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Board of Trustees
Shirley Collier, Chair
Shirley Collier is CEO of Optemax, LLC, a developer of wireless optical airborne network communications technologies. For over 25 years, she has worked in the product technology, university, government, systems integration and financial services industries in a variety of technical and managerial positions.
She was founder and CEO for 15 years of Paragon Computer Services, Inc. and all of its subsidiaries, Managing Associate with an international consulting firm located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and prior to that established and managed end user computing for a $17 billion regional bank. Shirley has an undergraduate degree in Marketing with a Master's degree in IT Management.She has published over 50 articles and spoken extensively on aligning business and Information Technology, IT security/governance, strategic planning, technology commercialization and e- commerce. She is the immediate past chair the Board of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, currently serving on the Neotech Advisory Board and is a founding member and past President of the International Alliance of Technology Integrators. She formerly served on the Boards of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce (chairing the Education and Nominating Committees), the Lazarus Foundation and the Domestic Violence Center of Howard County (and recipient of their Spirit Award). Shirley serves on the Howard County Superintendent's Advisory Council for Educational Partnerships chairing the Technology Advisory Council, and is Vice President of the Board of the Multinational Development of Women in Technology, chairing the International Committee.
Shirley has served on numerous commissions and committees including the County Executive and County Council's Compensation Committee, the Columbia Town Center Rotary annual fundraisers (for 7 years), The Heart Ball (chair for two years), the EDA's Incubator Committee (chair for 2 years), the Science, Technology Engineering and Math Business/Education Coalition and the Howard Community College's Commission on the Future. She is a graduate of Leadership Howard County and was named Alumnus of the Year in 1996.
Shirley received the 1999 Woman of the Year award from the Business Women's Network of Howard County. She was named the Leadership Howard County's 1997 Distinguished Alumnus and was awarded the EBO Outstanding Woman in Business award in 1997. Shirley was named one of Maryland's Top 100 Women in 1996 and in 2000 and was named to the Circle of Excellence in 2005 by The Daily Record. She was named as one of the Arthritis Foundation's Women of Distinction, and in 1995 founded "Computer Mania," a free computer symposium for girls in the public school system to foster confidence in technology, mathematics and science, now being held worldwide. Shirley was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame by the Howard County Women's Commission. In 2004 she received the YWCA's Special Leader award for leadership and economic empowerment, and the Children's Advocate Award by Leadership Howard County. Shirley and her company also were awarded the Torch Award for ethical business practices by the Better Business Bureau of Greater Baltimore.
John B. Isbister, JD, Vice Chair. Chair, Investment Committee
John B. Isbister is a partner with the Maryland law firm of Tydings & Rosenberg LLP. He concentrates his practice in the litigation of business and commercial disputes.
Mr. Isbister is an active
leader in the legal profession. He
currently serves as the Publications and
Content Officer of the Section of Litigation of
the American Bar Association. Mr.
Isbister is a founder and program chair of the
thirteen annual National Institutes on Class
Actions presented by the American Bar
Association. He is a Past President of
the Maryland Chapter of the Federal Bar
Association. In 2006 he received a
“Champion of Justice” award from the Equal
Justice Council for his work helping the
Maryland Legal Aid Bureau provide access to
justice for low-income people.
Mr.
Isbister is a resident of Ellicott City and has
been a volunteer and leader in Howard County
community affairs since 1979. He
previously served on the boards of Howard
County General Hospital, Leadership Howard
County, the United Way Partnership of Howard
County, the Howard County Police Foundation,
and the Howard County YMCA. He currently
serves as a member of the Board of Visitors of
the University of Maryland School of
Law.
Lynn Coleman, Treasurer
Lynn Coleman, CPA, MBA has worked in higher education for over twenty years and is currently Vice President of Administration and Finance at Howard Community College (HCC). In her HCC role, Lynn oversees all finance areas of the college, human resources, plant operations, security, capital projects, risk management and auxiliary services.
Prior to her
experience in higher
education, Lynn worked at The Rouse Company
and in public accounting.
Lynn is active in NACUBO (National
Association of College and University Business
Officers)
where she currently is serving as Secretary
of the Board. She has also served on the
EACUBO
(Eastern Association of College and
University Business Officers) Board of
Directors. She was
Chair of the NACUBO Community College
Planning Council and the EACUBO Two-Year
College
Committee. Lynn is a past-president of the
Maryland Association of Community College
Business
Officers and is also a past member and
Treasurer of the Board of the Maryland chapter
of the
American Council on Education Network for
women leaders in higher education.
In addition to activities in higher
education, Lynn is an active member of the
Community
Emergency Response Network, where she
co-chaired the Continuity of Operations
Committee. She was a member of the Howard
County Spending Affordability Committee and was
formerly on the Board of Leadership Howard
County. Lynn is active in her sorority,
Alpha Kappa Alpha, where
she works on a number of community service
projects through the local chapter.
Mary Ellen Duncan, Secretary
Dr. Mary Ellen Duncan has served over thirty years in higher education, 17 years as a community college president, most recently as president of Howard Community College. Currently she is a partner in Synergies Consulting Group, works for Achieving the Dream (a national initiative to improve learning outcomes in community colleges), the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and she teaches at Morgan State University and UMUC in their doctoral programs.
Dr. Duncan received the Business and
Humanitarian Award from the Howard County
Chamber of Commerce in 2000. That same
year, she received the Business Associate of
the Year award from the Columbia Chapter of the
American Business Women's Association.
The Baltimore Business Journal named Dr. Duncan
one of 25 educators, and the only community
college official in its Who's Who in Higher
Business Education for "changing the face of
higher business education in Greater
Baltimore." Dr. President Duncan is a
graduate of the Leadership Maryland Class of
2001 and was named by The Daily Record as one
of Maryland's Top 100 Women for 2002. In
2004, Dr. Duncan received the Wylene Burch
Award for Distinguished Leadership from the
Howard County Center for African-American
Culture and was awarded the Foundation's Richard
G. McCauley Leadership Award. In
2005, the Howard County Soroptimists honored
her with the Making a Difference for Women
Award. Most recently, Dr. Duncan has been
named the Northeast Regional CEO by the
Association for Community College Trustees and
a Business Leader of the Year for 2006 by the
Howard County Chamber of Commerce.
She holds a Ph.D. in Administration/Curriculum Development from The University of Connecticut.
David Barrett
Since 2005, David Barrett has been a
teacher of secondary mathematics in the Howard
County Public School System. He teaches
algebra in the Gateway program, the high school
component of the Homewood Center, the county's
only alternative school.
Barrett returned to teaching after a 30-year
career in the information technology (IT)
industry, starting as a computer programmer and
ending his IT career as a vice president.
During this period, he worked on or led teams
that programmed sophisticated weapons systems
for the U.S. Navy. In 1976, he was part of a
three-person team that designed and developed
the approach landing test (ALT). The ALT was a
training tool that simulated the landing of the
space shuttle and was used to train the ground
crew years before the first shuttle
mission.
Subsequently, he worked for management
consulting firm, Booz Allen and Hamilton and
computer manufacturers, Data General and Wang
Laboratories where he entered management.
His last IT position was with Houston
Associates, Inc. where he was vice president of
a group that designed and implemented high
performance networks used in war gaming and
mission-critical military endeavors.
Barrett made several trips to Bosnia where
these systems were first implemented in support
of the UN peace keeping force.
He serves on the boards of the Alpha
Foundation of Howard County, the Harriet Tubman
Foundation and the Howard County Poetry and
Literature Society as chair. For 10
years, he served on the board of the Howard
County Library. He is also a member of the
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and is an active
member of its education committee. He is
co-founder of the Alpha Achievers, an academic
club of high-school African American males who
have a 3.0 or higher GPA. He is a
percussionist in the Ellington-Adderly African
American Community Jazz Ensemble, another
educational program of the Fraternity.
Barrett was born and raised in Newark, New
Jersey, where he attended public school. He
spent one year at Delaware State College and
then transferred to Rutgers University, Newark
from which he graduated with a degree in
mathematics in 1965.
After college, he taught mathematics for one
year in Newark before being lured to
Pittsfield, MA to work for General Electric
Ordnance Department to be part of a team that
designed and built a missile fire control
system for the Navy nuclear submarine fleet. He
was still in Pittsfield when he watched live
television footage of the July, 1967 Newark
uprising. Moved by what he saw and
wanting to help make a difference in the city
of his birth, he moved back to Newark three
months later.
