In addition to our staff and project teams, Columbia World Projects receives crucial support and input from two groups of volunteer leaders: The Advisory Committee and the President’s Council. Columbia World Projects is also supported financially by a cohort of generous donors.
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 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
Mike Purdy
Anthony Shorris
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic
Ex Officio, Columbia University:
Alex 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
Safwan Masri
Executive Vice President, Global Centers
Jeannette Wing
Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute
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 Avanessians, Chair
Abdulrahman R. Al-Rashed
Vuslat Dogan-Sabancı
Abigail Black Elbaum
Mark Gallogly
Keith Goggin
George Jiang
Ann F. Kaplan
Mark E. Kingdon
Jonathan S. Lavine
James Leitner
Andrónico Luksic
Azmi Mikati
Adam N. Pritzker
Neil Shen
Esta Stecher
Tim Steinert
Lise Strickler
Richard Witten
Donors
Columbia World Projects thanks the following donors who have made commitments to support our work:
Abdulrahman R. Al-Rashed
Armen A. Avanessians
Xue Fang & Yan Huo
Estate of Leon W. Gibson
George Jiang
Mark E. Kingdon
Kresge Foundation
Jonathan S. Lavine & Mrs. Jeannie B. Lavine
Azmi Taha Mikati
Robert Chee-Siong Ng
Adam N. Pritzker
David E. Shaw
Lu Sun
Bruno Z. Wu