Mark A. Angelson

Chair, Former Deputy Mayor, City of Chicago, CEO of RR Donnelley, Chair of Rutgers University Board of Governors and Member of President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

Mark Angelson is Chair of the Institute of International Education, the nonpartisan world leader in international education and scholar rescue, which administers the Fulbright Scholarships for the U.S. Department of State and hundreds of other educational and rescue programs from offices around the globe. He has served three terms as Chair of the Rutgers University Board of Governors, and served as Chair of the search committee that proposed Jonathan Holloway as Rutgers’ President. Angelson also serves in the Executive Office of the President of the United States as a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

Angelson has served as the Deputy Mayor of the City of Chicago, CEO of RR Donnelley, Chair and CEO of two prominent Canadian public companies, Chair of MidOceanPartners, an international investment firm, and Vice Chair of the Biden Foundation. He previously had a lengthy and distinguished career as an international lawyer in Singapore, New York and London. 

Angelson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and its membership committee; the Pilgrims (New York and London); the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; and the Economic Club of New York. He is a Life Trustee of Northwestern University and Adjunct Professor of Mergers and Acquisitions at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He is the coauthor (with Dr. Allan Goodman) of several articles on the efficacy of rescuing threatened professors and rebuilding national academies the world over. 

Angelson graduated from Rutgers College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and from Rutgers School of Law. In May 2023, Rutgers conferred upon him an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Angelson is a member of the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni, and was the first recipient of the Rutgers Law School Alumni Service Award. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from John Marshall Law School and the Harold Hines Award from the United Negro College Fund.

Roxy Biglari

Investment Banking Associate, Morgan Stanley

Roxy Biglari is an associate in the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley, a global
financial institution. In that capacity, she is active in M&A advisory and capital markets
origination for companies in the global Industrial sector. As an Iranian American in the financial services industry, Roxy is passionate about diversity in the workplace. Within IIE, Roxy is a member of the Global Community for Women’s Leadership (GCWL) Next Generation Thought Leaders group.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Roxy graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and was awarded the Alexander McCosh prize for the
best senior thesis in Philosophy.

Adnan Bseisu

Founder, Al Muntaha & Class of 2026, Yale University

Adnan is a second-year student at Yale University studying Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. He is also the Executive Director of Al Muntaha, an educational organization he founded in 2020 to pair underprivileged children from across the Middle East with American and British university student mentors. Students connect weekly with their mentors through video calls to improve their English language skills and explore their passions. In September 2021, Adnan received the UK Prime Minister’s Points of Light award.

Today, Al Muntaha serves over 300 students from the Middle East and North Africa, ranging in
age from five to seventeen. Partnerships with organizations like AMIDEAST have allowed the
organization to reach children in even the most underserved parts of the region, like the Gaza
Strip.

Adnan has served on IIE's Odyssey Scholarship Selection Committee since 2022 and is Co-Chair of the Next Generation Thought Leaders initiative in support of the Global Community for Women's Leadership.

Calvin G. Butler Jr.

Vice Chair | President and Chief Executive Officer, Exelon

Calvin G. Butler Jr. is president and chief executive officer of Exelon. Butler oversees Exelon’s six local electric and natural gas companies — Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO and Pepco. Together, they form the nation’s largest utility company by customer count, serving approximately 10 million electric and gas customers in New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Delaware, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. He serves as chairman of each utility’s board and is a member of Exelon’s executive committee. 

Butler is a past chair of the Gridwise Alliance, an advocacy organization promoting modernization and innovation for the nation’s electrical grid, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for RLI Corp as a member of its audit and nominations/governance committees. In addition, Butler previously served on the board of M&T Bank Corporation and M&T Bank, its principal banking subsidiary, as a member of its nomination, compensation and governance committee.

Butler has served as COO since October 2021 and was named president and COO in October 2022. He previously served as Exelon Utilities CEO since 2019 and as CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) from 2014 to 2019. Prior to that role, Butler served as BGE’s senior vice president for Regulatory and External Affairs. In addition, he has held various leadership positions at ComEd, including as senior vice president of Corporate Affairs and vice president of Governmental and Legislative Affairs.

Before joining Exelon in 2008, he held senior leadership roles in external affairs as well as in manufacturing with the print, digital and supply chain solutions company R.R. Donnelley. Butler spent his early career with Central Illinois Light Company (CILCORP, Inc.), where he worked in government affairs, legal and strategy.

In addition to serving on the Exelon Board, Butler also serves as chair of each Exelon operating company board — BGE, ComEd, PECO and PHI. He is the vice chair of the Institute of International Education (IIE) and also serves on the board of RLI Corp. (NYSE: RLI). He will be a new member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. He also serves on several nonprofit boards in areas where Exelon operates, and is on the Board of his undergraduate alma mater, Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. Butler also serves on the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.

He has been recognized by several organizations for his leadership and community commitment. In 2021, The Daily Record named Butler to their “Power 100” list and has singled him out as one of its top 35 Influential Marylanders, as well as listed him three times as one of Maryland’s “Most Admired CEOs.” In 2020, he was honored with the BEYA Chairman’s Award, recognizing Black leaders for their meaningful contributions to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). That same year, he was named among Black Enterprise magazine’s “Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America,” and as Zpryme’s “ETS Thought Leader of the Year,” honoring those with the “inventive and brave vision needed to inspire the global energy ecosystem toward sustainable modernization.” In 2019, the Boy Scouts of America honored him with the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Service Award. He is an active member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Butler earned a bachelor’s degree from Bradley University and a Juris Doctor degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Mo. He received an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Morgan State University in 2014.

Butler and his wife, Sharon, have two children, Blake Calvin and Raini Alexis.

Raini Butler

Class of 2024, University of Miami School of Law

Raini Butler recently graduated with her JD from the University of Miami, School of Law. During her time there, she gained extensive experience in entertainment and sports law, environmental law, as well as international law. She also had the opportunity to travel to COP28 in Dubai to observe international climate change negotiations.

Prior to law school, Raini gained a Master’s Certificate in Non-Profit and NGO Management from Johns Hopkins University. She also received her Bachelor’s degree in International Service with a focus in Diplomacy, Conflict Resolution, and National Security from American University in Washington, DC. Raini is a proud “citizen of the world” having lived in the UK, Spain, and Belgium during her studies. This allowed her to become fluent in Spanish as well as conversational Italian. Raini hopes to continue to work in sports and international law in the future.

Jason Czyz

Co-President

Jason Czyz is IIE’s Co-President and leads the organization’s administrative departments as well as multiple programs funded by the Department of State, United States Agency for International Development, foundations, and international universities. He Co-Chairs the IIE Odyssey Scholarship selection committee, serves on the board of the Indonesia International Education Foundation, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Prior to IIE, Mr. Czyz worked extensively in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central and South Asia on legal reform, utility regulation and infrastructure privatization projects for USAID, Department of Energy, and other clients. He advised a number of governments on their utility and energy laws and acted as Director in charge of offices in Angola, Bangladesh and Ukraine for US based organizations. In addition, he worked at an international law firm in the energy and project finance & development practice groups. Mr. Czyz has served on the board of an international investment fund and as Chair of the Energy Bar Association’s International Energy Law & Transactions Committee.

Mr. Czyz holds a B.A. in History and Modern Languages from Knox College, an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill, a J.D. from Catholic University; and is licensed to practice law in Maryland and the District of Columbia. 

Dr. Allan E. Goodman

CEO

Dr. Allan E. Goodman is the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of International Education, which marked its Centennial in 2019.  IIE promotes the exchange of scholars and students, rescues scholars, students, and artists from persecution, displacement, and crises, conducts research on international academic mobility, and administers the Fulbright program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. IIE collaborates with a wide range of corporate, government and foundation partners across the globe. 108 of its directors, grantees, and alumni of programs administered by IIE are recipients of Nobel Prizes.  

Dr. Goodman is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the selection committees for Rhodes and Schwarzman Scholars and has previously served on the Yidan Prize. He also serves on the Council for Higher Education Accreditation International Quality Group Advisory Council and the Board of Trustees of the Education Above All Foundation. Dr. Goodman has a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard, an M.P.A. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.S. from Northwestern University, and is the recipient of honorary degrees from Canadian, European, Japanese, UK, and US universities. He received decorations for his work in promoting educational exchange and scholar rescue from the governments of France, Germany, and Norway; he received the first Gilbert Medal from the Universitas 21 Organisation.

Before joining IIE, Dr Goodman was Executive Dean of the School of Foreign Service and Professor at Georgetown University.  His books on international relations are published by Princeton, Harvard, and Yale University presses. He has served at the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency.

A. Sarah Ilchman

Co-President

A. Sarah Ilchman, Co-President, IIE, advances the strategic excellence, relevance, and impact of the Institute’s programmatic work across the world, including the implementation of the global Fulbright Student and Scholar Programs at IIE, as well as emergency initiatives supporting artists, scholars, and refugees.  Championing the organization and advocating its mission to internal and external stakeholders, Ms. Ilchman develops relationships with U.S. and foreign governments, higher education institutions, multi-lateral organizations, and NGOs to promote access to opportunity, advance scholarship and build economies.

With three decades of dedicated service to IIE, Ms. Ilchman has demonstrated an impressive record of impactful results in program management, inspiring ideas and innovation, and strategic planning. Prior to becoming the first woman Co-President of IIE, Ilchman was Senior Vice President overseeing the global Fulbright Student and Scholar Programs. Previously Ms. Ilchman directed the Fulbright Foreign Student program after spending more than a decade leading programming with Africa, South and Central Asia and the Near East. Elected a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an inaugural member of the National Academy for International Education, the first learned society dedicated to international education, she also chairs the Institute-wide Emergency Management Task Force. Ms. Ilchman has presented on panels and led workshops in numerous countries on five continents.

Ms. Ilchman received her BA from Vassar College, has studied in the United Kingdom (at Oxford) and in France, and holds a master’s degree in Management with a concentration in Non-Profit Management from the New School for Social Research.

Ameen Mokdad, Iraq

Composer and Musician, 2024 IIE Artist Protection Fund Fellow

Born in Baghdad, Ameen Mokdad is a multi-disciplinary composer, musician and artist. He started composing in 2014, creating music for film and theater. An expert in orchestral and small ensemble composition, he won the 2024 Best Experimental Film Award from the Swedish Film Award for, Polyrhythmic, the 2023 Best Original Score Award at the 48th Film Project Competition for, One Life Entry, and the 2021 Best Director Award in Basrah, Iraq for the short musical film, A Dream, co-directed with Mounir Salah. He founded the Light Orchestra in the city of Mosul in 2019 and is currently the Artistic Director of the internationally successful 2023-24 concert series, The Curve, performed by Cuatro Puntos Ensemble, featuring Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet. Ameen will be pursuing his MA in Composition at Wesleyan University in September 2024.

Dr. Rana Mustafa, Syria

Research Facilitator, University of Saskatchewan; Leadership Coach; IIE Scholar Rescue Fund Fellow

Dr. Rana Mustafa is a food biotechnology and analysis specialist from Syria whose research focuses on food innovation and the physicochemical and biochemical analysis of food. She earned a master’s degree (2001) and Ph.D. (2005) in food biotechnology and processing from the University of Lorraine in Nancy, France. She then returned to Syria to join the Al-Baath University (ABU) Department of Food Engineering as an associate professor (2005-2015). She twice received Francophone University Agency (AUF) grants to conduct research at Canadian universities (2009) and served as director (2011-2015) of ABU’s AUF branch.
Awarded the IIE-SRF fellowship in 2015, Mustafa undertook successive IIE-SRF fellowship appointments from 2016 to 2019 at the University of Saskatchewan, where she has continued her research post-fellowship. She also works as a resilience and transition leadership coach through Grow Strong Coaching, a business she launched in 2023.

Hilary Pennington

Executive Vice President of Programs, Ford Foundation

Hilary Pennington is the Ford Foundation’s executive vice president for program. She oversees all of our programs globally, working closely across programs and offices to ensure strategic, meaningful, and well-aligned global grantmaking. She also oversees the foundation’s BUILD program, and the Office of Strategy and Learning. Before assuming her current role, she served as the foundation’s vice president for Education, Creativity, and Free Expression.

A national expert on postsecondary education and intergenerational change, Hilary joined the foundation in 2013. Earlier, she was an independent consultant whose clients included the Next American University project of the New America Foundation and Arizona State University. She also led the Generations Initiative, a project funded by national foundations to develop effective responses to the dramatic demographic shifts occurring in the United States.

Between 2006 and 2012, Hilary served as director of education, postsecondary success, and special initiatives at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she guided grant programs across the country and worldwide. Before joining Gates, she was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and president and CEO of Jobs for the Future, a research and policy development organization she co-founded. In 22 years with JFF, Hilary helped the organization become one of the most influential in the country on issues of education, youth transitions, workforce development, and future work requirements. She also served on President Bill Clinton’s transition team and as co-chair of his administration’s presidential advisory committee on technology.

Hilary serves on the boards of Bard College, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, and Giving Tuesday, and she is a member of the Trinity Church Vestry. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Management and Yale College, and she holds a graduate degree in social anthropology from Oxford University and a master’s degree in theological studies from the Episcopal Divinity School. In 2000, she was a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Hartley R. Rogers

Vice Chair, Treasurer | Chairman, Hamilton Lane

Hartley R. Rogers is the Chairman of Hamilton Lane.  As such, he plays significant roles in the Firm’s investing and client relationship activities, as well as in its strategic and organizational development.  He is a member of various Investment Committees of the Firm and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Founded in 1991, Hamilton Lane is a private markets asset management firm.  With over $480 billion under management and advisement, Hamilton Lane is the largest allocator of capital to private equity funds in the world and is a significant player in the private markets secondary and co-investment arenas.  A publicly-traded firm (NASDAQ: HLNE), Hamilton Lane has ~400 employees based in 16 offices worldwide.

Hartley was formerly a Managing Director in the private equity fund management areas at Morgan Stanley and at Credit Suisse. 