He soon became very active in Newark
politics, first as part of the local black
power movement (United Brothers and the
Congress Of African Peoples) that spearheaded
the election of Kenneth A. Gibson as Newark's
first black mayor and later as a candidate for
Freeholder and the state assembly.
He left Newark for Maryland in 1974 and two
years later, earned a masters degree in
computer science from Howard University.
Barrett is married to Saundra Barrett and has
three adult sons and two granddaughters. He has
lived in Columbia since 1977.
Guillermo Birmingham
Guillermo Birmingham is the Director of Administration for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the America's Regional Office of the World Health Organization. In his current capacity, Mr. Birmingham provides leadership over Human Resources, Financial Management, Procurement, Information Technology, and General Services. Prior to joining the PAHO Mr. Birmingham served as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer for CHF International an international development nonprofit. Additionally, he retired from the US Air Force in 2008 as a Colonel after 26 years of service.
He received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from East Texas State University, Commerce, Texas, in 1982, and a Master of Science in Professional Accounting from Strayer University, Washington, D.C., in 1997. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) since 1997.Mr. Birmingham's work experience includes financial, administration and operational leadership positions in the United States, and in Latin American and Asian countries. During his professional career, he has served as Secretary General of the System of Cooperation Among the American Air Forces; Chief Financial Officer/Director of Resource Management at the Directorate of Services, HQ United States Air Force; Deputy Director, Resource Management, of the US Southern Command; Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Joint Task Force-Bravo in Honduras; Commander, 89th Services Squadron at the Andrews Air Force Base; and Commander, 8th Services Squadron, Kunsan Air Base in Korea.
Mr. Birmingham is an active member of numerous societies including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Greater Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants. He also serves on the Baltimore City Veterans Commission and the Howard County Maryland Human Rights Commission.
He has received multiple awards and recognitions throughout his professional career. Mr. Birmingham speaks, reads, and writes fluently in Spanish.
Glenn Falcao, Chair, Investment Committee
Glenn is currently President of Falcao Investment Group, an investment firm he founded in 2001. He focuses on funding early stage technology companies and he is a partner in a real estate investment firm that invests in commercial real estate in south Florida. Prior to founding his company, Glenn was a partner with Bessemer Venture Partners, a Venture Capital Company in Boston. Before joining Bessemer, he was the Executive Vice President of Corvis Corporation; an optical networking company that he helped take public in one of the most successful IPOs in 1999. Before Corvis, Glenn held various executive management positions at Nortel Networks where he was instrumental in the launch of their Optical Networking business and their Internet business. He has been involved in the Communications industry for over 20 years and sits on a number of company boards.
Glenn is past chair and is currently on the NeoTech Advisory Board for the Howard County Business Incubator and is on the Finance Committee of the Columbia Festival of the Arts. He is also on the Board of St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore and the advisory board of Partners in Excellence, which administers a number of Catholic schools in Baltimore. Glenn works with the Mortel Foundation which builds schools in Haiti. Glenn lives in Howard County with his wife Beth and two daughters, Genesa and Jenael.Steven A. Gershman, Chair, Audit Committee
Steven A. Gershman, is a Shareholder with
KatzAbosch.
He has experience in accounting, auditing,
management services, and
personal financial planning that spans more
than 30 years. He has been
an instructor at the University of Baltimore
and is currently an adjunct instructor at
Howard Community College. Gershman is also an
active
speaker at various community meetings and
seminars.
He graduated from the University of Baltimore with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.
Gershman has been active in a number of Howard County organizations such as the Howard County Arts Council as Chair of "Celebration of the Arts" and has acted as past president and treasurer. He has also held positions as treasurer and past board member of Howard County's Leadership Program, and is a founding member and on the Board of Directors at the Woodmark Community Association, Inc. He has also been a past participant and past president of the alumni committee of the Howard County Leadership Program. He has also held board-level positions at the American Institute of Mental Health, the Easter Seals Society of Maryland, Inc., the Howard County Executive for the Evaluation of County Needs for Child Care, HCDrugfree, and REP Stage.Gershman is recipient of the H. Mebane Turner Service Award, a University of Baltimore Alumni Association award, the Howie Award from the Howard County Arts Council, and the Distinguished Leadership Award from the National Association For Community Leadership.
