How did nine San Francisco Bay Area counties produce the most powerful women in American politics? Find out on Friday, March 5, 10:30-11:30 AM (PT) when Mary Hughes, a political strategist and co-founder of Close the Gap California, discusses the groundbreaking clout of the region's elected women leaders. Read more.

This event is free and open to the public. RSVP here to attend.

Sign up now for live, interactive courses taught by Berkeley faculty and other area scholars. The once-a-week classes start the week of March 29, and run through May 21.

OLLI @Berkeley members are invited to join us on Friday, Apr 2.,10:30-11:30 AM. for an update on COVID with Dr. Debbie Gold, an infectious disease specialist with more than three decades of experience in the field. She most recently served as Chief of Service for Infectious Disease at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco. Currently, she briefs medical providers weekly across the country — particularly those serving in rural and underrepresented areas — on the latest insights the pandemic. She has also briefed OLLI @Berkeley members quarterly on the virus, answering questions with great clarity and expertise.

This event is for OLLI members only. The link to RSVP will be shared in emails in and posted in the Member Dashboard. 

Photo by Malu de Wit on Unsplash

A global pandemic, a racial reckoning, a partisan cleft, and a riot in the nation’s Capitol—all waiting at the door of the White House from day one of the Biden/Harris administration. The rhetoric of unity seemed reassuring to many, but this will undoubtedly be an uphill, difficult path to navigate. What are the prospects for rebuilding civil society and social trust? What are the pathways to racial justice and national healing? Please join us for an OLLI Town Hall "A Path to Unity?" on Friday, April 9, 10:30-11:30 AM (PT) to hear from a panel of experts who will present their thoughts and answer your questions.

This event is open to OLLI @Berkeley members and campus colleagues. A link to RSVP will be posted shortly.

Regardless of where one sits on the political spectrum, it would be difficult to deny that over the past four years the United States has become a more deeply-divided polity and society than at any other time in the recent past. That division has sown the seeds of a pervasive mistrust that corrodes the foundations of civil society and democracy. Is it possible to learn to trust again, to build bridges to other persons and communities whose lives and views may differ, often significantly, from our own? If unity is possible, how can we get there? What is the best way forward? OLLI members are invited to join us for this transformational intergenerational dialogue on Friday, Apr. 16, 10:30-noon (PT) as we grapple with these and other questions.

Due to the nature of the exhange, participation is limited to 60 OLLI @Berkeley members. Email the OLLI office to sign up.

This event is another in our Words Over Time series which promotes age-spanning, perspective-shifting conversations between OLLI members and Berkeley undergraduates discussing topics of critical importance to all.

Photo by Darth Liu on Unsplash

Join us on Friday, April 30, at 10:30 AM (PT) for a illuminating talk by Robert Strand, who will discuss how to build a resilient and sustainable society based on the Nordic model. Nordic countries — Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark — consistently rank at or near the top of virtually every global sustainability metric. This includes the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Index of the 17 UN SDGs that includes No Poverty, Reduced Inequalities, and Climate Action. American discourse about the Nordic countries often involves charges of 'socialism' that can often spiral into unproductive ideological debates. Nordic countries have pragmatically developed a variety of capitalism over the past century where markets are utilized where they work and kept in check where they do not. 

Dr. Robert Strand is Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Business and Lecturer at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He also holds the title of Associate Professor of Leadership and Sustainability with the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.

This is event is free and open to all. A link to RSVP will be posted shortly.