The World Comes to Andover
Christine Balling ’86
Susan D. Chira ’76
Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, U.S. Army, ’60
2020 Alumni Award of Distinction Recipients
Tadashi Nakamura Filmmaker & documentarian
Nakamura recently screened his award-winning 2016 documentary Mele Murals, which focuses on modern graffiti art in Hawaii and its impact on a new generation of Hawaiians. A fourth-generation Japanese American, Nakamura has focused on this experience for many of his other films and was named one of CNN’s “Young People Who Rock” for being the youngest filmmaker at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.
Three alumni were honored this past fall in the eighth annual Andover Alumni Award of Distinction ceremony. Balling is the founder of Fundación ECCO, a Colombian-registered nonprofit promoting democracy and youth leadership; Chira is editor in chief of The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on issues of criminal justice; and McCaffrey is a retired four-star general who received three Purple Hearts, two Distinguished Service Crosses, and two Silver Stars for valor. Read more about these remarkable graduates at andover.edu/news.
“ Building a beloved community has everything to do with how we are with one another.”
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Ramesh Ponnuru Visiting fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Dr. Nancy Hopkins Molecular biologist
For years, women scientists have dealt with gender discrimination and workplace harassment. Hopkins, a professor of biology at MIT and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, was one of several women featured in the documentary Picture a Scientist, which highlights this pervasive problem and the ways in which women scientists are working to change it. The film was screened in February with a subsequent community conversation.
Charlene Carruthers Founding national director, BYP100
This year’s MLK Day speaker, Carruthers is a political strategist and cultural worker. In her role as national director of the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), Carruthers has helped to build a national base of Black youth activists dedicated to creating justice and freedom for all Black people.
Ponnuru was one of several speakers invited as part of Andover’s Presidential Election Series this past fall to discuss various aspects of the most recent presidential election. A noted conservative, Ponnuru is a senior editor for National Review, columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, contributor to CBS News, and author of The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life.
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