Award Recipients
Dr. Zvi Galil earned BS and MS degrees in Applied Mathematics from Tel Aviv University, both summa cum laude, and his PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University. After a post-doctorate in IBM’s Thomas J. Watson research Center, he joined the faculty of Tel-Aviv University, serving as chair of the Computer Science department in 1979-1982.
In 1982, he joined the faculty of Columbia University, serving as the chair of the Computer Science department (1989-1994), then as the dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science (1995-2007). As dean, he oversaw the naming of the School, the creation of the Biomedical Engineering department (now at the top ten) and significant growth of the faculty (92 to 152), the student body, and the distance learning program. In the U.S. News and World Report’s ranking, the school rose from 31st to 19th place. In 2008, Columbia University established the Zvi Galil Award for Student Life. In 2009, the Society of Columbia Graduates awarded him the Great Teacher Award.
Galil served as the President of Tel Aviv University (2007-2009) and subsequently as the dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing (2010-2019). Lately, he has been serving as the Frederick G. Storey Chair in Computing and Executive Advisor to Online Programs at Georgia Tech.
At Georgia Tech, Galil led the faculty in the creation of the of the College of Computing’s Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) program. As a MOOC-based program it was the first of its kind. It is highly affordable and of equal quality to the corresponding on-campus program showing the way how top universities can significantly increase access to higher education. OMSCS has become the largest online master’s program in computer science in the United States. In Spring 2024, it enrolled 13,600 students. In its first ten years it graduated over 11,000 students.
OMSCS has been featured in hundreds of articles, including a 2013 front-page article in the New York Times and interviews in The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. Inside Higher Education noted that OMSCS “suggests that institutions can successfully deliver high-quality, low-cost degrees to students at scale”. The Chronicle of Higher Education noted that OMSCS “may have the best chance of changing how much students pay for a traditional degree.” A 2023 Forbes article described OMSCS as “The Greatest Degree Program Ever”.
Galil’s research is in the areas of algorithms (particularly string matching and graph algorithms), complexity and cryptography. He has also conducted research in experimental design with Jack Kiefer. Galil has served as the editor in chief of two journals. He is a Fellow of the ACM and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
In 2012, The University of Waterloo awarded Galil with an honorary Doctor of Mathematics. In 2020, Academic Influence included Galil in the list of the 10 most influential computer scientists of the last decade, and the advisory board of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech established the Zvi Galil PEACE chair.
Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is a testament to his enduring belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, collaborating with communities and institutions to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Ma strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity.
In August 2018, Ma began a new journey to perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s six suites for solo cello in one sitting in 36 locations around the world, iconic venues that encompass our cultural heritage, our current creativity, and the challenges of peace and understanding that will shape our future.
The Bach Project continues his lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of genre and tradition to explore music as a means not only to share and express meaning, but also as his contribution to a conversation about how culture can help us imagine a stronger society and build a better future.
It was this belief that inspired Ma to establish Silkroad, a collective of artists from around the world who create music that engages their many traditions. Through his work with Silkroad, as well as throughout his career, he has sought to expand the classical cello repertoire, frequently performing lesser-known music of the 20th century and commissions of new concertos and recital pieces. He has premiered works by a diverse group of composers, among them Osvaldo Golijov, Leon Kirchner, Zhao Lin, Christopher Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Giovanni Sollima, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, and John Williams.
In addition to his work as a performing artist, Ma partners with communities and institutions from Chicago to Guangzhou developing programs that champion culture’s power to transform lives and forge a more connected world. Among his many roles, Ma is as a UN Messenger of Peace, the first artist ever appointed to the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees, and a member of the board of Nia Tero, the US-based nonprofit working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and movements worldwide.
Ma’s discography of over 100 albums (including 18 Grammy Award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. In addition to his many iconic renditions of the Western classical canon, he has made several recordings that defy categorization, among them “Appalachia Waltz” and “Appalachian Journey” with Mark O’Connor and Edgar Meyer, and two Grammy-winning tributes to the music of Brazil, “Obrigado Brazil” and “Obrigado Brazil — Live in Concert.” His recent recordings include: “Sing Me Home,” with the Silkroad Ensemble, which won the 2016 Grammy for Best World Music Album; “Brahms: The Piano Trios,” with Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos; “Six Evolutions — Bach: Cello Suites;” and “Not Our First Goat Rodeo,” with Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. His latest album is “Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5” recorded with Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos.
Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four and three years later moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School. After his conservatory training, he sought out a liberal arts education, graduating from Harvard University in 1976. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the Glenn Gould Prize (1999), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Dan David Prize (2006), the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award (2008), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010), Kennedy Center Honors (2011), the Polar Music Prize (2012), and the J. Paul Getty Medal Award (2016). Furthermore, he has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration.
Ma and his wife have two children. He plays three instruments, a 2003 instrument made by Moes & Moes, a 1733 Montagnana cello from Venice, and the 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius.
Yiting Shen manages the Global External Network for Treasury & Trade Solutions at Citigroup, responsible for 200+ relationships in approximately 100 markets. Shen champions business model innovation. Previously, she held roles in Currency Clearing and Strategies while based in London. She is the Global Ambassador for the Citi Women Leadership Development program alumnae community, where she promotes senior women leadership and champions women as a business advantage. A global citizen at heart, Shen has worked in 10 different countries. Prior to Citi, she was an entrepreneur in education, and a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in London, and she has also worked in mergers and acquisitions in New York. Shen is the President of the Asian Columbia Alumni Association and currently serves on the Board of the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association, and Columbia Engineering Development Council. When in London, she was a member of ARC and served as President of the Columbia University Club of London, which won the first International Club Award from CAA. She holds an M.S. and a B.S. from Columbia Engineering, an M.P.A. from The Harvard Kennedy School, and an M.B.A. from MIT Sloan.
Yi Zhang is an Associate in the Discipline of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) and the Director of IEOR Undergraduate Studies. He teaches various courses in the data analytics domain, including Foundations of Data Science, Data-driven Decision Modeling, and Simulation. Zhang advocates for integrating digital technology into the learning environment to facilitate active learning. He is passionate about helping students develop a deeper understanding of the methodologies and skillsets necessary to solve real-world problems while fostering their ability for ongoing exploration and discovery.
Zhang has received support for his teaching development through the Columbia Provost RFP and Collaboratory@Columbia Fund. He is a recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award from the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association. Zhang earned his BS in Information Systems from Dalian University of Technology and PhD in Information Systems and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.
Yevgeniy Yesilevskiy is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Innovation and Design in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Columbia University. He focuses on project-based and active-learning courses that seek to engage and improve engineering education through the design process. In his courses he guides students towards solving open-ended problems. By having students face uncertainty in their classes, he prepares them to be the next generation of innovators. For his efforts, he was awarded the 2021 Edward and Carole Kim Faculty Involvement Award. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he took the lead on creating a novel face shield design that was deployed in New York City hospitals. Additionally, he spearheaded the creation of project kits that allowed mechanical engineering students to maintain their hands-on education at home. Prior to Columbia, he received his PhD in 2018 from the University of Michigan for his work in legged robotic optimal energetics.
Will Turner is a practicing hospitalist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he completed his undergraduate studies in Black Studies and Biology at Amherst College and received his medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. After completing his residency and chief residency in internal medicine in 2002, Dr. Turner joined the faculty of Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons where he is currently Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, Interim Assistant Dean for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, Faculty Advisor for the Black and Latino Student Association (BALSO), and the founder of Columbia Black Men in Medicine (CBMIM). He has clinical and research interests in medical education and diversity in medicine.
William Kentridge is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre, and opera productions.
His method combines drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theatre, and collaborative practices to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history, all the while maintaining a space for contradiction and uncertainty. His aesthetics are drawn from the medium of film’s own history, from stop-motion animation to early special effects. Kentridge’s drawing, specifically the dynamism of an erased and redrawn mark, is an integral part of his expanded animation and filmmaking practice, where the meanings of his films are developed during the process of their making.
Kentridge’s work has been seen in museums and galleries around the world since the 1990s, including Documenta in Kassel, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Musée du Louvre in Paris, Whitechapel Gallery in London, Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, and the Kunstmuseum in Basel.
Opera productions include Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Shostakovich’s The Nose, and Alban Berg’s operas Lulu and Wozzeck, and have been seen at opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, English National Opera in London, Opera de Lyon, Amsterdam opera, and the Salzburg Festival.
The Head & the Load, with music by composer Philip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi and choreography by Gregory Maqoma, interweaves music, dance, projection, shadow-play, and sculpture. It premiered at the Tate Turbine Hall in July 2018 and went on to the Park Avenue Armory in New York and the Holland Festival in Amsterdam.
Kentridge is the recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities including Yale University and the University of London. In 2010, he received the Kyoto Prize. In 2012, he presented the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University. In 2015, he was appointed an Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy in London. In 2017, he received the Princesa de Asturias Award for the Arts, and in 2018, the Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize. In 2019, he received the Praemium Imperiale Award in Painting in Tokyo.
Vivian Lewis MD ’77 VPS is Professor Emerita of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She has been affiliated with the University of Rochester since she became Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility before becoming the inaugural medical school Associate Dean for Faculty Development for Women and Diversity and the University’s Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity. She has authored numerous articles, been a faculty member at three medical schools, and held leadership positions at the National Medical Association Ob-Gyn Section and, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and advisory roles for the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Her education at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) included exposure to a diverse group of mentors and role models especially through the faculty at Harlem Hospital. Participation in what was then the newly formed Black and Latino Student Organization (BALSO) provided experience in advocacy and community engagement. As an alumna, Lewis has participated in class reunions, the VP&S Women in Medicine Collaborative, and the VP&S Alumni Association Board, for which she is Interim President. Lewis is Co-chair of the BALSO Alumni Network, a new organization to support current and former VP&S BALSO members as they strive to provide culturally relevant healthcare. With other Network members, she started a new fund to provide temporary support to BALSO students with short term emergency needs not covered by their financial aid. Lewis is married to Rustam Tahir and divides her time between Rochester, NY, and Northern California; they have two sons, Darius and Jason.
Page Fortna is the Harold Brown Professor of U.S. Foreign and Security Policy in the Columbia University Political Science Department. Her research focuses on terrorism, the durability of peace in the aftermath of both civil and interstate wars, and war termination. She is the author of two books: Does Peacekeeping Work? Shaping Belligerents’ Choices after Civil War (Princeton University Press, 2008) and Peace Time: Cease-Fire Agreements and the Durability of Peace (Princeton University Press, 2004). She has published articles in journals such as International Organization, World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and International Studies Review. She is currently at work on a project on terrorism in civil wars. Her research combines quantitative and qualitative methods, draws on diverse theoretical approaches, and focuses on policy-relevant questions.
Professor Fortna is a member of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. She was a 2010 recipient of the Karl Deutsch Award from the International Studies Association. She has held fellowships at the John M. Olin Institute at Harvard, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Hoover Institution. She received her B.A. from Wesleyan University and her Ph.D from Harvard University.
Vijay B. Samant ’77EN earned a master's degree in chemical engineering from Columbia University in 1977 and a master's degree in management studies from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1983. Prior to attending Columbia and MIT, Samant earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Bombay in 1975. He has a strong, long-standing relationship as an active alumnus with Columbia that began over 20 years ago with his appointment to the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association (CEAA). During his time on the CEAA, Samant has served in various roles, including Chair of the prestigious Pupin Medal Committee from 1992 to 2016, and, more recently, President of the CEAA. As President of the CEAA, Samant partnered with the Board to strengthen the already strong relationship between the CEAA and the University, and to align the goals and mission of the CEAA with the Engineering School. He was the recipient of the CEAA Crossed-Hammers Award, in recognition of his unwavering service to the CEAA and the University, which included participation in a plethora of University events as a panelist, mentor of Columbia students, and participation in Columbia workshops. Additionally, Samant’s long-standing service, volunteerism, and University citizenship led him to be named as one of the 2022 Columbia Alumni Medalists. Professionally, he is the Chief Executive Officer of Xiconic Pharmaceuticals, and serves as a Board member of Brickell Biotech (BBI). Previously, Samant was the President and Chief Executive Office of Vical Incorporated from November 2000 to September 2019. Prior to Vical, he worked at Merck for 23 years in a variety of executive roles leading to his appointment as the Chief Operating Officer of the Merck Vaccine Division from 1998 to 2000. In his 40+ years in the pharmaceutical industry, Samant has played pivotal roles in all aspects of drug development, biological manufacturing, business development/licensing, supply chain management, and product commercialization, among other areas. He advises several public and private companies in the healthcare industry and is widely recognized as a vaccine expert.
Timothy Mitchell is the William B. Ransford Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University. He served as Chair of the MESAAS Department from 2011 to 2017. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 2008, he taught for 25 years at New York University. Educated at the University of Cambridge and Princeton University in the fields of law, history, and political theory, he works across the disciplinary boundaries of history and the social sciences. Many of his writings explore materials from the history and contemporary politics of Egypt, where he has conducted research over more than four decades. His writings, which have been translated into Arabic and 15 other languages, examine the history of colonialism, the politics of energy, the political economy of capitalism, and the making of expert knowledge. His books include Colonising Egypt, Rule of Experts, and Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil.
Timothy Donnelly’s most recent book of poetry is The Problem of the Many (Wave Books, 2019). His other collections include Twenty-seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebensezeit (Grove, 2003) and The Cloud Corporation (Wave, 2010), winner of the 2012 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize. With John Ashbery and Geoffrey G. O’Brien, he is co-author of Three Poets (Minus A Press, 2012) and his chapbook Hymn to Life was published in 2014 by Factory Hollow Press. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, The Believer, The New Yorker, The Nation, The New Republic, The Paris Review, Poetry, Poetry London, and elsewhere, as well as in the Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize anthologies. Donnelly is a recipient of a Columbia Distinguished Faculty Award, the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and Paris Review’s Bernard F. Connors Prize, as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and New York State’s Writers Institute.
Thomas W. Cornacchia ’85CC was a four-year member of the heavyweight rowing team in the early 1980s, and had an impressive career in finance, rising to become a partner at Goldman Sachs before retiring in 2017. Throughout his years as an alumnus, Cornacchia never forgot his alma mater. He was on the College Board of Visitors for over 13 years, including serving as Vice Chair for two years and Chair for three years. Cornacchia was part of several key initiatives on the Board including Columbia College’s Strategic Plan. Cornacchia currently serves as a member of the Core to Commencement Committee, a fundraising committee that has helped to raise $700M for the students of Columbia College and the faculty who teach them. He is a generous supporter of the College, including establishing the Thomas and Nancy Cornacchia Family Scholarship. In 2013, the College presented Cornacchia with a John Jay Award for his distinguished professional achievements. He also serves as a member of the King’s Crown Rowing Association and the Rowing Advisory Committee and established a key program endowment for Columbia Rowing in 2011. That endowment supports all three rowing programs: heavyweight, lightweight, and women’s team. Cornacchia made significant gifts to establish the Leadership Fund for Student-Athletes, vital to the holistic 360-degree approach Columbia Athletics takes to support success through wellbeing. He also serves on the Athletics Leadership Committee, and was honored as a Varsity C Alumni Award winner in 2014. Cornacchia is also a member of the Cancer Advisory Council at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and has been a tremendous supporter of their efforts. Cornacchia and his wife Nancy live in Darien, CT and have five children, two of whom are Columbia graduates, William ’17CC, and Victoria “Tory” ’19CC.
