The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) nominating committee has announced the 2026 candidate slates for the Board of Overseers (one of the University’s two governing boards) and the HAA’s own elected directors. Balloting is open from April 1 through May 19 at 5:00 P.M. Degree holders other than officers of instruction and government may vote for Overseer candidates; all degree holders can vote on the HAA elected-director candidates.
Other candidates seeking a position on this year’s ballot must have submitted the required number of petition signatures by January 29. For information about the Overseer candidates’ views on University governance, look out for Harvard Magazine’s forthcoming Q&A with the candidates, which will be published next week.
The HAA nominating committee candidates for the 2026 ballot are listed below. Six candidates will be elected Overseers, and six will be elected HAA directors:
Overseer candidates*
Salvo Arena, LL.M. ’00, of New York City, partner, Chiomenti
Nisha Kumar Behringer ’91, M.B.A. ’95, of Greenwich, Connecticut,
independent director and audit committee chair, Birkenstock Holding PLC
Clive Chang, M.B.A. ’11, of Miami, president and CEO, YoungArts: The National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists
Teresa Hillary Clarke ’84, J.D. ’89, M.B.A. ’89, of Miami, chair and executive editor, Africa.com; former managing director, Goldman Sachs & Co.
Arti Garg, Ph.D. ’08, of Hayward, California, EVP and chief technologist, AVEVA
Trey Grayson ’94, of Walton, Kentucky, partner, FBT Gibbons; former secretary of state, Commonwealth of Kentucky
Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena, LL.M. ’98, of Mexico City, former justice, Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (Mexico)
Nadine Burke Harris, M.P.H. ’02, of Sebastopol, California, pediatrician and former surgeon general of California
Philip L. Harrison ’86, M.Arch. ’93, of Atlanta, CEO, Perkins&Will
*This year the committee has nominated nine candidates for Overseer, rather than the usual eight, in light of an additional vacancy on the board due to the resignation of Vikas Sukhatme, M.D.’79 (who is the Woodruff professor of medicine at Emory University). The sixth-place finisher will complete the remaining two years of Sukhatme’s term.
HAA elected director candidates
Mia Esther Alpert ’99, of Los Angeles, founder and president emerita, Harvardwood
James P. “Jimmy” Biblarz ’14, J.D. ’21, Ph.D. ’23, of Los Angeles, attorney, Hueston Hennigan; lecturer in law, UCLA School of Law
Allison Charney Epstein ’89, of New York City, opera singer and producer
Medha Gargeya ’14, J.D. ’19, of Washington, D.C., senior associate, WilmerHale; lecturer on law, Harvard Law School; captain, U.S. Air Force Reserves
Jakob Haesler M.P.A. ’99, of Paris, France, global head of consulting, Forvis Mazars Group
David G. Lefer ’93, of New York City, director of the Innovation and Technology Forum; industry associate professor, New York University
Margarita Montoto-Escalera ’78, M.B.A. ’85, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, consultant, Reichard & Escalera LLC
Yoshiko “June” Nagao ’96, of Tokyo, Japan, private investor
Jeffrey H. Tignor ’96, of Washington, D.C., attorney-advisor, Federal Communications Commission; senior lecturing fellow, Duke Law School
