2020 Andover Alumni Award of Distinction Program

2020

ANDOVER ALUMNI

AWARD OF DISTINCTION

Andover Alumni Award of Distinction Presentations MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2020 All-School Meeting

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elcome to the ninth annual celebration of the esteemed recipients of the Andover Alumni Award of Distinction.

This award recognizes and honors alumni of Phillips Academy and Abbot Academy who have served with distinction and exhibited leadership in their fields of endeavor. It also strives to connect current students with these inspirational role models.

Christine Balling ’86, Susan Chira ’76, and Barry McCaffrey ’60 are the recipients of the 2020 Andover Alumni Award of Distinction.

They have had—and continue to have— a positive impact on diverse peoples and places, society, and, ultimately, our world.

Christine Balling ’86

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Democracy Activist in Colombia Advocate for Youth Leadership Non Sibi Team Leader

fter graduating from Phillips Academy in 1986, Christine Balling earned a BA in English literature at Barnard College and an executive MA in national security affairs at The Institute of World Politics. In 2009, she founded Fundación ECCO, a Colombianregistered nonprofit promoting democracy and youth leadership that aims to discourage people from joining extremist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

In running Fundación ECCO, Balling executed projects in areas where the FARC insurgency also operated. Working in cooperation with the Colombian army, air force, and national police, Balling received grants from USAID, U.S. Special Operations Command South, the International Organization for Migration, and Spirit of America.

Over the course of six years, the “Non Sibi Team of Colombia” grew to include hundreds of young people who participated in Fundación ECCO projects.

Balling served as a subject matter expert to the U.S. Special Operations Command South commander and partnered with U.S. Army Civil Affairs teams downrange in Colombia from 2013 to 2014. In this role, she interviewed numerous female demobilized FARC and ELN (National Liberation Army) fighters and worked with the Colombian military’s demobilization group to create the first tactical guide on individual demobilization. In 2015, Balling was pinned by the Colombian Minister of Defense with the Colombian armed forces’ Medal of Distinguished Service.

In 2016 and 2017, Balling organized and led two solo expeditions to Iraqi Kurdistan to deliver humanitarian aid and embed with a company of female Yazidi peshmerga soldiers who survived the 2014 genocide by ISIS. During one of the trips, Balling delivered art supplies to the Debaga refugee camp’s makeshift kindergarten in the name of the Non Sibi Team of Colombia.

Balling has published articles in Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, and Small Wars Journal, and on TheHill.com. She has lectured at the Escuela Superior de Guerra in Bogotá, the National Defense University’s William J. Perry Center, the Institute of World Politics, and Harvard Summer School. In 2019, Balling testified as an expert witness at a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing on U.S.– Colombia relations. Balling was the senior fellow for Latin American affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council from 2015 to 2020. Currently, she is the director of federal programs for Rstor, Inc., and Sylabs as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Universidad El Bosque in Bogotá.

Balling is a member of the Andover and the Military Executive Committee.

Pot Pourri, 1986

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Susan D. Chira ’76

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Pulitzer Prize–Winning Journalist Social Justice Advocate Author

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usan Chira ’76 is editor in chief of The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on issues of criminal justice. Prior to accepting this leadership role in 2019, Chira spent nearly 40 years at the New York Times as a correspondent, editor, senior executive, and one of the longest-serving foreign editors in the newspaper’s history.

After graduating from Phillips Academy, Chira went on to earn a BA in history and East Asian studies in 1980 from Harvard University, where she was a reporter for and president of the Harvard Crimson. Chira began her career at the New York Times in 1981 as a trainee on the metro desk before being promoted to reporter in 1982. Her excellent reporting led to her promotion to deputy foreign editor from 1997 to 1999 and later foreign editor from 2004 to 2011. She went on to serve as the newspaper’s assistant managing editor for news, deputy executive editor, and, most recently, senior correspondent and editor for gender issues.

In 2018, Chira was part of a Times team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of workplace sexual harassment. That same reporting received the 2018 Gerald Loeb Award for Investigative Journalism and helped spark the “Me Too” movement. As an editor, Chira supervised coverage that won five Pulitzer prizes. She managed more than 50 correspondents as foreign editor and won several Pulitzers specifically for international reporting. Chira created a mentoring program within the Times to help new reporters develop their journalistic careers. Additionally, she is the author

of A Mother’s Place: Rewriting the Rules of Motherhood (HarperCollins Canada, 1998), which explores the role of working mothers.

When Chira joined The Marshall Project as editor in chief in spring 2019, she looked to focus on investigative reporting, especially in regard to issues stemming from race, ethnicity, and gender. Since then, The Marshall Project has won several awards, including an Edward R. Murrow Award for “Excellence in Video,” two National Magazine Awards for “Best Website” and “Digital Innovation,” a 2020 National Headliner Award for “Digital presentation of a single features topic,” and an Izzy Award for The Marshall Project’s News Inside publication, which brought news to incarcerated readers.

Chira returned to Phillips Academy in 2019 to speak with students through the Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Author Series, a series sponsored by the Abbot Academy Fund to bring female authors to campus.

