Brandeis Magazine

President Barack Obama named Deborah Spitalnik to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. She is the founding executive director of the Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities at New Jersey’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where she is also a professor of pediatrics. A co-author of two editions of the classification manual in intellectual disability, Deborah educates a wide range of constituencies, including individuals with disabilities and their families, medical students, resident physicians, direct support professionals and social workers. Haile Menkerios of Eritrea was named United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan. The veteran diplomat has served as special representative and head of the U.N. Mission in Sudan since March 2010 and will continue, in his new capacity, to help the parties reach a peace agreement and settle post-secession issues. Haile joined the U.N. in 2002 and was appointed assistant secretary-general for political affairs five years later. David Adler has had a solo law practice in Seattle since 1990. He was formerly a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C.