Paul Gleichauf
Paul Gleichauf is the Senior Vice President, Planning and Marketing for Howard County General Hospital: A Member of Johns Hopkins Medicine. In this role Mr. Gleichauf directs strategic planning, new business development, marketing and public relations, and oversees a number of support departments for the 249-bed community hospital located in Columbia, Maryland, and its local affiliates. He works closely with the local physicians and other health and human service providers, businesses, and regulatory agencies to carry out this function.
Prior to joining Howard County General Hospital in 1995, Mr. Gleichauf served in various management positions at hospitals and a health maintenance organization in Massachusetts.
Mr. Gleichauf is extensively involved in Howard County community organizations. He also serves on the Boards of Directors of Leadership Howard County and the United Way of Central Maryland. He has previously served on the boards of directors of Humanim, Inc., Vision Howard County, and on the National Pike District board of the Boy Scouts of America.
He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Cornell University and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University. He is a Diplomate of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and a member of several professional organizations. Mr. Gleichauf is married, has three children and lives in Ellicott City, Maryland.
Charmaine Gordon, JD
Charmaine Gordon serves as President at Synergy Women's Fitness and is located in Columbia, MD. Charmaine founded Synergy Women's Fitness in 1991. Additionally, Charmaine serves as President at Synergy Pilates & Yoga, a fully equipped Pilates and yoga studio established in 2005.
At present, Charmaine is a member of IHRSA, Howard County Chamber of Commerce, ECA and IDEA.
Charmaine attended Yale University where she
studied Latin American
Studies and earned a Bachelors degree. She also
attended Case Western
Reserve University where she studied Law and
earned a J.D. degree.
Robert I. Jeffrey
Advising clients since 1982, Bob Jeffrey manages a team of seven people with over $350 million under management. Areas of expertise include designing, managing, and monitoring investment portfolios for high net worth families; financial planning; and qualified retirement plans. Mr. Jeffrey advises individuals, foundations, and corporations and is a frequent speaker on topics of investment management and team-building.
A native of Baltimore, Mr. Jeffrey earned his BA and MA degrees from the Johns Hopkins University. He is a graduate of the Securities Industry Institute of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and studied policy sciences at the graduate level at UMBC. In his academic career prior to the investment industry, Bob published and presented papers with the American Association of Dental Schools and the American Public Health Association.
Bob is active in the community, serving as a Trustee of the Horizon Foundation, chairing Horizon's Investment Committee, and Director and Assistant Treasurer of the Howard Community College Educational Foundation. He recently completed two decades of Board service with CareFirst BlueChoice and CapitalCare and is a past president of the Jim Rouse Entrepreneurial Fund (JREF). Mr. Jeffrey is a 1991 graduate of Leadership Howard County and a 2000 graduate of Leadership Maryland.
A resident of Columbia since 1977, Mr. Jeffrey is married to Bach Tran-Jeffrey, a dentist practicing in Columbia, and has two sons, Alexander, who attends Washington Univ. in St. Louis, and Zachary, a student at the University of Maryland College Park.
Michael H. Kelemen, MD, Chair, Grants & Special Initiatives Committee
Michael H. Kelemen, MD, is a cardiologist at the Columbia Regional Medical Center. He is a member of the Health Alliance Board of Directors and a volunteer there. He has been active in the American Heart Association and, with his wife, very involved with the arts community and was named Outstanding Community Supporter of the Arts by the Howard County Arts Council. He serves on the board of the Maryland Museum of African Art. He lives in Columbia.
Pam Mack
Pam Mack, a 35-year county resident, has used her leadership to forward housing and health care in the County for almost 30 years.
She helped transition the CA board from the Rouse Company to community control in the 1980s and served as board chairwoman.
She also promoted low-income housing as chairwoman of the countywide housing task force.
As executive director and CEO of Health Alliance, a nonprofit providing uninsured residents with free healthcare, she recruited medical specialists to volunteer their services and improved its financial stability through her fundraising efforts.
She managed the transition of the Health Alliance patients into Chase Brexton Health Services, a federally qualified health clinic.
Mack's civic work includes chairing The
Columbia Association Board of Directors and
serving on the boards of The Columbia
Foundation, the Columbia Festival of the Arts,
Foreign-born Information and Referral Network
and the Howard County Chamber of Commerce,
among other activities. She is former Chair of
Family Life Center. She was nominated by the
Howard County Commission for Women for
induction into the Howard County Women's Hall
of Fame in 2008.
Floyd Malveaux, MD, PhD
Floyd J. Malveaux, MD, PhD is Executive
Director of the Merck Childhood Asthma Network,
Inc. (MCAN). Dr. Malveaux, a nationally
recognized expert on asthma and allergic
diseases, is Emeritus Dean of the College
of Medicine and Professor of Microbiology and
Medicine at Howard University. A native
of Louisiana, Dr. Malveaux earned a B.S. degree
from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, a
M.S. degree from Loyola University in New
Orleans, a Ph.D. degree in Microbiology and
Public Health from Michigan State University,
and the Doctor of Medicine degree, with honors,
from Howard University College of
Medicine.
Dr. Malveaux received
specialty training in Internal Medicine at the
Washington Hospital Center in the District of
Columbia and subspecialty training in Allergy
and Clinical Immunology at the John Hopkins
University in Baltimore. He was member of
the faculty at Howard University where he
established the Conjoint Training Program in
Allergy and Immunology and the faculty of Johns
Hopkins University where, as a member of the
Division of Clinical Immunology, he initiated
studies on asthma mortality and
morbidity. Dr. Malveaux served as
Chairman of Department of Microbiology and
Associate Professor of Microbiology and
Medicine at Howard, and became Dean in 1995 of
the Howard University College of
Medicine. From July 1996 until 2001, Dr.
Malveaux also served as interim Vice President
for Health Affairs and Dean, and Professor of
Microbiology and Medicine. From 2001 to
2003, he served as Vice Provost for Health
Affairs and Dean of the College of
Medicine. He remained Dean of the College
of Medicine and Professor of Microbiology and
Medicine at Howard University until July
2005.
Dr. Malveaux is a fellow of the
American College of Physicians and the American
Academy of Allergy, Asthma and
Immunology. He is a member of Alpha Omega
Alpha Honor Medical Society and was elected to
the Institute of Medicine of the National
Academies of Science. He is active in
numerous professional organizations and is, or
has served as, a member of the Board of
Directors of the American Lung Association;
Creighton University; Children's Research
Institute of the Children's National Medical
Center; the National Allergy and Infectious
Diseases Advisory Council; chairman of the
Committee of Underrepresented Minorities,
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and
Immunology; the Board of Trustees of the Asthma
and Allergy Foundation of America, the National
Asthma Education and Prevention Program of the
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the
National Institutes of Health; and the HHS/APHA
Steering Committee of the Initiative to
Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Health
Disparities. He has held a number of
positions with the National Medical Association
including member of the Board of Trustees (1988
- 1994) and was first chair of the
Allergy/Immunology Section. Dr. Malveaux was
founder and president of the Urban Asthma and
Allergy Center in Baltimore from 1986 to
1989.
Dr. Malveaux is the recipient of
numerous awards, including the National
Research Service Award from the National
Institutes of Health, the Vivian B. Allen
Foundation Fellowship, the Clemens von Pirquet
Research Award from the Georgetown School of
Medicine, the Outstanding Faculty Research
Award from Howard University and the Legacy of
Leadership Award from Howard University
Hospital.
Henry Posko
Henry Posko is the President and CEO of Humanim, a position he has held for over twenty-five years. He leads a team of over 500 professionals as they offer a broad range of clinical, workforce and community development services to individuals with disabilities and those in poverty. Headquartered in Howard County Humanim serves over 4,500 individuals throughout Maryland
Henry received a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the University of Baltimore and his Masters in Counseling Psychology from the Loyola University Maryland. During his career, he has been invited to present and consult both nationally and internationally on issues related to human services and workforce development. In 2009, he was invited to accompany the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation on a poverty and workforce exchange mission to Israel. In 2011 he accepted an invitation to present at the Social Enterprise World Forum in South Africa.
Henry has also presented on board development at the National Community Leadership Conference and has been the opening retreat facilitator for Howard County’s Leadership U. In addition, his leadership has resulted in key state legislation for workforce development and social enterprises, resulting in employment for thousands with disabilities in the Baltimore-Washington region.
