📣Join our leadership team!
Can you volunteer 1 hour a week for student safety?
Email us at contact@safebears.org to explore joining our board
Update 8/13/26 — Our new board is taking shape, with four parents who have recently joined:
🐻 Devan Pala, Bay Area technology executive and freshman parent
🐻 Trisa Kent, Bay Area financial analyst and sophomore parent
🐻 Sunita Saini Patel, California physician and senior & freshman parent
🐻 Ramya Ramakrishnan, Bay Area outreach strategist and freshman parent
President Steve Ravellette remains on the board for now, while Victoria Cole, Melissa Kerpel and Ingrid Safranek will remain highly engaged during the transition. But, Steve, Victoria, Melissa and Ingrid are all parents of seniors, so will soon say goodbye to Cal, and to SafeBears.
Interested in joining our board? Let's talk! Email contact@safebears.org
✅ SafeBears was formed as a nonprofit corporation to ensure parents had an enduring voice as advocates for student safety at UC Berkeley. The vision and hard work of the founding leaders – Sagar, Elena and others – has blossomed into the respected organization that is SafeBears, Inc. today. But a nonprofit needs board members, and that’s where YOU can help. SafeBears by-laws require board members to be parents of current or very recently graduated students.
✅ The SafeBears mission – student safety – is not static. The original focus was crime. While that’s still important, the mission can encompass other safety topics, from drugs & alcohol to mental health to safe streets for pedestrians/cyclists. As a SafeBears board member, you will help define the organization’s priorities and bring about meaningful improvements to student safety.
✅ Time commitment? That’s really up to the new board members, but we’ve found it is typically no more than 1 hour per week.
Go Bears! 🐻
-Victoria
The SafeBears organization at a glance:
The mission is student safety, broadly defined.
Board members are volunteers; there is no paid staff.
Most SafeBears activity is safety-related engagement and education – with parents, students, campus administrators, law enforcement, and local businesses and community members. SB has also funded programs and events, such as self-defense classes at RecWell and new-parent mixers during move-in.
By design, SafeBears focuses on practical, local solutions. For example, because trespassing in dormitories has been a persistent problem over the years, SafeBears has advocated for things like gates, expansion of the lobby monitor program, and, most recently, a comprehensive security assessment for Clark Kerr Campus. SafeBears doesn’t get involved in complex policy debates, like, for example, how to solve homelessness.
From time to time SafeBears advocates before the Berkeley City Council or the UC Regents. As a nonprofit, SafeBears can do some lobbying of legislative bodies, but lobbying cannot be a substantial part of the organization's activity.
SafeBears is strictly prohibited from engaging in political activity, which means it cannot support or oppose candidates for office, or any ballot questions.
Leadership has Zoom meetings with campus administrators approximately monthly.
We communicate with our Facebook group members as needed, typically at least a few times a month. We also send email newsletters and strive to keep our website updated; our platform is beginner-friendly Squarespace.
Nonprofits have annual filing requirements, including federal and state tax returns. While SafeBears has to date hired an accountant to file our returns, it would be helpful for at least one board member to have an accounting background.
“Keeping the lights on” for a small nonprofit requires about $5,000 a year, the bulk of which goes to insurance and tax preparation. (Other items include Zoom and Squarespace.) The new board will determine how much the organization fundraises.
