The Chief Marshal for Commencement 2013 has been selected by the College Class of 1988 and approved by the Harvard Alumni Association Board of Directors. We are thrilled to announce the winning candidate is Stephanie D. Wilson. Congratulations to all the candidates for being considered for this special honor.
Dear Member of the Harvard and Radcliffe Class of 1988,
Selection as Chief Marshal of the Alumni for Commencement is a special honor, and the Harvard Alumni Association continues to follow the tradition whereby the Twenty-fifth Reunion class elects one of its members to serve in this position. The Chief Marshal represents all of the alumni of the University, presides at a spread honoring the assembled dignitaries and guests, and leads the afternoon alumni procession.
Last August, your class officers were contacted and asked to select a Class Nominating Committee. The committee invited suggestions from the class and screened candidates based on the following criteria: success in one’s career(s), vocation(s), and/or avocation(s); contribution to one’s community and the larger society; and service to the College. The following persons were recommended by the committee and approved by the Harvard Alumni Association Board of Directors as candidates for Chief Marshal. Each has consented to serve if elected:
| Sarah Beatty-Buller | James Himes | Soledad O’Brien |
| Joshua Berger | Lane MacDonald | Diane Paulus |
| David Bunning | Tom Monahan | Stephanie Wilson |
The winning candidate will be announced to the class after the winter Harvard Alumni Association board meeting.
I very much hope that you will return to Cambridge to attend your Twenty-fifth Reunion, May 29–June 2, 2013. Please visit the class website at classes.harvard.edu/college/1988 for reunion information.
Sincerely,
John P. Reardon, Jr
Associate Vice President for University Relations and
Executive Director, Harvard Alumni Association
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SARAH H. BEATTY-BULLER
Founder and President, Green Depot
House Affiliation: North
Freshman Dorm: Wigglesworth
Degree(s)/Concentration: AB ’88, Sociology (cum laude)
Harvard-Related Activities: Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum; musical theatre; Harvard Club
Achievements and Honors: Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Quality Award (2010); Business Leader of the Year, Earth Day New York/Natural Resources Defense Council (2009); Small Business Award, New York Enterprise Report (2009)
Major Charitable or Other Activities: Board member, Green Schools Alliance; executive committee member, Young Presidents’ Organization Sustainable Business Network; member, GC3: Green Chemistry & Commerce Council; member, the Women’s Forum of New York City
Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard: As my Harvard graduation neared (and my anxiety about my future mounted), a Harvard alumna offered me some advice:
• Discover what you are passionate about, and make that your vocation.
• Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself.
• Remain open to the unexpected pathways that life presents.
These were words to live by.
I graduated from Harvard with a passion for music and entertainment. A job at MTV (Music Television) helped me build a career for myself in entertainment marketing, which I greatly enjoyed for 16 years. When I was almost nine months pregnant with my first child, someone informed me that my brand-new apartment was toxic. That was when life sent me in a new direction. I felt there needed to be a place where people—especially builders—could learn about and obtain environmentally preferable materials. I couldn’t find that place. So, at the age of 38—with a great deal of gusto, another baby on the way, and no construction experience—I reinvented myself, became an entrepreneur, and founded Green Depot, a one-stop shop for green living and building.
The eight years since have been intense, challenging, humbling, and rewarding. My unexpected journey as a small-business owner and “social entrepreneur” has stretched me out of my comfort zone, introduced me to true pioneers, and connected me to a diverse community of creative individuals who are inspired to try to change things for the better. It has also renewed my appreciation for learning, and helped me realize the true meaning of words like “community” and “stewardship.”
I am both proud to see how Harvard fosters social innovation today and encouraged to see how students are responding. For example, juniors Jessica Matthews and Julia Silverman collaborated on an engineering assignment to create sOccket—a soccer ball that in just 15 minutes of play creates enough plug-in energy to light up a home for three hours. Imagine that in remote villages!
It is wonderful to know that Harvard continues to be a ripe environment for ingenuity.
