Dean Rich Lyons has been honored by The Consortium for the Graduate Study in Management for his commitment to advancing opportunity and access to higher education for underrepresented minorities.
The annual Sterling H. Schoen Achievement Award, created in 2001 in honor of Consortium founder Sterling H. Schoen, a professor at Washington University, was presented at a reception held yesterday in Orlando, Florida.
The award acknowledges Lyons’ leadership in working with The Consortium, an alliance of top U.S. business schools and corporations aimed at fostering diversity among graduate business students and corporate leaders.
“We are so appreciative of The Consortium as a partner in helping us to create a more diverse student body and mindset at Haas,” Lyons said. “There are a great many people at Haas who have helped in our work with The Consortium and deserve to share in this award—especially our students, who have gone beyond themselves in taking on leadership roles that have had profound impact on our community.”
Lyons led Berkeley Haas to rejoin the consortium in 2010 after a seven-year hiatus following the passage of California Proposition 209, which prohibits public institutions from engaging in affirmative action programs. The school had withdrawn from the organization in 2003.
After The Consortium expanded its mission to support students who demonstrate a commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion, regardless of their race or national origin, Lyons worked closely with others at Haas to help bring the school back in.
In the first year after returning to the consortium, applications from underrepresented minorities jumped 44 percent, and the number of underrepresented minority students enrolled has increased.
The school continues to sharpen its commitment to being more representative and inclusive—one very recent example being the stronger diversity statement posted in multiple places on the Haas website.