About Us

Black Alumni For Educational Excellence

The UC Black Alumni Coalition was founded by Amy Stroud, President, UCLA Black Alumni Association - Bay Area Chapter and Cheryl Wright, President UC Berkeley’s Black Alumni Association in the summer of 2020 with a mission to advocate for greater access to a University of California education for Black students. An upcoming ballot measure Proposition 16 was an opportunity to repeal Proposition 209, which was instituted in 1996 and had decimated the number of Black students attending University of California institutions.

With this opportunity, Amy and Cheryl rallied to include Black alumni leaders from all 11 campuses to came together to unite their resources and push for the new ballot measure’s success. Through this experience, including an historic meeting with the then new, and first Black, University of California President Dr. Michael Drake, the power of a united group of Black UC graduates was realized.

As a result, the alumni committed themselves to take on the critical work of supporting and advocating for the California Black community around its desire to attend, teach and/or work at world’s premiere public institutions of higher learning – particularly important because despite the national racial reckoning and resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the California ballot measure did not pass.  

Black Alumni For Educational Excellence

Now established as the non-profit organization Black Alumni for Educational Excellence, the organization is focused on three things:

1.       Increased Black admissions, enrollment and graduation at each UC campus

2.       Increased Black faculty and staff at each UC campus

3.       A diverse, equitable and inclusive climate and culture on each UC campus