This year’s winners of the Robert Harrison ’76 Recent Alumni Volunteer Awards are: Dana Lerner ’14, Katia Lin ’14, Seamus Murphy ’17, and Grace Tucker ’17.
This award was launched in 2023 to recognize the next generation of Cornell leaders.
Bob Harrison was elected by his peers to serve as a student trustee from 1975 to 1976. He went on to serve the university in various capacities for nearly five decades, including as chair of the Cornell University Board of Trustees from 2012-2022. The Harrison Awards honor his long-standing commitment to Cornell, as we celebrate new alumni leaders.
Nominations for the Harrison Award were solicited through Cornell’s global network. All nominees are recent alumni who have made an impact on the Cornell community in their first ten years from graduation.
The 2024 cohort of Harrison Award winners include two A&S alumni:
Dana Lerner ’14
Dana graduated in 2014 from the College of Arts and Sciences with a degree in theatre arts and a minor in visual studies. Dana is a Tony Award-winning theater producer and 2023 graduate of Columbia Business School. She made her Broadway producing debut with Paula Vogel’s (MA ’76) Indecent (Tony Award Nomination) in 2017, and she won a Tony Award as a co-producer on the gender-bending revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company in 2022.
She currently works at Atlas Obscura, a media travel company curating the hidden wonders of the world. Dana serves as annual fund representative (2014-present) and Reunion campaign co-chair (5th and 10th) for the Class of 2014, roles she’s held since graduation. Previously, she was a member and convener of the Cornell Alumni Advisory Board, and she recently finished her term on Cornell University Council.
Katia Lin ’14
Katia graduated in 2014 from the College of Arts and Sciences, where she double majored in economics and government. She joined the Bloomingdale’s Executive Development Programme, led by then-president and fellow Cornellian Tony Spring ’87. Over the past decade, she’s worked across the legal, technology, and education sectors in New York and London.
Katia served as a Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network volunteer in New York (2014–2018) and in London (2019–present), and she enjoys bringing the Cornell experience to life for prospective students. She’s also volunteered as VP of social programming for the Cornell Club UK (CCUK) since 2019, where she’s brought the Big Red community together for events such as wine tastings and private museum tours. She loves introducing Cornellians—both new and established in the UK—to one another to create a community of classmates and friends across the years.
