Civic Council

Collin Barry

Director, Expedia Security and Threat Research Group

“Collin Barry is a strategic security leader who has held positions in the US Intelligence Community and private industry. At present, Collin leads Expedia’s Security and Threat Research Group – a multidisciplinary team focused on harnessing intelligence analysis, security analytics, threat hunting, and red team operations that enable an accelerated and more complete organizational response to cyber threats. Prior to joining Expedia, Collin was a senior leader in Booz Allen Hamilton’s International Account Group, where he was responsible for building next-generation capabilities and client service offerings in cyber threat intelligence programs, cyber fusion center designs, and business risk operations.”

James Bernard

Director of Corporate Sustainability Services, Resonance

James Bernard is Director of Corporate Sustainability Services at Resonance, an award-winning consultancy focused on partnerships in international development, impact investment and frontier market expansion. An internationally recognized expert on multi-stakeholder partnerships, Bernard is responsible for building out a West Coast office for Resonance focused on establishing stronger links between technology for international development. Prior to joining Resonance, Bernard was Senior Director of Global Strategic Partnerships for the Education group at Microsoft, where he led a team that was responsible for building partnerships with publishers, education technology companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations such as the UN and World Bank. Between 2006 and 2008 Bernard served as Vice President of Marketing and Communications for World Learning, an international NGO focused on educational exchange and international development. Bernard also held a number of positions at Microsoft between 1999 and 2006, working on consumer technology products and digital access programs to bring technology to emerging markets. Bernard is a frequent speaker on issues related to public-private partnerships in education and international development. He serves on the board of directors of Pact, a global NGO working on health, livelihood and environmental projects in 35 countries.

Tom Berquist

Executive Vice President of Marketing and Cooperative Affairs , BECU

Eric Billies

Principal, Booz Allen Hamilton

Eric Billies has built an effective and growth-oriented career with his thoughtful leadership, relevant experience, and program management capabilities, including 20 years of combined Navy Active Duty/Reserve and over 16 years at Booz Allen. He currently leads Booz Allen’s business across the Pacific Northwest managing multiple government and non-government clients. Billies has significant experience and expertise in the areas of digital solutions, IT strategy, unmanned/autonomous systems, defense policy, and program management.

After joining Booz Allen, Billies served in several roles supporting numerous clients affiliated with the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, CA.  He currently manages an IT and cyber security services contract with the Navy’s largest two public shipyards providing critical 24×7 IT and cybersecurity support.  Billies is also shaping strategy for the Navy’s unmanned undersea vehicle deployment/operations as well as driving immersive technologies (i.e., virtual reality/augmented reality) in support of mission operations and user training for several DoD clients.

Billies’ other positions range from serving as the Secretary of the Navy’s Political-Military advisor to serving as Booz Allen’s Program Manager for a 200-person cross-country contractor team supporting a suite of multi-billion dollar networking radio development projects for the Defense Department.

Megan Bowman

Former Director, MAAIS/EMIS

Megan Bowman has over 25 years of experience in public policy and international relations and has worked in business, government and the non-profit sector. Prior to joining the MAAIS program, she helped build a local nonprofit organization from a small startup to a successful global business network driving investment and impact across Africa. Her professional experience includes five years at Microsoft, where she managed government, industry association and political affairs at the federal level and coordinated global public policy positions in areas such as online privacy and data protection. As an executive with the global public affairs firm APCO, she developed government affairs and communications strategies for a number of non-profit and global health clients, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and several of its grantees. Her early career was spent in Washington, D.C., managing foreign policy, trade and development issues for several members of Congress.

Jennifer Butte-Dahl

Senior Director, The Tembo Group

Jennifer Butte-Dahl is a Senior Director with The Tembo Group, a social impact consultancy based in NYC. Tembo was recently acquired by APCO Worldwide, a global advisory and advocacy communications consultancy. She is leading west coast business development and also working on strategy and planning around the integration of the two firms.

Butte-Dahl has lived and worked on five continents and engaged on critical global challenges from vantage points across the international affairs spectrum, through business, government, philanthropy, social enterprise and the nonprofit sector. She set up a nonprofit focused on entrepreneurship in post-apartheid South Africa, opened a sales support office for a large multinational in the United Arab Emirates and built alliances for a social enterprise committed to providing renewable energy to communities across the globe that lacked electricity. While working for the U.S. government, most recently as a senior adviser to the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and other high-level presidential envoys, Butte-Dahl was responsible for furthering the State Department’s legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, defining and advocating for U.S. government budget and policy priorities and managing complex diplomatic and development challenges facing the United States. She also is the founder of the Master of Arts in Applied International Studies program and an affiliate faculty member at the Jackson School of International Studies.

