Chief Marshal Candidates

Alejandra Casillas, MD, MSHS

Associate Professor of Medicine & Associate Vice Chair for Community Impact, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine 
 

House Affiliation:

Lowell

First-year Dorm:

Greenough

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

AB ’01 Neurobiology, magna cum laude; MD ’05

Harvard-Related Activities:

• Mentor to precollege and premed youth from underserved backgrounds to help navigate a pathway to Harvard (with a focus on first-generation students, a.k.a. first in family to go to college)
• Harvard Medical School, 20th Reunion Co-Chair
• Harvard Latino Alumni Association Board Member, Harvard Medical School Representative
• Harvard Medical School Admissions Committee
• Harvard Medical School Aesculapian Club
• Harvard Medical School Second Year Show Producer
• Harvard Medical School Multicultural Committee
• Harvard University Graduate Council
• Harvard American Medical Students Association (AMSA) Vice-President and Health Services fellow (community health worker program for new mothers with BMC’s HealthNet Plan)
• Martha Eliot Health Center Teen Project; project coordinator for program servicing promising, teenage students in Jamaica Plain, served as mentor to kids and held monthly community meetings with their families about children’s education, school opportunities, and discuss issues concerning to parents
• College Prefect Program, Prefect in Greenough (union represented!)
• Lowell House Opera House Manager
• Biology Undergraduate Advisory Committee
• Neurobiology undergraduate researcher and intern, Children’s Hospital Boston

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

• Founded the First-Generation Program at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM), making UCLA one of the first medical schools in the country to provide formal support for medical students who were the first in their families to go to college
• Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) workgroup on first-gen students
• Global Health Force Physician Volunteer
• UCLA DGSOM Faculty Executive Committee
• UCLA Academic Senate Legislative Assembly, elected to represent the Department of Medicine
• Advisor to Lawndale Elementary School District to help decrease childhood obesity in this low-income school district; Jane Addams yearly Career Day (the elementary school I grew up in)
• National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Committee to Address the Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families
• UCSF Medical Alumni Association Board
• Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, Alumni Advisory Board
• California Medical Association Foundation campaign on cervical cancer prevention, focused on Latina populations in Los Angeles County
• American Heart Association, Latino Communications Health Outreach Speaker
• Keynote speaker and volunteer mentor for educational and premed pipeline programs
• Physician speaker and/or clinical volunteer for community health fairs/events in Los Angeles, focused on underserved populations
• Spanish-speaking physician providing volunteer interviews for community health segments for Univision and Telemundo

Achievements and Honors:

• National Academy of Medicine, named an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine (one of 10 early to mid-career faculty selected in the United States every year)
• UCLA Health “100 in 100,” named one of 100 trailblazing women in the history of UCLA Health
• The Lundquist Institute, President’s Lecture Honoree and Lecturer
• UCLA Training in Aging Research Student Program, Outstanding Research Mentor
• National Hispanic Health Foundation, Leadership Fellow
• UCLA Academic Senate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award for university leadership in student development
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar
• Harvard Medical School Dean’s Community Service Award
• Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans Award

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

Harvard lives as a complicated place in my memories; it brings up for me this notion that only the Spanish-speaking part of my brain can really explain: sentimientos encontrados. I don’t think there is a perfect translation for it in English, but generally the phrase reflects a coexistence of contradictory or mixed emotions that one thing can evoke. For Harvard and I, the sentimientos encontrados are incredibly bittersweet, but always, and immensely, filled with gratitude.

The day I arrived at Harvard in August 1997 was the first time I had set foot in Boston. Because we couldn’t afford to travel and tour schools, I jumped in sight unseen. As the first person in my family to go to college, I cried much of the first half of the year, feeling lost and longing to return to my home in Los Angeles. When dining hall chatter turned to what our families did for a living, I would quietly leave or casually evade the conversation, because I didn’t know how to articulate that my immigrant father with a sixth-grade education, who waited tables for a living, was the smartest and most determined person I knew.