Thomas Lo is a doctor by day and chef by night, known professionally as Chef Dr. Lo. Chef Dr. Lo is a board-certified anesthesiologist with a lifelong passion for food and cooking. After graduating with a degree in Molecular Biology from Yale University in 2000, Lo began his professional culinary career studying at the French Culinary Institute in New York. He has appeared on numerous network shows and most recently, he competed on and won the Food Network show, Kitchen Crash. After leaving the culinary world, Lo went on to pursue his interest in medicine at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S). Lo was the recipient of the Virginia P. Apgar Award for excellence in Anesthesiology and Critical Care. Lo remained at Columbia for his residency in the Department of Anesthesiology and completed his postdoctoral residency training in 2012. Currently, he is an anesthesiologist, Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology, and CEO of Modern Renaissance Anesthesia in New York. He has served as a council board member of the VP&S Alumni Association since 2012, and President since 2018. He initiated a five-year alumni engagement campaign, serving as Chair, and has hosted many alumni events including a president’s tasting dinner, where he cooked an eight-course regional Chinese banquet for local alumni. Lo has also been a member of the CAA’s Alumni Trustee Nominating Committee since 2020. At the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Lo had the opportunity to partner with the CAA and contacts in China to help procure and deliver much-needed PPE for the clinical front lines at CUIMC, NewYork-Presbyterian, and other major hospitals in the New York metropolitan area. Lo is also the owner and culinary director of Spy C Cuisine restaurant in Forest Hills, New York. Spy C Cuisine has quickly gained critical accolades from The New York Times and received its first Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2020. With the understanding of the molecular physiology of taste, he enjoys playing with the palate by combining flavor combinations and balancing the harmonies of sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. Lo is known for his Sichuan Mind Numbing Sauce, which must be properly prepared and used for dishes to provide the perfect balanced flavor profile. When given in the proper amount, harmony is achieved.
Tania León (b. Havana, Cuba) is highly regarded as a composer, conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations. Her orchestral work Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In 2022, she was named a recipient of the 45th Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements. In 2023, she was awarded the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition from Northwestern University. Most recently, León became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s next Composer-in-Residence—a post she will hold for two seasons, beginning in September 2023. She will also hold Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for its 2023-2024 season.
Recent premieres include works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Grossman Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Modern Ensemble, Jennifer Koh’s project Alone Together, and The Curtis Institute. Appearances as guest conductor include Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Gewandhausorchester, Orquesta Sinfónica de Guanajuato, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba, among others. Upcoming commissions feature a work for the League of American Orchestras, and a work for Claire Chase, flute, and The Crossing Choir with text by Rita Dove.
A founding member and first Music Director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, León instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series, co-founded the American Composers Orchestra’s Sonidos de las Américas Festivals, was New Music Advisor to the New York Philharmonic, and is the Founder and Artistic Director of Composers Now, a presenting, commissioning, and advocacy organization for living composers.
Honors include the New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, inductions into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Victor Herbert Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and fellowship awards from The Koussevitzky Music and Guggenheim Foundations, among others. She also received a proclamation for Composers Now from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the MadWoman Festival Award in Music (Spain).
León has received honorary degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin College, SUNY Purchase College, and The Curtis Institute of Music, and served as U.S. Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. A City University of New York (CUNY) Professor Emerita, she was awarded a 2018 United States Artists Fellowship, Chamber Music America’s 2022 National Service Award, and Harvard University’s 2022 Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award. In 2023, Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library acquired Tania’s León’s archive.
Stanley Shih-Chieh Ko is President of Ko Hospitality Group, a boutique hospitality management company that focuses on three key business areas: representing established brands, helping nascent brands to grow, and creating wholly new restaurant concepts. The company successfully operates restaurant concepts throughout the United States, Greater China, Japan, and Southeast Asia including Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Ramen Nagi Universal Noodle, and celebrated Michelin-starred restaurants Shoun RyuGin and Restaurant RAW. He is an Executive Director of the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) in Taiwan, and a member of the Family Business Program Advisory Board and Hermes Society at Columbia Business School. He has helped to organize regional alumni events in Asia for the CAA, the Business School, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Ko received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 1999. While at Columbia, he pursued a personal interest by studying in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.A. in Economics in 1992. He is married to Shu Chen Huang with whom he has two sons, Owen ‘23CC and Henry ‘25CC.
Professor Shing-Tung Yau is a Chinese-American mathematician. He is known for a wide variety of contributions to mathematics and theoretical physics. With Richard Schoen, he proved the positive mass conjecture, discovered the first black hole existence theorem due to the condensation of matter, and most recently, he and Mu-Tao Wang worked on defining “quasilocal mass,” which allows the measurement of gravitational energy on any finitely extended region. Making use of ideas from quasilocal quantities, they solved a long outstanding problem on understanding angular momentum in general relativity. Yau is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a recipient of the Fields Medal, the Crafoord Prize, the United States National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize in Mathematics, and the Marcel Grossmann Award.
Robert Reffkin founded Compass in 2012, drawing inspiration from his mother, Ruth, a longtime real estate agent. Under his leadership, Compass ascended to become the country’s #1 real estate brokerage in the United States, achieving half a trillion dollars in real estate sales.
Robert holds both a BA and MBA from Columbia University, and his professional background includes roles at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, along with a tenure as a White House Fellow. Beyond his business endeavors, he has run 50 marathons in 50 states, raising $1 million for charities–including the nonprofit America Needs You, which he founded to empower young people from underprivileged backgrounds, assisting them in becoming the first in their families to attend college. He is also donating all of his proceeds from his recent book, No One Succeeds Alone, to nonprofits that help young people realize their dreams.
Richard Witten ’75CC is currently Special Adviser to University President Lee C. Bollinger. Witten is also the Founder and Senior Managing Director of Columbia Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Design, an umbrella organization within Columbia to encourage and support entrepreneurship and innovation across all of the University’s schools, institutes, and alumni and student organizations. He is a Vice Chair of the Board of Advisors of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chair of the Advisory Council for the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia, and a member of the President’s Council for Columbia World Projects. Witten is a Vice Chair Emeritus of the University Board of Trustees and Chair Emeritus of the College’s Board of Visitors. He was presented with the Alexander Hamilton Award in 2005. Witten earned a JD from Harvard Law School and went on to a 22-year career as a General Partner of Goldman Sachs. In addition to his many Columbia University affiliations, he also serves as the Chair of the Board of New York City Center and as a Trustee of the Harlem Children’s Zone. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Westchester and New York City, and are the proud parents of three children, and even prouder grandparents of eight.
Rich Richman ’72LAW, ’73BUS is the chairman and founder of The Richman Group, Inc. and its affiliates, which consistently ranks as one of the top ten largest apartment portfolios in the United States according to the National Multi-Housing Council. The Firm’s portfolio includes approximately 1,400 housing properties, containing nearly 110,000 apartment units located in 49 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and Saipan. The firm is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, and has regional offices throughout the nation. Richman is nationally active in the fields of housing and urban development. He is a frequent speaker and has appeared in a variety of venues; business, governmental, and educational, including Yale University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University, ABC’s Nightline and National Public Radio.
Richman is a member of the Dean’s Council of Columbia Law School, the Board of Overseers of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Urban Research Institute, and has been a member of the University of Pennsylvania Parents’ Leadership Board. Richman is also a trustee of NYU Langone Health System. He and his wife, Ellen, a former corporate executive and currently Columbia Business School Adjunct Professor and Trustee of The Leonard N. Stern School of Business of New York University, through their Family Foundation, have been supporters and active in numerous philanthropic endeavors and organizations, including establishment at Columbia University of the Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy and Richman Scholar Fellowship Program at Columbia Law School.
In addition to numerous honors and awards, Richman was recognized by The National Housing Conference as “Developer of the Year” and by the Urban League of Southwest Connecticut for the Richman Group’s Commitment to Diversity. Richman is also a member of the worldwide business organization YPO/CEO. He graduated from Columbia Law School with a JD, Columbia Business School with a MBA, and Syracuse University with a BA in Political Science.
Reed D. Auerbach ’81IF, ’82SIPA, ’85LAW, is a partner and global chair of the Structured Transactions Group at the multinational law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in their New York office. Auerbach leads a team of more than 70 structured transaction lawyers across offices in New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, and London. He has served as a director of the Structured Finance Association and as a member of its executive committee. He has served on the editorial board of The Journal of Structured Finance and co-authored the Fourth Edition of the legal treatise Offerings of Asset-Backed Securities.
Auerbach has been an active alumnus of both the School of International and Public Affairs and Columbia Law School. He has served for 13 years as a member of SIPA’s Advisory Board and was recently appointed to serve on the Dean’s Executive Committee for the Advisory Board. Auerbach also recently completed two terms as the SIPA representative on the Alumni Trustee Nominating Committee, including the last two years as the Committee’s Chair. At the Law School, he served as co-chair of the Reunion Committee for his 35th Reunion and served on the Reunion Committee for both his 25th and 30th CLS Reunions. Auerbach and his wife, Adrienne, have endowed a scholarship at SIPA in support of the International Fellows Program and have enjoyed hosting periodic get-togethers with both current and former scholarship recipients. At CLS, they endowed a scholarship for financial aid and established a fund in support of internships for students who spend the summer working in the international human rights field for a public interest organization or an international NGO. Auerbach and Adrienne live in Bernardsville, NJ, and on the Upper West Side, and have two adult children, one of whom is a 2020 graduate of Columbia Law School.
Rebecca Castillo ’94CC, ’06JRN is a storyteller who prefers the visual medium. Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, she is a freelance photographer and Assistant Director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, an organization educating middle school, high school and undergraduate student journalists through events, award programs, and curriculum development. Castillo co-edited and produced the award-winning book, Magazine Fundamentals, and her photography has been published by TIME magazine and The New York Times Foundation. While at Columbia College, she served as President of the Chicano Caucus and President of the Columbia Board of Managers. At Columbia Journalism School, she served as Class President. She remains involved with her alma mater as the adviser to the Columbia Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Castillo served on the Columbia Journalism School Alumni Board and is the past Chair of Columbia College Women. She currently serves on Columbia’s Alumna Leadership Group known as She Opened The Door. Castillo is a founding member and past President of the Latino Alumni Association at Columbia University (LAACU).
Ralph S. Kaslick was a member of the Marching and Concert Bands and the Columbia Daily Spectator staff during his College years. After he graduated, he taught Periodontics part-time at Columbia’s College of Dental Medicine (CDM), became Co-Chair of the ‘56CC Fund Drive, and created and edited a magazine for CDM with the help and advice of George Keller, editor of Columbia College Today in 1965. Kaslick soon turned to full-time academics, joining Fairleigh Dickinson University’s (FDU) dental faculty. He remained at FDU for 23 years, becoming Professor of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, serving as Dean of the School of Dental Medicine for 13 years, and later FDU Campus Provost, achievements recognized by his induction in 2007 into the University’s Heritage Hall. After leaving FDU, he became a Professor of Periodontics at New York University College of Dentistry and Chief of Dentistry and Medical Consultative Services at NYU Medical Center’s Goldwater Hospital, serving two terms as President of the Hospital’s Medical Staff. In 2007 he received CDM’s Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award and became Chair of CDM’s Visiting Professorship Program Advisory Committee, a volunteer position he still holds today. The Program focuses on challenging contemporary issues that affect the future of dentistry and frequently intersects with such areas as public health, technology, and engineering. He and his wife, Jessica, provide honoraria to the Program’s student scholars, and they also endow a scholarship in Periodontics at CDM that supports postdoctoral students with interest in careers in academic dentistry. In addition, Kaslick is a member of the 1754 Society, Columbia College John Jay Associates, a ’56CC representative to the Annual Dean’s Scholarship Reception, a student mentor, and a regular participant in CC’s mini-core evening classes for alumni. Most recently he was elected Vice President of the Lyceum Society of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Professor Rachel Adams specializes in 20th and 21st century literatures of the United States and the Americas; disability studies and health humanities; media studies; theories of race, gender, and sexuality; and food studies. Her most recent book is Raising Henry: A Memoir of Motherhood, Disability, and Discovery,published by Yale University Press in 2013 and winner of the 2014 Delta Kappa Gamma Educators Book Award. She is also the author of Continental Divides: Remapping the Cultures of North America (University of Chicago Press, 2009) and Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination (University of Chicago Press, 2001). She is co-editor (with Benjamin Reiss and David Serlin) of Keywords for Disability Studies and co-editor (with David Savran) of The Masculinity Studies Reader (Blackwell Press, 2001). She is editor of a critical edition of Kate Chopin's The Awakening (Fine Publications, 2002). Adams’s articles have appeared in journals such as PMLA, American Literature, American Literary History, American Quarterly, The Minnesota Review, Camera Obscura, GLQ, Signs, The Yale Journal of Criticism, and Twentieth-Century Literature.
Professor Adams has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Gastronomica, and The Times of London,and has blogged for The Huffington Post. Her essay series Book + Worm is published on Medium. In 2010, she was the recipient of the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award and more recently, she won a 2019-2020 Guggenheim Fellowship. She holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley (1990), an M.A. from the University of Michigan (1992), and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1997).
Pavan C. Surapaneni is a partner with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, who has a unique multidisciplinary practice in the sports and real estate industries. He has been named a “Sports/Entertainment Trailblazer” by TheNational Law Journal, a “Rising Star in Sports” by Law360, and an “Emerging Leader” by The M&A Advisor. He is a long-tenured member of the Firm’s diversity committee and was selected as a fellow by the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, as well as by the NYC Bar Association’s Diversity Bar Fellowship Program. Surapaneni graduated from the School of General Studies in 2006 as salutatorian of his class with a B.A. in Political Science and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. He subsequently received his J.D. from Harvard. While at Columbia, he held several school- and University-wide student government and leadership positions, led Community Impact’s Peace by PEACE, competed on the ski team, and was named to the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program. Surapaneni previously served on Columbia’s Alumni Trustee Nominating Committee and GS’s Recent Alumni Leadership Committee. He has been a member of GS’s Board of Visitors since 2011 and currently serves as its Vice Chair. He previously served on GS’s Reunion Committee and the CU250 Undergrad Student Committee. Surapaneni is also a Director and Secretary of Saving Teens, a Director of the American Alpine Club, and a former Director of the John Dewey Academy. Growing up in Maine, he is an avid skier and ice climber. He now resides in Tribeca.
Paul Neely is the former publisher of The Chattanooga Times. He holds a Master of Science in Journalism and a Master of Business Administration, both from Columbia. He earned his undergraduate degree from Williams College in 1968. Neely has worked at papers in Riverside, CA, Louisville, KY and St. Petersburg, FL. He and his reporting partner in Riverside were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting in 1973. In 1982 he was President of the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. He became Managing Editor of The Chattanooga Times in 1983. In 1992, he was named publisher, the first person outside the Ochs/Sulzberger family to hold that title since Adolph S. Ochs bought the paper in 1878. Neely is currently engaged in various civic and educational activities. For more than a decade, he has served on the Board of Visitors of Columbia Journalism School. When that Board was more formally reconstituted in 2014, he became its Chair and served in that role until 2019. He is Co-Chair of the School’s portion of the Columbia Commitment capital campaign and has longstanding involvement with its advancement and strategic planning. In 2015 he received the Founder’s Award for service to the School.
