2025 Infinite Mile Award Recipients

As Secretary of the Corporation, you effortlessly convey a sense of calm, care and concern. Whether you’re leading a regular meeting on campus or a special offsite event, you encourage open participation and dialogue and offer thoughtful insights, focusing on taking clear steps forward and delivering on promises and expectations. Colleagues consider you a model for how to effectively collaborate with others to achieve strategic outcomes.

Even as you navigate challenging transitions – a new Institute president, a new Corporation chair – you make the time to check in with the people around you. You ask how they’re doing – and really listen to the answer. You give of yourself and your time. And you’re always striving to make a warm, friendly, collaborative work environment even warmer, friendlier and more collaborative.

With grace and aplomb, you exemplify going the extra – or infinite – mile. Colleagues praise your immense dedication, true compassion and unflappable leadership. As one of them notes, “We want to work hard and learn more because Rachel inspires us to.”

Yet another colleague has this to say: “Whenever Rachel notices a problem, she immediately gets to work trying to fix it.” And at MIT, that’s about the highest compliment anyone can receive.

The reviews are in for the MIT Corporation’s first offsite gathering, and they include praise like “Outstanding!” and “Exceeded my expectations!”

Nicole and Emily, you’re the powerhouse team behind this success. You managed to convene 100 Corporation members and senior administrators in Washington, DC, for two and a half days of meaningful discussion and inspiring camaraderie.

Emily, as the lead for the speakers bureau, you beautifully handled the complicated dance of working with senators, congressional staffers, college presidents and subject matter experts, providing all of these luminaries with the highest level of service and professionalism.

Nicole, your management of the logistics was masterful, including the hotel accommodations, consisting of 91 rooms – every single one, of course, a “special case.” You made each guest feel like a priority, and helped create wonderful dinners that offered everyone time for relaxation and social connection.

You thoughtfully planned every aspect of the event, from programming to hospitality to transportation. And when it began, like true professionals, you knew when to improvise. You worked miracles behind the scenes. And you reached the pinnacle of success in event planning: As far as the guests were concerned, not a single thing went wrong.

When we had the idea to host a podcast featuring conversations with newly tenured faculty, you set aside the fact that podcasting was not in either of your job descriptions…. and set about launching Curiosity Unbounded, now with 15 episodes and an audience in the tens of thousands.

Quickly getting up to speed on all aspects of podcast production, you conducted pre-interviews and asked insightful questions, helping to keep the conversations crisp and on-topic. You managed a mountain of logistical tasks while jumping right into scriptwriting, editing and promotion. And you’ve kept an eye on the big picture, too, monitoring analytics to track audience growth, demographics and engagement. All of which ensures that the podcast keeps getting better and better, while being heard by more and more listeners.

You’ve also played vital roles in producing videos to convey presidential messages on particularly complex or difficult topics – videos often recorded under time pressure, on short notice and outside of regular work hours. You’ve done extraordinary work on these important communications, consistently showing grace under challenging circumstances. And colleagues agree: your technical skills are second to none on campus.

Christine, Melanie: Thank you for contributing your enormous talent and creativity to help the entire Institute community stay engaged, informed and inspired.

For nearly twenty years – and for three MIT presidents – you’ve welcomed visitors to the President’s Office with composure and calm, even in high-pressure moments. Those who have the good fortune to get to know you soon learn that you’re also funny, creative and simply a joy to be around.

One thing we’ve noticed is how much YOU notice – you have an incredibly sharp eye for detail. This isn’t surprising given your talent as a photographer. And it’s helpful in all kinds of small ways – for example, when you catch a rogue typo before it can do any damage.

Colleagues praise your ability to foster collaboration and communication, and say that your dependability, professionalism and positive attitude have made you a respected and valued member of our office and our community.

You’re known for always stepping up when there’s an unexpected task that needs doing or a colleague who could use a hand. No drama, no fuss, just a natural instinct to pitch in and get the job done right.

You’ve contributed so much to MIT that it’s perfectly understandable you’d want to go somewhere else for a while – especially because we know you love to travel. We’re thrilled that you’ll be exploring new places and seeing the world. But we can’t quite believe that when we stop by the president’s office, you won’t be there to greet us.

With enduring gratitude for your dedication, your ingenuity, your warm, generous spirit and your delectable cookies and tres leches cake, we’re delighted to present you with this special citation.