About the Director's Stewardship Summit

Berkeley Lab's diverse community of researchers and operations professionals serve the mission of advancing human knowledge and developing science solutions to some of the greatest problems facing humankind. 

To achieve these ambitious goals, all Berkeley Lab employees, and especially supervisors and managers with direct reports, need to go beyond mastering the technical domains of their professional fields: they must deepen their capacities as leaders and stewards of research, people, resources, and institutional culture. 

There have been limited synchronous development opportunities and communities of practice available for managers at Berkeley Lab over the past several years, and particularly in light of changes precipitated by the COVID pandemic. The Director's Stewardship Summit aims to redress this by offering a transformative leadership experience for an annual cohort of managers and expanding development pathways for the Lab's next generation of leaders. 

NOTE: We will select up to 20% of managers/supervisors in each division across the Lab. We are committed to equitable representation across divisions and experience levels.

In this highly experiential program, which includes a 2.5-day kick-off workshop/sprint, at least 5 sessions of follow-up practice and peer coaching, and a graduation, you will learn how to maximize impact as a manager, so that your direct reports and teams come to work feeling motivated, inspired, and deeply integrated into the broader Lab community. The Director's Stewardship Summit will offer space for self-reflection, individual and team exercises, invaluable peer support & feedback, mentor coaching, curated readings, and opportunities to apply insights through a workshopped personal management challenge and Lab-specific case studies. 

Our Learning Model

Management & Behavioral Science

Drawing on ground-breaking and validated insights from behavioral and management science, this program is designed to be highly intensive and applicable to the day-to-day.

Coaching & Peer Mentorship

With one mentor for every 8 Summit participants, we will be able to pay attention to all participants and the challenges and insights they bring with them.

Experiential & Action Learning

Ideation and practice are key cornerstones of your experience at the Director's Stewardship Summit, through workshops and peer and individual work on key leadership challenges.

What's Included

Who This Is For

The Stewardship Summit is for supervisors and managers at all levels of experience, from beginners to seasoned - if you manage people and want to enhance and deepen your skills as a leader and culture-builder at Berkeley Lab, the Stewardship Summit is for you. 

THIS EXPERIENCE IS DESIGNED FOR...

What Topics Will Be Covered

Summit Team & Featured Speakers

Mike Witherell

Lab Director, Berkeley Lab

Aditi Chakravarty

Chief Culture Officer, Berkeley Lab

Lady Idos

Chief Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Officer, Berkeley Lab

David Whyte

Speaker, Poet, Author, Leadership Consultant

Aiko Bethea

Founder, RARE Coaching; Dare To LeadTM Facilitator

Batja Mesquita

Distinguished Professor of Psychology & Director, Center for Social and Cultural Psychology, University of Leuven

Jeffrey Lees

Associate Research Scholar, Princeton University

Övül Sezer

Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, Cornell University

Haesun Moon

Communication Scientist, Canadian Centre for Brief Coaching 

Amanda Ripley

Co-Founder, Good Conflict

Helene Biandudi Hofer

Co-Founder, Good Conflict

Deborah Helsing

Lecturer on Education, Harvard University

Emily Harman

Leadership Consultant

Peter Senge

Senior Lecturer, Leadership & Sustainability, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management

Michelle Florendo

Decision Engineer & Coach


Aowama Shields

Clare Boothe Luce Associate Professor, Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Irvine

Victor Udoewa

Founder & CEO, Justice by Design; Service Design Lead, NASA

Beena Sharma

President, Vertical Development Academy

Julia Winston

Facilitator & Experience Designer


Carol Burns

Deputy Lab Director for Research & Chief Research Officer, Berkeley Lab

Michael Brandt

Deputy Laboratory Director of Operations & Chief Operations Officer, Berkeley Lab