He previously served as Chairman of Leadership Maryland, Maryland Works, and the Association of Community Services of Howard County. He is a graduate of Leadership Howard County, Baltimore City Leadership and Leadership Maryland. Henry has served on the board of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce and was named to the City First Bank of DC and the National Trust for Historic Preservation Tax Credit Advisory Boards. In 2007 he became a founding Board Member of Revere Bank, a community bank in Laurel, Maryland.
Henry is a former recipient of the Audrey Robbins Humanitarian of the Year, Leadership Maryland’s Outstanding Leader of the Year, Horizon Foundation’s Richard G. McCauley Award, and Leadership Howard County's Distinguished Alumni awards. He received the SBA Welfare to Work Employer of the Year. Henry was recently named Innovator of the Year by the Daily Record and given the Wavemaker Award by the Urban Land Institute for his community development work in a dis-invested neighborhood in East Baltimore.
Ann B. Mech, JD, RN
Ann Mech, JD, RN, is Coordinator, Legal Affairs for the University of Maryland School of Nursing. She came to the School of Nursing in 1988 from University of Maryland Medical System, where she was an Assistant Director of Nursing.
Combining the fields of nursing and law, Ann Mech received both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the University of Maryland School of Nursing. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society. Her Juris Doctor degree is from George Washington University.
A resident of Dayton, MD, since
1982, Ann Mech traces her roots
in Howard County through her
mother's family to the middle
of the 19th century when the family
settled in Elkridge. Her community
activities have included serving on
the Howard County Board of Health,
the Howard County Health
Improvement Leadership Team, the Howard
County CORE Service Agency Task
Force for Mental Health, and the
Task Force on the Future of Howard
Community College. Currently,
she is a member of Howard County
General Hospital's Board of
Trustees, the Vantage House Board
of Trustees, the Nursing Advisory
Board of Howard Community College,
and the Columbia Association's
Aquatics Advisory Committee. She was
inducted into the Howard County Women's Hall of
Fame in 2008.
Steven W. Sachs
Steven W. Sachs ARM, is Executive Vice President and Director, Real Estate and Hotel Practice for Willis HRH.
Mr. Sachs has 32 years experience in the real estate development field as both a risk manager and insurance broker. Mr. Sachs utilizes a wide range of insurance market relationships to develop and implement innovative risk transfer products for real estate clients. He is a frequent speaker at the Risk and Insurance Management Society National Conference on disaster planning, managing large losses and loss forecasting. Mr. Sachs served from 1992 to 2000 on the Board of the Self-Insurance Education Foundation. He also served on the Board of the Self-Insurance Institute of America from 1996 to 1999.
Mr. Sachs served on the Board of Directors of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce from 1996 to 2002. He has been involved in his local community having served on the Board of the Howard Community College from 1987 to 1999, acting as Chairperson for a two-year term. He is a member and two-time past President of the Columbia Rotary Club. Mr. Sachs was selected by the County Executive as Chairperson of the Howard County Spending Affordability Advisory Committee in 1996 and 1997, and presently serves on the Board of the Howard County Police Foundation, and The Columbia Festival of the Arts. He is also a member of the Howard County United Way Cabinet and Partnership Board and co-chaired the new business campaign for 2001/2.
Mr. Sachs is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Sharbrooke Management Company, the operator of six Heavenly Ham franchise locations in the Baltimore Metropolitan area.
He has a BA in History from Duke University and a Masters in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins.
Robert N. Sheff, MD
Robert N. Sheff, M.D. became a member of the Horizon Foundation Board of Directors in 2004 and served as Chair from 2007 through 2009.
Dr. Sheff began his service as a member of the Howard County General Hospital medical staff in 1977; he served as both staff radiologist and Chairman of the department. His commitment to ethical action and thought in medical care led him to join the Hospital’s Ethics Committee in 1990. His long-term dedication to excellence is demonstrated in his continued service as Chair of the Medical Review and Ethics Committee.Prior to his retirement from Howard County General Hospital in September 2004, Dr. Sheff served a variety of management roles with the Patuxent Medical Group including President, Medical Director and Chairman of its Medical Management Group. Before joining Patuxent Medical Group, Dr. Sheff was in private practice at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore. He also filled various positions with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland including Medical Director, Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Quality Management, and President of its four HMO's.
