Six alumni have received the Harvard Alumni Association’s 2023 HAA Awards for their outstanding service to the University.
Michael R. Alderete ’79, of San Francisco, a longtime alumni interviewer, has co-chaired the Harvard College schools and scholarship committee for Contra Costa County for more than 30 years. He is past president and an active member of the Harvard Club of San Francisco’s board of directors, and recently served two terms on the HAA board of directors.
Elinor B. Balka ’62, of Forest Hills, N.Y., founded the Harvard Outreach Committee in New York, through which members have collaborated with more than 55 high schools in underserved communities across the city, encouraging gifted students to consider applying to the College and educating families and guidance counselors about financial aid. She received the Hiram S. Hunn Memorial Schools and Scholarships Award in 2008 for her work as an alumni interviewer.
Guy L. Fish ’81, of Cambridge, previously served on the HAA’s board of directors, including as treasurer on the executive committee and as a director for Harvard College. He helped lead an HAA initiative on diversity, inclusion, and belonging and a subsequent initiative on storytelling and public narrative and has been active in his class’s thirty-fifth- and fortieth-reunion committees.
Alice E. Hill ’81, A.M. ’88, Ph.D. 91, of Melbourne, Australia, has volunteered for Harvard in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and in 2019 she became the first Australian, the first Canadian, and the first person living in the Asia-Pacific region to serve as HAA president. A past president of the Harvard Club of Victoria, she also chaired its fellowship program, which sends nonprofit leaders to the Business School’s social enterprise program.
Bertram “Bert” A. Huberman ’44, M.B.A. ’48, of Sarasota, Florida, has chaired every reunion committee for his College class since its twenty-fifth, and every reunion committee for his Business School class since 1948. He also founded the Bertram and Wilma Huberman Judaica Collection at Harvard Library. As the oldest returning alumnus in 2023, he led the alumni parade into Tercentenary Theatre on his one-hundredth birthday. With his friend and classmate, the late Dan Fenn, Huberman led the creation of the Crimson Society, which offers annual reunions for elder College classes. He has also maintained the class treasury and newsletter for the Class of 1944 War Memorial Fund in honor of each deceased classmate.
Jason Luke ’94, of North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, a former University facilities management expert, was instrumental to the seamless production of numerous Harvard events, from presidential inaugurations to graduation exercises. He began supervising the dorm crew shortly after graduation and moved on to become a frontline “Commencement superintendent.” An alumni volunteer for almost 30 years, he has co-chaired every reunion of his class and previously served as co-chair on the HAA board, as a member of the Happy Committee, and as a first-year student adviser (see Harvard Portrait, May-June 2019, page 19).
