Richard H. Solomon
President
Project Director

Richard H. Solomon has been president of the United States Institute of Peace since 1993 and has overseen its growth into a center of international conflict management analysis and applied programs. Prior to this assignment, Solomon was assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 1989 to 1992. He negotiated the Cambodia peace treaty, the first United Nations "Permanent Five" peacemaking agreement; had a leading role in the dialogue on nuclear issues between the United States and South and North Korea; helped establish the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation initiative; and led U.S. negotiations with Japan, Mongolia, and Vietnam on important bilateral matters. In 1992–93, Solomon served as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines. He coordinated the closure of the U.S. naval bases and developed a new framework for bilateral and regional security cooperation.

Solomon previously served as director of policy planning at the Department of State and as a senior staff member of the National Security Council. In 1995, Solomon was awarded the State Department's Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service, and he has received awards for policy initiatives from the governments of Korea and Thailand. In 2005, he received the American Political Science Association’s Hubert H. Humphrey career award for "notable public service by a political scientist."

Solomon began his career as professor of political science at the University of Michigan and also served as head of the Political Science Department at the RAND Corporation. Solomon holds a Ph.D. in political science, with a specialization in Chinese politics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Charles E. Nelson
Vice President
Deputy Project Director

Charles Nelson is vice president of USIP’s headquarters project. Among his many duties, he works on USIP’s relations with Congress and on the development of architectural plans and funding for the Institute's new headquarters building. He also oversees the Institute's Latin America activities, which have included programs focusing on democracy-building, civil-military relations, and the Organization of American States. Nelson has had extensive negotiating experience with both governments and the private sector. Before joining the Institute, he served as vice president of an American export trading company conducting business with Latin America. He also was an executive in the RAND Corporation’s Housing and Civil Justice Programs. Nelson has worked as a lawyer, manager, and senior administrator in the U.S. Agency for International Development and in a private consulting firm on economic and social development programs in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

He holds a B.A. and an LL.B. from Harvard University, is a graduate of the National War College, and has completed graduate courses at the London School of Economics.

Stephen Whisnant
Chief Development Officer and Campaign Director

Stephen Whisnant serves as chief development officer and campaign director for the headquarters project. Whisnant has an extensive background in fund development and general management in nonprofit work. Prior to joining USIP, he served as vice president of development and investor relations at Venture Philanthropy Partners. He served full-time as senior director of development, and then as a consultant to Paul Allen, Jody Patton and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation in Seattle, Washington. Whisnant developed long-term fundraising strategies for the Experience Music Project, the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Documentary Film division of Vulcan Productions, and the Microcomputer Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Whisnant spent fifteen years in higher education as a senior development officer and advisor, including ten years at Harvard University working on two capital campaigns. He gained political fundraising experience during his tenure as the executive director of the Presidential and Democratic Party Victory Fund in support of the 1988 presidential race. During his tenure at Harvard, he became actively involved in the community service movement, especially among athletes, and in 1993 he opened the doors of World T.E.A.M. Sports. Whisnant oversaw the production of four documentary films and numerous award-winning educational curricula. He is a recipient of an Emmy Award, serving as an Executive Producer of “Vietnam, Long Time Coming.”

He holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina and a Master’s in Education from Harvard University. In addition to serving as Chair of the Kartemquin Films’ Board of Directors, he serves as a trustee and director, respectively, for the N. C. Outward Bound School, the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Catalogue of Philanthropy. He sits on the advisory boards of K.E.E.N. (Kids Enjoy Exercise Now), PeacePlayers, Inc, and Peace X Peace. He has presented frequently at national conferences, contributes to regional and national publications, and he was awarded a Lyndhurst Prize by the Lyndhurst Foundation for his work and commitment to community service.

John Stranix
Owner's Representative

John Stranix is the headquarters project owner’s representative. He graduated from Villanova University in 1978 with a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering, and after service in the Navy Civil Engineer Corps, Mr. Stranix earned a Masters of Engineering in Civil Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Stranix initially worked for Booz, Allen & Hamilton providing design and construction consulting services for government and private sector clients. In 1985 he joined The George Hyman Construction Company of Bethesda, Maryland, where he worked on multiple projects, including the $675 million design/build addition to Chicago’s McCormick Place Exhibition Center, in preconstruction services, marketing, and project management capacities,.

