Barcelona City Council has appointed four women as representatives of the same institution to the Social Councils of the city’s public universities. The Mayor, Jaume Collboni, has signed the decree electing the representatives of Catalan society who will form part of the governing body with which society participates in the university. With their election, the City Council is committed to strengthening the presence and visibility of women in the university world. The four representatives will be Sara Berbel (University of Barcelona; UB), Marta Continente (Polytechnic University of Catalonia; UPC), Olga Pané (Pompeu Fabra University; UPF) and Dolors Camats (Autonomous University of Barcelona; UAB).
The Deputy Mayor for Economy, Finance, Economic Promotion and Tourism, Jordi Valls, underlined “the intellectual and professional solvency of the four women appointed, who, with their value, will make a decisive contribution to the priority objective of strengthening the role of women in university governance”.
Among the functions that the law grants to the Social Councils are the strategic planning of the university, stimulating investment in research by companies and collaboration in university research. Valls considers “the university world to be strategic for the City Council and for the city’s commitment to defining new occupations and strengthening Barcelona’s economic diversification”.
The representatives
Sara Berbel Sánchez, UB. PhD in Social Psychology and postgraduate in Group Analysis and Management from the University of Barcelona. She is currently president of the BCN Vocational Training Foundation and has been municipal manager of Barcelona City Council until June 2023, as well as managing director of Foment de Ciutat SA and member of the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Transport Authority and Fira 2000 SA. Previously, she was Director General of Barcelona Activa and Manager of Economic Policy and Local Development of Barcelona City Council, Director General of Equal Opportunities in the Department of Labour of the Generalitat de Catalunya and President of the Catalan Women’s Institute.
Marta Continente Gonzalo, UPC. She has a degree in Economics and a degree in Physics. She has been Secretary for Telecommunications at the Generalitat de Catalunya and has led the digital transformation of Barcelona City Council and the AMB in recent years. She worked in the network of large cultural facilities in the Ministry of Culture and as executive advisor to the Minister of Culture. She has been linked to the public sector for the last forty years. She was a pioneer in the implementation of the Internet in the Catalan public sector and especially in transparency (she promoted the first open data portals in the Generalitat, the Barcelona City Council and the AMB) and the implementation of technology in the public space.
Olga Pané Mena, UPF. Doctor and specialist in Occupational Medicine and Master’s degree in Health Services Management from the UB. She is currently manager of the Mar Health Park and has previously been president of the Academic Committee of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), manager of Igualada Hospital and director of primary care centres of the Catalan Institute of Health in Baix Llobregat and in the Basic Area of La Roca del Vallès. During 2020 she was a member of the committee of experts for the Transformation of the Public Health System in Catalonia.
Dolors Camats Luis, UAB. She studied Political Science at the UAB and has a postgraduate degree in social innovation from ESADE. She had various responsibilities in the youth movement at local, national and European level where she worked for the recognition of non-formal education. She has developed her professional career in non-profit organisations, starting in international and solidarity projects until assuming management and strategic planning responsibilities in cooperativism and social economy. She has also been a member of parliament and parliamentary spokesperson in the Catalan Parliament. She is currently the director of the Catalunya Europa Foundation.