Harvard Extension Student Association Election Results Announced After 5-Month Postponement

Lindsey L. Siegfried de Sánchez was elected president of the Harvard Extension School Association for the 2024-25 school year, the Division of Continuing Education announced Friday.

The election, which was originally scheduled to take place in May, was postponed after allegations of campaign rules violations. In September, the DCE announced that the elections would be held with increased oversight from administrators.

In addition to de Sánchez, Jessica “Jess” Brooks was elected as vice president, Miranda Childers as communications director, Janine Bensouda as director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and Kirsten von Reinholtz as director of community and public service. These five elected titleholders will be joined by additional board members whose positions were not specified in the announcement.

de Sánchez, who previously served on the HESA board, said she was “relieved” that the election was over and “really honored that my fellow students placed their trust in me to vote for me.”

de Sánchez said priorities for her tenure as president include advocating for the HESA Executive Board to be officially recognized by the DCE, ensuring that HES students can keep their email addresses longer than 40 days after they graduate, and removing the phrase “Extension Studies” from HES degrees.

Bensouda said her mixed-race identity and experiences living in 30 different countries inspired her to run for DEIB director.

“I hope that the HES community will continue to feel like they truly belong in the Harvard community at-large and not feel like they are outsiders. And I hope that could be one of the impacts of the work that is done by this role,” Bensouda said.

Childers said she hopes to address the challenges faced by many HES students who have not been in a university setting for a long time.

“I want to be that bridge that helps people know that they have a place to come to learn, but also an advocate for them when they perhaps do know but don’t feel comfortable speaking up or sharing,” Childers said.

de Sánchez was closely tied to the scandal which led to the May election being postponed. Former HESA President Emina Dedić endorsed de Sánchez in an HES WhatsApp group chat, in what some students said was a violation of campaign rules that restrict endorsements by student organizations and their associated platforms.

Dedić said despite the previous controversies, the recent election was a successful process.

“I think everyone really competed well, and they followed their roles, and there was more clarity on what was allowed and what wasn’t allowed,” she said.

“We’ve never had an all-female main board before, so that’s really interesting,” Dedić added. “It’s just a very exciting atmosphere right now.”

Though de Sanchez’s opponent Alexander Ponce said the election was tainted by the campaign rules controversy, he accepted the outcome of the election.

“Apart from the fact that Lindsey carries with her the stigma, the taint of all the actions that occurred to favor her campaign, at the end of the day, she’s the candidate that individuals picked, and I respect that decision,” Ponce said.

“Some people are in favor of it — a lot of people are not,” he added.

But de Sanchez disputed Ponce’s allegation that the violations tainted her campaign.

“I think that the people saw the work that I’ve done, and they know me, and I think that they were excited to see me continue to do the things that they’ve already seen me do,” de Sanchez said.

According to von Reinholtz, the new board has been working well under de Sanchez’s leadership.

“Lindsey has been wonderful and has preloaded everything. Her institutional knowledge of HESA has been invaluable because she already knew what to do, so we didn't even miss a beat,” von Reinholtz said.

After the drawn-out controversy from the past year, Brooks said the board is motivated to have a positive impact on their fellow students.

“There’s definitely a fire under all of us right now to make sure that we serve the students the absolute best that we can, as quickly as we can,” Brooks said. “Our official duties start on Tuesday, but we’re really already gearing up to make sure that Tuesday starts with a bang.”