Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Manjari has held fellowships at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology at Halle, Germany, and the Social Science Research Council in the United States. Her papers have received prizes from the Society for Social Studies for Science and the American Anthropological Association. She received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University, her MSc in Science and Technology Policy from SPRU Sussex University, and her BA from Harvard University.

She is a nationally respected physician leader and public health innovator who transformed the College of Medicine at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU). Since 2016, she has served as Dean of the College of Medicine, leading the creation of CDU’s independent medical school and securing LCME accreditation for the university to award the MD degree for the first time. The new school—only the fourth at a historically Black university—welcomed its inaugural class of 60 diverse students in 2023.

As founding dean, she expanded the College of Medicine faculty from 100 to more than 600 and reestablished residency programs in South Los Angeles, including Family Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry. She also helped attract unprecedented philanthropic support from MacKenzie Scott, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Sutter Health.

A former Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health and longtime Harvard faculty member, Dr. Prothrow-Stith is widely known for pioneering the framing of youth violence as a public health issue. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a graduate of Spelman College and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Prothrow Stith's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Berger Institute for Individual and Social Development, the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights, and the Women and Leadership Alliance.

John J. Pitney, Jr. is Roy P. Crocker Professor of American History and Politics at Claremont McKenna College where he teaches courses on Congress, interest groups, political parties, and mass media. A leading expert on the structure and practice of American politics, Pitney is a widely published author or co-author of seven books on American politics, including The Art of Political Warfare (2000), The Politics of Autism (2015), Un-American: The Fake Patriotism of Donald J. Trump (2020), and The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. In addition to his books, Pitney has published numerous scholarly articles and short essays, and is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines. He is routinely featured on NPR and other television and radio programs.

Andrew Sinclair ‘08 is an Assistant Professor at Claremont McKenna College.  He completed his PhD at Caltech before teaching at NYU and returning to CMC.  He has conducted extensive research on primary election reforms and serves as the polling director at CMC’s Rose Institute.

During her 32-year diplomatic career, Ambassador (ret.) Kate Marie Byrnes served in senior leadership positions across Europe, including as U.S. Ambassador to North Macedonia (2019-2022). Her diplomatic assignments included U.S. European Command, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Greece, Spain, Afghanistan, Hungary, Bolivia, Türkiye, and the U.S. Department of State. Fellowships with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the International Women's Forum Leadership Foundation reinforced her commitment to cultivating effective leadership and public service.

Ambassador Byrnes holds a Bachelor of Science in International Relations and a Master's Degree in Policy Management from Georgetown University. As Founder and Principal of KMB Strategies and as Distinguished Fellow at the University of Tennessee Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, she continues to advance international cooperation, develop future leaders, and help organizations translate global challenges into opportunities for meaningful action.

Ambassador Byrnes will deliver the 2026-27 Lecture in Diplomacy and International Security in Honor of George F. Kennan.

Jarrett Catlin, PhD, is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Claremont McKenna College, where he teaches "Public Policy in the Age of AI." He is also an affiliate researcher at CMC's Rose Institute of State and Local Government.

Dr. Catlin is the founder and principal of Catlin Strategies, a consultancy that helps investors and innovators navigate political and regulatory risk. He also serves as State AI Policy Advisor to TechNet, the national bipartisan technology trade association. In that role he analyzes and engages on AI legislation across all 50 states, meets with lawmakers and industry advocates, and has testified before legislative committees in Illinois, Minnesota, and Florida.

He was previously a VP at Tusk Strategies, where he led multi-state public affairs campaigns for Fortune 50 companies and venture-backed startups. Before that, he was a researcher at the RAND Corporation and a staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives. Catlin holds a PhD in public policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School and a B.A. in political science from Westmont College. 
 

Simone Lagomarsino brings unusual authority to The Masks We Wear because her own career reflects its central message: meaningful success begins with knowing who you are and making intentional choices. Over four decades in banking, Lagomarsino advanced from finance and operations roles to become a public-company CEO, leading multiple institutions through transformation, regulatory challenges, economic disruption, mergers, and growth. She has served on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, chaired board committees, and was named a 2024 NACD Directorship 100 honoree. Yet her story extends beyond titles: early in her career, she recognized that accounting alone did not align with who she was and deliberately chose a different path. That combination of achievement, self-awareness, resilience, and values-based leadership enables Simone to speak authentically—and compellingly—about removing the masks, recognizing your unique strengths, and choosing your own path. Simone Lagomarsino's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by The Financial Economics Institute at CMC.

Ronald Brownstein is a senior political analyst for CNN and columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Twice named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of presidential elections, he's also served as a senior editor at the Atlantic, editorial director at National Journal, chief national political correspondent, and columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He's the author or editor of seven books, most recently the NYT best seller: Rock Me On The Water: 1974, The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television and Politics.

This event is co-sponsored by the Henry Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World.

