Kathy Postel Kretman, Ph.D., is the Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and Research Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy. She has devoted most of her career to the development of leaders in the public, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. One of the highlights of Dr. Kretman’s career has been directing Georgetown’s nationally recognized nonprofit executive certificate program, which now has more than 1,700 alumni across the globe. Additionally, she has directed customized leadership programs for organizations such as the USAID, the Qatar Foundation, United Way International, the International Monetary Fund, National Urban League, and the National Hispana Leadership Institute. Earlier in her career, Dr. Kretman advised chief executive officers on corporate social responsibility; researched community and economic development issues in New York City; and investigated discriminatory practices in employment, voting rights, and municipal service delivery for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Maryland, an M.A. in Public Administration from George Washington University, and a B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin. Click for more
Luisa Boyarski, Ph.D. is the Associate Director Georgetown University’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and Associate Research Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy. She is involved in developing and executing the Center’s many executive education and customized programs, and representing the Center at Georgetown University and in the broader community. She recently researched and wrote How to Lead Systems Change Work and Advancing Racial Equity Within Nonprofit Organizations. Luisa frequently conducts workshops and gives keynote addresses on NGO Management and High Impact NGOs to international delegations, including trainings in China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Mongolia, Panama, Romania, and St. Vincent. She has also co-taught an undergraduate course on Philanthropy and Social Change. Prior to working at CPNL, she was the Executive Director of a D.C.-based nonprofit, working on global warming prevention with Arctic indigenous people. She currently leads a coalition of grassroots groups in Virginia, representing over 15,000 residents. Luisa received her Ph.D. in Comparative Government from Georgetown University, with a research focus on the role of nonprofit coalitions in public policy advocacy. Click for more
Gary Bass is Senior Fellow at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and Executive Director Emeritus of the Bauman Foundation. Gary is known within philanthropic circles for his leadership in promoting a fair and accurate census, drawing fair congressional and state district lines, and other civic engagement issues, particularly those related to economic inequality and promoting government accountability. Prior to working in philanthropy, he founded and, for twenty-eight years, directed OMB Watch, a nonprofit organization promoting greater government accountability, transparency, and increased citizen participation in public policy decisions, which merged with Project On Government Oversight in 2016. An expert on federal budgetary, program management, regulatory and information policy issues, Gary has published extensively, testified before Congress, appeared on national television, and presented to groups across the country. He has received numerous awards, served on various boards of nonprofit organizations, and participated in multiple federal government committees. Prior to OMB Watch, Gary worked for the Human Services Information Center and the U.S. Council for the International Year of Disabled Persons. Gary earned his doctorate from The University of Michigan.
Serra Sippel is a Visiting Practitioner at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership. She is founder and president of Serra Sippel Strategies LLC, where she advises and supports nonprofits, foundations, and corporations that seek to build just and equitable societies to help them achieve deeper impact. Serra has devoted more than 20 years to the advancement of gender equality and sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice in the U.S. and globally. She was president of CHANGE (Center for Health and Gender Equity) for fifteen years and in 2021, co-founded Fòs Feminista, a global feminist alliance, through the merger of CHANGE with two other women’s rights nonprofits. Serra was a commissioner for the International AIDS Society-Lancet Commission on the Future of Global Health and HIV Response. She holds a master’s degree in religion from the Earlham School of Religion with an emphasis on peace and justice. She earned an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership.
Julian Haynes is a Visiting Practitioner at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and Partnerships and Strategy Director at the Meyer Foundation, where he focuses on the Foundation’s grantmaking in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland. Before joining Meyer in 2016, Julian was an associate director of programs and policy at Achieving the Dream, a national reform network dedicated to community college student success and completion. In that role, Julian oversaw the day-to-day management of the Working Student Success Network, a national initiative focused on providing comprehensive nonacademic services to low-income community college students. Prior to his role with Achieving the Dream, Julian was a program associate on the education team at the Kresge Foundation, where for three years he helped manage a national portfolio of grants supporting efforts to increase post-secondary degree attainment for low-income students and students of color. Julian holds a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College, and a master’s in nonprofit management from Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy.
