Who We Are

John Corry (Founding President)

John Corry was raised in Brooklyn and started his career as a journalist filling paste pots at The New York Times. In the 1960s, after a brief stint in sports and as a copy editor on the national desk, John was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. He returned to The New York Times, where he was a reporter for more than thirty years, interrupted by a few years at Harper’s magazine from 1968 to 1971. During his career, John covered national news, international news, arts and culture, politics and the media. Admired for his writerly voice, John started up several ongoing columns at the Times, including a celebrated series about one square block in New York City, About New York and On Broadway. In 1993, John published his memoir My Times: Adventures in the News Trade. John met Jean Herskovits in 1968. They married in 2005. John traveled with Jean to Nigeria over fifty times visiting many states around the country. After serving as Jean F. Herskovits Foundation’s first President, he passed away December 3, 2022.

Colette Corry (President)

Colette Corry (M.S. Early Childhood Education and M.S.Ed. Early Childhood Special Education) has taught children from preschool through high school and is currently a Learning Specialist at The City and Country School in New York City. As Jean’s stepdaughter, Colette became keenly interested in the education and empowerment of young women in northern Nigeria and is honored to serve as President of Jean F. Herskovits Foundation.

Geoffrey Field (Secretary)

Geoffrey Field is a historian of modern Europe. Born in London he studied Modern History at Oxford and then came to New York to Columbia University for his doctorate. He has lived in New York for over fifty years and has taught at Columbia University, CUNY, the Sorbonne, and for many years was a close friend and colleague of Jean Herskovits in the Humanities Division of the State University of New York at Purchase. His publications focus on German and British history, European racism, and labor history. He is a former board member and Chair of the New York Council for the Humanities. His books have won prizes from the Anisfield-Wolf Foundation and the American Historical Association and his new book Elizabeth Wiskemann: Scholar, Journalist and Secret Agent (forthcoming with Oxford University Press) was of particular interest to Jean. An influential journalist and a pioneer in the fields of international relations and contemporary history, Wiskemann was among the very first British women to gain full diplomatic status and was the first woman to be awarded a Chair in any discipline at Edinburgh University – all of which animated Jean’s interest in her story.

Steven Jervis (Treasurer)

Steven Jervis is a native New Yorker who attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston schools. He earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1959. He moved to California for graduate study in English, and achieved a doctorate in 1966. His involvement with Nigeria began in 1964, when he joined the faculty of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as lecturer in English. He remained there for three years and played an active role in the affair of his department; he was also an officer of the university’s teachers’ association. Steve made several subsequent visits to Nigeria and returned there for a year as senior lecturer in English at the University of Calabar, 1976-77. He has been to some 20 countries in different parts of Africa. In 1967, Steve joined the faculty of Brooklyn College, from which he retired as Professor Emeritus of English in 2007. His other teaching included a year at the University of Virginia and a six-month term as Fulbright professor at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal.  Steve has published many articles and reviews on Nigeria and on mountaineering. He is currently the Alpina editor of Appalachia magazine. He has also written a number of short stories. Much of this material is available on his website, stevenjervis.com.  Steve and his wife live in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

William Fredericks

William Fredericks practices securities and commercial litigation at Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP in New York.  After clerking for U.S. District Judge Robert S. Gawthrop III, he practiced at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Willkie Farr & Gallagher before eventually specializing in securities class action litigation, where he primarily represents defrauded institutions and other investors.  He is a graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy, and holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College (with high honors), an M.Litt. in International Relations from Oxford University (Oriel College), and a J.D. from Columbia University Law School.  At law school, he was a Columbia University International Fellow, a three-time Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and Articles Editor of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.  He has been recognized in the 2013-21 editions of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Lawyers” in the field of commercial litigation, and in the 2013-21 editions of New York’s “Super Lawyers” in the field of securities litigation.  Through his late father (former U.S. deputy ass’t Secretary of State for African Affairs and foundation executive J. Wayne Fredericks), Bill had the privilege while growing up of knowing Jean Herskovits as a close family friend since the 1970s, and Prof. Herskovits encouraged him to attend both of her two academic alma maters (Swarthmore College and Oxford).  Mr. Fredericks is honored to have the opportunity to help further Prof. Herskovits’ legacy through the work of the Jean Herskovits Foundation.

Fatima Nduka-Eze

Chief Mrs Fatima Nduka-Eze nee Joe Nanven Garba is a lawyer and an author. She is a Nigerian and resides in Lagos. She practised with George Etomi and Partners and was a pioneer team member of the Section of Business Law of the Nigerian Bar Association. She holds the traditional title of Odoziaku of Asaba.

Her interests include foreign policy which was partly inspired her close relationship with Professor Jean Frances Herskovits Corry. She also has passion for the young members of society which has been expressed through sponsorshio of an annual basketball tournament for both young male and female athletes in Jos, Plateau State Nigeria.

Tatiana Carayannis

Dr. Tatiana Carayannis is the program director for the Social Science Research Council’s Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum (the UN’s “think bridge”); the Understanding Violent Conflict program; and the China and Global South Project; and the Academic Network on Peace, Security, and the UN. She also curates the SSRC Covid19 series on social research and insecurity, and the series on disinformation, democracy, and conflict prevention. Tatiana has a PhD in political science from The CUNY Graduate School and a MA from New York University. She has had visiting appointments at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at New York University and has served as a research director and co-Principal Investigator in several international research collaborations, including the Centre for Public Authority and International Development, the Conflict Research Programme, the Justice and Security Research Programme, and consortiums on the Politics of Return and the Accommodation of Justice for the Displaced. She convened the DRC Affinity Group, a small brain trust of leading Congo scholars and analysts, and serves on the Advisory Committee of ResCongo (Réseau Congolais de recherche sur la paix et la sécurité) and on the Steering Committee of the Central Africa Policy Forum, networks she helped found. A scholar of international organization and DRC/Central Africa, her latest book is The Third UN: How a Knowledge Economy Helps the UN Think (Oxford University Press, 2021). Her earlier books are Understanding the Central African Republic (co-edited, Zed Books, 2015) and UN Voices: The Struggle for Development and Social Justice (co-authored, Indiana University Press, 2005). Current book projects include:  Pioneers of Peacekeeping: ONUC 1960–1964; and Anatomy of Rebellion: JP Bemba and the Mouvement de Liberation du Congo.  She has been interviewed by the BBC, Al Jazeera, The Financial Times, France 24, among others.