Alumni Recognized for Service to MIT Sloan and the Institute

In April, the MIT Alumni Association (MITAA) announced the winners of the volunteer leadership awards, which honor outstanding accomplishments and service to the MITAA and the Institute. Among the 2023 award recipients were five MIT Sloan alumni.

Lulu Tsao, SB ’86, project director at BeijingDance/LDTX, is one of eight MIT alumni to receive the Harold E. Lobdell, SB ’17, Distinguished Service Award, which “is given in recognition of alumni relations service… of a special depth over a sustained period.”

Marissa Konstadt, MBA ’21, Teddy Lee, MBA ’17, Jackie Selby, EMBA ’21, and Stacy Yu, SB ’98, were among the eight MIT alumni rewarded with the Margaret L. A. MacVicar, SB ’65, ScD ’67, Award for the “meaningful impact” of their service to the Institute and the school, especially as it “[shows] strong potential for future volunteer leadership.”

“As a volunteer for the MITAA, I have had the opportunity to meet and gain knowledge from remarkable alumni from graduating classes spanning over sixty years. It has been a fulfilling experience to contribute towards creating a vibrant community that offers support to MIT alumni throughout their lives,” says Yu, associate director of corporate sponsorships at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Lee, product manager at OpenAI and MITAA board member, echoes these sentiments, especially when it comes to the longevity of their relationship with the Institute after graduation.

“It has been deeply satisfying to serve the MIT community since my time as a student, and now as a leader for the MIT Club of Northern California and the MITAA,” he says. “I look forward to continuing to contribute to the enrichment of the MIT Alumni community and the Institute in the years to come!”

Like Lee and the other award recipients, Selby, who completed the MIT Sloan Executive MBA program amid the COVID-19 pandemic, sought volunteer opportunities soon after graduation. Since the fall of 2021, she has moderated the MIT Sloan Alumni Online virtual speaker series for the Office of External Relations (OER).

“I am exceedingly humbled by and grateful for this recognition,” says Selby, founder of Sous Chef. “What began as a desire to give back to the Institute and foster connection across the MIT community, has resulted in an incredibly gratifying personal journey. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to regularly collaborate with OER and deeply appreciate that MIT entrusted me with this responsibility.”

Konstadt, who also finished her program during the pandemic, is also grateful for winning the MacVicar Award, especially as a recent graduate.

“It’s truly quite humbling to have only been an alumna for a couple of years and already done something that [the school feels] worthy of recognition,” says the senior manager for global pricing and market access at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. “It was a call to action.”

When the pandemic necessitated a fully virtual spring 2020 semester and a hybrid model for the 2020–2021 academic year, Konstadt and her classmates surveyed each other to determine how they could maintain their connections with each other and the rest of the school. Based on the results, they worked to sustain these linkages while forging new methods of connectivity.

“It wasn’t just about networking. It was about people wanting to connect with faculty and feel the presence of campus in different ways. People also wanted things outside of Boston because they were going back to their home cities, states, and countries,” says Konstadt.

On the eve of the 2023 MIT Sloan Reunion, Konstadt hopes that this call to action rings true not only for herself but for the rest of the MBA Class of 2021 and the MIT Sloan alumni community.

“We’re going to be alumni for the next 25, 30, 40, and 50 years, hopefully,” she says, “and we want to continue to be together and find new ways to bring the community together.”

Tsao, Konstadt, Lee, Selby, Yu, and their fellow MITAA award winners from across the Institute will be celebrated at the 2023 Alumni Leadership Conference in September.