Board Membership

Appointed by Governor Youngkin to serve July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2027

Charles “Cully” Stimson is an accomplished businessman and attorney.  Stimson is the Deputy Director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Senior Legal Fellow, Manager of the National Security Law Program, and Senior Advisor to the President at The Heritage Foundation.  Stimson is a widely recognized policy expert in crime control, national security, immigration, homeland security, and drug policy at the Washington D.C. based think tank.  He has served as the Chief of Staff at Heritage three times and ran the transition for three Heritage presidential changes of command.

Before joining the think tank in 2007, Stimson served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs. He advised then-Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates and coordinated the Pentagon’s global detention policy and operations, including at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An accomplished trial lawyer, Stimson worked as a prosecutor in San Diego, Maryland, and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

A third-generation naval officer, Cully served in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) for 30 years, including three tours on active duty. During his active duty and reserve career, he served as a military defense counsel, prosecutor, as Deputy Chief Judge of the Navy-Marine Corps Trial Judiciary, and the Commanding Officer of the Preliminary Hearing Unit among other assignments. He retired from the Navy JAG Corps as a Captain on February 1, 2022, after 30 years of service.

Stimson’s thousands of media interviews and appearances include Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, BBC, NPR and C-SPAN. He has been quoted by most major newspapers, including The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and London Times.

A businessman and educator by training, Stimson is Chairman of the Board of his family’s commercial real estate company in Seattle. Before 9/11, he was a Vice President at a New York-based global financial services and insurance brokerage firm where he ran the private equity mergers and acquisitions D.C. operation.

Stimson holds a law degree from the George Mason University School of Law, where he later taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law. He is a graduate of Kenyon College, where he was Captain of the men’s varsity soccer team and an All-Conference player. He also studied at Harvard and Exeter universities. An avid soccer player, he served three terms as Chairman of the Board of the United States Soccer Foundation, the charitable giving arm of U.S. Soccer, and is currently the Chairman Emeritus.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin to serve July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2026

Michael J. Meese is the President of the American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association (AAFMAA), a non-profit association supporting the military and veterans with insurance, financial planning, investments, mortgages, and other benefits.

In 2013, he retired from the US Army as a Brigadier General.  He concluded his 32-year career teaching economics and national security courses while serving as the Professor and Head of the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy.  In addition to teaching, he served in a variety of strategic political-military positions including deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Bosnia for a total of 31 months.

He has been involved in higher education for over three decades, most recently serving as the Chair of the Board of Regents of Concordia College, New York.  He is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.  Previously he taught at Princeton University and was a distinguished research fellow at the National Defense University.

He has written and lectured extensively on national security and economics including the books American National Security and the Armed Forces Guide to Personal Financial Planning. He is a graduate of the National War College, U.S. Military Academy, and holds a Ph.D., MPA and M.A. from Princeton University.

He lives in Oak Hill, VA with his wife and they have three grown children.  Both of his daughters graduated from George Mason University, one as an undergraduate and the other as a graduate student.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin to serve July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2027

Mr. Alacbay is Chief of Staff & Senior Vice President of Strategy for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a nonprofit organization supporting academic excellence, academic freedom, and accountability in higher education. Mr. Alacbay’s research on higher education policy issues has been featured in outlets including The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, Fox News, and Forbes, and he has provided guidance on institutional governance to boards of trustees across the country. Prior to joining ACTA, he worked in private practice as a trial attorney and later managed an educational services startup company. Mr. Alacbay received a B.A. in Economics and English from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from George Mason University School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on February 26, 2025 to fulfill the remaining term of Marc Short, which began July 1, 2024 and ending June 30, 2028

Charles J. Cooper is a founding member and the chairman of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, “one of the Nation’s leading litigation boutiques” (Above The Law 2017). The National Law Journal recently wrote that Mr. Cooper’s “brilliant legal career has so far spanned five decades and thrust Cooper into the spotlight in some of the most historic moments of the country’s modern history.” He has argued nine cases before the United States Supreme Court and scores of appeals before each of the 13 federal courts of appeals and several state supreme courts. He has been lead trial counsel in numerous complex, weeks-long trials in federal courts throughout the country. Named by the National Law Journal as one of the 10 best litigators in Washington D.C., Mr. Cooper’s work has been reported in numerous press accounts, and he has been called a “powerhouse attorney” (Fortune 2015), “a hard-nosed litigator” (Washington Post 2017), and “one of the country’s most in-demand civil litigators and a Washington legal institution unto himself” (The American Spectator 2014). He is a member of the Alabama, Georgia, and District of Columbia bars, as well as the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, all 13 federal circuit courts of appeals, and many federal district courts.

After graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1977, where he ranked first in his class and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Alabama Law Review, Mr. Cooper began his career as a law clerk to Judge Paul Roney on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and to Justice William H. Rehnquist in 1978–79. He then practiced law in Atlanta for two years before joining the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of, among other things, appellate matters. In 1985 President Reagan appointed him to the position of Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, which is the office responsible for providing legal opinions and advice to the White House, the Attorney General, and Executive Branch departments and agencies on issues covering the full spectrum of federal constitutional, statutory, and regulatory law.

In 1988 he returned to private practice as a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. office of McGuireWoods. From 1990 until the founding of Cooper & Kirk in 1996, he was a partner at Shaw Pittman (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman), where he headed the firm’s Constitutional and Government Litigation Group.

Mr. Cooper has represented a wide range of public and private clients in highly complex constitutional, civil rights, antitrust, healthcare, banking, intellectual property, elections, campaign finance, administrative, commercial, and government contract cases. He has led trial teams in cases that have won judgments and settlements valued in the billions of dollars and that have established ground-breaking constitutional precedents.

Much of Mr. Cooper’s practice has involved representing high-profile clients in nationally prominent matters, including: the State of Florida in a First Amendment suit brought by the Disney Company concerning its autonomous regulatory authority over its Disney World property; the Commonwealth of Virginia in a suit seeking to enjoin the removal of noncitizens from its voter rolls; 38 members of the Duke Lacrosse team falsely accused of rape by officials of Duke University and the City of Durham; high- ranking former government officials such as former Attorneys General John Ashcroft, Jeff Sessions, and William Barr, and Ambassador John Bolton; several Governors and United States Senators; over 100 Members of Congress; and many state, territorial, and local government bodies and officials. He has also represented and advised government officials and public figures in connection with sensitive private issues that needed to be, and were, resolved discreetly without becoming matters of public record.

In 1998 Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed Mr. Cooper to the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States, where he served for three terms. He also served as a Public Member, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, of the National Commission on Judicial Discipline and Removal. He is a member of numerous professional associations, including the American Law Institute (since 1993) and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers (since 1996). He is also an active member of the Federalist Society and the Republican National Lawyers Association, which in 2010 named him Republican Lawyer of the Year and in 2016 honored him with its Edwin Meese III Award.

Mr. Cooper has published scores of articles and spoken extensively on constitutional and legal policy topics. He has appeared before congressional committees on 24 occasions, testifying as an expert on a wide variety of legal issues, including the Chevron doctrine of judicial deference to administrative agencies, the diversity of citizenship jurisdiction of federal courts, statehood bills for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and the impeachment of President Clinton.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on June 20, 2025 to serve July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2029

Preston Cooper is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where his work focuses on higher education ROI, student loans, and higher education reform. Before joining AEI in his current role, Dr. Cooper was a senior fellow in higher education policy at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a research analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, and a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He concurrently serves on the Board of Visitors for George Mason University.

His work has appeared in the popular press, including in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Forbes, Fortune, RealClearPolicy, and National Review.

Dr. Cooper has a PhD from George Mason University and a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on June 20, 2025 to serve July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2029

Jeffrey T. Dinwoodie was raised in Fairfax, Virginia.  He received a B.S. from George Mason University in 2005, where he was a pitcher on the University’s Division I baseball team, and a J.D. magna cum laude from American University Washington College of Law in 2008.

Mr. Dinwoodie is a partner in the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.  His practice focuses on advising clients on financial regulation and compliance, enforcement and examinations, and M&A and other corporate transactions.

