Hauser Leaders Program

Tommy Amaker
Hauser Leader, Center for Public Leadership
Director's Visiting Leader, Harvard Institute of Politics
Thomas G. Stemberg '71 Family Endowed Coach, Harvard Men's Basketball

In the 12 seasons since taking over as head coach of Harvard’s men’s basketball program, Tommy Amaker has reinvented the Crimson into an Ivy League power with a national presence. He has directed Harvard to a period of unprecedented prosperity in the form of seven Ivy League championships (2011-15, 2018-19), four NCAA tournament appearances (2012-15) and six 20-win seasons (2010-15). Amaker is the all-time winningest coach with the Crimson, surpassing Frank Sullivan with a 74-66 win at Boston College Dec. 7, 2016. 

Amaker was introduced as head coach by Nichols Family Director of Athletics Bob Scalise on April 13, 2007, following six seasons as head coach at Michigan and four at the helm of Seton Hall. Amaker owns a 406-270 career record: 230-131 at Harvard, 108-84 at Michigan and 68-55 at Seton Hall. He has earned numerous Coach of the Year awards, including the 2013 Clarence "Big House" Gaines College Basketball Coach of the Year Award, presented to the top minority basketball coach in NCAA Division I. In 2012, he was presented with district coach of the year awards from both the United States Basketball Writers Association and National Association of Basketball Coaches, and was a candidate for the AP National Coach of the Year. He has also been named a finalist for the Ben Jobe Award six times (2011-15, 2019), and the Hugh Durham Award three times (2011, 2012, 2015).

Before beginning his head-coaching career, Amaker won two NCAA championships and advanced to five Final Fours as an assistant and associate head coach at Duke. He was previously a four-year starter at point guard for the Blue Devils, leading the team to the 1986 NCAA title game before earning All-America honors and recognition as the nation’s top defensive player in his senior year of 1987.

Among Amaker’s career achievements:

• 406-270 record (.600)
• 14 postseason appearances
• 2004 NIT championship
• Five NCAA tournament appearances, including 2000 Sweet Sixteen
• Coached six NBA players

Amaker has been the head coach of six players who were either drafted, or signed as free agents, by NBA clubs, including two first-round draft picks.

Amaker served nine years as a graduate assistant, assistant coach and associate head coach at Duke, working for legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski. He was an assistant on two NCAA championship teams with the Blue Devils (1991, ’92) and helped Duke to three other Final Fours in eight NCAA tournament appearances. Duke was a combined 230-80 in Amaker’s nine years on the Blue Devils coaching staff.

A native of Falls Church, Virginia, Amaker began his career in college basketball with a highly successful playing stint at Duke. He led the Blue Devils to four NCAA tournaments, including the 1986 national championship game, and served as team captain as a senior. Amaker was the 1987 winner of the Henry Iba Corinthian Award as the nation’s top defensive player, and he was enshrined in the Duke Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2013, Amaker was inducted in the Washington Metropolitan Basketball Hall of Fame.

Amaker is also a member of the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2013, and the W.T. Woodson H.S. Hall of Fame (Fairfax, Va.) (2012).

Amaker’s playing career also includes a gold medal as part of the U.S. national team at the 1986 World Championships.

A 1987 Duke graduate with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Amaker was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1987 NBA draft. He currently serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and is a former board member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation. Additionally, Amaker served on the board of USA Basketball where he was a member of the Men’s Collegiate and Men’s Senior National Committees, helping to select members of the gold-medal-winning 1996 U.S. Olympic team.

Amaker also serves on the Board of Overseers for the Boys & Girls Club of Boston.

Don Baer
Hauser Leader, Center for Public Leadership
Chair, Board of Directors, PBS; Global Chair, BCW (2018-2019); Worldwide Chair and CEO, Burson-Marsteller (2012-2018)

Don Baer has been PBS’s Board of Directors Chair since 2014. From 2012-18, he was Worldwide CEO and Chair of strategic communications firm Burson-Marsteller and was Global Chair of its successor firm BCW from 2018-19. Since 2014, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of Meredith Corporation, a publicly held media company that owns magazines, television stations and online services and in 2019 was named its lead independent director.

Don’s career has spanned leadership roles as a media and communications executive for a range of business, government, political and non-profit enterprises. He was a top advisor in President Bill Clinton’s first and second terms, when, from 1995-98, he served as Assistant to the President and White House Communications and Strategic Planning Director and, from 1994-95 as Chief Speechwriter/Director of Speechwriting and Research. He helped lead President Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign.

He is also a former journalist covering national affairs and politics, a media executive at Discovery Communications and a lawyer. He serves on the Board of Directors of The Urban Institute and the Advisory Board of NewsGuard, a start-up digital business that uses journalism to fight false news, misinformation and disinformation.

