Governance

Frieda Abushacra (2013-2019) was born in Lebanon and attended a trilingual school. Her family moved to Iraq, and then Greece, before settling in England, where she continued her education and obtained an IB Diploma.

After graduating from the University College of London with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, Frieda then earned her masters in computers in art and design while working on architecture and design projects in London and Beirut. Since moving to Washington, DC in 1994, she has been active in the development of the family’s real estate and Firehook Bakery businesses.

Her International experience and multi-lingual education are what attracted the family to WIS. Having been an IB student herself, Frieda is in tune with the educational journey of WIS students and the benefits it presents to them throughout their lives. In addition to volunteering actively within the WIS community, Frieda also supports other non-profit and community organizations in the Washington, DC area.

Frieda is married to Pierre Abushacra. Michael, the oldest of their three boys, is a member of the Class of 2014 and youngest son Oliver is a member of the Class of 2022.

Elizabeth Ahn (2013-2019), who earned her J.D. from the American University School of Law, spent the early years of her legal career working at Arnold & Porter, where she honed her litigation skills and focused primarily on antitrust matters, intellectual property disputes and product liability suits.

After leaving Arnold & Porter, Elizabeth spent nearly seven years as an attorney advisor at the Internal Revenue Service Office of Professional Responsibility. There, she reviewed and analyzed allegations of misconduct by tax practitioners and assisted with investigations related to those allegations. She also took an active role in the litigation process and testified on behalf of the Office Director during administrative hearings.

Elizabeth was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in Brunei before moving to Canada and then to the United States, where she graduated from The George Washington University with a B.Sc. She is married to John Morris, President and co-founder of Corsec, a company specializing in information assurance and validation services for commercial companies.

Elizabeth and John’s oldest son William is a member of the WIS Class of 2023 and twins Charlotte and George are members of the WIS Class of 2027.

Jefferson Burnett (2017-2020) is the Senior Vice President, Education Innovation, at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). His portfolio includes providing thought leadership regarding innovative approaches to learning and teaching; addressing global education and international student issues; and designing financial health and marketing outlook resources for boards and leadership teams. In addition, he represents NAIS on its Commission on Accreditation and ISAnet, which is composed of the organization’s member associations.

Before joining NAIS in 1992, Jefferson was Vice President for Independent Schools at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), where he also directed services for CASE’s two-year institutions and international members. He has been an adjunct instructor in anthropology at Georgetown University, a history teacher at the Robert Louis Stevenson School, and an English teacher at St. George's School.

Jefferson previously served on the board of the Edmund Burke School and is a member of the Association of Independent Schools New South Wales Institute (Australia). He received a BA in anthropology from Columbia University, Columbia College and an MPhil in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, King’s College.

Carolyn Campbell (2012-2018) is a Managing Director and Founding Partner of Emerging Capital Partners (ECP). Ms. Campbell is a member of ECP’s executive committee and investment committees, providing management oversight of the firm’s operations and investments and serving on several portfolio company boards of directors, including a pan-African education platform investment. ECP is one of the leading private equity managers focused on Africa, with seven overseas offices and over a decade of investing experience in investments operating across the Continent. Ms. Campbell is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Advisory Council of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Prior to joining the ECP team in 2000, Ms. Campbell was with White & Case in the firm’s Warsaw, London, and Washington, DC offices. She was also an Associate Professor at George Washington University National Law Center from 1997-2000, lecturing on international negotiations. She holds degrees from Oxford University, the University of Virginia and the University of Connecticut.

Her husband Jean-Amiel Jourdan is the Director, Global Careers at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. The family has two children enrolled in WIS: Class of 2023 member Stuart and Class of 2025 member Aliénor.

Stylianos Christofides (2014-2017) is a member of the WIS Class of 1982. After leaving WIS, Stylianos went on to McGill University, where he received a BSc in Civil Engineering. He later attended George Washington University to study international business as well as structural engineering.

Since September 2012, Stylianos has served as the principal and founder of SC Squared, LLC, which offers general consulting services in the industry sectors of real estate, energy and infrastructure. He is also a co-founding member of Parking Development Solutions with the purpose of promoting automated parking for all parking needs. Prior to founding SC Squared, he was a principal at ICG properties for 14 years, where he directed business development and implemented infrastructure projects in Pakistan, India, Tunisia and Egypt.

From 1996 to 1998 he was Director of Development at ICG Dubai, where he worked on the development of the pipeline for the company's lead project—a gas-fired combined-cycle power station in Pakistan. He also led other infrastructure initiatives in India and Greece. From 1990 to 1995 he worked in the UK for WS Atkins, as a project manager and design engineer for the Drax Power Station, and on telecommunication design for the NYNEX initiative in the UK.

