In addition to our staff and project teams, Columbia World Projects receives crucial support and input from two groups of volunteer leaders: The President’s Council and the Advisory Committee. Columbia World Projects is also supported financially by a cohort of generous donors.
President’s Council
The President’s Council is a group of senior advisors to Lee C. Bollinger, President and Seth Low Professor of the University, and Columbia World Projects. President’s Council members consider Columbia World Projects’ overall direction, recommend focus areas and contribute to project funding. The current members of the President's Council are:
Armen A. Avanessians, Chair
Abdulrahman R. Al-Rashed
Abigail Black Elbaum
Mark Gallogly
Keith Fitzgerald Goggin
George Jiang
Ann F. Kaplan
Mark E. Kingdon
Jonathan S. Lavine
James Leitner
Andrónico Luksic
Azmi Taha Mikati
Adam N. Pritzker
Vuslat Doğan Sabancı
Neil Shen
Esta Eiger Stecher
Timothy A. Steinert
Richard E. Witten
Ex Officio, Columbia University:
Alexander Halliday
Director, The Earth Institute
Amy Hungerford
Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Shannon Marquez
Dean of Undergraduate Global Engagement
Jeannette Wing
Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute
Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee, a group of Columbia faculty and practitioners from outside the university, provides hands-on, strategic direction to Columbia World Projects. This includes recommending which project ideas merit further development and identifying key issues and potential challenges that could arise during project development and implementation. The current members of the Advisory Committee are:
Armen A. Avanessians
CIO, Quantitative Investment Strategies, Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Jared Cohen
CEO, Jigsaw; Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Nabila El-Bassel
Professor, Willma and Albert Musher Professor of Social Work, Columbia University
Mary-Ann Etiebet
Lead & Executive Director, Merck for Mothers
Farah Griffin
Ransford Professor of English & Comparative Literature and African-American Studies, Columbia University
Malo Hutson
Associate Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Director, PhD in Urban Planning Program in the Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University
Olatunde Johnson
Jerome B. Sherman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Boyana Konforti
Director of Scientific Strategy & Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Nicholas Lemann
Pulitzer-Moore Professor of Journalism; Director, Columbia Global Reports, Columbia University
Jack Snyder
Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, Columbia University
Nicholas Tatonetti
Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University
Sheena Wright
President & CEO, United Way of New York City
Former Members: Members of our Advisory Committee serve three-year terms, although some members have left prior to completing their term due to job changes.
Wally Adeyemo
Salman Ahmed
Rob Berschinski
Sarah Cleveland
Michael Doyle
Wafaa El-Sadr
Christopher Fomunyoh
Jacob Hacker
Shamus Khan
Jeremy Konyndyk
Jack Lew
Rob Malley
Tara McGuinness
Maria Victoria Murillo
Alondra Nelson
Kate Orff
G. Michael Purdy
Anthony Shorris
Maya Tolstoy
James Valentini
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic
Donors
Columbia World Projects thanks the following donors who have made commitments to support our work:
Abdulrahman R. Al-Rashed
Armen A. Avanessians
Estate of Leon W. Gibson
George Jiang
Mark E. Kingdon
Kresge Foundation
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Jonathan S. Lavine & Jeannie B. Lavine
The Mikati Foundation
Robert Chee-Siong Ng
Adam N. Pritzker
David E. Shaw
Lu Sun
Swiss Re Foundation
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Richard E. Wittenv Bruno Z. Wu
Xue Fang & Yan Huo
Obama Foundation Scholars Program Faculty Partners
The Obama Foundation Scholars Program partners with faculty across Columbia University to serve as advisors and workshop instructors for Obama Foundation Scholars. Faculty partners are selected for their subject matter expertise to provide Scholars with new insights and perspectives to inform Scholars’ work. They teach a variety of workshops designed to strengthen Scholars’ capacity to lead and accelerate the impact of their work. Columbia World Projects thanks the following faculty members:
Lisa Anderson
Joanne Bauer
Sally E. Findley
Yasmine Ergas
Beth Fisher-Yoshida
Lynn Freedman
Leymah Gbowee
Bill Grueskin
Jeffrey Henig
Sarah Holloway
Radhika Iyengar
Wilmot James
Sarah Knuckey
Upmanu Lall
Cindy M. Lott
Eugenia McGill
Terry McGovern
Denise Milstein
Priyanka Motaparthy
David Park
Andrea Prat
Saskia Sassen
Renata Schiavo
Elsa Stamatopoulou
Bruce Usher
Paige West
Former Columbia World Projects Fellows
Columbia World Projects thanks the following fellows who have contributed to our work.
Bernadette Baird-Zars
Orriel Richardson
Hollie Russon Gilman