Susan has worked at WTCI since 2018. Her career has spanned retail, e-commerce, product development and design, supply chains, sustainability and entrepreneurship. Susan has held executive roles at large global brands and key management roles at start-ups. She founded a leading sustainable home goods brand that incorporated climate science, style and breakthrough innovation into its products and created the first climate index for home decor and furniture products.

Susan is an outspoken corporate leader and advocate for sustainability and the environment; diversity, equity and inclusion; and the advancement of women’s and human rights. She has been an inspirational leader throughout her career and believes leaders possess unique opportunities to leverage their professional platforms for growth and good.

She served on the United States Department of Treasury CEO Roundtable Commission during the Obama Administration and currently serves on the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service President’s Council. She earned her bachelor's degree in business administration at Georgia State University.

Fun fact: Susan used to be a professional tennis player.

Meredith Persily is CEO and founder of executive-coaching firm Aspire@Work, a consultant and facilitator, and adjunct professor/lecturer in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at American University. She specializes in the leadership challenges of complex, global organizations in government, technology, healthcare, and financial services. Meredith has explored the frontiers of aspirational leadership, human behavior, and organizational development. She is co-author of Six Paths to Leadership: Lessons from Successful Executives, Politicians, Entrepreneurs, and More (Palgrave Macmillan, June 2021).  Meredith earned an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and her B.A. with honors from Brown University.

Marc Pritchard believes in the power of brands to serve people with the best performing products, while also being a force for good through ethics and responsibility, community impact, diversity and inclusion, gender equality and environmental sustainability. He has more than 20 years of experience in the Beauty and Personal Care categories. As chief brand officer, he is responsible for brand building disciplines worldwide, including marketing and advertising strategies, leading marketing innovations and brand building for an extensive portfolio of clients.

Eddie has worked at WTCI since 2007. He has served in various leadership roles, including chief operating officer. His passion for international business and affairs, coupled with a desire to develop the next generation of global leaders, has contributed to the success of many of WTCI’s professional development programs.

Prior to WTCI, Eddie worked with TESSCO Technologies Inc., a leading global supplier of wireless communications products. He also played a central role in the development of Gems of the Earth, a nonprofit organization that promotes social and economic development in the rural communities of Brazil, making modern technology accessible to all who seek it.

Eddie and his family migrated to the United State from Brazil when he was 11. He is an advocate for human rights issues and serves as vice chair of the Board of Directors of the Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Services. 

Eddie earned his bachelor’s degree in international business from Towson University and Master of Business Administration degree from Georgetown University. He has also studied culinary arts at Académie de Cuisine.

Fun fact: Eddie is an All-American Soccer Player.

Krish is the President and CEO of Global Refuge. She previously served in the Obama White House as Policy Director for First Lady Michelle Obama and at the State Department as Senior Advisor under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry.

Krish has committed her career to public service because she knows how differently life could have turned out. Krish was 9-months old when she and her family escaped a country on the brink of civil war and built a life in Maryland. Her parents came to this country with no jobs and $200 in their pockets.

Krish is a graduate from Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County and then attended Yale College, where she earned a Master’s degree in Political Science and a B.S. in Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University, where she received an M.Phil. in International Relations, before returning to Yale Law School, where she served on the Yale Law Journal.

Krish’s interest in public service and grassroots politics began at an early age. In elementary school, Krish went knocking door to door with her mother in support of Senator Barbara Mikulski when she won her historic first race for the Senate. In college, Krish worked for another great public servant when she spent her summer back from college working for Senator Paul Sarbanes.

At the White House, Krish served as Policy Director for Michelle Obama and led the First Lady’s signature Let Girls Learn initiative. At the State Department, she coordinated development and implementation of multiple programs including those concerning refugees and migration, engagement with religious communities, the legal dimensions of U.S. foreign policy, and regional issues relating to Africa and the Middle East.  She worked closely with USAID, Health & Human Services and the Department of Defense.

Before joining the White House, Krish practiced law at Jenner & Block in Washington, DC, clerked for Chief Judge Michael Boudin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and taught at Georgetown University as an adjunct. She has been recognized as one of The Daily Record’s “Top 100 Women” and serves on the Advisory Committee of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration.

Krish and her husband, Collin O’Mara are the parents of a young daughter, Alana.

Deborah (Deb) Kielty is a global business leader and strategic advisor with operational and strategic leadership experience in the private and non-profit sectors. She became the WTCI president and executive director in 2001 and served in that role until 2019. In 2022, she was named WTCI’s first president emeritus. Prior to joining WTCI, Deb climbed the brand management ranks at Procter & Gamble over a 20-year period, culminating as vice president of global alliances and licensing. Deb is the board chair of the P&G Alumni Foundation and serves on the board of advisors for Jhpiego and Baltimore Outreach Services. he holds a master’s degree in international management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Astrid is WTCI’s first vice president of programs and fellowships. Prior to joining the team in January 2022, she was an executive in residence at the Sellinger School of Business at Loyola University Maryland. In that role, she taught business law, international business, and ethics and corporate social responsibility. She also was the director of the international business program, academic director of the honors program and chair of the Building a Better World Through Business initiative.

Prior to academia, Astrid practiced law in the fields of immigration law, business compliance and health care policy in Washington, D.C. and New York City.

She has participated in a Fulbright International Education Administrators Seminar and the American Council on Germany’s immigration delegation in Berlin; authored “Foreign Law and Policy;” and, in 2020, completed WTCI’s Emerging and Developing Global Executive program. She also is a WTCI Bowe Fellow. 

She holds several academic degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Juris Doctor, Masters of Law and a hybrid Master of Arts.

Astrid is currently an ambassador for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, a participant with the Global Diplomacy Lab and a fellow with Johns Hopkins’ American Institute for Contemporary German Studies  project on “Social Divisions and Questions of Identity in Germany and the United States."

Fun fact: Astrid's family owned a luncheonette in Queens, NY, her hometown for 50 years.

Charise brings to WTCI nearly 15 years of experience working in education, small business and economic development for the public sector, including the City of Greenbelt, MD. She cultivated partnerships with business leaders, developed curriculum for a business education program and worked closely with corporations, educational institutions and community organizations to advance economic development projects. She also served as a liaison to local businesses and supported Covid 19 recovery efforts. Prior to working in government, she did marketing for a science magazine publisher.

Charise has a master’s degree in nonprofit management from the New School University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Pace University, both located in New York City.

Fun fact: Charise stumbled into learning how to make avatar characters that she uses to create fun stationery.