| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Elizabeth Alexander | | | Institution: | Mellon Foundation | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 503. Administrators, Bankers and Opinion Leaders from the Public or Private Sectors | | | Residency: | resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1962 | | | | | | |
Elizabeth Alexander - poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, and cultural advocate - is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts and culture, and humanities in higher education. With more than two decades of experience leading innovative programs in education, philanthropy, and beyond, Dr. Alexander builds partnerships at Mellon to support the arts and humanities while strengthening educational institutions and cultural organizations across the world.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Alexander served as the director of Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation, shaping Ford’s grantmaking vision in arts and culture, journalism, and documentary film. There, she co-designed the Art for Justice Fund-an initiative that uses art and advocacy to address the crisis of mass incarceration-and guided the organization in examining how the arts and visual storytelling can empower communities.
Over the course of a distinguished career in education, Dr. Alexander has taught and inspired a generation of students. She was the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University from 2015 until joining the Foundation in 2018. Between 2000 and 2015, Dr. Alexander taught at Yale University, where she was a professor in the departments of African American Studies, American Studies, and English, helping rebuild the school's African American Studies department while serving as its chair for four years. In 2015, she was appointed Yale University's inaugural Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry. At Smith College, Dr. Alexander was the Grace Hazard Conkling Poet-in-Residence and the inaugural director of the Poetry Center. While an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, she was awarded the Quantrell Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
An author or co-author of fourteen books, Dr. Alexander was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize: for poetry with American Sublime and for biography with her 2015 memoir, The Light of the World. Her poetry and essays include Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010 (2010), Power and Possibility: Essays, Reviews, Interviews (2007), American Sublime (2005), The Black Interior: Essays (2004), Antebellum Dream Book (2001), Body of Life (1996), and The Venus Hottentot (1990). Accolades for her work include the Jackson Poetry Prize, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the George Kent Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and three Pushcart Prizes for Poetry. In 2009, Dr. Alexander composed and delivered a poem, "Praise Song for the Day," for President Barack Obama's inauguration.
Alexander earned a BA from Yale University, an MA from Boston University, and a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She holds honorary doctorates from Yale University, Haverford College, Simmons College, and the College of St. Benedict. Dr. Alexander is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and serves on the board of the Pulitzer Prize. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2020. | |
| 2 | Name: | Ms. Marin Alsop | | | Institution: | Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Vienna Radio Orchestra, Ravinia Festival; Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University; Vienna Radio Orchestra, Ravinia Festival; São Paulo Symphony | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 501. Creative Artists | | | Residency: | resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1956 | | | | | | |
Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice, a conductor of vision and distinction who passionately believes that "music has the power to change lives". She is recognised internationally for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, for her deep commitment to education and advocating for music’s importance in the world.
From the 2019/20 season, Alsop becomes Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (Vienna RSO), performing in their main series at the Wiener Konzerthaus and Wiener Musikverein, recording, broadcasting, and touring nationally and internationally. Her first season coincides with the Orchestra’s 50th anniversary and will emphasize women in classical music.
Her outstanding success as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) since 2007 has resulted in two extensions in her tenure until 2021. Alsop has led the orchestra on its first European tour in 13 years and created several bold initiatives including OrchKids, for the city’s most disadvantaged young people. At the end of 2019, following a seven-year tenure as Music Director, she becomes Conductor of Honour of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), where she will return to conduct major projects each season.
Marin Alsop was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2020. | |
| 3 | Name: | Ms. Louise Henry Bryson | | | Institution: | J. Paul Getty Trust | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 503. Administrators, Bankers and Opinion Leaders from the Public or Private Sectors | | | Residency: | resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1944 | | | | | | |
Louise Henry Bryson served on the Board of Trustees for the J. Paul Getty Trust for twelve years, four as Chair of the Board. She was made Chair Emerita in 2010. She was asked to Co-Chair the task force to develop and deepen awareness and private support for the first Pacific Standard Time initiative, a project she had strongly supported as Board Chair. In 2011, she co-founded the Getty Conservation Council and serves as its Chair.
Ms. Bryson had a thirty-four-year career in media and retired in 2008. She was President of Distribution for Lifetime Entertainment Services and Executive Vice President and General Manager of Lifetime Movie Networks (LMN). Previously, as Senior Vice President at FX Networks, she represented Fox-owned and affiliated stations in negotiations with all U.S. cable and satellite companies and launched FX in June of 1994 with the then largest distribution in cable history. She was a member of the NBC team that initiated the first Pay-Per-View Olympics and was the General Manager of Z Channel, a critically acclaimed LA-based movie channel.
Ms. Bryson started her career as a producer and writer for public television and continued her interest in public media. She was a founder and Chair of the Board of KCET in Los Angeles, and a former member of the PBS National Board, which honored her with the 1998 Award for Excellence in Public Television Leadership.
She serves on the boards of Huntington Memorial Hospital, California Community Foundation, Second Stage Theatre in New York, Public Policy Institute of California, and Public Media Group of Southern California. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010 and is a member of the Academy’s Trust and Board and Co-Chair of the AAAS 2022 $100 Million Campaign. Ms. Bryson is a former Trustee of American Funds, WETA, the PBS station in D.C. and Trustee Emerita of Pomona College
She has an MBA and MAT from Stanford University and a BA from University of Washington.
She and her husband, John, have four daughters and reside in San Marino, California. | |
| 4 | Name: | Secretary Lonnie Bunch | | | Institution: | Smithsonian Institution | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 503. Administrators, Bankers and Opinion Leaders from the Public or Private Sectors | | | Residency: | resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1952 | | | | | | |
Historian, author, curator, and educator, Lonnie G. Bunch, III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum complex, who was appointed in June 2019.
Prior to assuming this position, Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). In this position he provided strategic leadership in areas of fundraising, collections, and academic and cultural partnerships.
As a public historian, a scholar who brings history to the people, Bunch has spent nearly 30 years in the museum field where he is regarded as one of the nation’s leading figures in the historical and museum community.
Prior to his July 2005 appointment as director of NMAAHC, Bunch served as the president of the Chicago Historical Society, one of the nation’s oldest museums of history.
Bunch has held several positions at the Smithsonian, and spent a number of years at both the National Museum of American History and the National Air and Space Museum.
A prolific and widely published author, Bunch has written on topics ranging from slavery, the black military experience, the American presidency, and all black towns in the American west to diversity in museum management and the impact of funding and politics on American museums.
In service to the historical and cultural community, Bunch has served on the advisory boards of several professional organizations. Among his many awards, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Commission for the Preservation of the White House in 2002 and reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2009.
Bunch has received honorary doctorates from an array of Universities including: Harvard University, Princeton University, Brown University, Dominican University, Roosevelt University, Rutgers University, Northwestern University, and Georgetown University.
Born in the Newark, N.J. area, Bunch has held numerous teaching positions across the country including American University; the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; and The George Washington University. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees from American University in African American and American history.
He is married to Maria Marable Bunch, a museum educator. They have two daughters, Sarah and Katie. | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Carla Hayden | | | Institution: | Library of Congress | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 502. Physicians, Theologians, Lawyers, Jurists, Architects, and Members of Other Professions | | | Residency: | resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1952 | | | | | | |
Carla Hayden is currently Librarian of Congress, a position she's held since 2016. She earned her Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of Chicago and worked for two decades at the Chicago Public Library, eventually becoming the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Librarian of the Chicago library system. Between that and the Library of Congress, she worked at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, was a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and was CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.
Carla Hayden is a pioneering librarian who has made knowledge more accessible and useable. She began her career in the children’s department of the Chicago Public Library in the 1970s. Later, as the Executive Director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Hayden's accomplishments included opening the first branch in thirty-five years and raising over $100M to renovate the main building. Her success earned her the Librarian of the Year Award from the American Library Association in 1995. She later served as the ALA’s president. In 2016, Barack Obama nominated Dr. Hayden to be the fourteenth Librarian of Congress. The Senate overwhelmingly approved her appointment. She is the first woman and first African-American to serve.
In addition to being named Librarian of the Year, Carla Hayden was named Ms. Magazine "Woman of the Year" in 2003 and one of Fortune's "The World's 50 Greatest Leaders" in 2016. She won the President's Medal of Johns Hopkins University in 1998. She authored A Frontier of Librarianship: Services for Children in Museums in 1987. Carla Hayden was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2020. | |
| 6 | Name: | Justice Goodwin Liu | | | Institution: | Supreme Court of California | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 502. Physicians, Theologians, Lawyers, Jurists, Architects, and Members of Other Professions | | | Residency: | resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1970 | | | | | | |
Justice Goodwin Liu is an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. Nominated by Governor Jerry Brown, Justice Liu was unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments and sworn into office on September 1, 2011. He was retained by the electorate in 2014. Before joining the state’s highest court, Justice Liu was Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the UC Berkeley School of Law. His primary areas of expertise are constitutional law, education law and policy, and diversity in the legal profession.
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Justice Liu grew up in Sacramento, where he attended public schools. He went to Stanford University and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1991. He attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship and earned a masters degree in philosophy and physiology. Upon returning to the United States, he went to Washington D.C. to help launch the AmeriCorps national service program and worked for two years as a senior program officer at the Corporation for National Service.
Justice Liu graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, becoming the first in his family to earn a law degree. He clerked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then worked as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. He went on to clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the October 2000 Term. From 2001 to 2003, he worked in the litigation practice of O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C.
Justice Liu continues to teach constitutional law as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Stanford Law School. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute. He serves on the Council of the American Law Institute, on the Board of Directors of the James Irvine Foundation, and on the Yale University Council. He has previously served on the California Commission on Access to Justice, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, the Board of Trustees of Stanford University, and the governing boards of the American Constitution Society, the National Women’s Law Center, and the Public Welfare Foundation. | |
| 7 | Name: | Dr. David Oxtoby | | | Institution: | American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Pomona College | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 503. Administrators, Bankers and Opinion Leaders from the Public or Private Sectors | | | Residency: | resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1951 | | | | | | |
David Oxtoby became President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.
Dr. Oxtoby is President Emeritus of Pomona College and was President-in-Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education prior to becoming President of the American Academy. In 2017, he co-founded the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a coalition of over 400 college and university presidents. As the ninth president of Pomona College, serving from 2003-2017, Oxtoby has been recognized as a leader in American higher education, at the forefront in advancing environmental sustainability, increasing college access, cultivating creativity, and pursuing academic excellence in the context of an interdisciplinary liberal arts environment. Previously, he served as Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences and the William Rainey Harper Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. He served as Chair of the Board of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and as President of the Harvard Board of Overseers. He is the author of over 160 scientific articles, and of two leading chemistry textbooks.
Dr. Oxtoby graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been the recipient of several fellowships, including from the Guggenheim and National Science Foundations. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. Oxtoby received honorary degrees from Occidental College (2005), Lingnan University in Hong Kong (2009), and Miami Dade College (2019). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012. He was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2020. | |
| 8 | Name: | Professor André Watts | | | Institution: | Indiana University | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 501. Creative Artists | | | Residency: | resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1946 | | | Death Date: | July 12, 2023 | | | | | | |
André Watts is currently Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music and Distinguished Professor of Music at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He has been a professional pianist since 1963, having later earned a B.M. from the Peabody Institute from 1972.
André Watts is one of the greatest living American classical pianists, and the first internationally famous Black concert pianist. Watts was a prodigy when he started playing with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 9, and at age 16 he won a competition to play in Bernstein's televised Young People's Concert with the New York Philharmonic. Watts was later called in by Bernstein as a replacement for a sick pianist and Watts's resulting solo performance on New Year's Day in 1963 was enrapturing, inspiring immediate worldwide acclaim. This was followed by his first album, The Exciting Debut of André Watts, and a Grammy Award for most promising new classical music artist. In 1976, he made history with PBS's Live From Lincoln Center program by playing the first fully televised piano recital. Watts has recorded a number of albums over the years, providing interpretations of Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Liszt, among others.
Watts won a Grammy Award in 1964, the Avery Fisher Prize in 1988, the George Peabody Medal in 1990, and received the National Medal of Arts in 2011. He's performed all over the world, and notably performed the following: Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat at Young People’s Concert, 1963; New York Philharmonics Liszt E-flat Concerto, 1963; Great Performer Series at Avery Fisher Hall, 1976; 38th Casals Festival performance, 1995; 100th Anniversary Gala, Philadelphia Orchestra, 2013. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. André Watts was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2020. | |
| 9 | Name: | Sir Robert Tony Watson | | | Institution: | University of East Anglia | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 503. Administrators, Bankers and Opinion Leaders from the Public or Private Sectors | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1948 | | | | | | |
Sir Robert Tony Watson, CMG, FRS
My career has evolved from a Ph.D. student at QMC, London University; a post-doctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley and University of Maryland, USA; a research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, USA; a Federal Government program manager/director at the US NASA; a scientific advisor in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), White House, USA; a scientific advisor, manager and chief scientist at the World Bank; chief scientific advisor to the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Sir Louis Matheson Fellow, Monash Sustainability Institute (MSI), Monash University, Australia, and Professor of Environmental Sciences and strategic director for the Tyndall Center at the University of East Anglia, UK. In parallel to my formal positions I have chaired, co-chaired or directed a number of national and international scientific, technical and economic assessments, including WMO/UNEP stratospheric ozone depletion assessments, Global Biodiversity Assessment, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, UK National Ecosystem Assessment and its Follow-on, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Assessment of Agricultural Scientific and Technology for Development, and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. I have also been awarded a number of honours, including 2012 Knights Bachelor,UK, 2003, Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, UK; fellowships (2011, Fellow of the Royal Society, UK), and awards, including 2014, UN Champion of the World for Science and Innovation, 2010, Asahi Glass Blue Planet Prize, 2008, American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for International Scientific Cooperation, and I contributed to the 2007 - Nobel Peace Prize for the IPCC, which I chaired from 1997-2002. Sir Robert Tony Watson was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2020. | |
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