Category: Advisory Board

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Advisory Board

Dr. Andrew Flagel

DR. ANDREW FLAGEL

President and CEO, Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area

Andrew Flagel is the Vice President for Advancement and Member Engagement at The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the former Executive Director of the Washington Journalism and Media Conference at George Mason University. At AAC&U, Dr. Flagel helps promote the mission of AAC&U by leading strategic advancement and membership growth and development. He has served in higher education for over 20 years, including a decade as Dean of Admissions at George Mason University. Dr. Flagel also writes the most popular blog in the country on the admissions process at mycollegeoptions.org, and recently began a popular companion twitter feed, @deanflagel (and he would love for you to follow him). He has presented hundreds of seminars across the country, including the Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference, the National Young Leaders Conference, and the Washington Journalism and Media Conference. Flagel has an undergraduate degree in philosophy and psychology and a master of arts in education from George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in Education from Michigan State University. Dr. Flagel was previously the Director of Admissions and Recruitment at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. He also served as the Director of Admissions and Enrollment Management for the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, and as a Regional Director of Admissions at GW. Along with his presentations and blog, Dr. Flagel provides his expertise in a variety of media, appearing as a guest on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN’s American Morning, and on CBS Evening News, and interviewed in USA Today, US News and World Report, The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, the Wall Street Journal, and Teen Vogue…just to name a few.
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Advisory Board Photographer

Meghan A.T.B. Reese

MEGHAN A.T.B. REESE

Photographer, Washington Scholars Program

Producer, Writer, & Photographer

Meghan Reese is a producer, writer, and photographer. Reese’s credits include producing and writing for National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, History Channel, Smithsonian Channel, A&E, Animal Planet, HGTV, Investigation Discovery, Discovery Family, PBS, Sony/IMAX’s 3Net 3D films, Capital TV Pakistan, the White House, and the Department of State. Reese also runs Ography, her own photography and multimedia shop, capturing events for the National Park Service, the White House, George Mason University, and many other businesses, families and couples. 

Reese’s first step into production was as a researcher and assistant director for WGBH PBS’s news coverage team, where Reese covered major news events including the 2008 presidential election, the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, and Boston’s Craigslist Killer. Prior to making the switch to television and film, Reese was an award-winning writer and editor for several newspapers, medical, health and lifestyle magazines, and executive editor of Today’s Dietitian Cookbook. Her writing career began in the Life section of USA Today, covering fashion, trends, and popular culture. Reese holds a journalism degree from American University, where she held several prestigious internships around the Metro area, including The Washington Post, CNN, NPR, and at the White House.

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Advisory Board

Dr. Edward Maibach

DR. EDWARD MAIBACH

Director, Center for Climate Change Communication & Professor of Communications, George Mason University

In 2006, while on a walk in the mountains with Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Ed had an epiphany that forever changed his life. He realized that climate change is the ultimate threat to the public’s health and well-being worldwide, and Ed responded by refocusing his work entirely on climate change prevention and adaptation. Ed moved to Mason in 2007 to join the communication faculty and create the Center for Climate Change Communication. Ed is a highly experienced public health and social change professional and a leading academic in the field of communication. His work over the past 25 years has helped define the fields of public health communication and social marketing, and his book, Designing Health Messages: Approaches from Communication Theory and Public Health Practice, is widely used by academics and practitioners alike. Ed has previously had the pleasure of serving as an associate director of the National Cancer Institute, as worldwide director of social marketing for Porter Novelli, as chairman of the board for Kidsave International, and as a member of the faculty at Emory and George Washington universities. Ed’s research interest is focused on the question: How can we use communication and marketing to influence the behavior of populations for the benefit of society? Ed holds a Bachelor of Art in Social Psychology from University of California, San Diego, an MPH in Health Promotion from San Diego State University, and a PhD in Communication Research from Stanford University.