From 2017 to 2021, Mr. Dinwoodie held senior positions at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Treasury Department.  At the SEC, he served as Chairman Jay Clayton’s Chief Counsel and as the agency’s Deputy Representative to the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.  At Treasury, Mr. Dinwoodie served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions.  Mr. Dinwoodie also previously worked at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Mr. Dinwoodie is a frequent speaker and writer on emerging regulatory topics.  He has testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee.  He has delivered guest lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Toronto, the Yale School of Management and Columbia Law School.

His writing has appeared in a range of publications, including the Yale Journal on Regulation, Bloomberg Law, Global Capital, Traders and the Futures & Derivatives Law Report, among others.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on February 26, 2025 to fulfill the remaining term of Nina Rees, which began July 1, 2024 and ending June 30, 2028

William D. Hansen has spent his entire career of 44 years working at the intersection of education and the workforce where he has led various organizations in government, business, social impact investing, and the philanthropic and policy sectors.  Mr. Hansen serves as the President and CEO of Building Hope which is a non-profit leader in supporting education and the financing and building of charter schools.  In 2022, Bill was appointed to serve on the State Board of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia by Governor Glenn Youngkin where he serves as the vice president of the Board.

Mr. Hansen also serves as General Partner for Green Street Impact Partners which invests in innovative education solutions.  Bill serves on the corporate boards of directors for:  Shorelight Education, Global School Management, Everspring, Centegix, Perdoceo Education Corporation (NASDAQ:PRDO), and Performant Healthcare (NASDAQ:PHLT).  Bill also serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Jackie Robinson Foundation, and Youth for Tomorrow (founded by Coach Joe Gibbs).

Bill previously served as the founding President and CEO of the Strada Education Network, USA Funds, Scantron Corporation, and the Education Finance Council.  Mr. Hansen was twice unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to key presidential appointments, as he served as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education from 2001-2003, and earlier served as ED’s Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget and CFO.

Bill grew up in Arlington and graduated from Yorktown High School.  He earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics from George Mason University and was later recognized as a distinguished alumnus.  He also received the distinguished alumni award from Idaho State University.  Bill and his wife Kasi raised their six children in northern Virginia with each of them graduating from McLean High School in Fairfax County.  All of their 17 grandchildren live in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on June 20, 2025 to serve July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2029

Bobbie Kilberg is President and CEO Emeritus of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), one of the largest technology councils in the nation. She presently serves as Strategic Advisor to the Council. Kilberg held the position of President and CEO from September 1998 through June 2020, and was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) during his term in office.

Kilberg is a graduate of Yale Law School, Columbia University and Vassar College. In 2013, she was awarded an honorary associate degree in humane letters by the Northern Virginia Community College.

Kilberg served as a White House Fellow on the staff of President Nixon’s Domestic Policy Council, as Associate Counsel to President Ford, and as Deputy Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs for President George H.W. Bush. In the private sector, Kilberg was an attorney with Arnold & Porter, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Mount Vernon College, Director of the Aspen Institute’s Project on the Future of Private Philanthropy, and Vice President of the Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies.

From 1977 – 1979, Kilberg was a member of the National Advisory Council Presidential Commission on the Education of Disadvantaged Children. She also was a member of the Advisory Committee on Women to the Secretary of Labor from 1973 – 1975 and the Advisory Committee on the Rights and Responsibilities of Women to the Secretary of HEW from 1972 – 1974.

In Virginia, Kilberg served as a member of the Northern Virginia Regional Council of GO Virginia and also served on a number of gubernatorial task forces. Governor-elect Mark Warner appointed her to his Transition Council and Governor-elect Bob McDonnell named her as one of the five Co-Chairs of his Transition Team. From 2010 to 2012, Kilberg served on the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring and the Governor’s Commission on Military and National Security Facilities. In 2016, Senator Warner appointed her to serve on his Cybersecurity Task Force. She also has held other gubernatorial and General Assembly council and commission posts.

Kilberg presently serves on the Board of Directors of Appian, Inc., a publicly traded company that provides a cloud AI process platform as a service for building enterprise software applications and is a leader in the low-code development, business process management and case management markets. She also serves on the Board of Advisors of Acentra Health, a business solutions provider for innovative health information technology enterprise solutions and customizable products.

