Board of Trustees
Dana Ward, Board Chair: Dana is an international public health and development expert with 35 years of experience, predominantly in Africa and Asia. In his various roles he has served as Country Representative in five countries with Population Services International and was chair of the board of an international school in West Africa. He currently works for the Vermont Department of Health, in Burlington Vermont. Dana has an MBA in marketing from New York University and holds a Masters of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University. His areas of interest include social marketing and mental health. He is impressed by StrongMinds’ unique, cost-effective, scalable approach that can treat millions without resorting to pharmaceutical solutions.
Paul S. Watford, Treasurer: Paul is a senior financial executive whose background includes manufacturing, utilities, transportation, real estate, and not-for-profit experience. He served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at the Music Institute of Chicago where he was responsible for the financial operations of the organization, facilities management, human resources, and payroll. He began his career as a Mechanical Engineer for a public utility company and then transitioned to manufacturing and transportation where he gained analytical experience with responsibilities in financial reporting and analysis, auditing, and management presentation, human resources, compliance, and controls. He served also as an educator at the City Colleges of Chicago where he taught Accounting, Business, and Finance. Paul earned his MBA in Finance and Management Policy from Northwestern University, his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Howard University, and his BA in History from the University of Rochester. For twelve years, Paul served on the Board of Trustees for St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and on the Board of the Civic Orchestra of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Ancona School in Chicago, IL, the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts Center in Skokie, IL, and Planned Parenthood of Illinois in Chicago, IL. He lives with his family in Chicago, where he enjoys cooking, music, film, books, and travel.
Rehmah Kasule, Trustee: Rehmah is a senior fellow at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Institute (ALI). Prior to ALI, Rehmah Kasule founded and was the president of Century Entrepreneurship Development Agency, a Ugandan nonprofit that has helped over 38,000 youth and women pursue equality and economic development opportunities. Ms. Kasule is also a member of the Parliament of Buganda Kingdom, and has earned multiple global awards recognizing her social impact leadership. She is currently developing the PLUS+AFRICA Apprenticeship and Leadership Institute, an incubator to prepare young people for jobs, promote enterprise development, create links with the private sector, and work with government to strengthen labor market systems that will transform Africa’s workforce.
Ann MacDougall, Trustee: Anna's career has spanned legal and operating roles, and she has worked both in the U.S. and Europe. She is currently the Co-Founder/CEO of Dunollie Fund and the Senior Advisor (formerly President) of Encore.org, a national non-profit that promotes encore careers for the greater good. She was previously Chief Operating Officer of Acumen Fund, a global venture capital fund, and oversaw Acumen’s worldwide operations, strategy, and expansion. Before joining Acumen, she was a partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, where she rose through the ranks to become General Counsel of PwC US and a member of the Management Committee. During her 17 years at PwC, MacDougall also spent five years in Paris as Global Deputy General Counsel. In 2013, MacDougall was a Fellow in the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, a year-long program to prepare experienced executives to take on new challenges in the social sector. She holds a B.A. cum laude from Tufts University and a J.D. cum laude from Brooklyn Law School. She currently sits on two corporate boards, Opiant Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Atmos XR. In her volunteer capacity, she sits on the Audit Committee of the Lycée Français de New York and the Advisory Boards of Equality Now and Global Citizen Year. She also co-leads two journalism fellowships, in partnership with the OpEd Project.
Sean Mayberry, Trustee: Sean, CEO and Founder of StrongMinds, is a former diplomat and social marketer who believes there are simple and cost-effective interventions that can improve mental health, an area that is often overlooked when addressing poverty in the developing world. For years Sean implemented successful HIV/AIDS and malaria programs in Africa and saw firsthand the struggles of the mentally ill. In 2013, he founded StrongMinds with the goal of ending the depression epidemic on the subcontinent. Previously, Sean was the Chief Operating Officer at VisionSpring, where he helped lead the nonprofit’s partnership with BRAC, and a country director for Population Services International in the Democratic Republic of Congo and India. He holds a BS degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Emory University.
James Rude, Trustee: Jim is a Senior Consultant at Graham-Pelton Consulting, specializing in non-profit management, fundraising, non-profit executive leadership, marketing, and volunteer management. Prior to joining Graham-Pelton Consulting, he was the Director of Development and Communications for Worldwide Orphans Foundation (WWO) and led the fundraising efforts for United Way, increasing new funding sources and donor cultivation. Jim has an MBA in Management from Monmouth University and a BA in Business from Muhlenberg College. He believes strongly in the mission of StrongMinds and feels that mental health is too often a forgotten need.
