Columbia College has appointed Kecia Hayes, a Teachers College alumna with more than 20 years of education experience, as the new executive director of the Roger Lehecka Double Discovery Center (DDC), a program that works to enhance higher education opportunities for local low-income and first-generation youth ages 12–27. DDC’s academic enrichment program, which serves approximately 1,000 students annually and has become a model for similar programs throughout the United States, focuses on ensuring high school graduation, college enrollment and completion, and responsible adulthood. Hayes will formally begin transitioning into her new role on Monday, January 29 and will be fully on board on Monday, February 19.

Columbia College has announced the Eric H. Holder Initiative for Civil and Political Rights. Named after former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., a 1973 graduate of Columbia College and a 1976 graduate of Columbia Law School, the Holder Initiative will carve out a distinctive experience for Columbia University’s undergraduate students. Through an anonymous donor, $10 million has been raised to secure the Holder Initiative, halfway towards its $20 million goal of becoming an institute.

University Professor Ronald C. D. Breslow, a trailblazing chemist who led the creation of the field of biomimetic chemistry and developed the anti-cancer compound Zolinza, passed away on October 25. He was 86. Breslow was a beloved Columbia College instructor for more than 60 years, and was instrumental to the College’s move to coeducation.

Columbia University announced that Alexander “Alex” Navab CC’87, a partner and former head of the Americas Private Equity business at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and Li Lu CC’96, LAW’96, BUS’96, founding general partner at Himalaya Capital, have been elected to its Board of Trustees.