Vassar Welcomes Five New Trustees

Maybelle Taylor Bennett ’70

Bennett received her bachelor’s degree (cum laude) at Vassar in Africana studies and a master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University in 1972. After graduating from Columbia, she traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, on the invitation of the Federal Public Service Commission of Nigeria after being recruited to assist in the country’s post-war development effort. There, she worked with the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation. She launched her career in urban planning as a Town Planning Officer in Lagos.

After returning to the United States, Bennett was engaged in policy work with several nonprofit organizations where she helped low-income residents advocate for the resources they needed. Later, she was appointed to the Zoning Commission of the District of Columbia, where she served for 16 years, seven as Chair.

Bennett brought her planning expertise to Howard University’s three Washington, DC, campuses and in 2011, she oversaw the development of the University’s Central Campus Master Plan. Since she retired, she has served on the Board of Directors of the newly formed Douglass Community Land Trust in DC.

Bennett answered the call to the ministry in 2008 upon entering seminary, and was Pastor of Covenant Christian Community for 10 years. She continues to support that community as President of its Board of Directors. Bennett has volunteered as a fiber arts instructor, teaching weaving, knitting, and crochet for 25 years and has most recently completed a term as Board Director for the Alumnae/i Association of Vassar College (AAVC).

Bennett said she considers it an honor to serve on the Board of Trustees. “It’s a new level of service I’m eager to explore,” she said, adding that she was particularly interested in helping to oversee the work on Vassar’s buildings and grounds, both on and off campus. “This work is in alignment with my urban planning training at Columbia, my campus planning work at Howard University, and my planning and zoning experience with the District of Columbia government,” she noted.

Bennett said some of her most memorable moments as a student at Vassar came during her participation in efforts to establish a Black Studies (now Africana Studies) program on campus and at an urban center in downtown Poughkeepsie where local residents and Vassar students could learn together. Black students also advocated for spaces on campus where they could build a community and foster a sense of belonging. “The College took our efforts seriously,” she said, “and as a result it has become more inclusive, not just for Black students but for students from a variety of racial, ethnic, and income backgrounds.”

Bennett serves on the board of the Mary Church Terrell House, a National Historic Landmark, and was formerly Director on the board of the Douglass Community Land Trust. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Interfaith Action for Human Rights, an organization that advocates against the unfair use of solitary confinement in prisons.

In her retirement, Bennett teaches handcrafts in her home, enjoys traveling, swimming, singing in the Vespers Village of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, “and exploring the mystical teachings of a variety of religious traditions.”

Jon Friedland ’90, P’24

Friedland, a resident of New York City and Andes, NY, earned his BA from Vassar in political science and a master’s degree from Columbia Business School, graduating with Beta Gamma Sigma honors. He manages Seven Turns, LLC, an investment firm, and Closter Farm and Catskill Farm, which produce certified organic cattle, poultry, fruits, and vegetables. He is also a firefighter with NFPA Firefighter 1 Interior Certification. He is a trustee of City Harvest, New York City’s largest food rescue organization; a certified level 2 coach for the National Soccer Coaches of America; a certified CrossFit Level 1 trainer; a certified competition judge for the Kansas City Barbecue Society; and a new jujitsu student.

A native of Cleveland, OH, Friedland said he had never heard of Vassar until his high school guidance counselor told him it might be a good fit for him. He said he intended to be a pre-med major, “but I took a biology class that convinced me that I was not destined for a science-related career.” He switched to political science, and said when he took a semester off from Vassar and travelled with a backpack around Asia, “I realized how well Vassar had taught me to learn how to learn—and how much I loved learning.” After graduating, Friedland worked in the field of foreign aid and then transitioned to a 20-year hedge fund career in global investing.

He is eager to start work as a trustee. “I’ve been involved for a long time with a variety of nonprofits and venture investments in education. These vary from addressing literacy and innovations in K-12 education to improving completion rates in higher education. As for Vassar, I really admire President Bradley and [Board Chair] Sharon Chang,” he said. “This feels like one of the most exciting and challenging times for higher education since World War II. The value of a liberal arts education remains as important as ever, yet colleges everywhere are wrestling with questions of academic freedom, diversity of thought, the cost of college, and public confidence in ways they never have. These are issues I find deeply engaging, and I think Vassar is in a great position to lead, as it has so often since its founding in 1861.”

