Harris Names 2026 Alumni Award Winners

Four accomplished alumni of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy will be recognized with a Harris Alumni Award this year: Dan Tollefson, AM’19, has received the CC DuBois Alumni Service Award; Eric Ham, MPP’04, has received the Career Achievement Award; and Diego Macera, MPP’14, and Trina Reynolds-Tyler, MPP’20, have each received the Rising Star Award, Harris has announced.

The alumni will be recognized Thursday, April 30 at the Alumni Awards Dinner at the historic Builders BLDG, an event presented in conjunction with Harris Reunion Weekend 2026. Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, dean and Sydney Stein Professor, along with members of the Harris Alumni Council Awards Committee, will present them with their awards.

The Harris Alumni Council launched the Alumni Awards program in 2013 to recognize alumni who have made significant contributions to public policy. Nominations are made by the members of the UChicago community and are reviewed by a panel of their peers and members of the Alumni Awards Committee.

2026 CC DuBois Alumni Service Award

Daniel Tollefson, AM’19

This distinction is awarded to an alumnus who has demonstrated a strong commitment to the school through their service and work to enhance the life of students, fellow alumni, and the welfare of the school, and it is named for the late Cynthia “CC” DuBois, MPP’10. For more information about CC DuBois and the legacy she leaves behind, click here.

Dan Tollefson, AM’19, is the executive director of the Resilient Chicago Fund, a multi-funder initiative housed at The Chicago Community Trust. In this role, his work focuses on supporting local nonprofits and public agencies as they reimagine how to meet basic human needs amid shifting federal policy and funding landscapes.

Tollefson previously served as the Trust’s Chief of Staff working to refine​ organizational strategy, strengthen cross-sector collaboration, and support the Trust’s mission and vision. Over the years, Tollefson also managed, designed and supported a range of partnerships across local journalism, emergency response, community safety, and broader efforts to improve wellbeing for all Chicagoans—including helping to steward large-scale philanthropic collaborations that respond to community needs.

Tollefson began his career as a high school English teacher on Chicago’s West Side and later helped launch a peer-mentoring nonprofit that supported students academically, socially and emotionally. He continues to work with emerging leaders at Harris, coached the award-winning team for 2025 Harris Policy Innovation Challenge, taught professional skills for the Harris Core Project class in 2026, has served as a mentor, hosted lunch & learns for Harris students, and engaged students through internships and career opportunities. He also supports local small businesses through the Polsky Center’s Small Business Growth Program. He also advises early-stage nonprofits and social impact ventures.

In addition to his Harris degree, Tollefson is an Edwardson Civic Scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Rising Star Award

The Rising Star Award acknowledges recent alumni (within 15 years of graduation) who distinguished themselves early in their career, creating a positive impact in the execution of public policy.

Trina Reynolds-Tyler, MPP’20

Trina Reynolds-Tyler, MPP’20 is director of data at the Invisible Institute, where her work combines rigorous data analysis with community-centered reporting. In 2024, she and her co-reporter Sarah Conway received the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for Missing in Chicago, an investigation into how the Chicago Police Department handles missing persons cases. The project grew out of Reynolds-Tyler's Beneath the Surface initiative, which used community data taggers and machine learning to analyze tens of thousands of complaint records, ultimately uncovering patterns that shaped the reporting.

A native of Chicago’s South Side, Reynolds-Tyler attended St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Grade School, De La Salle Institute, and Colorado College. After graduating in 2015, she joined Public Allies, where she worked on a youth violence prevention team before beginning her career at the Invisible Institute as a second-year AmeriCorps member.

At Harris, Reynolds-Tyler was a Pearson Fellow and interned with the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights. She also trained with the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, a partnership that continues to inform her data practice. Her work focuses on documenting how communities build safety and accountability outside traditional policing systems, centering both narrative justice and data science.

In addition to her journalism, Reynolds-Tyler is a civic and business leader on the South Side. She is co-owner of Build Coffee & Books in Woodlawn and serves as board co-chair of Southside Together Organizing for Power. In 2022, the Field Foundation of Illinois named her one of its Leaders for a New Chicago, recognizing her contributions to the city.

Diego Macera, MPP’14

Diego Macera Poli, MPP’14, is a Director of the Peruvian Institute of Economics (IPE) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru. He also serves as a Counselor on the Fiscal Council and as a columnist for El Comercio.

Macera served as General Manager of IPE from 2015 to 2023 and has also been Vice President of Asociación Civil Transparencia, a professor in the Department of Economics at Universidad del Pacífico, and a commissioner on the Presidential Commission for Sustainable Mining Development of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Recognized by Forbes Peru as one of the country’s most influential economists, Macera holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Universidad del Pacífico in addition to his Harris degree.

Career Achievement Award

Eric Ham, MPP’04

The Career Achievement Award is presented to an alumnus who has served as a significant leader in the public, private, or nonprofit sector, creating meaningful positive change within their institution and society.

Eric Ham, MPP’04, is a bestselling author, columnist, and anchor. Over the last decade he has covered the biggest news stories from the U.S. and around the world. Working for some of the most respected media outlets, he has reported on groundbreaking events including presidential elections; the COVID pandemic; and U.S. government shutdowns. He served as a White House correspondent for the Associated Press, a U.S. political analyst for The BBC News, host at Sirius XM Radio POTUS Channel, anchor of FirstPost America, and a columnist for Canada’s CTV.

Prior to his time as a journalist, Ham spent years in Washington working on foreign policy and national security affairs. At the height of the Iraq War, he was a staffer in the U.S. Congress where he served as an aide to former U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida. During his time on Capital Hill, his portfolio consisted of military affairs and international relations. He also led the government relations department for the Center for Strategic and International Studies one of the world’s premier defense and global policy think tanks. He chaired the Security and Development Work Group for the Society for International Development and served as the Executive Director of the Fragile State Strategy Group.

He currently resides in Washington, DC with his wife Serita, a Chicago native.