2017 | 18

being accepted to attend the fletcher school was a dream come true. growing up and working in bangladesh gave me the opportunity to witness poverty and inequality on a daily basis, and coming to fletcher has given me the academic lens through which to look at such far-reaching problems.

Thank you to our FY18 donors

Applauding Your Generosity | Celebrating Your Impact

With my time as dean recently concluded, I find myself reflecting on two very different experiences at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. It will not surprise any of you that the classes I took, the friendships I made, and the Fletcher perspective I gained as a young naval officer and student brought me to know the world in a whole new way. And during these past five years as dean, it has been a great honor for me to watch 1,500 students graduate while the community’s hard work helped enrich The Fletcher School’s purpose and standing.

I am so proud of all we’ve accomplished together, particularly our progress on the strategic plan. Five years ago, the Fletcher community committed to improving our relevance, reputation, and resources in support of everything that has always set Fletcher students apart. Let’s acknowledge what we have achieved: innovative centers and programs, prominence in news analysis, and progress securing the school’s financial future.

The thought that I leave with you is the importance of ensuring that this community is always alive with the “right stuff.” We know that it requires administrative diligence, academic excellence, and philanthropic beneficence to attract, enroll, and educate the best students—whose success as Fletcher graduates has been, is, and will ever be The Fletcher School’s enduring strength. An important observation about our students: those who contribute the most to our community frequently overcome the highest hurdles to get here. Ultimately, Fletcher’s reputation and relevance hang on our ability to get the right people in the door. And, as always, that requires significant resources.

As you read this report, let’s celebrate our successes—and please join Laura and me in ensuring that The Fletcher School will always be without parallel in preparing the world’s leaders. Thank you, one and all. Even more so than my time as a student, these past five years at Fletcher have been an incredible voyage.

James Stavridis, Ph.D.
signature of James Stavridis, Ph.D.

James Stavridis, Ph.D.
Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, 2009–2013
Dean Emeritus, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University

Getting the Job Done

Ambassador, mentor, and staunch Fletcher supporter Susan Livingston discusses the roots of her fierce commitment to her alma mater.

Susan Livingston, J79, F81, has had an international career. She is partner and global ambassador with the private bank Brown Brothers Harriman and serves in Massachusetts as honorary consul general for the tiny nation of Luxembourg. (“I get a diplomatic license plate,” she said, before adding with a laugh that the position sadly doesn’t include the wine cellar that comes with being ambassador to France.) And she credits Tufts and The Fletcher School with helping build the foundation for her success.

Susan Livingston

“Fletcher was for me a very important and formative experience,” Livingston said. “I made lifelong friends, and to this day I can remember certain professors.” Passionate about ensuring that future students can have similar experiences, she is a longtime mentor to students and a loyal and generous donor to the school’s annual fund, which supports financial aid, student services, faculty, and academics. Livingston also serves on The Fletcher School’s Board of Advisors and capital campaign committee.

Livingston made the most of her time at Fletcher and Tufts, which she felt fortunate to attend. She was a double major in political science and German, and also studied French and economics. She spent her junior year in the Tufts program in Tubingen, Germany, earning Phi Beta Kappa, and one semester of her senior year in Washington, D.C., before graduating summa cum laude. While earning her Fletcher degree, she studied for a year in Geneva, improving her French (and her skiing).

Although she initially planned on joining the Foreign Service—and even passed the exam—she decided to participate in a 14-month management training program with Manufacturers Hanover Trust in New York and realized that banking was “great fun.” In 1985, she accepted a position at the Boston office of Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH).

By November of her first year, Livingston was sent to Milan to help settle trades for BBH after a wave of international investment had stalled in an Italian bank. While other representatives of global financial services firms shouted in English at the Italian staff handling the gridlock, Livingston shared espresso and chocolates with them and was eventually invited into the bank’s back office. For two years, she lived in Milan for a week each month, working alongside the Italians “to get the job done” collaboratively. “Hard work beats talent every time,” Livingston told Fletcher graduates as 2016 Class Day speaker, “although it’s nice to have talent too.”

Livingston’s successful diplomacy in Italy helped boost BBH’s global custody business, and she was later named one of the first two female partners at her firm. Now, as global ambassador and client liaison, she manages C-suite relationships and serves on external boards, including chairing the political action group of the Investment Company Institute, a leading global industry association. Along the way, she lived in Luxembourg from 1992 to 1995, launching her long relationship with that nation.

Now living in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with her husband and teenage daughter, Livingston has served on the boards of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, among others. But she’s particularly loyal to The Fletcher School, which prepared her for her global career. “It was intellectually stimulating—an epic, fantastic time,” she said. Through her volunteering and extraordinary financial support, she is making that experience possible for the next generation.

Ian Johnstone

Leadership Succession

Following Admiral Stavridis’s departure, Ian Johnstone, professor of international law, was named dean ad interim of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University for the 2018–2019 academic year. A faculty member since 2000, Professor Johnstone previously served as academic dean from 2013 to 2015. An expert in the law and policy of international organizations, Johnstone has published widely on related topics and continues to consult for the United Nations, where he worked in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General before coming to The Fletcher School. He holds an LL.M. from Columbia University as well as a B.A. and J.D., both with honors, from the University of Toronto.

Admiral James and Laura Stavridis Endowed Scholarship Fund

The Admiral James and Laura Stavridis Scholarship Fund was created in 2015 by their friends and leadership donors Brad Meslin, Denis Bovin, Fred Chicos, and Governor Philip Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy. The scholarship is awarded to the most outstanding Master of Arts (M.A.) and Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) candidates each year. The fund’s goal is to ensure that the cost of graduate school will not impede an exceptional student’s ability to attend The Fletcher School.

a statue

Who came to
campus this year

2017-2018 giving
by the numbers

Annual Fund Gifts by Purpose:

Donut graph depicting the following information: Financial Aid: 33.9% Academic Support: 6.4% Student Support: 6% Area of Greatest Need: 53.7% infographic depicting donors that are Fletcher Loyalty Society Members at 65% infographic depicting total number of donors at 2,622 infographic depicting total giving to the Fletcher Fund at $1.75M

Online donor list

an illustration of the searchable donor listing

Thank you for your generous support of The Fletcher School. Please visit our searchable donor listing to find your name and those of other supporters!