Curriculum Advisory Committee

Committee Members

(F) former faculty; (S) former student; (P) current or former parent

Dr. Christian Arbelaez (F,P), MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in emergency medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital, Boston. He is also the Assistant Residency Director of the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency Program and the Associate Director of the Office for Multicultural Careers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Dr. Arbelaez is a recognized leader on clinical and educational innovation in the areas of emergency medicine, public health, and workforce diversity, and has participated in volunteer relief efforts in such hard-hit locations as New Orleans and Haiti. He is currently involved in the development of emergency medicine as a specialty in his native country of Colombia.

Robert S. Berg is a physics professor at Wellesley College. He has taught courses ranging from introductory to advanced quantum mechanics. He received his A.B. from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. Robbie co-developed a course at Wellesley called Robotic Design Studio. In this innovative, interdisciplinary course, students learn how to design, assemble, and program robots. Through their robotics projects, Robbie’s students tap into a wide range of disciplines, including computer science, physics, math, biology, psychology, engineering, and art.

Neil H. Buchanan is an associate professor of law at The George Washington University Law School. He received his A.B from Vassar College where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Neil went on to earn his A.M. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He won the Allyn Young Teaching Prize and a certificate for distinction in teaching from Harvard. Neil has taught economics at Wellesley, Goucher, and Barnard Colleges, as well as the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan. He earned his J.D from the University of Michigan, magna cum laude, and clerked for Judge Robert Henry for the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Jim Cocola (F), Ph.D., is an assistant professor of literature, film, and media in the Department of Humanities and Arts at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His current research includes projects on the imaginative making of place in modern and contemporary American poetry; electronic and digital mediations of modern and contemporary American poetry; and the cultural and geographical dimensions of Italian-American literature and film. He is also working on manuscripts for a collection of lyric poems along with an epic sequence. Dr. Cocola is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, essays, and a book of poetry. He earned his Ph.D. in English at the University of Virginia and earned his A.B. from Harvard College. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, Dr. Cocola was the Humanities Dean at The American School of Tangier, Morocco, and was a Stowe-Harvard Fellow at the Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, England.

Leah Hager Cohen (F) is the author of four nonfiction books and three novels, including Train Go Sorry, House Lights, and The Grief of Others. She has written extensively for The New York Times as well as the New York Review of Books, and has taught writing at Emerson College. Currently, she holds the Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross and is teaching in Lesley University's MFA program. Her honors include making The New York Times' Notable Book List four times, the American Library Association's Ten Best Books of the Year, and Toronto Globe and Mail's Ten Best Books of the Year. Leah received her B.A. in creative writing from Hampshire College and her M.S. in journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Michael C. Dorf (F) is the Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell Law School and was previously the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at the Columbia University School of Law. He was also the Michael Sovern Professor of Law and the vice-dean of the Columbia University Law School. While teaching at Rutgers University School of Law (Camden), he was the recipient of the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award. Mike writes extensively on U.S. constitutional law issues and civil procedure matters for both scholarly publications and popular audiences. While at Harvard Law School, Mike was Best Oralist and captain of the first-place team for Ames Moot Court. He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Mike earned his A.B. from Harvard College magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Dr. Andrew Eyre (F) is a resident physician in the emergency departments of Brigham and Women’s and The Massachusetts General Hospital. His research has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Medicine and he has presented at the national meeting of the American Urologic Association. He began his medical career while an undergraduate at Williams College, working as a certified emergency medical technician with Village Ambulance Services. He brought his interest in medicine to EXPLO at St. Mark's, where he worked as a staff member for three summers — as a teacher, curriculum advisor, and residence director. Dr. Eyre was deeply involved in the development of both EXPLO's Emergency Medicine and Sports Medicine Focus Programs. Dr. Eyre is a cum laude graduate of Williams College and earned his medical degree at The University of Vermont, where he won the Wasserman Prize for Scholastic Performance. He was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society and the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society.

Barry J. Fishman (S, F) is an associate professor of learning technologies and educational studies at the University of Michigan's School of Education and School of Information. Previously, he was a visiting associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Barry is the 2001 recipient of the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies, the 2003 Evan and Helen Geib Pattishall Award, the 2004 Council of Great City Schools Urban Impact Award, and the 2010 Provost's Teaching Innovation Prize, awarded by the University of Michigan. He received his A.B. In English and American literature from Brown University, his M.S. in instruction systems technology from Indiana University, and his Ph.D. in learning sciences from Northwestern University.

Nathaniel O. Keohane (F) is the Director of Economic Policy and Analysis for Environmental Defense, as well as their chief economist. Nat works to develop and advocate environmentally responsible and economically sound climate policies aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. He seeks to bring economic theory and empirical analysis to bear on questions such as the optimal design of cap-and-trade systems and the long-term impacts of climate policy on the U.S. economy. Prior to working at Environmental Defense, Nat was an assistant and then associate professor of economics at the Yale School of Management. He received his B.A. from Yale University and his Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard University.

Wei-Chung Allen Lee (F) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. His general research interest is understanding how information is processed in the brain. More specifically, he aims to elucidate the interplay between circuit structure and neuronal function by combining state of the art imaging techniques to map network activity in the intact brain, then examine how neurons are wired together. Wei earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his S.B. in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and his A.B. in biochemistry and government from Bowdoin College.

Douglas Liman (S) is a film director and producer. He began making short films while still in junior high school and studied at the International Center of Photography in New York City. While attending Brown University, he co-founded the student-run cable television station and served as its first station manager. After graduate school, he directed Swingers, and the film Go. Doug enjoyed further success when he helmed the action thriller The Bourne Identity, and stayed on as Executive Producer of The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. He directed Mr. & Mrs. Smith, his most commercially-successful film to date, and executive produced and directed pilot episodes of the Fox drama, The O.C. Doug's film Fair Game was a candidate for the Palme D'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Ramien R. Pierre (F) works as an analyst with NASA APPEL and is a Project Manager at UNCF Special Programs Corporation. Previously, Ramien served as Administrator for Education Department at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he directed the Vilar Institute for Arts Managment. Prior to his work at the Kennedy Center, Ramien was the Executive Director of the Dance Institute of Washington. He has worked as Assistant Dean of Students at Haverford College and at the George School. Ramien earned his B.A. in political science at Haverford College, an M.A. in social studies education at Brown University, an M.Ed. in mind brain education at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and a certificate in arts management from the Vilar Institute for Arts Management. He received his Doctorate of Education for Learning & Teaching at Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Gideon Rose (S) was appointed Editor and Peter G. Peterson Chair of Foreign Affairs magazine in October 2010. For the previous ten years, he served as the magazine's Managing Editor. From 1995 to 2000, he was the Olin Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and served as Chairman of the Council's Roundtable on Terrorism. Previously, he served as Associate Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, and taught American foreign policy at Columbia and Princeton Universities. Gideon received a B.A. in classics from Yale University and a Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Harvard University. He writes extensively on terrorism and foreign affairs, and wrote the 2010 book, How Wars End.

Jonathan Z. Simon (F) is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he splits his time between the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Biology. Jonathan's research interests are in auditory neural computations and representations, magnetoencephalography and cortical physiology, signal processing in biological systems and computational and theoretical neuroscience. He has been awarded numerous grants from the National Institute of Health to support his work. Jonathan graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in physics from Princeton University. He also holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Linda Siperstein is a staff doctor at the VCA Wakefield Animal Hospital (Massachusetts). Linda earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DMV) degree from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and completed an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston. Linda received her B.S. from Northwestern University, after which she became a public radio producer.

Brian R. Soucek (F) recently decided that his philosophy research would be enhanced by a deeper understanding of the law. Consequently, he enrolled at Yale Law School. Prior to embarking on his legal journey, Brian was an assistant professor in the Humanities Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago. Much of his work centers on the personification of art: the way that notions such as autonomy, agency, authenticity, or expression are invoked analogously in discussions both of persons and of artworks. Brian also writes on the philosophy of music, particularly opera. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in philosophy and economics from Boston College. Brian was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the college's highest honor, the Finnegan Award. Brian earned an M.Phil and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, and was a Jacob Javits and Andrew Mellon Fellow.

James C. Spohrer (F) is the Director of Almaden Services Research at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA. Jim also serves as an advisor to the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. He received a B.S. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Ph.D. in computer science from Yale University. He has lived in Rome, Italy, where he was a visiting scholar at the University of Rome "La Sapienza," and a lecturer at major European universities. Jim has published broadly on speech recognition, empirical studies of programmers, artificial intelligence, and authoring tools. He helped establish two educational non-profit research websites, The Educational Object and Worldboard: Associating Information with Places.

Glenn Stark is a professor of physics at Wellesley College, where he has taught for 19 years. Glenn holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.S. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to his work at Wellesley, Glenn was a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. His research is in the field of experimental molecular spectroscopy. His laboratory programs emphasize molecular transitions which are of interest to astrophysics, planetary atmospheres, and aeronomy communities.

George T. Whitesides (S) is CEO of Virgin Galactic, a firm developing commercial space vehicles. Previously, he was named Chief of Staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration after serving on the NASA transition team for the incoming Obama Administration. He is also the former Executive Director of the National Space Society. George co-founded the global astronomy education program Permission to Dream (PTD) in 2002. A Fulbright Scholar, George received his graduate degree in remote sensing and geographical information systems from Cambridge University, and his undergraduate degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University. He is a licensed private pilot and certified parabolic flight coach.