The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) celebrates those who have made exceptional contributions to their local Harvard clubs and Shared Interest Groups (SIGs), and those organizations that have especially benefited their alumni communities.
The 2021 Outstanding Volunteer Leadership Award recipients are:
Maria Carolina “Carol” Dominguez, AMP ’12. As director and president of the Harvard Club of the Philippines, she has helped build the organization through a commitment to the “One Harvard” ideal, and by embracing alumni throughout the Filipino diaspora. As an HAA director for clubs and SIGs, she was a key contributor to the inaugural HAA Clubs and SIGs International Leadership Workshop, drawing participants together to share best practices and strengthen collective service to Harvard. She has also been a leader in creating resources bolstering the financial sustainability of clubs and SIGs.
Hesham Hamoda, M.P.H. ’10. He has been a leader in the Harvard Arab Alumni Association (HAAA) for nearly a decade, taking on posts as president, vice president, and director of Harvard relations. He has worked to increase membership and the HAAA scholarship fund, encourage Arab applicants, strengthen a volunteer corps, and foster relationships between the HAAA and Arab student groups on campus, playing a key part in organizing two conference series: the Harvard Arab Alumni Association World Conference and the Arab Conference at Harvard. As an HAA director for clubs and SIGs, he has been a thought partner and mentor to current SIG leaders.
The Outstanding Alumni Community Award winners are:
The Harvard Club of Southern California (HCSC), which serves a sprawling alumni population in Ventura, Los Angeles, and Orange counties, is powered by a large, vibrant board of alumni that produces nearly a hundred programs annually committed to service and supporting current students. In addition to its robust schools and scholarships committee (which interviews thousands of Harvard candidates a year) and support for Summer Community Service Fellowships, HCSC partners with SIGs to facilitate a breadth and depth of alumni activities. Its anti-racism programming is a model for other alumni groups, and its COVID-19 response in support of local nonprofits is laudable.
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs (HAE) is a 15-chapter global community with more than 15,000 members from 74 countries. This robust corps of volunteers produces more than a hundred programs a year and works to connect alumni entrepreneurs and the University, through a podcast series, an Entrepreneurs-in-Residence mentorship program, and an Innovation Fellowship administered in partnership with Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business. In 2020, HAE was a leader in pivoting to create online programming (serving as a model and resource for other alumni communities), while also introducing new series, such as Advancing Diversity: Black Entrepreneurship.
