7 alumni selected for Rice alumni board

Seven alumni have been selected to serve on the Association of Rice Alumni (ARA) Board of Directors: Alicia Burns-Wright ’08, Dr. Peter Chang ’74, Wendy Hoenig ’86, Michael Maher ’75, David Mansouri ’07, Karin Shipman ’12 and Kristjan Stone ’08. They will begin their three-year terms July 1, when Matt Haynie ’03 becomes president of the ARA.

Haynie, who has been serving as ARA president-elect this year, chaired the committee that selected the new members who will become part of the 28-member board that represents the alumni body to the university and liaisons between the university and the broad alumni population.

Matt Haynie

“I am thrilled about the slate of engaged and dedicated alumni who will be joining the ARA board this July,” Haynie said. “From an incredibly qualified pool of applicants, we selected seven alumni who will bring an impressive and diverse set of personal and professional backgrounds to the board, along with a shared passion for Rice. Together with our outstanding returning board members, this incoming class is well-suited to help the board continue our ongoing work of enhancing alumni connections with the university and the entire Rice community.”

The board provides input regarding the programs of the Alumni Relations office headed by Assistant Vice President Marthe Druska Golden, who also serves as executive director of the ARA. The board also represents Rice alumni in meetings with university administrators, including Rice President David Leebron, and other senior officials.

Alicia Burns-Wright

Burns-Wright, of Washington, D.C., is an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission in the Mergers II Division, Bureau of Competition. At Rice, she is a member of her class giving committee, the Annual Giving Steering Committee, an alumni volunteer leader in Washington and a participant of Rice Alumni Volunteers for Admissions. She has a B.A. in sociology from Rice and a J.D. from Harvard University.

Peter Chang

Chang, of Houston, is a cardiovascular surgeon affiliated with Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital and West Houston Medical Center. At Rice, he and his wife, Theresa, are members of the Parents Leadership Council. One of their sons, Spencer, is studying computer science at Rice. Dr. Chang has a B.A. in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rice and an M.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Wendy Hoenig

Hoenig, of Spring, Texas, is president and CEO of H&H Business Development LLC, a private consulting firm focused on the development of technology-based startup companies in the plastics, coatings, adhesives, elastomers and packaging market and on nonprofit fundraising for the health care industry. At Rice, she is a board member and immediate past president of Rice Engineering Alumni, as well as a member of her reunion class committee and the Initiative for Students Commission. She hosted a Rice student in an OwlEdge externship in January 2016. Hoenig has a B.A. in materials science from Rice and a certificate in entrepreneurial studies from the executive education program at Babson College.

Michael Maher

Maher, of Houston, retired from ExxonMobil in 2013 as an upstream issues adviser and is a former public and government affairs manager for the Marine Well Containment Project. At Rice, Maher serves as a senior program adviser for the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, chair of the advisory board for the School of Social Sciences, a member and co-founder of the advisory board for the Center for Career Development, a member of the Initiative for Students Commission and a community associate for Martel College. He has a B.A., an M.A. and a doctorate, all in economics, from Rice.

David Mansouri

Mansouri, of Nashville, Tenn., is president of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for changes in policy and practice to ensure K-12 students across Tennessee graduate from high school prepared for college and the workforce. At Rice, Mansouri serves as a member of his class giving committee and is a Rice Alumni Volunteers for Admissions captain. He has a B.A. in music and political science from Rice and an MBA from Vanderbilt University.

Karin Shipman

Shipman, of Houston, is a retired school principal and paralegal. At Rice, she is a member of the Houston Regional Group and a charter member of the MLS Alumni Society. Shipman’s husband, Leo ’61, is a Rice alum, and so is one of their sons, Harold ’86. Karin has a Master of Liberal Studies (MLS) from Rice, a B.A. from Sam Houston State University and an Ed.D. from the University of Houston.

Kristjan Stone

Stone, of Pasadena, Calif., is a technologist II in the Cryogenic Instrument and Technology Development Group at the California Institute of Technology/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). At Rice, Stone is a member of the Initiative for Students Commission and has provided OwlEdge externships for Rice students at JPL. He is an alumni leader for Rice’s Los Angeles regional alumni group and served as emcee and on the host committee for the February 2016 presidential visit. He has an M.S. and a Ph.D. in physics from Rice and a B.S. in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed postdoctoral research at California Institute of Technology.