Jennifer Mangold named Director of the Fung Fellowship
By Lauren Leung
This past summer, Jennifer Mangold was named Director of the Fung Fellowship for Wellness and Technology Innovations. She is responsible for the overall Fung Fellowship program and experience.
Jennifer joined the Fung Institute in 2016. In her prior role as Director of Innovation and Partnerships, she focused on expanding the Fellowship’s impact through forming new partnerships and collaborations with other programs across the Berkeley campus in addition to building a network of community and industry partners. She also leads the research and grant initiatives for the Fellowship, which was recently awarded an NSF grant to explore STEM engagement and advocacy as a result of an intergenerational design challenge learning experience. More recently they received a grant from New America as part of the Public Interest Technology — University Network to co-design, pilot and scale an enriched experiential curriculum that bolsters students’ ability to work across disciplines and understand the ethical, political and societal implications of technology.
Expanding the Fellowship
As she takes on this new position, Jennifer is focused on ways to expand the Fung Fellowship to serve more students — while remaining true to the program’s core values. It’s important to her that the students are integral in shaping and directing their own learning experience and co-designing the Fellowship with the program and teaching staff. This year, the Fellowship is launching the Honors program for second-year Fellows, giving them a more sustained year-long experience working on a real-world community-based project or pursuing their own venture.
“As part of our Honors leadership program, the Fellows [will teach] the first-year students during lab sessions,” Jennifer said. “One of the best ways to learn is being able to communicate complex ideas to a variety of audiences — this will be invaluable for our students’ success and serve them well in their careers.”
Next year, the program will be hosting two cohorts of Fellows for the first time, doubling the number of students in the Fellowship program. Jennifer is working on additional ways the Fellowship can grow and serve more students, especially those that are often underserved in tech and innovation programs. They are currently developing additional tracks beyond the initial health and wellness.
“There are so many brilliant students across majors and disciplines that are interested in innovation and tech,” Jennifer said. “I want the Fellowship to be a space for them to explore.”
The Future of STEM Education
Before joining the Fung Fellowship, Jennifer was a lecturer in the mechanical engineering department at UC Berkeley and served as the Director of Research and New Initiatives at the Lab for Manufacturing and Sustainability. Viewing herself as a lifelong learner, she has a passion for education and creating opportunities that make technology and innovation accessible to underserved groups.
Jennifer hopes to instill a design-oriented, empathetic mindset that recognizes the importance of multi-disciplinary approaches to today’s challenges, and to teach Fellows how to think critically about the long-term impacts of their work. “The tech is often what people find exciting, but traits such as integrity, self-awareness, and compassion are what set top leaders apart,” Jennifer said.
“The challenges that are facing us today are complicated,” Jennifer said. “How do you communicate across disciplines, leverage different viewpoints and life experiences, how do you advocate for others, for yourself and your ideas? How can [you] impact the world in a meaningful way?”
Jennifer is responsible for the overall Fung Fellowship program and experience. Having experience as a process engineer for Nissan, a researcher for both HP and The Sustainability Consortium and as the founder of Matter Labs, a sustainability-focused research firm. She brings a unique and design-focused perspective that is valuable to students, faculty and staff in the Fellowship as we help students become innovators and leaders. Her academic interests include innovation, sustainability, education, and addressing systemic barriers in tech fields. Jennifer holds a Masters and PhD in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley.
Learn more about the Fung Fellowship at fungfellows.berkeley.edu.