Carol Squire, Trustee: Carol is the Executive Director of Good Cheer, an innovative nonprofit integrating food bank services, organic farming, recycling of previously owned goods, and school and community outreach, which serves the population of southern Whidbey Island in Puget Sound in Washington State. She has spent the last 10 years as a management consultant, focusing on creating strategies to strengthen organizations and teams. Prior to that, she worked in the field for PSI, including as Country Director in India. Before working for PSI, she founded a professional development organization, ECOFORM, for corporations in Africa and grew the enterprise to 200 employees. The non-profit arm of this organization worked with bilateral and multilateral donors. She joined the StrongMinds board because she feels mental health is a basic human right that is not available to most women in Africa. As she explains, “Nothing else is possible for an individual or their family without good mental health.”
Annika Sten Pärson, Trustee: Annika is the Founder and CEO of DanFei Holdings, an investment company focusing on seed-stage investments, and former Chief Operating Officer at Seleni, a New York City-based organization focused on women’s mental and reproductive health. She has served on the Board of Directors for several organizations including Haldex AB and Vi-skogen, an NGO focused on agro-forestry aid in Eastern Africa.
Advisory Board
Harbert Bernard is an entrepreneur and a management consultant at Delaware Consulting in Atlanta, Georgia. Harbert served in the Peace Corps as an English Teacher and Community Development Volunteer in Gabon in West Africa. He is a graduate of Emory Universty’s Goizueta Business School.
Kathleen F. Clougherty, LCSW, is a senior Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) trainer and supervisor at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Instructor in Clinical Psychiatric Social Work (In Psychiatry) at Columbia University, an instructor at the Columbia University School of Social Work, and a private practitioner specializing in the treatment of depression in adolescents and adults. She is the co-author, along with Gregory Henrichsen, of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Older Adults.
Dr. Jordan Kassalow is the Founder and CEO of VisionSpring. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit improves the economic condition of families in the developing world by broadening the availability of reading glasses and other health products and services. Dr. Kassalow has more than 20 years of experience providing eye-care to the world’s poor.
Molly Knight-Raskin is a journalist, producer, writer and special foreign correspondent for PBS NewsHour. She was awarded the 2007 Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism and the 2010 American Psychoanalytic Association’s Award for Excellence in Journalism. Molly is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Peter Read is a Managing Director at Vitruvian; a venture partner at BlueYard and LocalGlobe; an advisor to Entrepreneur First, Future Positive Capital, and StrongMinds; and a Trustee of Frazzled Cafe, Doteveryone, and the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. In addition, he is an angel investor/advisor in over 100 tech startups. Peter received his Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the University of Oxford and his Master in Business Administration from INSEAD.
Dr. Lena Verdeli is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director, Global Mental Health Lab, both at Columbia University. She is also an adjunct Assistant Professor at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where she teaches psychotherapy to psychiatric residents, postdoctoral fellows and psychology interns.
Kathleen F. Clougherty, LCSW, is a senior Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) trainer and supervisor at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Instructor in Clinical Psychiatric Social Work (In Psychiatry) at Columbia University, an instructor at the Columbia University School of Social Work, and a private practitioner specializing in the treatment of depression in adolescents and adults. She is the co-author, along with Gregory Henrichsen, of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Older Adults.
Dr. Jordan Kassalow is the Founder and CEO of VisionSpring. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit improves the economic condition of families in the developing world by broadening the availability of reading glasses and other health products and services. Dr. Kassalow has more than 20 years of experience providing eye-care to the world’s poor.
Molly Knight-Raskin is a journalist, producer, writer and special foreign correspondent for PBS NewsHour. She was awarded the 2007 Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism and the 2010 American Psychoanalytic Association’s Award for Excellence in Journalism. Molly is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Peter Read is a Managing Director at Vitruvian; a venture partner at BlueYard and LocalGlobe; an advisor to Entrepreneur First, Future Positive Capital, and StrongMinds; and a Trustee of Frazzled Cafe, Doteveryone, and the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. In addition, he is an angel investor/advisor in over 100 tech startups. Peter received his Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the University of Oxford and his Master in Business Administration from INSEAD.
Dr. Lena Verdeli is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director, Global Mental Health Lab, both at Columbia University. She is also an adjunct Assistant Professor at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where she teaches psychotherapy to psychiatric residents, postdoctoral fellows and psychology interns.