Board of Overseers election results, HAA-elected directors

The president of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) has announced the results of the annual election of new members of the Harvard Board of Overseers. The results were released at the annual meeting of the association following the University’s 357th Commencement. The five newly elected Overseers follow:

Lynn Wan-Hsin Chang (Newton, Mass.): An internationally acclaimed concert violinist, recording artist, and violin professor, Chang received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1975. He is a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and teaches violin at several conservatories and universities in the Boston area.

Anne Fadiman (Whately, Mass.): An author, editor, and Francis Writer in Residence at Yale, Fadiman received her A.B. from Radcliffe College in 1975. Her writings include two books of essays, as well as the prize-winning “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.” She is the former editor of The American Scholar.

Paul J. Finnegan (Chicago): The co-founder and co-CEO of Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity firm in Chicago, Finnegan is a 1975 graduate of Harvard College. He received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and served as president of the Harvard Alumni Association in 2006-07.

Eve Higginbotham (Atlanta): A 1979 graduate of Harvard Medical School, with S.B. and S.M. degrees in chemical engineering from MIT, Higginbotham is dean and senior vice president for academic affairs at the Morehouse School of Medicine. A member of the Institute of Medicine, she is an ophthalmologist with expertise in the treatment of glaucoma.

David Oxtoby (Claremont, Calif.): Oxtoby is president and professor of chemistry at Pomona College in California. A 1972 Harvard College graduate with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Oxtoby was a distinguished service professor and dean of physical sciences at the University of Chicago before going to Pomona.

The five new Overseers were elected for six-year terms. In 2008, there were nine candidates, eight nominated by a committee of the HAA, as prescribed by the election rules, and one nominated by certificates from Harvard degree-holders. Alumni and alumnae cast 29,350 ballots in the election.

The primary function of the board of overseers is to encourage the University to maintain the highest attainable standards as a place of learning. Overseers carry out this mission by visiting faculties, departments, and other important programs throughout the University so that they can inform themselves about the quality of teaching, research, and administration and then identify problems and offer advice to faculties and University officials.

HAA election results

Additionally, the president of the HAA announced the results of the annual election of HAA-elected directors. The results were released at the annual meeting of the association following the University’s 357th Commencement. The six new elected directors follow:

M. Carolyn Hughes A.B. ’54, retired, former project manager, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Oceanside, N.Y.

Kevin Jennings A.B. ’85, founder and executive director, GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), New York City

Robert Kraft A.B. ’76, president, Fox Music, Encino, Calif.

Elizabeth Reilly A.B. ’91, attorney, WilmerHale LLP, Boston

Rosa Wu A.B. ’03, product manager, Google, San Carlos, Calif.

Andrea Zopp A.B.’78, J.D.’ 81, senior vice president and chief human resources officer, Exelon Corp., Chicago