Dean's Advisory Council

A proud, lifelong Prince Georgian, Alsobrooks was raised in Camp Springs and now resides in Upper Marlboro with her daughter, Alex. After graduation from the University of Maryland Law School, Angela began her career as a Prince George’s County assistant state’s attorney in 1997, eventually becoming the county’s first full-time prosecutor. Alsobrooks was later appointed by the county executive to serve as education liaison and then the executive director of the county’s Revenue Authority. She was elected in 2010 to serve at Prince George’s County state’s attorney, becoming the youngest and first woman elected to that office. In November, Alsobrooks was elected as the 8th county executive for Prince George’s County and the first female to hold the position.

Ethan Brown is the founder of Beyond Meat and has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our board of directors since our inception in 2009. He also serves as a manager of the Planet Partnership, LLC, our joint venture with PepsiCo, Inc., and served as our Secretary from our inception to September 2018. Brown began his career with a focus on clean energy and the environment, including serving as an energy analyst for the National Governors’ Center for Best Practices. He then joined Ballard Power Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDP), a hydrogen fuel-cell company, being promoted from an entry-level manager to reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer before leaving to found Beyond Meat. Brown also created and opened a center for fuel reformation and has held several industry positions, including Vice Chairman of the Board at The National Hydrogen Association and Secretary of the United States Fuel Cell Council. He is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, was honored as part of Inc.’s Best Led Companies 2021, The Bloomberg 50 for 2019, Newsweek’s Top Innovators of 2019, and, along with Beyond Meat, is the recipient of the United Nation’s highest environmental accolade, Champion of the Earth (2018). Brown holds an MBA from Columbia University, an MPM with a focus on Environment from the University of Maryland and a BA in History and Government from Connecticut College.

A third-generation Marylander, Ben Cardin represents the people of Maryland in the US Senate, and before that in the House of Representatives. He has worked across party lines to further US national security and to ensure that good governance, transparency and respect for human rights are integrated into American foreign policy efforts. Senator Cardin currently serves as ranking member of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee. He is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Environment & Public Works Committees. He also serves on the Senate Finance Committee.

Kelly Veney Darnell is the Chief Operating Officer for the American Clean Power Association and President of the Clean Power Institute. She has extensive experience across several sectors including positions in nonprofit, banking, government, legal and politics.

Kelly has served in the capacity of Chief Operating Officer (COO) for several organizations including The Executive Leadership Council, United Way of the National Capital Area, and for the Washington, D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education. As COO for these organizations, she has been responsible for operations, as well as fundraising, marketing and communications, member services, and events management. In addition to her operational responsibilities in DC government, she also managed the student transportation system.

Ray Chambers is a philanthropist and humanitarian who has directed most of his efforts towards at-risk youth. He is the founding chairman of the Points of Light Foundation and co-founder, with Colin Powell, of America’s Promise -- The Alliance for Youth. He also co-founded the National Mentoring Partnership and served as Chairman of The Millennium Promise Alliance. Chambers is the founder and co-chairman of Malaria No More, with Peter Chernin, president of News Corporation. He is taking a leave of absence from that role to focus on his appointment as the United Nations secretary-general’s special envoy for Malaria. He is a member of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.

Before retiring from the United States Navy, Admiral Cecil Haney, served as Commander U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), one of nine Unified Commands under the Department of Defense. USSTRATCOM is responsible for the global command and control of U.S. strategic forces to meet decisive national security objectives involving nuclear forces, missile defense, space, cyberspace, and electronic warfare. Before taking command at USSTRATCOM, he served as commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. responsible for the operations and readiness of the US Navy fleet located in the Pacific and Indian oceans and as the Deputy Commander of USSTRATCOM. His career as a submariner included a variety of operational and command assignments at sea and ashore. He also served as a member of the Congressionally mandated Military Leadership Diversity Commission that produced a detailed report in 2011 and recommendations for improvement. 

Among many other decorations, Admiral Haney received the Navy Distinguished Service medal, the Defense Superior Service medal, the Legion of Merit, the Navy Commendation Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal. He was the 1998 Vice Adm. James Bond Stockdale Leadership Award recipient while in command of the fast attack submarine USS Honolulu. He received Masters’ degrees in National Security Strategy from National Defense University and in Engineering Acoustics and in System Technology from the Naval Post Graduate School. He is a 1978 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.

In retirement, Admiral Haney serves on the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Board of Managers and as a co-chair for the China-US Dialogue on Strategic Nuclear Dynamics for the Pacific Forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby is a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He was commissioned in May 1969 from Aviation Officer Candidate School. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and holds a master's degree in national security affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School, completing all requirements for a sub-specialty in strategic planning. Following a combat deployment, he served with the Seventh Fleet Detachment in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam. He was the second commander, joint intelligence center pacific and director for intelligence, US Pacific Command. Vice Adm. Jacoby's personal decorations include two awards of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, two awards of the Legion of Merit, and other personal, service and campaign awards. He has received the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement from the director of central intelligence and the Australian Chief of Defence Force Commendation.

Karen Kirwan '85 is the Large Business & International Division’s senior advisor for transfer pricing at the IRS. Previously, she was executive director at Ernst & Young, also working on transfer pricing, and an associate at Quick, Finan & Associates, consulting on international trade issues, federal and state tax policies, and strategic market analysis. She earned her BA in economics from Wake Forest University and her MPM from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.

Patrick Kirwan '85 is the director of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee Secretariat. He coordinates a network of 20 government agencies chaired by the secretary of commerce to develop and implement the National Export Strategy (a national government-wide strategy to improve federal trade promotion and finance programs to increase U.S. exports). He has focused specifically on improving the competitiveness of agency trade promotion programs, developing commercial strategies for key markets such as China and India, and improving federal/state cooperation on export promotion. 

Over the last three years, Kirwan has also been acting deputy assistant secretary for domestic operations within the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, where he oversaw the operations of the 105 export assistance offices of the Department of Commerce, and acting director of Trade Promotion Programs, where he was in charge of the federal government's three main trade promotion programs.

Jane Holl Lute is the president and CEO of SICPA North America, a company that specializes in providing solutions to protect the integrity and value of products, processes, and documents. Lute also serves as special advisor to the secretary-general of the United Nations, where she has held several positions in peacekeeping and peace building. Previously, Lute served as deputy secretary for the United States Department of Homeland Security from 2009 - 2013. She also served as Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Internet Security (CIS), an operating nonprofit organization and home of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) providing cybersecurity services for state, local, tribal and territorial governments. Lute began her distinguished career in the United States Army and served on the National Security Council staff under both Presidents George H.W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton. Lute holds a PhD in political science from Stanford University and a JD from Georgetown University. She is a member of the Virginia bar.

A journalist, entrepreneur and successful builder of several businesses, Bruce Levenson’s global endeavors span a wide range of interests from business intelligence to professional sports to cooking technology. He is perhaps best known in the business world as co-founder of United Communications Group. Levenson is a director of TechTarget, a publicly-traded company that serves as the online intersection of serious technology buyers, targeted technical content and technology providers worldwide. He is also a partner in GasBuddy, a mobile app downloaded by over 45 million motorists who use it to find low-priced gasoline. Additionally, he co-founded DOT, a new cooking technology that, among other things, toasts sliced bread in three seconds. Levenson has been a philanthropist for over forty years.

Leo S. MacKay, Jr. is senior vice president of internal audit, ethics and assurance for Lockheed Martin Corporation. He is also on the Board of Directors of LM Ventures, Lockheed Martin’s $200M venture capital fund. MacKay previously served as vice president of corporate domestic business development; and president of ICGS, LLC, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman focused on the US Coast Guard’s modernization. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, Mackay was a secretary of the Navy Distinguished Midshipman Graduate. He is a member of the US Naval Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations. MacKay earned a master's degree and doctorate in public policy from Harvard University. He was a Kennedy Fellow, Harvard MacArthur Scholar, Graduate Prize Fellow, and a Research Fellow at the Center for Science and International Affairs.

Thurgood Marshall Jr. represents client interests before Congress, the executive branch and independent regulatory agencies. Thurgood's professional background includes service in each branch of the federal government and in the private sector. Prior to joining the firm, he was a member of the White House senior staff in the Clinton Administration, holding the position of assistant to the president and cabinet secretary from 1997 to 2001. He served on the president's Management Council and was a senior member of the Continuity in Government team and directed the White House responses to natural disasters and transportation emergencies, including commercial aircraft crashes. Thurgood also co-chaired the White House Olympic Task Force. Prior to his appointment as cabinet secretary, Thurgood was director of legislative affairs and deputy counsel to Vice President Al Gore. Thurgood began his legal career as a law clerk to US District Judge Barrington D. Parker of the US District Court for the District of Columbia. He serves on the board of Corrections Corporation of America and previously served on the Board of the Ford Foundation for over twelve year.

Tom McMillen served three terms in the US House, representing Maryland’s Fourth Congressional District. He is chairman of the National Foundation on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition and former co-chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. A member of the US Olympic basketball team in 1972, he also played professional basketball for eleven years (for the New York Knicks, the Atlantic Hawks, and the Washington Bullets). As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, he received a master’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics, and he holds a degree in chemistry from the University of Maryland. He is the author of Out of Bounds, which examines the influence of sports on ethics, and he served on the Knight Foundation’s Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics investigating abuses within college sports.

Karen Nussle is the founder and CEO of the successful boutique communications firm, Ripple Communications, which she started in 2005. She started her career on Capitol Hill and is one of the handful of staff who worked for Newt Gingrich when he was Minority Whip and then made the historic move to The Speaker’s Office in 1994. Subsequently, she worked for Burson-Marsteller and was a successful lobbyist at BKSH & Associates (now Prime Policy Group). Nussle has run many national and state-based advocacy and communications campaigns, counseling CEOs and senior leaders on strategic communications plans and tactical execution. Nussle is also a frequent guest on a variety of television networks and a featured speaker to groups of all sizes.

Before retirement, Joe Rogers worked as the executive vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Rogers went to University of Maryland for a Bachelor’s degree in government and politics. He and his wife, Corinne, established the Joseph Rogers Fellowship in the School of Public Policy in 2004. They are also avid supports of Maryland Athletics and the Terrapin Club Scholarship Fund.

Kevin Sheekey oversees global government relations and communications for Bloomberg LP, the media and financial information company founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He is also the chairman of Bloomberg Government, a new division of the company that offers comprehensive information about government and business. Prior to joining Bloomberg LP, Sheekey was deputy mayor of New York for government affairs where he managed local, state and federal government relations for the City of New York. Prior to his appointment, he was Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign manager in the 2005 mayoral election. Sheekey served as president of the New York City Host Committee for the 2004 Republican National Convention. After running Michael Bloomberg’s successful 2001 campaign for mayor, Sheekey served as a senior advisor to the mayor. Sheekey was the chief lobbyist for Bloomberg LP in Washington, DC from 1997 to 2000, and prior to joining the company, Sheekey was chief of staff to US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Mary Tydings is a 30-year veteran of the search business and built the firm's Nonprofit sector. Tydings joined Russell Reynolds Associates in 1984. In 1992, she took a leave of absence to assist the Clinton-Gore transition, working as a search manager. She continued her work in the White House before returning to the firm in 1993. Tydings’ career started in journalism. She spent several years as an editor and reporter for the Mutual Broadcasting System before joining "The Larry King Show" as a producer.

Bill Whyman is senior manager with Amazon Web Services. He received his BA in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) from the University of Oxford and another BA degree in economics and government from Cornell University. Later he received his MPA in economics and international affairs from Princeton University. Whyman was both a Truman Scholar and Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He was the top-ranked Institutional Investor independent software analyst, a member of White House National Economic Council staff, and co-founder of a visionary research firm.