California College of the Arts appoints Ritu Kalra to Board of Trustees

California College of the Arts announces the appointment of Ritu Kalra to the Board of Trustees for an initial three-year term.

Kalra is the treasury director and special advisor to the executive vice president of Harvard University. Previously, she was a managing director at Goldman Sachs, where she ran the Western Region Public Sector and Infrastructure, as well as the Higher Education and Nonprofit finance practices within the Investment Banking Division. While in the finance sector for over 20 years, Kalra took a brief detour between her first and second decade in banking to work as a business reporter at the Hartford Courant.

“Ritu’s passion for the arts and education, along with her financial expertise in nonprofits and educational institutions, will bring a valuable perspective to the CCA community,” said President Stephen Beal. “I’ve learned a great deal in the time that I’ve known Ritu, and we’re incredibly fortunate to now have her on the Board of Trustees.”

“Ritu will be an excellent addition to the CCA Board of Trustees,” said board Chair Art Gensler. “Her experience in finance will be extremely helpful to us, as will her overall knowledge in advising and working with educational institutions.”

“I’m honored to join CCA’s Board of Trustees to help support CCA’s ongoing mission to educate and encourage students to make art that matters, and I’m looking forward to working with President Stephen Beal, whom I deeply admire,” said Kalra. “I fervently believe the arts and design have a fundamental role to play in the well-being of our society and in our cities. Artists are both makers and visionaries, and now, more than ever, we urgently need to support and foster alternative ways of knowing, perceiving, creating, and communicating.”

Kalra has provided strategic advising to educational organizations, nonprofits, and state and local governments through her work at Goldman Sachs. She earned a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1996 and an MA in Journalism from New York University in 2004.