Laurels

RESISTANCE FIGHTERHELEN BOUCHER, associate professor of medicine, has been appointed to the Obama administration’s new Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, which will develop plans to slow the spread of resistant bacteria and improve diagnosis of bacterial infections.

VET ASSOCIATION LEADERJOHN DE JONG, A78, V85, a companion animal veterinarian and veterinary surgeon, has been elected chair of the board of directors of the American Veterinary Medical Association, which represents more than 86,500 veterinarians. He is a Tufts trustee and member of the board of advisors to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. He owns the Boston Mobile Veterinary Clinic and Newton Animal Hospital.

NEW ADVISORSNew members of the Board of Advisors to the School of Arts and Sciences are ROBERT GHEEWALLA, A89, A18P, of Larchmont, New York; MICHAEL LAINOFF, A84, of Washington, D.C.; and MARIANN YOUNISS, J83, of Wellesley, Massachusetts. VIKRAM SKULA, A90, chair of VAYA Financial Services in Hyderabad, India, has been named an advisor to Tisch College.

AMBASSADOR NOMINEESPresident Barack Obama has nominated two Fletcher School alumni as ambassadors. ROBERTA S. JACOBSON, F86, A19P, assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs since 2012, has been tapped as ambassador to Mexico. SCOT ALAN MARCIEL, F83, principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs since 2013, is the president’s choice for ambassador to Burma.

NETWORK NEWS EXECSAM SINGAL, A97, is now the executive producer of NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Singal has been with NBC News for seventeen years. He has worked with Holt before, as executive producer of the weekend edition of Nightly News, which Holt anchored.

ALUMNI VOLUNTEER AWARDJAMES A. STERN, E72, H14, A07P, who served as chair of the Tufts Board of Trustees from 2003 to 2013, received the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s Ernest T. Stewart Award for Alumni Volunteer Involvement. His leadership has been instrumental in Tufts’ growth. In addition to his volunteer service, Stern has endowed three professorships and established endowed funds to provide financial aid for undergraduate and graduate students.

ACADEMIC HONORSIONE DUGGER VARGUS, J52, a professor emerita at Temple University, was recognized by the institution’s College of Public Health for her life’s work. She was the first African American to hold the title of an academic dean in Temple history and served as the dean of the School of Social Administration for thirteen years. Her research on African-American family reunions led to the creation of the national Family Reunion Conferences and the Family Reunion Institute, which she now administers as a volunteer. A trustee emerita of Tufts, Vargus served on the board from 1981 to 1991.