Council on Anti-racism and Equity

Nicholas Barberis is a faculty member in the finance group at SOM; he joined the school in 2004. His area of research is behavioral finance, which tries to make sense of financial markets and the financial decisions of households using ideas from the field of psychology. Nicholas teaches the subject to students in the full-time MBA program; the MBA for Executives program; the Master’s in Asset Management program; and the PhD program. Over the years, in addition to teaching and research, he has taken on a number of administrative roles, including: senior faculty hiring; junior faculty hiring; PhD admissions; Dean Search committee; curriculum review; finance group’s representative to the school’s Appointments, Curriculum, and Strategy (ACS) committee; and numerous promotion committees.

Nicholas accepted the dean’s invitation to join the council because it is trying to make progress on issues that are important to the school and to society at large. He will do his best to help, drawing on his experiences at SOM in the past 15 years.

Teresa Chahine is the inaugural Sheila and Ron ’92 Marcelo Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship at the Yale School of Management. She is the author of "Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship," a twelve step framework for building impactful ventures in new and existing organizations. Dr. Chahine's research focuses on developing tools to characterize and advance social and environmental determinants of health. She launched the first social entrepreneurship program in the context of public health, at Harvard University. She was also responsible for launching the first venture philanthropy organization in her home country of Lebanon, providing tailored financing and critical management support to social enterprises serving marginalized populations through education and job creation for youth and women.

Dr. Chahine has published widely on financing, measuring, and scaling social impact. She has worked on social innovation and sustainable development within corporate, governmental, academic and non-profit organizations. Among these are the United States Environmental Protection Agency, United Nations Populations Fund, Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs, Malaysian Directors Academy, Sichuan University, Kazakhstan School of Public Health, and Amani Institute in Brazil. She was the recipient of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's inaugural Elizabeth T. Weintz humanitarian research award in 2016 and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's emerging leader in public health award in 2017.

Nana Danso has over 20 years of professional experience in a diverse range of industries, including public administration, financial services, and the pharmaceutical industry. Nana is currently a Senior Marketing Director in the Inflammation and Immunology Business Unit at Pfizer. Nana has over 17 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in a variety of disciplines including Finance, Sales, and Marketing. He has led several key initiatives in these fields and has had the privilege of working internationally. Nana exemplifies a great mix of leadership, inspiration, technical breadth, and genuine passion for developing colleagues.

Nana has worked at Pfizer for four years, serving in various key roles on the Dermatology and Rheumatology Franchises. In his current role, Nana has the privilege of leading a team of talented professionals to ensure the successful launch of an innovative Dermatology product for patients with Alopecia Areata. At Pfizer, Nana has successfully implemented novel ways of marketing, leading teams through the building of agile capabilities, and serving as a model for the efficient development of marketing campaigns.

Before joining Pfizer, Nana worked at two privately held pharmaceutical companies where he spearheaded several major HR, Finance, and Marketing initiatives.

Nana is a magician, award-winning motivational speaker, and author of Real Magic: Breaking through the Illusion of Success. He has an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a B.A. from Wesleyan University, majoring in Mathematics.

Nana lives in New Haven, CT with his wife Kellie and sons Kwame (16) and Kwasi (13)

Rasanah Goss joined Citizens Bank as the Head of Diversity Recruiting Strategy and Partnerships in January 2021. In the beginning of 2022, Rasanah expanded her responsibilities to include campus recruiting. Additionally in 2022, she also served as the Interim Head of DE&I. Prior to joining Citizens, Rasanah was a Manager at Accenture focusing on diversity recruiting for talent acquisition teams operating in the US, Canada, LATAM, Europe and Africa.

Rasanah has also worked in the media & entertainment and nonprofit sectors. As a marketing manager she worked on award winning multicultural and multigenerational consumer marketing campaigns as well as drove retail and subscriber revenue for some of the most popular magazines including People, Fortune and Food & Wine. In the nonprofit sector her work focused on the arts and diversity.

Rasanah lives in Brooklyn. She currently serves as co-chair of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Ailey Ambassadors Scholarship Fundraising Committee and was previously on the Young Patrons Circle Steering Committee. Rasanah graduated with honors from Stanford University and earned an MBA from the Yale School of Management. She stays connected to Yale SOM by serving on the NYC Alumni Board.

Rasanah joined the council because it is an opportunity to apply her years of professional DE&I experience to remove barriers to access and opportunity as well as ensure equity is woven into the culture at Yale SOM.

Meshie is a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, NJ. Her work focuses on partnering with high-impact organizations with a vision to transform our current models of health and healthcare systems. She is especially excited about solutions that strengthen the collective capacity of marginalized communities and foster more sustainable connections between healthcare, public health, and the social services sector.  
 
Meshie earned a BA from Howard University in Washington, DC, and a MA from Trinity College in Hartford. She is thrilled to be back in Connecticut--a place she considers her second home. Jamaica is her first. 

Tali joined the Yale School of Management in 2011 as a temporary employee and in 2012, accepted a full-time position as Faculty Support. For the past 10 years, Tali has supported SOM full-time and visiting faculty in their teaching and research. Tali’s experience and school-wide knowledge enabled her to be a departmental resource for new staff, conducting training sessions and offering guidance and support for her colleagues. Tali has been a great support to the International Center of Finance and lends her hand wherever she can. Currently, Tali has taken on additional assignments including providing support for the Deputy Dean which extended her responsibilities to running the Faculty Seminar and other Faculty-lead events. Tali also supports the Asset Management MMS program, which just completed a successful inaugural year. It has always been important to Tali to be a team player by assisting wherever she can to ensure the success of her peers and the SOM community as a whole.