Kilberg is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northern Virginia Science Center, the American Action Forum, the NVTC Foundation and NVTC’s TechPAC. She also is a Board Trustee of the George and Barbara Bush Foundation, a Board member of the Richard Nixon Foundation, and on the Honorary Board of Easterseals DC/MD/VA. Her past corporate board service includes United Bank – VA, the RG Group and Luna Innovations. Kilberg formerly served on the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia and the boards of trustees/directors of The George Washington University, public television station WETA, the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, The Potomac School, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, Lab School of Washington, the Greater Washington Sports Alliance, the Native American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Americans for Indian Opportunity, as well as the Board of Advisors of the Global Good Fund.

Kilberg has been the recipient of many awards, starting as one of 10 recipients of Mademoiselle Magazine’s 1972 Outstanding Young Woman of America Award. She received the 2020 Easterseals Advocacy Award and the 2020 Northern Virginia Community Foundation Award, the Washington Business Journal’s 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2013 Laureate Award induction into the Washington Business Hall of Fame, and the 2004 Heroines in Technology Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Technology and the March of Dimes. She was named the 2009 Business Leader of the Year by Washingtonian magazine.

Kilberg received Smart CEO’s Bravo! Women in Business Achievement Choice Award in 2007 and 2008, was in the 2004 inaugural class of awardees of the Washington Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business Award and a Girls Inc. 2003 Honoree. She was named to The Forward Forty by Washington Business Forward in 2002, selected for the Washington Business Journal’s 2015 and 2017 Power 100, for Virginia Business magazine’s 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 Most Influential Virginians, for Washingtonian magazine’s 100 Most Influential Women in 2015, for 100 Tech Titans of Washington in 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019, and the 2016 Loudoun Business Journal’s Women 100 List. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce’s NOVAForward Award. Finally, Kilberg was named a “Living Legend” by Virginia Business magazine in its 2020 Power List.

In the political arena, Kilberg was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for a Virginia State Senate seat in 1987, having won the Republican nomination by a 2/3s vote but losing the general election contest by 2 percentage points. In 1993, she was the unsuccessful nominee for the Republican nomination for Virginia Lieutenant Governor in a state convention process with 14,600 delegates.

Kilberg served as one of the national finance co-chairs of Senator McCain’s 2007 – 2008 Presidential campaign, as one of the national finance co-chairs of Mitt Romney’s 2011 – 2012 Presidential campaign, and as one of the national finance co-chairs of Chris Christie’s 2015-2016 and 2023-2024 campaigns. She also served in national finance leadership positions in George H.W. Bush’s and George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns. And Kilberg was the national Republican convention Backstage Manager for the 8 conventions from 1988 – 2016.

Kilberg was a founder of the Republican Governor’s Association Executive Roundtable in 2009 and served on its Victory 2022 Board. She now serves on its Executive Advisory Council of 9 members.

Kilberg resides in McLean, Virginia, with her husband Bill Kilberg, a retired senior partner at the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and presently Chairman of the Board of Vorbeck Materials Corp. They have five children and seventeen grandchildren.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on April 11, 2025 to fulfill the remaining term of Farnaz Thompson, which began July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2027

Caren Merrick is an entrepreneur, business leader, and public servant with a proven track record of scaling businesses and driving mission-driven growth. As co-founder and Executive Vice President of webMethods, Inc., Fairfax, VA, she was instrumental in growing the company from a basement startup to a $200 million global business, leading to a successful IPO and several acquisitions. Merrick has also been an investor and advisor in multiple entrepreneurial ventures, consistently focusing on strategic growth and impactful innovation.

From 2022 to 2025, she served as Virginia’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade,providing leadership and oversight of 13 agencies, 1,300 employees, and $3B in funding.  She served as Vice Chair of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, and Activation Capital and served on the State Board of GO Virginia in addition to overseeing Virginia Energy, Virginia Tourism, the Department of Housing and Community Development, Virginia Housing, Virginia’s Broadband office and the Fort Monroe Authority.

As Secretary of Commerce and Trade Merrick  was instrumental in securing over $100 billion in capital investments, supporting 15,000 new high-wage, high growth startups, and earning CNBC’s recognition of Virginia as Top State for Business.  She also opened Virginia’s trade office in Taiwan, led international trade missions and established key global partnerships.

Merrick’s work spans various sectors, including technology, economic development, energy, advanced manufacturing, and logistics. This breadth of experience gives her the ability to offer unique insights and strategies to companies across different industries.

In addition to her entrepreneurial and public service work, Merrick has served on several Nasdaq listed corporate boards (The Gladstone Companies, Washington First Bankshares), where she has leveraged her expertise in governance, strategy, and business growth to create lasting impact.

She served on the board of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority overseeing Washington Dulles International Airport, Washington Reagan National Airport, and the Dulles Toll Road from 2012 – 2018.

Her career is defined by a commitment to purpose-driven success, fostering environments where people, businesses, and communities can flourish and thrive.

Merrick has been married to her husband Phillip for 31 years and they have two adult sons. Caren is the first woman in her family to earn a college degree and supported herself through college, receiving her BA in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.   She has completed certificates in Corporate Governance from Harvard Business School and the National Association of Corporate Directors.   She is active in her church, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of Washington, DC and the International Womens Forum.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on June 20, 2025 to fulfill the remaining term of Lindsey Burke, which began July 1, 2022 and ending June 30, 2026

Will Moschella is a shareholder and co-chair of the Government Relations Department at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP in Washington, D.C. For over 35 years, he has worked in government and private practice as a leading public policy professional. He utilizes his extensive experience in the U.S. Justice Department and Congress to counsel clients on a wide range of matters, including antitrust, financial services, legal reform, intellectual property, criminal law and congressional oversight.

Before joining Brownstein, Will held senior roles in the federal government. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2003 to serve as assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the U.S. Justice Department. In 2006, Attorney General Gonzales appointed Will to serve as the principle associate deputy attorney general, the chief legal and policy advisor to the deputy attorney general. In Congress, he served as chief oversight counsel and the chief legislative counsel and parliamentarian for the House Judiciary Committee. He also served as the general counsel of the House Rules Committee. Will played key roles in the development and enactment of several major bills, including the USA PATRIOT Act, USA PATRIOT Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act, Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act and the PROTECT Act.

Will earned his law degree from George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School and his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Virginia. At UVA, he earned two varsity letters in track and field. In 2008, Will received the Edmund J. Randolph Award for Outstanding Service, the highest award that can be bestowed on a Justice Department official.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on February 26, 2025 to fulfill the remaining term of Kenneth Marcus, which began July 1, 2024 and ending June 30, 2028

Maureen Ohlhausen is the co-chair of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s antitrust and competition practice. A partner in the Washington, D.C., office, she advises industry-leading clients on complex antitrust and litigation matters, with a focus on high-profile cases. Sought after for her depth of experience on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related issues, Maureen is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad.

After finishing law school and clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Maureen joined the FTC in 1997. She held a series of roles at the agency over the next 12 years, rising to the position of Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning, where she led the agency’s work on e-commerce and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the broadband and internet sectors. She then went into private practice at a leading telecommunications law firm, where she headed the FTC practice group.

In 2012, Maureen was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the FTC and was appointed Acting Chairman in January 2017, a role she held until May 2018. As Acting Chairman, Maureen directed all aspects of the agency’s antitrust work, including merger review, conduct enforcement, and all consumer protection enforcement, with an emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Under her leadership, the FTC won several influential merger challenges in court and reached a number of key digital privacy settlements.

To date, Maureen is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the FTC.

Following the end of her term at the FTC, and immediately prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Maureen was chair of the global antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts, based in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.

A recognized thought leader, Maureen is a frequent author and speaker, and is often quoted by leading print and broadcast media on antitrust, FTC, and privacy and data security matters. She has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications. During her tenure at the FTC and in private practice, she testified more than two dozen times before Congress, including before the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Antitrust Sub-Committee. She also testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission.

