Pomona College Alumni Awards

Susan M. Blaustein ‘75 is an educator and advocate for the global empowerment of women. She is the founder, longtime executive director and current board chair of WomenStrong International, a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and further strengthening the dynamic work and impact of bold local women-led organizations around the world. WomenStrong’s 25 grantee partners work in the areas of women’s health, girls’ education, preventing violence against women and girls, economic security and climate and environmental justice.

A lecturer at Columbia University, Blaustein co-founded and directed the Millennium Cities Initiative at the university’s former Earth Institute, which focused on achieving sustainable urban development across sub-Saharan Africa. Earlier, Blaustein was a senior consultant and analyst with the Brussels-based thinktank International Crisis Group and the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for International Justice. She writes op-eds on human rights issues and has reported on conflicts, politics, economics and social injustice from the Balkans, Southeast Asia and Washington, D.C., for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation and The New Republic. She is currently working on a book about community-driven urban health equity.

After graduating from Pomona with a B.A. in music, Blaustein earned her M.M.A. and D.M.A in musical composition from Yale University. She was a Harvard Junior Fellow in The Society of Fellows at Harvard University, a Guggenheim Fellow and is the recipient of multiple awards, including from The National Endowment for the Arts, Women’s eNews and the Ban Ki-moon Award from Asia Initiatives.

Blaustein is celebrating her 50^th reunion with the Class of 1975.

A leader and advocate for organizational change and innovation in higher education, Douglas M. Haynes ’85 has dedicated his career to building inclusive excellence environments for all. He is the interim vice provost for faculty affairs and programs in the University of California Office of the President, where he stewards the careers of more than 12,000 faculty members and oversees key systemwide programs, including UC Press, UC California Digital Library and UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

As the inaugural vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at UC Irvine, Haynes established the Office of Inclusive Excellence which expanded opportunities and developed programs for underrepresented groups, establishing UCI as a global model for inclusion. He introduced the Confronting Extremism Initiative, utilizing UCI’s research, teaching and service missions as resources to promote inclusion and free speech across the university.

Passionate about health and wellness, Haynes was also the founding director of UCI’s Center for Medical Humanities, where he led innovative collaborations among arts, humanities and medicine faculty to advance the understanding of health, healing and well-being.

A professor emeritus of history and African American studies at UCI, Haynes’ research exploring the relationship of medicine and science to imperialism has led to several published works including his most recent book, “Fit to Practice: Empire, Race, Gender and the Making of British Medicine.” He is currently writing a book examining the centrality of racial and gender politics in the making of the American Medical Association as the foremost professional association in the United States.

After receiving his B.A. in history at Pomona College, Haynes earned a Ph.D. in modern European history at UC Berkeley where he was also selected as a Fulbright Scholar.

Haynes is celebrating his 40^th reunion with the Class of 1985.

With a distinguished career in education and research spanning half a century, Charles “Chuck” Phelps ‘65, a university professor and provost emeritus at the University of Rochester, is among the most highly honored individuals in health economics internationally. A member of the selective National Academy of Medicine, Phelps is the only person awarded the Victor R. Fuchs Award for Lifetime Contributions to Health Economics and the Avedis Donabedian Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research.

Phelps began his career as a researcher and director at the RAND Corporation. He taught in the economics and political science departments at the University of Rochester (UR), directed its Public Policy Analysis Program and chaired the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine (now Department of Public Health Sciences). He was UR’s provost for 13 years.

A highly sought-after expert, Phelps has testified before congressional committees on health policy and intellectual property issues on behalf of the Association of American Universities and other higher education organizations. He has served as a trustee on numerous prestigious medical and public policy organization boards.

The author of over 150 articles and several books covering health economics, health and environmental policy, and medical decision analysis, Phelps also wrote “Health Economics,” a leading textbook in the field. His recent research explores extending the intellectual foundations of cost-effectiveness analysis, understanding and improving the value of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) in health technology assessment and using MCDA in group settings.

After receiving his B.A. in mathematics from Pomona College, Phelps earned his MBA in hospital administration and Ph.D. in business economics from the University of Chicago. His twin brother Lew is also a member of the Class of 1965.

Phelps is celebrating his 60^th reunion with the Class of 1965.

John Rabold ’75 is a longtime alumni volunteer who has encouraged his classmates to stay connected with Pomona and each other for decades. Rabold, who regularly shares College updates and news about alumni events with fellow Sagehens, has served as a 1975 Class reunion committee member for many years and helped plan its celebrations, including this year’s 50^th reunion. He has also been instrumental in fundraising for class gifts.

After graduating from Pomona with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts, Rabold earned his MBA in finance and accounting from UCLA. He worked in corporate finance in the Los-Angeles area, eventually focusing on evaluating and monitoring retirement fund investments and later on providing business-to-business services in investment management.

Rabold helped create the Summer Science Program, Inc., a nonprofit, which extended the life of the Thacher School’s annual astrophysics program. As one of the organization’s five founding directors, Rabold served as corporate treasurer and secretary. Now retired, Rabold spends his time volunteering, hiking and operating amateur (ham) radio.

