Board of Directors
Kate Campbell Stevenson, Chair of the Board of Director
Activist, Artist and Producer Women: Back to the Future
Kate Campbell Stevenson combines over 25 years of professional experience in music, theatre and education to create Women: Back to Future. She has starred in over 30 Broadway musicals produced in regional theaters across the United States, including Camelot, Carousel, My Fair Lady, The King and I, Show Boat, Music Man and I Do! I Do! as well as performing in radio and TV commercials.
In her one-woman show Kate brings to life historical women with “can do” attitudes who have inspired audiences from the poorest rural schools in South Carolina to the fanciest prep schools in LA; from small county fairs to the National Theatre and The Office of the President in Washington, D.C.; from state and national convention halls to renowned college and civic auditoriums.
Ken Moore, Vice President
President & CEO Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce
Ken Moore, President & CEO, Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce Chamber of Commerce, is a certified chamber executive with more than 30 years of experience and has served chambers of commerce in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, California and Virginia. Moore is a former member of the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives and the Western Association of Chamber Executives. Moore was recently appointed by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce to serve on the prestigious Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100.
In 1999, Moore was recognized as the “Professional of the Year” by the Oklahoma Society of Associations Executives. He was named as “Executive of the Year” by the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce and was the second person selected for the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce Executives Hall of Fame. The Western Association of Chamber Executives presented him with its Pettit Award for “Excellence in Leadership” in 1996. Moore began his service with the Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce Chamber of Commerce in December 2006. Full Bio
Brian Hartman, Secretary and Treasurer
Business Consultant
Brian Hartman is an independent organizational consultant, with emphasis on manager-led problem solving and corporate strategic planning to improve revenue and cost performance. He has worked extensively with senior organizational leaders as a research director with the Corporate Executive Board Company, helping them identify and implement advantaged solutions to strategy, operations, sales and human resources management challenges.
Brian has also held business planning and development roles with The Washington Post Company, Fannie Mae and an early-stage social media venture. Brian has a M.B.A. from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in philosophy from the College of William & Mary. He currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and daughter, with whom he enjoys the outdoors, cooking and the arts.
Jeannie Shaughnessy Hodges, Member
President Fortunach Consulting
Prior to re-entering the consulting world, she held the distinct honor of being the Executive Director responsible for transforming The Carl M. Freeman Foundation (a 50 year grant makingorganization) and launching the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation (a public charity). Before serving these Foundations she was the President and co-owner of Pathwise Partners, LLC.
Jeannie has more than 20 years of management and consulting experience with a focus on business operations, organizational development and communications. She is a trained ExecutiveCoach and a certified facilitator, who also serves on the Alexandria Commission for the Arts and is a regular volunteer at The Kennedy Center.
She is a graduate of Leadership Fairfax, Inc., The FBI Citizens’ Academy, and the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Program. She is married and has two young daughters. Jeannie is a frequent public speaker and is currently writing a book.
Synthia Woodcock-Dang, Member
ReMax Realty Centre
For Synthia Woodcock-Dang it’s been a grand adventure through many countries, cultures and languages since graduating from HFCS in 1962!
While still in college she went on her first foreign experience as an exchange student to Poland and The USSR; then with a BA in English and drama from the Univ. of Idaho and two years teaching experience in New York she went off to the first of many years living and teaching in South East Asia. First at the International School of Bangkok, Thailand, and after getting an MS in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) from SUNY Albany had the great honor to receive a Fulbright Lecturer/Consultant to a new university in southern Thailand. Then after two more years teaching in the Albany area, it was off to the American School of Vientiane, Laos.
After being evacuated from Laos in May of 1975, she went to teach English to the Shah’s helicopter pilots in Iran, but not wanting to be evacuated again, she left Iran early and returned to the USA. She came back to the Washington, DC area where she has lived since 1976. There she has taught English to adult refugees, been co-director of the Language and Orientation Program at the Center of Applied Linguistics, taught ESL K-12 in Montgomery Co., MD Public Schools, and trained teachers to teach ESL at Montgomery College and as an adjunct professor at the Univ. of MD, Baltimore County.
Along the way she met and married her husband George Phuoc Dang and their daughter Amy was born in 1983. They are active in their communities promoting mutual understanding among diverse ethnic groups.
Currently in “retirement” Synthia continues to supervise teachers working on ESL certification in Maryland, and serves as board member of Empowered Women International to advance the organization’s mission and expand its outreach to Montgomery County, Maryland. It has been a rewarding journey all based on the excellent foundation she received as a student at HFCS.
Ann E.W. Stone, Co-Founder EWI & Chair Emeritus
President, The Stone Group
Co-Founder of The National Women’s History Museum
Ann Stone is a Founding Board member, Treasurer and one of three original incorporators of the National Women’s History Museum. She was also an integral part of the campaign by the Museum to pass legislation and raise money to move the “Portrait Monument” (the statue given by the suffragists to the Congress to celebrate the passage of the 19th Amendment) out of the Crypt of the Capitol and into the Rotunda. She actually negotiated the terms for the move.
Ann Stone is also the founder and president of The Stone Group,Inc., an award-winning direct marketing business. Ms. Stone has founded other businesses and helped launch a national bank. She serves on the boards of Empowered Women International and The Washington Center (Women as Leaders).
Ms. Stone speaks professionally in the United States and overseas on such topics as entrepreneurship, politics, women’s history, women’s issues, and much more. She has been listed in the Who’s Who of Marketing and Advertising Executives and the International Edition of Who’s Who as well as Outstanding Women in America. In 1992, she was chosen as one of 75 Women Who Changed Politics in America by C&E Magazine. A graduate of George Washington University, with a double major in history and communications, Ms. Stone did graduate work in corporate finance and management at the Wharton School of Business consortium. Full Bio
Marga C. Fripp, Founder and President EWI
Marga Fripp, the Founder and President of Empowered Women International, is an art marketing coach, journalist and entrepreneur with over 15 years experience in managing non-profits, marketing, art management, media relations, gender and entrepreneurial development. She has a passion for empowering artists to make a living from their art and thrive as leaders, educators, global citizens and entrepreneurs.
Over the past seven years since immigrating to the United States, she has worked with hundreds of immigrant and American-born women artists of all media and cultural backgrounds, and helped build their careers and businesses. Through her vision and work, Marga gives voice to immigrant, refugee and culturally diverse women by promoting their art and cultures, and leading them to entrepreneurial success.
In 2008, she formed Entrepreneurship Academy for Artists as a business school for artists to expand art marketing, business workshops and coaching services to artists, artisans, educators, arts organizations and entrepreneurs in creative industries. Read Marga’s full bio.
Advisory Board
Meera Wolfe, Writer
Meera Wolfe’s interest in dance began even before she started classes with Irving Burton, a founder of the Paperbag Players, in New York City. Since that time she has served on the boards and as officers of a modern dance company and a ballet company. She also served as the community representative of the Arizona State University Dance Department’s community outreach committee as well as on a dance selection panel for one of the modern dance schools in Phoenix, Arizona. A former member of the Alexandria Commission on the Arts, she served as the chair of the dance panel. She has also served on the selection committee of the Metro DC Dance Awards.and presents and co-produces an annual dance performance in Washingon, D.C. entitled “Washingon’sThree Dancers.”
Meera is the author of a book entitled “Sutras: Weaving the Threads of a Life.” Published in 2004, it is the story of her search for Mirabai, a renowned Indian saint and poet.
In addition to her to her various arts interests, she was responsible for the introduction and implementation of an arts program in the pre-school she ran in Phoenix, Arizona, reaching nearly 100 children, aged five to 12 in a summer outreach program. She has always felt that the arts should be an integral and fundamental part of every child’s education.
Her professional activities include many years in public relations, marketing and fundraising in the non-profit sector, including the League of Women Voters of the US and the Congressional Bicentennial Committee for which she planned and implemented congressional special events during that year.
Ms. Wolfe has also directed the establishment of a national holistic health foundation, and imported jewelry from India and Nepal.
Mistra Moazami, IT Management
Not many people can claim the broad background M. Moazami brings to her job as a manager and supervisor in APL’s Information Technology Services Department. Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Moazami lived there until she graduated from high school. She spent 3 months in Austria, then came to the U.S., settled in North Carolina (where she had family), and began college.
After meeting a fellow Iranian, who lived in Alaska, she got married and moved there for 2 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree (in computer science and applied mathematics) from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
The couple moved to Maryland in 1990 where Moazami worked at Booz Allen Hamilton for 4 years, and then for a consulting firm, until coming to APL in 1999. As an IT manager, Moazami provides business application support to APL staff.
Moazami earned her M.S. in technical/organizational management through JHU’s part-time graduate engineering program (Engineering for Professionals) located here on the APL campus. She’s also been able to pursue another part-time career, teaching in the Technical Management program and serving as an advisor to graduate students in that program. Full Bio
Diana Katz, Founder the Giving Circle of Hope Reston
Diana Katz is a co-founder of the Giving Circle of HOPE, a philanthropic-service organization that provides funds and assistance to people in need in Northern Virginia. Her work on behalf of the circle is her passion.
Ms. Katz was born and raised in Mayaguez, PR. In 1975, at the age of 21, she moved to the United States to pursue a Master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of PR. After graduation, she pursued a career in computers working at Computer Sciences Corporation and at Performance Engineering Corporation until 1993.
During the last 25 years, she has served her community volunteering for a variety of organizations: several public schools, libraries, PTAs, local poverty-relief organizations, the American Association of University Women, Newcomer’s Club, and the Clara Barton Forum of the Red Cross. She has been a youth group advisor, an Odyssey of the Mind coach, and a theater producer for the children’s play “Miracle in Philadelphia” in Johnstown, PA.
She is a lifelong yoga student and currently teaches yoga in Reston.
Ms. Katz has been happily married for over 30 years and is the proud mother of two grown sons. She has been a resident of Reston, Virginia since 1978.
Hammy G. Aklilu, Business Consultant