In 1995, Mr. Stranix became president of DC Arena Limited Partnership. In this role, he was responsible for the development, design, construction, and operation of the Verizon Center, a $300 million, 20,000 seat sports arena for the Washington Wizards (NBA) and Washington Capitals (NHL). In 2000, he formed Stranix Associates LLC, a project management and owner representation services company specializing in the management of unique and large-scale projects, including the USIP Headquarters Building, the Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, the United Therapeutics Headquarters and Laboratory in Silver Spring, The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, the headquarters for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, and the new ballpark for the Nationals in Washington.

Mr. Stranix is a professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), and the International Association of Assembly Managers (IAAM).

Sally Anderson
Senior Development Officer

With over sixteen years of development experience at several international nonprofit organizations, Sally Anderson joined the Institute’s development office in June 2008, where she is now a senior development officer for major and leadership gifts. Prior to joining USIP, she worked as VP of External Affairs at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, where she was responsible for communications, public relations, membership, and increasing corporate, foundation, individual, and government support, as well as overseeing a $10 million dollar Capital Campaign.

As Director of Development and Membership at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Sally was responsible for a $178 million capital campaign, as well as creating and managing a 500,000-person membership campaign. She was responsible for raising $25 million in yearly operating revenue through a combination of corporate, major donor, foundation, individual, and program underwriting. She went on to become the Director of Development at The Shakespeare Theatre, where she raised both capital campaign funds and annual support through membership, major donor, and foundation support as well as securing corporate underwriting for each season’s productions.

Sally has worked as a consultant for a variety of high profile clients, providing strategic planning, board development, and fundraising strategies to enhance and support their missions.  She received her B.A. in communications from East Carolina University.

Andrew Callam
Research Assistant (Development)

Andrew Callam joined the Institute in September 2007 as a development research assistant. He is currently a graduate student in International Affairs at The George Washington University, majoring in U.S. Foreign Policy. Prior to joining USIP, Andrew served as an administrative assistant at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC and as a research assistant at the National Security Archive at The George Washington University. He holds M.A. and B.A. degrees in modern European history from Emory University.

Bernice Carney
Business Manager

Bernice Carney has over forty-seven years of experience in administrative and financial management with the federal government. She joined the Institute at its inception in 1986, and from 1986 to 2003 she served as the Director of Administration, with responsibility for all financial and managerial aspects of the operation of the Administrative Office, including budget development and administration, accounting, financial reporting, internal controls, procurement and contract administration, personnel/payroll, travel management, and administrative support services. Ms. Carney was also responsible for ensuring that all activities were carried out in accordance with internal organizational policies and applicable external regulations and statutes. She directed the annual financial statement audits which resulted in seventeen clean, unqualified opinions.

Ms. Carney retired in January 2004 and returned to the Institute in September 2006 (part-time) as the business manager for the headquarters project, for which she provides budgeting and financial management services.

Anne-Marie Engelstad
Development Associate

Anne-Marie Engelstad joined the Institute as a development associate for the headquarters campaign in the spring of 2008. Anne-Marie is responsible for coordinating large-scale fundraising events, managing gift acknowledgements, and assisting the development officers.

In May of 2008, Anne-Marie earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan. She has development experience from her extensive volunteer work at the White House, the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and various non-profit organizations. She served as a member of President Clinton’s advance team when he spoke at the University of Michigan Commencement ceremony in 2007.

Anne-Marie worked in the Consular Section the American Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe during the summer of 2007.  She has a deep interest in international affairs and conflict resolution. Additionally, she interned in the United States Senate.

Robin Gibbin
Senior Development Officer

Robin Gibbin joined the headquarters development office five years ago. As a senior development officer for major and leadership gifts, Gibbin brings with her over 25 years of experience as a development professional with non-profit organizations, including grant-making institutions and art and public policy organizations. Gibbin previously worked for the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology && Government and the Wallace-Readers’ Digest Funds in New York City. During her tenure with the National Academy of Engineering, she was the director of development for nine years and director of public outreach for four years. Gibbin has extensive experience in raising major gifts from individuals, corporations, and foundations. Ms. Gibbin graduated with a B.A. in Art History from James Madison University.