The older I get, the more grateful I am that I was lucky enough to go to Harvard. The experiences I shared with my classmates made it fun and unforgettable. I’ll always remember the massive snowball fight in the Yard after the first snowfall our freshman year, riding out Hurricane Gloria with classmates in the Quad, and screaming in the bitter cold at that last (triumphant!) Harvard-Yale game. Those four years were a safe haven where I was able to explore the world with fresh eyes, question convention, meet lifelong friends, and “grow up.” It encouraged me to take risks and to let life carry me to new and unexpected places. The extraordinary accomplishments of the Class of 1988 make me feel proud. At the Reunion, I look forward to reconnecting with classmates, to hearing your views on the past 25 years, and to learning your plans for the next 25. See you there.
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JOSHUA A. BERGER
President and Managing Director, Warner Brothers Entertainment UK, Eire, and Spain
House Affiliation: Adams and Dudley
Freshman Dorm: Canaday
Degree(s)/Concentration: AB ’88, English and American Literature and Language (cum laude); AMP ’02, Harvard Business School
Harvard-Related Activities: Signet Society; Hasty Pudding Theatricals; Undergraduate Council; Harvard Baseball; Harvard-Radcliffe Film Society; Harvard Clubs of New York, Paris, Madrid, and London; Harvard Business School Club of London
Achievements and Honors: Awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the creative industries; professor, European Media Business School in Ronda, Spain; multiple-year winner of Film Distributor of the Year, Home Entertainment Distributor of the Year; life member, Council on Foreign Relations
Major Charitable or Other Activities: Governor (trustee) of the British Film Institute (BFI), lead body for film of the UK government; chairman, International Development Council of the BFI; chairman of Chickenshed Theatre Company (charity dedicated to “inclusive” youth theater); Film Committee of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts; National Finance Committee, Obama for America 2008 and 2012; member, British Screen Advisory Council; member, UK government’s Creative Industries Council; Young Presidents’ Organization; National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Rebuilding Childhoods Appeal board; founding board director of e.TV (South Africa’s first post-apartheid, private, free-to-air broadcaster); former board director of Canal Satellite (satellite TV platform) in France, Spain, and the Nordic region; former board member of Metro (largest global newspaper group by circulation); former board member of The Climate Group (climate change non-governmental organization)
Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard: After a rather typical Hollywood upbringing in Beverly Hills 90210, I never imagined living anywhere outside the city limits of Los Angeles, let alone in wintry, distant Cambridge, Massachusetts. There was certainly no expectation of a life lived outside of my own country. And yet, here I am a quarter-century later writing this in London, reflecting back on the time my life changed forever—at Harvard.
You see, like most showbiz types, I was blissfully unaware of anything much happening outside of Los Angeles. The day I arrived in the Yard and met my classmates, I realized the world was infinitely bigger in every way. I also realized that my public high school didn’t quite prepare me for the rigors of the Ivy League. And despite this, I discovered a passion for challenging myself—even to the point of discomfort—as a way to grow, learn, and, as I have subsequently found, to get the most out of life.
In Economics 10 freshman year, I remember feeling dazed and confused by the material—and having to push myself to grasp the subject. Let’s just say economics was my first foreign language, and I became very determined to learn that language, much as I would work to learn other languages later in life.
In sophomore year, I worked my butt off on the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. To my regret, I didn’t have the legs to be a chorus girl so, instead, I stuck to what I knew best—which was behind the scenes as the director of publicity. I was determined to get the role of producer the following year. I was sure I had it in the bag. And then, the best and worst thing that could have happened, happened: I didn’t get the gig. I realized later how profound this loss was, despite its insignificance to the rest of the world. For the first time, I lost the thing I was sure would come to me.
But fortunately, as that door was closing, another door opened, when my Italian-Argentine roommate, Pablo, suggested I take junior year off and live in Italy. I took his advice, and Italy became the first of four European countries I would eventually call home.
I fell in love with being abroad—actually for the same reason that I loved being at Harvard: I was challenged; I was out of my comfort zone; I was devouring the unfamiliar. Our school had prepared me to embrace the wider world in ways that I didn’t know I was capable of.
Rarely a day goes by when I do not think that this life I am living would not have happened without those four years in Cambridge—the friendships, the conversations, the life lessons, the disappointments, the triumphs. I have come to believe in the incredible power of gratitude, and I am grateful for this opportunity to put in writing to all of my classmates just how fortunate I feel to be a part of this Harvard family. Grazie mille to all of you. I am looking forward to seeing you in Cambridge in May.
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DAVID G. BUNNING
President, The TLP Group, LLC
House Affiliation: Leverett
Freshman Dorm: Mower
Degree(s)/Concentration: AB ’88, Economics; MBA ’92, University of Chicago
Harvard-Related Activities: Friends of Harvard Football; Friends of Harvard Wrestling; Harvard Club of Chicago Schools Committee interviewer; Endowment—Denise and David Bunning Professor of Pediatrics in the Field of Allergy and Immunology; Endowment—The David G. Bunning ’88 Head Coach for Harvard Wrestling
Achievements and Honors: Various responsibilities and partnership at Citadel Investment Group (1991–2004); American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Distinguished Layperson Award (2012); Food Allergy Initiative Legacy Award; Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network Founders Award; served or serves on boards of the Food Allergy Initiative, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, the Food Allergy Project, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Ducks Unlimited, and the National Wrestling Coaches Association
Major Charitable or Other Activities: Endowment—Bunning Food Allergy Professor, University of Chicago; directed funding for various food allergy–related research at Chicago Children’s, Children’s Boston (Harvard), Northwestern University, Duke University, University of Chicago, Children’s Cincinnati, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Johns Hopkins University, Children’s Milwaukee, University of Michigan, Stanford University, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard: I nearly left Harvard my freshman year. There were too many changes for a kid from Illinois who valued family, teamwork, and hard work. I felt out of place in many ways, starting with my first cab ride from Logan Airport to Harvard Yard. I feared that the competitiveness of Harvard would change me for the worse. Much of what I experienced those first weeks was starkly unfamiliar. It took hearing “UConn” three times for me to realize that it wasn’t next to Alaska. Although some fellow students shared my passion for football and wrestling, few shared my love of hunting and fishing. My roommate dubbed me “Bigfoot.”
Had I left, I wouldn’t have experienced the senior-year thrill of celebrating with teammates in New Haven after beating Yale for the Ivy Championship. I might never have learned to play beer pong! I would have missed the annual roommate family reunions since graduation. But, most importantly, I wouldn’t have been exposed to Martin Feldstein’s public policy class, where I realized that a single individual or idea can have a huge impact on our nation. Harvard taught me to think, with scale; it helped complete my foundation.
I met my future business partner at a Harvard Club function in Chicago. Armed with my economics degree, I used what I had learned in macro, micro, and stats daily during a 16-year career in finance. I built a successful business where I found intense teamwork and fulfillment to a degree that surpassed even what I had felt with my teammates in New Haven. But when life presented me with two sons who were deathly allergic to milk, eggs, and other foods, my next move was obvious. I left Citadel Investments in 2004 and became an advocate working to find a treatment for life-threatening food allergies.
This mission required new collaborations well outside my comfort zone. Hard data was needed to educate Congress and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) about food allergies. I worked with and helped to fund researchers from Harvard who quantified the scope of the problem with a study documenting 203,000 food-allergy emergency room visits per year in the United States. Boston Children’s Hospital researchers initiated a landmark clinical trial that had a profound therapeutic impact on their most critically milk-allergic patients. A major milestone occurred last year when Harvard hosted a symposium that included leading scientists, advocates, the NIH, the Food and Drug Administration, and members of the pharmaceutical community, where we created a road map for a food-allergy treatment. Recently I worked to launch a pharmaceutical enterprise dedicated to pursuing one particularly promising food-allergy therapy. Building a statistical epidemiological database, educating the government about an emerging public-policy problem, and guiding medical research in a nascent field would not have been possible for me without the intellectual and aspirational foundation Harvard provided.
Twenty-five years later, I’m happy to find that my freshman fears were unfounded. Life’s still about family, teamwork, and hard work. A Harvard education doesn’t change our values; it empowers them.
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JAMES A. HIMES
U.S. Congressman
House Affiliation: Eliot
Freshman Dorm: Lionel
Degree(s)/Concentration: AB ’88, Social Studies (magna cum laude)
Harvard-Related Activities: Harvard Lightweight Crew (1985–1988, captain 1988); research for Dr. Robert Coles, The Spiritual Life of Children; The Harvard Crimson
Achievements and Honors: Elected to U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut (2008); Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Bridgeport (2012); Rhodes Scholar (1988)
Major Charitable or Other Activities: Board member, Fairfield County Community Foundation; board member, Aspira of Connecticut; chair, Board of Commissioners, Greenwich Housing Authority; member, Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation
Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard: Since we graduated 24 years ago, I’ve had the good fortune to travel back to Harvard every year or so. That is frequent enough that the vast changes to the fabric of the place are not shocking, but not so frequent that the intensity of the memories is dulled. For me, “intensity” is the right word.
Coming from an adequate public school where brains were regarded with some suspicion, it was nearly physical joy to sit in Professor Sandel’s Justice class to be introduced to idea after idea, seduced by each, only later to have its shortcomings revealed. Daunted always by my peers in the Social Studies program, all of whom seemed to have grown up reading Durkheim and discussing Weber with their in-house tutors, I nonetheless thrilled at the vague notion that I was finally becoming educated, and consoled myself with the possibility that the best people might come from the hardest school.
That attitude, and the attention lavished by coaches on any freshman over six feet tall, drew me to Newell boathouse for a different kind of intensity. And here I must pause to apologize to my classmates for the cult-like insistence of your rowing classmates that every meal be filled with talk of blisters, ergometer scores, and blade technique; we were caught in a kind of delirium, and had no idea what we were subjecting you to. Still, for a guy who had always been a mediocre athlete, finding my aptitude for a sport was as valuable as a class. The questions still seem important. What is it to be good and win? What is it to be good and lose? Where are the boundaries of persuasion, criticism, and leadership when you are a member of a team?
As a freshman, I found all this intensity daunting. Add in the social combine that seemed to sort us imperfectly into cliques and rooming groups and clubs and romances of unknowable duration, and it felt pretty hard. I remember walking the halls of Pennypacker one night just before the holiday break and hearing the simple but impossibly beautiful strains of Greensleaves being played by a clarinet and being moved beyond words by the respite.
I found that friendships formed in the intensity of training hard for a shared goal are the most lasting and resilient. And I regret that it is so hard to grow such friendships after we leave college. Today I know my teammates’ children and look forward to vacations when my family visits theirs. It’s not so much the nostalgia that appeals as the different experiences we’ve had that we can view through a shared lens we crafted together many years ago.
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LANE MACDONALD
Managing Director of Public Markets, Harvard Management Company
House Affiliation: Kirkland
Freshman Dorm: Weld
Degree(s)/Concentration: AB ’88 (cum laude); MBA ’95, Stanford University
Harvard-Related Activities: Harvard Hockey team captain; assistant hockey coach (1990–1991); Elected Director, Harvard Alumni Association (2007–2010); vice president, Harvard Varsity Club (2000–2010); president, Harvard Varsity Club (2010–present); Friends of Harvard Hockey (1989–present)
Achievements and Honors: Managing director, Harvard Management Company (2008–present); general partner, Alta Communications (2000–2008); U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame (inducted 2005); Hobey Baker Award winner; NCAA Championship in ice hockey; co-recipient of Bingham Award at Harvard; represented United States in 1988 Winter Olympics
Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard: I never thought that I would have the opportunity to attend Harvard. My parents grew up in a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada, and did not have the option to attend college in a traditional manner. Perhaps due to the opportunities my parents did not have, they instilled in me a clear understanding of the importance of education. My father was a living example of this. He went to school for 14 consecutive summers—while playing in the NHL—to earn his college degree. Having grown up in this environment, attending Harvard was truly life altering in terms of the opportunities it created for me—personally, academically, athletically, and professionally.
While there are many special things about Harvard, the best part has always been the people. When I arrived on campus in 1984, one of my first realizations was just how talented my classmates were. Everyone seemed to have a unique gift, whether it was academic, artistic, or athletic. Being surrounded by such highly talented and motivated classmates not only challenges you to reset goals, it gives you the confidence to pursue those goals. I am always proud when I read or hear of the accomplishments of fellow Harvard graduates—specifically ’88 classmates—who have gone on to do so many remarkable things.
While those accomplishments have been noteworthy, the even more impressive part of Harvard is the quality of the individuals who make up the Harvard community. The single most important benefit of my Harvard experience has been the lifelong friendships that I have made, ranging from close friendships that have endured for more than 25 years to new friendships with classmates and members of the administration that I did not know well during college.
I had an extraordinary experience as a student, and I have stayed involved with Harvard in many ways. I want to do my small part to ensure that Harvard students continue to have the opportunities that we had in 1988. From serving as an Elected Director of the Alumni Association to being president of the Harvard Varsity Club, I have been fortunate to maintain a close connection to Harvard, enabling me to better understand the progress Harvard has made in 25 years—while also recognizing that there are always new and different challenges that emerge. Harvard has been meeting those challenges for more than 375 years and serves as a role model for how academic institutions globally meet similar challenges in an ever-changing world. I feel very fortunate to be a part of the Harvard community and a member of the Class of 1988, and I look forward to continuing my involvement in the next 25 years.
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TOM MONAHAN
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Corporate Executive Board Company (CEB)
House Affiliation: Eliot
Freshman Dorm: Wigglesworth
Degree(s)/Concentration: AB ’88, English (magna cum laude); MBA ’95, New York University, Executive Programs
Harvard-Related Activities: An Evening with Champions; Track and Field; member of founding team of Crimson Impact, Harvard’s alumni volunteer organization in NYC; Harvard Club of New York; sponsor of and speaker at several undergraduate leadership and business development organizations, including the Leadership Development Institute and Harvard Business Program
Major Charitable or Other Activities: Chair, Governance and Nominating Committee, Convergys Corporation; widely active (with wife and daughters) in causes that encourage the participation of women and girls in economic life globally, including the Marcil-Monahan Fellowship for Undergraduate Study and Travel at Harvard. In my “day job,” CEB has pioneered several innovations in corporate philanthropy, including global service day, pro bono corps, board and nonprofit leadership training, and compensatory time for volunteering.
Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard: Our time at Harvard lasted only four years, and our time since, 25. Yet Harvard’s lessons swamp those from any similar length of time in my life—partly because every experience I’ve had since has been refracted through them. Three in particular stand out.
Harvard teaches humility (no, really). Like most freshmen, I arrived with an image of myself as a “top talent” and arm muscles strained from 12 years of seeking teachers’ attention. But Harvard’s teaching begins even before classes do. Within hours of arriving, I learned that Harvard wasn’t just a university, it was a talent aggregator. My classmates had brought not only footlockers and little fridges but remarkable abilities applied across an incredible range of endeavor. My desire to be great had, paradoxically, brought me to a place where I was often average.
This was not initially easy to accept, but, eventually, humility creates its own set of possibilities. Not always being the smartest person in the room is good leadership training: In nearly every life situation, those around you will collectively have richer gifts than you can hope to have. Four years of feeling (indeed, often being) average is a small price to pay to learn this early.
Harvard teaches global reach. Harvard’s campus is 18 miles from my childhood home but was the gateway to a much wider world. Obviously, I met people from around the world, but more importantly, through classes on topics as varied as statecraft, Walt Whitman, and the spread of world religions, I became aware that institutions, ideas, and ambitions can transcend geography. And I became an unrelenting globalist in the process. Our company’s now nearly 4,000 people are scattered across some 40 countries, supporting customers in about 110. I’ve had the opportunity to work in about 30 of those countries, and I have yet to encounter a corporate executive, official, or recruit for whom the Harvard brand and/or ideas born on the campus do not have real meaning.
Harvard teaches longevity. Leaders across sectors talk a lot about creating organizations that are “built to last.” Yet, try as we might, we will probably never be part of something that has had such impact for as long a period of time as Harvard has. It has been highly relevant for nearly 400 years. Corporate history gives me real appreciation for this accomplishment. A look at the Fortune 50 from 1955, the first year it was published, suggests that about half the companies have disappeared or declined substantially in just 57 years.
The most important implications of this last element are just beginning to dawn on me (back to the “average student” point). As part of the larger Harvard community, we now are the co-stewards of its relevance and co-authors of its story from here. That, I would guess, is the lesson Harvard has for us at the 25th anniversary of our leaving.
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SOLEDAD M. O’BRIEN
Anchor/Special Correspondent, CNN
House Affiliation: Cabot
Freshman Dorm: Straus
Degree(s)/Concentration: AB ’88, English and American Literature and Language
Harvard-Related Activities: Phillips Brooks House; HAND, a program that matched undergrads to elementary school students in nearby schools (I’m still in touch with one of the young women I mentored!); Rugby; Cabot House Running Club; co-president, Cabot House
Achievements and Honors: Author of two books; former anchor of NBC’s Weekend Today; frequent public speaker; Emmy Award for reporting in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake; George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina; Alfred I. DuPont Award for coverage of the tsunami in Southeast Asia; Gracie Award for reporting on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict; NAACP’s President’s Award; Medallion of Excellence for Leadership and Community Service from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute; 2010 Journalist of the Year from the National Association of Black Journalists; Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award from the Morehouse School of Medicine; Goodermote Humanitarian Award from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Major Charitable or Other Activities: Chair of the board of TASC (The Afterschool Corporation), whose mission is expanding the school day with opportunity, education, and experiences for young people in poverty around the nation; board member of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra; “Goodwill Ambassador” for Hearts of Gold, an organization focused on supporting homeless women and their children; in 2010, with husband Brad Raymond AB ’89, founded the Soledad O’Brien and Brad Raymond Foundation, which sends deserving young women who are struggling financially to and through college.
Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard: My first days at Harvard, I was intimidated. It didn’t matter that I would be the fifth of six O’Briens to attend. I was from a small town, very sheltered. My parents were immigrants who had raised us in a not-so-embracing, all-white suburb on Long Island. We were six biracial, bi-cultural kids who sometimes felt isolated from our peers. But my parents had high expectations that study and hard work would expand our lives. My siblings were studying hard toward what would be careers as prominent doctors and lawyers. So were many of my classmates, some of whom came from renowned families, or who had academic accomplishments in high school that were awe-inspiring. The bar at Harvard is high.
My diligence paid off, but I was aimless, lacking passion for my future. I loved volunteering and working with young people. I met the love of my life in college. But in terms of my life? I didn’t really know where I was going.
I loved having, for a change, a diverse group of friends. My rooming group in Cabot Hall included a Jewish girl from Scarsdale, a Latina from Laredo, and a white girl from Berkeley. I began to see diversity as a plus and myself as part of a great American story. While all my friends seemed to be opting for careers in business, medicine, or law, I found writing and reporting fascinating. At Harvard, my world expanded.
A professor at Harvard suggested I try an internship, and I landed at WBZ-TV in Boston. I fetched coffee, answered phones, and assisted the medical reporter (finally some of those pre-med classes were helpful!).
I was mesmerized by the power of how storytelling could do such good, open up the world to an audience and help create social change. While I struggled in organic chemistry, and eventually ditched a pre-med concentration, reporting seemed to come naturally to me. My classmates seemed to have a sense of purpose, and I finally found one: in journalism. I left school to work full time.
Many years later, I am the anchor of my own daily morning show at CNN and the correspondent of a series of award-winning documentaries called In America, which chronicle the challenges and successes of minority communities. I learned at Harvard how to articulate an argument, tackle tough questions, and bolster my position with research and original source material. I learned at Harvard that I could learn from everyone around me—and never stop learning. What I studied in the classroom, back then, I use every day in my job.
It was at Harvard that I learned to see my racial and ethnic background as a plus, and where I learned to feel secure in my identity and confident in my capacity to challenge anyone intelligently. Today, even the most educated and empowered politicians and decision-makers who appear on my show know to come prepared for challenging questions.
Harvard also did me one last favor. It let me come back. Pregnant with my first of four children, and anchoring NBC’s Weekend Today, I returned to the comfortable embrace of college and finished my degree. I learned in that experience the importance of supporting young people as they find their way, in seeing potential in someone and helping it grow. The commute from New York to Boston was a killer, but the lesson was life-giving. I started a foundation with my husband in 2010, and we have 17 young women whose college education we are funding and whose lives we are mentoring. I am paying it forward, thanks to Harvard.
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DIANE MARIE PAULUS
Artistic Director, American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.)
House Affiliation: Cabot
Freshman Dorm: Weld
Degree(s)/Concentration: AB ’88, Social Studies (magna cum laude); MFA ’97, Columbia University, Theatre Arts—Directing
Harvard-Related Activities: Artistic director of the A.R.T. at Harvard (2008–present); professor of the practice of theater in Harvard’s English department (2008–present); Office for the Arts’ Peter Ivers Visiting Artist (1999); director of City Step (1985–1988); actor in dramatic productions in Cabot House, North House, Dunster House, Loeb Ex, and Loeb Mainstage
Achievements and Honors: Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for the A.R.T.’s production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess on Broadway (2012); Drama League’s Founders Award for Excellence in Directing (2012); Lilly Award honoring women working in the theater (2012); one of Boston magazine’s 50 Most Powerful People (2012); Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for the Public Theater’s production of HAIR on Broadway (2009); Honorary Doctorate from Boston Conservatory
Major Charitable or Other Activities: Cirque Du Soleil’s 2012 big-top touring show, Amaluna; Death and the Powers: The Robots’ Opera, finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music; The Donkey Show, a disco adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; as an opera director: The Magic Flute; Il Mondo Della Luna; Don Giovanni; Le Nozze di Figaro; Cosi Fan Tutte; Turn of the Screw; and the “Monteverdi Trilogy”: Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Orfeo.
Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard: I have loved the theater my whole life. But I went to Harvard to pursue something “serious.” I had aspirations for a career in politics. I had nurtured the dream of being mayor of New York City (growing up in NYC in the 1970s, I had always thought the city could be a better place to live). I ended up concentrating in Social Studies and writing my thesis about the Living Theater of Julian Beck and Judith Malina—thanks to a librarian at Hilles who shared his knowledge of and passion for 1960s experimental theater. When I was a junior, I interviewed Robert Brustein, the founder and artistic director of the American Repertory Theater, for my thesis. Little did I know that 20 years later, I would be back at Harvard sitting in his office, running the A.R.T.
