Newman T. Halvorson, Jr.
President, AUI Foundation
Halvorson is a retired partner of Covington & Burling LLP, and practiced in the areas of federal income tax law; federal tax litigation; state tax law; exempt organizations and trade associations law; criminal law; and general litigation. He was an assistant United States attorney for the District of Columbia in the civil, grand jury, and felony trial sections from 1983 to 1985, and an associate independent counsel under the Ethics in Government Act from 1987 to 1990. Halvorson is a trustee and chairman of the governance committee of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani; a former trustee and chairman of the board of The Potomac School; former director and chairman of the board, and current co-chairman of the Leadership Council and member of the investment committee, of the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation; former trustee and chairman of the board of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.; former president of the Cleveland Park Historical Society; former senior warden and member of the Vestry of Christ Church, Georgetown; and trustee and vice-chairman of the board of Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum (Decorah, Iowa).
He received his LL.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and a member of the Board of Student Advisers. He received his A.B., magna cum laude, from Princeton University with his major field of study in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve from 1961 to 1967. He is a widower with two children and four grandchildren.
Email Address: nhalvorson@cov.com
Kyle Long
Vice President and Secretary, AUI Foundation
Senior Director of Organizational Strategy and Change at Northwestern University
Kyle Long is a change management practitioner and international higher education scholar. He serves as Senior Director of Organizational Strategy and Change at Northwestern University, where he leads the university’s in-house management consulting unit. His scholarship focuses on international higher education, international development, and public diplomacy. He is the author of The Emergence of the American University Abroad (2020). His writing has appeared in International Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. He previously served as UNESCO Co-Chair of International Education for Development at the George Washington University and as a research consultant for Hanover Research. He has served as a consultant to international development agencies, administrator for an American university overseas, and researcher at non-profit organizations centered on higher education governance and assessment of student learning outcomes. Dr. Long earned a PhD in International and Comparative Education from Columbia University.
Email Address: longkylea@gmail.com
Gaylen R. Hansen
Treasurer, AUI Foundation
Rachel Laribee Gresk, Ph.D
Vice President, University Advancement (AUIS)
Executive Director
The American University of Iraq Foundation
Dr. Rachel Laribee Gresk is the current Vice President of Advancement at American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS), and the Executive Director of the Foundation (AUIF).
Dr. Gresk has extensive experience working in higher education administration having served in her previous role as AUIS’s Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs. Her areas of expertise are in student satisfaction, strategic planning, student persistence, external relations, program and grant management, and programmatic accreditation. She served as the Director of AUIS’s English language program (ELP) while it received Iraq’s first U.S. accreditation status. Her scholarship focuses on student satisfaction, persistence, international development, and institutional effectiveness models.
Rachel earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she focused on social-cognitive factors and the impact of environmental influences on student satisfaction. She is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., where she earned a master’s degree in International Development; she has a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese from St. Mary’s College in Maryland.
Rachel was the self-study coordinator for her ELP’s Commission on English Language Accreditation (CEA) process, and is currently overseeing U.S. regional accreditation at AUIS. Rachel has presented at numerous Iraqi and international conferences, including ASHE and TESOL. She is a trained accreditation site reviewer with CEA.
Email: rachel.gresk@auis.edu.krd
Frank Blake
General Manager for Outside Sales and Service for The Home Depot
Prior to joining The Home Depot, Frank served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He is also an accomplished angel investor and serves as General Partner of his own early stage investment fund, and as Limited Partner within several investing groups.
Frank is a passionate philanthropist and serves on the board of many local and global non-profits. He and his wife Jennifer live in Atlanta, Georgia with their three children.
Eric Brown
Senior fellow at Hudson Institute
Eric has directed a wide-range of research and analysis projects on Asian and Middle Eastern affairs, international security and development, and alternative geopolitical futures.
Brown’s current work is on re-tooling international assistance to vulnerable countries and on strategies for enhancing public security in weak and contested states.
Jake Cusack
Managing partner and co-leads CrossBoundary LLC
Jake Cusack is co-managing partner of CrossBoundary, a frontier market investment advisory firm, as well as its adjunct investment platform, CrossBoundary Energy. Mr. Cusack holds joint MPP/MBA degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s Honors Program. Prior to CrossBoundary, Mr. Cusack served as a Marine Corps officer in Iraq and worked at Abraaj Capital, an emerging market private equity firm. He also worked in Kurdistan in 2011 advising OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) on their portfolio of investments in the region. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The New York Times, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Inc. Magazine.
He is Chairman of the Emerging Market Private Equity Association’s Frontier Market Council, Board Member of Invest Africa US, Presidential Leadership Scholar, Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Aspen Ideas Fellow.
Email Address: jake@crossboundary.com
Jason J. Galui
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Retired
Founder/CEO, 4 Liberty Consulting LLC
Professor of Practice, Southern Methodist University (SMU), Cox School of Business
Jason J. Galui creatively collaborates at the nexus of business, government, and academia leading The Commercial Diplomacy Initiative @ SMU Cox.
Throughout a unique military career, Jason led soldiers in combat, taught economics to two generations of West Point cadets, and advised the most senior U.S. leaders in the Pentagon and in two very different White Houses.
Jason is a Fellow at the John G. Tower Center for Public Policy and International Affairs at SMU and a Visiting Scholar and Director of the Eisenhower Working Group on Economic Statecraft at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service. Jason also serves on the Board of Trustees at the Pingree School in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, on the Board of Directors for the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, and on the Board of Advisors with Deep Knowledge Investing.
