Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Melissa S. Kearney is the Gilbert F. Schaefer Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame and director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on poverty, inequality, social policy, and the economics of families and fertility.

Kearney is the author of The Two-Parent Privilege (University of Chicago Press, 2023), named a Best Book of the Year by The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. 

She holds a B.A. in economics from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in economics from MIT.

Professor Kearney's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Lowe Institute of Political Economy at CMC.

(Source: University of Notre Dame)

Sean Kennedy is the executive director of the Center for Juvenile Law & Policy at Loyola Law School. For the past 15 years, he has taught appellate advocacy and the death penalty law seminar at the Law School. In 2013, Kennedy was named Criminal Defense Attorney of the Year by the Los Angeles County Bar Association and received the Fidler Institute Award for Defense Lawyer of the Year from Loyola. He is a recipient of the Public Interest Award by Loyola’s Public Interest Law Foundation. Prior to working in public defense, Kennedy was an associate at Talcott, Lightfoot, Vandevelde, Woehrle & Sadowsky, LLP, where he handled white collar criminal defense cases.

Professor Kennedy’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the history department at CMC.

(Photo credit: Loyola Law School)

Amy Gallo works with individuals, teams, and organizations to help them better collaborate, communicate, and transform their culture to support dissent and debate. She is the best-selling author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) and the Harvard Business Review "Guide to Dealing with Conflict." She has published often in Harvard Business Review, where she is a contributing editor. Her writing has been collected in numerous books including on feedback, emotional intelligence, and managing others. 

From 2019 to 2025, Gallo co-hosted HBR's popular Women at Work podcast, examining the struggles and successes of women in the workplace. Gallo has delivered keynotes and workshops at numerous companies and conferences and often appears in media outlets for her perspective on workplace dynamics, conflict, and difficult conversations. Her advice has been featured in multiple news outlets internationally. 

A graduate of Yale College, she holds a master’s in public policy from Brown University. 

Ryan Patel is currently a William F. Podlich Distinguished Fellow at CMC. Patel is an expert in scaling businesses and has served both startups and publicly traded firms. Listed as one of the “Creators to Follow” by LinkedIn Editor in Chief and recognized as a “Top Voice” on Linkedin, Patel is a news commentator board director. Patel also hosts "The Moment with Ryan Patel," featuring conversations with top innovators and executives. 

 This program is co-sponsored by the Financial Economics Institute and Kravis Leadership Institute, both at CMC.

Danielle Allen is James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. She is also director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and director of the Democratic Knowledge Project, a research lab focused on civic education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy, she is also a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, tech ethicist, and distinguished author. She is a contributing columnist at The Atlantic Magazine, winner of the 2025 Barry Prize, and was the 2020 winner of the Library of Congress’ Kluge Prize, which recognizes scholarly achievement in the disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prize. She received the Prize “for her internationally recognized scholarship in political theory and her commitment to improving democratic practice and civics education.”

Across nearly three decades in higher ed, Danielle has worked to make the world better for young people. She won the Quantrell award for excellence in undergraduate teaching at the University of Chicago, where she also served as Dean of the Division of Humanities (2004-7); she chaired the board of the Mellon Foundation (2015-19), as that foundation expanded the range of institutions in which it invests; she wrote for the Washington Post from 2008-2024, with a column on constitutional democracy; and she has developed a public policy portfolio on issues from cannabis legalization and public health policy to democracy renovation, civic education, and sound governance of and with new technology.

As a scholar, Allen currently concentrates on democracy renovation: studying how to reconnect people to their civic power, experience, and responsibility via civic education and how to redesign our political institutions to improve their responsiveness, increase the accountability of officeholders, and reward the participation of ordinary citizens. Her most recent book, Justice by Means of Democracy, provides the foundation for this work. Her forthcoming book, The Radical Duke, a biography of an 18th century British political reformer, is due out with Liveright/Norton in 2026.

Professor Allen’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by Kravis Lab for Civic Leadership, the Open Academy, the Salvatori Center, and the President's Leadership Fund, all at CMC.

(Photo credit: Melissa Blackall_PrimaryHR)

Philip Wallach is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies America’s separation of powers, with a focus on regulatory policy issues and the relationship between Congress and the administrative state.

In his latest book Why Congress (Oxford University Press, 2023), Wallach defends the centrality of Congress in America’s constitutional system, traces the roots of current dysfunction, and suggests how the institution might be restored.

Before joining AEI, Wallach was a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, where he authored To the Edge: Legality, Legitimacy, and the Responses to the 2008 Financial Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). He was later affiliated with the R Street Institute and served as a fellow with the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress in 2019.

Wallach’s scholarly and popular work has been published widely, including in the publications of the Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets, Studies in American Political Development, Fortune, National Affairs, National Review, Law & Liberty, Los Angeles Times, RealClearPolicy, the Bulwark, the Hill, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. A frequent conference participant, he has lectured at William & Mary, the University of Oregon, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, among others.

Wallach received a master’s and doctorate in politics from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University’s College of Social Studies.

(Source: AEI)

Erik Ramanathan P’27 served as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden from December 2021 until January 2025. Ambassador Ramanathan was credentialed in Stockholm in January 2022, just five weeks prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. His tenure in Sweden centered on working with Swedes across all sectors of society as they navigated far-reaching changes accompanying the reversal of over 200 years of military non-alignment, the decision and challenging accession process to join NATO, and new understandings of autocratic threats to the democratic values and trade and investment norms that undergird their vibrant economy and way of life.

Leveraging key legislative tools like the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act, Ambassador Ramanathan led efforts to ensure the U.S. and Sweden worked hand-in-hand to address challenges and opportunities in climate sustainability and green transition, emerging technology, pandemic and supply chain resilience, and other geopolitical complexities that require greater cross-border coordination and cross-sector collective action than ever before. U.S-Swedish technological and defense cooperation flourished, while bilateral trade in goods and services and Swedish direct investment in the U.S. both roughly doubled in three years, creating over 200,000 new American jobs.

Since returning from Stockholm in January 2025, Ambassador Ramanathan has been a keynote speaker, media commentator, and strategic consultant to multinational public and private enterprises navigating fast-changing geopolitics and global security challenges. He serves on the International Policy Advisory Council of the Center for American Progress, guiding global-facing policy development and education for one of America’s leading nonpartisan think tanks.

Prior to his diplomatic service, Ambassador Ramanathan was a long-time strategic leader and change agent on a portfolio of six institutional boards of directors. He most prominently served as Chairman of Heluna Health, a trailblazing national nonprofit that has been advancing public health for over 50 years. Before that, he was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of ImClone Systems, a Nasdaq-100 biotechnology firm. His academic and teaching experience includes four years as Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, the world’s leading research program and think tank on the evolving global legal profession.

Ambassador Ramanathan has a passionate interest in empowering and supporting others to thrive at scale, whether it be through health care and community wellness, human rights advocacy, or inspiring military and civilian service veterans to start a career in public service. He has been a prominent LGBT+ community leader and change agent for more than three decades and is the recipient of honors including the Global Vision Award. Among numerous non-profit and public service roles, he has long chaired the board of Immigration Equality, guiding its rapid growth into a highly effective national legal services and advocacy organization for LGBT+ and HIV+ immigrants and refugees.

A native of rural western New York, Ambassador Ramanathan earned a B.A. in behavioral biology with highest honors at Johns Hopkins University and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. 

Ambassador Ramanathan is the featured speaker for Family Weekend 2026.

Todd Barker '01 is the co-founder, chief executive officer, and chief investment officer of Freestone Grove Capital, formed in February 2023. Prior to founding Freestone Grove Partners, Mr. Barker spent 17 years at Citadel. He joined the $38 billion firm in 2004 as an analyst and was appointed head of global equities primary strategies in 2005. In 2009, he was promoted to portfolio manager, and in 2012 was named regional co-head of global equities, San Francisco. Barker joined Surveyor Capital in 2016 and led the business for five years.

Prior to joining Citadel, Mr. Barker served as a financial analyst for the investment banking and equity capital markets divisions of Goldman, Sachs & Co. 

Barker earned a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from CMC and was  elected to CMC’s Board of Trustees in December 2022.

The panel discussion from 6:30 to 7 pm will focus on "Public vs. Private Markets" with the following panelists:
 

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Ben Herrick '04 is an associate portfolio manager on the Artisan Partners International Value Team. In this role, he oversees the research process and conducts fundamental research as a generalist. Prior to joining Artisan Partners in December 2015, Mr. Herrick was a senior equity analyst for Del Rey Global Investors. Earlier in his career, he was an equity analyst at Relational Investors, LLC, and started out his career as an equity analyst at TCW. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from CMC, an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and is a CFA. He is a member of the FEI’s Board of Associates.