Kristen Dailey

Executive Director, Global Washington

Kristen Dailey is the Executive Director of Global Washington, a network of over 160 non-profit, for-profit, academic institutions, and philanthropists in Washington state innovating to improve lives around the world. Dailey has over 19 years of experience in international development including advocacy, issue campaigns, microcredit, and building partnerships among NGOs, businesses, and government. Prior to Global Washington, she was the COO and Senior VP at the Initiative for Global Development and has held positions at Global Partnerships, the United Nations Foundation, and organizations working with low-income refugee and immigrant families in South Seattle. Kristen has an MPA from the Evans School of Public Affairs at UW and is committed to finding effective, sustainable solutions to global poverty.

Nirav Desai

Senior Partner, Moonbeam

Nirav Desai is a Senior Partner at Moonbeam, a startup focused on rapid prototyping of solutions that address barriers to spatial and immersive computing technology adoption. Previously he served as chief technologist for the Seattle office of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where he led the company’s software development practice and technology business in the Pacific Northwest. He has more than 15 years of consulting experience in strategic decision support and information technology strategy and has supported a diverse array of clients, including international nongovernment organizations, Fortune 500 companies and various governments. Desai has also led efforts across the firm’s Pacific Rim offices that focus on commercializing government-incubated technologies in the digital, analytics and cyber-security spaces. He has served in an executive capacity for the Subcontinental Institute and WordSoundAction, two nonprofit organizations with an international focus.

Radha Friedman

Founder, Radha Friedman Global Philanthropy

Radha Friedman is a gender equality champion who has spent 20 years working to address issues of access and equity. As a philanthropic advisor, she encourages greater investment in women and girls globally as the single most powerful strategy to reach the SDGs.

Radha’s work has helped a start-up microfinance organization grow to rank as the #1 MFI in the world, and helped organizations earn global awards for their work including the Hilton Humanitarian Prize and Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

Before founding her philanthropy advising firm, Radha served as a consultant to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s gender equality team, where she helped the foundation use their voice to advance women’s economic empowerment. Before this, Radha led grantmaking at the World Justice Project, where she encouraged investments in under-represented voices on issues of justice and the rule of law and oversaw a portfolio of nearly 100 grants in 60+ countries. Prior to this, Radha was a co-founder of Landesa’s Center for Women’s Land Rightswhere she helped raise the issue of women’s property rights and helped secure investments that tripled the size of the organization.

Radha’s work is grounded by an MA in International Development Studies/ MS in Public Service Administration, a BA in South Asian Studies, and a post-grad certificate in Cross-Sector Partnerships from the University of Cambridge.Radha also serves on the board of She Matters, supporting women refugees entering Europe, 360ImpactData, a platform to help close the gender data gap, and Rangzen, supporting human rights in Tibet. Radha was named a Next-Gen Fellow by the American Express Foundation, a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Emerging Leader, and a “Global Leader for Justice” by the Global Women’s Leadership Network.

Shane Kemeny

Partner Engagement Lead, World Economic Forum

Shane is the Partner Engagement Lead, ICT and Advanced Manufacturing at the World Economic Forum. Growing up in an American military family, Shane was born in Germany and graduated high school in Japan. Shane has seized every opportunity to absorb new cultures, see through different perspectives, and build relationships around the world. Through his career he has worked to advocate and create positive change on behalf of public and private sector organizations both on the ground and at the executive level.

After 5.5 years at Microsoft, Shane pursued his passion for social impact and policy, completing his graduate degree at the University of Washington. While pursuing his MA in International Studies, he worked for both the United States Chamber of Commerce and the United Nations Development Programme, where he focused on creating public-private partnerships with the most influential organizations in the world. Shane continues to apply his consulting and strategy experience in areas related to innovation, digital transformation, sustainability, and public-private sector engagement.

John Koenig

Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies

John Koenig retired in 2015 after more than three decades in the U.S. Foreign Service. His last post was as U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus, where he brokered the agreement to launch the latest round of UN-sponsored settlement negotiations. He previously served as Political Advisor to the NATO Joint Forces Command in Naples, Italy; as Deputy Chief of Mission in Berlin, Germany; and as Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.S. Mission at NATO. In 2011, he received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award in recognition of the policy and leadership roles he played in Berlin and at USNATO.