In her personal life, Tali took on the role as a Girl Scout leader for her daughter’s troop for the last 9 years, where girls learn to be future leaders, businesswomen, and a pillar of their communities. As a foreigner, a woman, and a minority, Tali has experienced many different forms of social injustice and feels it is her duty to always be a part of the conversation. “Being a mom in today’s society, it is important to be well informed and share your knowledge with the next generation”. Tali’s family, husband and two children, are all involved with DEI groups at work and school. They all feel strongly that these issues remain a part of their lives and is not something they can ignore.

Nataly has over 10 years of work experience in career education & coaching. She joined Yale SOM in 2011 where she worked in the Career Development Office (CDO) managing on-campus recruitment and developing new employer relationships. Prior to transitioning back to the CDO in 2018, Nataly spent a year in the Office of Community & Inclusion (now the Office of Inclusion and Diversity) supporting diversity strategies and initiatives across student services, recruitment, enrollment and alumni engagement. As a Career Coach, Nataly works with all SOM students to define and articulate career goals, provide strategic resources for their job search and guide students from the preparation stage through offer negotiations.

She has a bachelor’s degree in Justice & Law Administration and got her MBA from a neighboring school, Albertus Magnus College. When not at Yale SOM, she enjoys cooking, dancing salsa, true crime podcasts and spending time with her family.

As an Ecuadorian-born, first-generation college student, Nataly hopes to use this council as a platform to encourage more conversations around racial and socio-economic status inequalities in education and in the workplace.

Stefan Sandoval is a Second Year MBA student at Yale SOM. Currently, he is a Co-President of the PE/VC club and a leader in the American Latine Business Association (ALBA) and serves as a career coach at Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO).

Over the summer, Stefan was a Senior Associate at Bright Ventures where he focuses on deal sourcing, due diligence, and investment thesis development. He works with startups on building financial models and thinking through business development strategies. Previously, Stefan worked in options, derivatives, and financial modeling at Bank of America as well as part-time at SoGal Ventures and serves on the Accion Microfinance Council.

Stefan joined the council to further increase inclusion and equity within Yale SOM. As an immigrant Latinx male, I hope to bring insight I have as well as learn from others how to make SOM as welcoming for all as possible.

Mea-Lynn is a 2nd year MBA student at Yale School of Management, graduating summer of 2023. She previously worked at Charles Schwab as a financial consultant where she managed a $900M book of business in Santa Monica, CA. At Yale, Mea-Lynn serves as the Community & Inclusion chair on student government and is co-president of the Black Business Alliance club. She also holds leadership positions in PEVC and Crypto club. Outside of school, Mea-Lynn is an investment partner with Dorm Room Fund, where she supports and invests in student founders across the greater New York & Mid-west area. Mea-Lynn is originally from Curaçao, an island in the Caribbean, and speaks 4 different languages.

Kristen is a mission-driven leader passionate about enabling others to succeed. Kristen brings 20 years of human capital and diversity experience across industries. Kristen currently serves as assistant dean for the Office of Inclusion and Diversity at Yale School of Management, leading the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. Most recently, Kristen was an HR, talent, and diversity leader with The Hartford. In prior years, Kristen worked at Yale SOM in career development and admissions functions. Earlier in her career, Kristen was an MBA recruiter at Cambridge Associates and in organizational development at Boston Medical Center.

Kristen graduated magna cum laude from Providence College with a B.A. in psychology and holds a M.Ed. degree in human resources education from Boston University. Kristen enjoys adventures with her husband, two children, and dog, and likes reading, food and wine, and being near the water.

After participating in the inaugural council, Kristen is thrilled to see the group’s efforts already taking shape through new community initiatives. She looks forward to helping CARE identify goals around equity and anti-racism to be integrated into the SOM culture.

Over his 40-year career, Mark has been an entrepreneur in the media and entertainment space, has held senior leadership positions at TV and film companies, and has been a management consultant to several public and private sector entities seeking to engage with Africa, the Caribbean, and their Diaspora.

Prior to assuming his current full-time teaching position, Mark was most recently President of Sales and Marketing for One Caribbean Television, a TV network providing news and entertainment to Caribbean enthusiasts in the U.S., Canada, and throughout the region. Prior to this, he was a member of the team that launched The Africa Channel in the U.S and the UK.

He has a passion for teaching started at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business, where he was an adjunct instructor for over twenty years. He has been affiliated with the Media Management program at the New School in New York for the past seven years.

Mark was a member of the second graduating class at the Yale School of Management and has served on the school’s Board of Advisors. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University’s College of Communication, where he earned his BS in journalism, and currently sits on the Dean’s Advisory Board.

Mark sees the council as the next step in developing sustainable and actionable strategies that address racial imbalances at Yale SOM. He is honored to contribute.

Currently, Zanaiya is the Assistant Director for the Office of Inclusion and Diversity at the Yale School of Management. Prior to this, she served as the Assistant Director of the Myatt Center for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of New Haven. A graduate of the University of New Haven with a B.S. in Business Management and an MBA in Strategic Leadership, she has pursued professional opportunities that align with her dynamic interests – which has landed her at Yale SOM where she enjoys working with staff, students, faculty, and the SOM community. Zanaiya is happy to assist the council as it executes the ideas created by the inaugural group and is excited to see the progress that is made at SOM.