Joi Hilton
Executive Assistant (Development)

Joi Hilton, who has over ten years scheduling and event planning experience, joined the Institute’s development staff as executive assistant in 2007. Prior to joining USIP, Hilton was the executive assistant to the president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

During the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004, Hilton was a scheduler responsible for coordinating campaign events, organizing the local staff, and selecting event sites. Prior to that, as director of scheduling for Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, Hilton managed the overall scheduling and advance operations of the mayor’s office. In 1998 Hilton was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as the White House representative at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Hilton earned her B.A. in Communications from Temple University.

Cheryl Hughes
Construction Project Manager

Cheryl Hughes graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering and joined John J. Kirlin, a large commercial mechanical contractor, as project manager for numerous Washington, D.C. office buildings and other commercial projects. After gaining additional experience by working for a contractor specializing in office fit-out, she joined a local owner's representative consulting company, Himes Associates, in 1990.

In 1994 Ms. Hughes founded Project Management Advisors, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in owner's representation and construction consulting services. The Bureau of National Affairs was her primary client, and she assisted them in all aspects of their 300,000 square-foot occupied renovation of three D.C. office buildings, and then remained their consultant for in-house construction projects through 2001.

Since 2004, Ms. Hughes has partnered with Stranix Associates to help coordinate the design and project management of the USIP headquarters project.

Al Peter
Engineering Consultant

Al Peter has been a design and construction consultant to the headquarters project since 1998. His professional engineering career has been split between the structural design and the construction management of a variety of industrial, commercial and federal buildings across the country. After more than five years in the private sector, Mr. Peter joined the General Services Administration as a structural design engineer and was then assigned to the construction of the State Department headquarters building. Following this project, he spent another eight years with GSA resolving design and construction issues on major projects across the country. Subsequently, he was appointed regional commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service in Seattle, and then served on the President’s Reorganization Commission for improving federal real property programs. Mr. Peter developed EPA’s program for developing facilities for converting the nation’s solid waste stream to energy.

Subsequently, Mr. Peter headed the facility program for the Western Region of the U.S. Postal Service. Following this, he led the nationwide facility programs of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Upon his retirement, he headed the facilities program for the Philadelphia School District for four years, and since 1981 he has served as an independent consultant, assisting in the resolution of construction disputes. Mr. Peter has lectured at five universities, and among his many awards was a Ford Foundation Scholarship for graduate study at Stanford University.

Donna Ramsey-Marshall
Senior Project Officer

As senior project officer on the headquarters project, Donna Ramsey-Marshall coordinates the planning process for the Public Education Center and acts as the project liaison with Institute stakeholders, the design team, and consultants. She is also closely involved with numerous aspects of design, construction, and contract management of the project and collaborates with the Development Office on special projects.

In her previous tenure with the Institute, she served from 1999-2001 as senior program assistant in the Research and Studies Program (now known as the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention). Prior to rejoining the Institute in 2005, Ramsey-Marshall was Research Associate at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland, contributing to research and production of the biennial Peace and Conflict series and annual updates of the Polity IV Project database and country reports. She is a member of Women in International Security and has research interests in peace processes, non-violent social movements, and women and conflict. Her publications include Women in War and Peace: Grassroots Peace Building (USIP Press, 2000) and New Bridges to Peace: Enhancing National and International Security by Expanding Policy Dialogues Among Women (Women in International Security, 2001).

Ramsey-Marshall was a 1997-98 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at the University of Kent at Canterbury (England), where she earned a Master of Arts with Distinction in International Conflict Analysis.

Laura Rheintgen
Senior Development Officer

With over seventeen years of development experience at several international nonprofit organizations, Laura Rheintgen joined USIP’s development office in 2006, where she is now a senior development officer for major and leadership gifts. Prior to joining USIP, she worked as director of development and member relations at The European Institute, where she was responsible for program development and increasing corporate, foundation, individual and government support for transatlantic relations. As director of development at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Laura brought a historic increase in revenue by substantially increasing corporate support through the Institute’s annual Global Leadership Award Dinner and its Associates Program.

For over eight years, Laura worked for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, starting as a development analyst and ultimately becoming director of foundation relations, in which capacity she substantially increased foundation support.

Laura received an M.A. in international relations from the American University. She has lived in Europe and the Middle East.

Frank Sullivan
Contracting Officer

Frank Sullivan joined USIP in 2001 as a contracting officer after a career in the federal government, where he served as a senior level contracting officer with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Sullivan also has contracting experience with the Department of the Interior and the Corps of Engineers. He specialized in the field of architect-engineer and construction contracting and from 1999 to 2004 was a member of a GSA committee to develop new criteria for architect-engineer qualifications.

Sullivan’s professional affiliations include being Chairman of the Federal Facilities Council (FFC), Standing Committee on Procurement and Contracting, from 1997 to 2000. He earned his BSCE from Merrimack College.

Pamela R. Aall
Vice President, Domestic Programs
Education and Training Center

Pamela R. Aall is vice president for domestic programs, Education and Training Center. She directs the education program, which focuses on strengthening teaching, learning, and research on conflict prevention, management, and resolution. Her research interests include mediation in inter- and intrastate conflicts, the role of nonofficial organizations in conflict management and resolution, and the role of education in exacerbating conflict or promoting reconciliation.

Before joining the Institute in 1993, Aall was a consultant to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and to the Institute of International Education. She also held a number of positions at the Rockefeller Foundation and has worked for the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam and Brussels), the International Council for Educational Development (New York), and the New York Botanical Garden. She is also a former president of Women in International Security.

Aall holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a master’s from Columbia University and attended the London School of Economics, where she conducted research on political and economic integration in Scandinavia and Europe.

Heather Sensibaugh
Special Assistant to the President

Heather Sensibaugh is the special assistant to the president in the executive office at the United States Institute of Peace. She joined the Public Education Center team as coordinator of advisory groups developing content for the exhibits. Prior to joining the Institute, she assisted community members as they worked to improve access to justice for rural Sierra Leoneans with a local non-government organization called “Timap for Justice.” As a research assistant to the director of policy with the Open Society Institute, she was involved with development assistance, Freedom of Information legislation, and truth commission efforts around the world. Sensibaugh was previously a program assistant at USIP with the Task Force on the United Nations and the Professional Training Program (now known as the Education and Training Center – International).

Sensibaugh holds a B.A. in International Relations and German from Clark University and an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She received the West Law Prize in 2007 for excellence in the field of international law at Fletcher. She is fluent in German and has limited knowledge of French, Spanish and Krio.

Tara Sonenshine
Senior Advisor

Tara Sonenshine is an adviser on media and international policy. She is a strategic communications adviser to many international organizations including USIP, where she is focusing on projects related to programmatic outreach and growth. Sonenshine is working on the public education dimensions of the new headquarters project for USIP. She has served as a strategic communications adviser to the International Crisis Group, Internews Networks, CARE International, the American Academy of Diplomacy and Women of Washington. Sonenshine has served in various White House capacities, including transition director for the National Security Council (NSC). In that position, she was responsible for coordinating an interagency process to review foreign policy goals and priorities for the Clinton administration’s second term. Before that, she served as special assistant to President Clinton and deputy director of communications for the NSC (1994–1995).

In 1998, Sonenshine was at the Brookings Institution studying foreign policy and communications. Her career began in broadcast journalism in 1982 at ABC News in New York, where she served as assistant to David Burke, the vice president of news. Sonenshine went on to become editorial producer of ABC News’ Nightline, where she worked for more than a decade. She was also an off-air reporter at the Pentagon for ABC’s World News Tonight. During her tenure at ABC News, Sonenshine earned ten News Emmy Awards for coverage of China, Iran, the Philippines, and South Africa. She also won the Columbia-DuPont Award for coverage of the Los Angeles riots. A former contributing editor for Newsweek, Sonenshine is the author of numerous articles on foreign affairs published in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other newspapers.