Paul Ingram is the Kravis Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, where he has received the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence, been selected by graduating EMBA students as the winner of the Commitment to Excellence Award nine times, and thrice been chosen by students to deliver the keynote speech at their graduation ceremony. The courses he teaches on leadership and strategy benefit from his research on organizations in the United States, Canada, Israel, England, Scotland, China, Korea, and Australia. His research has been published in more than seventy articles, book chapters, and books. His publications have received numerous distinctions, including the Gould Prize from the American Journal of Sociology, and several best paper awards.
Paul’s undergraduate degree is from Brock University where he received the Governor General’s Award as the top graduating student. His PhD is from Cornell University, and he was on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University before coming to Columbia.
Paul Alexander Bloom is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. Under the mentorship of Dr. Nim Tottenham in the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Lab, Bloom has focused his graduate research on data analysis methods for developmental neuroscience. His dissertation seeks to contribute tools for studies of brain imaging, emotion, and learning in children and adolescents. As a technical instructor with Justice Through Code, a free web development intensive for formerly incarcerated individuals, Bloom works to design curricula and teach computer programming tools to prepare students for careers in the technology sector. He also leads workshops through Columbia Foundations for Research Computing, Columbia Psychology Scientific Computing, and the Columbia Summer Internship Program in Psychological Science, as well as mentoring students in the lab. Across settings, Bloom strives to increase the accessibility of STEM resources and structure learning environments to meet student goals.
Patti Smith is a writer, performer and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock. She has released 12 albums, including Horses, which has been hailed as one of the top 100 albums of all time by Rolling Stone.
Smith had her first exhibit of drawings at the Gotham Book Mart in 1973 and was represented by the Robert Miller Gallery for three decades. Her retrospective exhibitions include the Andy Warhol Museum, the Fondation Cartier, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Her books include Just Kids, winner of the National Book Award in 2010, Witt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, Auguries of Innocence, M Train, and Devotion.
In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Smith the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honor given to an artist by the French Republic. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
Dr. Ovita Williams is Executive Director of the Action Lab for Social Justice and Lecturer in Discipline at Columbia School of Social Work. Dr. Williams worked with survivors of intimate partner violence in the forensic social work arena with ten years of experience in the Counseling Services Unit at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office. Prior to this position, Dr. Williams was a child and family therapist at the Children’s Aid Society. She is currently involved in racial equity facilitation and is committed to social justice and ending gender-based violence.
Dr. Williams has developed and facilitated interactive workshops for social workers, managers, and various practitioners on facilitating courageous dialogues around our intersecting identities. At Columbia, Dr. Williams collaborates with students, alumni, faculty, and administrators on the development of the course Decolonizing Social Work through a power, race, oppression, privilege (PROP) framework. The course centers on undoing anti-Black racism and dismantling white supremacy culture.
Dr. Williams is co-author of Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn: A guide for social work field education, 3rd Edition (2019) published by the Council on Social Work Education. Additional publications by Dr. Williams cover narratives on racism, racial equity facilitation, and discussions on privilege.
A graduate of Vassar College (’90) and Columbia University (’93), Dr. Williams received her doctorate from the City University of New York Graduate Center, Silberman School of Social Welfare in New York City. She was born in Guyana, South America and calls Brooklyn, New York home.
Olatunde Johnson is the Ruth Bader Ginsburg '59 Professor of Law at Columbia Law School where she teaches and writes about civil rights, civil procedure, administrative law, and democracy in the United States. In 2021, President Joseph R. Biden appointed Professor Johnson to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court. In 2017, Johnson was elected a member of the American Law Institute. In 2016, she was doubly honored with the Law School's Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Columbia University's Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching.
Professor Johnson graduated with honors from Yale University and Stanford Law School. After law school, Professor Johnson clerked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Justice John Paul Stevens on the United States Supreme Court. Prior to entering academia, Professor Johnson served as constitutional and civil rights counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF).
Nina Rothschild is a Health and Emergency Preparedness Coordinator in the Division of Disease Control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH), where she has been immersed in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She has worked at DOHMH in several positions since graduating from the Mailman School of Public Health: in the Bureau of Maternal, Infant, and Reproductive Health; in HIV Prevention; and in HIV Community Planning. She currently is a member of the Informatics, Data, and Outbreak Response Team in the Division of Disease Control. Her education at Mailman prepared her for the challenges of working at a big city health department—but public health first intrigued her way back during her junior year at Barnard College where she took courses including Women, Health, and Health Care and Caring for the Mentally Ill: Treatment and Policy. She was an English major, but these two courses captured her attention more than English literature did. Although her subsequent degree was an M.A. in English Literature from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, one of her most amazing courses was on Reporting Ethical Issues in Science and Medicine at Columbia Journalism School. She enrolled at Mailman and was incredibly excited to study under the excellent faculty while pursuing her M.P.H. and Dr.P.H. Rothschild serves on the Mailman School Alumni Board, and chaired the first Development and Governance Committees. Being a goodwill ambassador for the school came naturally. She is a past President of the Public Health Association of NYC, an organization which subsequently merged with the New York State Public Health Association.
Nim Tottenham is a Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, where she is Director of the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of Undergraduate Studies (Honors) in the Department of Psychology. Her research examines the development of emotional behavior and associated brain maturation. In particular, her research has highlighted the powerful role that early experiences, such as caregiving and stress, have in brain development. Tottenham has authored over 130 journal articles and book chapters, and is a frequent lecturer both nationally and internationally on human brain and emotional development. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and of the Society for Experimental Psychologists. Tottenham's scientific contributions have been recognized by the National Institute of Mental Health BRAINS Award, the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology, the National Academy of Sciences' Troland Research Award, and the Flux Congress Linda Spear Award.
A leading figure in intervention science for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, Professor Nabila El-Bassel, appointed University Professor in 2019, is known for her work explicitly targeting couples, enabling them to practice safer sex, reduce HIV, and resolve conflicts without violence.
Professor El-Bassel is the Willma and Albert Musher Professor of Social Work. She is Director of the Social Intervention Group, which was established in 1990 as a multidisciplinary center focused on developing and testing prevention and intervention approaches for HIV, drug use, and gender-based violence, and disseminating them to local, national, and global communities. Her work has been funded extensively by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health. She provides significant national and international leadership to the global HIV and health agenda.
Professor El-Bassel is also Director of the Columbia University Global Health Research Center of Central Asia, a team of faculty, scientists, researchers, and students in New York and Central Asia committed to advancing solutions to health and social issues in Central Asia through research, education, training, policy and dissemination.
In addition, Professor El-Bassel has designed and tested a number of multilevel HIV and drug use intervention and prevention models for women, men, and couples in settings including drug treatment and harm reduction programs, primary care, and criminal justice settings. She studies the intersecting epidemics of HIV and violence against women, and she has designed HIV interventions that address these co-occurring problems with significant scientific contributions in gender-based HIV prevention for women.
Professor El-Bassel has published extensively on HIV behavioral prevention science and on the co-occurring problems of HIV, gender-based violence, and substance use. She has mentored HIV research scientist s from Central Asia, and she has been funded by the National Institutes of Health to train underrepresented faculty and research scientists on the science of HIV intervention and prevention. She holds a B.S.W. from Tel Aviv University and an M.S.W. from the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Modupe Akinola is the Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business and the Faculty Director of the Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. Her research examines how organizational environments engender stress, and how this stress influences individual and organizational performance. She also studies workforce diversity, including the biases that affect the recruitment and retention of women and people of color in organizations. Akinola has published on these topics in leading scholarly and practitioner-oriented journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, Academy of Management Journal, and Harvard Business Review. Her research has been widely covered in media outlets such as The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, The Financial Times, and The Economist.
Akinola is one of the most highly rated business school professors at Columbia Business School and received the School's Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2015. She co-heads and teaches the required first-year leadership course in the Columbia Business School MBA program, and chairs two executive offerings: Developing Black Leaders in Financial Services and Advancing Racial Equity. She teaches extensively in executive programs such as the Advanced Management Program and the Senior Leaders Program for Nonprofit Professionals.
Akinola received her PhD from Harvard University in Organizational Behavior, where she was awarded Harvard Business School’s Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research. She holds a BA, magna cum laude, and an MA in psychology from Harvard University. She also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Nemat "Minouche" Shafik is an economist, policymaker, and higher education leader who will become the 20th President of Columbia University in the City of New York on July 1, 2023. For more than three decades, she has served in senior leadership roles across a range of prominent international and academic institutions. Since 2017 she has been President and Vice Chancellor of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), one of the world’s leading centers for research and teaching in the social sciences.
Before her tenure at LSE, Shafik served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, where she led work on fighting misconduct in financial markets and was responsible for a balance sheet of about $600 billion; Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, where she helped navigate turbulence surrounding the European debt crisis and the Arab Spring; Permanent Secretary of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, where she helped secure the UK’s commitment to giving 0.7% of GDP in aid and focused it on fighting poverty in the poorest countries in the world; and the youngest-ever Vice President of the World Bank, where she worked on the institution’s first-ever report on the environment, led work on infrastructure and private sector investment, and advised governments in post-communist Eastern Europe. She also serves as a trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the British Museum, and BRAC, the world’s largest non-governmental organization.
Shafik earned a BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an MSc from LSE, and a DPhil from St Antony's College, Oxford. She has received a life peerage and membership of the House of Lords, a damehood for services to the global economy, an honorary fellowship of the British Academy, and several honorary degrees.
She is married to Raffael Jovine, a molecular biologist, with whom she has two college-aged children and three adult stepchildren.
Milica Iličić is an interdisciplinary scholar and educator whose pedagogy focuses on community-building, integrative learning, and inclusivity. Her doctoral dissertation explores the power of art in fostering generous and ethical communication. Iličić’s syllabus for the undergraduate seminar Thinking Bodies: Literature, Film, Performance merited a Teaching Fellowship from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. At Columbia, she also taught the Russian and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian languages. From 2018 to 2022, Iličić worked with Columbia’s Language Resource Center to develop a comprehensive digital curriculum for Elementary Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, currently used for hybrid instruction at Columbia, Yale, and Cornell, as well as at the University of Chicago. From 2013 to 2016, Iličić served as Editor-at-Large for the Belgrade-based cultural publication Kultur!Kokoška. She is the co-founder of NGO Kultur Kolektiv, dedicated to organizing events and general audience educational content in her native Serbia. She cultivates a lifelong commitment to making the liberal arts meaningful and accessible to all.
Mike Miller Eismeier is a mathematician and J. F. Ritt Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Columbia University, specializing in topology. He received his BS from Santa Clara University and his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has taught and mentored students throughout their education and regardless of their math background, aiming to be patient but challenging. His courses emphasize the nature of mathematics as a particular form of communication and often use written projects as a way to develop and critique students' skills as communicators. His research is in gauge theory, using physical ideas from quantum field theory in the study of geometry and topology.
Miguel Ángel Garrido was born and raised in Madrid, Spain, and he is a proud Madrileño. He completed his undergraduate studies in mathematics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Boston University. After a two-year stay in the U.K., where he received his master’s degrees from University of Cambridge and The London School of Economics and Political Science, he joined the Statistics Department at Columbia University in August 2016. While pursuing his Ph.D., Miguel has actively engaged with the Columbia community. In 2019 he was a fellow at the Center for Teaching and Learning, and currently he is part of the International Fellows Program at the School of International and Public Affairs. In his free time, Miguel is an avid theatre-goer, and he loves discovering new restaurants with his boyfriend (activities that he hopes to enjoy again post-COVID).
Michelle Estilo Kaiser graduated in Columbia College’s first fully co-educational class, following her older sister Karen ’85BC. She returned to Columbia University for graduate school, earning an M.P.H. in Epidemiology in 1992 and an M.D. in 1997, before completing her training in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill-Cornell Medical Center. While a medical student at VP&S, she met her husband Michael, then a Columbia neurosurgery resident. Estilo Kaiser credits Columbia University core values and her positive experiences in many Columbia communities as her inspiration to volunteer. She looks forward to trips with her girlfriends from college and medical school, and considers many of Mike’s neurosurgical residency colleagues as part of their extended Columbia family. In 2007, she re-engaged with Columbia, serving on her 20th College reunion committee. She joined the Dean’s Alumnae Task Force in 2010, volunteered as an Alumni Representative Committee interviewer and mentor, is a member of the Alumnae Legacy Circle, and has served on the Boards of Columbia College Women (CCW) and the Columbia College Alumni Association, as Co-Chair of CCW Mentoring and Vice President, State of the College. Estilo Kaiser believes in the ideal of "One Columbia," because of her positive experiences across campuses. She participated on the CAA 2023 Task Force, and is currently a member of the Columbia Alumni Association Board. Since 2018, she has served on the Columbia University Senate as an Alumni Senator. She is Co-chair of the Alumni Relations Committee, and also serves on the External Relations, Budget, and Campus Planning Committees. Michelle and Michael live in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and are proud parents to Nicole ’20CC, Cynthia, and Christopher ’25CC.
Now in his 30th year as a member of the full-time faculty at Columbia Journalism School, Michael Shapiro has taught a wide range of classes, including the School’s core reporting courses, reimagined its magazine curriculum, launched an online publication, City Newsroom, and introduced the case method to the curriculum. In 2013 he returned to his first love—narrative journalism—through a series of web-based publications and more recently with books: The Memory Project, written and published by students in his class each spring.
Shapiro is Founder and Publisher of The Delacorte Review, the School’s literary nonfiction publication and writes the Review’s weekly newsletter, Writerland, “a journey to finding joy in writing.” He is the author of six nonfiction books and his work has appeared in such publications at The New Yorker, The New York Times, Esquire, and The Wall Street Journal.
Matthew I. Palmer is an ecologist and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B) at Columbia University. He received his BS in Natural Resources from Cornell University and his PhD in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University. Dr. Palmer teaches and advises students in several programs, including E3B’s undergraduate, postbaccalaureate, and graduate programs and in the Environmental Science and Policy program in the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He teaches courses in botany, forest ecology, urban ecology, herpetology, and research methods, often with extensive field and laboratory components. His research includes measuring ecosystem functions in forests, wetlands, and cities, the management of natural areas, and the conservation of biological diversity. He finds great joy in teaching and in helping students to see the natural world with a fresh perspective and to better understand the connections between nature and humanity.
