Graduate Studies Advisory Board
The Graduate Studies Advisory Board is a group of educational, corporate, and community leaders with a commitment to enhancing the quality of graduate education in Arts & Sciences at William and Mary.
By increasing graduate funding to provide competitive stipends and research and travel awards, the Graduate Studies Advisory Board is playing an important role in the overall development of W&M's graduate programs in Arts & Sciences. Since 2005, the Board has recognized outstanding graduate research by funding the Distinguished Dissertation Awards and Distinguished Master's Thesis Awards. The Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring recognize A&S graduate students for their invaluable mentoring of undergraduate students in scholarship and research. The Carl J. Strikwerda Awards for Excellence recognize A&S graduate students for their outstanding written papers on thesis research or scholarship to earn an MA, MS, or MPP degree. In addition, the Board has noted that encouraging outstanding applicants to accept W&M's offer of admission is vital to the success of W&M's graduate programs. Board members fund Graduate Studies Advisory Board Fellowships that are offered to exceptional prospective students who are applying for admission.
The missions of the Graduate Studies Advisory Board are:
- Development/fundraising to increase graduate Arts & Sciences financial resources
- Assisting in the building of a graduate Arts & Sciences community
- Enhancing professional development opportunities for graduate students
- Advocating for graduate Arts & Sciences within the W&M community
The Board meets twice per year in Williamsburg and has three subcommittees that continue the work of the Board between these meetings: the Development and Communications Committee, the Student Professional Development Committee, and the Nominations Committee.
Graduate Studies Advisory Board Officers
President: Cynthia Morton
Vice-President: Diane Alleva
Cáceres
Past President: Larry McEnerney
Chair, Student Professional Development Committee: Robert Saunders
Chair, Development and Communications Committee: Bill Tropf
Chair, Nominations and Membership Committee: Patti Barry
Emeritus Members
James Baroody '68 MS Physics
Sherry Manning '67 MS Math
Ronald J. Monark '61 BA Economics
Maciek Sasinowski '93 MS Physics, '95 PhD Physics
Kumiko (Jean) Takeuchi '76 MA Chemistry
Board Member Biographies
Debra (Debbie) Allison '77 BS Chemistry
Debbie Allison retired from Merck & Co., Inc. in 2011. She has more than 30 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and is an internationally recognized competitive intelligence professional. At the time of retirement, she was Senior Director of Global Competitive Intelligence and led the Scientific Competitive Intelligence Team responsible for scientific analysis to support strategic decision making within internal research, licensing and marketing for all Merck franchises. She earned a BS in chemistry from the College of William & Mary and a Master's degree in medicinal chemistry from Ohio State University. She began her career in the Merck Research Laboratories as a medicinal chemist. Subsequently, Ms. Allison led a cross-divisional, international effort to develop some of the first chemical structure and reaction information systems for the chemist's desktop through a complete transformation of Merck's internal computer systems. Her home is in Neshanic Station, New Jersey.
Patricia (Patti) Barry '63 BS Chemistry
Patricia Barry retired in 2006 after serving as the founder and Executive Director of the Merck Institute of Aging & Health. Prior to that, she was Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Geriatrics Section of the Department of Medicine, and Director of the Gerontology Center of Boston University. Dr. Barry earned a BS in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary, received her M.D. degree and her postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, and obtained her M.P.H. from Boston University. She serves as President of the Board of Directors of The Center for Excellence in Aging and Geriatric Health in Williamsburg and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pan American Health and Education Foundation in Washington, DC. Dr. Barry is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Fund for William and Mary and served as the first President of the A&S Graduate Studies Advisory Board. She was recently honored by induction into Omicron Delta Kappa at W&M. Her home is in Gloucester Point, Virginia, with her husband Dr. Marshall Barry, W&M Class of '61.
John D. Burton '89 MA History, '96 PhD History
John Burton is Co-Director of the American Studies Program at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. As a graduate student at the College of William & Mary, he worked for the Department of Archaeological Research for Colonial Williamsburg. Dr. Burton teaches courses on American Studies methodologies, early American History, and American Social History. His current research is on American Loyalists and their slaves who came to the Bahamas after the American Revolution. He co-directs the DePaul Bahamas Study Abroad Program, including a December archaeological excavation, most recently at Farquharson's Plantation on San Salvador, The Bahamas.
Diane Alleva Cáceres '87 BA Economics,'89 MA Government
Diane Alleva Cáceres is Founder and Managing Director of Market Access International, Inc. (MAI), an international trade, investment and enterprise development consulting firm, in Smyrna, GA established in 1997. While her colleagues manage MAI, she is continuing her intellectual interests by pursuing a PhD in Science, Technology and International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. At Georgia Tech, she served as Associate Director and is now Research Associate at the European Union Center of Excellence. She is also an adjunct faculty member at both the Sam Nunn School and the College of Management. After graduation from the College of W&M, Ms. Alleva Cáceres worked in a variety of international trade and investment positions in Washington DC, including several years with the Australian Trade Commission, USAID, The Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars and the World Technology Foundation. She was elected as a Life Member to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2002. As a student at W&M, Ms. Alleva Cáceres was co-captain of the swim team. She and her husband, Mark, and their daughter, Sophia, live in Atlanta.