But there are other Harvard memories that create a bigger knot in my throat: Caroline Kim, generously giving me her MCAT prep books and practice tests to study from when I could not afford a course. Marianne McPherson’s parents taking me to experience my first NYC day when they learned I had never been to the city. Joyce Koh’s loving aunt welcoming me into her home in Philly with an abundance of Korean dumplings (mandu) over Thanksgiving when I could not go home. Sharing first-gen experiences with Christen Ebens, even when we didn’t really have that name to describe our narrative. Getting a stipend for a winter coat and not feeling shamed or judged when our class UC rep, Todd Plants, helped me sign up for that resource. When I think of Harvard, I think of these “everyday” acts of compassion and so many other nurturing moments from my classmates and their families towards this first-gen Mexican girl from LA. I look back on these actually as a series of small miracles that enabled the big miracle of my life—a career in service of others, and the privilege of paying that compassion forward.

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Kenneth N. Ebie

Social Entrepreneur, Economic Development, and Urban Innovation Strategist

House Affiliation:

Dunster House

First-year Dorm:

Weld Hall

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

AB ’01 Biology, cum laude

Harvard-Related Activities:

Undergraduate:
 

• Elected Class Marshal, Class of 2001
• Co-Chair, Student Advisory Committee, Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations
• Starter, Junior Varsity Men’s Basketball Team
• Secretary, Black Men’s Forum
• Founding Mentor, Saturday Science Academy at Harvard University

Post-Graduate: 
 

• Trustee, Harvard Club of New York (2021–present)
• Co-Chair, Audit Committee, Harvard Club of New York (2023–present)
• Program Committee, Harvard Club of New York (2024–present)
• Class of 2001 Class Committee
• Alumni Interviewer, Harvard Club of New York Schools Committee (2008–present)
• National Membership Chair, Harvard Black Alumni Society (2019–2021)
• Founding Organizer, Court Classic (Harvard Law vs. Yale Law charity basketball game)

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

• Elected Council Member, NYC Public Schools District 15 Community Education Council (Brooklyn, NY) (2025–present)
• Spark Prize Committee, Brooklyn Org (2024–present)
• Board Member, Soho Repertory Theater (2022–present)
• Executive Committee, Parent Teacher Association, PS 261 Brooklyn (2022–2024)
• Executive Committee, Yale Law School Alumni Association (2017–2021)
• Founder and President, Foundation for Education, Culture, and Health (FECH) (2003–present): Family foundation established to support education and health initiatives in underserved communities.
• Frequent speaker and advisor on inclusive economic growth, entrepreneurship, and urban innovation.

Achievements and Honors:

• Appointed Executive Vice President of Tomorrow.City USA (U.S. subsidiary of Smart City Expo World Congress, the world’s largest and most influential event on urban innovation). (2025)
• Appointed Inaugural Executive Director & Chief Development Officer of Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC), a first-of-its-kind municipal economic development initiative to address the racial wealth gap through business ownership. Launched nine programs serving 6,000+ entrepreneurs to increase the sustainability and profitability of NYC’s small businesses. (2020–24)
• Equity & Inclusion Ambassador, New York Urban League (2023)
• Lang Talks Featured Speaker, Columbia Business School Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center (2022)
• Above & Beyond: Innovators Award, City & State New York (2022)
• Trailblazers of Now Award, NYC Commission on Human Rights (2022)
• Developed, launched, and managed the nation’s first government-sponsored environmental sustainability program for the TV and film production industry (NYC Film Green) as Deputy General Counsel and Director of External Affairs at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. (2016–18)
• “100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture,” Brooklyn Magazine (2017)
• American Swiss Foundation Young Leader (2014)
• Fulbright Scholar (Cameroon, 2001–02)

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

My first and most poignant Harvard memory was a warm campus welcome by the late Dr. S. Allen Counter, founding director of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. As he did for so many others, Dr. Counter instilled in me the understanding that every student on campus is an equal stakeholder in the Harvard experience.

For four magical years, I leaned into this perspective, eager to engage and understand the diverse experiences of our brilliant campus contemporaries. Zooming out, as I reflect on my varied career (law, government, and entrepreneurship) and my civic engagement since graduation (arts, culture, and education), the consistent thread is a deep interest in designing more inclusive systems to recognize, engage, and maximize human potential in its many diverse forms.

I recently told a friend that you're not an adult until you realize that your highest calling in life is to serve and to be used. The memories and friendships gained from my time at Harvard have enriched me beyond measure. I am grateful to remain connected and to be of service and use to my family, friends, and fellow members of the Class of 2001. See you in June!

