Berkeley Food Institute

Policy Assistant – Agroecology

Title Code 4919, Student Assistant IV

Appointment: August 26, 2026 – May 14, 2027 – 8-10/hours per week

Compensation: $29.25 per hour

Application Deadline: Friday, July 10th at 5 pm Pacific Time
The applicant must be a matriculated graduate student at UC Berkeley. Priority is given to work study students. 

To apply, submit the following items by email as a single pdf to foodinstitute@berkeley.edu with the subject line “Policy Assistant – Agroecology.”  Please include the following in your application: 

1. Cover letter (limit to 1 page)
2. Résumé with contact information for 2 professional and/or academic references (limit to 2 pages)

About the Berkeley Food Institute: Established in 2013, the Berkeley Food Institute (BFI) is a collaboration among eight colleges and schools at UC Berkeley (Natural Resources, Public Health, Law, Public Policy, Journalism, Business, Environmental Design and Division of Social Sciences of the College of Letters & Sciences). Today, BFI is an interdisciplinary research, education, and policy institute that works in partnership with communities to advance a just and sustainable food and farm system. 

BFI has grown into a network of more than 150 affiliated faculty and staff. Through this network, we train tomorrow’s food and farm systems leaders. We support a robust agriculture and food studies curriculum on the Berkeley campus and with UC system partners through the Graduate Certificate in Food Systems, the Food Systems Minor, and our summer UC-wide field quarter offerings. We organize and sponsor events to connect our campus community to the larger food movement. We elevate and catalyze new, timely food and farm systems research. Working with community partners, we connect those policy-oriented research efforts with state and federal decision-makers to advance just and sustainable food and farm systems policy innovation. 

Position:

The role of the Policy Assistant is to support the BFI’s policy program and related stakeholder engagement as part of the UC-wide California Organic, Agroecological, and Regenerative (COAR) Transitions project. BFI is a co-lead of the policy team for the COAR project, which launched in 2025 as a four-year research, policy, and education project. COAR’s interdisciplinary teams span UC campuses and UCANR and seek to examine the opportunities and constraints on equitable agroecological transitions (EATS) in California and advance a state policy roadmap to support EATS. This position is supervised by BFI’s Policy Director, Neha Sanghera.  Please review the COAR project website and this blog post for more details on the project. 

Policy Assistant Responsibilities:

• Assist with management of the COAR policy team’s activities, which include: supporting the development of deliverables, including policy recommendations based on COAR research findings, connecting COAR research to California policy context, and logistical support for policy team meetings and collaborations
• Assist the BFI Policy Director with implementing the COAR Policy Team’s annual plan and other short-term goals
• Participate in COAR policy team and stakeholder calls with our community partners.
• Write policy program related blogs for the BFI newsletter.
• Communicate with policy partners, faculty, and external contacts professionally and clearly. Help create and distribute policy updates to partners and the public.
• Assist in preparation for various COAR policy-related meetings and events hosted by BFI.
• Assist with other BFI policy projects as needed, such as with the development, promotion, and delivery of BFI’s monthly webinars.
• Assist in making improvements to policy sections of the BFI website.

Required Qualifications:

• Coursework and/or experience in agri-food systems and policy
• Demonstrated verbal and written communication skills, particularly regarding communications across diverse groups
• Commitment to justice, equity, and inclusion
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team sharing ideas and offering and accepting productive feedback
• Ability to work independently and to foresee, identify, and recommend solutions in the position’s areas of responsibility
• Attention to detail, both written and visual
• Experience with Salesforce, Google Suite and Microsoft Office Suite
• Comfort with creativity, innovation, and hard work
• Professionalism, courtesy, discretion, and good humor
• Interest and experience in public service and social equity, as core tenets of the UC Berkeley experience and the Berkeley Food Institute mission
• The occasional ability to travel with expenses covered by BFI

Equal Employment Opportunity:

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. For more information about your rights as an applicant, see: http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/upload/poster_screen_reader_optimized.pdf

For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy, see: http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct