Joel M. Cohen, Esq. ’83

Joel M. Cohen graduated from Harpur College in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. While at Harpur, he was a president of Oneida Hall, a teaching assistant in economics and a proud member and officer of Tau Alpha Upsilon (TAU), the campus’s oldest fraternity. He received a law degree, summa cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center in 1986, and then served one year as a law clerk for Judge Thomas Clark of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In 1987, Cohen joined Davis Polk & Wardwell, an international law firm based in New York City. He became a partner of the firm, and is now co-head of its 200-lawyer Litigation Department.  Specializing in antitrust law and commercial litigation, Cohen served as a member of the editorial board for the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Developments (4th Edition 1997). In 1998, he received the Thurgood Marshall Award for successfully overturning the conviction and death sentence of a Georgia death-row inmate whose original lawyer – a former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan – prepared no defense and slept through much of his African-American client’s capital murder trial. Cohen is a member of the Harpur Law Council, established to serve the needs and interests of Binghamton University alumni attorneys and pre-law students. He and his wife, Stacey Boerner Cohen ’84 (School of Management), are long-time supporters of the University, including providing assistance to the Peter Mileur Faculty Development Fund and the Harpur Law Alumni Fund. Cohen has also supported various fund-raising initiatives for the University along with his fellow TAU alumni. He looks forward to celebrating and supporting the first graduates of the proposed Binghamton University Law School.

Christian P. Gruber, Jr. Ph.D. ’71

Christian P. Gruber, Jr. is a 1971 graduate of Harpur College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American Literature. While a student, he served as president of Services for Youth, a campus organization that provided enrichment courses for local high schoolers. Gruber went on to earn an EdM at Harvard and a PhD in Educational and Developmental Psychology at the University of Chicago. For the last 20 years, he has served as vice president for research and development at Western Psychological Services, guiding the commercial development of scores of psychological tests, including the major gold standard assessments for diagnosing autism. Gruber has held leadership roles at the Association of Test Publishers, including a term as president and board chair (2008). Gruber is the son of Pete and Marilynn Gruber -- mainstays of Harpur’s early Theatre and English Departments and crucial to the development of the University’s residential college system. His personal passion for the arts has come to focus on Scandinavian fiddling and folk dance with his wife Diane (nee Preisick), a now-retired surgeon, Harpur BA ’73. Their family includes son, Joshua, his wife, Suzy, and granddaughter, Madelynn; and Gruber’s sister, Ilse Gilbert, Harpur ’74, who works for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Gruber has maintained his own connection to Harpur College through membership on the Dean’s Advisory Council and contributions to the Gruber Family Scholarships for the Departments of English and Theatre.

Andrew D. Seidman, MD ’81

Andrew D. Seidman graduated from Harpur College in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences. He went on to earn his medical degree from Hahnemann University School of Medicine in 1985, after which he completed a residency in internal medicine at The Pennsylvania Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology and hematology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Seidman is an attending physician for the Breast Cancer Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and professor of medicine at the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Seidman is the recipient of a Career Development Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for his clinical research evaluating the role of the taxanes in breast cancer treatment. He has authored over 130 peer-reviewed publications, reviews and chapters, edited two textbooks and served on the editorial boards of many leading journals. Seidman has also served as member and principal investigator for the Cancer and Leukemia Group B Breast Committee, on the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Integration Panel and as a chairperson for review of breast cancer research grant applications for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. He is the 2003 recipient of the Gay Clark Stoddard Memorial Award, awarded by the Komen Foundation to a health-care professional who consistently goes out of his or her way to provide compassionate, exceptional care to breast cancer patients. Seidman also received the Jacob Ehrenzeller Award from Pennsylvania Hospital in 2007 for outstanding achievements and service in medicine. He is a past president of the American Society of Breast Disease (1999-2001). While at Harpur College, Seidman was a Harpur’s Ferry volunteer. He is one of the founding preceptors in the Harpur Physician Alumni Summer Mentor Program and a leadership donor to the Harpur Physician Alumni Fund.