Mary Kuo ’92CC graduated magna cum laude from Columbia College with a BA in Economics. As a student, Kuo was a member of the Varsity Cross Country and Track & Field team, and was the recipient of the Marion R. Philips Watch Award at graduation, an award given annually to the graduating female scholar-athlete with the highest grade point average in the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium. After graduation, she worked in investment banking and asset management. Upon moving to Singapore, she joined the Columbia Alumni Association in Singapore (CAA SG) and has been committed to engaging and connecting Columbia’s global community since 2008. She led and organized programs for alumni, students, faculty, and staff, served as head of the Columbia Experience Overseas program in Singapore and was an active member of the Alumni Representative Committee. Kuo was elected President of CAA SG in 2016. As President, she co-chaired the inaugural Ivy Ball in Singapore in 2018, a charity event bringing together alumni from Ivy League Universities, and benefitting vulnerable communities in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Under her leadership, CAA SG was the recipient of the CAA Regional Club Award of Excellence in 2018. CAA SG also hosted the Columbia University Leadership Weekend in Asia in 2019 that brought together Columbia alumni leaders from across many Asian countries. In 2018, Kuo was elected to the Board of the Directors of the CAA, where she has served two terms, including as co-chair of the Association and Clubs Committee and is currently a member of its Mentorship Committee. During the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she was instrumental in collaborating with the regional CAA clubs in Asia and the VP&S Alumni Association to bring PPE to New York during a time of critical shortage and need. In 2021, Kuo was elected to co-chair the CAA where she continued to build engagement and a stronger global Columbia community. Kuo has supported numerous scholarship funds at Columbia, including the CAA Scholarship Fund, the Singapore SEAS Scholarship Fund, and Columbia College’s financial aid program. She is a member of the Columbia Women’s Leadership Council, which supports Columbia Athletics. She is also a member of the Alumnae Legacy Circle and Columbia College’s Parent Leadership Council, and continues to serve as an advisor to CAA SG. In addition, she remains an avid athlete, and represented Singapore in the Asia Masters’ Athletic Championship. Kuo is grateful for the inspiration and support of her husband and three children, two of whom are graduates of Columbia College and one currently a student at Columbia College.
Dr. Marisa Spann is the Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Spann is a clinical neuropsychologist with specialty training in developmental neuroimaging and perinatal epidemiology. She obtained her PhD in clinical psychology at The George Washington University. She went on to pursue a clinical neuropsychology postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine, a MPH at Yale School of Public Health, and a NIH-funded T32 research postdoctoral fellowship in Translational Child Psychiatry at CUIMC.
The overarching goal of Dr. Spann’s research is to identify early immune, brain, and neuropsychological antecedents of childhood psychiatric risk to reduce the time to intervention for young children. She accomplishes this through two complementary lines of study involving national and international birth cohorts, and clinical samples of pregnant women at CUIMC. Dr. Spann’s lab is the N3 early Neuroimaging, Neuroimmune and Neuropsychology Lab.
Mariam Aly is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Columbia University. She received her BS with Honors from the University of Toronto in 2008, her PhD from University of California, Davis in 2013, and conducted postdoctoral research at Princeton University until 2017. She is the Principal Investigator of the Aly Lab in the Department of Psychology where she studies the human mind and brain to understand how the brain’s memory systems contribute to attention, perception, and prediction. Her achievements have been recognized with an NSF CAREER Award, a Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and a Young Investigator Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. She is an avid science communicator through social media and has a passion for helping students navigate school and life beyond it—working to destigmatize mental illness, and promoting fairer and more supportive spaces for graduate students.
Professor Marcel Agüeros’ research interests are time-domain astronomy, with a focus on stellar astrophysics and late stages of stellar evolution, especially white dwarfs. His current research uses new datasets and technologies to address classic questions in stellar astrophysics.
Before joining the Columbia University faculty, Professor Agüeros was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow in the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory for four years. For two of those years, he was also the Associate Director of Columbia's Bridge to the Ph.D. Program in the Natural Sciences (now in STEM), which he directed for a decade.
Professor Agüeros is a recipient of an NSF CAREER award, of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and of Columbia University's Distinguished Faculty Award and its Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. He received his B.A. in Astronomy from Columbia College, earned his M.Phil in Physics from the University of Cambridge, UK, and his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Washington, Seattle.
Mabel O. Wilson is the Nancy and George Rupp Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and a Professor in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, where she also serves as the director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies. With her practice Studio&, she was a member of the design team that recently completed the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia. Wilson has authored Begin with the Past: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture (2016), Negro Building: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums (2012) and co-edited the volume Race and Modern Architecture: From the Enlightenment to Today (2020). She is a founding member of Who Builds Your Architecture? (WBYA?)—an advocacy project to educate the architectural profession about the problems of globalization and labor. Exhibitions of her work have been featured at SFMoMA, Venice Biennale, Art Institute of Chicago, Istanbul Design Biennale, Wexner Center for the Arts, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum’s Triennial, the Storefront for Art and Architecture, and SF Cameraworks. For the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, she was co-curator of the exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America (2021). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians.
Lulu Chow Wang ‘83BUS is a graduate of Columbia Business School and has been a longstanding member of the school’s Board of Overseers. She chairs the Advisory Board for the Chazen Institute for Global Business at CBS, the School’s preeminent center on global business, economy, and leadership which supports students, faculty, and visiting scholars to become the future leaders of the world’s marketplace. At the Chazen Institute, she endowed the Lulu Chow Wang Senior Asian Scholars program to bring leading Asian business and policy leaders to campus to engage in dynamic exchange with students and faculty. Wang Scholars also speak at the Institute’s semiannual Wu Forum. Wang co-chaired the 2021 Annual Dinner for CBS, raising an historic high of over $5 million. She supported the campaign for the Manhattanville Campus, and is the co-leader of the Women’s Initiative, to celebrate the vital role of women at CBS, both on campus and in our global community of alumnae. She credits CBS’ women students for the strong engagement the School has with her and many other alumnae. CWIB honored her at their annual conference over 20 years ago and she established the tradition of an all women table at the CBS Annual Dinner, seated with Columbia women students and alumnae, who had not been widely represented in this prestigious dinner. This commitment to inclusion is an essential part of CBS’ diverse culture. Wherever she can, Wang seeks to connect the CBS community with that of other organizations where she has a leadership role. Whether at Asia Society, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or Rockefeller University, Columbians are welcomed and benefit from partners at these other leading institutions. Ms. Wang lives in Manhattan and on Cold Spring Harbor with her husband, Anthony Wang.
Lena Papalexopoulou ’89SIPA is the vice-president of Desmos Non-Profit Foundation, a pioneering hub for charitable giving in Greece. She is best known for her conception and co-implementation of a visionary educational program, adopted by the Greek national schooling system, that empowers students to become civic-minded. She is the chair of Tufts University’s International Board of Advisors, a trustee of College Year in Athens, and a board member of the Phylactopoulos Foundation. She served on “Repositioning Greece”, a team that advised the Greek government on the country’s image, and held positions of increasing responsibilities at the European Union, Merrill Lynch, Johnson & Johnson as well as Concept SA, where she was president and CEO. In 2023, she received American College Greece’s Social Impact Award. Papalexopoulou has volunteered for Columbia for over two decades.
As president of CAA Greece, she had a profound impact on the club, reorganizing its operations and drastically increasing outreach, events, and participation, which culminated in the CAA Regional Club Award of Excellence in 2023. She regularly hosts events, talks, and presentations for Columbia. She has been a CAA Board Member since 2018, where she mentors, serves on the Nominating Committee, and has co-chaired the A&C CALE Subcommittee. Most importantly, she has been instrumental in the recent establishment of Columbia Global Center Athens, as she tirelessly rallied support on both sides of the Atlantic, facilitated Columbia contacts with the Greek government, contributed to the Center’s strategic plan, procured media exposure, worked closely with the development office and secured the first signed major donation for the Center.
Papalexopoulou holds a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Economics and Business from Lafayette College, a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University, and an Advanced Executive Management degree from IMD Business School. She is the proud mother of Leticia, Anna, and Alexander ’21CC.
Laurie Magid, Esq. '85 LAW has been an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia for two decades. Living just a stone’s throw from Independence Hall, Laurie and her husband Jeffrey Miller appreciate the history of their neighborhood, but also love the proximity to their New York family and Columbia community. Magid graduated from Columbia Law School in 1985. She has taught at Villanova, Rutgers, Temple, and Widener Law Schools. In 2010, with her three wonderful children—Julia, Henry, and Nick—grown, Magid found that she had the time to engage more deeply with the Columbia community. After serving on her 25th-year Reunion Committee, she joined the Columbia Law School Alumni Association as a Regional Vice President for four years, then served as the President for four years, and now serves as an Advisor. In 2017, she joined the Columbia Alumni Association where she serves on the Arts Access Committee, the Programs Committee, and the Leaders Weekend Steering Committee. In 2018, she was the Vice Chair of Leaders Weekend, and in 2019 she chaired the CAA’s signature event. Magid was an inaugural member of the Alumnae Leadership Group, and has helped plan the “She Opened the Door” events, including the conference with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This year, Magid joined the University Senate where she serves on the External Relations and Government Affairs Committee, and is co-chair of the Alumni Relations Committee. At the Law School, she serves on the Harlan Fiske Stone Council and the Public Interest/Public Service Council, and mentors students, especially women and first-generation professional students. In addition to Columbia, her other significant commitments are as a Board member of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the LGBT synagogue in New York City, where she focuses on criminal justice reform issues, particularly clemency and reentry to communities after incarceration; and as the doting grandmother of her adorable one-year old granddaughter, Louisa.
Laura L. Ardizzone ’04, ’10NRS,is the Director of Nurse Anesthesia Services at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a member of the Executive Nursing Leadership team. Ardizzone received her BSN from the University of Pennsylvania and her Master’s and Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees from the Columbia University School of Nursing. She is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. She serves on the editorial board for various anesthesia journals and has lectured nationally and internationally on a variety of clinical anesthesia topics. Ardizzone’s commitment to Columbia has spanned over the past 14 years through various activities that support alumni, students, and administrative academic communities. She has served as a Nursing Alumni Association Board member (2014-2021), President (2019-2021), and now President Ex-officio (2021-2022), an Annual Fund member and Chair (2016-2017), and the nursing representative of the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA). She has attended and participated on the Nursing Alumni Reunions Committee since 2008, and various school events, such as New Student Welcome Breakfasts and Annual Dean’s Scholarship Receptions. Ardizzone has attended the Columbia Alumni Leaders Weekends, participating and speaking in the conference sessions. Her biggest honor as an alumna was being cared for by the School of Nursing’s fantastic students after the birth of her twins.
Laura Kurgan is Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, where she directs the Center for Spatial Research (CSR) and the Visual Studies curriculum. She is the author of Close Up at a Distance: Mapping, Technology, and Politics (Zone Books, 2013), and Co-Editor of Ways of Knowing Cities (Columbia Books on Architecture, 2019). From 2004 through 2015, she founded and directed the Spatial Information Design Lab (SIDL) at GSAPP.
Her work explores the ethics and politics of digital mapping and its technologies; the art, science, and visualization of big and small data; and design environments for public engagement with maps and data. CSR work has been exhibited internationally, at the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2019), at the Biennale Architettura di Venezia 2018, in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute 2017, at the Istanbul Design Biennial 2016, at the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016, and at Palais De Tokyo 2016. Professor Kurgan’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Fondation Cartier in Paris. Her writings have been published widely, including articles in e-Flux, the Harvard Design Magazine, Grey Room, Volume, and Architectural Design.
For her work as a designer, Professor Kurgan was awarded a United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, in 2009, and she was named a Game Changer by Metropolis in 2012. As Director of the Center for Spatial Research and the Spatial Information Design Lab, she has been Principal Investigator on research supported by the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Gardiner Foundation. Current topics of her research at CSR include justice mapping, conflict urbanism, spatial inequality, algorithms and social justice, and historical New York City.
Kyriakos Tsakopoulos rowed Columbia varsity crew and later served on the Board of the CAA, the Board of Visitors, and as a Trustee of Columbia University. He chaired the University’s Physical Assets Committee that oversees management and development of Columbia’s campuses, buildings and grounds including Morningside Heights, the Medical Center, Baker Field and Manhattanville. Tsakopoulos is proud to have participated as a Trustee in many initiatives such as the return of ROTC to Columbia and establishment of a plaque to honor and permanently recognize the indigenous Lenape people. He established the Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Chair on Aristotle and the Moderns to honor his grandfather, and the Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Scholarship in Honor of Gene Rossides, to recognize his friend who also was a proud Columbian. Tsakopoulos lives in Northern California with his wife and three children and keeps in close touch with lifelong friends from Columbia. He constantly applies lessons learned at Columbia, from the undergraduate Core Curriculum through his experience as a Trustee, to his work in land development, environmentally sustainable farming, water management, and endangered species protection projects.
A leading immunologist and vaccinologist, Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire is Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freeman Hrabowski Scholar. In 2008, she received a BS in Biological Sciences, with a secondary major in Sociology, from the University of Maryland—Baltimore County, where she was a Meyerhoff Scholar and NIH undergraduate scholar. She then obtained her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology in 2014 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill holding multiple honors, including a director’s scholarship.
She then had a seven-year tenure at the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. While at the NIH, Corbett-Helaire was scientific lead of a team that developed a vaccine to combat COVID-19—a challenge that would put her in the national spotlight and help shape the trajectory of the pandemic. Alongside Moderna, her team developed mRNA-1273, the first COVID-19 vaccine in the world to enter clinical trial. The highly effective vaccine was authorized for emergency use in less than one year. In addition to Moderna’s vaccine, Corbett-Helaire’s patented technology is used in many vaccines currently used around the world, including Pfizer’s, Novavax’s, and Johnson & Johnson’s. For her outstanding contributions to the fight against COVID-19, Corbett-Helaire was named one of Time’s 100 Heroes of the Year in 2021. She has also received several prestigious awards including the Fulbright Prize, Sabin Vaccine Institute Rising Star Award, and Benjamin Franklin Next Gen Award.
Corbett-Helaire has over 15 years of experience studying dengue virus, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus, and coronaviruses. In all, she boasts a patent portfolio which also includes universal coronavirus and influenza vaccines and novel therapeutic antibodies. Currently, her laboratory studies host immune responses to coronaviruses and other emerging and re-emerging viruses to propel novel vaccine and antibody therapy development. Combining her research goals with her knack for mentorship, Corbett-Helaire invests much of her time in underserved communities as an advocator of STEM education and vaccine awareness.
Katori Hall is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, two-time Tony-nominated Memphis-native, and book writer and co-producer of the West End and Broadway hit Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. She’s also the creator of P-VALLEY, the Starz drama based on her play, Pussy Valley. The critically-acclaimed series has garnered a variety of accolades, including the NAACP Image Award for Best Television Drama.
Hall’s latest theatrical piece, The Hot Wing King, premiered in Spring 2020 at the Signature Theatre, rounding out her three-play residency and winning her the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her play The Mountaintop, which fictionalizes the last night in Martin Luther King’s life, won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2010 before opening on Broadway in October 2011 to critical acclaim. Hall’s other works include the award-winning Hurt Village, Hoodoo Love, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, Our Lady of Kibeho, Children of Killers, and The Blood Quilt. She is also the director of the award-winning short, ARKABUTLA.
Hall is an alumna of Columbia University, the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, and The Juilliard School. She is a graduate of the Sundance Episodic Lab's inaugural class, the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, and Ryan Murphy’s Half Foundation Directing Program. Hall’s additional honors include a Susan Smith Blackburn Award, Lark Play Development Center Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, two Lecompte du Nouy Prizes from Lincoln Center, Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, NYFA Fellowship, the Columbia University John Jay Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement, National Black Theatre's August Wilson Playwriting Award, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award.