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Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin, Ph.D. (formerly known as “Amma ‘Yo’ Mama”—now known as “Dr. Amma”)

Scholartist* + Historical Truth-Teller

House Affiliation:

Mather (a.k.a. “Mo’ Phatta Matha”)

First-year Dorm:

Pennypacker (a.k.a. “The Pack”)

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

AB ’01 Afro-American Studies (History), cum laude

Harvard-Related Activities:

My commitment to Harvard is rooted in the communities that made it home for a first-generation Ghanaian gal born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and raised in Manhattan, Kansas ("The Little Apple").

  My Harvard experience was an A Different World episode come to life!

I felt fully in and fully of it, while keenly knowing all the reasons why my hero, W. E. B. Du Bois, and countless others—then and now—were made to feel “in Harvard, but not of it.” I walk in the footsteps of Alberta Virginia Scott, Radcliffe 1898, and all who tirelessly fought to create the very departments and clubs that made my love of Harvard possible.

Because of their vision of what Harvard could be, I was:

• Fiercely Harvard: Stepping with polyrhythmic energy in the ’01 Steppers (and soundly beating Yale in step dance challenges).
• Scholartistically Harvard: Switching concentrations to Afro-American studies to learn from the equivalent of academia’s "Avengers" (Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Skip Gates, Cornel West ’97, Werner Sollors, Emmanuel Akyeampong, Patricia Sullivan, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and the entire rock-star department), which set the foundation for my career as a scholartist.
• Joyfully & Creatively Harvard: Dancing and singing (slightly off key) in the Kuumba Singers and Sisters (of Kuumba), and performing in Cultural Rhythms and original dramatic works created and directed by dope Harvard humans like Derrick N. Ashong ’97 and Naeemah White-Peppers ’97.
• Actively Harvard: Sharing space and wisdom in the Black Students Association (BSA), the Association of Black Harvard Women (ABHW), the Freshman Black Table, and the Harvard African Students Association (HASA).
• Hilariously Harvard: Having late-night chats about God, falafel, SNL, and Dawson’s Creek with my PP2 floor mates and Mo’ Phatta Matha block mates.

CUE Paula Cole: “I don’t wanna wait, for our lives to be over…”

That’s why I threw my pearls in for a lifetime of Harvard service when the Class of 2001 voted me to be first marshal. The bulk of my time is devoted to all things ’01-derful, from kick-starting every reunion process to fighting for tangible support for alums. (And, there was that one—and only—time I picked up trash after the ’01 Harvard-Yale tailgate.) My goal has always been to build the best possible ’01 community vibe, driving our processes toward proactive transparency and inviting every classmate to cocreate the experience. This commitment began senior year by restructuring Class Day speaker selection for direct class input and continued into alumni life by insisting on open application processes for reunion co-chairs and tackling participation challenges with the ’01 Starting Over Weekend that opened Class Committee service to the entire Class. During the pandemic, I created and executed the monthly ’01-on-the-One video series (a classmate’s concept) to amplify classmate events. Finally, a significant portion of my work happens behind the scenes—advocacy and strategy work to make committee tasks more sustainable for the ebbs and flows of life’s demands, though I haven't cracked the code yet.

More recently, I’ve served as a Commencement marshal (2016) and been actively causing "good trouble" as an Appointed College Director, HAA Board (2022–25), troubleshooting how the HAA and Harvard can do better for and by all of us. I still give back to our undergrads, serving as keynote speaker at the 2004 BSA Graduation and as an Alumni Advisor for the Harvard Black Arts Festival (2007–08). Wherever I am, I have reminded students and alums alike: “Never forget. Harvard didn’t just choose you. You chose Harvard.”

Still, my favorite “Harvard thing” I do today is—and always will be—walking through life with ’01 sister-friends, block mates, and classmates.

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

My career as a scholartist* is a direct extension of the intellectual urgency I found at Harvard. On stage, screen, and the written page, I tell historical stories for audiences to confront the truth of the past, especially the pasts that haunt us.