Stylianos and his wife Kate live in Maryland with their three children.

Giovanni Dell'Ariccia (2016-2019) is Deputy Director of the Research Department of the IMF, where he supervises the activities of the Macro-Financial Division. Previously he worked in the Asia and Pacific Department. His research interests include: Banking; the Macroeconomics of Credit; Monetary Policy; International Finance. In recent years, Giovanni has worked primarily on the Euro Area Crisis. He has published extensively in finance and economics journals and is a CEPR Research Fellow.

Giovanni grew up in Rome, where he earned a bachelors degree in economics and statistics from Rome University. He moved to the US in 1993 to attend MIT, where he earned a Ph.D. in economics. Giovanni is married to Rachel Howe (who is the Director of Trade Research at the US Trade Representative). Their daughter Julia is a member of the WIS Class of 2023.

Ayanna Dunn (2014-2017) is an alumna of WIS. She is currently a Private Banker at Morgan Stanley where she advises high net worth clients, businesses, nonprofits and associations on credit and lending solutions.

Before joining Morgan Stanley, she served as a Financial Advisor at Bernstein Global Wealth Management. Prior to that, she worked for many years at JPMorgan in the Private Bank and in the Equity Capital Markets Division of the Investment Bank in New York and London. She also served as an Account Director at The Corporate Executive Board, and she started her career as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company.

Outside of the office, Ayanna dedicates her time to working with various art and education organizations in the Washington, DC region. Ayanna has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Spelman College.

Diana Farrell (2013-2019) is the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the JPMorgan Chase Institute. Previously, Ms. Farrell was the Global Head of the McKinsey Center for Government (MCG), providing research, proprietary data and other tools to support government leaders focused on improving performance. In addition, she was a leader of McKinsey's global Public Sector Practice and a member of its Partner Review Committee.

Ms. Farrell served in the White House as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President on Economic Policy from 2009-2011. During her tenure, she led interagency processes and stakeholder management on a broad portfolio of economic initiatives, including financial reform, housing and innovation. Ms. Farrell also coordinated stakeholder engagement around the passage of the historic Dodd-Frank Act and served as a member of the President's Auto Recovery Task Force. She has a B.A. from Wesleyan University and holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Diana was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, where she attended an IB school, the Colegio Anglo Colombiano. She and her husband Scott Pearson, the Executive Director of the DC Public Charter School Board, have been WIS parents since 2009: daughter Sonia graduated in 2016 and son Jasper is a member of the Class of 2018.

Sophie Hawkins' (2011-2018) French and American heritage makes her a "typical" WIS parent who holds an appreciation for many cultures. As a fluent French speaker, she believes deeply in the educational model offered at WIS. Both of her daughters—Class of 2023 member Eleanor and Class of 2022 member Genevieve—are in the French/English dual language program.

Sophie graduated from Deerfield Academy and majored in history at Princeton University. She met her husband, Val, at college and they both went on to attend Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Sophie has always had a passion for education. She volunteered as a teacher and a tutor while at school and in addition to her professional commitments. Prior to taking on the role of full-time mother, she worked in New York at Merrill Lynch and in London at UBS, specializing in investment banking and asset management, respectively.

Cynthia Johnston (2015-2018) is currently Chief Project Manager with the Facility Services division at a federal agency.

From 2006 to 2013, she was Director of Project Management at Montgomery College, responsible for overseeing construction projects on all three campuses and in off-campus leased space. During her tenure at the College, signature projects included state-of-the-art science instruction laboratory buildings at both the Rockville and Germantown campuses, and visual and performing arts centers at the Takoma Park-Silver Spring campus. Notable smaller projects included nursing and allied health science instructional spaces, including simulation labs.

Prior to public service, Cynthia was a Principal at SmithGroup, JJR. Over a twenty-year period her work with Smithgroup (and its predecessor firm Keyes Condon Florance) included service for a wide variety of institutional and private clients on projects ranging from complex multi-use facilities to historical renovations. Selected projects include New York Law School, a major addition to the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center at Bolling Air Force Base, the Discovery Communications Headquarters building in Silver Spring, renovations to the Old Executive Office Building, the Levine School of Music (which had occupied the site of the WIS Primary School), and 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.

Cynthia is an honors graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and has been a member of the WIS Facilities Committee since the Primary School Expansion project. She and her husband Carlos Rojas have one daughter; Maria is a WIS "lifer" and a member of the 50th anniversary Class of 2016!