Kathie-Ann Patrice Joseph ’95VP&S is Professor of Surgery and Population Health and Vice Chair of Diversity and Health Equity for the Department of Surgery and Transplant Institute at NYU Langone Health. Joseph’s relationship with the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons began before she enrolled in medical school. As a student at Stuyvesant High School, she participated in Columbia’s PREP program for underrepresented minority high school students and would take the train every Saturday from Flatbush, Brooklyn to take classes in Washington Heights from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. These classes, taught by Columbia VP&S students, inspired Joseph as she continued to Harvard University, graduating cum laude in sociology. She returned to Columbia to study medicine and public health at VP&S and the Mailman School of Public Health and to teach in Columbia’s PREP program. Dr. Kenneth Forde, himself an active VP&S alumnus, was her surgery preceptor and mentor. Joseph has been an active member of the VP&S Alumni Association, serving as corresponding secretary from 2012-2014, Vice President 2014-2016, and President from 2016-2018. In 2019, she started the VP&S Women in Medicine Collaborative to further engage VP&S alumnae with our medical students. Joseph is married to David Joseph, ’95VP&S, and they have two sons, Devon and Justin.
Katherine (Katie) Reuther is a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Columbia University, with additional appointments as Director of the Columbia BME Technology Accelerator (BiomedX) program and Director of Master’s Studies. The BiomedX program provides funding, education, and support to faculty and students interested in commercializing their biomedical inventions. Her current educational work focuses on enhancing graduate education in the Department, including developing a medical innovation program that covers all aspects of the design and innovation process. Reuther supports entrepreneurship programs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through her work with Biocomx, VentureWell, and I-Corps. Reuther received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering (with an emphasis in Mechanical Engineering) from The College of New Jersey, a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Executive MBA from Columbia University.
Jyoti Menon ’01BC, ’06SIPA is a product management, strategy, and development professional with over 20 years of experience in delivering next-generation financial services products. Menon has developed strategy and led execution for large-scale, global products through her work at Goldman Sachs, American Express, and Citigroup. She is currently VP, Digital Product and Analytics at Bread Financial, where she oversees product and analytics for their complex digital lending suite. Menon has been an active member and leader in the Barnard community since she was a student. She is a current member of the Barnard College Board of Trustees. She has served as Chair of the Young Alumnae Committee of the Alumnae Association of Barnard College (AABC), an Alumna Trustee, and President of the AABC. She is a mentor to students and alumnae and was a founding member of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies. In 2016, she won the Award for Service to Barnard that honors alumnae volunteers for outstanding service and devotion to Barnard College. Menon lives in Manhattan with her husband, Santosh Sekar ('02SEAS, '08BUS).
Julien Teitler is Professor of Social Work. His research focuses on social, structural, and policy effects on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, with a focus on reproductive and infant health. He also conducts research on measurement and methodological challenges in survey research and has been contributing to the development and implementation of the Future of Families Study, one of the longest ongoing birth cohort studies in the United States, since its inception. He is currently leading the recruitment of the third-generation cohort for that study. Teitler has held numerous leadership positions at Columbia, including being one of the founding members of the Columbia Population Research Center and leading its Computing and Methodology Core, chairing the Morningside Institute Review Board (IRB), and serving as Senior Associate Dean for Research and Academic Affairs at the School of Social Work.
Teitler obtained his PhD in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a multidisciplinary scholar whose research has been published in leading journals of Sociology, Epidemiology, Medicine, Public Health, and Social Work.
Joyce Ladner was a Professor of Sociology, Provost, and Interim President at Howard University. When she became Interim President of Howard University in 1994, she brought the University through a significant budget ($25M) shortfall, which was a period of austerity that involved layoffs of staff and a freeze on spending, yet for Ladner, was a matter of saving the University. By the end of that year, she was successful in closing the budget gap. Following her time as Interim President, Ladner was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the District of Columbia Financial Control Board for a three-year term, to balance the city’s budget after it became bankrupt. Ladner was also a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
As a sociologist, Ladner studied and interpreted the intersectionality of race, gender, and class in her book, Tomorrow’s Tomorrow: The Black Woman that was the forerunner of the field of Black Girlhood Studies, and is a canon in the field. Her second book, The Death of White Sociology, was a landmark work that challenged the value neutrality of mainstream sociology. Her other books include Mixed Families: Adopting Across Racial Boundaries, The Ties that Bind: Timeless Values for African American Families and Launching Our Black Children for Success: A Guide for Parents of Kids from Three to Eighteen. She studied the roles of Tanzanian women in nation building and has lived in Dakar, Senegal. The poet Robert Pinsky also mentioned Ladner and her mentor, holocaust survivor Ernst Borinski, in his poem titled “Poem of Names” (The New Yorker, 2019).
A native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Ladner began her fight for social justice as a teenager when she helped organize an NAACP Youth Chapter in her hometown. She was expelled from Jackson State College in 1961 for organizing a civil rights protest.
Ladner was on the front line of most of the major civil rights protests in the sixties including Greenwood, Birmingham, Albany, Georgia, Selma, and Jackson. As a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), she was mentored by civil rights pioneers Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker. She worked with slain civil rights leaders Medgar Evers and Vernon Dahmer, and two of the three civil rights workers, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, who were murdered during the Mississippi Freedom Summer.
Ladner was on the twelve-person staff that organized the March on Washington in 1963 under the direction of Bayard Rustin and A. Phillip Randolph in Harlem, ands he was on the stage when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington, DC. She is completing her memoir titled Standing in the Gap: A Memoir of Resistance, Rebirth and Redemption that captures the spirit of her 1960s generation of young civil rights workers who challenged segregation and discrimination in the South and changed the face of America.
Ladner earned a BA from Tougaloo College in 1964 and a PhD from Washington University, St. Louis in 1968.
Josef Sorett is Professor of Religion and of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, where he currently chairs the Department of Religion and is the Director of the Center on African-American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice. He is the author of Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics (Oxford, 2016), and the editor of a recently published anthology, The Sexual Politics of Black Churches (Columbia, 2022). His next book, Black is a Church! Ironies of an American Secular, will be published later this year.
Professor Sorett’s work has garnered wide-ranging grant support, including from the Arcus Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Louisville Institute, and the Forum for Theological Exploration. His writing and commentary have appeared in such popular media outlets as ABC News, TheNew York Times, TheWashington Post, as well as on the BBC and NPR.
Jonathan Lavine is Co-Managing Partner of Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm with approximately $160 billion in assets under management, 1,600 employees and 23 offices worldwide. He also serves as the Chief Investment Officer of Bain Capital Credit and Bain Capital Special Situations which he founded in 1998. Together, those businesses have more than $57 billion in assets under management, more than 440 employees and offices on four continents.
Mr. Lavine joined Bain Capital’s private equity group in 1993. Prior to joining Bain Capital, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Upon graduating from Columbia, he began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in mergers and acquisitions.
Mr. Lavine and his wife, Jeannie, formed the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation which delivers financial resources to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations focused on leveling the playing field for individuals and families. The foundation works to address pressing social challenges in the areas of education, community and public service, health and welfare, discrimination, and poverty. It supports the multi-disciplinary efforts of organizations that serve to strengthen society through research, innovation, public policy, direct service, and advocacy.
The Lavines are longtime supporters of Columbia University, where Mr. Lavine serves as Chair of the Trustees of the University and is a former Chair of the Columbia College Board of Visitors. The Lavines have supported all 18 of Columbia’s schools. They are also major supporters of Harvard University, where they endowed the Lavine Family Humanitarian Studies Initiative at the Harvard School of Public Health and provided substantial support to fund scholarships for first-generation students at Harvard Business School.
In addition to their work with Columbia, the Lavines support a diverse array of organizations, including: City Year (where Mr. Lavine is Chairman Emeritus of the National Board of Trustees), uAspire (where they have dedicated the Lavine Family Center for College Affordability), WBUR/NPR (where they have dedicated the Lavine Broadcasting Center at CitySpace in Boston), LIFT, Cradles to Crayons, the Equal Justice Initiative, and many others. In addition, they have provided major support to several healthcare institutions including the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital as well as other medical research organizations.
Mr. Lavine is the 2017 recipient of Columbia University’s Alexander Hamilton Medal, the highest honor awarded to a member of the college community for distinguished service. He is a past recipient of Columbia’s John Jay Award for professional achievement, Columbia’s David Truman Award for outstanding contribution to academic affairs, the Dean’s Leadership Award for the Class of 1988 25th Reunion, Columbia/Barnard Hillel’s Seixas Award, Opportunity Nation’s American Dream Award, Voices for National Service’s Citizen Service Award, and of the New England Anti-Defamation League’s Distinguished Community Service Award. In 2016, President Obama appointed Mr. Lavine as a Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council where he served until 2020. Mr. Lavine is also a member of the investor group and a director of the Boston Celtics.
Mr. Lavine graduated from Columbia College, Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude, and holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School.
John Mullervy ’00SEAS completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia in 2000—the first member of his family to graduate from college—and his Master of Science degree in computer science from Boston University in 2005.
He is currently the Firmware Engineering Manager at Instron, a division of Illinois Tool Works. In the span of his career, he has helped design and release several products in the semiconductor and materials testing fields. He has volunteered for Columbia since graduation, starting with conducting alumni interviews. His involvement with the Boston club started in 2004 with running the email list and digitizing the club’s processes and communications. In social media’s earliest days, he pioneered the Boston club’s presence on social platforms. With the Columbia Alumni Association of Boston, he served as vice president from 2008 to 2016 and president from 2016 to 2019—and remains involved to this day. Mullervy was part of the leadership team awarded the CAA Domestic Club of Excellence in 2014. He has been a speaker at five Columbia Alumni Leaders Experiences, sharing his expertise on club management, leader succession, and NationBuilder. He was a member of the CAA Board of Directors from 2017 to 2023, serving on the Associations & Clubs Committee for six years and acting as co-chair for two of those years, in addition to his post on the Leaders Experience Committee where he spent the duration of his board term. He co-chaired the A&C Subcommittee for the first in-person, post-pandemic Leaders Experience in 2022. He has served on various SEAS reunion committees for the Class of 2000. He continues to contribute to committees and task forces as needs arise. Mullervy lives with his wife Stephanie and two sons, Colin and Declan, in Massachusetts.
Jodi Kantor is a prize-winning investigative reporter and best-selling author whose work has revealed hidden truths about power, gender, technology, politics and culture.
In October 2017, she and Megan Twohey broke the story of decades of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Their work helped ignite the #MeToo movement, shift attitudes, and spur new laws, policies and standards of accountability around the globe. Together with a team of colleagues who exposed harassment across industries, they were awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service , journalism’s highest award, and also received or shared in numerous other honors, including a 2017 George Polk Award.
She Said, Kantor and Twohey’s book recounting the Weinstein investigation, was called “an instant classic of investigative journalism” by The Washington Post and one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, The New York Times, Time, and many other publications.
Before then, Ms. Kantor’s article about the havoc caused by automated scheduling systems in Starbucks workers’ lives spurred changes at the company and helped begin a national fair-scheduling movement. After she and David Streitfeld investigated punishing practices at Amazon’s corporate headquarters, the company changed its human resources policies, introducing paternity leave and eliminating its employee ranking system. Ms. Kantor’s report on working mothers and breastfeeding inspired two readers to create the first free-standing lactation suites for nursing mothers, now available in hundreds of airports and stadiums.
For six years, Ms. Kantor wrote about Barack and Michelle Obama, delving into their ideas, biographies, family, marriage, faith, and approach to the White House, and covering the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Ms. Kantor’s best-selling book The Obamas, about their behind-the-scenes adjustment to the jobs of president and first lady, was published in 2012.
Ms. Kantor, a contributor to "This Morning" on CBS, lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Ron Lieber, and their two daughters. Please follow her work on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Jillisa Brittan ’86GSAS is a Mediator in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, where she has conducted over 2,000 mediations in civil cases. The types of cases she mediates include civil rights, discrimination, corporate and securities, antitrust, environmental, bankruptcy, copyright, and trademark. Before her appointment at the Seventh Circuit, Brittan was a Partner in the Trial Group at McDermott Will & Emery. She received her JD from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review, and President of the Law Women’s Caucus. Before law school, Brittan received a Master’s degree in English Literature from Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and was a President’s Fellow in the PhD program for two years following her Master’s degree. She received her BA with honors in English from Northwestern University. Brittan is currently a Director on the board of Columbia’s Alumni Association (CAA), and a former Chair of the Alumni Board of Directors of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She was Chair of CAA’s 2021 Alumni Leaders’ Weekend, and co-Chair of the 2020 Alumni Leaders’ Experience. She is one of the founding donors to the CAA Scholarship created in 2021, and she and her family endowed the GSAS Brittan Family Fellowship for graduate students whose work involves interdisciplinary study. Brittan is the 2017 recipient of Columbia’s Richard E. Witten Award for Volunteer Leadership. She is also a Senior Trustee at the Latin School of Chicago, and a member of the Steering Committee of University of Chicago Women’s Board.
Jeremy Dodd is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics, where he also serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies. His early career was in experimental particle physics research, focused primarily on various aspects of strongly interacting particle collisions, as a research scientist at Columbia University's Nevis Laboratories. Since joining the Physics faculty, he has taught many of the Department's undergraduate courses, and is responsible for all aspects of teaching in the Department. He is Director of the Columbia University Science Honors Program, a high-profile enrichment program serving talented high school students from the tri-state area with academic-year courses given by Columbia scientists and researchers.
Jeannie Lavine is the Co-Founder and Trustee of the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation, an organization established by her and her husband, Jonathan Lavine, which delivers financial resources to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations focused on leveling the playing field for individuals and families. Under their leadership, the foundation has supported a diverse array of causes including numerous initiatives at Columbia University designed to impact many aspects of student life, faculty support, research, and scholarship, and support of Columbia’s neighboring communities. Currently, the Lavines are chairing Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health centennial year celebrations.
Mrs. Lavine is a close partner to Mr. Lavine on his various leadership roles at Columbia and a proud parent of two Columbia alumnae, Allie Lavine ’16CC and Emily Lavine ’18CC, and a son-in-law, Nathan Rosin ’18CC. The Columbia community and her family’s transformational philanthropy have been inextricably linked for more than three decades. During that time, the Lavines have supported all 18 of Columbia’s schools. In addition to the family’s work with Columbia, Mrs. Lavine helped establish the Massachusetts chapter of Stand for Children, a nonprofit training and leadership organization that teaches citizens how to band together and become effective grassroots advocates for long-lasting improvements for children. She chairs the President’s Advisory Council for Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston and was a long-time Board member at Temple Isaiah in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Mrs. Lavine served as a Founding Member of The Better Angels Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating Americans about history through documentary film. The Lavines have sponsored six documentaries produced by Ken Burns including “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” “Ben Franklin,” and “Vietnam.” They worked with The Better Angels Society and Ken Burns to create the Annual Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, which recognizes filmmakers who use the documentary medium to tell stories about American history using original research and compelling narrative. In addition, the Lavines established The Better Angels Lavine Fellowship program designed to engage up-and-coming documentarians with a special emphasis on film projects telling the stories of America’s diversity. They also established the Lavine Family Documentary Fund at Columbia Journalism School.
Earlier in her career, Mrs. Lavine worked as a strategy consultant for The Monitor Group and Boston Consulting Group. She earned her degree in Economics from Harvard College, graduated magna cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Mrs. Lavine went on to Harvard Business School where she received her MBA with distinction.
Passionately committed to higher education, Mrs. Lavine is also an active member of the Harvard University community, serving as a member of the Dean’s Council of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and as a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors for Harvard Business School. She has been recognized for her service and philanthropy to Harvard College and Harvard Business School. She also previously served as Co-Chair of the Campaign for the Harvard School of Public Health.
