At UCLA Anderson, we’re proud to have an equitable, diverse and inclusive community that offers the best climate for business education. We welcome students, staff and faculty from every background and recognize that inclusion cannot just be valued; it must be practiced. Our students do not merely learn alongside one another — we cultivate communication skills (like our ECHO approach) to help them learn from one another. The result is that Anderson graduates emerge with the agility and adaptability to connect across all backgrounds, preparing them for global leadership.
Engaged, we embrace conversation, rather than flee, dominate, or shut it down.
Courageous, we address — rather than avoid — difficult topics.
Humble, we check on whether we are understanding and communicating well.
Open, we offer authentic perspectives with care and candor.
Join for a discussion to examine the impacts of systemic racism and police violence on Black Brazilians.
Assistant dean of equity, diversity and inclusion Heather Caruso shows there is more to understanding each other
Heather M. Caruso, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Heather Caruso joined UCLA Anderson in 2018 as faculty and executive director of the Morrison Family Center for Marketing and Data Analytics and as assistant dean for equity, diversity and inclusion. A scholar and researcher of organizational behavior, she teaches on the Management and Organizations faculty.
Caruso’s passion for facilitating collaborative success runs deep in her life and work. “My formal interests in organizational and social psychology developed when I was an undergraduate at Stanford doing cross-cultural negotiation research with Jared Curhan and Lee Ross,” she says. These interests deepened during her years as an engineer and executive in a multinational Silicon Valley startup. “I was fascinated with the real-world experiences stemming from differences in cultural identity. Interpersonal problems could derail even the most talented individual performers, and effective collaboration skills could not only prevent such problems, but raise individual contributions to new heights.”
Layering rigorous academic training on top of practical experience, Caruso grounds her interests in the areas of: effective collaboration (especially for cross-functional and multicultural teams); skilled improvisation in leadership; management of identity, power and influence; and strategies for optimal choice, judgment and decision making. She focused on these topics in over a decade of teaching, research administration and scholarship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and has moved to UCLA Anderson to enrich and expand her work.
“The Morrison Center is ideally poised to support the most rigorous and effective value stewardship,” Caruso says. “Propelled by our outstanding research in marketing and data analytics, we are connecting to organizational pioneers and pathbreakers, building bridges between research and practice that promote the creation, discovery, and efficient consumption of value in the digital age.”
Caruso 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 inclusive leadership, team dynamics and power and influence. In addition, Caruso partnered with Chicago’s Second City to co-found the Second Science Project, which offers skill-building leadership workshops at the intersection of robust behavioral research and professional improvisational practice.
Caruso is a strong proponent of lifelong learning for management excellence, and encourages students to make the most of their professors’ knowledge, not only while they are pursuing their degrees, but also throughout their careers. “As a preeminent public university, UCLA has a distinctive opportunity to advance equity, diversity and inclusion,” she says. “It is an honor to help UCLA Anderson to seize that opportunity by creating the kind of challenging and rewarding educational climate that can benefit leaders from every walk of life.”
Affirming values shared across the UCLA campus, the EDI Student Advisory Council informs, implements, and enhances school efforts to build equity for all students.
Numerous Anderson student clubs represent UCLA's diverse campus and initiatives:
UCLA Anderson’s Embracing Diversity Week celebrates the power of every person from every background to shape our future. Each November, research centers, programs and clubs across UCLA Anderson come together for Embracing Diversity Week, a celebration of how we embrace our diversity and welcome more!
The Velocity Women’s Leadership Summit seeks to deepen the dialogue about women in business, explore multiple definitions of success and provide skill-based training. This event is hosted by the Women’s Business Connection (WBC), in collaboration with the Women’s Global Connection (WGC) at UCLA Anderson.
UCLA Anderson offers a range of fellowships geared to offset the cost of tuition so students can fully dedicate themselves to their studies.
The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management is committed to increasing the representation of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans in American business schools and corporate management.
The Consortium awards merit-based, full-tuition fellowships to top MBA candidates who have a proven record of promoting inclusion in school, in their jobs or in their personal lives. A member since 2010, UCLA Anderson is a proud supporter of this mission. Find out more about the Consortium at cgsm.org.
Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT)
As a Harvard MBA student in the early 1990’s, John Rice began delving into the reasons why there were few other students there who looked like him. He developed a thesis for a nonprofit organization that would provide the training, coaching and networks that traditionally have been unavailable to minorities. In 2002, after a successful career at Disney and the National Basketball Association, John left the private sector to found the organization he first envisioned in business school: Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT). For more information, click here.
Through Forté, women can explore the endless career options available through business—from healthcare to hospitality—and learn universally valuable skills to accelerate their careers and thrive as leaders.
Tools and programs are tailored for women at every stage:
For more information, click here.
Reaching Out has grown to include a range of programming that educates, inspires, and connects an increasingly diverse LGBT+ MBA community. For more information, click here.