 

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Isaac Richard III (Pitzer '16) is CEO of Mavros, a multi-family office and strategic advisor to some of the world’s most accomplished and influential entrepreneurs, visionaries, athletes, families and institutions. Mavros integrates a platform of family office, asset management and investment banking solutions continuing to shape the future of how significant wealth is managed, how capital is deployed and how legacies are extended across generations. Isaac manages the firm’s strategic direction and continues to serve select single-family office and UHNW clients. He earned his BA in Economics from Pitzer College and currently resides in Los Angeles. 
 

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Valay Shah’08 is the Chief Financial Officer at C3 Industries, overseeing finance, treasury, accounting, corporate development, and investor relations. Prior to joining C3, Valay was a partner at Apollo Global Management, where he led industrial sector coverage for the Hybrid Value team and executed structured investments in companies such as Cimpress, MFA Financial, and WR Grace. He also helped form Venerable Holdings and previously held roles at Moelis & Company as an investment banker. Valay earned his BA in Mathematics and Economics with a concentration in Finance from Claremont McKenna College, graduating summa cum laude. He is a member of Board of Advisors of FEI and RLCIE.

 

Please note special schedule for this event:

5:30-6:00 p.m. Networking Reception
6:00-6:30 p.m. Dinner
6:30-7:00 p.m. Panel Discussion on "Public vs. Private Markets"
7:00-7:15 p.m. Q&A with the panelists
7:15-7:45 p.m. Keynote by Todd Barker '01
7:45-8:00 p.m. Q&A

This conference is hosted by the Financial Economics Institute with support from the Student Investment Fund and the Robert Day Scholar's Program, all at CMC.

Steve Sabicer is a writer, entrepreneur, and the creator of The Enlightened Omnivore, a weekly Substack newsletter and podcast exploring food, craft, and ecology in a rapidly changing world. 

More than a decade ago, he left a successful Fortune 500 career to apprentice as a butcher, eventually helping grow Electric City Butcher into one of Food & Wine magazine’s Top 100 butcher shops by sourcing exclusively from California farms practicing regenerative agriculture.

Sabicer is a graduate of Pomona College and has been featured in Food & Wine, FoodBeast, the Los Angeles Times, and the Orange County Register. He moved ten times before finishing high school and has traveled to more than forty countries. He now lives in Claremont, California, with his wife and three children and escapes whenever possible to his cabin in the Mojave Desert.

 

Erich Hatala Matthes is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Wellesley College, where he has taught for 13 years. He is the author of two books with Oxford University Press: Drawing the Line: What to Do with the Work of Immoral Artists From Museums to the Movies (2022) and What to Save and Why: Identity, Authenticity, and the Ethics of Conservation (2024). His research and teaching cover a wide range of topic on the ethics, politics, and aesthetics of cultural heritage, art, and the environment.

Professor Matthes's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at CMC.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Mark Lilla was educated at the University of Michigan and Harvard University. After holding professorships at New York University and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, he joined Columbia University in 2007 as Professor of the Humanities wherein he specializes in intellectual history, with a particular focus on Western political and religious thought. His courses include The Modern Self, Enlightenment and Its Critics, and Themes in Intellectual History. 

Lilla has been awarded fellowships by the Russell Sage Foundation, the Institut d’Etudes Avancées (Paris), the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), and the American Academy in Rome. In 1995 he was inducted into the French Order of Academic Palms. 
 
Lilla is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Liberties, and publications worldwide. His books include The Stillborn God, The Reckless Mind, The Shipwrecked Mind, and most recently Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know (2024). 

Professor Lilla’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Open Academy at CMC.

Anna Romandash is an accomplished investigative reporter and writer whose work focuses on war, human rights, gender, and social justice. A native of Ukraine, she has extensively covered Russia’s war against her country, documenting its impact on civilians, civil society, and democratic institutions. Romandash is the author of "Women of Ukraine: Reportages from the War and Beyond" and "Stories of Resilience." Her work has appeared in international media outlets, where she has covered issues including displacement, political repression, and the resistance of Ukrainian society under ongoing Russian aggression. 

Ms. Romandash's Athenaeum program is co-sponsored by CMC’s history department, Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies, and the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights.
 