Two example works:

• Show Creator, Lead Scholartist, Executive Producer, AT BUFFALO (in development): A new musical 23+ years in the making about race, America, and a presidential assassination at the 1901 Buffalo world’s fair. Co-conceived with our dynamite ’01 classmate Jim Augustine. I also founded a national creative team of scholars, artists, and activists, including co-creators Dr. Khalil Sullivan and Dr. Joshua Williams, consulting producer Kenneth Kootin, and creative producer Deadria Harrington.
• Co-Director, Georgia Incarceration Performance Project, By Our Hands: Cross-institutional devised performance between Spelman and the University of Georgia and incarcerated students in the Common Good Atlanta program that unearthed the archival stories of the State of Georgia’s carceral history.

National judge and national staff volunteer, National History Day (var. 2004–16) helping the next generation of historical storytellers and truth tellers find their voice, Member, America250's History Education Advisory Council (2021–24) reminding the nation that just as there will be those who are celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the United States, there will be those mourning, those in deep reflection, and those recalibrating for a new and better future.

*Scholartist is a term credited to performance studies colleagues Joseph Shahadi and Mila Aponte-Gonzalez.

Achievements and Honors:

“What have you given up to get here? Is success your drug of choice , or are you driven by another curiosity?”  
– Bono, Honorary ’01 Classmate, Class Day Exercises (June 6, 2001)

I have stayed curious, Mr. Bono. I promise. And, I have achieved many failures—the sweet spot for reinvention and living this creative life.

Those failures have led to some of the following:

• TED Fellow (2019). TED Talk on AT BUFFALO has over 2 million views.
• My solo performance on the 1839 Amistad Incident led to the establishment of the Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Papers at the Amistad Research Center.
• Selected Interviewee for the Ellis Island Museum: Chosen by the History Channel for a national project about the immigrant experience—including interviewees Gloria Estefan and Ang Lee).
• Major Artistic Grants and Residencies: For AT BUFFALO — MAP Fund Grant, Goodspeed Musicals Johnny Mercer Writers Grove, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Creative Arts Initiative Artists-in-Residence (Univ. at Buffalo), CAP21 Writers Residency, Apples and Oranges THEatre ACCELERATOR. For the Georgia Incarceration Performance Project: Co-Grant Recipient from the Global Georgia Program, Willson Center funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation —(Univ. of Georgia).
• Fellowships: Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UC Berkeley), Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow (National Academies), John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellow (American Philosophical Society), Harvey Fellow (Mustard Seed Foundation).
• Harvard Honors: Lifetime First Marshal (Class of 2001); First Prize, Boylston Prize for Elocution (1999).

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

Sorting through my Harvard archive after a home catastrophe, I found a painful memory today: my family's desperate emails to the Financial Aid Office in February 2001. Harvard’s initial response was callous. The irony burned—I was first marshal, yet I nearly couldn't graduate, not because of grades, but because of tuition. Thankfully, an ’01 classmate’s mother—and financial aid director—stepped in, bringing humanity and relief. (Thank you, Lord, and Sally Donahue P’01, ’99!)

Sadly, my experience then and now isn’t unique. Reunions remain hard for many of us: hard on the wallet, the spirit, and the voice demanding better from an institution that can be cruel to its own. 

Real talk, '01: I was unsure if I’d return for our 25th. (See our Red Book for why.)

But then I recalled Rev. Gomes telling ’01: "What if God created Harvard just so you could be here?" Relistened to Bono urging ’01 to show that the impossible is still possible. And I remembered how our shared grief—Haley, 9/11, Denny—had forged the alumni life of ’01 into an urgent appreciation for life itself.

God-willing, if my health and bank account are good, I’ll come back. 

Because the secret remains: the best part of Harvard is us.

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Rachel (Brown) Kay

Senior Vice President & Chief People Officer, Hearst Corporation 

House Affiliation:

Pforzheimer

First-year Dorm:

Weld

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

AB ’01 History, magna cum laude

Harvard-Related Activities:

While at Harvard, I was second class marshal and active in University Band, Wind Ensemble, Harvard Model Congress, Harvard Model Senate, Harvard Hillel, the Prefect Program, Undergraduate Admissions Committee, Undergraduate Council, Women’s Leadership Project, and Pforzheimer House Committee.

Since graduating, I’ve continued my work with the ’01 Class Committee, founded and led the Harvard ’01 Book Club (please join!), served as an alumni interviewer, helped with all of our Reunions, created and still manage the ’01 website (harvard2001.org), co-led the 25th Reunion Red Book outreach, and recently joined the board of Harvard Hillel.

