The Obama Scholars Advisory Council provides ongoing support and counsel for students while at Occidental and in their pursuant careers:
Co-Chairs
Hector De La Torre
Occidental College Class of 1989
Public Policy Leader
Biography
Hector De La Torre is Chair of the board of directors at L.A. Care, the largest public health plan in America.
He was executive director of the Transamerica Center for Health Studies, a...
Sara El-Amine PhD (hc) is a progressive senior strategist who was one of the architects of the Obama grassroots movement, playing key roles outside the US White House to pass and implement...
Denise Bauer served as the United States ambassador to Belgium from August 2013 until January 2017, where she focused on transatlantic security partnerships and international trade while leading...
Jeh Johnson, the former U.S. secretary of Homeland Security, is now in private law practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP in New York City. Johnson has been affiliated...
Ted Mitchell became president of the American Council on Education, the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities, on Sept. 1, 2017. He came to ACE from the U.S....
David Plouffe leads the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s policy and advocacy team. For more than 25 years, David has developed strategies to bring people together around common causes. He has held...
Ben Rhodes served as deputy national security advisor to President Barack Obama for eight years, overseeing the administration’s national security communications, public diplomacy, global...
Matsunaga Institute for Peace, University of Hawaii
Biography
Maya is the Director of the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where, in addition to leading outreach and development initiatives and...
Vinai Kumar Thummalapally is the former executive director of SelectUSA, what Forbes Magazine calls “America’s chief marketing officer,” from 2013 to 2016. Based in the U.S. Department of...
Dave Anderson ’63 has spent a lifetime working to safeguard cherished western landscapes as a pioneer in environmental and land conservation law. Anderson is the co-founder, past president and...
Bruce Blume is founder, owner, and CEO of The Blume Co., a real estate development firm that has helped transform Seattle’s South Lake Union, University, Eastlake and Fremont neighborhoods....
As one of the top country’s top entertainment attorneys, John Branca ’72 has represented more than 30 members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including Carlos Santana, Aerosmith, the Beach...
Bill Davis is the founding president of Southern California Public Radio, a subsidiary of the American Public Media Group. Before joining SCPR in 2001, he was senior vice president for...
Laurent Delanney ’82’s role as assistant director of global sponsorship and partnership at Rolex is the latest chapter in his distinguished career as an international sports marketing executive...
Susan DiMarco is an active volunteer in civics and arts-related activities in New York and New Jersey. She recently served on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts for the Kennedy...
Fred DuVal ‘76 is president of the consulting firm of DuVal & Associates and senior adviser to Denton’s, the world’s largest law firm. Beginning his career under Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt,...
Mark Fabiani is a crisis management expert, political strategist and lawyer. He was former deputy mayor of Los Angeles and chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bradley, managing political strategy, media...
An award-winning director, writer, actor, producer and filmmaker, Alan Freeman ’66 M’67 has worked at such theaters as the Mark Taper Forum, San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, Los Angeles Theater...
Maurine and Phil Halperin firmly believe that opportunity is a founding premise of our nation, and education should go hand in hand with that. The Halperins have long been committed to and both...
Wahid Hamid ’82 H’11 is the founder and CEO of Excilla International FZ, an advisory firm focused on strategy and shareholder value creation. He was recently the chief strategy and business...
Octavio Herrera ’98 is a tech entrepreneur with a proven track record starting and selling successful companies. The Oxy physics major is the cofounder of Lucid Sight, a Los Angeles-based...
Glenn Hickerson is president of Hickerson Associates, a marketing and management consulting firm in San Francisco whose clients have included IBM, JP Morgan Chase and GATX Corp. In advising...
Bob (“BJ”) Johnson is a Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney and civic activist. A former senior music executive with Atlantic Records, his law practice includes representation of prominent...
Chris Johnson was hired by an on-campus recruiter and has subsequently spent his entire 37 year career with Nestlé, starting as a marketing trainee at Carnation Company. Chris is currently...
Rob McKay ’86 has spent his career working in the fields of philanthropy, politics and early stage equity investing. In 1992 he established theMcKay Foundation that spent 20 years supporting...
Ian McKinnon is the Founding Partner of Sandia Holdings, LLC (“Sandia”). Located in Greenwich, Connecticut, Sandia is the primary investment vehicle for the McKinnon family and related entities...
Steve Olson is a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where he serves as chairman of its white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice. A former federal...
Ryan Preston-Roedder (Ph.D. 2007, NYU) is the Obama Scholars Program faculty advisor and an associate professor of philosophy. Before joining the Oxy Philosophy Department in 2017, he taught at...
Joel is the director of the Division of Gastroenterology at St. Mary’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. A proud graduate of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, Joel takes pride in...
Janette Sadik-Khan is one of the world’s foremost authorities on transportation and urban transformation. She served as New York City’s transportation commissioner from 2007 to 2013 under Mayor...
Occidental College President Emeritus John Brooks Slaughter is currently a professor of engineering and education at USC and president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in...
Award-winning actor, playwright and director Roger Guenveur Smith ’77’s first play was his senior honors project in American Studies, titled An Evening With Frederick Douglass. His Obie-winning...
Joe Solmonese is managing director and founding partner of the corporate consulting firm of Gavin/Solmonese, where he heads the corporate engagement practice. Prior to forming Gavin/Solmonese in...
During his 11-year tenure (2009-2020) as Occidental College’s 15th president, Jonathan Veitch expanded and deepened the College’s ties to Los Angeles, helped foster a cosmopolitan campus culture...
