoming challenges and brainstorming and working together with like-minded colleagues,” Jaeger said. “It’s been an incredible journey.” Jaeger added that she is looking forward to spending more time with friends and family, reading and playing the oboe and English horn.

Contribution by Maria Young, a higher education reporter. Contact her at myoung@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter at @maria_myoung.