Ms. Ohlhausen earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of Virginia and a J.D. with distinction from George Mason University School of Law.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin to serve July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2026

Robert Frank Pence was born in 1945 in Washington, D.C.; he married his beautiful wife Suzy in 1968. Bob and Suzy are the parents of three sons: Steve, Geoff, and Brian. They also have eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

President Trump appointed Bob to serve as the United States Ambassador to Finland where he served from April, 2018 until January, 2021. In 2021 Finnish President Sauli Niinistö presented Ambassador Pence with the Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland medal.

In 1976 Bob founded The Pence Group, a real estate development firm located in Reston, Virginia. He is also the founding member of the Dulles Expo Center.  He previously served on the boards of The Langley School, George Mason University, American University, the World Affairs Council/Washington, D.C., the Wolf Trap Foundation, the Gary Sinise Foundation, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2007 Bob and Suzy were awarded American University’s President’s Award and, in 2016, they received the Scopus Award from the American Friends at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  In 2022 the Pences became Sterling Fellows at Yale University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and Congressional Country Club.

Bob earned his B.A. at the University of Maryland, two M.A.s and a J.D. from American University, and a M.A. and M.Phil. from Yale University. He has taught in the Italian programs at both Yale and Georgetown. Among their many civic and philanthropic endeavors they endowed the naming gift for the American University Law Library. The Pences are proud sponsors of many USO dinners and concerts with the Beach Boys, Gary Sinise’s Lt. Dan Band, and many other recording stars. They were pleased to have aided in the construction of the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial in Washington, DC and to have advocated in the award of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Doolittle Raiders.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on June 20, 2025 to serve July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2029

Sarah Parshall Perry is Vice President and Legal Fellow at Defending Education where she oversees federal litigation, complaints, research, and publications for the national grassroots organization. Previously, Sarah served as a Senior Legal Fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, part of the Institute for Constitutional Government at the Heritage Foundation, where her work centered on constitutional law, civil rights, and the proper role of the courts.

Sarah joined Heritage after serving as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education where she focused on policy reform, technical guidance, and the Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) annual report to Congress. While at OCR, she was appointed by the Acting Assistant Secretary to co-chair the Employment Engagement, Diversity, & Inclusion Council and, in coordination with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement oversee the hiring of dozens of attorneys for OCR’s 12 regional offices nationwide. Prior to her tenure at the Department of Education, she spent six years at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. where she was Senior Fellow for Education Reform and later, became the regular substitute host for the “Washington Watch” radio show. Her work at the Family Research Council also included the building and oversight of multiple policy coalitions geared toward the fight against antisemitism in academia, curbing tech censorship, and protecting religious liberty.

Before joining FRC, Sarah was in-house counsel and director of development for a Baltimore advertising agency, providing management of all new business transactions from pitch to contract execution for the multi-million-dollar enterprise. She began her practice at the litigation firm of Simms Showers, LLP where her work included Title VII employment discrimination, maritime/admiralty, and False Claims Act (“Qui Tam”) law. Sarah has a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was an editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law, a recipient of the American Jurisprudence award, a Phi Delta Phi honor society member, and a student practitioner in the appellate litigation clinic where she argued before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. She holds a B.S. in Journalism with honors from Liberty University.

Sarah’s writing and advocacy in the areas of constitutional, civil rights, and administrative law have been cited by or yielded appearances in both national and international media outlets including the AP, BBC, Fox News, NPR, The Hill, Washington Post, Washington Times, and the New York Times. She is the mother of three children, and the author of just as many books on the trials and triumphs of parenting children on the autism spectrum. Sarah is a member of the Kirkpatrick Society at the American Enterprise Institute, and a member of the Federalist Society’s Executive Committee for Civil Rights.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin to serve July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2028

Jon M. Peterson is the Chief Executive Officer of Peterson Companies, one of the largest, most-admired privately-held real estate companies in the Washington, DC area. Founded more than  54 years ago, the company is responsible for some of the most prominent and successful mixed-use retail, residential and office developments in Northern Virginia and Maryland including Fairfax Corner, Fair Lakes, National Harbor, Virginia Gateway, Downtown Silver Spring, RIO, Burke Centre and Tysons McLean Office Park.