Hartley lives in the New York area with his wife, Amy Falls, and their three children.  He is the Chairman of the Advisory Board of HarvardX, the on-line learning initiative of Harvard University.  He is a Trustee and the Treasurer of the Institute of International Education, which manages the Fulbright and Gilman Scholar programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, among other activities.  He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. 

Nina M. Smith

Senior Vice President, Chief Philanthropy Officer
 

Nina M. Smith is IIE’s Senior Vice President, Chief Philanthropy Officer.

Ms. Smith’s experience spans pre-K-12 and higher education in public and private settings, including the roles of teacher, administrator, and fundraiser. Her fundraising career began when she co-launched sweetriot, a start-up chocolate company in New York City, where she raised angel and VC funding for the venture. Ms. Smith has since focused on engaging individuals, foundations, and corporations in philanthropic partnerships.

Prior to joining IIE, Ms. Smith led the Principal and Planned Giving teams for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she was responsible for increasing the number of solicited gifts by more than half while nearly tripling the size of gifts.

Before her tenure at IRC, Ms. Smith worked in higher education. At New York University’s Faculty of Arts and Science, she led comprehensive fundraising strategies across 54 departments for the Arts and Science Deans and their boards, managed the Arts and Science development team, and personally closed national and international major and principal gifts. Part of her remit included securing resources for Global Liberal Studies, an international program across New York University’s three portal campuses and 11 study-away sites.

Ms. Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.

Courtney Temple

Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer

Courtney Temple is IIE’s Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer. She has oversight of multiple departments including Human Resources, Administrative Services, Communications and Higher Education Initiatives. Ms. Temple also provides strategic direction and oversight for IIE’s diversity, equity and access programming for staff and IIE-administered programs.

Over the past 20 years, Ms. Temple has served as a multi-industry Human Capital executive with extensive global and regional experience in various roles within Human Resources, Talent Development, Project Management and Operations. She has successfully built and led matrix teams to drive enterprise-wide initiatives at different organizations ranging from large Fortune 50 companies to smaller not-for-profit organizations in defense contracting, health and education fields. Ms. Temple has often spearheaded project implementations of enterprise systems and process overhauls focusing on optimizing and integrating people, culture, and technology throughout organizations.

Ms. Temple attended Florida A&M University where she earned a B.S. in Business Administration and M.B.A with a Human Resources focus. She is currently a doctoral candidate (EdD, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ethiopia Tilahun

Head, IIE Sub-Saharan Africa

She obtained her Advance Diploma in Accounting, B.A in Management and she is a prospect MA graduate in Sociology. Among her main responsibilities are overseeing  the strategic direction and the overall management of the Institution and supervising scholarship programs, higher education services, leadership development initiatives and trainings throughout Ethiopia and the region.

At IIE, she manages programs including the Ethiopian Women’s Leadership Program and Presidential Mentorship Program which focused on providing the tools for young women in Ethiopia to complete university and strengthen educational outcomes, and the Higher Education Readiness Program, an initiative to provide opportunities for underserved, secondary school girls in Ethiopia to complete their high school education and continue to university.

Ethiopia has also more than fifteen years of proven experience in delivering trainings and facilitations on different thematic areas such as reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, leadership, life Skills, presentation skills and gender at national and international level. She participated in the development of the HIV Stigma Action Tool Kit and the Zambia HIV/AIDS Alliance certified her as the African Regional Trainer of this Tool Kit. Besides, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has recognized her as Transformational Leadership Facilitator.

She is also serving the African Alliance of YMCA and the Ethiopian YMCA as vice
President and President respectably.

Ethiopia believes there is a huge potential in youth and women, and she strongly argues that no nation can move forward without tapping this massive potential. That is why she aspires to see meaningful youth and women engagement and participation in the social, political, and economical arena.

Linda J. Vester

Vice Chair, Fulbright Alum | Former Broadcast Journalist

Linda Vester, a broadcast journalist specializing in foreign affairs, hosted “Fox News Live,” broadcast nationwide on the Fox News Channel. While at Fox, she anchored numerous breaking news specials including the September 11 terrorist attacks and the military campaign in Afghanistan. Before coming to Fox, Ms. Vester spent a decade at NBC News, anchoring NBC News at Sunrise, and before that, traveling to global hot spots as a correspondent. She has covered conflicts in Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia, Israel/Palestine, Kuwait, Somalia, Rwanda, Northern Ireland and Haiti. She also has reported on peacetime news events in Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Zaire and many other countries.

Ms. Vester earned her B.S. magna cum laude in Journalism at Boston University in 1987. She studied as a Fulbright Scholar of Middle East Affairs in Egypt from 1988 to 1989; during this time, she frequently traveled to Gaza and the West Bank to write about the first Intifada. Ms. Vester also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1985. She speaks Arabic and French. Ms. Vester sits on the Boards of the New York YMCA and the Catalog for Giving of New York. She was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Institute of International Education in April 2002.