Dear Friends of BIDS,
We’re writing to announce that David Mongeau, after years of exemplary service as BIDS Executive Director, will be stepping down to become the founding Director of School of Data Science at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). As always at such times, it’s with a mixture of congratulatory excitement and some sense of personal loss that we wish him a great next chapter. We’re also glad to share that, after David’s departure on June18th, Anne Cleaveland will serve as Interim Executive Director for BIDS; and Heather A. Haveman, Professor of Sociology and Business, will take up the position of BIDS Associate Faculty Director.
David started with BIDS in April 2018, when he began overseeing research, training, and outreach at BIDS. In this short time, David has secured over $20 million from new contracts, grants, and gifts for data science education and research. He expanded industry partnerships, established three new competitive fellowship and training programs, and increased investment for fulltime BIDS academic and research track employees. Most recently, David has spearheaded successful efforts to deepen the benefits of data science for climate change and criminal justice, and for immigrants and refugees seeking work as newcomers to the United States with professional backgrounds.
We will not only miss David’s impressive contributions to BIDS and CDSS, but we’ll also continue to value his spirit of dedication, creativity, and warm collaboration.
While a search is conducted, Ann Cleaveland will concurrently serve as Interim BIDS Executive Director and the Executive Director for the Berkeley Center for Long-term Cybersecurity (CLTC). Ann is a senior leader and business manager with business development, relationship management, and strategy experience—she is the ideal Berkeley professional to advance current BIDS initiatives and facilitate day-to-day operations during this period. Ann’s interim appointment brings with it the new prospect of BIDS and CLTC becoming even closer neighbors among the research units in the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS).
Heather A. Haveman has generously agreed to become BIDS Associate Faculty Director. She is a recognized leader in the field of social science and computational analysis. Since its inception, Heather has served on the BIDS Faculty Council, been a key contributor in recruiting our fellows, and has inspired the design and growth of TextXD. In her new role, she will be able to work closely with Ann to operationalize the goals of the Faculty Council. We continually consider ourselves fortunate for Heather’s discerning and creative leadership at BIDS.
In closing, we wish to again express our gratitude to David Mongeau for his service to BIDS, CDSS, and the Berkeley campus and send him our hearty congratulations. We hope to continue working with David in his new role, finding opportunities for collaboration with UTSA, especially as UC Berkeley continues to strive to become a Hispanic Serving Institution. With the expertise of Ann and Heather and the support of the special research community thriving at BIDS, we are looking forward to our next chapter.
Sincerely,
Saul Perlmutter, BIDS Director, and
Jennifer Chayes, CDSS Associate Provost