Jon has been instrumental in the development of National Harbor from an underutilized waterfront property to a mixed-use waterfront destination that is home to Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, MGM National Harbor, Tanger Outlets and The Capital Wheel.

In 2016, he became Chairman of Peterson Companies’ Executive Committee, which oversees all aspects of the retail, residential, commercial and mixed-use development and management. Prior to that, Jon served as Senior Vice President of Commercial and Business Development which allowed him to develop close ties to the entire metropolitan real estate community. He has led all aspects of build-to-suit, purchase and acquisition, sale, leasing and financing of commercial properties, as well as the ground up development of approximately 3.5 million square feet of commercial office product in the Washington Metropolitan area.

Jon graduated from Middlebury College, and he and the Peterson Family believe passionately in giving back to the communities they serve. Jon was appointed to the George Mason University (GMU) Board of Visitors for the term July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2024.  He served as the Board of Visitors’ Vice Rector and GMU’s Board of Trustees from 2014-2018. He was also a board member of Washington First bank from 2014-2018. Currently, Jon serves on numerous philanthropic boards and committees including National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP); NAIOP Northern Virginia; Youth for Tomorrow Board of Trustees; George Mason Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship; Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance; The 2030 Group; The 123 Club; GMU Patriot Club Advisory Board; Mason Housing, Inc.; President’s Council of The Real Estate Roundtable; Virginia Association for Commercial Real Estate; and Prince George’s County Roundtable Board.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin on June 20, 2025 to fulfill the remaining term of Reginald Brown, which began July 1, 2022 and ending June 30, 2026

Harold Pyon has a long history of public service which includes serving on the Board of Directors of the Fairfax County Economic Recovery Commission, the Annandale Chambers of Commerce, and the Fairfax County Park Authority Board (1992-2013). He served as Vice Chairman of the Fairfax County Small Business Commission and was the Chairman of the Asian American Coalition in Virginia. In January 2022 he was appointed by Governor Youngkin to be Virginia’s Deputy Director of the Office of Diversity and Opportunity, and Inclusion and was reappointed by Governor Youngkin in April 2022 to serve as the Virginia’s Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry. Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares was appointed in May 2023 to serve as the Senior Advisor for outreach/CLO.

He retired in 2020 from the Senior management of the US Patent and Trademark office after 33 years of service. Harold served on Governor McDonnell’s Commission on Economic Development & Job Creation (2010-2014). In 2007 he was appointed by the Governor of Virginia to the State Board of Election to oversee the entire election process in Virginia. He served as the first Asian American to be a member of the Virginia State Election Board as Vice Chair (2007-2011). He was appointed by the Governor of Virginia to the Board of Visitors, Virginia Commonwealth University (1998-2004). He was also reappointed Fairfax County Park Authority Board member as a Springfield representative (2008-2013). He also serves as LORD of FAIRFAX in Fairfax County in 2017.

He was serving as the Chairman of Board and is serving the Board of Directors, Korean American Community Service Center of Greater Washington D.C. region (2010-2014). He also is serving as an executive Board member of the Korean Community Center Organizing Committee, Fairfax. He is the National Chair for the Korean American Day National Committee. He drafted the Korean American Day Resolution for US House Representatives and US Senate and Passed this resolution in both the House and Senate. He received the Congressional Record recognition from 110th Congress from the US House Representative and the National Medal of Honor (Suk-Ryu-Jang) from the Korean Government (2006). He is also the Deacon of the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Centreville, Virginia.

Harold earned a B.S degree in Chemistry from the Virginia Commonwealth University in 1980 and a M.S degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 1983. He also attended the Juris Masters Certificate program through George Washington University/USPTO in 1996. In 2001 Harold earned a Certificate of Advanced Public Management from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.

Appointed by Governor Youngkin to serve July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2027

Jeff Rosen is Of Counsel at the law firm of Cravath Swaine & Moore, based in its Washington, D.C. office, where he advises clients on regulatory enforcement, investigations, litigation, and other business-critical legal concerns.  He is also a Nonresident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and an appointed Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.

