19552 GW Mag 26_Final_singles - Flipbook - Page 41
GW’s Frank Sesno, President Ellen M. Granberg,
Sen. Cory Booker, alumnus Ted Segal and alumna
Meredith Perla Segal (left to right) at the inaugural
event for the Sesno Series in 2023.
PHILANTHROPY
CELEBRATES
FACULTY LEGACY
$3 MILLION GIFT BOLSTERS SESNO
SERIES, BASKETBALL
FROM NEWSMAKERS SPEAKING TO
rapt on-campus audiences to students
cheering on basketball teams at the
Smith Center, the university community
will continue to enjoy special memories
and “only-at-GW” moments in part thanks
to the generosity of philanthropists
Ted Segal, BA ’03, and his wife, Meredith
Perla Segal, BAccy ’05. The couple’s
latest GW contribution is a $3 million
gift that extends their previous support
to endow the Sesno Series conversation
events and also bolsters the women’s
and men’s basketball programs.
The Sesno Series was endowed in
2022 in honor of Emmy Award-winning
journalist Frank Sesno, former director
of the School of Media and Public Affairs
(SMPA) and the series moderator. The
series brings influential speakers to
campus to discuss current challenges
in democracy, culture and media.
“There is no better place to gather
newsmakers and thought leaders than
in the heart of our nation’s capital;
and there is no better person to lead
these conversations than GW’s own
Frank Sesno,” said Ted Segal, who
was elected to GW’s Board of Trustees
in 2025.
The Segals’ gift will also fuel
competitive excellence in GW
women’s and men’s basketball.
Sports, for Ted Segal, are a lifelong
passion with a unique power to unify
communities. He is the founder and
president of EJS Group, a real estate
development and financing company,
and also owns the Houston Dynamo
and Houston Dash soccer teams.
GIVING DAY PROMPTS NEW GIFTS
GIVING DAY
2026 put the
spotlight on
fundraising for
scholarship, research and experiential
learning initiatives across CCAS,
resulting in over $134,000 in gifts.
This year, the 24-hour giving period
inspired 430 donors, an increase of
26 percent compared to 2025. Howard
Beales, professor emeritus in the GW
School of Business (GWSB), and alumna
Char Beales, BA ’73, made a special
gift of $100,000 to support both GWSB
and CCAS scholarships.
“Giving Day is the perfect prompt
to pull the trigger on an important
donation to GW that we’ve thought about
but always put off for another day,”
Beales said. “We feel great supporting GW
students with scholarships and helping
the Regulatory Studies Center thrive.”
The Beales are longtime CCAS
donors who set the record for the
largest-ever gift in GW Giving Day
history in 2024 when they gave
$600,000 to the Regulatory Studies
Center, which is housed in the
Trachtenberg School of Public Policy
and Public Administration.
THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
recently received two gifts celebrating
the legacies of two distinguished
faculty members who have passed
away. The Bob Goldfarb Faculty
Excellence Award and the Fred Joutz
Technology Lab Fund are both
memorial endowments that honor
their lives and academic contributions.
The Goldfarb Award was generously
created by Marsha Goldfarb, the
widow of the late Professor Emeritus
Robert “Bob” Goldfarb who joined GW
in 1973 and taught for nearly four
decades. The award recognizes faculty
research excellence, with a particular
focus on early career innovation.
Both faculty and students will
benefit from the new Technology Lab
Fund named in honor of Professor
Fred Joutz, the pioneering scholar
who founded GW’s Research Program
on Forecasting. An anonymous donor
created this endowment to maximize
the availability of cutting-edge
technological resources for economics
researchers and students at CCAS.
Robert Goldfarb
Fred Joutz
GW Arts & Sciences | ALUMNI & DONORS | 41