Read more about Javier’s work at the following: https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/javier-zamora. 

Javier Zamora's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Center for Writing and Public Discourse at CMC and Chicano Latino Student Affairs of the Claremont Colleges.

Dr. Miemie Winn Byrd is a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, where she has served since 2007. Her work focuses on security dynamics in Southeast Asia, economics and security, civil-military and interagency cooperation, leadership, women, peace and security, and organizational development.

Dr. Byrd retired from the U.S. Army after 28 years of distinguished service, including assignments at U.S. Pacific Command supporting Operations Enduring Freedom and serving as a linguist and cultural advisor for U.S. delegations throughout the Indo-Pacific. She also brings 16 years of private-sector experience and holds degrees from Claremont McKenna College, the University of Hawaiʻi, and the University of Southern California, where she earned her Doctorate in Education Leadership.

He is co-editor of The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit (Orison Books 2020) and Afterlives: An AGNI Portfolio of Asian Adoptee Diaspora Writing. His poems appear widely, in The Poetry Foundation, Academy of American Poets, The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Francisco Bay Watershed, Naming the Lost: The Fresno Poets; Poetry Goes to the Movies; Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice with a foreword by Common, HERE: Poems for the Planet, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, and Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy, among others. Herrick serves on the advisory board of Terra in.org and Sixteen Rivers Press. He co-founded LitHop in Fresno. He has taught in Qingdao, China; at Kundiman in New York City, and for twelve years in the low-residency MFA program at University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe.

Herrick was born in Daejeon, Korea and adopted as an infant. He currently lives with his family in Fresno, California and served as Fresno Poet Laureate from 2015-2017. He teaches at Fresno City College. He is the 10th California Poet Laureate, and the first Asian American to serve in the role. In April 2025, he became the first California Poet Laureate to be officially reappointed to a second two-year term.

Lee Herrick's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Center for Writing and Public Discourse at CMC.

Jennifer Hunt is a Distinguished Professor of Economics at Rutgers University. From 2013-2015, she served first as Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Labor, then as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Microeconomic Analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Prior to joining Rutgers in 2011, she held positions at McGill University, the University of Montreal and Yale University. Hunt is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London. Her current research focus is the impact of the fluctuating levels of US immigration, while past research has also encompassed wage inequality, unemployment, the science and engineering workforce, technological diffusion, the transition from communism, crime and corruption. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard and her Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Professor Hunt's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Open Academy at CMC.

Sarah Robinson is an assistant professor of economics in the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance at Claremont McKenna College. Her research interests include health economics, public economics, and applied microeconomics. She holds a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and a master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Daniel Di Martino is a Venezuelan-born economist and fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where his research focuses on immigration policy. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and has appeared on Fox News and CNN and written for USA Today, the New York Post, and National Review. He is a member of the New Jersey State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and founder of the Dissident Project, which introduces high school students across the country to debates about freedom and governance.

Ben Burgis is a columnist for Jacobin magazine, an adjunct professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, and coauthor of The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World (2026). He has written for a wide range of publications, including The Daily Beast, The Nation, Skeptic, and UnHerd, and has debated prominent conservative and libertarian figures, including Charlie Kirk, economist Walter Block, the Ayn Rand Institute's Yaron Brook, and former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. He also coedited a collection of academic essays on the work of the late socialist philosopher G. A. Cohen, published in 2026.

Antar A. Tichavakunda, Ph.D. is a theorist, social scientist, and storyteller. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of California Santa Barbara. 

Tichavakunda has published over thirty peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters. His first book, Black Campus Life: The Lives Black Students Make at an Historically White Institution, is published with SUNY Press and is one of the few ethnographies about Black student life. His second book, Thinking with Critical Race Theory: An Invitation, will be available with the University of California Press in April 2027. An expert on race and higher education, his research has been featured in CNN, the Los Angels Times, Newsweek, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Outside of work, Tichavakunda enjoys watching anime, eating soul food, going to boxing classes, and writing in cafes.

Professor Tichavakunda's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Open Academy at CMC.

Bernard Haykel is a scholar of the Arabian Peninsula, focusing on the politics, economics and history of the Gulf Cooperation Council states (GCC) and Yemen. He is professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University where he teaches courses on energy, history and politics. He is the author of Revival and Reform in Islam and editor of Saudi Arabia in Transition, both published by Cambridge University Press. His next book titled The Realm: MBS and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia will be published shortly by Penguin Press. Haykel has received several prominent awards, such as the Prize Fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford, the Carnegie Corporation and Guggenheim fellowships and the Old Dominion Professorship at Princeton. In 2024 he was elected member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters. Haykel appears frequently in print and broadcast media. These include interviews and articles in the Wall Street Journal, PBS, NPR, the New York Times, The New Yorker, Project Syndicate, Al Arabia, Al Jazeera, The Caravan, the Indian Express and the BBC among others. He earned his doctorate in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford.