Leon A. Henkin Citation for Distinguished Service

The Leon A. Henkin Citation for Distinguished Service is awarded by the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Campus Climate (DECC) of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate.  It is given in recognition of an “exceptional commitment to the educational development of students from groups who are underrepresented in the academy.”

Leon A. Henkin was an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics who was a founder of the Committee on Special Scholarships in 1963, a Committee of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate whose goal was to enable students from underrepresented groups to attend and excel at the University of California, Berkeley.  Professor Henkin remained a member of this same but renamed Committee on Student Diversity and Academic Development until his death. (SDAD merged with the Status of Women and Ethnic Minorities to form the DECC in 2014).   Professor Henkin worked tirelessly throughout his career to increase equity and access to higher education, and to promote the academic, personal and professional success of Berkeley students from groups traditionally underrepresented in the academy.  He was the first recipient of this Citation from the Academic Senate, and the Citation bears his name as testimony to his distinguished service. 

The nominee for the Leon A. Henkin Citation shall be:

Any current or retired faculty member—or pairs/teams of faculty—Senate or non-Senate whose careers have been marked by a sustained effort to increase the academic success of students from groups traditionally underrepresented in academic disciplines.  DECC members are ineligible while serving on the committee.

Ani Adhikari
Teaching Professor, Statistics

The Committee on Diversity, Equity and Campus Climate (DECC) has selected Professor Ani Adhikari, from the Department of Statistics, for the 2024 Leon A. Henkin Citation for Distinguished Service. The citation is given in recognition of “exceptional commitment to the educational development of students from groups who are underrepresented in the academy.”

To quote her nominator, Professor John DeNero (Electrical Engineering & Computer Science), Professor Adhikari has provided “exceptional and sustained leadership of the UC Berkeley Data Scholars program, which supports students from groups that are underrepresented in data science and computing….she helped found the Data Scholars program in 2017 and has been its heart, engine, and leader in recent years."

Drawing on feedback about Professor Adhikari from those writing in support of her nomination, we learn that Professor Adhikari is “exceptionally committed to the educational development of students from groups underrepresented in the sciences” and that her dedication is expressed through a variety of different avenues. It seems that she leaves no opportunities unexplored and her creativity has no bounds. To quote one of her supporters, Ani is “brilliant in her ability to identify seemingly small changes that can lead to significant impact.” Other examples of her efforts included the redesign of a pedagogy course in statistics and data science to be more open to and respectful of different students’ contributions (a collaboration with key personnel in Graduate Division, the American Cultures Center, and Cal Teach). Professor Adhikari is also said to have “reinvented the Data Science Undergraduate Studies hiring practices to attract, appoint, and retain outstanding student teachers from underrepresented backgrounds.” Her actions are intended to be enduring, as exemplified in her common practice of identifying and transferring effective TAs between Data Science courses, which serve to “foster institutional knowledge while also setting the expectation of shared responsibility for course culture and TA training.” Notably, Professor Adhikari’s mentorship has extended beyond undergraduate students to include junior faculty. which has helped to ensure that the positive changes to the classroom environment and student experience are magnified and enduring. The words of one of her student TAs leave no doubt concerning the positive impact of her actions: She creates “an environment where people of all backgrounds feel empowered to explore the world of data science. It is a community that celebrates our differences and believes in our ability to learn and grow, if we put in the work.”

If one needs further evidence of Professor Adhikari’s exceptional commitment to the education of students who are underrepresented in the sciences, a quote from a commencement speech that she delivered will leave no one in doubt: “keep listening, deeply and thoughtfully just as you do now, to others who are not exactly like you ... The world needs leaders like you: who actively seek out diverse viewpoints; who understand nuance and uncertainty; who consider the human consequences of their decisions, beyond their own immediate circle.”

History of the Leon A. Henkin Citation