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Columbia College West Coast Honors

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Columbia College West Coast

WEST COAST HONORS

In March 2023, the Columbia College Alumni Association and Dean Josef Sorett kicked off the inaugural celebration and recognition with the West Coast Honors in San Francisco and Los Angeles. This new annual tradition saw more than 150 alumni and guests gather to recognize four outstanding Columbia College West Coast alumni for their professional accomplishments and for embodying the spirit of the west coast as well as pioneering service to Columbia College.

Each year, members of the CCWC community will receive the Spirit of Creativity & Innovation Award for exceptional professional achievement, and the Trailblazer Award for pioneering and distinguished service or volunteerism to the College. Understanding that many west coast alumni are unable to travel east to stay connected to Columbia College, CCWC will celebrate the West Coast community in the community.


2025 COLUMBIA COLLEGE WEST COAST HONORS

San Francisco — March 19, 2025

Los Angeles — March 20, 2025

RSVP

2025 HONOREES

2025 SPIRIT OF CREATIVITY & INNOVATION AWARD HONOREES

  • Chloé Arnold CC’02 and Maud Arnold CC’08
    Chloé Arnold CC’02 and Maud Arnold CC’08
    Dancing, Choreographing and Producing Duo

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    Chloé Arnold CC’02 and Maud Arnold CC’08 are a dancing, choreographing and producing sister duo. Both internationally-recognized tap dancers, Emmy-nominated Chloé, and Maud, are creating opportunities to elevate and celebrate the art of tap dancing through film, television and live events. Chloé’s choreography was featured in Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted on Netflix and Apple TV+’s musical film Spirited, as well as more than 80 episodes of The Late Late Show with James Corden. Maud’s choreography was featured in Hulu’s hit Theater Camp.

    Chloé, with Maud’s support, founded Syncopated Ladies, a female tap dance band widely known for its viral videos, garnering more than 100 million views online and appearing on The Talk, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Ellen, Good Morning America, CNN’s New Year's Eve Live, Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!, Bel Air and So You Think You Can Dance. They have received praise from Beyoncé, Whoopi Goldberg on The View, Shonda Rhimes and Janet Jackson, as well as from many other celebrities and news outlets around the world.

    The duo have also been the co-directors and producers of the critically acclaimed DC Tap Festival for the last 15 years, as well as the Hollywood Tap Festival for the last three years. They were recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives as arts preservers and ambassadors, mentioned in The Kennedy Center’s “Next 50” Leaders in 2022 and awarded the 33rd Annual Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Performing Arts in 2018 in D.C. Their work focuses on strength, unity and creativity, drawing new fans to the art of tap dance and revitalizing its cultural presence.

    Chloé and Maud both earned bachelor’s in film and media studies. Through the Chloé and Maud Foundation, their 501(c)(3), they continue to pioneer new experiences for dancers and artists worldwide.

  • Satyen Sangani CC’97
    Satyen Sangani CC’97
    Co-Founder and CEO at Alation

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    Satyen Sangani CC’97 is the co-founder and CEO of Alation, which enables organizations to build intelligence about their data to power AI and critical business processes. The company serves more than 650 customers, including 40 percent of the Fortune 100, as well as governmental agencies and NGOs. Prior to Alation, Sangani spent nearly a decade at Oracle, where he ran the financial services warehousing and performance management business.

    Prior to Oracle, Sangani was an associate with the private investment firm TPG and an analyst with Morgan Stanley & Co. He earned a bachelor’s in economics, and a master’s in economics from the University of Oxford.

2025 TRAILBLAZER AWARD HONOREES

  • Wah Chen CC’92
    Wah Chen CC’92
    Affordable housing real estate developer; founder and partner at InSite Development

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    Wah Chen CC’92 is an affordable housing real estate developer in Los Angeles County and Idaho, having acquired, built and renovated more than 2,500 multi-family apartments for low- and no-income residents including chronically homeless, homeless and at-risk homeless individuals and families. Since her days at Furnald Hall, she has been passionate about supportive and affordable housing.

    Chen is also an accomplished children’s book author, along with her twin sister, Ming. Their most recent nonfiction title for upper elementary schoolers, Escape: One Day We Had To Run, was bulk-ordered by the New York City Department of Education, receiveda starred Kirkus review and won the 2021 Kirkus Best Middle-Grade Nonfiction Book and Kirkus Best Middle-Grade Book of the Year awards. The sisters were also awarded Lee & Low’s New Vision Award for their middle-grade thriller, written under a pen name. Currently they are under contract for a four-book middle-grade mystery series to be published by Lee & Low Books in late 2026/early 2027.

    Chen earned a bachelor’s in history, and an M.B.A from UCLA. She serves as the senior class president and is a co-founding member of the Alumnae Legacy Circle, a 1754 Society member, a John Jay Awards Dinner Selection Committee member and an executive board member of the Columbia College Alumni Association. Chen received the CCAA’s President’s Cup in 2023.