Jeanine D’Armiento is Director of the Center for Molecular Pulmonary Disease in Anesthesiology and Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and Director of the Center for Lymphangiomyomatosis (LAM) and Rare Lung Disease. Dr. D’Armiento’s research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of lung injury and repair. Her laboratory integrates both in vitro and in vivo approaches and is uniquely situated to characterize the molecular changes in the study of lung injury and disease so as to identify potential therapeutic targets. Dr. D’Armiento’s clinical work focuses on Rare Disease, and she is Director of the Center for LAM and Rare Lung Diseases at Columbia University, which serves one of the largest populations of women with LAM in addition to patients with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin deficiency. She presently serves on the Executive Board of the Alpha-1 Foundation and as a Consultant to the Director of the Office of Rare Disease, NCATs. In addition, Dr. D’Armiento serves as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Columbia University Senate and Chairs the Commission on the Status of Women at the University.
Jean-Pierre Reichenbach ’70BUS earned his MBA from Columbia Business School in 1970, and his undergraduate degree in economics (econometrics) from the Faculté de Droit et Sciences Economiques de Paris in 1969. In his professional career, he served as Chief Financial Officer at Digital Equipment France, Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions at Alcatel, and Director of Mergers & Acquisitions at Nexans. After retiring in 2010, he spent five more years as a business consultant for Nexans, implementing Group Employee Share Offerings Plans in over 20 countries. During his 28-year career in the M&A field, Reichenbach closed about 150 deals involving approximately 500 companies or businesses located in 35 different countries. He traveled extensively in 50 countries. From 2001 to 2012, Reichenbach served in the Ambassador program of the Business School, interviewing candidates. In 2014, he was elected President of the Columbia University Club of France / CAA-France. Under his leadership, the CUCF received the CAA Regional Club Award of Excellence in 2016. He has extended his service to the University by serving on the Board of the CAA since 2017. In recognition of his contributions, he has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Columbia Global Centers I Paris. In line with the “One Columbia” approach of increasing relations across schools and generations, CAA-France contributes to the development of Columbia’s presence in France, with the Global Centers I Paris, the Institute for Ideas & Imagination and the Columbia Undergraduate Programs in Paris. Beyond Columbia, Reichenbach’s philanthropic interests include Art History and Baroque Music. With his wife, Solange, a former free-lance Conference Interpreter, they are the happy parents of three daughters and two grandchildren.
Professor Jean Howard’s teaching interests include Shakespeare, Tudor and Stuart drama, Early Modern poetry, modern drama, feminist and Marxist theory, and the history of feminism.
She was a 2020 recipient of the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. She has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Folger Shakespeare Library, The Huntington, and the Newberry Library.
Professor Howard is on the editorial board of the journals Shakespeare Studies and Renaissance Drama. Her books include Shakespeare's Art of Orchestration: Stage Technique and Audience Response (1984); The Stage and Struggle in Early Modern England (1994); Theater of a City: The Places of London Comedy, 1598-1642 (2007), winner of the 2008 Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History; and four generically organized Companions to Shakespeare, edited with Richard Dutton (2001). Howard is a co-editor of The Norton Shakespeare (3rd ed. 2015).
From 1996 to 1999 Professor Howard directed the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia; in 1999-2000 she was President of the Shakespeare Association of America; from 2004 to 2007 she served as Columbia's first Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives; and from 2008 to 2011 she was Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Currently, as a Trustee Emerita of Brown University, she is a member of the Brown University Advisory Council on Diversity and serves on the Pembroke Center Advisory Council; she is also a Senator of Phi Beta Kappa.
Dr. Jasmine McDonald is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. She received her Doctorate in 2009 from the Biological Sciences in Public Health Program at Harvard University, with a concentration in Immunology and Infectious Disease. She then pursued postdoctoral training in breast cancer epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. She is a multidisciplinary trained molecular epidemiologist whose research program provides unique perspectives and novel study designs to examine the complexities of breast cancer etiology and risk reduction across the life course. An avid teacher and mentor, Dr. McDonald teaches Cancer Epidemiology at MSPH, is the Assistant Director of Cancer Education at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC), and is the Co-Director of the Continuing Umbrella of Research Experience (CURE) Program at the HICCC. The CURE program serves high school and undergraduate students from underserved backgrounds and communities, and has hosted over 40 students since 2015.
Jane Waldfogel is the Compton Foundation Centennial Professor for the Prevention of Children’s and Youth Problems, Co-Director of the Columbia Population Research Center, and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics.
Waldfogel has written extensively on the impact of public policies on the wellbeing of children and families. Her most recent book, Too Many Children Left Behind: The U.S. Achievement Gap in Comparative Perspective (Russell Sage Foundation, 2015), assesses how social mobility varies in the United States compared with Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. She is the author of five other books, including most recently Britain’s War on Poverty (Russell Sage Foundation, 2010), Steady Gains and Stalled Progress: Inequality and the Black-White Test Score Gap (Russell Sage Foundation, 2008), and What Children Need (Harvard University Press, 2006). Waldfogel has served as President of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and is a corresponding fellow of the British Academy and a fellow at the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Waldfogel holds a BA in Psychology and Social Relations from Radcliffe College, an MEd from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a PhD in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
James Stewart Polshek’s distinguished career is in its sixth decade. As an architect, educator, and public advocate, he has created buildings whose designs exemplify elegance in problem-solving and spring from critical precepts of humanism. Having defined academic and practice models built on the values of collaboration and diversity, he has inspired generations of architecture students and professionals.
Polshek was Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation for fifteen years. Appointed by University President William McGill in 1972–a tumultuous period marked by the threat of nuclear weapons and the continuing Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the aftermath of the 1960s upheavals on college campuses, and the oil crisis–Polshek led the architecture school’s resurrection. He assembled an ideologically diverse faculty, with whom he developed a socially relevant curriculum, created degree-granting programs in planning and preservation, and established the interdisciplinary Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture. Polshek served as Special Adviser for Design and Planning to the University President, and in that capacity, he assured stewardship of the historic campus and had a critical role in reviewing designs for contemporary interventions.
In 1964, Polshek completed his first two major commissions for Teijin Institute in Tokyo, Japan. Upon his return to the United States, Polshek founded his own firm. Over the next several decades this firm evolved into Polshek Partnership winning the American Institute of Architects’ Firm Award in 1992. In concert with his office, Polshek completed numerous projects of international significance, including: Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History, New York; Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, New Mexico; the restoration and expansion of Carnegie Hall, New York; the renovation and expansion of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock, Arkansas; and the National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Emblematic of his belief in the power of design to shape the public realm and by extension to improve public life are activities complementary to professional practice. In 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Polshek to the New York City Public Design Commission, the body charged with ensuring excellence and innovation in designs for city-owned properties. In 2005, Polshek became the interpretive consultant for the realization of Louis I. Kahn’s 1973 design for Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island. In 1981, he co-founded Architects / Designers / Planners for Social Responsibility; in 1993, the non-profit received a national award from the American Institute of Architects for “its strong resounding voice for social and political justice.”
In 2018, Polshek received the American Institute of Architects’ highest honor, the Gold Medal, and a year later, he received the Fulbright Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Polshek published two books on his work, Context and Responsibility (Rizzoli, 1988) and Build, Memory (Monacelli Press, 2014).
Polshek has received many honors, including the Municipal Art Society’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal, the Brooklyn Museum's Augustus Graham Medal for excellence in architecture, election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the William Bernoudy Residency in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome. He has been awarded honorary degrees from Pratt Institute, Parsons, the New School for Design, and New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Polshek is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and holds an MArch from Yale University and a BS from Case Western Reserve University.
James A. Lipton ’71DM, ’80GSAS graduated from the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (CDM), after which he enrolled in Columbia’s Sociomedical Sciences program, receiving a PhD. Both programs motivated him to develop a lifelong passion for helping underserved populations receive comprehensive health care, and to mentor young health professionals and researchers in their career development. He joined the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps and served from 1976 to 2006. He started as the Regional Director for the National Health Service Corps in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. In that role, he coordinated placing health providers in federal centers located in areas where the population was underserved. Lipton was then selected to be Chief Dental Officer for all federal health centers in the United States. His next assignment was at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, a component of the NIH, where he served as director of Research Training and Career Development programs that were located throughout the United States.
Since retiring, Lipton has been an active participant in Columbia CDM activities. After graduation, he was a part-time faculty member, helping to care for people with medically unexplained facial pain conditions. He has been a member of CDM’s Board of Advisors for the past fifteen years and is a co-leader of its executive committee. He has helped coordinate several alumni reunions. In addition, he has personally funded over twenty research fellowships for students from CDM and the Columbia School of Social Work to investigate socio-behavioral aspects of oral health care. He also has mentored several CDM students interested in a research career. These activities illustrate Lipton’s belief in the Greek proverb, “A society grows great” when its people “plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” He hopes that the fruits of his efforts will help create social and professional leaders who will have a valuable impact on the wellness and welfare of our society. Lipton has been married for over forty-five years to Jill, a well-respected clinical social worker. She has provided much support and encouragement for his ideas and pursuits and has taught him the art of listening, compassion, and thoughtfulness.
Jamal Joseph is a writer, director, and Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University School of the Arts in the Film Department.
Professor Joseph has written and directed for Black Starz, HBO, Fox TV, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., and A&E. His produced screenplays include Ali: An American Hero (Fox), New York Undercover (Fox), Knights of the South Bronx (A&E), and The Many Trials of Tammy B (Nickelodeon). He wrote and directed Drive By: A Love Story, Da Zone, and the docudrama Hughes’ Dream Harlem for Starz. Professor Joseph is currently co-executive producing and writing a dramatic musical for BET. He is also adapting his memoir, Panther Baby (Algonquin Books), into a feature screenplay that he will direct.
Professor Joseph is the author of Tupac Shakur Legacy (Simon & Schuster). He has also written the script for a Broadway musical based on the life of Tupac Shakur. Joseph is the Founder and Artistic Director of IMPACT Repertory Theatre, a Harlem-based youth theatre company, and Executive Director of New Heritage Films, a not-for-profit organization that provides training and opportunities for minority filmmakers.
Hon. Rolando T. Acosta ’79CC, ’82LAW is the Presiding Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department. Prior to joining the bench, Acosta held various posts with the Legal Aid Society, including Attorney-in-Charge of the largest civil trial office, and with the New York City Commission on Human Rights. A proud graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School, Justice Acosta is the recipient of Columbia University’s Medal for Excellence and Columbia Law School’s Lawrence A. Wien Prize for Social Responsibility. In 2008, he was inducted into the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame, having earned four straight All-Eastern League (and All-Ivy League) honors and being twice named Pitcher of the Year in leading the Lions to two Ivy League championships. Over forty years after graduating from Columbia College, Acosta still holds Columbia records for career and season victories. He has served on the Columbia Board of Trustees since 2011, where he Chairs the Public Affairs Committee and oversees Athletics. Acosta also serves on the Board of the Columbia Alumni Association, is a member of the Dean’s Council of Columbia Law School, and was the keynote speaker at Columbia College’s 2020 Class Day. Justice Acosta is husband to Dr. Vasthi Reyes Acosta (’94, ’95TC) and father to Lucas Acosta and Zila Acosta-Grimes (’11CC, ’15LAW). Zila and her husband, Brian K. Grimes, Jr. (’11CC), are parents to Brian K. Grimes III and Tomás B. Grimes, prospective students for the Columbia College classes of 2041 and 2043, respectively.
Hillary Rodham Clinton has spent four decades in public service as an advocate, attorney, First Lady, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State, and presidential candidate. After graduating from Wellesley College and Yale Law School, she began her life-long work on behalf of children and families by joining the Children’s Defense Fund. As First Lady of the United States, she championed healthcare reform and led successful bipartisan efforts to improve the adoption and foster care systems, reduce teen pregnancy, and create the Children's Health Insurance Program. As Senator from New York, she worked to expand economic opportunity and access to quality, affordable health care. After September 11, 2001, she helped to rebuild New York and provide health care for first responders.
As Secretary of State, she led the effort to restore America’s leadership in the world. She negotiated a cease-fire in Gaza that defended Israel’s security and headed off-war in the Middle East. Furthermore, she mobilized an international coalition to impose sanctions against Iran, and championed human rights.
In 2016, Clinton became the first woman nominated for U.S. president by a major U.S. political party. As the Democratic candidate, she campaigned for a vision of America that is “stronger together” and an agenda to make our economy work for everyone, earning the support of nearly 66 million Americans.
Henry Hess, received his PhD in Physics from the Free University Berlin (Germany) in 1999. After appointments as a Postdoctoral Scientist and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington, he joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida in 2005 as Assistant Professor. Since 2009, he has been teaching and researching in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia. Professor Hess also served as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience from 2014 to 2019. His primary research interest is nanobiotechnology, in particular, hybrid nanodevices and materials merging biological and synthetic building blocks. He explores creative approaches to the design of such devices drawing from chemistry, biotechnology, microfabrication, biology, and engineering.
Professor Geraldine Downey's main interest is the study of personal and status-based rejection. In her current work, she is exploring people's expectations of rejection and their impact on the perception of other people's behavior, in anticipation of and following social encounters.
Her work has focused on the personality disposition of rejection sensitivity and on its association with responses to rejection as well as efforts made to prevent it. This line of work has led her to study sensitivity to rejection based on personal, unique characteristics, as well as sensitivity to rejection based on group characteristics such as race and gender. She has sought to investigate the effect of rejection sensitivity on people's behavior by utilizing various techniques including established social cognition paradigms, experimental studies, physiological recordings, brain-imaging, and diary studies.
Recently, Professor Downey has been using the knowledge acquired from her research on rejection to develop models of personality and attachment disorders. She has also been interested in the study of identity, specifically on the way in which individuals strategically use their multiple social identities to cope with daily stressors.
Frank Guridy is the Dr. Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies. He is also Professor of History and the Executive Director of the Eric H. Holder Initiative for Civil and Political Rights at Columbia. His research focuses on sport history, urban history, and the history of American social movements. His latest book, The Sports Revolution: How Texas Changed the Culture of American Athletics (University of Texas Press, 2021) explored how Texas-based sports entrepreneurs and athletes from marginalized backgrounds transformed American sporting culture during the 1960s and 1970s, the highpoint of the Black Freedom and Second-Wave feminist movements. His first book, Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and African Americans in a World of Empire and Jim Crow (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), won the Elsa Goveia Book Prize from the Association of Caribbean Historians and the Wesley-Logan Book Prize, conferred by the American Historical Association. He is also an award-winning teacher, receiving the Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching at Columbia in 2019. His current book project, Palaces of Pleasure, Arenas of Protest: How the Stadium Reshaped American Life under contract with Basic Books, is a history of the American stadium as a community institution that illustrates the central role it has played in American civic and political life.
