Harvard Alumni Association Honorands Six alumni have been recognized for their outstanding service to the University.
Alice Abarbanel ’66, of Berkeley, California, is the founder and volunteer project director of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Oral History Project, which collects transcripts and audio and video recordings that capture the voices of alumnae from the 1940s through 1979 (the final class to be admitted by a separate Radcliffe admissions committee). Abarbanel also received the Harvard Alumni Association’s Clubs and Shared Interest Groups (SIGs) Outstanding Volunteer Leadership Award in 2024 for volunteer work with the Radcliffe Club of San Francisco, where she continues to serve on the board.
Siri Chilazi ’10, M.B.A.-M.P.P. ’16, of Boston, a senior researcher at the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, is a reunion leadership chair for the Class of 2010 gift committee and has chaired all of her Harvard Business School class reunions. A longtime Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) director and secretary, she has served on the recent graduate leadership committee of the Harvard College Fund and was a founder of onBOARD (a year-long initiative for first-year HAA directors to help them become acclimated to the board) and springBOARD (a program designed for third-year HAA directors to help them chart the next stage of their Harvard volunteer engagement).
Joyce Putnam Curll ’65, of Keene, New Hampshire, is a former dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard Law School and a longtime participant in the Harvard College Host Family Program. She and her late husband, Dan Curll ’64, remained active in the lives of the 16 students they hosted through the years. (In honor of the couple, Max Chen ’04, M.B.A. ’08, J.D. ’10 and his wife, Maggie, established the Dan and Joyce Curll Harvard College Host Family Program Fund.) Curll also co-chaired HAA initiatives to build community among older alumni, such as the Crimson Society, and served on the boards of the HAA, her class reunion committee, and the Radcliffe Choral Society Foundation.
Vanessa W. Liu ’96, J.D. ’03, of New York City, served as HAA alumni president in 2021-2022 and, in 2023, was elected by alumni to serve a six-year term on the University’s Board of Overseers. She is the cofounder of the New York chapter of Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, a member of the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance, and an alumni interviewer for the College. Prior to her term as HAA president, she served as an elected director and held several other roles on the board. During the pandemic, she co-organized a virtual event for the HAA Alumni Allyship series that was sponsored by more than 65 alumni clubs.
Michael Clarence Payne ’77, M.D ’81, M.P.H. ’82, of Malden, Massachusetts, is a former elected director on the HAA board. He has contributed to his College and Medical School reunion committees as well as HAA initiatives focused on broadening engagement. He is also a member of the Medical School’s alumni mentoring program on aging and of the happy observance of Commencement committee, which helps ensure that Commencement and Harvard Alumni Day run smoothly.
Regina Ryan, M.P.A. ’04, of Boston, is an expert at building Shared Interest Groups from the ground up and strengthening the alumni community. She has served as the HAA board’s club and SIG director and led several SIG organizations. As president of Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, Ryan transformed the organization into a vibrant global community of 22,000 members across 22 chapters and expanded the group’s offerings, notably launching the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, which has supported more than 48 alumni startup founders.