José Chiquito is a first-generation Mexican-American raised in both Mexico and the United States. As the oldest son in a mixed-status family, José has focused his studies and early career on serving immigrant communities. He spent his Elbaz year in Mexico working with Sin Fronteras, a civil society organization providing free legal assistance to migrants settling in Mexico City. After his year at Sin Fronteras, José remained in Mexico City, where he continues to grow his binational network of human rights advocates. He recently completed a post-grad certificate from El Colef, one of Mexico's leading research institutes on international migration

Riley Green, born and raised in Colorado, now lives in Washington, D.C. and works in anti-financial crime. She spent her Elbaz year in D.C. as a research and data analyst for The Sentry, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to hold war profiteers and kleptocrats to account. At The Sentry, she built visualizations of illicit financial networks, supported an investigation of the Wagner group's activity in Mali, and analyzed gaps between sanction regimes. Now a full-time financial crime fighter, Riley is the Project Coordinator for Thought Leadership at ACAMS (The Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists). At ACAMS, Riley supports international efforts between the public and private sectors to prevent fraud, money laundering, and sanction evasion. 

Hilary Appel is the Podlich Family Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at CMC. Appel has published numerous books and articles on the politics of economic reform and the foreign policy of Russia and Eastern Europe. Her co-authored book with Mitchell A. Orenstein, entitled From Triumph to Crisis: Neoliberal Economic Reform in Post-Communist Countries (Cambridge University Press, 2018), won the Silver Medal Laura Shannon Prize for Best Book in European Studies 2018-2019. Appel has received numerous national fellowships. In addition to her classes and research, Appel currently serves as the Director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies.

Jean-Pierre Murray is an assistant professor of Government at CMC. His research and teaching interests include critical security studies, migration, human trafficking, Latin America and the Caribbean, global and regional governance, international organizations, and international law. His current research (and book project) focuses on the securitization of South-South migration in the Latin America and Caribbean region in which he explores the roles of elite political actors, civil society organizations, and intergovernmental organizations in constructing or contesting narratives and frames about migration and migrants as national security threats, and the corresponding security-based policy responses.

Hicham Bou Nassif is the Weinberg Associate Professor of International Relations and the Middle East at Claremont McKenna College. His expertise spans various fields, including authoritarianism, civil-military relations, and Middle East politics. His scholarship includes "Endgames: Military Response to Protest in Arab Autocracies" (Cambridge University Press) and numerous peer-reviewed articles. He is currently writing a second book on America's policy in the Middle East under Reagan. Proficient in Arabic, English, and French, he brings a multicultural perspective to his work. Beyond academia, he has undertaken extensive fieldwork in various countries in the Middle East, showcasing a hands-on approach to research, specifically focused on military politics in authoritarian contexts.

Jennifer Morrison Taw is Associate Professor of Government and International Relations at Claremont McKenna College, where she teaches an annual freshman honors Introduction to International Relations course, as well as Security Studies, War, War Film, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Race, Gender, & Identity in International Relations. Prior to coming to CMC, Taw taught as an adjunct professor at Occidental College, UCLA, and USC. Earlier in her career, she worked for decade at RAND, where she conducted research for DOD and the US Army on counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, peace operations, and special operations forces.

This Athenaeum program is the featured 2025-26 Jerome H. Garris Dialogue Series at CMC, modeling constructive dialogue across different perspectives. 

Paul Hurley is the Sexton Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College. The central focus of his scholarship over the past two decades is the moral theory known as consequentialism, of which utilitarianism is one variant, together with the distinctive conception of reasons that accompanies it.  Although this moral theory and the accompanying conception of reasons has been adopted as the default in philosophy, law, policy, and the social sciences, Hurley has argued, in dozens of articles and books (most recently his Against the Tyranny of Outcomes, 2024), that this approach is nonetheless deeply misguided, alienating us from good reasons that reflect what is truly important, and licensing dangerous manipulation, both of ourselves and of others.

In recognition of his work with students, Hurley has received the Apple for the Teacher Award (University of Pittsburgh), the Wig Distinguished Teaching Award (Pomona College, 3 times), and the Huntoon and Senior Huntoon Teaching Awards (Claremont McKenna College). 

Michael Patrick MacDonald is the author of the New York Times bestseller All Souls: A Family Story from Southie and the acclaimed memoir Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion. 

MacDonald grew up in the Old Colony Housing Project in South Boston, a neighborhood that once held the highest concentration of white poverty in the United States. After losing four of his eleven siblings and witnessing his generation decimated by poverty, crime, addiction, and incarceration, he moved beyond the entrenched borders of his community toward solidarity and coalition-building with Boston’s Black and brown survivors and organizers. In those communities, he learned the power of grassroots organizing and storytelling to transform personal and collective trauma into voice and agency, and brought that work back home to “Southie,” building multiracial working-class led movements. 

He currently teaches restorative and transformative justice at Harvard and Northeastern University and is working on a third book which will use storytelling to explore how people heal from atrocity through narrative reclamation and community building.

Mr. MacDonald's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Open Academy at CMC.