PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — During its annual spring meeting in May, the Corporation of Brown University elected two members to its Board of Fellows and eight new members to its Board of Trustees. Each was invited to serve on Brown’s highest governing body based on their commitment to the University and its mission of education and research.
Theresia Gouw, a 1990 Brown graduate who served as Brown Corporation treasurer from 2016 to 2025 and has been a Corporation member since 2007, and Sara Leppo Savage, a 1990 Brown graduate who has served as a trustee since 2019, were elected to the Board of Fellows.
Eight new trustees — Preetha Basaviah, Ami Kuan Danoff, Brickson Diamond, Giammaria Giuliani, Tanya Katerí Hernández, Harry William Holt Jr., Daniel O’Keefe and Kathryn D. Thompson — were elected by the Corporation. Members of the Board of Trustees customarily serve six-year terms, with new alumni trustees serving for three years. Thompson will serve as a new alumni trustee.
Members are formally engaged in October at the first Corporation meeting of the academic year.
All members are dedicated to ensuring that their work will produce an intellectual environment that will shape the careers and lives of future generations. The roles and responsibilities of Corporation members are outlined in detail on the Corporation website.
New Fellows
Theresia Gouw, a Class of 1990 Brown graduate, is a co-founder of Acrew, a leading venture firm. Previously, she served as managing partner at Accel and Aspect. In addition to Acrew’s early-stage funds, the firm launched Acrew Diversify Capital Fund, a growth-stage fund to include diverse individual limited partners in the capitalization tables and networks of leading technology companies. Gouw has worked with many companies through IPOs or acquisitions including Forescout (FSCT), Imperva (IMPV), Trulia (TRLA), Hotel Tonight (ABNB), Astro (WORK) and LearnVest (Northwestern Mutual). Some of the investments she has led include Arthur.ai, Cato Networks, HYCU, Ketch, Observable and Solv. Gouw was named to Forbes' “50 Over 50” list, “100 Most Powerful Women” list and “Midas List” (nine times), as well as Time’s “40 Most Influential Minds in Tech” and the Carnegie Corporation’s “Distinguished Immigrants List.”
Sara Leppo Savage, a Class of 1990 Brown graduate, is a co-founder and principal of Sane Designs, a full-service, high-end interior design firm. Prior to founding Sane Designs, she practiced law at Stillman and Friedman, where she specialized in complex commercial litigations, internal investigations and white collar criminal defense work. Savage graduated from Brown University in 1990 with a degree in political science. She earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1994, where she received an award for excellence in advocacy. She is a past president of the Brown Alumni Association. Savage has served as a board member of ASAP!, a Connecticut-based nonprofit arts organization, and was a director of the Access Challenge, an international nonprofit that works with national leaders to advocate for equal access to health care and education for the world's most underserved populations.
New Trustees
Preetha Basaviah, a 1991 Brown biology graduate who earned an M.D. from the Warren Alpert Medical School in 1995, is an advising dean and professor of clinical medicine at Stanford University. Basaviah completed her internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard, including a role as a primary care chief resident at West Roxbury Veteran's Administration Hospital. She completed a fellowship in medical education at the Harvard Institute for Education and Research and served as one of the first hospitalists and as an associate firm chief at Beth Israel Deaconess. Next, she served as an academic hospitalist, teaching academy member and teaching scholar at the University of California, San Francisco. At Stanford since 2006, she is director for educators for CARE (Compassion, Advocacy, Respect, Advocacy), a teaching academy member and an attending physician. Basaviah has earned many awards for teaching, mentoring and scholarship in medical education, including honors as Educator of the Year from the Society of General Internal Medicine.
Ami Kuan Danoff is a founding co-owner of the Boston Legacy Football Club, Boston’s women’s professional soccer team playing in the National Women’s Soccer League. She also invests in early-stage tech ventures, including being the lead funder of Raxia, an AI-powered platform for revenue cycle management in health care. Danoff is the co-founder of the Women’s Foundation of Boston, a nonprofit that funds high-impact economic programs serving women and girls across Massachusetts. Previously, Danoff was the portfolio manager of an international growth equity mutual fund at Putnam Investment, and an international equity analyst at Fidelity Investments. She earned a bachelor’s degree in visual and environmental studies from Harvard College and holds dual master’s degrees in applied economics and international finance from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Danoff is a Harvard Quantum Founder and a member of the Harvard FAS Dean’s Council. She lives near Boston with her husband, Will, and they are the proud parents of three children, including 2023 Brown graduate Amelia Danoff.
