News & Stories

As a 14-year-old math and physics major at Maryland, Charles Fefferman '66 got more than his share of double takes from classmates.

Dealing with racial disparity during his childhood helped shape Dorsey’s empathy, and his role at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). There, in addition to his job as national program leader for public policy, he also was special emphasis program manager for LGBTQ federal employees.

Sollins didn’t think twice about volunteering for his alma mater for 14 years after graduation. Starting in 1998 he served as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Governors, two years as president, and also as an Alumni Association regional alumni network leader. Additionally, he was an appointed and elected trustee of the University of Maryland, College Park Foundation, and he was a major donor to the Hall of Friendship in the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center.

Following her 2002 retirement, Margaret Moose Swallow '75 launched a second career, becoming executive director of the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI). The nonprofit helps coffee farmers in developing countries—30% of whom are women—produce higher-quality beans. That, in turn, has translated into higher prices and more economic prosperity.

Since founding New York-based StartUp Health, Steven Krein, the CEO, and his team have assembled a worldwide network of founders, funders, innovators and industry leaders to prevent, manage and cure not only Type 1 diabetes, but also to collaborate on 13 health “moonshots,” including Alzheimer’s disease, a disorder of progressive cognitive and memory decline now affecting more than 55 million people globally.

In India, “Aagarwal” describes a mercantile caste in the country’s central region. Pallavi Agarwal has taken her surname to heart. She’s CEO and founder of Kander, a firm that helps clients in the professional services, high-tech, higher education and nonprofit industries implement cloud technology to assist their daily operations.

As president and CEO of Potomac, Md.-based Curbio, Rudman works with realtors and homeowners to make repairs and updates to homes before they go on the market. They’re improvements that can add tens of thousands of dollars to sales prices.

When the “International Code of Conduct for Organizations Developing Advanced AI Systems” was endorsed by President Joe Biden and G7 Leaders in October 2023, it was a career highlight for Daniel Oates '13.

Irene M. (Rodríguez) Zoppi ‘04 was promoted to brigadier general in August 2017. It marked the first time a Puerto Rican woman held the rank of general in the U.S. Army Reserve.

As president of the University of Portland since July 2022, Robert Kelly ‘05 is the first layperson and the first person of color to lead the private Catholic institution that sits on a scenic bluff overlooking Oregon’s Willamette River.