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. Kathleen Conlon, President
Kat Conlon brings over a decade of experience in Afghan higher education. She has traveled extensively throughout Afghanistan to develop AUAF’s reach and help ensure student representation from the country’s 34 provinces. 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. During her tenure, the Foundation has been awarded several U.S. government grants, including the construction of and programmatic funding for the International Center for Afghan Women’s Economic Development, which aims to encourage and facilitate women’s participation in Afghanistan’s economy, and the Business Innovation Hub, a business incubator to inspire and foster entrepreneurship throughout various provinces in Afghanistan. She holds a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and the Arabic language from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where she was a member of the Field Hockey team and Captain of the Basketball team. Conlon lived in Egypt and studied Gender Issues at the American University in Cairo. In 2017, she received an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Conlon serves on the Board of American Women for International Understanding.
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. Stephenie Foster
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.
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 joined the network in 2014 and contributes to all CNN programs and platforms. Kosinski is based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. Previously, 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.
Mr. Brendan O’Donoghue
Brendan O’Donoghue is a Founding Partner of Park Advisors, LLC in Washington, DC which advises corporate and private equity clients on strategic global market expansion and investments in Africa and the Middle East.
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.
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. Sam 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.