Neil Peterson, founder of the Edge Foundation, has served in a variety of leadership positions in the public and private sectors. He was the CEO of the public transportation agencies in the Seattle, Oakland, and Los Angeles metropolitan regions and the COO and CFO of a state’s Health and Human Services Agency where he was responsible for the state’s mental health programs and programs for the disabled. Peterson founded five companies, the latest of which, Flexcar, was purchased by Steve Case, founder of AOL. He has worked as a consultant for Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and he was Vice President of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. Peterson has two children with ADHD and dyslexia.
Patricia Quinn, M.D., is a developmental pediatrician in the Washington, D.C., area, specializing in child development and psychopharmacology. A graduate of Georgetown University Medical School, she has worked for over 30 years in the areas of ADD, ADHD, and learning disabilities, and she gives workshops nationwide on ADHD. Dr. Quinn has appeared on Lifetime Television’s “New Attitudes,” the PBS show “To the Contrary,” and most recently on “Good Morning America,” discussing the challenges facing girls with ADHD. She appeared in “Outside In: A Look at Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder,” which aired on PBS, and she produced and appears in a video for the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association: “ADD: Transition to College—Passport to Success.”
Charles Liekweg has served as President and CEO of AAA Washington since 1998 and is a member of the AAA Washington Board of Trustees. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President of Operations for GTE West and President of GTE Northwest (now Verizon). Over the years Liekweg has held numerous volunteer positions including serving as Chairman of Snohomish County United Way Campaign.
Greg Farrell is the founder and recently retired president and CEO of Expeditionary Learning Schools, a division of Outward Bound, the non-profit adventure and service education organization. He was also a founding trustee of the New York City Outward Bound Center and the New York City Literacy Assistance Center. Previous to his joining Outward Bound, Farrell was Executive Director of the Fund for the City of New York, Assistant Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and executive director of United Progress, the Trenton, New Jersey Anti-Poverty Program. He has received multiple awards for leadership in experience-based education.
Bill Grinstein has served business, federal, and state agencies both domestically and internationally. He has directed numerous studies on regional economics and planning, social policy, environmental impacts, industrial and urban development. He is past chairman of the board of the World Affairs Council, past vice president of the board of the Washington Technology Alliance, and served on the board of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association. Grinstein is the former Associate Director for Public Affairs of Battelle’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and continues to serve as an advisor to both Battelle and the Life Sciences Discovery Fund Authority of the state of Washington. Currently, Grinstein is a member and former chairman of the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board, and serves on both the Seattle District and Seattle Central Community College Foundations.
Dr. Barry Alberstein is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist with a Masters Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelors Degree in Communications. After 20 years of private practice in Seattle, he now consults with the life insurance and financial services industries on both building clientele and activity management systems. In addition to being a featured speaker at many life insurance industry meetings, Alberstein is co-author of the classic Building a Financial Services Clientele and Managing Through the One Card System. These are considered the primary instructional texts in the life insurance industry. Dr. Alberstein maintains an active performance coaching practice as well as an active schedule of writing, consulting and public speaking.
Dick Riordan was an attorney, entrepreneur, and philanthropist before entering public service in 1993 when he was elected Mayor of Los Angeles. He served two terms with an outstanding record in public safety, creating quality jobs, and reforming Los Angeles’ public schools. Riordan’s subsequent appointment as Secretary for Education under Governor Schwarzenegger, was a natural extension of his long-standing civic activism. In addition to his education work for young students, he co-founded The Riordan Programs at The Anderson School at UCLA. The Riordan Programs consist of The Riordan Scholars Program for high school students and The Riordan Fellows Program, serving college students and recent college graduates.
John Vogel is an attorney and partner of the Washington, DC law firm of Patton Boggs LLC. His areas of practice are in Corporate Finance—specifically in working capital and asset-based finance, mergers and acquisitions, project finance, privatization, and Islamic finance. He helps clients navigate complex financings and securities transactions, focusing on conventional and Islamic financings, and on public and private offerings of equity and debt securities in the USA and throughout the world. He was honored to be named as one of the “Leading Lawyers” in Islamic Securitization and Structured Finance in 2009 and 2010, Islamic Finance News. He holds bar admissions in the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York as well as the International Bar Association.
Stanley Barer is co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Saltchuk Resources, Inc. Saltschuk is a privately held holding company for several U.S. flag maritime operating entities including Totem Ocean Trailer, Foss Maritime Co., Sea Star Line, and Interocean American Shipping Corporation. Barer also serves as counsel at Garvey Schubert. Barer has a long history of public service including assistant to Senator Warren G. Magnuson, legal advisor to the US Delegation to the United Nations Conference on World Environment in Stockholm 1972, and Assistant U.S. District Attorney for Western District of Washington. Over the years Barer has served on numerous community and charitable boards including University of Washington Board of Regents, Seattle Chamber of Commerce and U.S. China Clean Energy Forum.