Kathryn Caggiano '90 BS Mathematics
Kathryn Caggiano is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Master of Engineering (MEng) Studies at Cornell University's School of Operations Research and Information Engineering (ORIE). Since assuming this role in 2007, she has developed and implemented substantive innovations in program and project administration, student professional development, internet presence and marketing, recruiting, and performance metrics. In addition to chairing Cornell's Master of Engineering Committee, Dr. Caggiano has served on Strategic Planning Committees for Cornell's College of Engineering and the School of ORIE, and she sits on the Board of Directors of the Cornell Engineering Alumni Association. She received a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University in 1998. Prior to her current position, Dr. Caggiano was a faculty member in Operations and Information Management at the University of Wisconsin's School of Business in Madison, WI. Outside of academia, she has held positions in technology and supply chain consulting with Price Waterhouse and PeopleSoft Supply Chain Solutions. Her home is in Ithaca, NY.
D. Nelson Daniel '90 BS Geology & Economics
Nelson Daniel is an attorney in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he specializes in environmental law. He earned his Juris Doctor from the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond. Prior to law school, he earned his MS in Geology from Indiana University (Bloomington) and advised clients in southwest Virginia on environmental matters. He served for four years in the United States Army immediately following graduation fromWilliam & Mary. Nelson and his wife Nicole, also a graduate of William & Mary, have two sons and live in Baton Rouge.
Ann L. Koch '83 BA Religion
Ann Koch is the Senior Associate Director of Foundation Relations at Johns Hopkins University. She earned a BA in Religion ('83) fromWilliam & Mary and her MA in Humanities ('92) from the University of Chicago. She has nearly 25 years of fundraising experience in higher education and has held positions at Johns Hopkins since 1996. In addition to the Graduate Studies Advisory Board, Koch previously served on the Friends of the Swem Library Board. She currently serves on the board of The Wilkes School at Grace & St. Peter's (Baltimore).
Peter Martin '71 MS Physics, '72 PhD Physics
Peter Martin is currently an adjunct faculty member of the Physics Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. He spent 27 years in industrial research and management with Altria Inc. in both the USA andSwitzerland, and took early retirement in 1998. Dr. Martin has since helped develop a physics course for non-scientists at VCU and has spent two years teaching mathematics and physics at the VCU campus in Qatar. He grew up in England, earned a B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University in Mathematics and Physics and a Diploma in Education from Oxford University, and came to America to teach in1965. Entering William & Mary in1966, he completed his graduate degrees in experimental nuclear physics and helped coach the very first William & Mary soccer team. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the International School of Lausanne and the Editorial AdvisoryBoard of "Filtration News", and developed a mini-course in Science for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Richmond. Dr. Martin and his wife, Patricia, live in Richmond and have two adult sons.
Larry McEnerney '76 BA English & History
Larry McEnerney is the Director of University Writing Programs at the University of Chicago. He teaches in the Graduate Divisions, the Graduate School of Business, the Law School, post-graduate institutes, and the undergraduate College. He consults for writing worldwide to professional firms, universities, academic societies,businesses, and government agencies. He is also a principal in UpFrontPublications and the president of Clarison, Inc., a developer of internet-based programs for writing. Larry and Cathe (College of W&M '75) have three children, the youngest of whom, Kate, is W&M Class of 2008.
George Miller '67 BS Physics, '69 MS Physics, '72 PhD Physics
George Miller is the tenth Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a position he assumed in March 2006 after a distinguished career in national security work at the Laboratory. While serving as Director, Dr. Miller is responsible for the management of the Laboratory and will lead the institution through its transition to a new management contractor. Throughout his tenure, Dr. Miller has tackled a variety of management and scientific challenges in the interest of national security, particularly nuclear weapons. Dr. Miller holds memberships in the American Physical Society, Sigma Pi Sigma - National Physics Honor Society, and the California Council on Science and Technology and is Chairman of the Science and Technology advisory panel to the Commander of the United States Strategic Command.
