Kathy Postel Kretman 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 1200 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.
Luisa Boyarski, Ph.D.
Luisa Boyarski 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.
Adjunct Faculty
Gary Bass, Ph.D.
Gary D. Bass is President of GDB Consulting, Executive Director Emeritus of the Bauman Foundation, and a Senior Fellow at the Democracy Fund. He is also an affiliated professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. 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. He currently chairs two funder collaboratives – Census Equity Initiative and Fair Representation in Redistricting. 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. In his role at OMB Watch, he is credited with leading numerous campaigns against federal regulatory attacks, the silencing of nonprofit advocacy, and unfair government spending cuts to those in need. He is also known for efforts to utilize information technologies to strengthen government transparency and increase nonprofit advocacy. 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.
Michael Gellman, CPA, CGMA
A. Michael Gellman, CPA, CGMA, is an independent Fiscal and Financial Strategist for nonprofit organizations and a founding principal partner for Fiscal Strategies 4 Nonprofits, LLC, (FS4N) where the primary focus is helping new and legacy organizations build and achieve a sustainable and financially healthy future. Mike is also the co-founder of Sustainability Education 4 Nonprofits (SE4N), an open-access website for fiscal, financial, legal, and governance information to assist nonprofit organizations with sustainability challenges. He is a former twenty-year shareholder for Rubino & Company, Chartered, CPAs, and Consultants. Mike has more than thirty-five years of experience in nonprofit fiscal, financial, and accounting systems through working as a chief financial and management consultant. He focuses on specialized management and advisory services for trade and professional associations, publicly supported charities, and endowment-based foundations. He has conducted numerous seminars and has written articles on budgeting, reserve and investment policies, financial management, fiscal sustainability, leading economic indicators for nonprofits, and the impact on governance, transparency, and accountability. Mike teaches courses and has made presentations for numerous groups including Georgetown University, American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), the Washington, D.C. Mayor’s Office, D.C. Pro Bono Bar Center, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organization Management (IOM), and United Way agencies, and many others. He was president of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs. Mike has also served on the Finance & Administration Section Council of the American Society of Association Executives and currently serves on various nonprofit boards.
Erica Greeley
Erica Greeley is the Executive Vice President of the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB). NAWB represents and advocates for the nation’s more than 590 Workforce Development Boards, which coordinate with education and economic development stakeholders to meet the needs of jobseekers, businesses, and communities. Prior to NAWB, she served as the Vice President of Economic Mobility at Feeding America, a network that reaches over 50M neighbors each year. Erica oversaw the strategy to address long-term food and financial security. In that capacity, she led an innovation network that identified and replicated high-impact programs and partnerships across the country, many of which sat at the intersection of the charitable food system and the workforce, housing, and financial empowerment fields. Prior to Feeding America, Erica was the Vice President of Networks at Independent Sector, the premier forum for charities and foundations in the US. In addition to leading membership and community engagement, she mapped collaboration across within the nonprofit community and was the head researcher on major projects to understand drivers of success in the American nonprofit community and in public policy advocacy. Prior to Independent Sector, Erica served as Deputy Director for the National Council of Nonprofits, an organization dedicated to building the capacity and impact of 20,000 local organizations. She began her career running afterschool programs for girls in underserved neighborhoods in San Jose, CA. Erica is an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership. She holds a Master’s Degree and a Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown and a B.A. from Wesleyan University, CT.
Monisha Kapila
Monisha Kapila is an independent consultant and coach who works with nonprofit and philanthropic leaders. She founded ProInspire, a nonprofit that activates leaders at all levels to accelerate equity, serving as CEO and Co-CEO for fifteen years. She led the organization to become a field builder around leadership development and racial equity. The Chronicle of Philanthropy named ProInspire one of “7 Nonprofits to Watch” in 2015. Monisha previously worked for Capital One, Accion, CARE, and Arthur Andersen. She has served on multiple Boards and is currently a Board Member of the National Human Services Assembly. Monisha has written about equity & inclusion, leadership, and career paths in Stanford Social Innovation Review, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nonprofit Quarterly, the Huffington Post, and other publications. She has been recognized as a Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 40 Under 40, an HBS Leadership Fellow, an American Express NGen Fellow, and a National Urban Fellows America’s Leaders of Change. Monisha has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she received the Dean’s Award, and a BBA from the University of Michigan. She is an executive coach and received her Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University.
Valeria Lassiter
Endorsed by clients as a top strategist, Valeria Lassiter brings expert analysis and unmatched energy to guide executives and leadership boards. In 2003, she formed her management consulting firm, Lassiter & Associates, LLC, to provide mission-driven organizations with smart strategic planning, fundraising, tailored coaching, and creative training solutions. Valeria has forged a career in government public affairs, community-based organizations, and corporate philanthropy. Since 2003, she has served as the lead adjunct faculty member with the Georgetown University Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program. Valeria has coached and trained more than 2,000 nonprofit executives for various organizations including The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, The Charles Schusterman Family Foundation, The Case Foundation, JP Morgan Chase Foundation, and Wells Fargo Regional Foundation. Valeria holds a Bachelor of Communications from East Carolina University, a Master of Divinity from Colgate Rochester Divinity School, and an MBA from Babson College. She is currently Immediate Past Chair of the NEA Foundation and has served as a member of the East Carolina University Foundation Board of Directors and as the chair of the Women’s Philanthropy Roundtable at East Carolina University. Valeria is a graduate of Leadership Montgomery County, Maryland, and a judge for the 2020 AND 2021 .ORG Impact Awards. She is the author of “Exploring the Experiences of Leaders of Color and Philanthropy” (March 2020) and “5 Things Nonprofits Can Control During Hyper Change” (April 2020).
Marcus Littles
Marcus Littles is a visionary leader, sought-after thought partner, and organizational strategist. He founded Frontline Solutions in 2005 to help Ford Foundation and other key partners to steward philanthropic investments in an equitable Gulf Coast recovery after Hurricane Katrina. Marcus’ leadership has been integral to the growth of Frontline Solutions into one of the country’s most highly regarded Black-owned management consulting firms. Frontline delivers a full range of strategy, research and evaluation, and organizational change services. Marcus has also served as an instrumental leader in directing philanthropic investment at the intersection of race and gender. Littles is regarded by many in the larger fields of racial equity and social justice as one of the most influential relationship nodes for this work. He is purposeful in his relationships, to connect and push the members of his network to leverage their individual and collective assets to help create a more just and equitable world. Littles is an advocate for racial justice, an organizer of people and ideas, and a sought after facilitator, speaker and strategist. He is a native of Mobile, Alabama, a proud graduate of Auburn University and the University of Delaware, and currently resides in Washington DC with his amazing wife and brilliant young son.
Charles Moore
Charles Moore has been a trusted coach and advisor to over 80 executives, across the for-profit, nonprofit, and government sectors. His clients have worked for some of the world’s leading organizations like Amazon, Google, Capital One, Hilton Hotels, and the U.S. Senate. Charles has deep experience as a leader himself, having led teams at Capital One that ran the gamut from new product innovation to big operational systems to marketing. That experience gives him firsthand knowledge of and empathy for the challenges executives like you face as you try to drive results. He was trained in the art and science of strategy during two stints at McKinsey & Company. There, Charles’ work also spanned several industries and sectors. He is committed to community service and has served on the boards of SchoolTalk, Father’s Uplift, Monument Academy Public Charter School, and EdFuel. Charles earned an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford. He has an AB in Economics from Harvard College.
Tram Nguyen
Tram Nguyen is an award-winning activist and community leader who helped found New Virginia Majority in 2007. Tram currently serves as New Virginia Majority’s Co-Executive Director, where she leads multi-racial, multi-issue campaigns using large-scale civic engagement, community organizing, advocacy, leadership development, and strategic communications. Under her leadership, New Virginia Majority has mobilized over 1.5 million Virginians – immigrants, people of color, women, low-income working people, and youth. Prior to joining New Virginia Majority, Tram organized and advocated on behalf of survivors of some of the country’s most devastating disasters, including the World Trade Center Rescue and Recovery Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center and organizing tens of thousands of Vietnamese immigrants throughout the Gulf Coast whose lives were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, whose mission is to invest in solutions that build equitable communities. Tram is an alumna of Barnard College, a 2011 Lead the Way Fellow of the NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and a 2012 Executive Fellow at the Center for Progressive Leadership.
Veena Pankaj
Veena Pankaj has over two decades of experience working closely with funders and nonprofits to answer questions around program design, implementation, and impact. She is particularly adept at systematically applying a diversity of frameworks and approaches to assess levels of influence and progress towards advocacy and policy change efforts. After serving over 10 years as the Director of Innovation Network—a nonprofit, mission-oriented, evaluation consulting firm—Veena recently launched her own consulting practice, Eval4Learning, where she partners with nonprofits and foundations to better understand the difference they make through their work. She offers a learning orientation that draws on a combination of principles from emergent learning and participatory evaluation to engage stakeholders in collaborative learning engagements designed to promote shared sensemaking, generate insights, and advance collective learning. Her experience ranges across topical areas such as health equity, civic engagement, and social justice. Through her evaluation work, she has developed a keen interest in facilitative learning processes that enhance stakeholder understanding and use of evaluation data. Veena received her MA in Social Science from the University of Chicago and her BA in Sociology from the University of Virginia. She has also completed a certification in organization development through Georgetown University, received a master certification in Emergent Learning in January 2020, and received her Associate Diversity Coach certification in 2021.
