Laura Cerruti
Chief Impact Officer
I have more than 15 years of experience in higher education, nonprofits and publishing. Throughout my career at the University of California, I have been fortunate to work with many smart, caring, and fascinating people, managing challenging projects and working on initiatives of strategic importance. I arrived at UC Davis in 2014 to support the committee tasked with writing a strategic plan for diversity and inclusion, then subsequently supported a committee to envision what it means for UC Davis to be a Hispanic-Serving Institution. My main role was to synthesize a significant amount of information, data, and ideas into materials relevant to the planning committee and their planning process. I led a design-thinking activity at several engagement forums (including one for nearly 300 people) that generated lively discussions and ideas for our work. I’ve also been responsible for telling the story of diversity at UC Davis through data, producing institutional research reports and data visualizations that look at our institution through a diversity lens. I was certified as a ProSci Change Practicioner in 2017, and I believe in the role of data in managing resistance and building awareness and desire for institutional transformation. I have served on the UC Davis Status of Women at Davis Administrative Advisory Committee (SWADAAC) since 2015.
I also spent over a decade at UC Press, the publishing arm of the University of California. As an acquisitions editor and the director of digital content development, I worked on emerging issues around scholarly publishing and digital media. I helped start a monograph publishing service for UC research centers, rejuvenated the Mark Twain Publishing program, built out our global and multicultural poetry lists, and helped re-launch a natural history book series that served as the foundation for an expanded science publishing program. I was invited to present on some of these issues at national industry conferences, including the American Association of University Presses, the Associated Research Libraries, and the Charleston Library Conference. I was also an expert user of our title and inventory databases and helped design user interfaces and reports related to those systems.
I have an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley Walter A. Haas School of Business and attended UC Davis as an undergraduate student, earning a B.A. in English.