Adam Kohorn

Director of Strategy Integration, Boeing

Adam Kohorn is the director of strategy integration for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, where he leads a team that covers a wide range of strategic and business development activities. These efforts include analysis of global industry and competitive trends and the creation of market strategies to enhance Boeing’s position in both developing and mature markets worldwide. He has previously held leadership positions in engineering, production engineering, manufacturing operations and program management at Boeing, Honeywell and United Technologies, and has been heavily involved in the application of Lean methods to business design and operations. Kohorn received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a master’s in mechanical engineering and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lieutenant General Stephen R. Lanza

Commanding General, Retired, I Corps, Joint Base Lewis-McChord

Lieutenant General Stephen R. Lanza retired from the U.S. Army as the Commanding General of I Corps, a globally responsive and regionally aligned force that supports the Pacific region, and Senior Mission Commander for Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), Washington. During his most recent command, LTG Lanza spearheaded historic projects that ensured a Corps of more than 53,000 Soldiers remained globally responsive and regionally aligned. He focused the headquarters on supporting counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations in Iraq and Afghanistan while simultaneously serving as a Combined Joint Task Force ready to conduct expeditionary operations in the Pacific Command Area of Responsibility. Under his leadership, I Corps deployed the headquarters to Australia, Japan, and Korea and incorporated American forces in Hawaii, Alaska, and Japan to implement the Department of Defense’s initiative to rebalance forces to the Pacific while concurrently ensuring the Corps was ready to respond to Forces Command global requirements. His command assignments include the 7th Infantry Division at JBLM; 5th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq; and the 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas. His operational deployment experience includes Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Saudi Arabia; Operation Joint Guard, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq; and Operation New Dawn, Iraq. Lanza was commissioned into the field artillery in 1980 after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also holds master’s degrees from Central Michigan University and the National War College and has served as a National Security Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jacqueline Miller

Chief Executive Officer, World Affairs Council

Jacqueline Miller joined the World Affairs Council as president and chief executive officer in 2014. Prior to joining WAC, she served as director of external relations at Independent Diplomat, an organization that works with marginalized democratic political actors to help them navigate the United Nations, European Union and other international diplomatic forums. Previously, Miller was a senior associate at the EastWest Institute in New York, where she ran the U.S. program, focusing on national security policy, U.S.-Russia and U.S.-China relations and nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation issues. She has also served as the deputy director of Washington, D.C., programs at the Council on Foreign Relations and as deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Her honors include being named a Truman Security Fellow as well as receiving a Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship for Russia. Miller has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Cornell University.

Bindiya Patel

Co-Director, Global Leadership Forum

Bindiya Patel is the Executive Director of Leadership Tomorrow, a community leadership organization that educates, inspires, connects, and catalyzes leaders from across Puget Sound who collaborate for collective impact.  She has over two decades of leadership experience at equity-focused nonprofit organizations where she has worked toward her lifelong mission to support women and people of color to lead healthy lives and develop their leadership skills.

Ted Schmitt

Director, Conservation, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2)

John Simpson

Director, Professional Fellows Program for Economic Empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa, Legacy International

John Simpson is Director of the Professional Fellows Program for Economic Empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa, a U.S. Department of State-funded initiative. The PFP program promotes mutual understanding, enhances leadership and professional skills, and builds sustainable partnerships between emerging leaders who are committed to strengthening their communities through social entrepreneurship and workforce development. Before joining the PFP program, John served as an English Language Fellow with the U.S. Department of State in Uzbekistan and Côte d’Ivoire, a William J. Clinton Fellow for Service in India with the American India Foundation, and a Senior Fellow at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. Originally from the Seattle area, John graduated from the EMIS program in 2017. He recently was awarded a Fulbright Specialist grant.

Nicky Smith

Executive Director, International Rescue Committee

Nicky Smith is the Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Washington. IRC in Washington provides opportunities for refugees, asylees, victims of human trafficking, survivors of torture, and other immigrants to thrive in America. She has more than 25 years of progressively responsible professional experience with Non-Governmental Organizations in crisis affected countries; of which 12 years have been spent in a conflict and post conflict setting. Prior to her role as Executive Director at the IRC in Washington, Nicky was responsible for establishing and managing new country programs for the IRC. Her areas of expertise include emergency preparedness and response, country-program management, refugee policy and advocacy, and strategy and change planning.

