Light the Way: The Campaign for Berkeley

Thomas J. White Ph.D. ’76 (below) has been a driving force for Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Center (HRC) for over 10 years, but his dedication to the rights of all dates back decades.

In college, White was fired from a restaurant for supporting a strike for better living conditions for Puerto Rican kitchen workers. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, where he taught math, science, and public health to elementary school teachers, he saw how mining and rubber companies were displacing people and paying them meager wages. And during his long career, the biotech research pioneer helped develop DNA-based tests for diagnostic, forensic, and research applications.

In 2006, before retirement, White became interested in the HRC. He and his wife, poet Leslie Scalapino M.Eng. ’69, pledged to support its fellowship program, which provides students with meaningful human rights opportunities around the world, for five years. He has extended the support since her death in 2010 and plans to continue giving.

Sarah Schear ’17, a former HRC fellow, studied end-of-life care in India. She says of White, “He’s always asking, ‘How can I decrease suffering and work for social justice?’”

White also devotes significant time to advising and mentoring fellows — more than 100 students so far — and lectures on genetics and ethics in a seminar on health and human rights.

Whether students are creating safe, fun activities for Syrian refugee children or helping to reunite families torn apart during El Salvador’s civil war, White hopes to inspire them to make human rights an important part of their careers.