Dr. Sheff’s leadership extends into the community through his service as Chair on both the Board of Directors of Humanim and The Columbia Foundation. Additionally, he served on the boards of Leadership Howard County and the United Way Partnership of Howard County. In 1998, Dr. Sheff also served as the Campaign Chair for United Way Community Partnership of Howard County.
Dr. Sheff received his B.A. from U.C.L.A. in 1965 and his M.D. from U.C.L.A. in 1968. He completed his internship, residency and fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, U.C.L.A. and in the U.S. Public Health Service.
Felicita Sola-Carter, Chair, Communications Committee
Felicita Sola-Carter, prior to
her retirement in January, 2009, served as
Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Human
Resources and Deputy Chief Human Capital
Officer of the Social Security Administration.
She shared national leadership of the
Personnel, Training, Civil Rights and Equal
Opportunity, Labor, Management and Employee
Relations, Human Capital Planning and Executive
Services Support programs.
A native of Puerto Rico, Feli graduated from the College of Mount St. Vincent in 1971. She began her career with SSA in New York City. In 1991, she joined the Office of the Commissioner in Baltimore, Md., as Senior Advisor to the Principal Deputy Commissioner, becoming the first Hispanic in that role. She is the recipient of a 2004 Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive and a 2005 Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive, the highest honor a career Federal executive may receive.
Feli currently is President of Conexiones, a volunteer, non-profit organization supporting Hispanic student achievement. Conexiones has been honored as the 2009 Maryland Non-profit of the year by the Governor's Commission on Hispanic Affairs. She also serves on the Equity Council, the District Planning Team, as a mentor with the Partnership for Public Service, and the Bright Minds Foundation of the Howard County, Maryland Public School System. In 2008, she was named a Hispanic Hero by the United States Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur Education and as one of the 2008 Maryland Top 100 Women. Her professional affiliations include service as Senior Advisor to the Federal Training Institute of the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Hispanic Youth Symposium in Maryland.
Ned Tillman
Ned Tillman and his wife Kathy moved to Howard County when he joined the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in the 1970s as their in-house energy and environmental advisor. He served as CEO of Target Environmental Services, Inc. and Columbia Technologies, LLC from 1980 until 2006, managing environmental assessment and cleanup projects throughout the US and abroad. He has received 5 patents for the award winning SmartData Solutions® data management and visualization process. His firm, Columbia Technologies, received 4 Achievement Awards from the Environmental Business Journal and was selected as the Best Innovative Company in Maryland in 2002. He served as Chairman of the Maryland Commission on geothermal energy and wrote the natural gas drilling regulations for the state of Maryland.
Since 2006, Ned has focused on the sustainability of the Chesapeake Bay region. He is the author of The Chesapeake Watershed: A sense of place and a call to action, 2009, which is the recipient of two national book awards. He speaks on environmental health and sustainability issues throughout the region. He is currently a principal of Sustainable Growth, LLC which advises corporations and government agencies on how to become more sustainable and helps drive adoption of better operational practices.
Ned serves as the Chair of the Howard County Board on Sustainability which has the responsibility to educate and advise the County Council and the County Executive on sustainability issues and how they impact nearly every major decision. He also serves as the Chair of Howard County 2011 General Plan Task Force, and served as Chair of the Howard County Conservancy. He is on the Maryland Science Center Advisory Council and is on the executive board of the Izaak Walton Conservation League of America.
Ned received his degrees from Syracuse University.
T. James Truby
T. James Truby is the founder and president of the project management/owner's representative firm of Synthesis Incorporated. His practice focuses on managing all stages in the development of health, education, religious, and environmental buildings and facilities, from conception through the completion of construction and move-in.
Mr. Truby received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and his Master of Arts degree in Social Anthropology from American University. After two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia, Mr. Truby served as Manager of Facility Planning for the National Institute of Mental Health's pioneering Community Mental Health Program.
As Manager of Policy Planning for the Maryland Department of Transportation, Mr. Truby authored the Department's Action Plan for considering social, economic, environmental, and historical factors in the planning and design of the state's transportation facilities. Moving to the Department's Aviation Administration, he served as Director of Planning and Development of BWI Airport and then Maryland Aviation Administrator with overall responsibility for BWI's renaissance and substantial growth and development during the first half of the 1980s.
