Board of Directors
Rayan Semery-Palumbo ’19
Rayan Semery-Palumbo is an activist and thinker committed to making possible a society rooted in principles of generosity, equity, and care. While at Yale, Rayan was a key player in advancing reforms for greater educational accessibility. He helped create the University’s first formal peer liaison program for low-income students, fundraised $150,000 to bring together 500+ students and educators at a national conference, and designed major financial aid reforms, including the Domestic Summer Award (now the Summer Experience Award), which has allocated millions to support the summer experiences of students on financial aid. The Yale Alumni Association recognized him for this work in 2018 with the Yale-Jefferson Award for Public Service. Currently, Rayan studies inequality as a graduate student at the University of Oxford, where he is a Rhodes Scholar. He is from Mesa, Arizona.