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

In addition to my work with our Class and Harvard Hillel, I serve on the national board of Leading Edge (a not-for-profit dedicated to improving the workplace culture and leadership development capacity of Jewish communal organizations). I am on the advisory committee for the Brightway Education Foundation, an innovative not-for-profit focused on financially supporting low-income, single parents in completing a college degree to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. And I remain involved in my local community, with my synagogue and a food pantry.

Achievements and Honors:

• JD from Columbia Law in 2006

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

Life is full of Sliding Doors moments, and as I think back on the choices that shaped me, attending Harvard stands out as the most consequential. I’m deeply grateful for my time on campus with all of you, where I met my closest friends and my husband, learned what true excellence looks like (whether in a classroom or a rehearsal room), engaged in spirited and healthy debate, and felt empowered to grow in ways that still guide me today. In many respects, I’ve spent the last quarter century trying to recreate the feeling of that community, both personally and professionally.

While the past few years have had their ups and downs as a Harvard alum, my gratitude for our shared experience has never wavered. I’ve found real joy in staying connected through our Class Committee, reunion planning, and our book club. And whenever I bump into a classmate—once even at the top of Mount Haleakalā—I feel a sense of coming home. Thank you to all of you who have stayed in touch; it means the world to me.

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Seth Moulton

U.S. Congressman

House Affiliation:

Currier

First-year Dorm:

Canaday

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

AB ’01, cum laude; MBA/MPA ’11

Harvard-Related Activities:

Rowed a bit, survived physics, gave an unmemorable Commencement address, played the organ at Mem Church in quieter moments, and made lifelong friends

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

Refugee/immigration, mental health, and veterans advocacy

Achievements and Honors:

Most proud of being a dad to Emmy and Caroline, and of being a friend and occasional mentor to the Marines with whom I had the honor to serve.

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

Harvard gave me tremendous opportunities and broadened my horizons, but most importantly, a few close mentors at Harvard (Peter Gomes and David Gergen, especially) inspired me to serve. While my parents proudly display a photo of someone sleeping through my Commencement speech(!), several classmates reached out after 9/11 and told me, “Now I get it.” All I wanted to do was some tiny part of what so many 18-year-old Americans, with far less opportunity than I, have given back to our country for a couple hundred years, and that’s why I joined the Marines. The rest has come from that.

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Michael Roiff

Producer, President & Founder, Night & Day Pictures

House Affiliation:

Lowell House

Freshman Dorm:

Weld Hall

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

AB ’01 Government, cum laude

Harvard-Related Activities:

• Hasty Pudding Theatricals (Actor, Writer, Cast VP)
• On Thin Ice (Member & President)
• HRDC (Actor, Director, Publicity Coordinator & Vice President)
• Crimson Key Society (Secretary & Freshman Week Coordinator)
• Reunion Committee (Member and 25th Co-Chair) 

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

• Hasty Pudding Institute—Theatricals Advisory Board
• Adrienne Shelly Foundation—Advisory Board
• The Center for Early Education—PA Board, Annual Gala Chair
• Ledford Family Foundation—Secretary
• Roiff Family Undergraduate Financial Aid Fund at Harvard 

Achievements and Honors:

• Variety 10 Producers to Watch
• Tony and Drama Desk Nominations for Best Musical (Waitress) 

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

When I used to give campus tours, I’d always remark that “Everyone here is convinced they were the admissions mistake.” I’ve come to realize that I maaaaay have been projecting a bit more than observing. A quarter century later, I’d probably chalk my presence on this list up to a clerical error, too, as even being in the same room with all of you has felt like an undeserved gift for 25 years.

As an undergrad, I always joked that I concentrated in extracurriculars … and I think it’s quite possible that I still do that today. I spend more time volunteering at the kids’ school (and anywhere else that will have me) than I ever could on my career, but that’s what feels important. It’s where I can make a difference and leave something a little better than how I found it. And I think that’s truly what Harvard gave to me—a confidence that it’s okay to do what feels meaningful over what feels necessary. A green light to try to make things as much better as I can and recognition that the real gift of being in a room with amazing humans is knowing that they’re doing the same. 

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