Recommendations

FAIR Harvard Alumni+ is excited to recommend two candidates for the 2025 election—Lanhee J. Chen for the Harvard Board of Overseers and Allison Pillinger Choi for HAA Elected Director.

Our criteria and process are outlined below. We urge all members who subscribe to FAIR HA+’s core values to vote for these two candidates—or strongly consider them! We have also highlighted a few other candidates to take into consideration under “Take Note” below.

Lanhee J. Chen for Overseer

Lanhee J. Chen AB ’99 magna cum laude, AM ’04, JD ’07 cum laude, PhD ’09  is a Hoover Institution fellow and director of domestic policy studies and lecturer in public policy at Stanford University. Lanhee is a strong proponent of free expression and association with limits defined by narrow, court-prescribed exceptions to the First Amendment. Lanhee has expressed a lifelong commitment to finding common ground and encouraging dialogue with those whose views and experiences differ from his own. To this end, he has stressed the importance of intentionality at Harvard, whether through inclusion of diverse viewpoints via forums and faculty considerations, or modeling civil discourse on difficult topics and promoting viewpoint diversity on Harvard’s boards. In-line with our 2022 letter to the presidential search committee, Lanhee brings up an essential consideration—“Harvard plays an important role in ensuring the continued success of America’s democracy by promoting, protecting and defending the values that underpin it.”

More info: FAIR HA+/HAFFS Questionnaire | Coalition Questionnaire | Harvard Magazine |Election Bios

TAKE NOTE

As a group committed to civil dialogue and viewpoint diversity, we’d like to highlight additional candidates who afforded the time and effort to engage with us—Overseer candidates Nathaniel Keohane and Michael Rosenblatt and ED candidates Victoria Leung, Colin Kegler, Pavlos Photiades, and Daniel Ahn. These candidates not only demonstrated their core values by engaging on difficult topics, but showed their interest in working with all alumni.

We also found the following particularly compelling, and encourage our members to consider when voting:

• Nathaniel Keohane’s commitment to free speech, intellectual diversity, and academic freedom. It is clear that Nathaniel has thought carefully about issues impacting the university and would take a serious, deliberative approach to an Overseer role.

• Victoria Leung’s on-the-ground experience negotiating challenging issues related to freedom of expression as president of the Harvard Club of the UK. Vicky is an active alumni leader who is well informed and engaged with issues facing Harvard. 

• Colin Kegler’s sincere efforts to engage with alumni with diverse perspectives. He is willing to change his mind when presented with compelling alternative viewpoints and is committed to the inclusion of alumni voices not well represented on the HAA board. 

CRITERIA

As a FAIR chapter focused on issues impacting Harvard and higher education, the following criteria are necessary for a candidate recommendation:

• Vigorous support for free speech, including speech with which we disagree or deem offensive.

• Robust support for academic freedom and academic rigor/excellence. 

• Active support for intellectual diversity, including a commitment to bringing diverse and underrepresented viewpoints (such as conservative and libertarian perspectives) to the Harvard boards.

• Rejection of ideological mandates or viewpoint discrimination in academic departments or areas of study, including Ethnic Studies.

• A commitment to the intentional promotion of civil discourse, including rigorous debate.

• Support for Harvard’s commitment to institutional neutrality. 

• A genuine commitment to upholding the 2023 SCOTUS decision prohibiting racial discrimination in admissions.

• Rejection of mandatory DEI statements or ideological litmus tests in hiring and promotion.

PROCESS

The FAIR HA+ team utilized questionnaires, interviews, outside input, and all available resources to evaluate candidates. We also took the Overseer and Elected Director roles into account as each board serves distinct purposes.

• Questionnaire: FAIR HA+ and Harvard Alumni for Free Speech (HAFFS) provided a questionnaire to all Overseer candidates. Out of 7 Overseer candidates, 2 responded*—Lanhee Chen and Michael Rosenblatt. We did not send questionnaires to ED candidates.

• Interviews: FAIR HA+ and HAFFS offered an interview to all candidates. Out of 7 Overseer candidates, 3 spoke* with us—Lanhee Chen, Nathaniel Keohane, and Michael Rosenblatt.** Out of 9 ED candidates, 5 spoke* with us—Allison Pillinger Choi, Daniel Ahn, Pavlos Photiades, Vicky Leung, and Colin Kegler.

• Input: In addition to HAFFS, we consulted with the 1636 Forum. We encourage you to join/subscribe to both.

• Additional Information: We reviewed the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard’s questionnaire responses and endorsements as well as the Harvard Magazine coverage of Overseer candidate priorities, the HAA ED candidate Q&A, and Harvard’s candidate information.

*Mary Louise Kelly (Overseer candidate) and Theresa Chung (ED candidate) cited professional limitations for why they could not participate.

**Michael Rosenblatt spoke with HAFFS and we received a thorough recap.

NEXT STEPS FOR VOTERS

1- VOTE for Lanhee Chen (Overseer) and Allison Pillinger Choi (Elected Director) — or strongly consider doing so! — by 5pm ET 5/20/25.

2- Take a closer look at candidates who afforded the time to answer our questionnaire and/or talk with us, taking into account our points of interest re: Nathaniel Keohane, Vicky Leung, and Colin Kegler.

3- As needed, review the materials linked under “Our Process.” For those not familiar with the proposed Ethnic Studies department, see the video, “What the Hell is Ethnic Studies?” 

4- Nominate candidates for 2026. Nominations for the 2026 slate are open until 5/31/25. Nominations go directly to the HAA Nominating Committee and are an instrumental part of Harvard’s election process.

Thank You!

We are grateful to the candidates who took the time to respond to our questionnaire and/or engage with us in conversation, and look forward to working with those elected on the issues of most interest to our FAIR HA+ community. 

Despite the challenges that Harvard is facing, we are heartened by the awareness these challenges have brought to so many fellow alumni since our founding in 2021, from issues surrounding free speech and civil discourse to equal treatment and equal protection.