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6 New Members Elected to Harvard Board of Overseers

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Harvard alumni elected six new members to the Board of Overseers, the University’s second-highest governing body, Harvard announced Tuesday morning.

The newly-elected Overseers include Upstream USA Chief Executive Officer Mark A. Edwards ’82; Center for Climate and Energy Solutions president Nathaniel O. Keohane; former Tufts Medical School dean and pharmaceutical executive Michael Rosenblatt; Tubi CEO Anjali Sud; actor and SAG-AFTRA Foundation president Courtney B. Vance ’82; and NPR All Things Considered podcast co-host Mary Louise Kelly ’93, a former Crimson News editor.

All six members, with the exception of Sud, will serve six-year terms. Sud will serve for two years, filling a vacancy created by the resignation of Canadian Prime Minister Mark J. Carney ’82, who served on the Board of Overseers until March when he assumed office. The new members’ terms will begin July 1.

The Overseer election process continued to be plagued by lower voter turnout. While more than 400,000 alumni were eligible to cast a ballot, only 39,725 voted — an increase of about 4,000 from the turnout in last year’s race.

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All five of the candidates that the Coalition for Diverse Harvard — an alumni group focused on promoting diversity and inclusion at Harvard — endorsed were elected to the Board of Overseers. Rosenblatt did not score an endorsement from the Coalition, who recommended that alumni only vote for their five chosen candidates rather than cast a sixth ballot.

Of the three candidates the 1636 Forum, an alumni group created by former Facebook executive Samuel W. Lessin ’05, endorsed, two — Rosenblatt and Keohane — won their races.

Harvard alumni were initially presented with a slate of eight candidates, though one later withdrew. Unlike the 2024 race — which included several high-profile write-in campaigns, including one from Lessin — this year’s race featured no write-in hopefuls.

The University also announced the six newly-elected directors of the Harvard Alumni Association, chosen from a slate of nine candidates. The directors will serve three-year terms and be responsible for overseeing the HAA’s efforts to broaden engagement. More than 1,300 more alumni casted a vote in the directors’ race than in the Overseers election.

The new directors include software engineer Colin K. Kegler ’97; consulting firm managing director and Harvard Club of the United Kingdom president Victoria “Vicky” Wai Ka Leung ’91; Los Angeles Unified School District board member Nicholas J. Melvoin ’08; Sports Innovation Lab Chair Angela M. Ruggiero ’02; and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency New England Chief of Staff Sanjay Seth.

Five of the six candidates that the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard endorsed in March were voted in. Ahn was the only candidate that was endorsed but did not get a position.

One prominent figure in the race, Allison Pillinger Choi ’06, was not elected to the HAA. Choi had scored a slew of high-profile endorsements from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance, the 1636 Forum, and University Professor emeritus Laurence H. Tribe.

But Choi, and Overseer candidate Lanhee J. Chen ’04, were singled out last month by the Coalition for what the group described as their “concerning statements” regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. Neither were elected in their respective races.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.

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