Wendy Holcombe P’28

Holcombe has worked for the past 15 years as a producer and senior producer of State of the Bay, a local public affairs radio show and podcast on a San Francisco Bay Area NPR affiliate. Prior to her position for State of the Bay she worked in editorial positions at the now defunct Excite@Home and, before that, she worked in the magazine industry in New York City. She and her husband, Carl Kawaja, have three children, the youngest of whom is a sophomore at Vassar. Holcombe has also served on the boards of San Francisco Day School, the Bay School of San Francisco, and the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Holcombe grew up less than 50 minutes from Vassar as the daughter of a teacher at the Kent (CT) School. “My sister now teaches math there, and my brother is a history professor at Ohio University,” she said. “By being in the media, I am the outlier in my original family, but I still care deeply about the value of education, and in a way, I feel it is my destiny to be engaged with schools in some fashion.

“I am impressed with Vassar’s authentic commitment to its mission and want to support President Bradley in her leadership role,” she continued. “I also find that schools are at the nexus of major issues in our world, so the board work is very intellectually interesting generally.”

Holcombe said Vassar has offered her “artsy, creative daughter” an environment where she can explore her diverse interests in depth. “She is struggling to find a major because she likes so many subjects,” she said. “This is a wonderful ‘problem.’”

Holcombe said she had been particularly impressed with how Vassar had helped her daughter cope with an academic crisis. “It was during her first year when she did poorly on a midterm exam in a class in which she had been a conscientious student,” she said. “Both her professor and dean asked to meet with her afterwards. This was scary for her at first, but both the professor and the dean were supportive and not punitive toward her. She was coached on how to better study for a midterm, and she did much better going forward. The meetings were in service to the larger goal of her successful learning. I am grateful for this encouraging approach, and I believe such attention can more easily happen at a smaller school like Vassar.”

Outside of her work on the radio show and podcast, Holcombe loves to play and watch tennis and plays pickle ball as well. She’s a fan of the Golden State Warriors and the Golden State Valkyries professional basketball teams.

W. Kimathi Marangu ’88, P’26

Marangu is the former global head of Prepaid at Visa and previously a fintech entrepreneur and founder of Cartera Commerce, which was acquired by Rakuten. Prior to his entrepreneurial ventures, he was an investment banker at J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley. He holds a degree in economics from Vassar and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Currently, Marangu serves as chair of the San Mateo County Employee Retirement Association pension board, a member of the board of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, and an advisory board member for the Stanford Federal Credit Union. Marangu and his spouse, Andrea, live in the San Francisco Bay area and have three adult children, including a son who is a member of Vassar’s Class of ’26.

Marangu’s older brother, Mutuma, Class of 1984, was the first of three brothers to graduate from Vassar. “I applied First Choice Early Decision and arrived from Kenya for orientation, never having set foot on the campus, but solely with the benefit of word-of-mouth from Mutuma’s letters,” he said.

Marangu sang with the Accidentals a cappella group for four years and competed on the squash team. “I was thrilled to hear that the squash courts have been refurbished and look forward to visiting them on campus,” he said.

Marangu said he viewed his service on the Board of Trustees as a way of giving back to the College. “I came to Vassar as a skinny 17-year-old with an unusual name and no money, half a world away from home,” he said. “Thanks to Vassar’s generous need-blind policy and the Pell Grant I qualified for, and some amazing support from Michael Fraher (Vassar’s longtime and beloved Financial Aid chief), I was nevertheless able to attend and thrive here and beyond. Anything I can do to help this institution succeed is an honor and a joy. I believe in the power of education to change lives with every bone in my body, because every bone in my body has experienced the power of education to change lives right here at Vassar.”

Alex Wei ’97

Wei is an art director for film and co-founder of a Los Angeles-based prop house that serves the entertainment industry. He graduated from Vassar with a degree in art history and then studied stage design at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London prior to working in film.

Wei credits Professor of Art History Emeritus Nick Adams, who retired in 2018, with helping him gain many of the skills he has used since leaving Vassar. “Professor Adams unlocked many of my critical thinking and writing skills and research methods that I rely on to this day, proving that the impact of a liberal arts education is lifelong,” he said.

Prior to joining the Board, Wei served on the President’s Advisory Council (PAC) starting in 2019, when he got to know President Elizabeth Bradley. Watching how she used her background in public health to guide the College through the pandemic during the 2020 and 2021 school years gave Wei a real appreciation for her leadership in a critical time. “Betsy was able to deftly steer the College through the crisis,” Wei said.

Coming from a Vassar family (his mom was class of 1964, his brother, class of 1994, and his spouse, class of 1998), Wei is eager to begin his service as a trustee of the College. “It’s such a huge honor, and Vassar shaped who I am, so when the call came, of course I said ‘yes,’” he said. “I want to help ensure that Vassar continues to succeed for many more generations.”

Wei, a resident of Pasadena, California also serves on the board of the Pasadena Community Foundation which, due to its long-standing work in the region, was one of the first nonprofits to be able to quickly respond to the needs of the community in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire earlier this year.