By Carly Milne
Growing up, Anna Goldberg (’18) often heard her parents say, “Fair is not the same.” As she grew to adulthood, the phrase became a driving force behind her efforts to push for greater equality and equity across society.
“I want to build meaningful relationships that cultivate cultures and systems where everyone can flourish,” says Goldberg, who is the president of Anderson’s Women’s Business Connection. “I will always strive to create more equity for others; but being a white person with privilege, you can create access more easily than others who haven’t had that privilege.”
As one of four UCLA Anderson students awarded a 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowship, it may come as no surprise that Goldberg comes from a line of social activists. Her grandfather, for example, protested alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and was arrested with him. Like the civil rights leader, Goldberg’s grandfather died too young, but his influence on her family remained; when she was just 14, she traveled to Uganda with her mother and grandmother to volunteer for several weeks at a Jewish community village.
A passion for exploration and expanding horizons has been a thread throughout Goldberg’s life. After high school, she participated in Kivunim, a gap-year program dedicated to building world consciousness. She visited 11 countries, including Israel, and worked with a Palestinian high school. Later, while at Pitzer College in Claremont, she created an art installation as a Holocaust memorial, with each flag representing 1,000 people. That tradition continued for five years.
After college, Goldberg joined Deloitte, where she has worked in human capital. Going to work in the corporate world represented power and the opportunity to make change, she said, particularly on a global scale. She didn’t lose her passion in the process; in fact, she employed it in her corporate role by working on Deloitte’s LGBTQ policy, organizing the company’s AIDS Walk and rededicating herself to the concept of treating people as people — and not just resources.
Goldberg decided to enroll at UCLA Anderson to expand her expertise and gain a greater understanding of operations, using the MBA program to help her learn why and how inclusion and equity is good for business. In the meantime, she’s dedicated herself to creating a more equitable environment for women at Anderson, heading the Women’s Business Connection professional club and helping to organize Anderson’s successful annual Women’s Leadership Summit, Velocity.
In the short time that she’s been an Anderson student, she has created a metric for diversity and inclusion that is now a requirement for student clubs to receive funding.
She has worked with Anderson school leadership to initiate bystander intervention training, which educates people on how to react when they witness something they believe to be wrong. That training is now part of Anderson’s student orientation.
She has also worked with Evelyn Carter, a research scientist in the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and she has collaborated with Anderson Professor and Senior Associate Dean Margaret Shih to create greater gender equity in the cases that are taught at the school. Goldberg also works hard to maintain programs and events that support gender equality at Anderson.
After completing her MBA in the spring, Goldberg plans to return to Deloitte to work to effect change with clients in the human capital space, citing a commitment from the company’s leadership to encourage this growth.
“So much of it is the human experience in building a relationship,” she says, “and how we can become more empathetic and listen to each other more; where people can be themselves at work and be safe at work; and for us to erase systematic racism and remove systematic barriers.”
Coach Wooden’s legacy resonates deeply with Goldberg, who cites the foundational level of Wooden’s Pyramid of Success as the core values that are the most meaningful to her: “Teamwork, integrity and feeling comfortable with decisions, and confidence. How do you create confidence for women, especially when these are confrontational times?”
If anyone can do it, it’s Goldberg, who has inspired and brought about significant, meaningful change across the Anderson campus in a single year.
The John Wooden Fellowships are among the most prestigious honors UCLA Anderson students can receive. Named for John Wooden, UCLA’s legendary coach, leadership philosopher and exemplar, the fellowships are awarded annually to MBA students who embody Coach Wooden’s values-based leadership. Essential components of this style include a focus on ethics, team spirit, skill, hard work and loyalty, along with a commitment to constant learning, continual improvement and innovation. Each fellowship is worth $25,000 and is funded by the annual John Wooden Global Leadership Awards Dinner.
The 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Awards ceremony takes place on November 13, honoring Kevin Plank, founder, CEO and chairman of Under Armour, and John Wooden Global Leadership fellows Evan Barnes (EMBA ’18), Anna Goldberg (MBA ’18), Sana Rahim (FEMBA ’19) and Brandon Scott (MBA/M.D. ’18).
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