Jason earned an M.S. in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Michael Gfoeller
United States Ambassador, Retired
Ambassador Michael Gfoeller served for 26 years as a U.S. diplomat including service in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Russia, Armenia, Moldova, Poland, and Belgium. He retired from the State Department with the rank of Ambassador in 2010.
After his diplomatic service, Amb. Gfoeller was the head of Middle East and North African (MENA) affairs at ExxonMobil’s International Government Relations Department from 2010 to 2012.
Email Address: mgtgv1984@yahoo.com
Marie Labrosse
Assistant Professor, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani; leave of absence
Since 2011, Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse has taught in the English Department at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. While there, she was instrumental in the formation of the department, serving as the founding Chair. She translates classical and contemporary Kurdish poetry, hosts readings with regional poets, and introduced the annual translation workshop. She received her M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College and her M.Ed. in English Education and B.A. in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia. She was awarded the Richard A. Meade Award for Excellence in English Education, honored as a member of the Raven Society, and was an Echols Scholar.
She has been published in The Iowa Review, Words Without Borders, The Fair Observer, and 91st Meridian. She compiled and edited SoJust: An International Art Festival, an anthology of translations and interviews from American and Iraqi artists.
Email Address: levinson.labrosse@gmail.com
Steve Lutes
Vice President, Middle East Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Steve Lutes is responsible for managing the U.S.-Egypt Business Council, U.S.-Iraq Business Initiative, the U.S.-GCC Business Initiative, and serves as executive director for each. In this capacity, Lutes is responsible for developing and implementing policies and programs that promote U.S. business opportunities and investment in Egypt, Iraq, and the GCC. He works closely with Chamber member companies and business and government leaders to advance and broaden commercial relationships.
Lutes came to the Chamber from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) where he was a senior legislative affairs specialist in the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. He focused on educating members of Congress on the benefits of trade and foreign direct investment and on advancing the Administration’s trade agenda on Capitol Hill.
Email Address: slutes@uschamber.com
Clovis Maalouf
Prior to joining AUIS, Clovis was a Director at a boutique CEO business advisory firm based in Washington, D.C. Before that, he practiced law at Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick - a litigation law firm based in Washington, D.C. - where he focused his efforts on corporate transactions.
Clovis is US bar certified in the states of New York and Wisconsin.
Andrea Saliba
Founder and Movement, Health & Wellness Educator, MindfullyFit
Andrea Saliba brings significant corporate management and entrepreneurial experience and expertise to the Foundation Board. She was the Co-founder & VP of Marketing for an ecommerce startup, where she presented business plans to venture capitalists for first-round funding. Prior to that she helped Cisco Systems enter the remote access market where she pioneered the concept of telecommuting through product development, educational seminars and strategic partnerships.
More recently Ms. Saliba founded MindfullyFit to help revolutionize the fitness industry with a posture-based approach to finding more mobility and flexibility and eliminating back pain. With the launch of her book, MindfullyFit, Four Steps to Moving Correctly, Avoiding Back Pain and Dancing to Get Fit, Andrea seeks to educate the industry about the importance of posture.
Raised in Boston and very proud of her Syrian heritage, Ms. Saliba is a dedicated supporter of the AUIS Arbat Brighter Future campaign, which raises scholarship funds for Syrian refugees to attend AUIS. Ms. Saliba has an MBA in Marketing and Strategic Planning from The Anderson School of Management at University of California, Los Angeles as well as a B.A. with honors from Wellesley College where she studied Philosophy, Cognitive Science, and Math.
John Paul Schnapper-Casteras
Founder, Schnapper-Casteras PLLC
Schnapper-Casteras founded the first student exchange program between Stanford University and postwar Iraq in 2004. He is the founder of Schnapper-Casteras PLLC, a boutique law firm in Washington, D.C., as well as a National Security Crisis Law Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. Previously, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Roger L. Gregory of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and to the Honorable Scott W. Stucky of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.
He received his J.D. with Pro Bono Distinction from Stanford Law School, an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School, and an M.A. in Sociology and B.A. with honors in Political Science from Stanford University.
Email Address: jpscasteras@gmail.com
Rachel Bronson
President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Rachel Bronson is the president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. She oversees the publishing programs, management of the Doomsday Clock, and a growing set of activities around nuclear risk, climate change and disruptive technologies. Before joining the Bulletin, Bronson served as the vice president of studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She also taught “Global Energy” as an adjunct professor at the Kellogg School of Management.
Bronson is a board director of the American University of Iraq Foundation and a board member of the Francis W. Parker School. She has served as co-chair of Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Producer Guild, and as a board member of the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. Bronson was named by Today’s Chicago Woman magazine as one of 100 Women to Watch (2012), 20 Women to Watch by Crain’s Chicago Business (2008), a Carnegie Corporation Scholar (2003) and a Glamour Magazine “Wow Woman” (2002). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of Chicago and the Pacific Council. She earned a BA in history at the University of Pennsylvania and a MA and PhD in political science from Columbia University in 1997.
Kate Allen
Public Health Researcher
Kate Allen is a public health researcher and professional who has worked extensively throughout the Middle East. Most recently, Kate was a Research Scientist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where her efforts focused primarily on improving road safety and injury prevention. Kate holds a PhD in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, a Masters in Epidemiology and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelors from UC Berkeley. She was a Fulbright Scholar in the Sultanate of Oman and CASA Arabic Fellow from the American University in Cairo. She enjoys learning regional Arabic dialects.