UP Diliman (UPD) has three new deans: Kristoffer B. Berse, PhD of the UPD National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG); Luis Maria T. Bo-ot, PhD of the UPD College of Architecture (CA); and Melisa R. Serrano, PhD of the UPD School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR). Meanwhile, Shirley V. Guevarra, PhD will be serving her second term as UPD College of Home Economics (CHE) dean. Their appointments were approved by the UP Board of Regents at its 1378th meeting on Feb. 23.
The 16th dean of NCPAG, Berse is an associate professor who has been teaching at the college since 2013. He teaches public policy; research methods; local government; and special topics in public administration, particularly disaster risk governance, at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Berse was residential program coordinator of the NCPAG Office of the College Secretary (August 2016-March 2019). He concurrently serves as director of the Research and Creative Work Division of the UP Resilience Institute. Berse is also a senior research fellow at the Development Academy of the Philippines.
He was inducted into the Council of Fellows of the Philippine Public Safety College in 2020 for his outstanding and valuable works on disaster governance and crisis management.
Berse is a recipient of various awards, among them the One UP Professorial Chair Award (2022-2024); UPD Centennial Professorial Chair Award (2020-2021); Virginia A. Miralao Excellence in Research Award by the Philippine Social Science Council (2019); and Rafael M. Salas Professorial Chair in Public Administration (2018-2019).
Berse earned his bachelor’s degree (public administration), cum laude, from UPD (1999); and his master’s (environmental studies) and doctorate (urban engineering) degrees from the University of Tokyo, Japan in 2004 and 2013, respectively.
A rare example of artist-scientist, Bo-ot is an expert in both architecture and physics.
The 10th CA dean is a professor of architecture who obtained his BA architecture degree from UPD (1982); earned his MS in physics from the Russian People’s Friendship University, Russia (1992); and PhD in physics from UPD (1997). He is presently a PhD candidate in architecture at the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.
Bo-ot has been with the CA since 1994. He also taught at the UPD College of Science National Institute of Physics from January 2010 to July 2015.
Bo-ot had a fellowship at the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy (August 2005). He was also a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institute for Fusion Science in Toki City, Japan (2001-2005).
He has undertaken various residential design and construction projects both as an architect and as a consultant. His publications and other professional work are centered on heat, fluids, as well as acoustics.
Among his recent publications are Toward the Future of Asia: My Proposal (The Best Papers of the 4th Asia Future Conference) presented in August 2018 at the 4th Asia Future Conference in Seoul; the 2019 article Gabaldon School Lighting: Investigation and Assessment of Illuminance and Luminance Levels in a Gabaldon heritage School published in the Espasyo; and the article Diurnal Temperature Variation as an Ideal Room for Different Wall Materials using a thermal Load Model in the Philippine Setting in the 2020 book Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing.
Bo-ot has assumed several administrative positions in the University, most recently as vice chancellor for community affairs (August 2022-February 2023) and as director of the UP System Supply and Property Management Office (April 2017-July 2022).
Meanwhile, Serrano is a full professor who teaches courses on theories in industrial relations, labor and the economy, industrial relations and national development, and human resources at the national level.
The ninth SOLAIR dean initiated SOLAIR’s associate membership at the Global Labour University (GLU) Network (https://global-labour-university.org/).
She was an instructor (video lecturer) at the GLU Massive Online Open Courses hosted at the Springer Nature’s Iversity platform (https://glu.iversity.org/), and handled courses on Trade Unions in Transformations (March 31-April 17, 2022), Global Supply Chains in Times of COVID-19 (September-October 2020), and Subordination and Discrimination of Global Supply Chains: Recognizing and Building Unity (June-July 2022).
Serrano concurrently serves as the director of SOLAIR Center for Labor Justice. Before that, she served as the director of SOLAIR Center for Labor and Grassroots Initiatives (August 2017-December 2019), and SOLAIR secretary (October 2013-August 2016).
She was a visiting lecturer at the Center for Development and Decent Work, University of Kassel, Germany (Oct. 11, 2021–Jan. 22, 2022).
Serrano was awarded the One UP Professorial Chair Award (2019-2021 and 2016-2018); UPD Centennial Professorial Chair (2015 and 2014); and UPD Centennial Professorial Faculty Grant (2014, 2015, 2017, and 2021).
She obtained her bachelor (secondary education) and master’s degrees (industrial relations) from UPD in 1985 and 2003, respectively. She earned her PhD (labor studies) from the University of Milan, Italy in 2012. Serrano also holds a master’s degree (labor policies and globalization) from the University of Kassel and Berlin School of Economics and Law (GLU), Germany in 2006.
Second term. A professor of hospitality management, Guevarra has been with UP for more than 20 years. She was chair of the CHE Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management (2007-2013); officer-in-charge of the UPD Office of Student Housing (2014-2019); and acting director of the UPD Business Concessions Office (2006-2007).
Guevarra was elected to the board of directors of the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Educators of the Philippines in 2022. The Council is a leading academic professional organization that promotes quality hospitality and tourism education in the Philippines.
She is the current director for membership services and development of the Asia Pacific Council of Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Education, and the Philippine country representative and external secretary of the Asia Pacific Tourism Association.
Guevarra is a recipient of various awards and citations, among them the One UP Professorial Chair and Faculty Grant Award (2022-2024); the UP Centennial Professorial Chair Award (2017-2018 and 2014-2015); the UP Centennial Faculty Grant (2016-2017); and the UP International Publication Award (2016 and 2019).
She earned her master’s in food service administration and PhD in Philippine studies both from UPD in 2000 and 2011, respectively.
All four deans will serve until Feb. 22, 2026.