Saturday, June 7
8:00am - 11:00pm
Check-in at Headquarters
Cabot Library, Science Center
Please come to headquarters to check in when you arrive on campus. You will receive your name badge, Reunion materials, and your House/dorm room key and assignment, if you are staying on campus. Luggage storage is available on-site. Learn more and pre-purchase your luggage storage here.
8:00am - 8:50am
Morning Walk
Meet on Widener Library Steps
Grab a coffee or water and meet us for a 30-40 minute walk before the programs begin each morning. It will be a leisurely stroll for walking and talking. We hope to see you there!
Led by Beth Frates and Duncan Wilson
8:45-10:15am
Classmate Workshop: Re-designing Your Life
Harvard Hall 202
Take a deep breath and imagine! Join Lee and Camille for a fun, interactive session that explores your personal and highly timely opportunities to thrive, create meaning, and have impact.
We’re convinced that now is the perfect time for each of us to identify problems we care about and discover our power to advance solutions through a new combination of intuition, collaboration and personal experience. Drawing on principles of human-centered design and our conviction that you have a particular zone of genius to draw from, we’ll go through an exercise that invites you to imagine a concrete, imaginative solution to a problem that matters to you. Tune in to the voice that speaks a little louder now that we no longer need to “comp,” and intentionally design a “next chapter” in your life, through an invitation to work on a project inspired by your values. Lee, with his background in human-centered design, primary care, and healing, and Camille, with her expertise in creativity, entrepreneurship, and coaching, will guide an exercise designed to open up new possibilities for your next chapter. This program can accommodate up to 60 participants and pre-registration is required – you can register here.
Facilitators: Lee M. Sanders and Camille Landau
Camille Landau is a senior marketing leader, and in parallel, a strategic and creative coach to artists and entrepreneurs. She has collaborated in the launch of 100 new companies, and taught entrepreneurship to Masters students. Camille leads a startup collective (Steal This Idea), guiding creators across the country through the thicketed forests of their projects. She has an MFA in Film Production from U.S.C., and an MBA (Strategy & Marketing) from the Anderson School of UCLA. She is the co-author of What They Don’t Teach You at Film School: 161 Strategies For Making Your Own Movie, No Matter What (Hyperion); she is completing the book What They Don’t Teach You About Your Creative Journey: 10 Steps and the Roadmap to Take Your Big Ideas from Spark to Finish.
Lee M. Sanders, MD, MPH is Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy, and Division Chief for General Pediatrics at Stanford University. He holds joint appointments in the Department of Health Policy, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He teaches in the Human Biology Program and at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (Stanford d.School). With funding from the NIH, CDC, FDA and others -- Dr. Sanders founded and directs the Stanford Health Design Studio, which leverages AI and other novel technologies, alongside human-centered design and rigorous analytic approaches, to address health disparities. Working with colleagues across disciplines, he leads multi-disciplinary studies that aim to prevent obesity during early childhood, to mitigate the impact of immigration policy on child health, to inform education policy on the long-term consequences of preterm birth, and to improve caregiving for people with chronic conditions. Dr. Sanders’ newest venture is a global initiative to build “AI for Population Health” -- applying novel analytic tools in support of front-line public health providers in underserved communities. As a multi-lingual primary-care physician – Dr. Sanders cares for medically and socially complex children at Stanford Children’s Health and at a federally qualified health center.
9:00-10:15am
Generative AI: Where We Are at the 35th, Where We May Be by the 40th
Emerson Hall 105
Moderator: David Coale
Panelists: Kira Alvarez, Bruce Lee, and Jason Eisner
David Coale
Widely recognized as one of the top appellate lawyers in Texas, David Coale’s diverse experience ranges from sophisticated constitutional issues in the United States Supreme Court to defense of a payphone operator before a Tarrant County Justice of the Peace. He is among the few lawyers to have handled a matter in all fifteen of the Texas intermediate courts of appeal, and is the only known Texas appellate lawyer who has been fictionalized in a romance-novel series as the lawyer for an outlaw motorcycle gang. A frequent commentator on legal issues, David publishes 600camp.com, a popular blog about business cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and 600commerce.com, a similar blog about the Dallas Court of Appeals and Texas Supreme Court. His recent articles have appeared in Slate, Salon, the Times of Israel, and the Cornell Law Review Online. David has four kids, Caleb 24, Cecilia 20, Camden 17, Casey 15. His son Camden recently won a Texas policy debate championship, making them the first father-son champions in the 110-year history of Texas debate
Kira Alvarez
Kira is Vice President of Government Relations at Paramount Global. In this role she provides legislative advocacy and strategic guidance on issues affecting the company including artificial intelligence, intellectual property rights, tax, antitrust, international trade, and privacy. She serves as the company’s liaison to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Latino organizations. Before joining Paramount, she served as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Intellectual Property and Chief Negotiator for IP Enforcement in the Obama Administration, responsible for bilateral IP negotiations between the US and China, and served as the U.S. co-chair of the IP Committee of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). She negotiated the IP chapters of several US Free Trade Agreements, including those with Chile, Central America (CAFTA) and Morocco. Kira’s work in the private sector includes representing the American Bar Association’s Section of Intellectual Property Rights, and she has also worked for AbbVie, Time Warner and Eli Lilly. She was born and raised bilingual in Miami’s Little Havana. She has a Juris Doctor and Master of Science in Foreign Service (JD/MSFS) from Georgetown University and Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College, where she was Editor in Chief of the Harvard International Review. She is married to Tim Hruby, a fellow Georgetown Law graduate, and they have three children: Penelope (20), Xavier (14) and Cyrus (10).
Jason Eisner
Jason is Professor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University (but did his undergrad degrees in Cognitive Science and Math). He has spent his career building computational models of human language, which is how he got to be a Fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics. Jason is tickled, but also sobered, that everyone is suddenly interested in his corner of the sky. From 2019-2024, he spent half his time as Principal Partner Researcher at Microsoft, where he was director of research at their conversational AI group, Semantic Machines. His broader academic interests in AI include machine learning, automated decision-making, human-computer collaboration, and artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA
Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA is a writer, journalist, professor, systems modeler, AI (artificial intelligence)/computational and digital health expert, entrepreneur, and avocado eater, not always in that order. Currently, he is a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the City University of New York (CUNY), Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Technology and Communication in Health (CATCH) and an AI Center, and the founder/CEO of Symsilico. Dr. Lee has also written extensively for the general media. He is a Senior Contributor for Forbes, where he covers health and science, has a regular column for Psychology Today, called "A Funny Bone to Pick," maintains the “Minded by Science” newsletter, and has written for a number of other media outlets including The New York Times, Time, and The Guardian. But don’t ask him if he knows martial arts.
10:30-11:45am
Classmate Workshop: AI Playground
Harvard Hall 202
Grab a front seat for the AI revolution with hands-on activities and table discussions. We'll dive into some of the latest tools with a focus on creative opportunities, and even discuss a few ethical dilemmas. Write a song, draw a picture, and redesign a Harvard elective in less than 15 minutes.. Whether you're an AI expert or just curious, this event is for you. We, the humans in the room, are the experts! Let's collaborate, learn, and imagine the future together. All are welcome to attend. This program can accommodate up to 40 participants and pre-registration is required – you can register here.
Organized by: John Emerson, Tina Lount and Duncan Wilson
John Emerson has generated over $100m in new product revenue, building health tech products that make healthcare accessible to patients, providers, and institutions that support them. He has an MBA from UC Berkeley. Workwise, he is most proud of setting up and leading product strategy at Healthline.com, the #1 Consumer Health site in the US and co-founding COVIDCheck Colorado during the pandemic. Recently, he has been advising several AI companies. He lives in Denver, Colorado, with his family and loves exploring the Mountain West region.
Tina Lount is a tech professional with a career spanning AI startups, enterprise software, and predictive analytics. With her Harvard undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and Visual Environmental Studies and an MS in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford, Tina has spent over two decades at the intersection of AI and ML innovation, technical communication and training, and product development. She has worked across industries from quick-service automation to enterprise data analysis at companies including McD TechLabs, Ayasdi, Alpine Data Labs, and SAP Ariba.
Duncan Wilson is a career educator with over 30 years experience as a teacher, principal, adjunct professor, and district leader. His AB from Harvard is in History and Literature; his EdD from Columbia is in Curriculum and Instruction. He has K-12 curriculum development experience in literacy, Problem Based Learning, STEM, sustainability, and Digital Literacy. He is currently working for The Mill Institute, an Ed Start up promoting viewpoint diversity in polarized communities.
10:30-11:45am
Classmate Panel: Middle-essence: Navigating Your Next Chapter
Emerson Lecture Hall 105
Are you experiencing a midlife crisis or a midlife chrysalis? It's not uncommon for people in their 50s-60s to go through major transitions or career changes, often spurred by becoming empty nesters and/or caring for aging parents. Until recently, there wasn't much attention paid to this life stage. But now there are books, retreats, and fellowships (#AdvancedLeadershipInitiative) to help us navigate middle age with purpose and grace. Come hear stories from classmates who have made major changes in what they do, and leave with tips for navigating your own next chapter.
Moderator: Heather McLeod Grant
Panel: Heather Gunn, John Malone, Michelle Montague-Mfuni, Mark Donovan
Heather McLeod Grant
Heather is a seasoned philanthropy advisor, published author, and serial entrepreneur with 30+
years of leadership in social impact. She co-founded Open Impact, the New Leadership Network, and Who
Cares Magazine; co-authored Forces for Good, The Giving Code, Pioneers in Justice, Leading Systems Change and more; and worked at McKinsey and Monitor Institute. She has served on 10+ nonprofit boards, was educated at Harvard and Stanford, and splits her time between Silicon Valley, CA where she’s a Fellow at the National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP), and the UK, where she is a Better Futures Fellow at Cambridge University.
https://www.mcleod-grant.com/
Mark Donovan
Mark is a Denver-based entrepreneur and philanthropist. He received a B.A. in Economics from Harvard and is a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School. In 1992 Mark co-founded Wooden Ships Knits, a Bali-based women’s sweater brand. In 2020, he founded the Denver Basic Income Project to advance the use of guaranteed income to invest in people and their ability to thrive when given trust, hope, and a financial foundation. Mark is the father of three boys, an avid skier and outdoorsman who also loves to play the piano and guitar. He is committed to fighting all forms of injustice and protecting our planet for future generations.
Heather Gunn
In 1990, Heather Gunn headed to LA with an English degree and a bucket of hope. After thirteen years of struggling to find acting work, she went to Harvard Medical School and became an emergency medicine physician. But venture capitalists soured her on healthcare, and COVID was the straw that broke, etc. She’s now a novelist, writing steamy historical romance. Pen name Felicity Niven. Find her books on Amazon!
John Malone
John is a multi-award-winning voice actor who lives in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles with his wife Daisy and their many cats. Born and raised in the Greater Boston area, John has been devoted to the craft of acting since grade school. He attended Harvard University where he studied Chemistry, but spent most of his time appearing in, directing, and producing plays with the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club. After a few years in the shirt-and-tie world post-graduation, John eventually made his way to Hollywood to pursue a dream. Along the way, John has reinvented himself numerous times, playing the real-life roles of analytical chemist, technology guru, computer programmer, bartender, forensic accountant, TV/film actor and voice talent. He spends most of his days alone in a padded room talking to himself and capturing it all with a microphone.
Michelle Montague-Mfuni
Michelle is an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Richmond. She lived in South Africa for 21 years as a working professional after receiving her MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Her most recent corporate role was as a Senior Manager in the Strategy Division at Ernst & Young Advisory Services (Pty) Ltd in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2016. Presently, Dr. Michelle Montague-Mfuni's research frequently draws on the African context to explore and expand strategic, international business, stakeholder, entrepreneurial, and family business theories.
11:45 am - 12:00pm
Breath and Movement Break
Sever Tent
Join your classmates for restorative standing/seated yoga with breathwork before our class lunch.
Led by: Priya Bhatia Monahan
12:00-2:00pm
Field Day and Class Lunch
Sever Tent
Come join your classmates for a BBQ lunch with an open beer and wine bar and yard games. After you eat, head into Harvard Yard for more games and activities with the other Reunion classes. Suggested dress code is casual. See you there, rain or shine!
2:00pm
Class Photo
Widener Steps, no signage permitted**
2:30-3:45pm
Class Survey Report
Sanders Theater
Are you interested in an in-depth statistical research analysis for the trends and opinions of your classmates? Then this session isn’t for you. But if you want a lighthearted look at who we are and how we’ve changed with a blatant disregard for margin of error calculations, then join us in Sanders Theater for a review of our Class Survey.
Before the survey report Sara Melson will lead us in an exercise to connect with our breathing and inner vision to ground our mind and body in an awareness of the present.
Organized and hosted by: Andy Freed, Tammie Ruda and Eleni Theochari
4:00-5:15pm
Class of ’90 Speaks! Six Mini-TED Talks
Emerson Hall 105
Come hear your classmates give short TED-like talks on a variety of topics ranging from responding to random texts from strangers to the current Administration.
Susan B. Glasser: A Report from Trump’s Washington
Ethan Herschenfeld: Fun with Spam
Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA: My Advice To You Is To Give UpLinda Rottenberg: The Multiplier Effect: Changing the Language of Success
Peter Schildkraut: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Confessions of an AI Lawyer
Julio Ricardo Varela: Harvard Expectations and the Freedom to Choose Differently
Organized by Laurie Spira-Savett
Co-hosted by: Stephanie Altman Dominus
Susan B. Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker based in Washington, D.C., writes a weekly column on life in Washington and is a host of the Political Scene podcast. Glasser has served as the top editor of several Washington publications, including Politico, where she founded the award-winning Politico Magazine, and Foreign Policy, which won three National Magazine Awards, among other honors, during her tenure as editor-in-chief. Before that, she worked for a decade at the Washington Post, where she was the editor of Outlook and national news. She also oversaw coverage of the impeachment of Bill Clinton, served as a reporter covering the intersection of money and politics, spent four years as the Post’s Moscow co-bureau chief, and covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She started her journalism career in the nineteen-eighties, as an intern at the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, which she later edited. Her books include “Kremlin Rising,” “The Man Who Ran Washington,” and “The Divider,” a best-selling history of Donald Trump in the White House, which she co-wrote with her husband, Peter Baker.
Ethan Herschenfeld got some festival nominations for his portrayal of Dr. Samuel Benjamin in the mockumentary "Today Is Now!" He also wrote Dr. Benjamin's satirical self-help book "Today Is Now!" available on Amazon. Ethan's comedy special "Thug Thug Jew" was briefly #1 on iTunes and Amazon. He sang with opera companies around the world including the Metropolitan Opera and Teatro La Fenice, and has appeared in shows and movies including The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Boardwalk Empire, Bull, Damages, Elsbeth, Girls, High Maintenance, Madam Secretary, Manifest, The Plot Against America, Pose, Red Notice, Law&Order: SVU, Zero Day, and upcoming in Black Rabbit, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, and The Savant.
Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA is a writer, journalist, professor, systems modeler, AI (artificial intelligence)/computational and digital health expert, entrepreneur, and avocado eater, not always in that order. Currently, he is a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the City University of New York (CUNY), Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Technology and Communication in Health (CATCH) and an AI Center, and the founder/CEO of Symsilico. Dr. Lee has also written extensively for the general media. He is a Senior Contributor for Forbes, where he covers health and science, has a regular column for Psychology Today, called "A Funny Bone to Pick," maintains the “Minded by Science” newsletter, and has written for a number of other media outlets including The New York Times, Time, and The Guardian. But don’t ask him if he knows martial arts.
Linda Rottenberg is Co-Founder & CEO of Endeavor, the Global Network of Trust of, by, and for entrepreneurs in nearly 50 countries. Linda also oversees Endeavor Catalyst Funds, the global investment fund of Endeavor, which counts $540M AUM, 350+ investments, and 61 $1B+ “Unicorns” in its portfolio. She has been named “Innovator for the 21st Century” (TIME), one of “America’s Best Leaders” (U.S. News), “The World’s Mentor Capitalist” (Tom Friedman) and “The Entrepreneur Whisperer” (ABC). Linda serves on several public company boards (NYSE: GLOB; Lead Independent Director) (NYSE: OLO), (NYSE: SPARC); vice-chairs Yale’s President’s Council on International Activities; and joined the founding advisory board of Yale Ventures. Her book CRAZY IS A COMPLIMENT was a NYT bestseller. Linda is a graduate of Yale Law School; she lives in Brooklyn with her husband, author Bruce Feiler; their identical twin daughters attend Yale College.
Peter Schildkraut co-leads Arnold & Porter’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications industry team. He provides strategic counsel on AI regulation and risk management as well as spectrum use, broadband, and other TMT regulatory matters. Peter helps clients navigate the ever-changing opportunities and challenges of technology, policy, and law to achieve their business objectives at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and elsewhere. He is the author of “AI Regulation: What You Need To Know To Stay Ahead of the Curve” (2021) and was the U.S. AI regulation presenter for the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ first-ever AI Governance Training.
Julio Ricardo Varela ’90 is an award-winning journalist and senior leader in media and communications. He currently serves as Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at Free Press and is also an MSNBC Columnist and founder of The Latino Newsletter. Julio was formerly President and Editorial Director at Pulitzer-winning Futuro Media, where he led teams behind Latino USA, Latino Rebels, and the In The Thick podcast. He founded Latino Rebels in 2011 and has contributed to major outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NBC News. In 2015, he received the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ inaugural DALE Award for his advocacy and leadership in Latino representation.
4:00-5:15pm
Discussion Group: An Insider’s View into College Campuses Now
Emerson Hall 210
Join classmates Eileen Chow, Associate Professor of the Practice of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke, and Tina Lu, Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures and Head of Pauli Murray College at Yale, for open discussion and Q&A on what it’s like on the ground at college campuses today.
7:00-8:00pm
Harvard ‘90 Author Showcase and Mixer
Winthrop House JCR
Don't have all the books written by your Harvard 90 classmates? Well, don't just bleep all over your shelf. Come to the Harvard 90 author showcase and mixer on Saturday, 7:00 pm at Winthrop House JCR to meet your esteemed author classmates. This will be a great opportunity to attract more readers and trade notes with fellow authors about publishing and stuff like the comma sutra. Finally, if you are an editor or publisher, make sure you book this event as well. This could help you find the next Wilde thing.
Organized by Bruce Y. Lee
7:00-11:00pm
Class Dinner & Party
Winthrop House
The highlight of the Reunion! Enjoy dinner, drinks, and dancing on campus. Suggested dress code is summer cocktail.
Join our Photo Booth at the Winthrop House “Welcome Back to the Future” event! Even if you’re not going to be at the Reunion, you can add your pictures to our photo album in real time! The link will become active once the event starts.
11:00 pm-2:00am
Late Night Party!
Hong Kong Restaurant
1238 Massachusetts Ave, Harvard Square
Organizer: Julio Varela. Food and drinks not included. Please note the kitchen closes at 11, so food must be ordered before then.
