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.
Dr. Ellen S. Hurwitz
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. 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.
Ms. Annie Pforzheimer
A retired career diplomat with the rank of Minister Counselor from the U.S. Department of State, Annie is a Senior Non-Resident Associate at CSIS, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a public commentator on Afghanistan and rule of law issues. She was until March 2019 the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan and from 2017-2018 was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Kabul, one of the largest U.S. embassies in the world, during a period of both intensified violence and the beginnings of the ongoing peace process.
Her thirty-year diplomatic career focused on security, rule of law, and human rights policy. She managed implementation of the Obama Administration’s Central America strategy, overseeing a government-wide effort to resolve the drivers of uncontrolled migration to the United States from that region. She led the State Department’s Office of Andean Affairs during Colombia’s peace process and the emerging crisis in Venezuela and previously directed the Office for UN Peacekeeping and Sanctions, managing a $2 billion budget. Overseas, she was the Director of the $700 million security assistance program in Mexico City; the Counselor for Political Affairs in Afghanistan and El Salvador; and the lead human rights officer in Turkey and South Africa. Her first assignment was in Colombia. Ms. Pforzheimer received the State Department’s 2001 recognition for human rights reporting, as well as numerous Honor Awards. She is a graduate of Harvard University and the National Defense University. She speaks Spanish.
Ms. Michelle Quinn
Michelle is Senior Vice President of Patriot Group International, a mission-focused organization providing security, operational, Logistics, and training solutions for the Department of Defense, Department of State, and other Government Agencies. At PGI, Michelle leads efforts to support critical U.S. missions and programs both CONUS and OCONUS, establishing relationships with the USG and industry partners, building technical solutions for programs, and standing up/executing PGI contracts.
Prior to joining PGI in 2018, Michelle served for five years as Vice President at VxL Enterprises; Vice President of International Programs and Director of Capture Management at A-T Solutions; Ops Manager for multi-agency Counter-Terrorism programs at the FBI Lab in Virginia; and Manager of Operations and Training for DOS’ Worldwide Protective Services (WPS) Programs at DynCorp International. Earlier, Michelle also worked on Capitol Hill, supporting the House Banking Committee on legislation tied to work and funding of USAID, IMF, World Bank; at The White House for the Executive Office of Management and Budget; and at several private, family-founded, philanthropic foundations.
Michelle holds a BA from William and Mary, and an MBA from Mary Washington University. She is, most importantly, the proud mother of five amazing Quinn children, out-and-about the world doing great things.
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.