Andreas Kern is visiting Assistant Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy. He teaches in the areas of international political economy and development economics. His research mainly concentrates on the political economy of macroeconomic and financial governance in developing and transition economies, and has been published in internationally renowned journals. Previously, Dr. Kern has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for European Integration at Freie Universität Berlin. In this role, he has been engaged in various scientific and consultancy projects for the European Commission and the German government. Andreas Kern earned his Ph.D. in Political Economy from Freie Universität Berlin and holds an M. A. in economics from Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Munich.
Sade Cole is a 2022-2023 Eisenberg Public Interest Fellow at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and a first year MPP candidate at the McCourt School of Public Policy. She recently graduated from Virginia Tech where she studied Human Development and Family Sciences. Prior to Georgetown, Sade interned at a Department of Social Services, the House of Representatives and at a criminal justice organization called Flikshop. These experiences have given her an interest in social and criminal justice policy, specially looking at the intersections of race and poverty on the lives of women and children.
Hyla Jacobson is a 2022-2023 Eisenberg Public Interest Fellow at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and a first year MPP candidate at the McCourt School of Public Policy. Prior to returning to school, she was a Research Assistant at the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), an independent research organization that focuses on critical issues in policing. While at PERF, she conducted research and provided technical assistance to law enforcement agencies on complicated issues affecting policing, including police use of drones and facial recognition technology, immigration, homelessness, cybercrime, vehicle pursuits, officer safety and wellness, and mass demonstrations. Hyla earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Dickinson College, where she focused on the intersection of race and mass incarceration.
Annie Katz is the 2022-2023 Waldemar A. Nielsen Fellow in Philanthropy at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and a first year MPP candidate at the McCourt School of Public Policy. Prior to returning to school, she was a Senior Policy Associate at EducationCounsel, a mission-driven education policy consulting firm. While at EducationCounsel, she worked closely with a variety of education stakeholders, including districts, State Education Agencies (SEAs), national nonprofits and philanthropies to conduct federal and state advocacy and policy research, with a focus on K-12 education. Before joining EducationCounsel, Annie worked at a lobbying firm, where she advocated on behalf of university, nonprofit, municipality, and corporate clients at the federal level on a wide-ranging portfolio of policy, budgetary, and regulatory issues. She also served as a fellow with New America’s Early & Elementary Education team, where she focused on financing strategies for early educators seeking college degrees. Annie began her professional career in Baltimore, MD as a 4th-grade teacher with Teach For America (TFA), and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Maria Paredes is the Office Assistant at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership. Maria is a junior in the School of Foreign Service majoring in International Politics with a focus on Foreign Policy and Policy Processing. She is extremely passionate about immigration policy and social justice reform and has interned in various legal and governmental institutions. This includes working as a Legal Assistant at the Houston firm, Johnson Law Group, and as a Communications Social Media Leader for Georgetown-Alumnus, Luisa Santos and her successful Miami-Dade School Board Campaign. On campus, Maria is involved in the Georgetown’s Scholars Program as an upperclassman mentor for incoming first year students. In addition, Maria is a member of the Justice and Diversity in Action, Living Learning Community (LLC) at Georgetown. There, she participates and upholds the principles of the LLC, which is to actively engage, learn, and educate oneself and others on important social issues within campus and the greater DMV area.
Ashley Wich is a 2022-2023 Eisenberg Public Interest Fellow at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and a full-time MPM candidate at the McCourt School of Public Policy. For the last six years, Ashley worked in the public affairs and communications office at Harvard University, where she led strategic planning and outreach in Harvard’s host communities, managed the charitable contributions portfolio for local nonprofits and engaged with public officials from municipal and state government. Prior to her work in the higher ed sector, Ashley lived in Athens, Greece for two years as part of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) grant helping Greek high school students with their personal statements as part of university applications for the UK. Ashley began her professional career as a paralegal and legal assistant for a small real estate law firm shortly after earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology, Women’s Studies and English Literature from Wheaton College in Norton, MA. Ashley is originally from the Berkshires (Pittsfield) located in Western Massachusetts.