Francine Glick ’77BC has been engaged with Columbia since her days as a student, as a Director of the Columbia Board of Managers as well as a DJ at WKCR. She is the founding partner of Echo Strategic Consultants, a full-service consulting firm, advising entrepreneurs and midrange businesses. Echo takes a whole company approach to solving problems. She is also CEO of Water Journey, a personal care products company and holds two patents for Hands2GO, an alcohol-free hand sanitizer. Glick has been enthusiastically involved with the university for many years. She is her class President and its class agent. She was previously VP of the Alumni Association of Barnard College, and she has chaired the Nominating Committee, the Awards Committee, the Professional and Leadership Development Committee, and has been a member of the Leadership, Reunion, and Fellowship committees. Glick was a member of the Columbia Alumni Leaders Weekend Steering Committee and currently is Co-Chair of the Alumni Leadership group, responsible for She Opened the Door programming. Glick recently developed and presented a workshop for the Barnard Entrepreneurs Network (BEnet) to assist entrepreneurs and division heads who are stuck or need to pivot. Glick lives with her husband in Morningside Heights, and they have two daughters and four grandchildren.
Eric H. Holder, Jr. ’73CC, ’76LAW is Senior Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. He rejoined the firm after serving for six years as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States. Before his service as Attorney General, Holder maintained a wide-ranging investigations and litigation practice at Covington. Among numerous significant engagements, he led the firm’s representation of a major multi-national agricultural company in related civil, criminal, and investigative matters; acted as counsel to a special investigative committee of the board of directors of a Fortune 50 technology company; successfully tried a complex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of a leading financial services company; and represented several life sciences companies in litigation and investigations.
Holder served as Attorney General from February 2009 to April 2015. As the third longest-serving Attorney General in U.S. history and the first African American to hold that office, Holder is an internationally recognized leader across a broad range of regulatory enforcement, criminal justice, and national security issues. In 2014, Time magazine named Holder to its list of 100 Most Influential People, noting that he had, “worked tirelessly to ensure equal justice.” Including his tenure as Attorney General, Holder has served in government for more than thirty years, having been appointed to various positions requiring U.S. Senate confirmation by Presidents Obama, Clinton, and Reagan.
Amidst all this, Holder served Columbia University in many areas, including as a University Trustee (2007–2009), and he was a 1996 recipient of the College’s John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement and a 2015 recipient of the Alexander Hamilton Medal, the College’s highest honor. Holder was a featured speaker at many events including the Columbia College Class Day keynote speaker in 2009, a Dean’s Day speaker in 2013, and the Law School’s graduation speaker in 2010 and 2016. A member of the Columbia College Board of Visitors and Columbia Law School Board of Visitors, he received the Law School’s Medal for Excellence in 2010. He has served in leadership positions for decades, including his active involvement in the Holder Initiative since its founding in 2015. The Holder Initiative builds upon Holder’s legacy of social justice by hosting an array of public programs, including seminars, conferences, and symposia that bring together experts in academia, business, law, and public policy.
Diane McKoy ’00TC, ’02TC, recently retired as Senior Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Columbia College and The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. After 42 years of service, she continues to work as an adjunct. McKoy received a BA from Yale University and MA and MEd from Teachers College. She is very interested in issues of access for underrepresented students and has long been an advocate and activist for providing access to students that transcend socioeconomic, racial, and gender lines. She has been involved in many facets of undergraduate life but is known for her work with under-resourced students and assisting them in navigating the intricacies of Columbia and preparing them for life after. She was the recipient of the Black Alumni Council Heritage Award in 2018 for her efforts. Her Columbia contributions include serving on the Coeducation Committee for Columbia College, spearheading the Alumni Recruitment Committee at Columbia College, and serving as the first Coordinator of Multicultural Recruitment. McKoy co-founded a college preparatory program in Hamilton Heights and has worked with the A Better Chance program that is part of the Wadleigh High School in Harlem; she is a proud graduate of the program. Her work extends nationally and internationally. She served on the editorial board of the Journal of College Admission, published by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. She served as liaison for Africa for the Department of State/College Board program in the Office of Overseas Schools; she traveled extensively internationally to extol the virtues of higher education in the United States.
Devon M. Rupley, MD is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital. She received her BS in Government from Cornell University and her MD from the University of Michigan, completing her OB/GYN residency at Columbia University Medical Center. Prior to receiving her MD, she worked abroad in Ghana on maternal and child health issues.
Dr. Rupley focuses on caring for patients with limited access to care and a history of trauma. She is the clinical lead for the EMBRACE program, which creates communities of support for obstetric patients. In 2020, she received the Vanneck Bailey Award.
At the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Rupley centers her educational efforts on learner transitions, serving as a Foundations of Clinical Medicine Preceptor and as Co-Director of the Ready for Major Clinical Year course, which prepares medical students for the transition from classroom to bedside. Dr. Rupley also serves as Director of Resident OB/GYN education at the Allen Hospital.
Denise Cruz is an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature. She is a scholar of gender and sexuality, with special interests in the Philippines and Asian American literature. Her work covers a range of subjects, from connections between the rise of English literature and women’s suffrage in Manila, to the vibrant world of Filipino high fashion, to the strategies Asian American authors use to represent regional, national, and transnational communities. She is the recipient of the Ford Foundation predoctoral, dissertation, and postdoctoral fellowships, teaching awards from the University of Toronto and Indiana University, the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award, and most recently, an Innovative Course Design grant from the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation for the online redesign of her large lecture course in Asian American literature. Her courses consider how the study of literature—as a collective and community-building endeavor—can engage a global and transnational world.
Darren Walker is president of the Ford Foundation, a $16 billion international social justice philanthropy. Under his leadership, the Ford Foundation became the first non-profit in US history to issue a $1 billion designated social bond to stabilize non-profit organizations in the wake of COVID-19.
Before joining Ford, Walker was vice president at the Rockefeller Foundation, overseeing global and domestic programs. In the 1990s, he was COO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, Harlem’s largest community development organization.
Walker co-founded both the US Impact Investing Alliance and the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. He serves on many boards, including the National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Hall, the High Line, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Committee to Protect Journalists, Ralph Lauren, Bloomberg Inc. and PepsiCo.
Educated exclusively in public schools, Darren was a member of the first Head Start class in 1965 and received BA, BS, and JD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been included on numerous leadership lists including Time’s annual 100 Most Influential People, Rolling Stone’s 25 People Shaping the Future, and the Wall Street Journal 2020 Philanthropy Innovator of the Year. He is the recipient of 16 honorary degrees as well as Harvard University’s
W.E.B. Du Bois Medal. In 2022, he was awarded France’s highest cultural honor, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, for leadership in the arts. In 2023, he was also appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to the Order of the British Empire for services to UK/US relations.
Daniella Cádiz Bedini is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. She holds a Latin American Regional Certificate from the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) and her dissertation examines transnational literary relations in the Americas in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her research focuses on writing published in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and the United States, and examines translation and adaptation as practices in the establishment of literary print networks.
Cynthia S. Stuen is the Main Representative to the United Nations on behalf of the International Federation on Ageing. She is currently the Chair of the NGO Committee on Ageing at the UN. Stuen’s entire professional career has been devoted to improving the lives of older persons on local, national, and international levels. Stuen served in various capacities at Lighthouse International during her 24-year tenure. Her last position was Senior Vice President, Chief Professional Affairs Officer, which involved advocating for vision rehabilitation for older adults with vision loss at the national and international level, while also maintaining involvement in international efforts to preserve sight and prevent excess disability resulting from vision impairment. She is a former Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Society on Aging (ASA), the largest organization of professionals in the field of aging in the United States. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the New York Academy of Medicine. Stuen has chaired the National Association for Social Worker’s Aging Specialty Practice Section and helped to develop practice guidelines for caregivers of older adults for the professional association. Since 2012, Stuen has been a member of the Columbia University Alumni Trustee Nominating Committee. She has served on the School of Social Work’s Alumni Doctoral Committee since 1987. She was an adjunct faculty member at the School and a field instructor for many years. While a doctoral student, she launched a Retired Faculty Program through the Brookdale Institute on Ageing, linking retired faculty to give back to impoverished communities. Currently, she serves as a Vice President of the Board of Directors of VISIONS Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired and as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Federation on Ageing.
Cristiane Duarte is a Professor in the Columbia University Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Duarte's research is based on innovative population-based studies about the development of mental disorders in children, adolescents, and young adults. Through state-of-the art sampling, recruitment, and culturally appropriate assessment methodologies, she has sought to generate knowledge of relevance to diverse, often underserved and understudied populations. Currently, she is a leader of the Boricua Youth Study, the only multinational source of information about how mental disorders develop from childhood to young adulthood in a Latino subgroup.
Dr. Duarte's work has received support from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. She is also a key member in several international global mental health collaborations focused on improving child mental health services and implementing interventions in low-resource settings. She has published several articles in psychiatric, psychological, public health, and pediatric journals.
Courtney D. Cogburn employs a transdisciplinary research strategy to improve the characterization and measurement of racism and to examine the role of racism in the production of racial inequities in health. She is also conducting research exploring the use of emerging technologies, including computational social science to examine patterns and psychosocial effects of cultural racism, and how virtual reality experiences can lead to changes in attitudes, social perception, and engagement (empathy, racial bias, structural competence, and behavior). Professor Cogburn is the lead creator of 1000 Cut Journey, an immersive virtual reality racism experience that was developed in collaboration with the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018. She is on the faculty of the Columbia Population Research Center and a core member of the Data Science Institute where she also co-chairs the Computational Social Science working group. Professor Cogburn is also a faculty affiliate of the Center on African American Politics and Society. She directs the Cogburn Research Group and co-directs the Justice Equity + Tech (JE+T) Laboratory at Columbia University. Professor Cogburn completed postdoctoral training at Harvard University in the Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar Program and at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. She received her PhD in Education and Psychology, MSW from the University of Michigan, and BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia. She is also a board member of the International Center Advocates Against Discrimination.
Courtney Cesari ’04CC earned her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College, majoring in Psychology and concentrating in Art History. Several years later, she earned both an MBA and Masters of General Management from the Stockholm School of Economics. While living and working in Stockholm she first got involved with the Columbia Alumni Association, as co-founder of the CAA Sweden regional Club, an ARC member conducting interviews abroad, and as a CCW mentor.
She later relocated to the Netherlands where she assisted with their chapter of the Columbia Club. After moving again to London and finding their regional Club defunct, she was recruited as Co-VP. With the help of the new Board, she happily worked to bring the Club back to life. After almost two years as VP, she was elected as president, and under her leadership the Columbia Club of London was awarded the International Club of Distinction in 2022. She participated on the Leaders Experience subcommittee before serving as co-chair in 2022 (the first year back on campus after the pandemic) and then chair in 2023, the first LE under President Shafik’s leadership. She has been a CAA Board member since 2020. Her strategic marketing career has spanned multiple countries and industries.
She currently serves as the Marketing Director at Everybody Agency, in addition to her work as a consultant on sustainable marketing, public speaking, and chairing events. She was recently certified by the Cambridge Institute of Sustainable Leadership in sustainable marketing, media, and creative. Cesari lives in London with her partner Gian Marco and their son, Leonardo.
Connor Martini is a PhD Candidate in Religion at Columbia University. Martini received his BA in Religion from Vassar College in 2014. After three years working for a nonprofit women’s college in Rwanda, Martini joined Columbia University in 2017, earning his MA in 2019 and MPhil in 2021. His dissertation, “The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Presence and Wonder and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” is an ethnographic study of the astronomers and astrobiologists looking for life in the galaxy. Martini aims to demonstrate how this scientific project, defined by the relationships forged between practitioners and the yet-unseen presences for whom they search, can be more fully understood through the tools and rubrics of religious studies. He has also made pedagogical training in tools and strategies for inclusive teaching a priority during his graduate studies. Over his nine teaching appointments, Martini has endeavored to create a classroom environment in which all students feel comfortable, supported, and capable.
Clifford Stein is the Wai T. Chang Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Professor of Computer Science, and Interim Director of the Data Science Institute. He conducts research in the design and analysis of algorithms and in combinatorial optimization. He is particularly interested in the design of algorithms for hard-to-solve problems, arising in areas such as machine learning, large-scale computing and scheduling, and in designing efficient algorithms for manipulating large data.
Stein designs algorithms for a variety of applications ranging from scheduling problems that arise in computer systems to problems that arise in industrial manufacturing facilities to logistics problems such as the management of elevators. He is also the co-author of the popular textbook, Introduction to Algorithms, which has sold over one million copies worldwide. He is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), was chair of the Steering Committee for the Annual Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, and has received an NSF Career Award and an Alfred Sloan Research Fellowship.
Stein received his PhD in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his BSE in computer science from Princeton University.
Christopher Medina-Kirchner is not your traditional Ivy League student. At 18 years old, he received a six-year prison sentence for selling 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Upon release from prison, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. There, he joined Dr. Krista Lisdahl’s Brain Imaging and Neuropsychology Laboratory and began to study the behavioral and pharmacological effects of recreational drugs. After reading High Price by Dr. Carl L. Hart, Chris became interested in human drug administration studies and how they can be used as a tool to prevent the spread of drug-related misinformation. As a Ph.D. student in the Psychology Department, he has been working under the mentorship of Dr. Hart in the Neuropsychopharmacology Laboratory. Here, he is researching the acute, repeated-dose, and residual effects of recreational drug combinations in humans. He hopes to use the information gained from his studies to ensure that our drug education, treatment, and policies are based on science and not misinformation.
Christopher Hwu is currently a graduate research assistant and PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry. His medicinal chemistry research interests encompass the development of both monoaminergic substrates and inhibitors. The former goal focuses on the characterization of novel fluorescent false neurotransmitters (FFNs) that optically trace the uptake, packaging (in vesicles), and release of neurotransmitters from individual monoaminergic neurons. The latter objective is pharmacologically focused on the development of novel (and safe) small molecule derivatives based on naturally occurring substances that serve as selective monoaminergic inhibitors and most importantly, are useful as potential therapeutics for substance use and psychiatric disorders.
Christine P. Hendon develops biomedical optics technologies for biomedicine to guide interventional procedures and to provide insights into the structure-function relationship of biological normal, diseased, and treated tissues. She has worked on developing next-generation optical coherence tomography systems and integrated therapeutic catheters with near infrared spectroscopy, along with real-time processing algorithms to extract physiological information. Hendon collaborates extensively with investigators from the Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her group has developed integrative optics and therapeutic probes for improving the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias.
Chas Firestone East is an interdisciplinary scholar and teacher who writes on the intersection of philosophy and poetry in the Middle Ages. His doctoral dissertation examines Dante’s philosophy of identity by utilizing the author’s strong foundations in hylomorphic thought to confront several puzzles about the maintenance of identity from the beginning to end of human life (and beyond). East has held multiple fellowships with the Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, including as a Teaching Consultant and a Senior Teaching Observation Fellow, and with the Office of Academic Affairs as an Academic Administration Fellow. Dedicated to bringing the canon to life in new ways in the classroom through inclusive teaching and active learning, his favorite teaching experience at Columbia has been as a TA and discussion section leader for Dante’s Divina Commedia.
Casey Nelson Blake works on modern U.S. intellectual and cultural history, with an emphasis on the relationship between artistic modernism, cultural criticism, and democratic citizenship. His publications include Beloved Community: The Cultural Criticism of Randolph Bourne, Van Wyck Brooks, Waldo Frank, and Lewis Mumford; The Arts of Democracy: Art, Public Culture, and the State; The Armory Show at 100: Modernism and Revolution (co-edited with Kimberly Orcutt and Marilyn Kushner); and At the Center: American Thought and Culture in the Mid-Twentieth Century (co-authored with Daniel Borus and Howard Brick). He is currently at work on a cultural biography of the writer and critic Paul Goodman.
