Chief Marshal Candidates

Nisha Agarwal

Senior Advisor

House Affiliation:

Adams

First-Year Dorm:

Pennypacker!

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

AB, Social Studies

Harvard-Related Activities:

• Secretary-General, Harvard National Model United Nations
• Founder and Chair, Harvard South Asian Studies Initiative (SASI)
• Board of Directors, Harvard International Relations Council
• Associate Editor and Researcher-Writer, Let’s Go Publications

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

Board Member:

• Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, Staten Island, NY 
  Sept 2023–present
  Snug Harbor is a place where history, architecture, visual and performing arts, gardens, agriculture, and education come together and provide dynamic experiences for all ages.
• The Conflict of Interest Board, New York, NY                      
  April 2020–March 2022
  Independent New York City agency tasked with administering, enforcing, and interpreting the New York City Charter and the City’s Conflict of Interest Law for all city employees.
• Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY                          
  2010–12
  A 350-bed teaching hospital serving a diverse residential community on the border of Northern Brooklyn and Western Queens.
• South Asian Bar Association of New York (SABANY), New York, NY     
  2007–09
  Vice-President for Public Interest. SABANY is committed to promoting the professional development of the South Asian legal community through networking, advocacy, and mentoring.

Advisory Board:

• The Action Lab, Brooklyn, NY                               
  June 2021–present
  A retreat center for gatherings and creative programming in art, culture, and activism.
• The Climate Museum, New York, NY                                   
  2021–present
  Using exhibitions, installations, performances, and art and culture to connect people on climate change.
   

Achievements and Honors:

• College: The Thomas Temple Hoopes, Philo Sherman, Harris, and Alexis de Tocqueville Prizes for outstanding original scholarship on the thesis Five Fingers to a Fist: Mobilization and ‘Empowerment’ in a Low-Income Bombay Community.
• Graduate School: British Marshall Scholarship—2001
• Law School: Skadden Scholarship—2006
• Post School: Appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to run the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and a Senior Advisor in New York City from 2014 to 2020, and launched IDNYC, a municipal identification card for all New Yorkers and successfully enrolled over one million people in the first year of the program; created ActionNYC to ensure that immigrants in need of a lawyer are able to obtain one in community centers, hospitals, and schools; started Cities for Action, a coalition of cities working to support immigrant groups and to advocate in Washington, D.C.; and enabled City Hall and four independent living centers to ensure that voting is fully accessible to people with disabilities.
  Felix Fishman Award—2014
  Crains “40 Under 40”—2016 
   

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

When I came to Harvard College as a freshman from Fayetteville, NY, I felt like I was a tadpole swimming in the Nile River—and I loved it. So much to do! So much to see! Some fragments: Participating in FUP and walking (and walking and walking) all around Greater Boston, doing a mural with a nonprofit, and learning about the city and the people who lived there—not just those in the ivory tower. Working in Widener Library in the quiet section and roaming around in the stacks for its sheer immensity. Most of all, I enjoyed the conversations with my fellow students and professors. I met so many students who were learning so many different things that I couldn’t do (physics) or didn’t know (folklore and mythology), but we all sat in the dining hall or ran into in Harvard Yard, complained about our classes, and shared what was on tap for the weekend—like every undergraduate in every college campus for time immemorial. As I thought about being a microeconomics major, there were professors who discussed brand new ideas that I had never heard about, like subaltern studies, that changed my choices of classes, my final thesis, and my future up to today—working with communities, not on their commodities. I’m looking forward to the 25th Reunion (!) and to reconnect with many of you. 

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Jay Chen

Trustee, Mount San Antonio Community College

House Affiliation:

Cabot

First-year Dorm:

Pennypacker

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

Social Studies

Harvard-Related Activities:

• Harvard Club of Southern California Life Member
• Admissions interviewer (20 years)
• Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

• Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy Reserves
• School Board Member (retired)

Achievements and Honors:

• Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress, 2022
• Marshall Memorial Fellow, American Council of Young Political Leaders

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

When I look at what my passions and interests are today, almost all can be traced back to an opportunity or spark that Harvard provided. One of my first Harvard extracurriculars was Harvard Model Congress and the first office I ran for was within the Asian American Association. I’d like to say Harvard academics were equally impactful on my public service career but several books from “The American Presidency” are still shrink-wrapped. That may explain my electoral success or lack thereof.

While I couldn’t commit to the Navy after trying NROTC my first year, if not for that experience I wouldn’t have pursued a direct commission 14 years later and still be serving today. But it was Let’s Go that had the biggest impact on me and inspired me to inject travel, adventure, and even love into my life. While researching chicken buses and hostel prices in Honduras for the 1999 Central America edition, I read about beautiful Antigua, Guatemala, and vowed to visit someday. Years later, my girlfriend joined me on a trip, and we got married there in 2012. Two kids and many adventures later I couldn’t be more grateful for a path that began at Harvard.

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Sameera Fazili

Former Deputy Director of the White House’s National Economic Council (2021–22), Current Economic Policy Consultant 

House Affiliation:

Winthrop

Freshman Dorm:

Pennypacker

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

A.B. Social Studies, magna cum laude

Harvard-Related Activities:

• Model United Nations (HMUN, NMUN, WorldMUN)
• Harvard Islamic Society (President)
• Harvard Ice Hockey and Field Hockey Team (JV)
• PBHA/Refugee Youth Summer Enrichment
• Harvard Foundation Award for Intercultural and Race Relations
• Harvard Women’s Leadership Award
• Senior Class Marshal
• Harvard College Alumni Interviewer

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

• Heinz Endowments, Board Member (2024–present)
• Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Board Member (2023–present)
• Urban Institute’s WorkRise, Leadership Board Member (2024–present)
• Georgia State University Andrew Young School for Policy Studies, Dean’s Council (2016–20)
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta (2016–20, 2024-present)
• Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Board Member (2016–20)
• Paideia School, Board of Trustees (2024–present)

Achievements and Honors:

Professional achievements include appointments to the White House’s National Economic Council under Presidents Obama and Biden after serving senior roles at the Treasury Department and in the Federal Reserve System. In the Biden administration, I expanded domestic clean energy manufacturing and ushered in the CHIPS Act. Remember the chip shortage? All the ships outside the LA ports? The infant formula shortage? I led a task force to alleviate these rolling crises. For President Obama, I designed economic recovery programs for middle-class families and tackled the eurozone crisis. I received the Meritorious Service Award at Treasury and the Under Secretary’s Award for Excellence at the U.S. Department of Agriculture for my work in government. Earlier in my career, I helped start Connecticut’s first community development bank and led anti-foreclosure initiatives in New Haven.

In my adopted hometown of Atlanta, I have done a lot of civic engagement and voter registration work in the Asian and Muslim American communities through Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. This led me to be appointed as a Commissioner on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. And is it too corny to say being a mom of three wonderful, zany, loving kids is a distinct honor?

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

Harvard was such a transformational experience. I was convinced I was a mistake who slipped through the admissions office cracks. I then spent four years—and the rest of my life, frankly—in awe of my fellow classmates. Volunteering with PBHA and serving as a counselor for the First-Year Urban Program were key inspirations in my life. As the child of immigrants, America felt like a mystery to 18-year-old me, and Harvard was a rarified slice of America I had never seen before. There I learned to become somewhat of the consummate insider/outsider, at institutions of power but not fully part of them, determined to create space for outsiders and newcomers. I learned how to build community—creating spaces where people could be challenged, uncomfortable, but also safe and supported. I was blessed with friends of all shapes and sizes—from finals club jocks and activists boycotting grapes, to scholarship kids and international jet setters, to good old-fashioned nerds who loved their books and intellectual discourse—and I still love a good panopticon joke. This motley crew remains my closest confidantes, despite us living far apart, as we shifted from gchats, to Facebook, to WhatsApp, and beyond.

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Winnie M Li, PhD

Author, Activist, Educator

House Affiliation:

Eliot

Freshman Dorm:

Hurlbut

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

BA, Folklore and Mythology (Celtic Languages and Literatures), Summa Cum Laude

Harvard-Related Activities:

• An Evening with Champions: Co-Chair
• Harvard World Model United Nations: Secretary-General
• WHRB—Harvard Radio: Classical DJ
• Let’s Go Travel Guidebooks: Researcher-Writer
• International Relations Council
• Harvard Model UN
• Harvard National Model UN
• Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club
• HAA Reunions Bartender
• Harvard Club of the UK: Recent Alums Coordinator (2002–04), board member (2004–07)

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

• Clear Lines Festival (Founder & Artistic Director)—the U.K.’s first arts festival dedicated to addressing sexual assault and consent
• Primadonna Festival (Board of Trustees)—the U.K.’s leading feminist literary festival
• Writer, speaker, and advisor on issues around sexual violence

Achievements and Honors:

• Honorary Doctorate of Law, National University of Ireland (2018), in recognition of my writing and activism
• Associate Lecturer in Creative and Life Writing, Goldsmiths, University of London
• TEDx Talk: 'Reframing the way we think about sexual violence'
• Visiting Fellow in Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science
• PhD in Media and Communications, London School of Economics (2024) on emotional labor and sexual violence survivors in the media
• Film Series Producer and Festival Programmer, Doha Tribeca Film Festival (Qatar, 2010–13)
• Head of Development, Ugly Duckling Films (U.K., 2002–08)—served as Associate Producer on four independent feature films and two shorts (one Oscar nominated)
• George Mitchell Scholar (2001) for postgraduate study in Ireland

Published novels

• Dark Chapter (2017)—Edgar Award nominee, winner of the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, translated into 10 languages, wrote the screenplay adaptation funded by the British Film Institute and Northern Ireland Screen
• Complicit (2022)—New York Times Editors’ Choice, shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award
• What We Left Unsaid (2025)

But my single greatest achievement would be recovering from my rape in 2008 and managing to rebuild a life afterwards. It is a challenge which far too many individuals in this world face, often in secret.

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

As a Folklore and Mythology concentrator at Harvard, I was met with a recurring question: ‘What will you do with a degree in that?’

Twenty-five years later, I can tell you: many things.

In a career ranging from film festivals to zoos to publishing houses, I’ve always been driven by a worldview that germinated at Harvard. A realization that the world is full of things to learn and wonders to appreciate. And that we can find joy in the sharing of stories.

In 2008, that worldview was shaken, when I was violently raped by a stranger outside Belfast. It is not the kind of incident we publicly share, but it is the kind of trauma which permanently shapes a person’s trajectory.

I’ve since dedicated the past 16 years to changing the public narrative about sexual violence through my writing, research, and activism. As an undergraduate, I never envisioned this work, but I did learn the value of pursuing knowledge with integrity and sharing it with the world. Some forms of knowledge are unwanted, gained through trauma and injustice. But through the skills I gained at Harvard and the support of alumni I’ve met, this kind of recovery has become possible.

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Chris Nowinski, PhD

Co-founder & CEO, Concussion Legacy Foundation

House Affiliation:

Mather

Freshman Dorm:

Wigglesworth

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

AB ’00, Sociology, cum laude

Harvard-Related Activities:

I played defensive tackle for the football team and otherwise did work-study shelving books at Lamont Library or working security at Annenberg. I peaked at getting to perform some shows with the Immediate Gratification Players (IGP) my senior year, and I think I’ll blame the joy they gave me for my decision to go into professional wrestling and performing as Chris “Harvard” Nowinski in the WWE. Since 2010 I’ve volunteered as a consultant for the Ivy League Multi-Sport Concussion Committee.

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

I cofounded the Concussion Legacy Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity, in 2007 and have served as CEO for the last 17 years. I was inspired to address the global concussion crisis after I was kicked in the head in a WWE match in 2003 and suffered a traumatic brain injury that gave me post-concussion syndrome for more than a decade. Researching concussions at the Harvard Medical School library while trying to find a way to fix my brain, I learned that concussions were far worse than we were being told, and the NFL was covering it up. I immediately retired and wrote a book, Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis, in 2006 as my penance for ruining my brain and wasting my Harvard education (which is what I thought at the time). Thankfully, I have gradually recovered and completed a PhD in behavioral neuroscience at Boston University School of Medicine, where I cofounded the BU CTE Center and UNITE Brain Bank, and I serve on the board of directors of Concussion Legacy Foundation Canada and Australia. I have committed my life to making sports and military service safer for the brain and learning how to diagnose and cure CTE in life.

Achievements and Honors:

I am proud to have started the global concussion conversation so we now have concussion laws in all 50 states to protect our children. I cofounded the first academic research center in the world focused on CTE, and the first CTE-focused brain banks in the United States at Boston University, England at Oxford University, Australia at the University of Sydney, and New Zealand at the University of Auckland. CTE is extremely rare in the population, but widespread in those who have had long careers playing football, ice hockey, soccer, rugby, and other contact sports.

When I began, there were only 48 cases of CTE ever published globally and it was almost exclusively studied in boxers. Since then, our brain banks have diagnosed nearly 1,000 new cases. I have led recruiting efforts that have allowed us to study 400 deceased former NFL players (92 percent positive), 19 NHL players (95 percent), and publish the first cases of CTE in male athletes who played ice hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and served in the military. Our brain banks also diagnosed the first two female athletes, a soccer player and a rugby player, with CTE in 2023, both of whom died by suicide at 28. While the NFL originally disputed our claim that football causes CTE, they now agree and are changing how they play. In 2022 a peer-reviewed publication and letter I wrote helped convince the National Institute of Health to officially recognize a causal relationship between repetitive traumatic brain injuries and CTE.

Honors

• Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award, United States Sports Academy, 2019
• “40 Under 40,” Boston Business Journal, 2017
• ETHOS Award (CLF), Santa Clara University Institute for Sports, Law & Ethics, 2014
• Distinguished Service Award, United States Sports Academy, 2012
• Sport at its Best Award: Player Safety Advocate, Ralph Nader’s League of Fans, 2012
• Eisenhower Fellow, 2011
• President’s Medallion Award, Western New England College, 2011
• Hockey News “40 Under 40 Most Powerful People in Hockey,” 2011
• Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Finalist, 2010
• James Brady Award, Brain Injury Association of Illinois, 2010
• PETA Compassionate Action Award, 2008
• WWE Newcomer of the Year, WWE Magazine, 2002
• Two-time WWE Hardcore Champion

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

I recognize that attending Harvard was a gift. Spending four years with my classmates changed my view of what is possible in life. I left Harvard believing I could do anything, which I probably took too far when I chose to join the WWE. However, I now consider myself lucky to have been kicked in the head as it provided a path worthy of the educational opportunity I was given.

Harvard gave me the credibility to take on both the football and medical establishment before I became a neuroscientist. Harvard gave me the connections to classmates and alumni who have played essential roles in the progress we’ve made.

It breaks my heart that two of my Harvard teammates are already deceased and have been studied at our brain bank. One had stage 2 CTE and the other is being studied now. While the risks of football have changed my relationship with the game, I am grateful for the special bonds I forged on the field that continue to drive me to find a cure for CTE. Harvard helped hone my sense of justice and service to attempt to do something meaningful with my life. As controversial as my role has been, I hope people understand why I continue to fight, and how much it means to me to leave a positive and enduring difference in the world.

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Thomas P. Windom

Federal Prosecutor

House Affiliation:

Adams House

Freshman Dorm:

Pennypacker

Harvard Degree/Concentration:

AB ’00, Government, cum laude

Harvard-Related Activities:

In college, I was a prefect for two years, first in Grays West and then in Matthews South; tutored elementary school children in Boston through PBHA's Keylatch program; and was the captain and coxswain for Adams House crew. I also was a researcher-writer (in Melbourne) and then the editor-in-chief (in Cambridge) for Let's Go: Australia.

After college, I interviewed college applicants, all of whom left me in awe and made me appreciate even more having been lucky enough to go to Harvard. Most of my continued affiliation has been socially focused on keeping up with the friends I was fortunate to meet along the way. And though we live in D.C., I also joined and occasionally visit the Harvard Club of New York, primarily to give a little sense of Harvard to my two daughters in hopes that one day they may want to apply.

Major Charitable/Other Activities:

When I'm not working, my nights and weekends are spent driving my daughters to various distant soccer fields and cross-country courses.

Achievements and Honors:

I began 12 years ago as a line prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. In my time there, I was fortunate to work on teams with wonderful law enforcement agents and fellow prosecutors, trying cases big and small. We brought justice for victims of large-scale financial crimes, put away murderers, and prosecuted one of the largest classified document theft cases in the country. We confronted the threat of white supremacists and dismantled one particularly extreme organization (of unfortunately many), garnering recognition from the FBI director. Eventually, I became chief of the office's Southern Division, which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting all federal crimes for a population of 2.5 million people. And ultimately, I was asked to join the Special Counsel's Office, where for two years we worked tirelessly investigating and prosecuting efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election.

Greatest Personal Rewards/Reflections on Harvard:

People make the place. I will forever be grateful for the strong friendships with humble, and humbling, classmates. Coming from southern Alabama, I didn't know what to expect but immediately found comfort in Pennypacker's tight community. Then, in Adams, we got to share our sophomore year with the final prerandomization seniors. I spent a considerable amount of time in the crossroads that was Lamont, where probably less studying occurred than should have. And all of those connections sustain me through today.

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