Deborah Borda
Hauser Visiting Leader
President and CEO, New York Philharmonic

Deborah Borda is President and CEO of the New York Philharmonic, a role she assumed in September 2017. Previously, Ms. Borda was President and CEO of the LA Philharmonic; Executive Director of the NY Philharmonic; General Manager of the San Francisco Symphony; President and Managing Director of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and Executive Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout her career, Ms. Borda has extended the artistic, commercial, and technological boundaries of American symphony orchestras. Within her first few months after returning to the NY Phil in 2017, she assembled a new leadership team to support her and Music Director Designate Jaap van Zweden’s vision for the Orchestra, and announced a $50mm launch fund to usher in a new era of fiscal stability. In her first decade in Los Angeles, Ms. Borda reinvigorated plans to build and launch Walt Disney Concert Hall, oversaw the addition of a new shell for the Hollywood Bowl, and reimagined and diversified programming at both venues. She also spearheaded the appointment of music director Gustavo Dudamel, with whom she invested in groundbreaking educational and social change initiatives, including the founding of YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) and the national Take a Stand initiative.

In May 2017, she received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and in 2018 she was named Chair, Avery Fisher Artist Program. In October 2018, Ms. Borda will be inducted as a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Carol Browner
Hauser Leader, Center for Public Leadership
Director, White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy (2009-2011)
8th Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1993-2001)

Carol M. Browner is Senior Counselor at ASG and a distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Ms. Browner also serves on the Board of the League of Conservation Voters, the Board of Directors for Bunge Limited, the Global Oceans Commission, and on Opower’s Advisory Board.

Ms. Browner most recently served as Assistant to President Obama and Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, where she oversaw the coordination of environmental, energy, climate, transport, and related policy across the U.S. federal government. During her tenure, the White House secured the largest investment ever in clean energy and established the national car policy that included both new automobile fuel efficiency standards and first ever greenhouse gas reductions.

From 1993 through 2001, Ms. Browner served as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. As Administrator, she adopted the most stringent air pollution standards in U.S. history; set for the first time, a fine particle clean air standard; and spearheaded the reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act as well as the Food Quality Protection Act. She was known for working with both environmentalists and industry to set scientific-based public health protections while providing businesses important flexibilities in how to meet those standards. She worked across the agency to ensure a focus on protecting the most vulnerable, particularly children.

From 1991 through 1993, Ms. Browner served as Secretary of Environmental Regulation in Florida, where she launched the largest ecological restoration project ever attempted in the United States to restore the natural flow of water to the Everglades.

Ms. Browner serves on the Executive Committee of the Center for American Progress and was a founding board member of the organization from 2003 to 2008.

She earned her B.A. and a Law degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

She is based in Washington, DC.

Tawakkol Karman
Hauser Leader, Center for Public Leadership
2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Tawakkol Karman was born in Shar’ab al-Salam, in Taiz, Yemen later moving with her family to live in Sana’a. She is a founder and an active member of numerous organizations and councils concerning the defense of freedom, democracy and peace, and struggle against tyranny and corruption. Her activities are centered on fighting for human rights, fighting against extremism and military coups, and protecting children and women during wars and armed conflicts.The mother of three is known for her opposition to the regime of former Yemeni president Ali Abdu Allah Saleh, who, after three decades of rule was overthrown in 2011 by popular uprising.

In 2005, Karman founded “Women Journalists without Chains,” an organization that has played a major role in advocating for freedom of the press and human rights in Yemen, which inspired TIME magazine to name her one of history’s most rebellious women in 2014. She has obtained numerous other accolades and affiliations including:

• 2011 Nobel Peace Prize
• 2011 Top 100 Global Thinkers, Foreign Policy magazine
• World's 100 Most Powerful Arab Women, Arabian Business magazine
• 2008 Courage Award, U.S. Embassy, Sana'a
• Member, Transparency International’s Advisory Council
• Member, High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
• Honorary doctorate in law, Alberta University, Canada

In 2007, Karman launched a campaign of weekly peaceful protests against the Saleh regime in Tahrir Square. Karman organized protest marches, staged sit-ins, and mounted media and political campaigns against Sheikh Mohammed Ahmed Mansour, one of the most influential men in the Yemeni government at the time. On the evening of January 23, 2011, she was arrested and charged with holding unlicensed marches, incitement to cause chaos and riot, and undermining social peace. Her arrest, in part, led to the toppling of the Saleh regime on February 11, 2011; this was one of several uprisings of the Arab Spring, also known as the Jasmine Revolution.

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Karman, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and women's rights to full participation in peace-building work." Karman is the first Yemeni, first Arab woman, and second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize; and, at age 32, she was the youngest Nobel recipient at the time. On July 31, 2012, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Karman to a newly-established High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Other members included former German President Horst Köhler, former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Queen Rania of Jordon, and former Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan.

