US-Ireland Alliance

MITCHELL SCHOLARS GATHER IN BOSTON

Check out the great pics taken by Biz McConchie 

March 15, 2013:  Nearly 100 people turned up for a US-Ireland Alliance reception for Mitchell Scholars at Tommy Doyle’s Pub in Harvard Square.

Thanks to Congressman Mike Capuano and his wife Barbara Teebagy Capuano who joined us.  The Congressman has long been a strong supporter of the Mitchell Scholarship program.  There are 24 colleges and universities in his district and he spoke of the importance of programs such as the Mitchell.

Among those who sponsored the event were former Senator Paul Kirk, George Bell and Carrie Minot Bell, Mitchell Scholars and guests. 

There is critical mass of Mitchell Scholars now in the Boston area.  They took the lead in this event by inviting their friends and colleagues. We were also delighted to welcome City Councilman Rob Consalvo and Brookline Selectwoman Nancy Daly.

There are several Cambridge connections for the Mitchell program.  Of the 159 Mitchell Scholars, 16% have some connection to Harvard and/or MIT – 7 attended one of the universities as an undergrad; 3 were Mitchell Scholars in the middle of their Med School programs and 16 studied at the universities after their Mitchell year in the professionl post-grad programs. 

The Mitchell Scholars who were present and helped pull the night together included: 

Sean Healy, an MBA student at Harvard Business School.  Sean is a graduate of West Point and he served as a combat engineer platoon leader in Iraq.  He led 300 combat missions and is the recipient of a Bronze Star – he led the platoon with the highest IED find rate in all of Baghdad.  As a Mitchell Scholar, he studied International Security and Conflict Studies at Dublin City University.  Sean’s wife Carolyn was also able to attend, along with several of Sean’s HBS classmates.

Tommy Vitolo, an associate at Synapse Energy Economics in Cambridge.  Tommy obtained his PhD in Systems Engineering at BU.  He has also been active in Brookline politics.  Tommy’s wife, Jennifer Taranto is a project manager at Structure Tone who manages the LEED component of several projects worldwide, including for Google in Ireland.  She is also on the executive committee of the US Green Buildings Council. In Ireland, Tommy studied Mathematics at Dublin City University.  Tommy and Jenn’s son Che was the life of the party.

Deirdre Mask is teaching writing at Harvard.  She received undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard, clerked at federal and district levels in NYC, and then went to Ireland on the Mitchell to study writing at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her husband, Paul MacMahon, is from Northern Ireland.  He is law lecturer at Harvard having obtained his JD there and an MPhil at Oxford.

Seena Perumal Carrington is the Director of ASC Strategies at Blue Cross Blue Shield.  Prior to that she was Acting Commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy.  Her husband, Brendon Carrington, is a Harvard Law grad who clerked for Judge Higginbotham on the Fifth Circuit and is now an Associate at Ropes & Gray. 

Karly Burke, a student at Harvard Med School.  As a Mitchell, she studied Biomedical Science at National University of Ireland Galway.  She then worked at MIT’s Whitehead Institute where she studied gene expression regulation.  Her Irish boyfriend, Derek Murphy, is a doctor who has moved to Boston where he is post-doctoral fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. 

Scot Miller is doing his PhD in Planetary Sciences at Harvard where his area of expertise is modeling air pollution and greenhouse gases.  As a Mitchell Scholar, he studied Environmental Sciences at Trinity. Scot's boyfriend, Greg Berger, is a consultant at Oliver Wyman.

Lucas Mason-Brown is currently a student at Brown who resides in Belmont.  He is a cryptographer who recently deciphered a handwritten code that had eluded scholars for centuries.  Next year he will study Mathematics at Trinity and was able to meet several of the alums on the night.