Staff
danilo petranovich - Director
Dr. Petranovich is the Director of the Abigail Adams Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Previously, Dr. Petranovich taught political science at Duke University and Yale University.
His scholarly expertise is in nineteenth century European and American political thought, but his intellectual interests and loves are far more extensive. Dr. Petranovich received his B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard in 2000 and Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University in 2007. He lives with his wife Cristiana and son Gabriel not too far from the Institute.
BARBARA cHROBAK - Director of Operations
Barbara Chrobak serves AAI through management of daily operations, finances, bookkeeping and compliance. Barbara is an alumnus of the J.P.Morgan Thomas G. Labrecque Smart Start Program, a four-year college scholarship and development program in which she learned control management, non for profit banking, and audit. Before coming to AAI, she worked for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) for four years, serving at Boston University and, as Team Director, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Barbara received her B.A. from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2022 with a major in Urban Studies with a concentration in Education. She is currently pursuing an MBA with the University of Mary.
MAURA Ronayne - Director of Marketing & Communications
Maura Ronayne serves as the Director of Marketing & Communications at AAI. With a background in marketing and publishing, she handles the design and dissemination of all digital and print materials for AAI. She is also integrally involved in programming and all community-facing aspects of the Institute. Maura received her B.A. from Dartmouth College in 2020 with a major in English and a minor in Government. She lives with her husband Mathieu in Arlington, MA.
Scholar-in-Residence
Manuel Lopez - Instructor
Manuel Lopez serves as the instructor for AAI’s seminars on ancient Greek and Roman thought. Manuel taught political philosophy at Harvard and at the University of Chicago after receiving his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard. His J.D. thesis, as an NSF graduate fellow in political science, was on Alfarabi's analysis of the principles of the religious opinions underlying all societies. He has written on the effects of the democratic bias in justice on American social and legal institutions for several academic and law journals. He is also an entrepreneur in the futures industry, having served as principal and adviser of trading funds in Boston and Chicago.