Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors serves as the organization's guiding force, ensuring that we keep our eyes on the big picture while achieving our mission as effectively as possible.
Evelyne Rozner, President
Evelyne Rozner founded The Rozner Company, a consultancy working with venture firms and start-ups, in 1989. Prior to that she was Vice President of Strategic Planning and Investor Relations for Egghead Discount Software, and earlier, a partner in securities research with Ragen, MacKensie, a regional brokerage firm. Evelyne was involved in integrating company and product acquisitions at Squibb Medical Systems Group in the early 1980's. In the mid- and late 1970's, she consulted for Booz, Allen & Hamilton and later for Deloitte, Touche. Evelyne has an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and received her Washington State CPA in 1980. She has been a Trustee of the Trust Board of Stanford's Graduate School of Business, a Vice Chair of The Intiman Theatre, and a Director of the YWCA of Seattle-King County. She currently serves on the Finance Committee of PATH. Evelyne has cycled through much of South America, Japan, Korea, South-East Asia, and Eastern and Western Europe.
Nan McKay, Vice President
Nan currently advises nonprofit organizations and foundations. For six years until 2008 she led the Environmental Sustainability Program for The Russell Family Foundation. From 1985 to 2002 Nan furthered the environmental agendas of three Washington Governors first as deputy director and executive director of the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority and then as Chair of the Puget Sound Action Team. Nan was an energy policy consultant to local governments in Oregon and Washington from 1980 to 1985 after a seven-year stint working on a broad array of public interest issues for the League of Oregon Cities. Nan has served on and chaired a variety of public and nonprofit boards, commissions and task forces. She currently serves on the boards of the Sustainable Path Foundation and several nonprofit organizations, including Western Rivers Conservancy and the Environmental Education Association of Washington. Nan holds a BA degree in English from Bucknell University.
Laurie Pike Besteman, Secretary
Laurie has traveled extensively, often off the beaten track, in Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey, Southeast Asia, India, China, Central and South America, Cuba, Antarctica, the Middle East and parts of Africa, seeing firsthand the interplay of population, poverty, conflict, consumption, and the environment. Prior to her retirement in 2000, she spent 20 years as an Investment Advisor and Certified Financial Planner with Prudential Securities in Bellevue and San Jose, CA. Before that she was Marketing and Public Relations Manager for Sound Savings and Loan and a freelance writer and editor for various publications. Laurie served on the Mountain Lakes, NJ, school board as well as several other boards, including the YWCA of Santa Clara County and of Seattle-King County, the San Jose Repertory Theatre, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and the Junior League. She is currently active with the Washington Women's Foundation and is a member of the ACT Theatre Board.
Olivia Polius, Treasurer
Olivia has over fourteen years of finance and operations management experience in high growth and rapidly changing environments. She most recently served as Senior Vice President Finance for Attachmate (formerly WRQ, Inc.), having previously been the Senior Director of Corporate Planning during an intensive acquisition phase. Olivia spent two years in The Netherlands directing the back office functions for WRQ, Inc. across Europe which included Accounting, Human Resources, IT, and Facilities. In the early 2000s Olivia consulted with and managed the operations and financial systems implementations for a number of start-ups in the Puget Sound. She also served as BSquare Corporation’s Corporate Controller. Olivia began her financial services career at Arthur Andersen. She earned her BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington and her CPA from the State of Washington. While her daughter is still quite young, Olivia is very encouraged by the thought of having such wonderful curriculum materials incorporated into her daughter’s education once she reaches school age.
Pipo Bui, Director
Pipo currently serves as the Development Director of EarthCorps, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to building global community through local environmental restoration service. She received her BA in Communications from Stanford University in 1994, and her PhD in European Ethnology from Humboldt University (Berlin) in 2001. Pipo interned with ABC News and NPR's All Things Considered before becoming a fundraiser for the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Pipo is a past board member of Mosaica, a non-profit consultancy for ethnic organizations, and co-headed the media literacy project with K-12 schools at Stanford's Department of Communication. Pipo looks forward to her children being old enough to go to their local public school and experience Facing the Future's curriculum firsthand.
