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.
Evelyne Rozner is an inspirational community leader - she and her husband Matt Griffin won the Outstanding Philanthropists Award for 2010 through Washington's Chapter of American Fundraising Professionals (AFP).
Alice Boytz, Vice President
Alice is Senior Partner at Northwest Asset Management, a Registered Investment Advisory firm, where she focuses on investment management for private clients and non-profit organizations. Prior to entering financial services in the late 90s, she worked as a marketing and business development professional for nationally recognized design firms. Her early professional work was in non-profit arts management for organizations in Seattle and New York City. Alice is passionate about kids and education. She has served as PTA Co-president for Coe Elementary and on the board of Friends of Music at Hamilton International, as well as spending numerous hours volunteering in classrooms in Seattle Public Schools; her current volunteer assignment is at Ingraham High School in an ELL classroom. Alice holds a BA in Art History from Carleton College and is a graduate of Seattle’s Leadership Tomorrow program.
Ronald C. Norris, Secretary
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.
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.
Mari Anderson, Director
Mari is Vice President of Corporate Development at McKinstry, where she has led the Corporate Development team and initiatives since 1993. These include Corporate Stewardship/Community Relations, Human Resources, Strategic Initiatives, McKinstry Charitable Foundation, Safety and Risk Management, Talent Management, Labor Relations, and Training and Development. Mari is actively involved in Board or Committee level roles for several community organizations such as MED25 International, Mechanical Contractors Association of Western Washington, Seattle Community College Foundation, and Washington State University’s Leadership Board for Architecture & Engineering, to name a few. She serves as Deputy on the WA CEO Roundtable, its Education Committee, and WA STEM. Mari received her Leadership Executive MBA from Seattle University in 2010, holds a BFA in Communications Studies and holds her Senior Professional Human Resources (SPHR) Certification.
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.
Joshua Guenser, Director
Joshua Guenser. Joshua Guenser is currently the director of Financial Reporting at
Starbucks Coffee Company, where he leads the team in charge of external reporting and
technical accounting. Prior to joining Starbucks, Josh was a Senior Manager with KPMG
where he served a variety of clients ranging from small private to large public companies. Josh is a
Pacific Northwest native who received both his B.A. in Business Administration
and Masters in Professional Accounting from the University of Washington and is a licensed
CPA. As the husband, son and son-in-law of teachers, Josh is passionate about education and
curriculum. He also contributes to other organizations focused on sustainability and is passionate
about environmental concerns.
Jon Gunther, Director
Jon Gunther is currently the manager of external technology at Weyerhaeuser, the Fortune 500 forest products company. In this role, Jon is responsible for identifying collaborative partners, such as national laboratories, universities, research centers, small business, and similar institutions, who can assist Weyerhaeuser jointly develop solutions to its technology needs. He is primarily focused on new technologies that replace the use of petroleum with sustainably grown biomass based fuels and chemicals. Jon received a B.S. from Harvey Mudd College (Engineering) and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara (Chemical Engineering). Jon spent a year at Lund University in Sweden during a US Department of State Fulbright Fellowship.
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.
Stephen Nielsen, Director
Stephen is committed to the work of reconciliation and stewardship. Stephen’s professional experience includes directing US WEST's Public Policy effort in economic development and education. Stephen served Washington Governor Booth Gardner as the Executive Director for Education Reform and Funding. That effort resulted in passage of legislation that redefined Washington basic education. Stephen has served two school districts, functioning as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Stephen received his Bachelors of Science from Western Washington University and his Masters of Public Administration from the University of Washington. Stephen has served on numerous boards and commissions in the private and public sector. Stephen chaired the Washington Roundtable Education Working Committee during the formative years of that institution’s research and involvement in public policy and education. Stephen attended the Oxford Roundtable on Education, and served on the White House Panel on Education. Stephen currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Superintendent of the Puget Sound Educational Service District.
Jeff Thiel, Director
Jeff’s 20 years in business have been in diverse roles -- business strategy consultant, software product manager and executive, and entrepreneur. He has worked for Bain and Company, Microsoft, and co-founded companies in financial services and healthcare services. He received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and degrees in Economics and History from the University of Washington, where he was awarded the Dean’s Medal. Jeff first learned about Facing the Future when he served on the Environmental Grant Committee for Social Venture Partners, where he advocated for Facing the Future’s selection as an SVP investee. He served as SVP’s Partner Liaison to Facing the Future during 2005-2010, during which time Facing the Future quintupled the number of students using their award-winning curriculum.
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.
Angela Wu, Director
Angela Wu is the founder of MIO, a nonprofit with a mission to enable small businesses to develop their online presence in the digital economy through the support of tech-savvy youth interns. Prior to MIO, Angela was Washington’s Broadband Policy and Programs Director where she managed a $8.7M grant to promote the benefits of high-speed Internet for economic development, education and healthcare. She began her 17 years of communications technology experience as a staff member to Commissioner Rachelle Chong at the Federal Communications Commission. After she moved to Seattle, Angela spent many years providing policy and strategy consulting on wireless and international spectrum matters to McCaw International, and represented the business interests of companies such as VoiceStream, Western Wireless, T-Mobile and the American Electronics Association before federal and state regulatory bodies and in carrier-to-carrier negotiations. She then went on to manage and negotiate commercial transactional deals for Expedia.com before switching over to program management with Infospace's engineering and operations division.
Lee Minto, Director Emeritus
Lee Minto was a founder of Facing the Future in 1993 along with Dr. Alexander Bill, Dr. Gordon Perkin and Thomas Foster who all recognized the need for the education of young people regarding the linkages, world-wide, between population pressures, poverty, consumption, conflict, and the environment. Their strategy from the beginning dealt with writing appropriate curricula, and teaching teachers how to present the materials to their students in dynamic ways which encouraged them to begin solving problems in their own communities. In 2010 Lee was voted an Emeritus Member of the Facing the Future Board.
Lee spent 37 years actively involved, first as a Board member and from 1967 until her retirement in 1993, as President/CEO of Planned Parenthood of Seattle/King Co., now one of the largest affiliates in the country. She was a leader in passing Referendum 20, in 1970, the first abortion reform law in any state ever to be to be passed by a vote of its citizens. Subsequently, she chaired Pro Choice Washington, the coalition which twice defeated initiatives which would have denied low income women access to funding for legal abortions. In 1990, again she chaired a statewide initiative passed by the people, insuring that Washington State women have the right to choose. For 25 years Lee was on the adjunct faculty of the University of Washington in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and a frequent lecturer in the Schools of Communication, Social Work, and Sociology. She has been recognized with many national, regional, state and local awards for her work on behalf of women, families, and youth.
Gordon Perkin, Director Emeritus
Dr. Gordon Perkin is a Senior Fellow with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health Program(retired 2005 ). Perkin has been associated with the foundation since 1995, when the first grants in global health were awarded. From 1999 through 2001, he was responsible for the development and operation of the foundation’s Global Health Program. Over a nineteen year period (1980-1999), Perkin served as President of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), an international nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health, especially the health of women and children. As a physician with more than 40 years of experience in international health and family planning, Perkin also spent 14 years with the Ford Foundation, where he worked as program officer in a variety of international health and population projects. He served as a long-term consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) on the design and research strategy of the Special Programme in Human Reproduction, and has consulted with several other WHO programs. He was a member of the Committee on Contraceptive Development of the Institute of Medicine, and a board member of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, and the Global Health Council.
Katie Strong, Director Emeritus
Kathryn Ketcham Strong is a community volunteer and long-time activist in women’s reproductive rights and health care. Ms. Strong currently serves on the Board of Directors of Pathfinder International, an organization devoted to the provision of family planning and women’s reproductive health care in the developing world. Ms. Strong served on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of Seattle-King County for 16 years, serving as board chair from 1994-1996. She formerly served on the boards of the Virginia Mason Hospital and Medical Center Board of Governors, Seattle Mental Health and participated in numerous other non-profits as a community volunteer. She served on the Board of Facing the Future from 1996 – 2003 chairing the Board from 1998-2001. Until recently, Ms. Strong co-managed a property management/real estate investment company and, formerly worked in community mental health.