Swarthmore Welcomes New Members to Board of Managers
New members of Swarthmore’s Board of Managers will attend their first meeting on September 20-21. The four new members, appointed at the Board’s meeting in May, are:
Odim, who served on the Board of Managers from 2014 to 2018, is a multimedia journalist who has worked as an assignment reporter, anchor, and producer, generating stories for local, national, and international media outlets. Her documentary work has appeared on the CBC and BBC channels, including the Pulitzer Prize- and Peabody Award-winning This World: Bad Medicine.
Odim’s work includes a book on race relations in America for which she has been traveling around the country amassing more than 200 interviews. She has also served as a member of the advisory board of the Junior League of Brooklyn and sits on the board of Brooklyn’s Dodge YMCA, serving as chair of the programming, membership and communications committee.
Odim earned a B.A. in political science with a concentration in economics from Swarthmore and served on the College’s Alumni Council from 2011 to 2014. She also earned an M.S. in biology from New York University and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.
Robinson has four decades of experience in higher education law and administrative leadership. She served at Yale University for 37 years, including as vice president and general counsel, and as counselor to the president. After retiring from Yale, she has been of counsel in the New York office of K&L Gates LLP, in the tax-exempt organizations and higher education practices.
Robinson is also a trustee of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association Inc. (TIAA); a director of TIAA Bank, FSB; a director of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia; and a trustee of Yale University Press London.
She earned a B.A. with honors in economics at Swarthmore and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. She served on Swarthmore’s Alumni Council from 1999 to 2002, and she introduced President Valerie Smith and former President Rebecca Chopp at Swarthmore events in New Haven, Conn., in 2015 and 2013, respectively,
Schuchat has served as principal deputy director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 2015. A physician and epidemiologist, she began her public health career as an epidemic intelligence service officer at the CDC in 1988 and directed the agency’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases from 2006 to 2015.
Schuchat spearheaded prevention of newborn infection from group B streptococcal disease in the 1990s. She has worked in West Africa, on meningitis, pneumonia, and Ebola vaccine trials; South Africa, on surveillance and prevention projects; and China, on Beijing’s SARS emergency response. She has authored or co-authored more than 230 scientific articles, book chapters, and reviews.
Schuchat earned a B.A. with highest honors in philosophy from Swarthmore and an M.D. with honors from Dartmouth Medical School. She served on Swarthmore's Alumni Council in 1992.
James C. Snipes ’75, P’21
Snipes is senior counsel with the law firm of Covington & Burling. He is a former partner in the firm’s corporate practice, the founder and former head of the firm’s San Francisco office, and a former member of the firm’s executive committee. His practice has focused on corporate and transactional matters for life sciences clients.
Snipes spent two years as head of the corporate group in Covington’s London office and two years at the Tokyo law firm of Nagashima, Ohno & Tsunematsu. He is also a recognized authority in the field of art law, with broad experience in resolving disputes involving Nazi-era claims and cultural patrimony claims. His pro bono work includes representation of various global health nonprofits, as well as work as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in the foster care system.
Snipes earned a B.A. with honors in religion from Swarthmore, a B.A. with honors in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Yale University.