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Advisory Board

Dr. Steven Monfort, DVM, Ph.D

Dr. Steven Monfort, DVM, Ph.D

John and Adrienne Mars Director, Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Steven Monfort has conducted his research for more than 20 years while at the Zoological Society of San Diego, the University of California, Davis, and the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and its Conservation & Research Center (CRC). He initiates and conducts research projects in the broad discipline of reproductive physiology and endocrinology, and he provides clinical veterinary care for animals housed at CRC. Dr. Monfort co-coordinates one of the world’s largest and most productive wildlife endocrinology laboratories, with basic and applied research aimed at helping to conserve rare species. He also has experience in using semen collection, cryopreservation, artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization to augment ex situ breeding. He is particularly interested in cervids and bovids, and major reproductive research efforts have focused on the Eld’s deer and scimitar-horned oryx. Dr. Monfort is co-founder of an in situ conservation program aimed at conserving Eld’s deer in Burma, and he heads the Sahelo-Saharan Interest Group with a mission of conserving aridlands antelope and their North African habitats.

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Advisory Board

Dr. Jagadish Shukla

Dr. Jagadish Shukla

Director, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies Professor, George Mason University

Dr. Shukla is the Director of the Climate Dynamics Program at GMU. Shukla was born in 1944 in village Mirdha in the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, India. This village had no electricity, no roads or transportation, and no primary school. Most of his primary education was received under a large banyan tree until his father established a primary school in the village. His father, the late Shri Chandra Shekhar Shukla who was headmaster of a middle school in a nearby village (Sukhpura), bought science textbooks for classes sixth to tenth and insisted that he study them during the summer holidays before admission to the next grade. After passing the twelfth grade from the S. C. College, Ballia, he went to Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U.) where, in 1962, he passed the B.Sc. (honors) with Physics, Mathematics, and Geology, and in 1964 received the M.Sc. in Geophysics. He received a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Geophysics from BHU (1971) and a Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) in Meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1976. In 2008, he was appointed by the Governor of Virginia as a member of the Commission on Climate Change. He was one of the Lead Authors of the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the Noble Peace Prize with Vice President Gore. In 2007, he received the International Meteorological Organization (IMO) Prize, considered to be the highest prize in meteorology in the world.

He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorology Society, India Meteorology Society, and an Associate Fellow of TWAS (the academy of sciences for the developing world). He has been the Ph. D. thesis adviser for about 20 students at MIT, Univ. of Maryland, and George Mason University. Professor Shukla has exerted a tremendous influence on the field through his publication of over 200 scientific papers, reports, and book chapters, his direction of 20 Ph.D. students’ dissertation research, and his leadership of several national and international advisory and planning panels.

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Advisory Board

Davey Rogner

DAVEY ROGNER

Founder, The Harvest Collective

Davey Rogner is the Campaign Director and co-founder of Pick Up America – the nation’s first coast-to-coast contiguous roadside litter pick up. Since beginning their journey in March of 2010, Pick Up America cleaned more than 136,000 pounds of litter from 1,500 miles of road spanning from Assateague Island, MD to Topeka, KS.  The youth-led initiative aimed to inspire a transition towards zero-waste in America through education, art, and community outreach. Davey grew up in the Washington, DC suburbs of Silver Spring and College Park, MD. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy in 2009. While a student at the University of Maryland Davey was active in student government and helped spearhead the founding of two of the campus’s most prominent environmental groups – UMD for Clean Energy and the Student Sustainability Committee. Davey has received awards from the City of College Park, the Maryland State Highway Association, and the Maryland General Assembly for his efforts encouraging environmental conservation in the State of Maryland.

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Advisory Board

James Fiore

JAMES FIORE

President, Fiore Consulting

During his career of more than 33 years in the US Department of Energy (DOE), Jim held numerous senior management positions, including four Deputy Assistant Secretary positions. He directed highly sensitive environmental cleanup programs for the DOE with annual budgets exceeding $2 billion. He was responsible for two of the most successful cleanups in DOE — those associated with the Fernald site in Ohio and the Rocky Flats site in Colorado. He is a two-time recipient of the Presidential Meritorious Rank award. Since his retirement from DOE in 2009, Jim has been involved in every major environmental cleanup procurement. He has also performed strategic reviews for the US DOE, the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and the Army Corps of Engineers. Jim also serves on the Board of Directors of the WM Symposia.

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Advisory Board

Mark Bauman

MARK BAUMAN

Chief Executive Officer, Virtual Wonders

Mark Bauman has been recognized with numerous broadcast, web and print journalism honors, including an Emmy, more than a dozen Cine Golden Eagles, and various film festival awards. Before taking the helm at Virtual Wonders, he oversaw the Smithsonian Institution’s commercial media units, including Smithsonian and Air & Space Magazines, Smithsonian Books, Smithsonian.com, and the Smithsonian Channel partnership with Showtime.

Previously, Bauman served as Chairman of National Geographic’s Cross Platform Committee, and as EVP of National Geographic Television, where he oversaw more than 400 hours of programming, as well as National Geographic’s Digital Studio (which tripled the Society’s YouTube traffic, garnering more than a billion streams).

Before National Geographic, Bauman, who is fluent in Spanish, Russian, Czech and Italian, was based in Eastern Europe and Latin America for ABC News. He has covered war and genocide in Central Africa, Lebanon, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, for some of the best broadcast and print media outlets in the world.

Mark serves on the Boards of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Archipelago, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, the Ocean Exchange, the Marine Fish Conservation Network, and the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment.

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Advisory Board

Kate Sheppard

KATE SHEPPARD

Senior Enterprise Editor, Environment and Energy, Huffington Post

Kate Sheppard is a senior reporter and the environment and energy editor at the Huffington Post. She previously reported for Mother Jones, Grist, and the American Prospect. Her writing has also been featured in the New York Times’ Room for Debate blog, the Guardian, Foreign Policy, High Country News, The Center for Public Integrity, In These Times, and Bitch. She also appears regularly on MSNBC and other television and radio programs to discuss her work. Her reporting has been recognized with awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Online News Association, and Planned Parenthood.

Twitter: @kate_sheppard

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Advisory Board

Amy Takayama-Perez

AMY TAKAYAMA-PEREZ

Vice President of University Marketing and Enrollment Planning, College of Charleston

Amy Takayama-Perez is the vice president of university marketing and enrollment planning and began in this position in August 2020.

In this role, Takayama-Perez provides the leadership of the Division of University Marketing and Enrollment Planning, made up of the Office of University Marketing, the Office of Admissions, the Visitor Center, the Office of Financial Assistance and Veterans Affairs and the Office of Enrollment Information.

Takayama-Perez previously served as the dean of admission and as executive director of the Washington Scholars Program at George Mason University. As the dean of admissions, she was responsible for the overall management and execution of George Mason University’s recruitment strategy. She also held several roles at Mason, from director of recruitment to director of K-12 outreach and partnerships. While at Mason, she led the university to record-growing enrollments, making George Mason University one the of the most diverse institutions in the nation, and the largest research (R1) university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Before her involvement in the Washington Scholars Program and her role as dean, Takayama-Perez was the guidance specialist for Loudoun County Public Schools and served as the director for a countywide college access program for underrepresented minority and firstgeneration students.

Takayama-Perez has worked with countless students and families on the application and college search process and is very active in regional and national college counseling associations. She has been a presenter at national professional development conferences including the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), Common App and the Center for Community College Student Engagement and has served on the board of directors for Northern Virginia Family Services, the board of advisors for ACT/NRCCUA (the National Research Center for College and University Admissions) and the Mason Alumni Board of Directors, where she chaired the Alumni Scholarship committee.

Takayama-Perez holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s in education in counseling and development from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.