UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

California Census Effort Counts on UCLA Anderson Alumna Adriana Martinez

By Paul Feinberg

---

Adriana Martinez (’02) believes that every person counts.

And when it comes to the 2020 United States census, it’s her responsibility to make sure every Californian is counted.

In August, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Martinez deputy director of outreach for the state’s California Complete Count effort. The organization’s goal is the development of a strategy for a complete and accurate count of California’s population and the creation of a campaign to reach some of the state’s most difficult-to-reach communities, including residents of rural communities, people with disabilities, the elderly, the homeless and immigrants.

Previously, Martinez spent more than six years with AT&T, where she served as director of public affairs and, later, director of external affairs for California; she also ran an eponymous public affairs consulting group. “I’ve always been really interested in managing and leadership,” Martinez says. “Going back to why I earned an MBA, I really wanted to lead an organization. Sixteen years later, that’s what I was focused on: managing teams, managing budgets, being a convener among various sectors.”

Field Study Team Assessing Feasibility of Blockchain Technology as Key to Sustaining Guyana’s Indigenous Communities Earns Inaugural Impact Award

A quintet of UCLA Anderson students was commissioned by Conservation International Guyana to assess the feasibility of blockchain technology to solve a major challenge in the implementation and scaling of the Community Development Plan (CDP) in Guyana. The work was conducted in the group’s Applied Management Research (AMR) project, the field study assignment that serves as the capstone of Anderson’s full-time MBA experience. The team, comprising Class of 2018’s Miriam Leah Feygenson, Yuhei Iwasaki, Vasiya Krishnan, Anubhav Mishra and Harshita Mishra, was awarded the inaugural Impact Alumni AMR Award and received a $5,000 prize.

The Impact Alumni AMR Award recognizes the MBA student team that has excelled at making the greatest impact on their mission-driven client’s project through the course of the AMR program.

Earlier this year, the team published a story about their experience on the UCLA Anderson blog.

Alumni judges selected the winning team for the inaugural Impact Alumni AMR Award. Pictured left to right: Dave Gallon (’03), Nurit Katz (’08), Laura Ferretti (’95), faculty moderator Gayle Northrop (’96), Wendy Spinner (’89), Harshita Mishra (’18), Vasiya Krishnan (’18), Anubhav Mishra (’18), Miriam Feygenson (’18), Yuhei Iwasaki (’18)

---

“This award was established to highlight and appreciate the specialized skills and abilities needed to work with a mission-driven organization’s unique need to balance financial and social impact returns,” says Bhavna Sivanand (’14), executive director of the school’s [email protected] initiative. “An important objective for [email protected] is to integrate impact into the core competency of the MBA program, so that all MBA graduates seek out opportunities such as social impact AMRs to be able to positively contribute to society during their time here and beyond.”

Follow Us: