Four candidates are running for three open positions on the Warner Free Lecture board of trustees. Michael Kilian, Nancy Meyer, and Seth Trotz are competing for the two open three-year terms that will expire in 2026. Jeff Boudreau is unopposed for a two-year position to fill out the term of former trustee Marisa Khurana, who resigned from the board; that two-year term will expire in 2025.
The Warner Free Lecture series has been part of Harvard since 1891. Its purpose, according to the trust’s mission statement, has been to offer programs “by eminent or able lecturers and scholars upon scientific, literary, biographical, historical, patriotic, national, educational, and moral subjects” while at the same time “avoid[ing] partisan politics and religious sectarianism.” That mission has been entrusted to the board that the winning candidates will join after May’s election.
Jeff Boudreau
Jeff Boudreau served on the Warner Free Lecture Trust for a three-year term from 2018 to 2021, during which he helped to select speakers for 15 lectures on topics ranging from the career of astronaut Sally Ride to the music of Mali. Many of those lectures, Boudreau noted in an email, had to be presented virtually because of COVID-19. “I look forward to returning to Volunteers Hall,” he wrote in an email. “As a trustee, my primary duty is to honor and keep the terms of the Henry L. Warner deed, dated March 2, 1891,” Boudreau wrote. “I pledge [to] actively solicit community input for potential speakers and topics of interest and relevance to the Harvard community, [to be] open to critique on how to improve lectures, as well as [to] continue the tradition of baking goodies for lecture patrons.”
Michael Kilian
Incumbent Michael Kilian was appointed to fill a vacancy last fall and is now running for a full three-year term. In an email to the Press, Kilian said board members’ first priority is organizing great lectures, a project that is “well on its way” for the coming season. “We need to make sure our lectures are also relevant to a broad range of interests that will engage residents of all ages,” he wrote in an email.
In other goals for the next three years, he said he hopes to improve the organization’s online presence, noting he has developed a new website the group hopes to release in July. “The website should make it easy to join our mailing list, add events to calendars, and let the visitor contact us with ideas, comments, and maybe even criticism,” he wrote. “We have and will continue to record the lectures and need to better curate these as a vital part of the Warner Free Lectures history.”
He also hopes to do more outreach to increase awareness of the Warner Free Lecture programs. “During my collection of signatures for nomination papers,” he wrote, “I was surprised by how many people were unaware of Warner Free Lectures. … I’m hopeful that we will increase attendance as well as reach more recent residents of Harvard.”
Nancy Meyer
Candidate Nancy Meyer expressed support for the mission and traditions of the Warner Free Lecture. “I’m excited to be part of the longterm town tradition that is the Warner Free Lecture,” she wrote. “The lectures bring townspeople together to share homegrown expertise, along with world-class experts in many fields.”
“My goal is to work collaboratively with members of the Trust to bring new ideas, new experiences and new attendees to the Warner Lectures,” she wrote. “I want to hear from townspeople about topics that are relevant to them and also possible barriers to attending lectures.”
Meyer gave several examples of topics she thought would be of general interest. “Education is one area … Our school system is excellent, but are there challenges? If so, let’s hear from experts about ways to address those challenges.” Another topic of broad interest, she said, is alternative energy.
And in a final example, Meyer said she could draw on her professional connections as a source of new speakers. “I work at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and hope to draw on clinical colleagues as speakers on topics in veterinary medicine such as puppy raising, behavioral challenges, and community medicine.”
Seth Trotz
In a short telephone conversation, Trotz described himself as a newcomer to Harvard, having moved to town in 2020, just before the pandemic. However, he is already an active volunteer, serving on the Historical Commission. He said he learned about the Warner Free Lecture Board from Alison Thornton, who was his daughter’s teacher. (Thornton is the current chair of the Warner trustees and is stepping down from the board.)
Trotz said his own background is in science, particularly physics, and he is a senior staff member at the Lincoln Laboratory. He said he hopes his connections to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his Ph.D., can prove helpful in recruiting speakers in the sciences and technology. He and his family enjoy living in the center of town, he noted, saying, “Being in Harvard has been just wonderful.”