Pot Pourri, 1976

Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, U.S. Army, ’60

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Four-Star General Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross, and Silver Star Recipient

arry McCaffrey graduated from Phillips Academy in 1960 and continued to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he earned a BS degree. He then earned a master’s degree in American government from American University and attended Harvard University’s National Security Fellows Program as well as Harvard Business School’s Executive Education program. Gen. McCaffrey served in the U.S. Army for 32 years, retiring in 1996 as a four-star general. At retirement, he was the most highly decorated general still serving, having been awarded three Purple Hearts (he was wounded in combat three times); two Distinguished Service Crosses, the nation’s second-highest award for valor; and two Silver Stars for valor.

For five years after leaving the military, McCaffrey served as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Upon leaving government service, he joined West Point as the Bradley Distinguished Professor of International Security Studies from 2001 to 2005 and an adjunct professor of International Security Studies from 2006 to 2010.

He previously served as an associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point from 1973 to 1976, teaching American government and comparative politics.

McCaffrey is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is chair of the Addiction Policy Forum Advisory Board and has served on the boards of several corporations in the engineering design, technology, health care, and services sectors.

McCaffrey is president of his own consulting firm and serves as a national security and terrorism

analyst for NBC News.

In 2015, McCaffrey was selected for the Doughboy Award—the highest honor the chief of infantry can bestow on any infantryman—for outstanding contribution to the U.S. Army Infantry. In 2010, he was honored as a Distinguished Graduate by the U.S. Military Academy’s West Point Association of Graduates. In 2007, he was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame at the U.S. Army Infantry School in Fort Benning, Georgia. In 2004, Catholic University of America awarded McCaffrey the James Cardinal Gibbons Medal, its highest honor, to recognize his distinguished and meritorious service to the United States. In 1992, he was awarded the U.S. Department of State’s Superior Honor Award for his participation on the principal negotiation team for the START II nuclear arms control treaty.

Along with serving on Andover’s Alumni Council, McCaffrey was the keynote speaker on campus at Andover and the Military’s 2014 Veterans Day program and dinner.

Pot Pourri, 1960

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AWARD RECIPIENTS are chosen by the Andover Alumni Award of Distinction Committee of the Alumni Council upon nomination by alumni. Once a candidate is nominated, their nomination remains on file in the Office of Alumni Engagement for annual review. Please visit www.andover. edu/alumni/alumni-recognition for a nomination form.

Andover Alumni Award of Distinction Committee Emily Bernstein ’86, P’21 Chair Anstiss Agnew ’67 Darryl Cohen ’92 David Constantine ’97 Paul Hochman ’82 Nobuhisa Ishizuka ’78, P’08, ’11 Anthea Letsou ’77 Johnson Lightfoote ’69 Murrey Nelson ’80

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Past Recipients of the Andover Alumni Award of Distinction 2019

2015

Samantha Appleton ’93 Photojournalist, White House Photographer

Julia Altagracia Alvarez ’67 Author, Educator, Humanitarian

Sarah Chayes ’80 U.S. Policy Strategist, Foreign Correspondent, Author

Maro Chermayeff ’80 Filmmaker, Educator, Humanitarian

Guy Nordenson ’73 Engineer & Architect, Author, Professor William D. Nordhaus ’59 Nobel Prize–Winning Economist, Climate Change Researcher, Professor, Author Kevin Olusola ’06 Grammy Award Winner, Musician, Singer & Songwriter, Record Producer

2018 Michael R. Beschloss ’73 Presidential Historian, Author, Journalist Peter Chermayeff ’53 Architect, Urban Designer, Innovator Eileen Christelow ’61 Author, Illustrator, Photographer Tamar Szabó Gendler ’83 Dean, Professor, Researcher

2017 Wallace M. Alston ’83 Filmmaker, Social Justice Activist, Educator Dorothy L. Cheney ’68 (deceased) Biologist, Research Pioneer, Educator George Bundy Smith ’55 (deceased) Freedom Rider, Civil Rights Activist, Judge Genevieve Young ’48 (deceased) Literacy Advocate, Editor, Philanthropist

2016 Constance Laurence Brinckerhoff ’59 Research Pioneer, Educator Soiya Gecaga ’92 Educator, Human Rights Advocate Thomas J. Hudner Jr. ’43 (deceased) Medal of Honor Recipient, Naval Aviator David G. Nathan ’47 Physician, Educator, National Medal of Science Recipient

Tracy Kidder ’63 Literary Journalist, Pulitzer Prize–Winning Author Marvin L. Minsky ’45 (deceased) Cognitive Scientist, Inventor, Educator

2014 Clemency Chase Coggins ’51 Art Historian, Maya Scholar, Educator John T. Darnton ’60 Journalist, Foreign Correspondent, Author Susan Goodwillie Stedman ’59 Civil Rights Activist, Educator, Author

2013 Hafsat O. Abiola ’92 Human Rights Advocate, Civil Rights and Democracy Activist George M. Church ’72 Geneticist, Molecular Engineer, Chemist, Research Pioneer Frank P. Stella ’54 Painter, Printmaker, Sculptor, Author, Innovator

2012 George H.W. Bush ’42 (deceased) U.S. President, Ambassador, Aviator, Athlete Wendy T. Ewald ’69 Photographer, Educator, Cultural Explorer, Researcher William S. Knowles ’35 (deceased) Nobel Prize–Winning Chemist, Mathematician, Medical Innovator Stacy A. Schiff ’78 Pulitzer Prize–Winning Biographer, Guggenheim Fellow Peter M. Sellars ’75 Visionary Opera and Theatre Director, MacArthur Fellow

2020

ANDOVER ALUMNI

AWARD OF DISTINCTION

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