In a recent email to the student body, Swarthmore College Board of Managers (BoM) members and Presidential Search Committee Co-Chairs Cindi Leive ’88 and Gus Schwed ’84 announced the full list of the committee’s participants. Of the other thirteen members, six (including Alumni Council President Jim Sailer ex officio) belong to the BoM, three are faculty (one representing each academic division), two are staff, and two are students. Some notable aspects of the newly announced team, along with short biographies of each member, are below.
A Variety of Selection Processes Were Used to Form the Committee
In email correspondence with The Phoenix, Schwed explained that he and Leive employed different methods to assemble alumni, students, and college employees for the committee. While faculty representatives were chosen from a pool of nominees by the Committee on Faculty Procedures, BoM members were selected for “their prior involvement with leadership searches, their active engagement with the College, and their diversity of perspectives and professional backgrounds.” As has been the case in the past, all BoM members on the committee were Swarthmore alumni. Students and staff were nominated by colleagues, with a particular focus on “individuals who’ve been deeply engaged with the college in various ways.”
The Ratio of BoM Members and Administrative Staff to Faculty and Students Has Increased
The 1990-91 committee that selected President Al Bloom was composed of ten members, including five from the BoM, two student representatives, and one faculty member from each division. The team that chose President Rebecca Chopp in 2009 numbered eleven, with an additional position created for a member of the college’s staff. In 2014, President Val Smith was selected by a group of twelve that included another new seat for a BoM member. The committee announced in March 2026 adds two BoM members (including the co-chairs) and one staff member. As a result of these changes, the proportion of the search committee spots filled by students or faculty has decreased from 50% in 1990 to 33% this time around.
The Average Number of Years Removed from Swarthmore for BoM Members on Committee Has Increased
Since 1990, the average number of years since graduation for BoM members on presidential search committees has increased by roughly one decade. On Bloom’s committee, the eldest BoM member (Daniel Singer ’51) had graduated 39 years prior to joining the task force, and the average number of years since graduation for that group was 28.8. For the following two committees, the eldest alumni members had graduated 43 and 42 years prior, and the BoM members’ average time since graduation rose to 30.4 and 30.17, respectively. The average jumped to 40.25 for the current search committee, with David Bradley ’75 serving as the most senior member.
BoM Members Reflect a Greater Diversity of Career Fields Than in Previous Years
While nearly all BoM members on the presidential search committees for Bloom, Chopp, and Smith worked in finance or business administration, only three of the eight BoM members on the current committee are in the corporate sector. The remaining participants include two alumni in journalism and two in public health.
The Current Committee
Co-Chair Gustavo Schwed ’84 (BoM)
Gustavo “Gus” Schwed is a professor of management practice at the New York University Stern School of Business. Schwed served as managing director at private equity firm Providence Equity Partners for eight years, and at global financial services firm Morgan Stanley for six. He is currently a board member at Oliver Scholars, a nonprofit organization that provides educational resources to high-achieving Black and Latin-American K-12 students. Schwed has held a visiting professorship at Princeton University, and has served as a board member at several nonprofit organizations and for-profit ventures in research and technology acquisitions. He has served on Audit and Risk Management, Development and Communications, Finance, and Investment committees in his capacity as a BoM member. Schwed will assume the role of BoM Chair on July 1, 2026.
Co-Chair Cindi Leive ’88 (BoM)
Cindi Leive is a journalist, producer, and author. A former editor-in-chief at “Self” and “Glamour,” Leive is the co-founder of “The Meteor,” a feminist media company. During her time at “Glamour,” Leive launched The Girl Project, a nonprofit initiative supporting girls’ education. She currently holds a senior fellowship at the USC-Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and serves on the board of the Brooklyn Public Library. Leive is a former president of the American Society of Magazine Editors and a former board member at the International Women’s Media Foundation.
David Bradley ’75, H’11 (BoM)
David Bradley is the chairman of advisory services company The National Journal Group and Chairman Emeritus of Atlantic Media. Bradley founded the Advisory Board Company and CEB Inc. (now part of Gartner Inc.), for-profit strategic consulting firms for healthcare organizations, educational institutions, and corporate ventures, in 1979 and 1997 respectively. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Swarthmore College in 2011 and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Bill Boulding ’77 (BoM)
Bill Boulding is the J.B. Fuqua Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he teaches coursework on the intersection of management, marketing, and strategy. In the past, he has served in several administrative and academic roles at Duke, including Chair of the Board of Directors of Duke Corporate Education and Dean of the Fuqua School. Boulding previously chaired the board of the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the GMAT, a standardized exam for graduate business programs. Outside of academia, Boulding is a former member of the World Economics Forum’s Council on Values.
Anne Schuchat ’80, H’05 (BoM)
Anne Schucat is a physician, epidemiologist, and public health professional. After working as an epidemic intelligence service officer and director of the national center for immunization and respiratory diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), she served as the organization’s principal deputy director from 2015 to 2021. Schuchat received an honorary Doctorate in Science from Swarthmore in 2005 and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2010.