Susana Malcorra
Hauser Leader, Center for Public Leadership
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Argentine Republic (2015-2017)

Susana Malcorra was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Argentina Republic until July 2017. After stepping down, she became Minister Advisor to the President until December 2017, presiding over the Eleventh WTO Ministerial Conference held in Buenos Aires.

She has 25 years’ professional experience in the private sector in IBM and Telecom Argentina where she became CEO. 

Ms. Malcorra left Telecom in 2002 after deciding to seek opportunities in the field on non-profit organizations. She joined the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in 2004. 

In May 2008, United Nations Secretary-General appointed her Under-Secretary General of the recently created Department of Field Support, where she was charge with providing logistics, communications, personnel and financial support services to the UN Peacekeeping Operations all over the world.

In April 2012, Ms. Malcorra became Chief of Staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Thus, in addition to her long career in business, she has invaluable experience in the diplomatic field including a range of activities from handling complex negotiations in conflict situations to the approval by the General Assembly of strategic, financial and budgetary matters.

Among other salient tasks Ms. Malcorra coordinated the Missions to eliminate the Syrian Chemical Weapons and to respond to the Ebola Emergency in West Africa.

She is a frequent speaker, has written her first book (Passion for the Bottom Line) and has multiple affiliations with organizations dedicated to her areas of interest, ranging from sustainable development, to democracy and international trade. Women´s leadership and empowerment are at the center of her work

Desmond Meade
Hauser Leader, Center for Public Leadership
Founder and President, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

Desmond Meade is a formerly homeless returning citizen who overcame many obstacles to eventually become the President of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), Chair of Floridians for a Fair Democracy, and a graduate of Florida International University College of Law.

As President of the FRRC, which is recognized for its work on felony disfranchisement issues, Desmond has orchestrated the reorganization and incorporation of a coalition comprised of over 70 state and national organizations and individuals which includes, but is not limited to the NAACP, ACLU, PICO, Florida League of Women Voters, A. Philip Randolph Institute, PICO Florida, and Florida Immigration Coalition. Desmond has also received many accolades, celebrating his hard work and dedication to leadership and commitment to social justice. He led the FRRC to a historic victory in 2018 with the successful passage of Amendment 4, a grassroots citizen’s initiative which restored voting rights to over 1.4 million Floridians with past felony convictions. Amendment 4 represented the single largest expansion of voting rights in the United States in half a century, and brought an end to 150 years of a Jim Crow-era law in Florida. Desmond is presently leading efforts to empower and civically re-engage local communities across the state, and to reshape local, state, and national criminal justice policies.

A sought-after speaker, Desmond has made numerous appearances on radio and television, and has spoken before national organizations such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bread for the World. Desmond has testified before Congressional members and staffers, and was a part of a delegation to the United Nations where he gave testimony regarding disenfranchisement in Florida. Desmond orchestrated a historic meeting at the White House between returning citizens and the President Obama’s administration. He has appeared on numerous shows such as Al-Jazeera, Democracy NOW and MSNBC with Joy Ann Reid. He is a guest columnist for the Huffington Post in which one of his articles about the death of Trayvon Martin garnered national attention. Desmond has been featured in several newspaper and magazine articles, and was chosen as a “Game Changer” by Politic 365, as well as being recognized as a “Foot Soldier” on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC. Desmond is married and has five beautiful children.

Dr. Ellen Ochoa
Hauser Visiting Leader
11th Director, NASA Johnson Space Center (2013-2018)

Ellen Ochoa is an outside director and speaker, following her 30-year career at NASA as a senior government executive, astronaut and engineer.  She was the Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center from 2013 to 2018, leading the human space flight enterprise for the nation.  She became the first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1993. She has flown in space four times, logging nearly 1,000 hours, leading onboard scientific activities, operating the robotic arm, and serving as flight engineer during the launch, rendezvous, and entry phases of the mission. She has shared her experiences in more than 300 presentations to a variety of audiences.  She is honored to have six schools named after her, several books written about her for the K-8 grades and has been profiled in textbooks and on websites geared toward encouraging females and minorities to pursue technical fields. 

Dr. Ochoa provides executive guidance to a variety of organizations.  She is the Vice Chair of the National Science Board and chairs the Nomination Evaluation Committee of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.  She is on the boards of Service Corporation International, Mutual of America and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.  Previously, she served on the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas board (after chairing the Houston branch board), the Stanford University Board of Trustees and the Manned Space Flight Education Foundation, Inc. 

Dr. Ochoa is the recipient of many awards including NASA's highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Presidential Distinguished Rank of the Senior Executive Service, and three honorary doctorates.  She is in the Astronaut Hall of Fame, the California Hall of Fame and the International Air & Space Hall of Fame and is honored to have six school named after her.