Brickson Diamond, a Class of 1993 Brown graduate, is a partner at Spencer Stuart, advising clients on executive search, leadership succession and professional development, with a strong focus on inclusion. Based in Los Angeles, he is active in the firm’s telecommunications, media and technology, and education and social impact practices. Previously, Diamond founded Big Answers, a consultancy focused on helping organizations define core values and strategies through an inclusive lens. He also served as executive vice president and COO of the Executive Leadership Council, a leading organization for Black executives and board members. Earlier, he spent 15 years at the Capital Group, becoming a senior vice president and advising high-net-worth families on wealth and legacy. He serves on the board of Gentreo, a full-service digital estate planning solution. Beyond his corporate roles, Diamond is founding chair of the Blackhouse Foundation, an 18-year old nonprofit expanding opportunities for new storytellers at major film festivals. He chairs the board of the Tides Network, serves on the board of Rideback Rise and is on the investment committee of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. He holds a bachelor’s from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard.
Giammaria Giuliani started his professional career in 2002, at Leo Burnett (Publicis Group). Subsequently, in 2004, he assumed the role of executive vice president and head of research and development at Giuliani SpA. Since 2014, as a health care investor, he has held various board positions in pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and in this context participates in defining those companies’ investment strategies and ensuring that they are aligned with their mission and values. He is also involved in developing and financing medical and scientific research projects. Giuliani is also active in philanthropy through the Giuliani Foundation, which focuses on education, health and economic well-being.
Tanya Katerí Hernández, a Class of 1986 Brown graduate, is the Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law at Fordham University, and an associate director of its Center on Race, Law and Justice. Earlier in her career, Hernández was a staff attorney at Brooklyn Legal Services, a fellow at the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, and a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Jaime Pieras Jr. in Puerto Rico. Hernández is a Fulbright Scholar, and a fellow of the American Law Institute, the American Bar Foundation, and the Puerto Rico Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation. In 2024, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander awarded Hernández a commendation for "extraordinary contributions to anti-racism;" and in 2007, Hispanic Business Magazine selected her as one of its annual 100 Most Influential Hispanics. Her publications include amongst others: “Racial Subordination in Latin America”; “Customary Law and the New Civil Rights Response”; Multiracials and Civil Rights”; and Racial Innocence”. Currently under contract with Beacon Press is her next book, “(Under) Counting Blackness Across the Globe: The Civil Rights Crisis of Census Racial Erasure.”
Harry William Holt Jr., a Class of 1984 Brown graduate, is the executive for strategic programs at BITHGROUP Technologies, an IT services company providing solutions to both public and private sectors. Prior to this, he served as president of the company. Holt currently serves as vice president of the board for the Irvine Nature Center and Vice President of Black SONs (Success Oriented Networks). He is also a member of the advisory board for the Morgan State University INSS Program. Previously, he held roles including mid-Atlantic regional director for INROADS, management consultant with Price Waterhouse, and systems engineer at IBM. He also taught mathematics in Baltimore City Public Schools and began his career as a production engineer at Calgon Corporation. Holt earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Brown and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He also completed all coursework toward a Ph.D. in human resource management and organizational behavior at George Washington University. At Brown, he is a member of the Engineering Advisory Council, an ex-officio board member of the Associated Class Leaders Board, a member of the Inman Page Council, and a member of the Brown Club of Greater Baltimore. He will become president of the Brown Alumni Association in July 2025. In 2020, Hold published his first book, “You Can Get There from Here: From a Historically Black College or University to Greatness, Volume One.” He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and an alumnus of INROADS and a Better Chance.
Daniel O’Keefe, a Class of 1997 Brown graduate, serves as commissioner of economic development and chief innovation officer for the State of Connecticut. He has been a member of Governor Ned Lamont’s cabinet since 2023. Prior to public service, O’Keefe was a technology investor for 25 years, most recently as a managing partner of Apax Partners and a general partner of TCV, both global investment firms. O’Keefe serves on a number of civic and nonprofit boards, including the Board of Trustees at the University of Connecticut, the Board of Regents of Connecticut’s State Colleges and Universities, and as chairman emeritus of the Opportunity Network, an education nonprofit that serves high-achieving students from historically marginalized communities. O’Keefe holds an bachelor’s degree from Brown and an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where he served as president of its alumni board. For Brown, he has served as class president, as a board member and treasurer of the Brown Alumni Association, as chair of the Brown Annual Fund Leadership Committee, and currently sits on the President’s Leadership Council and the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship Advisory Council.
Kathryn D. Thompson, a Class of 2023 Brown Ph.D. graduate, is an assistant professor at Boston University School of Public Health, holding dual appointments in community health sciences and health law, policy and management. Thompson’s research uses health services and population health methods to examine how macro- and micro-level health systems drive health inequities, particularly among pregnant and post-partum persons and Medicaid populations. She leverages economic frameworks to quantify how social, demographic and policy contexts shape health outcomes. At Brown, Thompson was president of the Graduate Student Council, launching a graduate student food insecurity initiative with University leaders. Additionally, she served on the executive board of the Samuel M. Nabrit Black Graduate Student Association, the University Graduate Council, the Brown University Community Council, and other institutional committees. She received Brown’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan Award and was a Brown Executive Scholar. Recently, she was named a National Poverty Scholar with the Institutes for Research on Poverty, and an Early Career Scholar with the HIV Prevention Trial Network Scholars Program.