Fall 2011
Alumni News
Getting Involved: Kyra Tirana Barry ’87
Kyra Tirana Barry ’87 becomes first woman to lead Columbia College Alumni Association
A member of the College’s first fully coeducational class, Kyra Tirana Barry ’87 continues to break ground as the first woman president of the Columbia College Alumni Association. Barry succeeded Geoffrey J. Colvin ’74, ’77L, ’78 Business at the start of the 2011–12 academic year.
“This is a very exciting time to become president, as we mark 25 years of coed graduating classes,” Barry says. “When I joined the Alumni Association board in 2004, and saw the board members from the classes before me, I suddenly got a real sense that the College before my time had been all-male. As an 18-year-old student, I had not focused much on this change to the College and the significance of being admitted to the first coed class. Now that I have the perspective of an alumna, I am grateful for the opportunity to break more ground in this regard as the first woman president of the CCAA.”
Barry and her classmates in the pioneering Class of 1987 impacted the women who followed at the College and contributed to their success, something she hopes to continue as president of the CCAA. “The time is right to look at the alumni body in a new way, because there has been so much change in the past 25 years,” she says.
Barry, who majored in urban studies and worked for 10 years in public transportation policy at the federal, state and local levels, considers herself to be a “reengaged alum.”
“I stayed close with my classmates and threw a brunch
before Homecoming every year, but for a while that was the extent of my
connection to Columbia,” she says. But Barry’s husband, David Barry ’87, stayed
involved with the Columbia wrestling program, in which he had participated as a
student, and when College fundraisers spoke with him and described shifting
their fundraising strategy to focus more on peer-to-peer solicitation, he
suggested that they speak with his wife.
“My involvement started as a Class Agent,” says Barry, referring to the College’s peer-to-peer solicitation program involving volunteer leaders in each class. “I worked on my 15th reunion, and after that I became reengaged.”
Barry credits her predecessors as presidents of the CCAA board, Colvin and Brian Krisberg ’81, ’84L, with paving the way for her to assume a leadership position. “They accomplished a lot in terms of really growing the CCAA board to be more reflective of the entire alumni body,” she says. “Women can have a different approach to their educational institution than men, which is why we have Columbia College Women and the Dean’s Alumnae Task Force.”
While serving on the CCAA board, Barry headed a committee that focused on increasing involvement among alumni who have been out of college 10–25 years. She considers that an important time to reengage them, much the way she became reengaged.
“The College is an amazing place, and the education you receive here lays such a singular foundation, I’m motivated to ensure that current students have the same opportunity that I had,” says Barry, a 2010 recipient of the Alumni Medal for service and commitment to the University. “College alumni are terrific to work with. There’s really strong leadership on the CCAA board. It’s incredibly rewarding to help ensure that the College stays as strong as it is and gets even stronger.”
How will she measure the success of her two-year term as president?
“My biggest priority as president is to increase the level of engagement with alumni and to provide more meaningful ways for alumni to be connected, whether it’s for two hours a year or 100 hours a year,” Barry says. “There’s a lot more capacity for us to capitalize upon.
“If I can make it easier for more alumni to be involved, to give back to Columbia and to help strengthen the Columbia experience for students and alumni, if I can act as that bridge between alumni, students and the administration, I feel I’d be successful.”
Looking for ways to get involved? Log on to college.columbia.edu/alumni/getinvolved.