Professor Blake came to Columbia in 1999 as Founding Director of the Center for American Studies after directing American Studies programs at Indiana University and Washington University, and teaching at Reed College. While at Columbia, Professor Blake has overseen the development of a civic engagement initiative within the Center, including the “Freedom and Citizenship” program that provides humanities education and college mentoring to underserved high school students.
Carol Loewenson ’76BC, ’79MArch, is a partner at Mitchell Giurgola Architects in New York City. She received her Bachelor's degree from Barnard College in 1976 and a Master of Architecture degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) in 1979. She served as a member of the Columbia University Alumni Trustee Nominating Committee and recently was a member of the Columbia Presidential Search Alumni Advisory Committee. Loewenson also served on the GSAPP Alumni Council and currently serves on the GSAPP Dean's Advisory Council. She became a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2013 and was President of the New York AIA in 2016. She was awarded the New York State AIA President’s Medal in 2019 and currently serves on the Boards of the Center for Architecture and New Yorkers for Parks. Her recent work includes projects for the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, The City University of New York, Cornell University, New York University, Manhattan College, the University of Pennsylvania, and Barnard. These recent projects have been selected for more than a dozen awards for design and sustainability. Her husband, Andrew Levander, is a 1977 graduate of Columbia Law School. Her two sons attended the Barnard College Toddler Center and are today both lawyers, one a 2014 graduate of Columbia Law School and the other a 2018 graduate of Yale Law School.
Carlos V. Cruz ’88CC, earned his BA in Economics. Raised at the Marcy Avenue projects in Brooklyn and in South Texas by immigrants from Panama and Mexico, Cruz learned the beauty of bringing diverse people together and the power of community, an outlook that he put into practice in his vast extracurricular involvement at Columbia. As multi-year President of Columbia Pride and Development and Communications Chair of the Latino Alumni Association of Columbia University (LAACU), sometimes simultaneously with his Pride Board service, he takes great pleasure in helping amplify and support the LAACU and Pride Scholarships at Columbia College, the David Roye, MD, Pride Visiting Medical Student Scholarship at Columbia Orthopedics, and the Alumbra Scholarship at The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). The Pride Scholarship surpassed its fundraising goal in first year and more than doubled the total dollar amount of gifts in its second year. The Alumbra Scholarship at SEAS received over $90,000 in donations during its first year. Moreover, serving as a 1754 Society ambassador, Cruz hopes to teach Columbians on the many ways to leave a legacy at Alma Mater. Cruz continues to be inspired by the ideas, accomplishments, and character of his alumni friends, knowing what a resource they can be for each other. He created and partnered with other Columbia groups to program numerous in-person and online events during the pandemic, including alumni book releases, a virtual wine tasting, restoring a Columbia tradition, the Pride Dance at Earl Hall, and get-togethers in Los Angeles and London. With his work on social media, Columbia Pride now has over 1,000 followers on Instagram. One of Cruz's greatest joys in volunteering is guiding students at the Center for Career Education and the Odyssey Mentoring Program. Following his work, right after graduation, with Columbia Undergraduate Admissions, Cruz embarked on a career in supply chain, product development, sourcing, and merchandising where he has risen to positions of leadership at Gap, Inc. and Target, helped structure startups, and consulted.
Carla D. Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library, was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama on February 24, 2016, and her nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 13, 2016.
Prior to her latest post she served, since 1993, as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. Hayden was nominated by President Obama to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board in January 2010 and was confirmed to that post by the Senate in June 2010. Prior to joining the Pratt Library, Hayden was deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1991 to 1993. She was an assistant professor for Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1987 to 1991. Hayden was library services coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago from 1982 to 1987. She began her career with the Chicago Public Library as the young adult services coordinator from 1979 to 1982 and as a library associate and children’s librarian from 1973 to 1979.
Hayden was President of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004. In 1995, she was the first African American to receive Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award in recognition of her outreach services at the Pratt Library, which included an after-school center for Baltimore teens offering homework assistance and college and career counseling. Hayden received a BA from Roosevelt University and an MA and PhD from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago
Bob Woodward has been an associate editor of The Washington Post for 52 years. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, first in 1973 for the coverage of the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, and second in 2002 as the lead reporter for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
He has authored or coauthored 21 books, all national bestsellers. Fifteen were #1 New York Times bestsellers, including his last three books on the Trump presidency: Fear (2018), Rage (2020) and Peril (2021). Woodward recently released The Trump Tapes, an audiobook bestseller of his 20 historic interviews with President Donald Trump.
Robert Gates, former director of the CIA and Secretary of Defense, said of Woodward, “He has extraordinary ability to get otherwise responsible adults to spill [their] guts to him…his ability to get people to talk about stuff they shouldn’t be talking about is just extraordinary and may be unique.”
John Harris of Politico wrote, “Over nearly a half-century, no other person—including people wielding official power as legislators or prosecutors—has done as much to illuminate the modern presidency and help shape understanding of the nine people to hold the office during his career as Woodward, wielding only a journalist’s unofficial powers of curiosity, notepad, and recorder.”
Bob Schieffer of CBS News has said, “Woodward has established himself as the best reporter of our time. He may be the best reporter of all time.”
Barney S. Graham is an immunologist, virologist, and clinical trials physician with an extensive background in basic and translational research applied to vaccine development. He obtained an undergraduate degree from Rice University, a medical degree from the University of Kansas, and completed internal medicine residency, chief residencies, ID fellowship, and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University, where he was an R01-funded investigator before joining the NIAID Vaccine Research Center at NIH as a founding member in 2000. He retired as Deputy Director of the VRC in 2021 and is now an independent consultant and Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Biochemistry, & Immunology and Director of the David Satcher Global Health Equity Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Graham is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has received numerous awards including the Robert M. Chanock Award for lifetime contributions to RSV research, the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award for contributions to vaccinology, the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the National Academy of Sciences John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science, the Charles Mérieux Award for Achievement in Vaccinology and Immunology and the Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, the New York Academy of Medicine John Stearns Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Clinical Practice, and the IVI-SK Bioscience Park MahnHoon Award. Graham was also a recipient of the Patents for Humanity Award from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for US Patent No: 10,960,070 B2 Graham et al. “Prefusion Coronavirus Spike Proteins and Their Use”. He was named one of the world’s 100 most influential individuals and one of the Heroes of the Year in 2021 by Time magazine and recognized as the Federal Employee of the Year by the Partnership for Public Service.
He is an author on more than 500 scientific publications, and a thought leader on emerging viral diseases and pandemic preparedness. He is best known for his research on RSV pathogenesis, structure-based vaccine design, application of mRNA delivery technology, and rapid COVID-19 vaccine development. He was involved in the advanced evaluation of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for HIV, Ebola, and Chikungunya, and has developed novel vaccines for RSV, influenza, Zika, paramyxoviruses, and coronaviruses. He is an inventor on vaccines and monoclonal antibodies approved for human use for the prevention or treatment of RSV, COVID-19, and Ebola.
Ariel Milo '03GS is Head of Global Capital Markets at Azrieli Group, an International publicly traded real estate and datacenter company. He oversees the company’s US real estate portfolio and its activity with global institutional private-markets investors. Prior to that, Milo was a managing director at CIM Group, a U.S. firm specializing in real estate and infrastructure investments. He started his post-MBA career at Credit Suisse, as a member of the Real Estate Finance and Alternative Investments groups.
Originally from Israel, when he looked into enrolling in college in the U.S. after completing a four-year service as an Officer in the Israel Defense Forces, he found Columbia and was referred to the School of General Studies. While a student at GS, he worked full-time at the Israeli embassy to the UN, where he met his wife, Keren, whom he encouraged to also apply to GS. She was accepted, and they went on to graduate together in 2003.
After Columbia, he enrolled in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Real Estate. Milo served for two terms on Columbia’s Alumni Trustee Nominating Committee and was its chairman for the 2018-2020 term. He has served on the School of General Studies Board of Visitors since 2018. Milo and his wife, Professor Keren Yarhi-Milo, who is the Dean of Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, reside on the Upper West Side with their two children.
Ann F. Kaplan ’72SW, ’77BUS is a graduate of the Columbia School of Social Work and Columbia Business School. She is a Columbia University Trustee Emerita and, as the Chair of the Committee on Global Initiatives and Co-Chair of the Global Leadership Concil, had the pleasure of supporting the establishment of the network of Columbia Global Centers. She also served on the board of the Columbia University Investment Management Company and, as Vice Chair of the Finance Committee, chaired the Committee on Social Responsibility. Kaplan is currently a member of the Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School where she serves on the Governance and Nominating Committee, is a Founding member of the Women’s Circle, has supported the Manhattanville Campus, and has endowed a chair. She also serves on the Board of Advisors at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the Mailman School of Public Health, and the Beijing and Amman Global Centers. Kaplan is the Chair of the Women Creating Change Leadership Board, which supports a Columbia grant giving program for interdisciplinary work on issues that affect women. She also taught asset management at Columbia Business School from 2004 to 2014. She supports projects at The Global Centers, the Medical Center, and the Center for Chronic Grief.
Anette Wu (Fortgang), MD, PhD, ’08MPH is an Associate Professor of Medical Sciences and Pathology and Cell Biology at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. She is a member of the teaching faculty, and the founder/director of the “Columbia International Collaboration and Exchange Program — Preparing Global Leaders for Healthcare (ICEP)” — an international multi-school consortium preparing health professions students for healthcare leadership through international collaboration, cultural competency, and global health training. Wu’s research focuses on internationalization of medical education. She received her MD and PhD from Hannover Medical School in Hannover, Germany. She trained in General and Transplantation Surgery at Hannover Medical School, and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She received her MPH from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH). At MSPH she was past president of the Alumni Association and continues to serve on the Board of Directors, where she also chaired the Special Events Committee. At the CAA, Wu served two terms as a Board member, chaired the Special Events Committee, was a member of the Steering Committee for the Columbia Leaders Experience, and serves on the Programs Committee. Wu served as a Board member of the Asian Columbia Alumni Association (ACAA) and a member of the ACAA membership committee. Over the years she has attended, spoken at, and moderated multiple CAA, MSPH, and ACAA alumni events. Wu’s biggest satisfaction is seeing Columbia students thrive and become leaders in the healthcare field. She is married to a fellow Columbian.
Ana DiGiovanni is a 4th year PhD student in the Department of Psychology, working under the guidance of Dr. Niall Bolger. As the co-founder of the Summer Internship Program in Psychological Science (SIPPS) and the co-creator and instructor of The How-Tos of Research, DiGiovanni seeks to make difficult concepts within psychology and statistics accessible to students from a range of backgrounds, while equipping them with hands-on skills that are useful in a multitude of settings. Her pedagogy focuses on removing obstacles from students’ learning and teaching with flexibility. In the classroom, this looks like deemphasizing correctness and punitive grading, using scaffolded assignments to break down difficult concepts, and always encouraging students to bring their whole identities into learning spaces. Her research focuses on how individuals rely on others during stressful times, and much of this has informed her pedagogical approach that emphasizes the dyadic nature of teaching.
Alexander A. Ned ’87EN, ’90EN is Senior Executive Vice President of Sensor Operations at Kulite Semiconductor Products, a leader in pressure transducer manufacturing. Ned earned his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. Later he earned an MBA in Management and Operations from New York University Stern School of Business in 1998. His long-standing relationship with Columbia began right after graduation and led to his active participation in the Alumni Representative Committee (ARC) and his appointment to the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association (CEAA) Board. During his time on the CEAA, Ned served as Vice President of the Alumni Relations Committee, as Chair of the CEAA Nominating Committee, as a member of the Samuel Johnson Award Committee, and, more recently, as President of the CEAA, where he worked closely with the School to build a strong relationship between the CEAA and the University, and to align the goals and mission of the CEAA with the School. Ned served as a Director on the Society of Columbia Graduates Board, where he co-chaired the Great Teacher Award Selection Committee. He collaborated with Columbia Engineering on various research and development projects over the last 35 years, and has participated in University events as a panelist, mentored Columbia students, and participated in a plethora, of Columbia functions. Ned currently serves on the prestigious Egleston Medal Award Committee, as Chair of the CEAA Nominating Committee, and is in his first term as Columbia Engineering representative on the Alumni Trustee Nominating Committee (ATNC). Professionally, he oversees all of the semiconductor processing, sensor design and fabrication at Kulite. Ned and Kulite continue to collaborate with Columbia Engineering on various projects. He has published over 45 technical papers and holds over 77 patents in the area of semiconductor sensors and devices.
Albert Berger ’83SOA is a film and television producer living in Los Angeles. He received his MFA in film from the School of the Arts in 1983. He has served on the Columbia School of the Arts Dean's Council. Berger also worked closely with the School to found The Film Advisory Board, an alumni group of Columbia graduates who forged an initiative to create a network and identity for filmmakers who studied at Columbia. This committee instituted a mentorship program, pairing a mentor with each graduating student as well as offering master classes and developing programs and activities to help recent graduates onboard into the industry.
Berger formed Bona Fide Productions with his producing partner, Ron Yerxa, in 1992. Their credits include King of the Hill, Election, Cold Mountain, Little Children, Peanut Butter Falcon, and Best Picture Academy Award Nominees Little Miss Sunshine and Nebraska. They also executive produced the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart and the Levon Helm documentary Ain't in It for My Health. Berger also executive produced the award-winning documentary, Crumb.
After graduating from Tufts University and before enrolling at Columbia, Berger returned to his native Chicago where he owned and managed The Sandburg Theater, a revival showcase for obscure and classic films. Later, he moved to Los Angeles to write screenplays for Paramount, TriStar, MGM, Orion, and producer Roger Corman. Berger went on to serve as Vice President of Development for Marvin Worth Productions where he worked on several projects, including Malcolm X. From 2014 to 2020, Berger served as a governor for the Producers Branch on the board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Professor Adam Galinsky has published more than 200 scientific articles, chapters, and teaching cases in the fields of management and social psychology. His research and teaching focus on leadership, power, negotiations, decision-making, diversity, and ethics. He co-authored the best-selling book, Friend & Foe (Penguin Random House, 2015), which offers a radically new perspective on conflict and cooperation. His Ted talk, “How to Speak Up for Yourself,” is one of the most popular of all time with over 5.9 million views.
Professor Galinsky’s research has received numerous national and international awards from the scientific community. In 2016, he received the Career Trajectory Award, given to one researcher each year for “uniquely creative and influential scholarly productivity at or near the peak of one's scientific career.” Thinkers50 selected him as one of the Best Thinkers on Talent in 2015. Poets and Quants selected Professor Galinsky as one of the World’s 50 Best B-School Professors (2012). He has received teaching awards at the Kellogg School of Management and Princeton University.
Professor Galinsky has consulted with and conducted executive workshops for hundreds of clients across the globe, including Fortune 100 firms, non-profits, and local and national governments. He was the sole expert witness in a 2006 defamation trial in which the plaintiff whom he represented was awarded $37 million in damages. He has served as a legal expert in multiple defamation lawsuits.
He is the Executive and Associate Producer on many award-winning documentaries, including two, Horns and Halos (2003) and Battle for Brooklyn (2011), which were short-listed for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards.