Ms. Leslie M. Schweitzer, Founder and Chair
Leslie Schweitzer is the President and Chair or Friends of AUAF, and serves on the AUAF Board of Trustees. From 1999 to 2011, Schweitzer served as a consultant in the capacity of Senior Trade Advisor for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 2013, Schweitzer received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from AUAF.
Ms. Stephenie Foster, Vice Chair
Stephenie Foster is a partner at Smash Strategies and for the last five years, she served at the U.S. Department of State, most recently as a Senior Advisor and Counselor to the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. Stephenie also served at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, focusing on women and civil society, travelling extensively throughout the country to work with individuals and organizations advancing the role of women in Afghan society. She served as Chief of Staff to two United States Senators (Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT)) and was appointed by President Clinton as General Counsel of the U. S. General Services Administration.
Mr. Kevin Haggerty, Treasurer
Kevin Haggerty brings over 35 years of experience in financial oversight in the international development, computer software and consulting services industries. Currently, Haggerty is the CFO at ACDI/VOCA with prior experience at Institute of International Education (IIE), DAI and Ernst & Young.
Dr. Evan S. Dobelle, Secretary
Evan Dobelle is the Managing Director of Countable, a high tech company with offices in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Dobelle is the former President of City College of San Francisco, University of Hawaii, and Trinity College (CT). Dobelle offers a bold vision for the value of education and the challenges of building a community in a fast-changing world.
Ms. Kathleen Campbell
Kathleen Campbell is the former Senior Deputy Assistant to the Administrator in USAID’s Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs (OAPA). Ms. Campbell, a Harvard Law School graduate, has over two decades of international experience managing and coordinating development and humanitarian programs, research and policy for the United Nations, USAID, and international NGOs.
Ms. Elaina Edwards
Elaina Edwards is Vice President at Louis Berger US. She has served in a range of operational, business development, strategy and marketing leadership roles. Her experience includes supporting U.S. government, multilateral institutions and commercial clients with a focus on mega programs. Ms. Edwards has managed winning proposals for more than $3 billion in contracts, including a $1.4 billion single-award contract for Afghanistan reconstruction.
Ms. Teri Galvez
Teri Galvez is President of Paradigm Event Management, a Marketing, Special Events, and Conference Planning Company which she launched in 1996. Among her clients are Fortune 500 Companies, Non-profits, and National Associations. Teri served for eight years on the Advisory Board of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and was on the Board of Trustees for Voices for Americas Children. She serves on the Board of Directors of Gala Theatre, Think Freely Latino, and the US Senate Task Force on Hispanic Affairs.
Ms. Ellen S. Hurwitz, Ph.D.
Ellen Hurwitz is the Senior Consultant at Steven’s Strategy, an award winning professor of history, author and past president of three institutions of higher learning: Albright College, New England College, and American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan where she is President Emerita and Executive Director of its Foundation.
Ms. Suzanne Kianpour
Suzanne Kianpour is an Emmy nominated journalist who has spent nearly a decade with the BBC reporting on foreign affairs, politics and breaking news. With postings based in Washington, London, Beirut, and Los Angeles, her reporting has taken her around the world to over 50 countries.
Ms. Michelle Kosinski
Michelle Kosinski is CNN’s senior diplomatic correspondent responsible for covering the State Department. Previously, Kosinski served as the network’s White House correspondent during the Obama administration. She contributes to all CNN programs and platforms. Kosinski served as NBC News foreign correspondent based in London, where she reported for “BC Nightly News with Brian Williams, The Today Show MSNBC and CNBC. Named to this position in 2005, Kosinski covered a wide range of domestic and international stories for the network, including the military handover in Afghanistan.
Ms. Angela O’Byrne
Angela is the President of Perez APC, a 75-year old international design-build development firm, headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her 30 years of experience in design and management of diverse project types includes multi-unit housing, hospitality, recreation, master planning, historic renovations, education, government buildings, LEED certified projects, military construction and more.
Ms. Sarah Peck
Sarah Peck is a career diplomat from Boston, Massachusetts. She is currently the Executive Director of the U.S.-Pakistan Women’s Council. Sarah has extensive experience on regional issues. She previously served as the Political Team Lead at the Office of Pakistan Affairs at the U.S. State Department. Prior to joining the desk, she worked as a Pearson Fellow for in-coming Secretary of State Kerry at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where she focused on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Peck has served at the U.S. Embassy Kabul as the Deputy Rule of Law Coordinator, contributing to the Embassy’s efforts to strengthen the rule of law and to fight corruption in Afghanistan.
Ambassador Robin L. Raphel
Robin Raphel worked for nearly 40 years in foreign affairs agencies, including the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, and U.S. Department of Defense. She has served as assistant secretary of state for South Asia, ambassador to Tunisia, vice president of the National Defense University, and deputy special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. She managed the sharp increase of development assistance to Pakistan under the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and she deployed to Iraq with the first civilian contingent after the 2003 invasion to help restore the critical food ration system throughout the country.
Ambassador Steven E. Steiner
Steve Steiner is the gender advisor for the U.S. Institute of Peace. He previously served in the Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues and the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Steiner has served for over 36 years in the United States Foreign Service.
Ms. Karolyn Stuver
Karolyn Stuver is the Executive Director of Communications, Marketing and Strategic Planning at Flour Corporation. Prior to her position at Flour, Stuver served as the Director of Strategy, Marketing and Communications at KBR.
Mr. Matthew Trevithick
Matt Trevithick worked as the Director of Communications at the American University of Afghanistan from 2010 to 2014. Previously, he worked at the American University of Iraq. He is currently the co-founder and director of research at SREO Research in Turkey, which analyzes aid effectiveness for the United Nations, the World Food Programme, and more than a dozen NGOs involved in the regional refugee humanitarian response.
Ms. Samantha Vinograd
Sam Vinograd works as a National Security Analyst for CNN. She began her career in Baghdad working for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and subsequently served on President Obama’s National Security Council as the Director for Iraq, Director for International Economics, and Senior Advisor to the National Security Advisor.
Ms. Kathleen Conlon, President
Kat Conlon is President of FAUAF. Under her leadership and strategic vision, FAUAF has raised millions of dollars from both the private and public sectors to ensure Afghan men and women have access to quality higher education. She holds a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and an M.B.A. from Duke University.