Diablo Theatre Company Welcomes Two Students for Berkeley Board Fellows Program

The Diablo Theatre Company is proud to announce that its board of directors for the coming 2013-14 season includes two scholars from UC Berkeley's prestigious Berkeley Board Fellows program.

Billy Blaustein and Michelle Verwest, MBA students at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, will help the Contra Costa County-based Diablo Theatre Company encourage corporate sponsors to assure long-term support and sustainability.

The company, one of the Bay Area's premier producers of large-scale musical theater, will introduce Blaustein and Verwest at its October 28 board of directors meeting. Blaustein and Verwest's service will continue through May 2014, which coincides with both the performance season and their academic year.

"We are so excited to begin this collaborative work with our Haas MBA students," says Board President Sherry Caraballo Dorfman. "Fresh perspectives are incredibly valuable, especially from the best and brightest of up and coming business minds. We hope this experience will prove equally beneficial to the students as they experience nonprofit governance, the arts, and the rewards of giving back to the community."

Founded by Haas MBA students in 2003, the Berkeley Board Fellows program places Haas MBA students, as well as graduate students from UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy and School of Public Health, on the boards of Bay Area nonprofit organizations. The students serve as non-voting members of organizations' boards and complete a project that applies their expertise to a nonprofit's strategic need.

By contributing their time and talent to a worthy organization and by working with experienced and dynamic board members, the students develop governance and leadership skills. They also enjoy the opportunity to positively impact local communities. The students are expected to attend board and committee meetings, participate in activities and present reports that are subject to comment or action.

The Berkeley Fellows program is highly competitive, both for the students and the organizations that want to participate. This year, the program boasted its largest cohort of students; it placed 114 graduate students in board governance positions with 68 Bay Area nonprofits. Diablo Theatre Company is proud it was selected to host two fellows.

The company just produced the critically acclaimed Shrek the Musical at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. The company presents A Grand Night for Singing, an entertaining revue of beloved songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein, November 29-December 7; and Grease, the smash Broadway musical about teen romance and 1950s nostalgia, February 7-March 1, 2014.