Michela M. Perrone, Ph.D.
Michela M. Perrone is the President of MMP Associates, a consulting firm established in 1994 to support the successful development and increased effectiveness of organizations, boards, and CEOs in the United States and Europe. She has been affiliated with Board Source since its inception, and is a Senior Associate of the Center for Nonprofit Advancement. Previously, Michela was the President and CEO of the Joseph P. Kennedy Institute. She consults with hundreds of organizations in the U.S. and abroad in nonprofit governance, board and leadership development, and strategic planning. Michela was a Fulbright Scholar and earned a B.A. degree at Macalester College in St. Paul Minnesota and a Ph.D. from the Union Institute and University.
Maria Posey
Maria Posey has over 10 years of experience leading program and evaluation development with different nonprofit organizations. She brings expertise in strategic planning, business development, internal training and knowledge management as well as impact measurement, continuous improvement and learning strategies. In her current role as a Managing Director with Third Sector Capital Partners, a nonprofit advisory firm, Maria is responsible for developing new projects and initiatives with government clients – many of which involve strengthening data systems for better collection, reporting, analysis and use. Maria has worked across a variety of sectors and issue areas for international as well as national organizations. Some of these include poverty reduction, countering human trafficking, workforce development, after-school tutoring, re-entry, health systems strengthening, peacebuilding, and youth and women’s empowerment. Maria holds an M.A from Uppsala University in Peace and Conflict Research and a B.A from Wellesley College in International Relations with a concentration in Political Science.
John Trybus, Ph.D.
John D. Trybus, is the Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication, a research and action center focused on using communication to convene the vastly evolving social impact sector in an effort to create more change for good. As an assistant professor of the practice, he teaches experiential social impact courses across the university for executive, graduate and undergraduate students. John often is an invited keynote speaker, trainer and consultant and has worked with organizations around the world including the U.S. State Department, Knight Foundation, United Way, NPR and Library of Congress. Prior to Georgetown, he served as the personal advisor to world-famous chimpanzee expert Dr. Jane Goodall, traveling with her on a perpetual 300 days-per-year global advocacy tour. John has also been the strategy lead within the British Embassy and a social innovation consultant to Tiffany & Co., L’Oreal Paris, Coca-Cola, Women for Women International and other clients at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. John received his doctoral degree from Concordia University Chicago in Organizational Leadership with a research focus on nonprofit innovation and storytelling.
Shereen Williams
Shereen Williams is a creator, a sage advisor, and a lover of learning. She thrives in spaces with intentional community building and a culture of inquiry. As the founder of Sunshine and Sage Group, a boutique consulting firm, Shereen provides resources and solutions for leaders in public and nonprofit spaces. She is passionate about creating experiences for leaders that shift their thinking as well as their practice. Her focus is on ensuring the leaders of public and nonprofit organizations are compassionate, anti-racist, strategic, and knowledgeable. Shereen is a systems thinker with deep experience working with senior leaders and governing boards. She skillfully stewards all types of partnerships and has a dynamic, well-paced, and personable facilitation and training style. Her career includes roles at DC Public Schools, The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Education Board Partners. Shereen has a Masters in Urban Planning from New York University and a Bachelors in Political Science from the University of Michigan.
David Williamson
David Williamson has served as the Managing Director of the consulting firm Bernuth & Williamson since 2002, serving nonprofits, foundations, and academic clients from around the world in the areas of strategy, change management, and organizational effectiveness. He previously served for 13 years in senior management positions at The Nature Conservancy, including six years as Director of Communications (1997-2002) and as Vice President for Marketing. In addition to David’s long association with Georgetown University’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership, he has served as an adjunct professor of Business Administration at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and has lectured on nonprofit management at Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. While serving as a visiting Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute, David undertook pioneering research in capacity building in nonprofits and measuring nonprofit impact. This work, which first appeared in the McKinsey Quarterly, has been widely cited in academic literature. He also served as a Fellow at the Salzburg Seminar and with the Korea Development Institute in Seoul. A summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University, David has also previously held leadership positions on the board of directors of four nonprofit institutions.
