Morse College Teas

Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold were Yale Class of 2018 and, upon graduating, wrote for two years on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Their debut book, Naked in the Rideshare, which Will Ferrell called “daring and ahead of the curve” and Mindy Kaling called “brilliant”, is out from HarperCollins. Since leaving the Tonight Show, Rebecca and Ben have written shows and movies for Netflix, Amazon, and Apple. Their first series, executive produced by Nick Kroll, is shooting this spring for FX and their second series with Will Ferrell is in the works at Peacock.  

Maiani da Silva is a contemporary violinist, performer, arranger, and educator.  She is a member of the four-time Grammy-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird, founder of Brouhaha, and Lecturer at Yale’s Department of Music, and a Trotter Distinguished Visiting Professor at University of Oregon (2023). She has premiered concertos with the Cincinnati Symphony and the U.S. Navy Band, premiered staged works by David Lang/Anne Bogart, and has also collaborated with Bang On a Can All-Stars, Electric Earth Concerts, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Wild Up, Louis Andriessen, Viet Cuong, Ted Hearne, Nina Shekhar, Childish Gambino, George Lewis, Taylor Mac, Julianna Barwick, Joe Hisaishi, and more. 

Viet Cuong is the California Symphony’s Young American Composer-in-Residence, the Pacific Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence, and serves as Assistant Professor of Music Composition at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has been performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Eighth Blackbird, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sō Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Atlanta Symphony, Sandbox Percussion, Albany Symphony, PRISM Quartet, and Dallas Winds, among many others. Cuong’s music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center, and his works for wind ensemble have amassed several hundreds of performances worldwide. Passionate about bringing these different facets of the contemporary music community together, his recent projects include a concerto for Eighth Blackbird with the United States Navy Band. 

Abdouramane Diallo is Head of Targeted Interventions at the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), an affiliate of the Islamic Development Bank Group. He oversees ITFC’s efforts to strengthen intra-African exchanges, allowing 27 countries to expand trade with one another while affording vulnerable communities access to basic goods. In his role, he leads program delivery, manages cross-institutional expert teams, and forges alliances with key development partners. Devoted to reducing economic inequalities, he believes that entrepreneurial freedom allows for the greatest social impact. To this end, he co-founded Agrobiotech in 2016 and Paygas in 2017. Agrobiotech specializes in plant cloning in Mali and exports low-cost plantlets in Africa. Paygas utilizes proprietary technology to distribute clean cooking fuel to low-income families in South Africa. Abdouramane sits on the boards of both companies and supports their partnerships, strategy, and business growth.

Shamil Ibragimov is a highly experienced professional with over 17 years of expertise in the fields of social development, local governance, and media development.  Ibragimov is also the author and initiator of the Civic City Dashboard, a virtual platform that visualizes urban data and promotes data-driven civic engagement. As a thought leader in the fields of governance and civic engagement, Shamil is a regular contributor to Project Syndicate and Medium. He is also the co-author of the acclaimed “Income Generation Handbook,” published in 2010. Prior to his role at the Open Society Foundation, Ibragimov served as the Executive Director of the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia, a leading project management organization in the region. Shamil is also an Edward S. Mason Fellow, recipient of the Mary and David Boies scholarship, and a Fulbright Fellow. Shamil is Advisor to the Minister of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic and sits on the board of several organizations, including the Kyrgyz E-commerce Association, the Creative Industry Park, and the Teach for Kyrgyzstan Foundation.

Jessica Spector is a cultural historian and former philosophy professor who founded the consultancy firm The Academy Drinks, and runs the experimental agroforestry farm Green Robin Farms. She is interested in the way story shapes identity, and societal taboos around alcohol, sex, and place. She holds an MA and PhD from The University of Chicago, as well as certifications and diplomas from several Scottish Whisky Academies and WSET. She is a member of the American Distilling Institute and the American Craft Spirits Association, and Director of Drink History and Culture at the Museum of Distilled Spirits. Her publications include work on philosophy, the sex industry, and cultural history. For the past several years, she has been teaching about drink culture and ethics in Yale College’s Residential Seminar program.

Babatunde Omilola managed the African Development Bank’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, served as Head of Development Planning with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and co-chaired the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Task Force on Global Food and Nutrition Security Technical Team. Babatunde was UNDP’s Regional Practice Leader for poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa and UNDP’s Chief Economist and Head of Policy and Strategy in South Africa. He was also the Africa-wide Coordinator with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 

Infectious disease physician and critical medical anthropologist at Harvard University

US policy correspondent for The Economist

Retired Army Major and politician who passed the legalization of cannabis in West Virginia and ran a brief campaign for President of the United States in 2020.

Yale Alumna and former head of data science at AirBnB

Actor and playwright of Almost, Maine

Professor, author, diplomat, and businesswoman; first female U.S. Secretary of State

Author of There Will Be No Miracles Here, cofounder of the Yale Black Men’s Union, MC ‘09

Grammy award winning singer-songwriter, author, and activist

Creator of Layers of the Soul, a permanent art installation in the Morse College common room

Actor and playwright; former Morsel

Head of Talent Marketing at Snapchat

Business Innovation Specialist at the Good Food Institute

World Fellow and Social Activist

Eero Saarinen expert and Morse Class of 2012

Team Leader at the United Nations

Yale’s Chief Investment Officer and Endowment Manager

Inspirational speaker and coach

Grammy-award winning musician and writer

Chief Economist of the Human Development Practice Group in the World Bank

Musician and member of Pentatonix, Morse Class of 2011

Author and Director of the Harvard Wide Program in Placebo Studies & the Therapeutic Encounter

International director and founder of Promundo

UN Under-secretary General & External Director of UN Women

Author and Associate Professor of Political Science at Barnard College

Former UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees

Executive Director Doctors for America, Morse Class of 2001

Chair of Board of Trustees of the Yale-China Association

Speech Writer for George W. Bush

Young People, Technology & Spaces: A New Political Imaginary

Personal Finance Commentator and Journa

Head of Communications and Media Relations at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Foundatoins Fund Professor in Psychiatry, Neurobiology and Child Study at Yale school of Medicine