Host Sam Hopkins Invites you to hear Classmate Joan Hutchins, Nathán Goldberg, 
and Three Elected Petition Candidates to Discuss:  

Change through Harvard’s Board of Overseers Elections 

Joan served on the Board of Overseers from 1994-2000, and was elected President her final year.  Her career began as a mathematician for Shell Oil in San Francisco, and then for British Petroleum in London, followed by management consulting at McKinsey & Co. in New York City.  In 1987, after raising four children, she became president of Compotite Corporation, a family owned business manufacturing building materials.  She retired from Compotite in 2016, but continues to serve on several Harvard committees.   

Nathán Goldberg ’18, co-founder of Harvard Forward, oversees the campaign’s strategy and policy development efforts.  He will describe the movement and its purpose, inspired by anti- apartheid petition candidate Desmond Tutu in the late 1980s, to draw attention to climate change and support divestment from fossil fuels.  Nathán is the founder of Bluebonnet Data, a non-profit organization that recruits and trains college students to volunteer as data analysts on progressive political campaigns.

Three recently-elected members to the Harvard Board of Overseers, Midge, Jason, and Thea, will join the discussion in their personal capacities, to share why they ran for the Board, and how their experiences will shape their priorities as Board members.  

Thea Sebastian (College ‘08, HLS ‘16) works to transform the U.S. criminal-legal system and dismantle structural inequality as Policy Counsel for Civil Rights Corps, coordinating policy efforts to address race-based and wealth-based injustices. In her free time, she does pro-bono voter protection and works with Indigenous peoples to fight voter suppression.

Margaret “Midge” Purce (College ‘17) is a professional soccer player for the U.S. Women’s National Team and Sky Blue FC.  As a member of the National Women’s Soccer League‘s collective-bargaining Executive Committee and founder of the Black Women’s Player Collective, she is at the forefront of the fight for gender equity and racial justice on and off the field.

Jayson Toweh (HSPH ‘19) is an environmental scientist and program analyst at the U.S. EPA in Atlanta, identifying and responding to water-related issues.  He wrote his thesis on the dangerous health effects of coal power generation, and he was one of the inaugural fellows of the Climate Leaders Program for Harvard’s professional schools.and he was one of the inaugural fellows of the Climate Leaders Program for Harvard’s professional schools. 

Saturday, March 13^th from 1 to 3 pm Eastern

RSVP to Tom Blodgett by Wednesday, March 10^th  

with Harvard Forward in your subject line.  We will send you
                                 the Zoom log-in information a few days before the event.

                              Thank you.  Hope to see you there.