Rufus King (2013-2019) is now a senior (semi-retired) judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, having served as chief judge from 2000 through 2008. He was appointed to the bench by President Reagan in 1984 and served in its Criminal, Family and Civil divisions. He was presiding judge of the Civil division in 1997 and 1998.

After taking senior status, Judge King joined the McCammon Group, where he has mediated and arbitrated as part of the Group’s full range of Alternative Dispute Resolution services.

Judge King is a graduate of Princeton University and Georgetown University Law Center. Before taking the bench, he was engaged in the general practice of law in the District of Columbia.

Rufus King and Barbara R. Stevens are parents of WIS graduate Alex, a member of the Class of 2006. Alex graduated from Occidental College in 2010 and is an emerging country portfolio analyst in Los Angeles.

Katherine Kinsella (2017-2020) is a returning WIS trustee, having previously served from 1990-1996. Kathy’s husband, Ed James, was a WIS Board member from 2000-2006 and both of their daughters are WIS graduates: Erin ’03 and Mara ’06.

Now enjoying retirement, Kathy spent more than two decades managing Kinsella Media, LLC. The core of Kinsella Media’s work was in the design, preparation and dissemination of legal notices for class actions and bankruptcies.

Kathy began her career in strategic communications at The Kamber Group, an independently owned communications company. During her time at Kamber, Kathy’s clients included the National Education Association, Amnesty International, American University, PBS, American Federation of Government Employees, United Food and Commercial Workers, Coalition for America’s Children, and US Committee for UNICEF, among others. She concluded her 12 years at the firm as a senior vice president and director of marketing and advertising.

She earned both her undergraduate and Master’s degree from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts.

David Muenzer (2009-2018) provides consulting services on wealth management, estate planning and family office management. Prior to moving to Washington, DC in 2000, David lived in New York and Moscow. In Moscow, he was a Vice President with Troika Dialog, a leading Russian investment bank. In New York, he was a management consultant with Mercer Management Consulting and Andersen Consulting.

David earned a BS with distinction in Operations Research/Industrial Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He and his wife, Melissa Schwartz, are the parents of Benjamin (Class of 2020) and Emily (Class of 2022).

Daniel H. Pink (2013-2019) is the author of five books about business and behavioral science, including three long-running New York Times bestsellers—A Whole New Mind, Drive, and To Sell is Human. His books have been translated into 34 languages and have sold more than two million copies worldwide. Dan is also host and co-executive producer of “Crowd Control”—a TV series on human behavior on the National Geographic Channel.

Earlier in his career, he worked in several positions in politics and government—including serving from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. Dan received a BA from Northwestern University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a Truman Scholar, and a JD from Yale Law School.

He and his wife Jessica Lerner have one child enrolled at WIS: Saul (Class of 2021). Daughter—and Presidential Scholar—Sophia is a member of the WIS Class of 2015 and daughter Eliza is a member of WIS Class of 2017.

John Reppas (2017-2020) is a technology expert who operates at the intersection of academic, government, and private-sector innovation. He is the Director of Public Policy for the Neurotechnology Industry Organization (NIO), where he is responsible for government engagement, advocacy, international initiatives, and public-private collaboration to advance commercial neuroscience. John is also an investor in, and adviser to, a number of early-stage companies that operate in regulated markets, and has extensive prior experience in healthcare and technology private equity. 

John graduated from Oxford University with a Bachelors of Medicine, received his MD from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and his PhD from the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. He received further fellowship and postgraduate training at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

John and his wife Solange Brown have three children: one in the WIS class of 2023, one in the class of 2022, and an older daughter who is a WIS alumna.

Kleber Santos (2017-2020) is the President of Capital One’s Retail and Direct Bank and has been with Capital One since 2006. Prior to joining Capital One he was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company in Washington DC from 2001 to 2006 and, prior to that, a civil engineer at Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção in Brazil.

Kleber holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia and a Master’s degree in management information technology from UVA's McIntire School of Commerce. He also holds a BS in civil engineering from Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil. Kleber is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Kleber is a member of the corporate advisory board of the UVA Darden School of Business, a board member at The Clearing House and a board member at Early Warning Systems. He has two children enrolled at WIS: Luana (Class of 2023) and Leandro (Class of 2026).

Constantine Stavropoulos 2017-2020 is the owner and operator of The Tryst Trading Company, a DC food group consisting of several restaurants (Tryst, The Diner, Open City, Tryst at the Phillips, The Coupe, Open City at the National Cathedral), and a catering operation (Who's Cookin?); Constantine led the design and construction of each.
 
