New Members Join CASBS Board of Directors
The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University is pleased to announce the addition of three new members to its board of directors.
One of the three, Lara Tiedens, is a former CASBS fellow. All three possess a depth of expertise and perspective that engage or intersect with the Center’s ethos of cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral research and collaboration in service of advancing understanding of and solutions for major societal challenges and questions.
Each is serving a three-year, renewable term that began on September 1, 2023.
Everett Harper is the CEO and Co-Founder of Truss, a human-centered, digital services company that designs, builds, and delivers complex software solutions for large government agencies and Fortune 500 corporate clients. Truss was named as an Inc 5000 fastest-growing U.S. private company three years straight (2020 through 2022). Everett published his first book, Move to the Edge, Declare it Center (Wiley) in 2022. It offers a framework of practices and processes to help leaders make better decisions during times of complexity and uncertainty. Outside of Truss, Everett serves as a Board Member of CARE, and Advisory Board Member for the CASE at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Before founding Truss, he was at Linden Lab (maker of Second Life), Self-Help CDFI, and Bain & Co. He holds an MBA and a M.Ed in Learning, Design and Technology from Stanford University.
As an early employee at WhatsApp, Mubarik Imam was involved in several major company initiatives. These included leading the product international growth and integrity teams, data science and engineering, and research and strategy. When Mubarik joined WhatsApp, fewer than 200 million people used the service. Over the next six years, Mubarik and her team helped it grow to more than 1.8 billion people. She was closely involved in Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp and led the integration efforts across the company. While at Facebook, Mubarik also spent time at the intersection of health & technology, leading the company’s explorations for assisting the company’s Covid response. Prior to joining WhatsApp, Mubarik worked at Dropbox, the Packages Group and, earlier in her career, was an Acumen Fund Fellow and an Associate at Bain and Company. She serves on the Board for the LUMS School of Science and Engineering, the Hiller Aviation Museum, and previously served on GSB’s Beyond Covid taskforce. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
A CASBS fellow in 2008-09, Lara Tiedens is the Executive Director of Schwarzman Scholars, a post-graduate fellowship designed to develop and prepare the next generation of global leaders. She oversees the strategy and operations of the program and the private foundation that supports the program. Prior to Schwarzman Scholars, she was the President of Scripps College, the women’s college in the Claremont College Consortium. While at Scripps, Tiedens created the Centennial Strategic Plan for Scripps College, completed the largest campaign in the college’s history, redesigned financial aid, spearheaded racial equity initiatives, and formed new partnerships to advance science and technology education and community building. Prior to arriving at Scripps, Tiedens was a faculty member and Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB). In the latter capacity, she worked with a number of the faculty areas and oversaw the school’s PhD, Executive Education, and Global Innovation programs. Tiedens currently serves as a trustee of The Webb Schools and a Director at AlixPartners, and previously served on the Boards of The Claremont Colleges and IES Abroad. She earned a PhD at the University of Michigan.
Read the full biographies of the new board members and the biographies of all other members of the board.
“It’s such a delight to welcome Everett, Mubarik, and Lara at this particular moment in the life of the Center,” said Sarah Soule, whose term as CASBS’s new director also began on September 1. “Their diversity of experiences and insights will be invaluable to me and the wider CASBS community as we, together, guide this great institution into its eighth, and greatest, decade of excellence.”
The Center gratefully acknowledges the service of outgoing members Shona Brown (nine years) and Heather Munroe-Blum (eight years), who concluded their service on August 31, 2023. Brown led the board’s Academic Advisory Committee through much of her tenure, while Munroe-Blum co-led its Development Committee.
“Shona and Heather will be sorely missed. Their keen insights into the role of CASBS in the 21st century has contributed significantly to the director and the board,” said CASBS board chair Abby Smith Rumsey. “Each brought a wealth of experience that enriched our board’s perspective. In particular, their focus on the impact of our work on the broader world has been helpful to me personally as we successfully navigated the selection of Sarah Soule as director of CASBS.”