Rabold is celebrating his 50^th reunion with the Class of 1975.

Nancy Treser-Osgood ’80 has dedicated herself to Sagehen service and boosting alumni engagement for almost 50 years. She got her start as a volunteer calling admitted students for Pomona Admissions and later volunteered with the Career Development Office (CDO) as an alumni career advisor.

During her 17 years as the College’s director of Alumni Relations, Treser-Osgood led a transformational restructuring of the 60-member Alumni Council into a 20-member Alumni Association Board and added staff representatives to strengthen the alumni volunteer connection with Admissions, Annual Giving and the CDO. She helped increase alumni engagement at the College by reimagining traditional events, launching new programs, expanding Alumni Weekend programming and creating the Diamond Classes Reunion and Crash the Party event, which brought the oldest and the youngest Sagehens back to campus.

Treser-Osgood, who also led alumni relations at Pitzer College and the Claremont Graduate University, was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the chair of the CASE Far West District VII. In 2019, Treser-Osgood received the CASE District VII Tribute Award, which was renamed in her honor.

Now a senior consultant with The Phoenix Philanthropy Group, Treser-Osgood continues to champion Pomona alumni connections as a volunteer. She has been faithfully serving on her Class of 1980 reunion committees since their 5^th reunion. A former Sagehens varsity volleyball player, student athletic trainer and basketball statistician, Treser-Osgood later supported the Pomona-Pitzer Athletics Hall of Fame Committee as secretary for nearly 30 years. She was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame with the Distinguished Service Award in 2023.

She received her B.A. in English from Pomona and her M.A. in religious education from the Claremont School of Theology.

Treser-Osgood is celebrating her 45^th reunion with the Class of 1980.

Priya Amritraj ’15 is the head of film and television for the Hyde Park Entertainment Group, one of the leading independent entertainment and media companies in Hollywood. She oversees creative development, packaging and production of projects, with an emphasis on high-profile intellectual property acquisition, talent collaborations and global-facing film, TV and digital endeavors.

As an Indian female entertainment executive, Amritraj is passionate about representing stories that center layered female characters and diverse cultural experiences. Her current projects include: “The Joy Luck Club 2,” sequel to the 1993 classic film based on Amy Tan’s novel; “Audition,” a global feature film adaptation of the 1999 Japanese genre film at Focus Features with writer and director Christian Tafdrup (“Speak No Evil”); and, in partnership with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, “Hip Hop Cop,” a Hulu TV series adaptation of the memoir follow-up to “BlacKkKlansman,” created by Academy Award winner Kevin Willmott (“BlacKkKlansman”) and directed by Anthony Hemingway (“American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson”).

After graduating from Pomona with her B.A. in media studies, Amritraj began her career with Participant Media before transitioning to Hyde Park. She also worked in partnership with the international education and advocacy organization Global Citizen as an associate producer on the documentary, “Louder Together,” which brought together influential musical artists and global leaders to inspire social change.

Amritraj is celebrating her 10th reunion with the Class of 2015.

The Blaisdell Award, one of the most prestigious awards given to Pomona alumni, recognizes individuals for their high achievement in their professions or community service. These are alumni who have carried the spirit of the College beyond the Gates and lived up to President James A. Blaisdell's inscribed words: "They only are loyal to this college who departing bear their added riches in trust for mankind."

Recipients of this award are selected by a committee of Past Alumni Board Presidents.

The Awards Committee shall name the award winners following a confidential process that does not share information about nominees or outcomes. The Committee and the Alumni Association do not respond to nominations or provide any explanation for the process of the Committee. In addition, the Committee may choose to select from current year nominations or past years’ nominations.

Please note, special consideration is given to nominees whose class is in an anniversary reunion year. For 2025, that includes all classes ending in 5s or 0s.

Past Blaisdell Award Honorees

• 2024: Anson “Tuck” Hines ’69, Evelyn Nussenbaum ’84, Mary Walshok ’64
• 2023: Linda Alvarado ’73, Michelle Williams Court ’88 and Peter Shelton ’73
• 2022: Mike Budenholzer ’92, Colleen Hartman ’77, Bret Price ’72 and John Roth ’62.
• 2021: Cathy Corison ’75, James Strombotne ’56, Martina Vandenberg ’90 and Nathan Wang ’79.
• 2020: Steven G. Clarke ’70, Jennifer Doudna ’85, Ann Hardy ’55 and Anjali Kamat ’00.
• 2019: Brian Schatz ’94, Debra Cleaver ’99, Earl Maize ’72, Lynda Obst ’72 and Marilyn Ramenofsky ’69
• 2018: Esther Brimmer ’83, Bernard Chan ’88 and Cruz Reynoso ’53
• 2017: Penny Dean’77, Myrlie Evers-Williams ’68, Richard G. Taranto ’77 and Brian E. Tucker ’67
• 2016: Gretchen Berland ’86, Ed Krupp ’66, Julian Nava ’51 and George C. Wolfe ’76
• 2015: Bill Keller ’70, Richard Post ’40, Mary Schmich ’75 and James Turrell ’65
• 2014: Ifeanyi Menkiti ’64, Joe Palca ’74 and Rip Rapson ’74
• 2013: William Bader ’53, Cladd Stevens ’63 and Garrett Hongo ’73
• 2012: Richard Frank ’46 and Tom Redburn ’72
• 2011: Irving "Sonny" Brown ’56, Hashim Djojohadikusumo ’76, Carlos Guangorena ’76 and Dr. Robert E. Tranquada ’51
• 2010: R. Stanton Hales ’64 and Tracy Westen ’62 and Robert Stern ’66
• 2009: Bill Block ’71