Constantine is a founding member of Think Local First, with its mission to "transform DC's economy by developing and implementing solutions that strengthen the local independent business community".  He is also the Co-President and founder of the Adams Morgan Partnership Business Improvement District (BID), a non-profit dedicated to promoting a clean and safe Adams Morgan for people to live, work, and play. 
 
He earned a BA in international business and finance from American University and attended American University in Paris. The family has been at WIS since 2000; wife Djinn is an active volunteer. Their son Romain graduated from WIS in 2014 and daughter Margot is a member of the class of 2025.

Alexia von Lipsey (2014-2017) grew up in the Middle East and Latin America. She holds a degree in political science from Bryn Mawr and an MA in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University. Travels have taken her throughout Europe, Central and South Asia and she also resided in the Persian Gulf. She speaks Arabic, English, Greek and Spanish fluently and speaks some Dari, Turkish and Russian.

With expertise in U.S. foreign policy, military presence and security in the Mediterranean, Middle East and Persian Gulf, she has been involved with U.S. national security interests in the Middle East for over 20 years, including work with U.S. Navy and Department of Defense decision-makers in Washington, DC and abroad. Alexia has also worked with corporate and non-profit organizations as a consultant and as a fundraiser. Her current interests focus on cultural and public diplomacy.

Alexia's twin sons Alec and Derek are members of the Class of 2028 and oldest son Kai is in the Class of 2023. Her husband Rod von Lipsey is a Managing Director of UBS Financial Services.

Marc Williamson (2015-2018) was born and raised in Annapolis, Md. He received his BA in Philosophy from Swarthmore College, his MA in Philosophy from Columbia University, and his JD from New York University School of Law. Marc has lived and worked in London, Brussels and New York. He is a partner of Latham & Watkins, where he practices international antitrust law; his professional focus is on obtaining multi-jurisdictional antitrust approvals for large mergers and acquisitions.

A long-time supporter of independent education, Marc has previously served on the Board of Trustees of Severn School in Severna Park, Maryland.

Marc’s wife Tricia is an Executive Director in the legal department of UBS Financial Services Inc. Marc and Tricia live in the Forest Hills neighborhood of DC with their children William and Daphne. William is a member of WIS Class of 2023.

Daniel M. Zelikow (2012-2018) is Vice Chairman of Public Sector, and Global Co-Head of JP Morgan’s Infrastructure Finance and Advisory Group. JP Morgan works with more than 500 public sector entities around the world—central banks, sovereign wealth funds, public pensions, governments and their agencies, and international institutions—focusing on management of national financial assets, raising capital, hedging financial risks, management of liabilities, and capturing efficiencies in financial payments and processes. Since 2015, he also co-heads JP Morgan’s financing and advisory work for clients that invest in infrastructure projects around the world.

Immediately prior to re-joining JP Morgan in 2010, Mr. Zelikow was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC. While with the IADB, Mr. Zelikow was instrumental in defining a new corporate strategy, doubling the volume of client operations, devising and executing the Bank’s response to the global financial crisis, and bringing about significant management and financial reforms. Mr. Zelikow also chaired the management committees on policy, operations, and risk, and he chaired the Board of Executive Directors in the President’s absence.

Mr. Zelikow was previously with JP Morgan and managed a New York-based practice focused on government financial institutions, multilateral development banks, export credit agencies and sovereigns.

Prior to joining JP Morgan in 1999, Mr. Zelikow held key positions in the U.S. Treasury, where he was Deputy Assistant Secretary responsible for financial policy towards countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa. He headed the task force that oversaw the $20 billion emergency financing program the United States established in 1995 to help Mexico stabilize after the peso crisis, and later, US financial support during the Asian and Brazil financial crises. At Treasury, Mr. Zelikow was the founding director of the Office of Technical Assistance, which became one of the largest providers of policy and technical advice to the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He also served for two years as the Senior Economic and Financial Advisor to the President and Minister of Finance of Albania in Tirana.

Mr. Zelikow holds a BA from Dartmouth College, graduating summa cum laude, and a D. Phil from Oxford University. He serves on several for-profit and non-profit boards.

Daniel and partner Marcelo Sanguinetti are the parents of Mateo Sanguinetti-Zelikow, who is a member of WIS Class of 2024, and sister Maya Sanguinetti-Zelikow.

Clayton Lewis, Head of School
Sarah Olsten Peterson, WISPA Co-President