Nicole O’Dell Odim ’88 (BoM)
Nicole O’Dell Odim is an independent journalist with work published by CBC, BBC, and BRIC TV. O’Dell Odim is a board member at the Brooklyn Dodge YMCA, NY Women in Film and Television, the Society of Professional Journalists, Women Independent Producers, and the National Association of Black Journalists. She is a former member of the advisory board of the feminist volunteering organization Junior League in Brooklyn.
Jim Sailer ’90 (BoM ex officio, Alumni Council President)
Jim Sailer is co-president of Population Council, a nonprofit organization for global health policy research. Sailor serves on the board of pharmaceutical nonprofit Vennue, in addition to chairing the board of the International Contraceptive Access Foundation. He is a former chair of the nonprofit membership association Inside NGO, and has worked as a strategy consultant in both public and private sectors. Sailer previously served as the director of accountability for the New York City Department of Education.
Lucy Lang ’03 (BoM)
Lucy Lang has served as the New York State Inspector General since 2021. Having worked in Manhattan District law since 2006, Lang recently led John Jay College’s Institute for Innovation in Prosecution as executive director. During her time in this role, she advocated for criminal justice reforms addressing police violence. Lang was also executive director for the Manhattan DA Academy, the district attorney’s in-house think tank, where she created a program that allowed prosecutors and incarcerated students to study criminal justice together inside of a prison. Her grandfather, businessman and philanthropist Eugene M. Lang, has donated large sums of money to the college to fund scholarships, programming, and facilities construction.
Erin Todd Bronchetti, Professor of Economics and Chair of Economics Department
Erin Todd Bronchetti is chair of economics at Swarthmore. She teaches and researches public economics, labor economics, and econometrics. After receiving her B.A. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, she completed a Ph.D in economics at Northwestern University. Since joining the college faculty in 2007, Bronchetti has served on a number of committees, including a financial study group convened by Smith, the 2017 Provost Search Committee, the Institutional Review Board for 2012-2014 and (as chair) 2016-2018, as well as an ad hoc child care committee. Most recently, she was a member of the governmental relations task force Smith formed in response to concerns about the second Trump administration’s policies regarding higher education. She has also been chair for a faculty compensation committee and a faculty grievance committee.
Logan Grider, Associate Professor of Art
Logan Grider is an artist and professor at Swarthmore. He received a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an M.F.A. from Yale University. Grider specializes in painting, having taught courses on the practice and theory of the medium at the college for over ten years. His work has been featured in several collaborative and solo exhibitions, including shows at the college’s List Gallery, D.D.D.D. Pictures, and Thierry Goldberg Projects in New York City.
Kathryn Riley ’10, Associate Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Kathryn Riley teaches classes on the foundations and methods of chemistry research at Swarthmore. She completed a B.A. in chemistry at the college, where she also received recognition as a star player of the women’s softball team, earning induction into the school’s athletic hall of fame. Riley received a Ph.D in chemistry from Wake Forest University and returned to Swarthmore to teach in 2016.
Isthier Chaudhury, Director of Admissions
Isthier Chaudhury has served as director of admissions at Swarthmore since June 2023. Before coming to the college, he worked in the admissions offices of the University of Rochester and Trinity College in Hartford. Chaudhury received his B.A. from the University of Rochester, and completed an M.S. in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Carolyn Vance, Work Order Manager of Sustainable Facilities Operations
Carolyn Vance is Swarthmore’s work order manager of sustainable facilities operations, a position involving the supervision of campus maintenance and renovation projects. After receiving an A.A. in business administration and management from Delaware County Community College, Vance worked as an account manager for Bryn Mawr College from 1999 until 2006 before joining Swarthmore’s managerial staff.
Julian Chen ’28
Julian Chen is a Swarthmore sophomore studying biochemistry and biology. Chen has served as a teaching assistant for Cellular and Molecular Biology and Organic Chemistry I, in addition to working as a homework grader for Foundations of Chemical Principles and General Physics II, and as a laboratory assistant for Microbiology. Chen is a dean’s office tutor, student choral conductor, campus tour guide, and admissions hosting intern. He is founder and president of the Swarthmore K-Pop Club as well as co-president of the Swarthmore Taiwanese Association.
Chung Sze Kwok ’27
Chung Sze Kwok is a junior studying cognitive science, educational studies, and peace and conflict studies at Swarthmore. Since February 2024, Kwok has been a Lang Center associate working in the issue area of education and access. She is also a Lang Opportunity Scholar, a writing, speaking, and presentation associate, a resident assistant, a campus tour guide, an editorial assistant with the college’s music department, and a research assistant with Swarthmore’s Cognition and Perception Lab. Kwok is studying at Pomona College through a domestic exchange program for the Spring 2026 semester.
In the coming weeks, the committee will host on-campus “listening sessions” for students, faculty, and staff. Sessions for alumni will follow.