Prior to her astronaut and management career, Dr. Ochoa was a research engineer and holds three patents for optical systems. She earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford, and a B.S. in Physics from San Diego State University.  She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and the Optical Society of America (OSA).

LTG Nadja Y. West, USA, Ret.
Hauser Leader, Center for Public Leadership
44th Surgeon General, United States Army (2016-2019)

Lieutenant General (ret) Nadja West is the 44th Surgeon General of the US Army and the former commanding general of one of the Army’s largest, most complex organizations, the US Army Medical Command (USAMEDCOM). In 2015 West became the first African American woman in the Army’s history to achieve the rank of three stars, and is currently the highest-ranking woman to ever graduate from the United States Military Academy — West Point. A graduate of The George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, West completed residencies in Family Medicine and Dermatology and has held various clinical, operational and leadership positions throughout her more than 30-year career as a Soldier.

In her culminating assignment in the Army as the Surgeon General (TSG) and Commanding General of USAMEDCOM, West managed a budget of $11 billion and led the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) consisting of more than 130,000 dedicated healthcare professionals comprised of Active, Guard and Reserve soldiers, Department of the Army Civilians, contractors and volunteers. These professionals served in medical centers, community hospitals and clinics; dental, veterinary and public health facilities; research, education and training platforms; and in deployed medical formations around the globe. In her role as TSG, West was the senior medical advisor to the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army. During her tenure, she led the AMEDD through the most comprehensive transformation that the Joint Health Services Enterprise has seen in over three decades. Throughout this transition West ensured that the medical readiness of the force remained high, that Combatant Commanders received timely medical support, and that the quality of healthcare provided to the over 4 million lives entrusted to the AMEDD remained outstanding.

West gratefully acknowledges the trailblazers who helped clear the path for her to follow, and the shoulders upon which she stood to climb to the heights she was able to achieve. She is continuing to blaze the path for others to follow. Among West’s accomplishments are several Army firsts. In 1999 she was the first woman selected to be the Division Surgeon for 1st Armored Division (Iron Soldiers!), the first woman selected as the Joint Staff Surgeon in 2014. As the Joint Staff Surgeon West was the advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) on all things medical. West was the first African American confirmed by the Senate to be the Army’s Surgeon General and USAMEDCOM Commanding General.

In addition to West’s military awards, decorations and honors, she holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Public Service from the George Washington University, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Methodist University. She was named as one of Washington’s Most Powerful Women in Washingtonian Magazine in 2019, and is the recipient of the 2019 Daughters of the American Revolution Margaret Cochoran Corbin Award. In 2016 the George Washington University honored West with the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. In 2013 she was awarded the Armed Forces Medical Advocate Award by Essence Magazine at the Essence Evening of Excellence.

West is currently a Hauser Leader at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership, serves on the boards of directors for Nucor Corporation, and Tenet Healthcare Corporation. She is also a trustee of the National Recreation Foundation, dedicated to enhancing the role of recreation as a positive force in improving the quality of life of youth, and volunteers as a catechism teacher for delightful fourth-graders in her parish.

She and her husband Don have two awesome adult children.

Former Hauser Leaders

Larry Bacow (2014-2018) || President, Harvard University; President, Tufts University (2001-2011)

Geoffrey Canada (Fall 2017) || President, Harlem Children’s Zone

Carol Caruso (2017-2018) || CEO and Co-Founder, Bloom Impact; Innovator-in-Residence, Social Innovation + Change Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School

Alice Chen (2017-2019) || Executive Director, Doctors for America (2011-2017)

Nicholas Ehrmann (2017-2018) || President and Founder, Blue Engine; Visiting Innovator, Social Innovation + Change Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School

Claude Grunitzky (2017-2018) || Entrepreneur, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, TRUE Africa; Visiting Innovator, Social Innovation + Change Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School

Donald Kaberuka (2015-2016) || President, African Development Bank (2005-2015)

Nicholas Kristof (2017-2019) || Op-ed Columnist, The New York Times; Pulitzer Prize winner

John Kroger (2018-2019) || President, Reed College (2012-2018)

The Hon. Mitchell Landrieu (Spring 2018) || 61st Mayor, New Orleans, Louisiana (2010-2018)

Linda Mason (2014-2017) || Chair, Mercy Corps; Founder, Bright Horizons

Karen Gordon Mills (Fall 2018) || 23rd Administrator, United States Small Business Administration (2009-2013)

Vivek Murthy (2017-2019) || 19th United States Surgeon General (2014-2017)

Emily Kernan Rafferty (Fall 2019) || President Emerita, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Henry Timms (2018-2019) || President and CEO, Lincoln Center

Doug Ulman (Fall 2019) || President and CEO, Pelotonia

Sheryl WuDunn (2017-2019) || Co-founder, FullSky Partners; Pulitzer Prize Winner