Nicky joined the IRC in 2003. From 2007 to 2010, she was a member of the IRC’s Washington, D.C. office, working to educate policy makers and the public about the importance of providing resources for humanitarian and development assistance in Africa and Asia, and promoting programs that prevent violence against women and girls. From 2003 to 2007, she worked in some of the organization’s most sensitive situations, including managing the IRC’s country program, Sudan, and serving as the IRC Country Director in Liberia during a key moment in the peace process. Before joining the IRC, Nicky worked for almost 10 years with Doctors Without Borders and Children’s Aid Direct in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan and Nepal, amongst other countries.

Ted Van Dyk

Author and Former Government Official

Ted Van Dyk is an author and former government official with a long history of involvement in public policy and international affairs. His career includes work as an intelligence analyst at the Pentagon; as director of the Washington, D.C., public affairs office of the European Communities (now the European Union); and as a policymaker in the Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter administrations, where he coordinated U.S. foreign assistance programs. Van Dyk has also served as president of the Center for National Policy, as executive vice president of the Milken Institute, vice president of Columbia University and vice president of the Weyerhaeuser Company. He has also run his own independent consulting firm in Washington, D.C., counseling, among others, the governments of Japan, Pakistan, Greece, New Zealand and Tajikistan. After returning to Seattle in 2001 Van Dyk wrote a regular editorial column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer until 2008, and has written regularly for Crosscut.com. He has also written frequent essays and columns over the years for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Newsweek, The Atlantic and other national publications. His memoir, Heroes, Hacks and Fools, was published in 2007 by University of Washington Press. Van Dyk has served on the boards of the Roosevelt Institute, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Jean Monnet Council, and Washington News Council and is a member of the UW Department of Communication Hall of Fame and the Council on Foreign Relations national program committee. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and a master’s from Columbia University.

Alicia Vermaele

Director of Global Social Impact, Starbucks

Alicia serves as director of Global Social Impact at Starbucks Coffee Company and is the executive director of The Starbucks Foundation. Alicia oversees the strategy and giving programs for The Starbucks Foundation, focused on enabling thriving communities and uplifting those affected by disaster. Through this work, the Foundation supports both domestic and international initiatives that span from our local hometown of Seattle all the way through to coffee and tea-growing regions around the world. Additionally, Alicia leads the co-creation of early-stage social impact innovations that address key challenges faced by Starbucks employees and their communities at large, bridging deeper connections between the two to drive meaningful, long-term solutions.

Deborah A. Wege

Cooperative Community Advocate, Boeing Employees Credit Union - BECU

Debbie leads change and connection through her unique and innovative role as the Cooperative Community Advocate for BECU, a strong community-based Credit Union in Washington State. She develops and implements robust programs that ignite passion and commitment to principles and purpose-based decision making. She also cultivates and deepens relationship and partnerships within the credit union system and explores opportunities for cross-sector collaboration or connection among local cooperatives. She actively advocates for credit unions both locally and nationally. She has been dedicated to efforts that deepen stronger equity and inclusion at BECU through serving on the inaugural BILD (Belonging, Inclusion and Leveraging Differences) Council at BECU which helped to formalize and expand Employee Resource Groups (ERG) at the Credit Union. She is currently serving as the Community Chair for the Women’s Leadership ERG, and member of the Pride Advocacy Collection ERG, and an active ally of the Young Professional ERG.

Debbie is a certified National Credit Union Development Educator (CUDE) through the National Credit Union Foundation since 1993, and an International-CUDE (I-CUDE) since 2010. She currently serves as chair of the Northwest CUDE Network, where she brings northwest CUDEs together to continue learning, growing, and producing events that help spread the uniqueness and potential deeper impact of credit unions and cooperatives. She has experience in leading and mentoring at several CUDE Training programs and workshops both nationally and internationally. As well as spearheaded the development and implementation of the Leveraging the CU Difference Workshops for over 100 northwest credit union professionals. In addition, she has a deep understanding and passion a robust inclusive and fair economy, through her current role as a board member of the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International and the Chair of the Northwest Cooperative Development Center. She also serves on the Executive Committee of Seattle Good Business Network Board. She is dedicated to serving in capacities that help advance a fair and equitable economy for all people to flourish.

Lauren Woodman

CEO, DataKind

Lauren is the CEO of DataKind, a nonprofit that works to harness the power of data science and AI in the service of humanity.  Prior to joining DataKind, she was CEO of NetHope, a consortium of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations.  Before joining the nonprofit sector, she spent 20 years in the tech sector, most notably leading Microsoft’s government and education programs worldwide.  A graduate of Smith College and Johns Hopkins, she lives in Seattle with her partner and children.