Mr. Truby is a resident of Ellicott City, MD, and has participated in numerous community activities since moving to Howard County in 1970. He served as president of the Economic Forum, and was a member of the Adequate Public Facilities Commission, the organizing committee of Vision Howard County, and the board of Winter Growth. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Howard Community College, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges, the Environmental Steering Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, Leadership Howard County, and the BWI Airport Development Council.
Kwang Chul Whang
Mr. Kwang Chul "KC" Whang is the Founder and
Principal Broker of The W Group Commercial Real
Estate (WGC), established in 1991, a full
service commercial real estate brokerage and
business mergers and acquisitions and
consulting practice operating in the Greater
Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area.
From
2001-2004 Mr. Whang served for 3 years as
Senior Broker and Broker of Record for the
national commercial real estate brokerage and
investment firm of Sperry Van Ness (SVN),
representing Maryland and Washington DC.
In 2004, Mr. Whang has resigned from SVN and re-focused on developing WGC, into a regional niche brand. Through WGC, Mr. Whang has brokered and facilitated numerous complex multi-million dollar business and investment transactions, representing landlords and tenants, buyers and sellers from all ethnic groups, and in a myriad of industries: medical, office, legal, food, entertainment, retail, education, religious, non-profit, etc. and, in real estate product categories ranging from: office, condominiums, warehouses, flex-spaces, land and shopping centers, etc.
For two and a half decades, Mr. Whang's success as a business transaction facilitator has earned him a distinguished reputation as a "deal-maker", in an increasingly complex global world where sensitivity to and knowledge of various cultures and business practices are a must. Mr. Whang, has lived and traveled overseas extensively in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South, Central and North America. He is a rare, multi-cultural and multi-lingual professional with a unique insight into business and regional real estate.
Mr. Whang also serves the public through his appointment as a board member of Maryland's Howard County Economic Development Authority, and as the Vice Chairman of Howard County's Committee for Economic and Business Diversity. Additionally, Mr. Whang serves on the board of Boltcutters Ministries International, Inc. an international Christian community development consultancy, and also sits on the Board of Elders of Bridgeway Community Church, in Columbia, MD.
Mr. Whang, earned his MBA at The Crummer Graduate School of Business Administration, in Orlando, Florida, and a BA from Middlebury College, in Middlebury, Vermont. Mr. Whang is a licensed real estate broker in the State of Maryland, Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia. He resides in Howard County, Maryland, with his wife and three children.
Dou Alvin Zhang, M.D.
Dr. Zhang is a board certified internist and cardiologist at Mid-Atlantic Kaiser Permanente Medical Group. He currently serves as a Diversity Council member at Kaiser Foundation to help promote diversity, inclusion, and culturally competent medical care in our communities. He is the cofounder and president of Chinese American Doctors Association and the medical director of Asian American Healthcare Center. Both are 501C(3) organizations dedicated to improve the overall health of Asian Americans living in the State of Maryland, by increasing access to health care through community volunteer clinic, health promotion and health education.
Born in China, Dr. Zhang graduated from Hunan Xiangya Medical University in China in 1992. After receiving his Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Science at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, in 1999, he continued his post-doc research on the molecular mechanism in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure at Baylor College of Medicine. He has authored and co-authored scientific papers published in Nature Medicine, PNAS, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Journal of Biological Chemistry etc. He received his clinical training in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine from 2003 to 2006 and clinical cardiology fellowship training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine from 2006 to 2010. In 2010, he was recruited by Kaiser Permanente as one of the two cardiologists to establish its Cardiology Division in Baltimore, Maryland.
Dr. Zhang has received multiple awards and recognitions throughout his professional career, including Young Investigator Award from American College of Cardiology, Cell Biology/Human Genetics Research Award from National Student Research Forum, Recognition of Best Basic Research Award from Baylor College of Medicine, Stanley L. Blumenthal Award for Basic Research and Howard S. Silverman Award from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Dr. Zhang and his family have been living in Howard County since moving to Maryland in 2006. He and his wife, Dr. Jianxia Qiu, have three children, Sarah, Hannah and Michael. Beside his busy schedule with patient care and community service, he enjoys his time with his family, playing volleyball, basketball and tennis with his friends.