Established in 1990 and inaugurated in 1991, the Alumni Distinguished Service Award is bestowed annually to an alumnus or alumna in recognition of that person’s direct selfless commitment and ongoing volunteer service to Pomona College.

The purpose of this award is to pay tribute to an alumnus or alumna for unheralded, selfless and direct service to the College, in evidence over a period of years. Every effort is made to seek a recipient who has not otherwise been already honored and care is given to select worthy candidates from Pomona’s vast alumni body, with first consideration given to those who have not served in the Alumni Association’s highest leadership positions, as trustees, faculty or staff of Pomona.

A committee of Past Presidents of the Pomona College Alumni Association Board selects the award recipient(s).

Please note, special consideration is given to nominees whose class is in an anniversary reunion year. For 2025, that includes all classes ending in 5s or 0s.

• 2024: Thomas Doe ’71, Verne Naito ’77, Julie Siebel ’84, Jonathan Siegel ’84
• 2023: Ann Rose Davie ’58
• 2022: Georgia Ritchie McManigal ’54, Marty Jannol ’77 and Penny McManigal ’58
• 2021: Peggy Olson ’61, Kelly Perine ’91 and Dodie Bump ’76
• 2020: Frank Albinder ’80, Jim McCallum ’70 and Harry E. Pukay-Martin
• 2019: Faye Epps (honorary), Lisa Prestwich Phelps ’79, P’12 and Susanne Garvey ’74
• 2018: Cathie Brown ’53 and John Thornton ’53
• 2017: Barbry Amberg Hogue ’72 and Joan-Patricia (JP) O’Connor ’72
• 2016: John Edwards ’64 and Pat Riggs ’71
• 2015: Jeanne Buckley ’65 P'92 and Stan Hales ’64
• 2013: Rosemary Choate ’63 and Carlos Garcia ’73
• 2011: Pat Newton ’51
• 2010: Peter and Sandy Briggs ’64
• 2009: Lee '48 and Claire ’47 Kingman McDonald
• 2008: Robert Herman ’51
• 2007: John Fisher ’67
• 2006: Byron Hayes '56
• 2005: Bruce Prestwich ’55 and Carolyn Tranquada Prestwich ’54
• 2004: Verne Orr ’37
• 2003: Eleanor Pierson ’41
• 2002: Patricia Sullivan ’55
• 2001: Ed Malan '’48 & John Pendleton ’51
• 2000: Marylin Vaughn Jacobsen ’55
• 1999: Nick Polos ’51
• 1998: Lee Harlan ’55
• 1997: Anne Shaw Price ’44
• 1996: Robert B. Dozier ’23 & Fannie Boyd Dozier '24
• 1995: Leonard Agee Shelton ’32
• 1994: Nancy Barrett Ringle ’41
• 1993: William Fellows ’33
• 1992: C. Crawford Thompson ’40
• 1991: Mason L. Hill ’26

The Inspirational Young Alumni Award honors a young alumnus or alumna (a graduate within the last decade) in recognition of their dedication, perseverance, and consistency in following the inscription on the College Gates: “They only are loyal to this college who departing bear their added riches in trust for mankind.”

• 2024: Kelebogile Zvobgo ’14
• 2016: Marlies Talay ’10
• 2015: Jessica Ladd '08
• 2014: Lt. Francine Segovia '04
• 2013: Maggie Fick '07
• 2012: Elena Shih '04
• 2011: Jane Chen '00
• 2010: Maia Sophia Campbell '01
• 2009: Melvin Yee '00
• 2008: Janelle Lin '00
• 2007: Maria Luz Garcia '01
• 2006: Emily Arnold-Fernandez '99
• 2005: Enriqueta Ramirez '00
• 2004: David Holmes '97
• 2003: Cuc Vu '92
• 2001: Loriq Charkoudian '95
• 2000: Casey Trupin '95
• 1999: Karin Zaugg '93
• 1998: Ed Tessier '91
• 1997: Martina Vandenberg '90
• 1996: Gretchen Berland '86

Established in 2012, the Faculty Alumni Service Award honors faculty “in recognition of exemplary service to the alumni association over a period of years.’’

• 2024: Donna Di Grazia
• 2023: Donna Di Grazia
• 2018: Lorn Foster
• 2017: Shahriar Shahriari
• 2016: Frank Pericolosi
• 2015: Char Miller
• 2014: Ken Wolf
• 2013: Monique Saigal
• 2012: Jonathan Wright