Brian J. Morra '78 BA History
Brian J. Morra is the Sector Vice President for Business Development & Strategic Planning in Northrop Grumman Corporation's Electronic Systems Sector. In this role he is responsible for the sector's global partnerships, long-range planning, and all investment planning and oversight. He is a member of Northrop Grumman's corporate Strategic Development Council and Intelligence Advisory Board. He received an M.P.A. from the University ofOklahoma (1984) and M.A. in government and national security studies from Georgetown University (1987). Mr. Morra is also a graduate of the U.S. Air Force's Air Command and Staff College and was an adjunct faculty member at the Joint Military Intelligence College and at Air Command and Staff College. He served a total of 15 years in the United States Air Force – active and reserve components – including a significant amount of time in foreign assignments. Mr. Morra has served on the Foundation Board of Coppin State University, is a current member of the board of directors of CEA, Inc. (an Australian high tech company), and is a long-standing member of the system engineering advisory board at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Cynthia Morton '77 BS Biology
Cynthia Morton is the William Lambert Richardson Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Director of Cytogenetics at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and immediate Past Director of the Biomedical Research Institute at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She received her Ph.D. in Human Genetics from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. Dr. Morton is a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Medical Genetics where she served as Secretary, Treasurer and Chair of the Accreditation Committee. She was Chair of the Molecular Genetic Pathology Policy and Exam Committees of the American Board of Medical Genetics and the American Board of Pathology. She served as a member and Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, and as a member and Chair of the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine. Currently she is a member of the Counsel of Scientific Trustees of the Deafness Research Foundation and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Veteran's Administration Genomic Medicine Program. Dr. Morton is the Editor of The American Journal of Human Genetics. As a student at W&M, she was active in music, as well as a resident advisor, orientation aide, and member of Kappa Kappa Gamma social sorority, Phi Sigma, Delta Omicron and Mortar Board.
B.Lee Roberts '70 MS Physics, '74 PhD Physics
Lee Roberts was a Research Associate at the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory (England) 74-76, Research Associate at the MIT Laboratory forNuclear Science 76-77, and joined the faculty at Boston University in September 1977, where he is now Professor of Physics. He served as Associate Chairman of the Physics Department from 79-81, Chair of the Brookhaven National Laboratory AGS Users' Group 89-90, Member of the BNL AGS Program Advisory Committee 88-91, and Co-Spokesperson (co-leader) of the muon g-2 experiment at BNL from 1989 to its conclusion in 2006, and is now Co-Spokesperson of the new muon g-2 experiment being prepared for Fermilab. Dr. Roberts' research has been funded by the National Science Foundation continuously since 1978. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Sigma Xi. He received a BS in physics from the University of Virginia in 1968.
Robert (Rob) Saunders'00 BS Physics
Robert Saunders is a program officer in the Round table on Value and Science-Driven Health Care at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, fielding issues related to value and costs of health care. Dr. Saunders came to the position from the office of Congressman Rush Holt (New Jersey), where he was a Legislative Assistant in charge of handling health reform, Medicare and Medicaid, small business, the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus, and budget policy areas. For eight years prior, he was a researcher at Duke University, first as a graduate student in Physics (Ph.D., 2006) and later as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Radiology. While at Duke, he researched the evaluation of imaging systems for their performance in cancer detection, with a specialization in breast imaging and mammography. He served as a member of the Duke University Board of Trustees from 2005-2007, where he focused on building and grounds issues. As an undergraduate at the College of William & Mary,he was involved in the Student Assembly, Honor Council, and Delta Phi fraternity.
William (Bill) Tropf '68 BS Physics
William Tropf is retired, formerly serving as Head of Missile Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). His work spanned missile development from concept through flight testing, principally for naval air defense and ballistic missile defense. His technical specialty is optics and particularly optical properties of materials. He has contributed chapters to several standard references including the Handbook of Optical Constants and the Optical Society of America's Handbook of Optics. Since retiring, he continues to work as a consultant at APL. Dr. Tropf received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Virginia. He lives with his wife Lorraine in Fulton, Maryland.
Edwin Watson II '68 BA History, '70 MA History
Edwin Watson is the President Emeritus of the Fredericksburg Area Museum in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has worked at a number of museums including serving as chief curator at Tryon Palace in North Carolina, as assistant director of the Kansas City Museum, as director of the Virginia Museum of Transportation, and director of Belle Grove Plantation before moving to Fredericksburg in 1986. He retired in 2009 after completing the successful adaptive re-use of an historic downtown building which now houses the collections of the museum. Mr. Watson serves on several local boards and often speaks on the topic of fund raising and the management of museums. He taught in the museum studies program at the University of Mary Washington and presently teaches history at Germanna Community College.
Gail Williams Wertz '66 BS Biology
Gail Williams Wertz is a Professor in the Departments of Pathology and Microbiology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan Department of HumanGenetics. Work in her laboratory has elucidated the molecular biology of the negative strand RNA viruses and pioneered genetic engineering for this class of viruses to generate new approaches to vaccine development. Dr. Wertz is past President of the American Society for Virology and has served on numerous advisory boards, including the NIH NIAID Advisory Council and the CDC Basic Science Advisory Board. She has been a recipient of two National Institutes of Health MERIT Awards and the Bristol Myers Squibb "Freedom to Discover" unrestricted Research Award. She and her husband, Dr. L. Andrew Ball, are active in land conservancy and recently restored Millbank Farm (ca.1669) on the Rappahannock River where they raise Angus cattle.