Why I Serve: Board Members Speak
Laura Wen-yu Young, Chair
I serve on the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum Board because the appreciation of the different cultures of the world is key to humanity’s future. Thirty years of advising companies and individuals from the West on their business strategies in China has required understanding the cultural assumptions implicit in the laws and thinking on both sides of the Pacific.
My own parents came from two different cultures, each with different beliefs and assumptions, each with certitude even where they disagreed. I continue to be fascinated by the many ways there are to be human, and by the wide variety of human cultures around the globe.
The Hearst Museum is an institution that stewards the resources, and supports scholars and students in research to further our understanding of the ways, and reasons for, different cultures to privilege different behaviors and material objects. Supporting the Hearst as President of its Advisory Board allows me an insight into the world of anthropology, in the knowledge that the Hearst is an important part of UC Berkeley’s public mission.
David Gee, Board President
I serve on the Hearst Museum Advisory Board since it is one way to give back to a university that has given me so much.
I graduated with a B.S. degree in chemistry and attended medical school at UCSF. After additional training at the University of Michigan Hospitals and at the UCLA-West LA VA medical center, I joined The Permanente Medical Group, Inc. as a cardiologist at the Kaiser Walnut Creek Medical Center. After 30 years of practice, I am retired and now work part-time as a medical consultant with the Contra Costa Health Plan. I am a member of the American College of Cardiology and the Alameda Contra Costa Medical Society. I am also on the UB Berkeley Foundation Board of Trustees and am involved with development efforts in the College of Chemistry and Cal Reunion committees.
Although I majored in chemistry at Cal and I became a physician, I have always been interested in history and the formation of civilizations. Belonging to the Board allows me to explore and further expand my understanding of cultures and how they interact with one another, and how we can learn from the past to make our present and future better.
In my semi-retired life, I’m enjoying the numerous walking and hiking trails in the East Bay, reading history and financial books, exploring and learning about the wines of California and beyond, and traveling.
Caleb Bushner
I serve because I like big ideas but love making those ideas happen. For the past decade, I have worked at startups and consultancies, providing strategic guidance to move organizations toward emerging opportunities and stronger market positions.
I have worked in roles such as the Chief Strategy Officer of Free Range, working with clients ranging from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum to the United Nations Foundation. Prior to that, I have worked as VP of Marketing for an early-stage marketing technology startup, the Director of Social Content for Digitas, and a Strategist at Adobe.
In my spare time I am a competitive cyclist and have managed to forget how to speak Chinese and Spanish–but still love the cultures. I have an MBA in sustainable entrepreneurship from Pinchot University and a BA in political science and philosophy from Linfield College.
Dr. Kristin C.C. Lin
I serve because of the passion inherited from my family toward Taiwan indigenous culture and art. In 1994, my father, Mr. Safe C.F. Lin, founded the Shung Ye Museum of Formosa Aborigines, which is the first private ethnological museum in Taiwan. In addition to the collection and preservation of Taiwan indigenous cultural relics, we have actively held diverse educational activities (e.g., summer and winter vacation camps, festival events, etc) to promote Taiwan indigenous culture, with the strong intention to increase mutual understanding and respect among different social and cultural groups. Thus, I truly admire the Hearst Museum’s dedication to the study of the past and the present to encourage dialogue, understanding, and respect between different ethnic groups and this especially makes me cherish the friendship between Hearst Museum and Shung Ye Museum even more because we share the same mission! Thus, I truly expect myself to help to strengthen the collaborations, exploring infinite future possibilities between two iconic museums.
The second reason why I serve came from my academic background. Before taking over my family’s business, I have been doing research on social psychology, focusing on the mechanism regarding individuals’ self-esteem and social interactions. I’ve been trying to examine the role of culture in these processes. In fact, I was a guest researcher in the Department of Psychology at UC Berkeley right after I received my Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of Tokyo, Japan. During my stay in the Bay Area, I was very much inspired by the diversity of subcultures and lifestyles. Such a spirit of tolerance now became part of my life principle and leads me to serve as a member of the Hearst Museum’s advisory board.
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