Search Committee

Jeanne E. Amster ’77, D ’50

Chair of the Presidential Search Committee
Trustee and Chair of the Joint Conference Committee
AB Mount Holyoke College, AM Stanford University, EdM and EdD Harvard University

Jeanne Amster’s career in education has encompassed teaching from the South Hadley schools through Brown and Harvard Universities. She served as Director of the Ethical Culture Fieldston Schools and Head of San Francisco University High School. She currently consults to educational institutions and individuals on a wide range of educational issues including strategic planning, leadership coaching, and personal educational planning for individual families. Now in her third term as a Trustee, Ms. Amster has served as Vice Chair of the Board, a member of the Board’s Executive Committee, and chair of the committees on Conference, Education, College Relations, and Trusteeship.

Barbara McClearn Baumann ’77

Vice Chair of the Presidential Search Committee
Co-Chair of the Campaign for Mount Holyoke
Trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee
AB Mount Holyoke, MBA Wharton School

President of Cross Creek Energy Corporation, a management consulting and investor firm for domestic oil and gas interests, Barbara Baumann also serves on two public company boards. Now in her third term as a Trustee, she has served as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee, and chair of the committees on Education and Finance.

Robin Blaetz P’11

Associate Professor of Film Studies
BA Ohio University, MA New York University, PhD New York University

Author of Visions of the Maid: Joan of Arc in American Film and Culture (2001) and editor of Women’s Experimental Cinema: Critical Frameworks (2007), Robin Blaetz founded and chairs the Five College major in Film Studies, the consortium’s first major.

Katherine Boyles ’12, D’77

Student

A sophomore from Harvard, Massachusetts, Kiki Boyles plans a double major in Politics and History, is a Hall Senator for the Student Government Association, and is a tour guide for the Office of Admission. She plays midfield on the field hockey team and is vice chair of the Field Hockey Organizing Committee, the student arm of the group preparing to host the NCAA Division III field hockey national championships at Mount Holyoke in November 2009.

Michael Buckley S’75

Superintendent of General Services, Facilities Management
BA, University of Massachusetts

Mike Buckley began working for Buildings and Grounds, now called Facilities Management, in 1970. Currently responsible for the College’s furnishings, grounds, stockroom, recycling, and paint team, he has also supervised over the years the College’s custodial, housekeeping, floor maintenance, photocopier, and mail services departments. He has served as an Assessor and on the Planning and Zoning Boards in his nearby home town of Granby.

Mary Beth Topor Daniel ’82

Trustee, Chair of the Development Committee
AB, Mount Holyoke College

Mary Beth Daniel has been active in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate for the past 25 years. She holds a Real Estate License in both New York and Massachusetts. Presently she and her husband Stephen restore historic homes on Cape Cod and in the Hudson Valley. Mary Beth has been active in New York philanthropic and cultural organizations for over two decades. She has served in many volunteer and leadership roles in Mount Holyoke’s Alumnae Association, and is a member of the Campaign for Mount Holyoke Steering Committee.

Mary Graham Davis ’65

Past President of the Alumnae Association
Trustee
AB, Mount Holyoke College, MA, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University

Mary Graham Davis, a strategic and restructuring consultant, is the founder of the Davis Consulting Group, LLC. Ms. Davis served as a Trustee of Mount Holyoke College from 1995 to 2004, and returned to the Board as President of the Alumnae Association in 2006.

Katherine Duceman ’11

Student

A junior from Albany, New York, Kat Duceman has been President of the Class of 2011 and is an active member of The Network, an organization providing student-run co-curricular programming. She is an American Studies major and is considering a career in law.

Frederick Kass

Network and Systems Manager in Library, Information and Technology Services (LITS)
BS and MBA, University of Massachusetts

Fred Kass has worked at Mount Holyoke since 1996 on technology projects ranging from large financial system and e-mail server projects to highly specialized scientific classroom machines. His work on these projects ranges from set-up and implementation to documentation and policy writing. Elected by his peers to Staff Council, Fred is completing a term as Co-Chair of that body, a vital voice for staff members at the College.

Mindy McWilliams Lewis ’75, P’05

Co-Chair of the Campaign for Mount Holyoke Legacy of Diversity
Trustee and Chair of the Student Affairs Committee
AB Mount Holyoke College, MS Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University

After a twenty-five year corporate career, Mindy Lewis recently retired from Cummins, Inc. in Columbus, Indiana, where she was Director of Corporate Contributions and Associate Director of The Cummins Foundation. Ms. Lewis has also worked in the public and nonprofit sectors; she now works as an independent consultant for non-profits and manages the development and growth of the Lewis McWilliams Rollins Hubbard Family Foundation, Inc.

Chau Ly ’97

Co-Chair of the Campaign for Mount Holyoke Legacy of Diversity
AB Mount Holyoke College

Presently Senior Development Director at United Way of Mass Bay and Merrimack Valley, Chau Ly has developed and executed fundraising strategies at MIT and Brown as well as at the United Way. Shortly after graduating from Mount Holyoke, Ms. Ly interned with the United Nations Children’s Fund in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She is a member of the Boston chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals and Asian Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.

Leslie Anne Miller ’73

Chair of the Board of Trustees
AB Mount Holyoke College, MA Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, JD Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University, LLM Temple University Beasley School of Law

Leslie Miller is a Philadelphia attorney and community activist, who also serves as an advisor to Mayor Michael Nutter. She practiced as a civil litigator and mediator for twenty five years and then served as General Counsel of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (the first woman to do so). She was also the first woman to be elected president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Ms. Miller has initiated and supported a variety of programs fostering diversity in the legal profession and business community. She is active on numerous not for profit and cultural boards and has received a myriad of honors during her thirty year career.

Karen Remmler

Professor of German Studies, Critical Social Thought, and Gender Studies
BA State University of New York at Binghamton, MA and PhD Washington University

Karen Remmler’s work ranges across contemporary German and Austrian literature and culture, the memory of the Holocaust in film and literature, Jewish-German relations in post-Wall Berlin, and the politics of memory in transnational contexts. Her books include Waking the Dead: Correspondences between Walter Benjamin's Concept of Remembrance and Ingeborg Bachmann's "Way's of Dying" (1996), and the anthology Contemporary Jewish Writing in Germany (2002). Ms. Remmler is the co-editor, with Christopher Benfey, of Artists, Intellectuals, and World War II: The Pontigny Encounters at Mount Holyoke College, 1942-1944 (2006). Formerly the co-director of the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts, she currently chairs the Department of German Studies and the Program in Critical Social Thought.

H. Jay Sarles S’67

Trustee
AB Amherst College

Jay Sarles, a private investor, retired as Vice Chairman of Bank of America in 2005. Before joining Bank of America, he was Vice Chairman and Chief Administrative Officer of FleetBoston Financial, overseeing treasury, risk management, corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, technology and operations, and human resources. During his thirty seven years with Fleet, the company grew from a Rhode Island-based bank to a financial services company with bank assets of $190 billion and assets under management of $150 billion. Mr. Sarles currently serves on several corporate boards and has co-chaired the Mayor's Committee on Affordable Housing in Boston.

Lucas Wilson

Associate Professor of African American Studies and Economics
BA Morehouse College, MA Union Theological Seminary, PhD University of Massachusetts

A specialist in the philosophy and methodology of economics and the political economy of race, Lucas Wilson teaches interdisciplinary courses on the economics of African American experience in the twentieth century and on African American cultural studies. He also explores the various economic and noneconomic policies that restrict opportunities and inhibit social progress for African Americans, focusing mostly on education and crime policy. In 2004, Mr. Wilson was appointed Director of Academic Development at Mount Holyoke, charged with improving the overall climate of academic achievement for all students at the College.

Margaret L. Wolff ’76

Trustee
AB Mount Holyoke College, JD Case Western Reserve University

Peggy Wolff is Of Counsel to the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where she specializes in domestic and international mergers, acquisitions and contested takeovers, and general corporate and securities law. Her clients have included Alcoa, Cooper Industries, and Daimler-Benz. Ms. Wolff created and implemented Skadden’s Partner Training Program, and was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2009. She serves on several boards in the non-profit sector.