Being a student at Harvard and being exposed to the American Repertory Theater gave me the courage to pursue my passion. And now it is my mission as the artistic director of the A.R.T. to touch every undergraduate with an experience of the arts. The purpose of theater has never been clearer to me—it is not about producing “art” on a stage but about building community and bringing people together to be present with one another, to identify with points of view that are different from one’s own, to feel empathy, to consider issues in a multi-layered and complex way. Whether we are producing the world-premiere theatrical adaptation of Jung Chang’s novel Wild Swans, which tells the story of one family’s brutal experience of the Cultural Revolution, or Johnny Baseball, an original musical that takes on the issue of institutional racism as the “curse” of the Boston Red Sox, my goal is to make the A.R.T. a center for learning and dialogue about a shared civic culture. I also believe the arts should reach outwards with a spirit of inclusivity and accessibility. When we produced The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, we subsidized thousands of tickets to schools, community groups, and local under-resourced families. When we won the 2012 Tony Award for this production, the recognition belonged to everyone who participated in the process of making this show—from all of our audiences, to the undergrads who interned on the show all summer, to the students who grappled with issues of race, representation, and authenticity in the Gen Ed class that I co-taught with Professor Marjorie Garber on Porgy and Bess.
Our upcoming Twenty-fifth Reunion has made me reflect on what a remarkable experience it was to be at Harvard, for everything we were exposed to—classes, friends, ideas, teachers—and for the intense experience that comes with a Harvard education: all the ups and downs, and the loves and losses that are a part of life. I feel very lucky to be part of the University now, and I am especially grateful for the opportunity to touch the lives of the next generation of undergraduates with the transformative power of the arts.
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STEPHANIE D. WILSON
Astronaut, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
House Affiliation: Currier
Freshman Dorm: Thayer (South)
Degree(s)/Concentration: SB ’88, Engineering Science; MS ’92, Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
Harvard-Related Activities: Harvard University Board of Overseers (2007–present): Executive Committee (2012–13); Committee on Natural and Applied Sciences (2007–present, vice chair 2012–13); Committee on Finance, Administration, and Management (2007–present); Joint Committee on Alumni Affairs and Development; Mozart Society Orchestra; WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting); Harvard University Space Research Group; Harvard University Atmospheric Research Project; Association for the Improvement of Minority Images
Achievements and Honors: NASA Exceptional Service Medal (2009, 2011); NASA Space Flight Medal (2006, 2007, 2010); Honorary Doctorate of Science from Williams College (2011); Harvard College Women’s Professional Achievement Award (2008); Harvard Foundation Scientist of the Year Award (2008); Young Outstanding Texas Ex Award (2005); NASA Johnson Space Center Return to Flight Award (2004, 2005)
Major Charitable or Other Activities: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1996–present); Association of Space Explorers (2009–present); Society of Women Engineers
Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard: From my days as an undergraduate at Harvard, I have fond memories of playing clarinet with the Mozart Society Orchestra and of being a classical music announcer for WHRB. As an engineering sciences concentrator, I worked for the Harvard University Atmospheric Research Group, and I was also a member of the Harvard University Space Research Group.
The problem-solving skills that I learned at Harvard served me well as I pursued a graduate degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas. I also worked on the Titan IV launch vehicle and the Galileo spacecraft before being selected by NASA to join the Astronaut Corps in 1996. I have had wonderful opportunities both at Harvard and since Harvard, the highlight of which, I have to say, was flying three times on the space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. Having spent a total of 42 days in space, and having seen our planet from a special vantage point, has been a transformative experience.
Opportunity and knowledge can change destinies and I realized that I wanted to give back to Harvard so that others can see themselves and the world in new and wonderful ways. In 2007, I was elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers. I am in the last term of my tenure. Serving as an Overseer has been an excellent way to reconnect with Harvard, to help Harvard remain true to its mission of providing excellent teaching and research, and to give back to a community that has given so much to me. While the view from space is spectacular, what is more readily apparent are the limitless opportunities that are available with education. No matter our various careers in life, there is no greater cause than to inspire and to ensure opportunities for future generations. I am honored to have been nominated for Chief Marshal in the company of such talented classmates, and I look forward to connecting with many of you in Cambridge in May.