In 2022, Mr. Rosen served as Chair of Virginia’s Commission to Combat Antisemitism.

From 2019 to 2021, Mr. Rosen served as Acting Attorney General of the United States and Deputy Attorney General of the United States.  His prior roles included serving as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation, as General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Management and Budget, and as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation.   Outside of public service, Mr. Rosen had worked for nearly thirty years at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, including service on that firm’s global management committee.  He is also a former Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice.

Mr. Rosen has been a distinguished senior fellow at GMU’s Scalia Law School Gray Center since 2021, and in the past was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s law school.  He is also a member of Northwestern University’s Arts & Sciences Board of Visitors.   Mr. Rosen holds a B.A. with highest distinction from Northwestern University and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Isaiah Grays is a Michigan native and sophomore studying Government and International Politics. As a freshman, Grays was elected and sworn in as the 46th Student Body President of George Mason University. Before his arrival to Mason, President Grays served as U.S. Youth Advisor to the United Nations Ocean Decade, 4th Cohort, where he co-authored an Education Toolkit presented at the United Nations Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Grays served as the Student Body President of Grand Blanc High School, representing over 2,700 students, and served on the 1st Cohort of the Young, Gifted, and Green Youth Environmental Justice Council, where he became a member of the American Public Health Association and presented his co-authored abstract on economic and environmental disparities in Genesee County, Michigan.

President Grays, as a Mason student, served as Spring 2025 Congressional Intern for Michigan Congressman John James.

President Grays ran on a commitment to bring back the You to GMU!

Nilima Hakim Mow is an international doctoral student in the Linguistics PhD program within the Department of English in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS). Originally from Bangladesh, she holds a master’s degree in Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Ball State University in Indiana. Her research focuses on the documentation and revitalization of endangered and Indigenous languages.

Nilima is deeply committed to linguistic justice and fostering inclusive academic practices. She has served in several leadership roles within the Mason community, including as the graduate representative for the Linguistics PhD program and as a member of the International Student Advisory Board. She is excited to serve as President of the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GAPSA) for the 2025-2026 academic year. As GAPSA President and Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Visitors, Nilima is committed to advocating for graduate and professional students across all campuses at Mason. She is focused on amplifying student voices in university decision-making, increasing awareness of GAPSA’s resources among graduate and professional students, and enhancing the overall graduate student experience. Her goal is to strengthen the connection between Mason’s graduate and professional student body and university leadership to ensure meaningful representation and engagement.

Solon Simmons is the director of The Narrative Transformation Lab (TNT Lab) at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. A sociologist by training, he is the author of many books and articles on narrative and storytelling in peace and politics, including Conflict Resolution after the Pandemic Building Peace, Pursuing Justice (2021), Root Narrative Theory and Conflict Resolution; Power, Justice and Values (2020),  and The Eclipse of Equality: Arguing America on Meet the Press (2013). He is currently finishing a book about story grammar and basic plot types. At The Narrative Transformation Lab, Solon is leading efforts to develop cutting-edge narrative tools for use in practical applications in both adversarial struggles for justice and collaborative journeys toward peace. Solon served as interim dean for the Carter School in 2013, and Vice President for Global Strategy for George Mason from 2014-2017, and he teaches classes on the craft of peace writing, conflict theory, narrative, media, discourse and conflict, human rights, quantitative and qualitative methodology, global conflict, and critical theory.

Rachel Spence is the Academic Manager for International Enrollment Partnerships and the Chair of Staff Senate. In her current role, she is an integral part of campus internationalization efforts spearheaded by the Global Education Office. As academic manager, she builds the academic components of programs and pathways for international students to earn George Mason degrees. Her role involves collaboration across many facets of the university including academic departments, Admissions, the Registrar’s Office, INTO Mason, and University Life.

Rachel has been a George Mason employee since 2017 and has served on the Staff Senate since 2022, becoming chair in January 2025. As a formerly remote employee, she is committed to advocating for all staff, regardless of their campus or location around the world. Her priorities as Chair are supporting professional development, well-being, and work-life balance initiatives to enhance the overall staff experience at George Mason University.