2024 Annual Leadership Conference

Bianca Caulfield (she/her)
Bianca serves as the Manager of Payment Solutions and Compliance. She has been with UCLA for almost 5 years. In her current role she oversees all incoming payments, ensures departments are in compliance with all cash handling policies and is heavily involved in cashiering changes for the Ascend 2.0 project. She also co-founded a wellness group within Student Finance Solutions. She has completed over 500 hours of yoga teacher training and recently became a certified sound healer. Her first job was working at her family’s deli when she could barely see over the counter. Since those days she has worked numerous jobs with varying titles but she always found a need for more resources for managers and employees to find wellness in the workplace. In her free time, she can be found hiking around the Santa Monica Mountains or at the beach. She is a proud cat Mom of two sweet girls, Phoebe and Bean.

Angela DiBlasi (she/her)
Angela DiBlasi is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She received her Master’s in Social Work in 1990 from the University of Southern California (USC) with an emphasis in working with employees and leaders in the workplace. She started her career journey at UCLA over 30 years ago in the Staff and Faculty Counseling Center (SFCC) where she completed an internship and accrued hours toward her licensure. She then went on to provide Counseling, Coaching and Consultation to Staff, Faculty and Leaders at Caltech, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and at the University of Southern California (USC). At USC, she was a Program Manager and an Executive Coach, helping leaders succeed in their leadership roles. She has come full circle and returned to UCLA SFCC in October 2022 as a Counselor and also provides Coaching and Consultation to Leaders.

Joy Guey (she/her)
Joy Guey is an emerging technologies advocate and has recently designed an innovation studio housed in the Social Sciences Division to help people find efficient solutions to their research questions and embrace the exploration of immersive technologies. She credits her collaborative spirit to the talented staff, faculty, and technologists she has worked with at UCLA for over ten years. Her educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UCLA where she also minored in digital humanities and later obtained a Master of Social Science degree in 2019. Joy currently facilitates a cross-campus working group that discusses applications of XR technologies (VR, AR, MR), serves as a Women in Tech committee member, chairs the API Faculty & Staff Association and participates on the Innovation Advisory Council for Vation Ventures. A foodie at heart, she’s always happy to provide recommendations of local eats and strives to balance that with the occasional weekend hike or worship gathering.

Darnell Hunt (he/him)
Darnell Hunt began serving as UCLA’s executive vice chancellor and provost — responsible for administering campus operations and the academic enterprise — in September of 2022. A celebrated scholar of race and media whose work has focused largely on the entertainment industry, EVCP Hunt is also well known for his longstanding commitment to high-quality public education, support of interdisciplinary research for the common good, and vision for inclusive excellence. Since joining UCLA in 2001, EVCP Hunt has served as dean of the UCLA College’s Division of Social Sciences, chair of the Department of Sociology, and director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. He currently holds faculty appointments in the departments of sociology and African American studies. EVCP Hunt received his Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology from UCLA, an M.B.A. from Georgetown University and an A.B. in public relations from USC.

Darlene Mininni (she/her)
Darlene Mininni is a consultant with UCLA Learning & Organizational Development where she teaches, advises and coaches UCLA leaders and staff on research-based strategies to build wellbeing and success at work. Previously, Darlene was Chief Learning Officer at UCLA Extension and focused on designing interventions to enhance staff wellbeing. She started her career as Director of the Applied Psychology Program at the UCLA Arthur Ashe Health & Wellness Center where she created the popular undergraduate course, CHS 179: LifeSkills. Darlene is author of The Emotional Toolkit: 7 Strategies to Nail Your Bad Feelings (St Martin’s Press), and her work on wellbeing has been featured in media outlets including CNN, PBS, and NPR. She is a founding Wellness Advisory Board member for Everyday Health and former host of the SiriusXM radio show, The Emotional Toolkit. Darlene was named the endowed Frank Roehr Memorial Lecture speaker by the UC San Diego Stein Institute for Research on Aging for her topic “The Science of Resilience: How to Thrive in Your Life.” She holds a PhD in clinical psychology and an MPH in behavioral health.

Marianne Rowan-Braun (she/her)
Marianne brings more than 30 years of leadership experience and expertise to her critically important role leading the assessment and execution of UCLA Health’s patient experience and engagement programs. This key position has accountability to elevate our patient-centered mission for the benefit of our patients, staff, physician partners and visitors. Marianne’s prior roles have included President & CEO of Maryland Ronald McDonald House, Vice President and Campaign Director at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center and Vice President of Patient Experience at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Her commitment to alleviating suffering is reflected in her advocacy for patients, families and staff. Her strategies, coupled with her passion, help build alignment and accountability across clinical and non-clinical teams consistently evolving the experience of care for all. Marianne has been recognized on four occasions by Smart CEO and was named as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women in 2013 and 2016. Marianne graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Goucher College with BA in Communication and earned a MS in Management from the University of Maryland. Marianne’s husband (of 44 years) Steve, children Ryan, Colby & Taylor and grandchildren Lucy and Jack inspire and sustain her.