Meet Our Board
Through their dedicated leadership, subject matter expertise, and generosity, our Board of Directors help advance ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ' goals and performance.
ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ’s Charities Board Of Directors
Gary R. Levante is Chief Communication & Sustainability Officer atÌý. Mr. Levante is a dynamic, award winning, purpose-driven executive and speaker with expertise across corporate responsibility, ESG, sustainable finance, corporate culture, reputation management, and corporate affairs. His passion, ability to inspire and motivate those around him along with his unique understanding of business, stakeholders, and society has led to dozens of awards and accolades. By unlocking meaningful solutions that create shared value, Mr. Levante has helped businesses elevate their impact and performance. An active community member, he serves on the boards of local and national non-profit organizations. He holds a B.A. from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont.
Laurie is the Market Managing Principal in BDO’s Greater Washington, DC market which encompasses Maryland, District of Columbia and Northern Virginia with over 25 years experience in client service and operations. Overseeing a talented team of nearly 200 professionals, Laurie is responsible for guiding industry focused, targeted growth and people strategies in the market. BDO is the fifth largest accounting and consulting firm worldwide serving public and private clients in various industries with particular focus in the D.C. and Baltimore markets in technology, life sciences, government contracting, real estate and construction, professional services, healthcare, and not-for-profits.
Laurie also serves as the Executive Director of BDO’s Institute for Nonprofit Excellence, guiding the strategy and direction of the Institute’s thought leadership and resources nationally. She has over 25 years experience auditing and consulting on engagements for all manner of tax-exempt organizations including charitable and educational organizations, community-based organizations, trade associations, private foundations and colleges and universities. She also has extensive experience auditing large, complex employee benefit plans including defined contribution, defined benefit, health and welfare and multiple employer plans.
Laurie is a regular speaker at internal and external seminars on topics including industry trends, governance matters, leadership development and diversity and inclusion.
Laurie was awarded one of the 2013 Women to Watch Awards by the Greater Washington Society of CPAs for her contributions to the profession.
Marly Leighton-Colburn leads Corporate Cause Marketing Partnerships at the .
Marly brings expertise in creating and nourishing impactful partnerships with major brands. In her roles as Director, Partner Impact at Discovery Education, and Chief of Staff at DoSomething.org, she secured and managed cause marketing partnerships with CVS, 3M, PwC, Taco Bell, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Garnier, and other top brands. She was also a key member of DoSomething.org’s Get Out the Vote task force in advance of the 2020 Election, which garnered 250,000 voter registrations.
Prior to her roles in the impact partnerships space, Marly served as a publicist at Polk & Co. representing a portfolio of Broadway productions and performing arts projects including Wicked, If/Then, and The Color Purple.
Marly champions a culture of giving and has volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters NYC, Bike New York, Crisis Text Line, and New York Cares.
Ijeoma is an assurance senior manager with BDO’s assurance practice with extensive experience in several industries including nonprofit, government, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and construction. Ijeoma joined BDO in May 2020 after serving 16 years at Big Four firms in various capacities. Her experience includes:
- Planning, performing, and supervising a wide variety of financial statement and pension plan audits;
- Analyzing internal controls and policies and writing accounting policies and procedure manuals;
- Presenting regularly to audit committees and providing technical support on auditing and accounting issues for those clients;
- Experience in working with organizations with multiple national and International nonprofit andfor-profit entities;
- Knowledge in compliance auditing of organizations receiving federal financial funding inaccordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance;
- Performing federal audits of U.S. government agencies and advising on U.S. governmentappropriations and related accounting for federal requirements;
- Performing donor audits for federal and private grantors based on agreed upon procedures.Some of the organizations that Ij serves include the Society of Human Resources, ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵn Psychological Association, ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵn Association for the Advancement of Science, Catholic Charities USA, Fisher House Foundation, ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵn Physical Society and the Government of the District of Columbia.
Wendell D. Hall, Ph.D., serves as Principal at . Equivolve is a strategy consulting firm that provides research and evaluation, philanthropic advisory services and project design and management to its partners.