    In her spare time, Chen runs in the Santa Monica Mountains; she is a retired marathoner, with 18 marathons completed. She has three daughters, all of whom attended The John Thomas Dye School and the Marlborough School, and is the wife of Ed Renwick, a Stanford undergrad and Harvard Law alumnus.

  • Wanda M. Holland Greene CC’89, TC’91, TC’21
    Wanda M. Holland Greene CC’89, TC’91, TC’21
    Head of School at The Hamlin School

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    Wanda M. Holland Greene CC’89, TC’19, TC’21 is head of school at The Hamlin School in San Francisco, a mission-driven institution dedicated to best practices and innovation in the education of girls and young women. She is a nationally recognized and respected leader in education with a passionate voice and powerful presence that inspires communities to achieve equity and excellence for all children. For the last 35 years, Holland Greene has focused her professional time and attention on a wide range of issues in education: K–12 curriculum design and instruction; mental health and emotional well-being; anti-racism and cultural humility; neurodiversity and learning differences; gender equity and stereotype threat in the classroom; effective nonprofit governance; performance appraisal systems; and compensation models. She has taught, mentored and inspired thousands of children and hundreds of adults through writing, speeches, seminars and professional presentations from San Francisco to New York City to Cape Town.

    Prior to Holland Greene's tenure at Hamlin, she served for 11 years as a senior administrator at The Park School in Brookline, Mass. She began her career in education in NYC at The Columbia Greenhouse Nursery School and continued thereafter at The Chapin School, where she was a teacher and the school’s first director of Student Life. Currently, she serves as a member of the Board of Regents of Bishop O’Dowd H.S. and the Board of Trustees for the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education. Her past trusteeships include vice-chair of the Columbia University Board of Trustees; Head-Royce School, Lick-Wilmerding H.S.; Concord Academy; The Chapin School; and Hamilton Families. A former faculty member of the National Association of Independent School’s Fellowship for Aspiring School Heads, Holland Greene has continued her mentorship and vigorous advocacy for heads of school as an executive coach.

    Holland Greene was recognized in 2023 with the Education Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women (San Francisco Chapter) and is a 2020 recipient of a John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement. She was selected as a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow at The Aspen Institute and is a recipient of the Alumna Achievement Award from Columbia College Women. She was named one of San Francisco’s Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business in 2014, and, in 2015, was awarded a Women Making History Award by the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women.

    Holland Greene earned a bachelor’s in English and psychology. She earned an M.A. in curriculum and instruction and an M.Ed. in private school leadership, both from Teachers College. In her free time, she enjoys Mary Oliver poetry, novels and memoirs by women of color, live music at SFJazz, performances at Berkeley Repertory Theater, journal writing, vigorous SoulCycle rides and travel to provide much-needed rejuvenation and quiet pauses between her commitments to her profession and to her spouse, Robert L. Greene Jr., and their young adult sons, David and Jonathan.

PAST HONOREES

2024 TRAILBLAZER AWARD HONOREES

  • Lauren Accordino
    Lauren Accordino CC’09
    Early-Stage Investor, Tech Coast Angels Venture Group and Faculty Advisor, UCLA Anderson
  • Christopher Jones
    Christopher Jones CC’07
    Chief Executive Officer, Suitebriar Inc.

2024 SPIRIT OF INNOVATION & CREATIVITY AWARD HONOREES

  • Melissa de la Cruz CC’93
    Melissa de la Cruz CC’93
    New York Times Bestselling Author
  • Sean Duffy CC‘07
    Sean Duffy CC’06
    Chief Executive Officer, Omada Health

2023 TRAILBLAZER AWARD HONOREES

  • Vijay Mohan Headshot
    Vijay Mohan CC’01
    Co-Founder and Partner, Sixth Street
  • James Stone headshot
    James Stone CC’90
    Head of West Coast Investment, PennantPark

2023 SPIRIT OF INNOVATION & CREATIVITY AWARD HONOREES

  • Courtney Lilly
    Courtney Lilly CC’97
    Executive Producer/Showrunner, grown-ish, black-ish, and mixed-ish (ABC)
  • Marco Zappacosta
    Marco Zappacosta CC’07
    Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Thumbtack

A Special Thank You to the West Coast Honors Engagement Committee

Armond Adams CC06, Chair
Lauren Accordino CC’09
Sarah Aibel CC’92
Cynthia Chen CC’04
Melissa de la Cruz CC’93
Sean Duffy CC’06

Maxwell Johnson CC22
Christopher Jones CC’07
Irene Heejin Koo CC’20
Courtney Lilly CC’92
Vijay Mohan CC’01
Kenyatta Monroe-Sinkler CC’91
Jenn Ryan CC’89
James Stone CC'90
Courtney Wilkins CC’07
Marco Zappacosta CC’07
Kevin Zhang CC’14