Amy C. Falls, William F. Lee, and Alondra Nelson have been elected to join the MacArthur Foundation Board of Directors.
Three distinguished leaders in their fields have been elected to join the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Board of Directors at its June 2024 Board meeting. Amy C. Falls is a chief investment officer with a record of advancing organizations’ missions while growing their endowment. William F. Lee is a leading trial, appellate, and intellectual property attorney. Alondra Nelson is an acclaimed social scientist and technology expert and has served the field as a scholar, nonprofit leader, and policy advisor.
“The MacArthur Board is pleased to welcome these notable individuals who bring unique and deep expertise and have each delivered phenomenal contributions in their areas of work,” Board Chair Martha Minow said. “Amy, Bill, and Alondra each have distinctive accomplishments, deep talents, and powerful commitments to advancing justice, peace, and a planet where all people can flourish. What a joy it is to welcome them to the board and the foundation.”
An Investment and Management Leader, Falls Brings Vast Nonprofit and Endowment Experience
As Northwestern University’s vice president and chief investment officer, Falls oversees a $14.0 billion investment portfolio. Falls serves on the boards and finance committees of several organizations, overseeing or influencing the allocation of roughly $75 billion in combined assets, almost all of which is mission- or access-focused.
Falls previously served as chief investment officer at Rockefeller University, where she restructured the school’s $2.3 billion endowment. Prior to that, Falls served as the first chief investment officer at Phillips Academy, Andover, founding the Phillips Academy Andover Investment Office and managing assets over $1 billion. In both positions, the endowment transitioned from bottom quartile to top decile in less than five years under her leadership. Earlier in her career, Falls was a managing director at Morgan Stanley.
A leading voice in both the nonprofit sector and academia, Falls is a board member of the Harvard Management Company and the Ford Foundation and is the chairman of the board of trustees at Phillips Academy. She also serves on the board overseeing the investments for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Falls and her husband created the Amy Falls and Hartley Rogers Foundation, a nonprofit providing grants to organizations devoted to educational equity and equality.
Falls holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and a master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
An Esteemed Attorney, Lee Brings Deep Knowledge Around Technology, Intellectual Property, and Governance
Lee is a partner at the firm WilmerHale, where he is a trial and appellate lawyer and intellectual property litigator focusing on technology clients. Lee recently served as lead trial counsel for Harvard in the case challenging its race-conscious admissions policy. He has also served as lead trial counsel for high-profile cases representing Apple, Broadcom, and Pfizer. Throughout his career, Lee has tried more than 200 cases to judgment and argued more than 100 appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals. He served as the managing and co-managing partner at WilmerHale from 2000 to 2012.
Previously, Lee served as associate counsel to Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh in the Iran-Contra investigation. He also served as a special assistant to the Massachusetts Attorney General, investigating alleged incidents of racial bias in the Commonwealth's courts.
Lee was appointed a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation in 2010 and was elected Senior Fellow in 2014 and served through 2022. Lee has also served on the Harvard Law School faculty for 20 years, first as the John A. Reilly Visiting Professor and then as the Eli Goldston Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School.
Among many awards earned throughout his career, Lee was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the American Lawyer and was selected as one of the National Law Journal’s 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America. Lee is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Lee received his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard University; his JD, magna cum laude, from Cornell Law School; and an MBA, with Distinction, from Cornell University.
A Policy Advisor, Scholar, and Non-Profit Leader, Nelson’s Expertise Centers on Science, Technology, and Society
Dr. Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, where she leads the Science, Technology, and Social Values lab.
From 2021 to 2023, Nelson served as deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In 2023, Nelson was nominated by the White House and appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to serve on the UN High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence. As a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and science and technology policy advisor, she has provided guidance to local, state, and federal governments, multilateral and intergovernmental organizations, legislators, and civil society institutions. Nelson also previously served as president and CEO of the Social Science Research Council, as well as Columbia University’s inaugural Dean of Social Science. Nelson began her academic career on the faculty of Yale University and there received the Poorvu Award for Interdisciplinary Teaching Excellence.
Widely known for her scholarship at the intersection of science, technology, and society, Nelson is the author of several award-winning books, including, The Social Life of DNA. Her essays, reviews, and commentary have appeared in many outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, National Public Radio, BBC, and PBS Newshour.
Nelson is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Medicine, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the recipient of honorary degrees from Northeastern University, Rutgers University, and the City University of New York. Her honors also include the Federation of American Scientists Public Service Award, the SAGE-CASBS Award for “outstanding achievement in the behavioral and social sciences that advances our understanding of pressing social issues,” and the inaugural Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Social Sciences and Technology from the Technical University of Munich. She was named to the inaugural TIME100 list of the most influential people in the field of artificial intelligence and to Nature’s list of 10 People Who Shaped Science.
Dr. Nelson received her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from the University of California at San Diego, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her PhD from New York University.
“Amy, Bill, and Alondra are outstanding leaders with records of success at the organizations where they have served, all maintaining a focus on integrity throughout their careers,” MacArthur President John Palfrey said. “I am excited to have them share their talents on our Board.”
MacArthur's Board of Directors sets policies and strategy for the Foundation; approves grantmaking areas, initiatives, and grants; and oversees investments and the audit process.