He was formerly the Senior Director, Higher Ed Outreach and Partnerships, in the College Board’s Higher Education division, where focused on developing and advocating for policy positions that promote access and equity for all students.
Prior to the College Board, Hall held leadership positions at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), and the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, an independent federal committee chartered by Congress and tasked with advocating for low and moderate-income students.
Hall earned his Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his master’s degree in secondary science education from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Hampton University. Hall has authored or co-authored several articles and book chapters for higher education publications.
Hall, also a former high school science teacher, is well versed on issues around college access and success, educational equity, and institutional diversity initiatives. He currently serves as an EMERGE Mentor, was previously the Board Vice Chair of DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI), and served as a founding Board Member for College and Career Pathways (CCP).
Hall, who called Washington, DC, home for most of his life, now resides in greater Houston with his wife and two children.
Shani M. Waugh is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at . In this role, she is responsible for developing and implementing the diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy for the Google Cloud business which consists of more than 40,000 employees worldwide.
Waugh has more than 25 years of progressive human resources experience with Fortune 500 companies in the technology, pharmaceutical, and defense industries. Prior to Google, she led Talent Management for LMI in Tysons, Virginia, where she was responsible for designing and implementing the company’s talent strategy in the areas of employee and leadership development, workforce succession, and inclusion engagement for more than 1700 employees nationwide. For more than a decade, she also worked at Lockheed Martin, where she provided strategic human capital leadership to support business area operations, enterprise diversity and inclusion, and the integration of acquisitions. She has also held human resources roles with Bristol Myers Squibb and Intel Corporation.
Waugh holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. She currently serves on the Cornell University Council where she plays an active role in the engagement of the university’s connection of students, alumni, and faculty. In her local community, Waugh is a Board member of the Patuxent River, MD, chapter of The Links, Inc., which provides transformational programming and services that enrich the quality of life of the residents of Upper Montgomery County. She is also a member of the Montgomery County, MD, chapter of The Society Incorporated and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.
Waugh lives in Upper Montgomery County, Maryland, and enjoys traveling with family to beach towns and visits to local theaters and museums.
Rebecca is a human resources professional with more than 25 years of experience in consulting to private and nonprofit organizations. She is the President and CEO of , a consulting firm focused on nonprofit compensation. In addition to leading the firm, she directs a variety of client engagements involving nonprofit compensation and benefits issues.
Prior to joining SmithPilot, Ms. Pilot served as human resources director for a variety of nonprofit organizations, leading the human resources functions for these nonprofits as well as designing and implementing new programs as necessary. Ms. Pilot’s experience also includes advising executives at Accenture on a wide variety of HR issues including staffing, leadership development, compensation planning, performance management, succession planning, and diversity.
Prior to her tenure with Accenture, she managed graduate student and alumni programs in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Rebecca received her undergraduate degree from Lafayette College and earned a Master of Arts in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University. Active in school and community affairs, she and her husband and their three children live in the Greater Washington DC area.
Cody Chandler is the Senior Director Cloud Engineering and Operations for .
For over 20 years, Cody has worked in every aspect of technology from Internet Service Providers to Commercial Space Travel. Specializing in the conversion of startup idea to scalable business and transitioning enterprise methodologies to modern DevOps practices; he evangelizes techniques that shift companies left; allowing for faster conception to production iterations.
Cody holds patents in technology pertaining to medical devices for seizure monitoring and triage alerting systems. He is passionate about leveraging technology to assist families with Cerebral Palsy and Autism. His love for animals introduced him to his wife Dr. Diana DVM and together with their two children, they have rescued numerous dogs with medical conditions that require special attention.
After a successful exit of a startup in 2014: Cody spent 2 years working solely in corporate social responsibility, workspace giving and philanthropy. His work in CSR ultimately led to a partnership with ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ’s Charities. Cody hopes to use his technical experience and contacts to expand into microtransaction donations and corporate asset repurposing.
Cody is a huge fan and supporter of A Walk on Water – Surf Therapy, and Marley’s Mutts – Animal Rescue.