By Andrew Cohen
Reflecting the dedication and talent of those working at Berkeley Law, three of its standout employees — Sophia Wang, Toni Mendicino, and Amina Kirby — won 2026 Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards.
Presented to individual staff members, the prestigious annual award honors those who demonstrate exceptional initiative to create significant positive impact on UC Berkeley’s campus community. Wang, Mendicino, and Kirby were recognized at a recent ceremony with Chancellor Rich Lyons and other senior administrators.
Wang, a staff attorney and lecturer at the Criminal Law & Justice Center (CLJC), leads the center’s Immigration Liberation Practicum. Soon after the November 2024 election, alumni who defend undocumented immigrants approached CLJC Executive Director Chesa Boudin and Pro Bono Program Director Deborah Schlosberg to see if the law school could help respond to the expected increase in detentions.
Within months, the practicum was created and placed on the fall course schedule. Partnering with local immigration rights advocates, students have helped several immigrants win their release from detention, secured an order to prevent the arrest and re-detention of a longtime Bay Area resident, and obtained bond hearings for individuals who have waited years in detention for their cases to be heard by an immigration judge.
“It’s honestly hard to believe how much we’ve been able to accomplish in just over a semester,” says Wang, who previously worked at the East Bay Community Law Center and Bay Area Legal Aid. “The speed at which we’ve been able to get up and running with students and cases could not be possible without the support of and collaboration with the immigrant rights advocacy community who have long paved the way, and created the infrastructure, for pro bono representation of detained immigrants.”
While Wang says the practicum’s work is “just a small drop in the bucket” given the number of immigrants needing legal representation, she still finds great satisfaction in giving students a meaningful advocacy outlet.
“I remember the most educational and meaningful part of my time in law school was working with clients in the immigration clinic,” she says. “So it’s an incredible opportunity to be able to expand the experiential learning opportunities here at Berkeley Law and create a space on campus where students can engage directly in legal practice and develop the skills needed to be thoughtful, client-centered advocates.”
Award nominators Boudin and Schlosberg explained that under Wang’s supervision, the practicum has secured groundbreaking victories in federal immigration detention cases that garnered national attention and set important precedents for due process protections.
“Her leadership ensures that Berkeley Law is not merely teaching about justice in the abstract, but actively creating it through direct legal representation,” they wrote. “This concrete impact on individuals’ lives — reuniting families, protecting asylum seekers, and challenging unlawful government action — exemplifies Berkeley’s values of access, excellence, and social justice in action.”
International impact
A Berkeley Law staff member for 30 years, Mendicino began supporting the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law and its International Law Certificate program in 2013 as part of her faculty assistant duties. When Dean Erwin Chemerinsky arrived in 2017, she “practically pleaded” to maintain that role.
“I was deeply inspired by our students’ accomplishments and eager to continue working with Co-Faculty Directors Laurel Fletcher and Katerina Linos, both professors I admire immensely,” Mendicino says.
She transitioned to administer the institute full-time in 2021, eager to support its “brilliant faculty and graduates determined to address global crises through legal advocacy and public service.” Mendicino produces Linos’ groundbreaking “Borderlines” podcast, which focuses on global problems in a world fragmented by national borders.
Fletcher, Linos, and Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Whitney Mello nominated Mendicino for the award, stating that her work on the podcast “has extended Berkeley’s influence far beyond traditional academic boundaries” and praising how her “organizational excellence, flexibility, and meticulous attention to detail make seemingly impossible initiatives achievable.”
That impact was exemplified by the Miller Institute receiving the East Bay Chapter of
the United Nations Association’s annual Global Citizen Award. Her nominators credited that honor to Mendicino’s “ability to anticipate needs, adapt to changing circumstances, and execute flawlessly to ensure that Berkeley’s mission of advancing global understanding and addressing critical challenges reaches audiences worldwide.”
Citing curiosity and communication as key traits in her job, Mendicino loves that her position demands being a constant learner and calls producing “Borderlines” a “pinch-me highlight” of her career. She also values being “a careful steward of institutional resources” to ensure that the university’s impact continues to flourish.
“I truly consider this school my extended family,” Mendicino says. “I am motivated daily by the values that bring people here to study, teach, and research. The Miller Institute’s mission has taught me that advancing rights requires deep respect for diverse perspectives and a commitment to upholding the rule of law. It is a privilege to build bridges between our renowned scholars, dedicated staff, and amazing students.”
Adding value across the board
A senior audio-visual (AV) and information technology engineer, Kirby plays a crucial role in advancing technical operations in the school’s classrooms and event spaces.
Over the last decade, AV systems have increasingly shifted toward operating over standard IT infrastructure. While this has simplified many aspects of AV system deployment, it also presents complex challenges in ensuring successful operation while maintaining network security and stability.
Before Kirby’s arrival, many Berkeley Law AV system renovations were designed and installed through third-party contractors. She says these contractor-led projects “often fail to assess in enough detail the full scope of work required to complete a successful installation.” The result: stressful installations with unforeseen technical or structural issues, long delays, unexpected costs, last-minute fixes, and design changes which negatively impact the project’s final outcome and — most importantly — the end-user experience.
In response, Kirby pursued reducing the school’s dependence on third-party contractors by shifting to a model that prioritizes the training and coordination of staff AV technicians and campus partners to install new AV systems in-house. Manager of Instructional Technology Dino Johnson and Assistant Dean and Chief Information Officer Gabriel Gonzalez, who nominated Kirby for the award, noted that she has saved the law school tens of thousands of dollars handling most of these projects herself — design and installation — with superior results.
Kirby says this shift has also “established and strengthened interdepartmental relationships and empowered the Berkeley Law Media Services team with valuable learning opportunities and far greater agency over our institution’s AV systems.” She works to ensure that every design function and feature “can be finely tailored to best serve the needs of our students and faculty.”
Her nomination highlighted how she demonstrated outstanding creativity and exceptional initiative in eliminating waste that minimizes bureaucracy and saves university resources, created AI-powered custom chatbots on classroom podium iPads that can answer specific questions about that room’s AV system, and is helping central campus pilot a new Wi-Fi-based assisted listening system.
“I find it both challenging and rewarding to work across departments to develop solutions that accommodate network-based AV systems while strictly conforming to campus IT standards,” Kirby says. “Successfully navigating this intersection to expand our faculty and student support resources is incredibly gratifying.”