Kerry Coughlin, Director
Kerry is the Regional Director for the Americas at the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an international organization that operates a market-driven program to promote sustainability and environmental responsibility in the global seafood industry. She had a strategic communications and public affairs consulting practice before joining MSC and was Communications Director for WA Governor Christine Gregoire. Kerry led corporate communications at The Seattle Times and served as Associate Director and head of communications at the YWCA of Seattle, King and Snohomish counties. She began her career as a journalist and has assisted in the production of several video and television documentaries. Kerry has taught and lectured at universities, conferences and seminars. She is currently on the CityClub Board, the University of Washington Alumni Magazine Advisory Committee, the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs Visiting Committee, and the UW Marketing Advisory Group.
Anne Fox, Director
Anne serves as a community volunteer with a focus on environment and community. Earlier in her career she worked in the nonprofit sector as a Manager for Families That Work, a Children's Trust Foundation project and, later, as a Development coordinator and Campaign Manager for the Seattle Art Museum. In the for-profit sector Anne was Manager and Operations Analyst for NC Machinery Co., Caterpillar Dealership; and a Project Coordinator for Shapiro & Assoc., Environmental Consultants. For 20 years Anne has been an active volunteer and leader within the Mercer Island Community, including service for five years as a Commissioner of the Planning Commission. Anne received a recognition award from the Mercer Island Rotary for leading an elementary school project to build an Outdoor Classroom/Native Habitat Courtyard. She has chaired two grant committees, one for the NW Children’s Fund and the other for the NC Machinery Foundation. Anne received her MA: Environment & Community from Antioch University and her BA from Williams College.
Allan S. Hunter, Director
Al is a retired consultant, professor, arbitrator and administrator. Al was a staff development officer in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve, and with Price Waterhouse & Co. After completing his education at Western Ontario, Michigan State and UC Berkeley, Al taught management, ethics, and accounting in locales as varied as Ljubljana, Lancaster, Parma, Nairobi, Sapporo, Dhaka, Kampala, Addis Ababa, and Arusha. His work in Kenya included creating and training a new faculty and he was a founder of Chartered Accountancy in Tanzania. Al served as the Director of Education for the British Columbia Institute of Chartered Accountants, the President of the Alberta Faculty Associations, the Co-coordinator for the Canadian University Services Overseas in Southern Alberta, and Treasurer of Lethbridge Family Services.
Sue Lile Hunter, Director
In the 1990's, Sue co-founded the Washington Women's Foundation, a non-profit focused on making large community grants and educating women to become capable philanthropists. A decade earlier, she helped found CityClub, a non-partisan, education organization dedicated to informing citizens and building community leadership in the greater Seattle region. Sue has chaired the boards of Children's Hospital & Medical Center, the Children's Hospital Foundation and the Junior League of Seattle. She has served in various leadership roles on the boards of the United Way of King County, the National Advisory Committee for the Handicapped, the Seattle-King County YWCA, the national Association of Junior Leagues and Leadership Tomorrow. She has also served as a Director of the Washington Casualty Company, the Washington State Hospital Association, and the University of Washington Development Board.
Marcia Kuszmaul, Director
A love of learning and a commitment to helping people develop their potential have inspired Marcia Kuszmaul to work in education most of her 30-year marketing career. She is currently Director of Retail, Partnerships and Affiliates at World Vision. Before moving to World Vision, Marcia was a leader in business strategy, marketing and partnerships for education marketing and product development at Microsoft for more than 12 years. Other work experience includes serving as vice president of a strategic marketing firm specializing in education, director of marketing for the American Library Association, an editor in trade and textbook publishing, and a classroom teacher. Marcia currently serves on the Board of the King County Library System Foundation, is active with Habitat for Humanity, and has been a top fund raiser for Fred Hutch’s Climb to Fight Breast Cancer. She earned an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and a BA in journalism from Baylor University along with her secondary education teaching certification.
Ronald C. Norris, Director
Ron is currently the founding managing partner of VentureTech Alliance, the corporate venture investment arm of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a $12 billion silicon foundry. Ron retired from TSMC in 2001 after serving in Taiwan as head of the company's worldwide business groups. He had started as head of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's US operation in 1994 after short stints at Microchip Technology, Digital Systems International, and Data IO Corp. Prior to that, Ron managed all of Fairchild Semiconductor's Asia business units from Tokyo, after starting up new fabrication plants in Nagasaki, Japan and Puyallup, WA. Ron began his semiconductor career at Texas Instruments, moving from research to product engineering and ultimately to full product line responsibility for all of Texas Instruments' microprocessor products. Ron has served on the boards of Global Investment Holdings (Taiwan), Power Precise Solutions Inc, Optimal Corp., NuCore Technology Inc, and VM Labs Inc.
Gordon Perkin, MD, Director
Gordon, now retired, was the first Director of the Global Health Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For the prior two decades, Gordon served as CEO of PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health), an international nonprofit he co-founded, working to improve health, especially the health of women and children in developing countries. During the 1960's and 1970's Gordon was a Program Advisor and Officer of The Ford Foundation, working in China, Brazil, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand primarily in family planning and maternal health. Gordon is a Fellow of the American Public Health Association and an Affiliate Professor, University of Washington, School of Public Health and Community Medicine. He has served on the governing boards of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, and the Global Health Council. Gordon is a founding member of Facing the Future.
Kim Solem, Director
Kim is a community relations and corporate social responsibility professional and founder of Solem Consulting, a small firm consulting with nonprofits and corporations on high-impact community strategies and programs. Prior to founding her company, she served as Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Expedia Inc., leading corporate social and environmental initiatives, directing global philanthropic partnerships, and overseeing a cross industry association fostering sustainable tourism practices at World Heritage sites. Previously Kim was a senior manager of Microsoft’s world-class volunteer and employee giving programs. While at Microsoft, Kim also designed and implemented global readiness and graduate level education programs for Microsoft’s Services Division. During the 1990s Kim worked in technology consulting, organizational development or marketing for XO Communications, IBM Corporation and Andersen Consulting. Kim earned her BA in International Trade and Investment from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. She has served on boards and governing bodies of the World Heritage Alliance, United Way of America, and United Way of King County, and as a Youth Mentor for Big Sisters of King County.
Sidney C. Tribe, Director
Sid is currently an appellate attorney at Talmadge/Fitzpatrick PLLC, handling civic appeals and some litigation. Sid clerked for the Honorable William W. Baker, a Washington State Court of Appeals judge, after serving as a part-time Associate Attorney at the Law Office of James J. Rigos, and part-time author, editor and marketer of the Rigos Professional Education Programs. She was a summer associate at Davis Wright Tremaine, and a law clerk for the Washington State Attorney General Labor and Industries Division. She was admitted to the Washington State Bar in 2002. Sid authored Primer Series IL Handbook: A Survival Guide for First Year Law Students and was a contributing author of Primer Series MBE Review for 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Ann Vandor, Director
Ann currently serves as the Information Architect overseeing a Web site redesign for UW Professional & Continuing Education. Her career has been equal parts high-tech and non-profit. In Northern California, she helped establish an independent school, trained teachers at environmental education workshops, and subsequently ran a job-training program for welfare recipients. She then served as the Executive Director of an artists-in-school program for the San Francisco Public Schools. In the mid-eighties Ann established a marketing communications consultancy, which focused first on the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley, and then Seattle. Ann has served on the boards of community arts organizations and schools, a Tibetan refugee organization, and worked on school bond campaigns for the Mercer Island Public Schools. In 2008, she finished her tenure as Board President and director after completing 20 years of service at First Place, an innovative service agency and school that supports children whose families struggle with homelessness. She now sits on the First Place endowment committee. Ann has a teaching credential, and received her BA from University of California, Berkeley.