The Leadership Team
Tianwang Liu – President
Tianwang Liu is an Economist and Applied Scientist at Uber, where she works on improving pricing algorithms based on theory and data. Tianwang recently graduated from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in Economics. Her research was at the intersection of industrial organization and labor economics, covering a wide range of topics, such as land and housing markets, the legal industry, and education policies. Tianwang holds a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University (Merrill Presidential Scholar, the Tapan Mitra Economics Prize for Industrial Organization, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Asian studies minor). In her free time, Tianwang enjoys boxing, aqua fit, equitation, barre, and hiking.
Courtney Walsh – Vice President
Courtney Walsh is a Manager in the People Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young LLP. She was previously Manager of Corporate and Strategic Partnerships at Polaris, where she advised companies on anti-human trafficking initiatives to integrate into their overall operations and supply chains. Ms. Walsh has also served as a management consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton and, before that, a Research Associate and Fellow for Catalyst’s Research Center for Equity in Business Leadership. She began her career in the Dominican Republic, where she taught English and focused on women and youth development at a community development organization. Ms. Walsh holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. in Psychology from Colgate University (High Honors, Phi Beta Kappa). Outside of work, she is an Adjunct Professor in American University’s Kogod School of Business MBA program.
Theodora Skeadas – President Emeritus
Theodora Skeadas is an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she has worked on issues of business strategy and innovation, cyber security, and counter-terrorism. She also works as an independent political consultant, having strategically advised and managed campaigns for Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor and Cambridge City Council. Ms. Skeadas recently graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School with a Master in Public Policy, where she studied International Trade and Finance. Prior to HKS, she worked in Turkey and Iraq on a Fulbright Fellowship, and in Morocco and the West Bank with non-governmental organizations on issues of community empowerment, conflict resolution, and poverty alleviation. Ms. Skeadas graduated from Harvard College in 2012 with a B.A. in Philosophy and Government, and minors in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Modern Standard Arabic, and Modern Greek. Ms. Skeadas has studied French, Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Greek, Moroccan Arabic, Spanish, and Turkish. In her free time, she enjoys running, mountaineering, traveling, and reading.
Masoomeh Khandan – Secretary
Masoomeh Khandan is a visionary leader and Founder/CEO of Mx3P who fearlessly tackles unique and complex problems with innovative solutions on a global scale. Her impressive experience in research, innovation, and leadership has made significant contributions to the development sector and the future of the labor market and businesses in the US and world. Masoomeh is actively involved in helping governments in the growth of entrepreneurship, small businesses, and employment, while also working on tax systems at the DC Government and World Bank.
She is a triple graduate degree holder from prestigious institutions such as Harvard Kennedy School, Georgetown University, and Sharif University of Technology.
Aside from her professional achievements, Masoomeh is an avid sports enthusiast, having played professionally in various sports.
Litcy Ludvic Kurisinkal - Treasurer & Co-Fundraising Chair
Litcy Kurisinkal is a political activist and a Human Rights Professional. She served as the Regional Organizing Director of Democratic Party of Illinois in the Nov 2022 midterm elections. She has been the Illinois State Co-lead for Women for Biden-Harris since the 2020 US Presidential Election campaign. She is the Policy Chair of Women for Color Coalition (WOCC). She served as the elected Chair of the Local School Council (LSC) in the Chicago Public School system.
Ms. Kurisinkal has worked with the OHCHR, UN Special Rapporteur on sale & sexual exploitation of children, ILO, UNDP, UNI Global-SEIU, CARAM Asia, Clean Clothes Campaign, CRS Benin (Africa) and Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s Global March against Child Labor in India. She has led diverse campaigns to defend civil and political rights internationally.
Litcy holds a Master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School and a Masters degree in Mathematics from University of Delhi, India. She was a Cambridge Commonwealth Scholar (1999-2000) in Cambridge University, UK. She was awarded with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Paper Prize in 2013 from Harvard Kennedy School. She currently serves as the Board Member of Harvard Women for Defense, Diplomacy and Development (W3D) and Alumnae-i Network for Harvard Women (ANHW).
Michele Kawamoto Perry - Communications Chair
Michele Kawamoto Perry is the Founder of The Forward Project, a consultancy that provides leadership development and training to support organizations to discover new ways to grow revenues, support diversity and inclusion, and accelerate their impact. She is a multifaceted leader, people developer and adjunct professor with 25+ years of success in business strategy, organization effectiveness and operational excellence. Michele combines astute business acumen with a pioneering vision of the future to coach business leaders on the power of transformational leadership to improve company culture and drive growth.
Michele holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from Harvard University, and a Master of Business Administration from KEDGE (formerly Bordeaux Business School), and Certificates in Change Management and Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. Michele is also an angel investor, a certified sommelier, and a lover of food and travel.
Zaina Adamu - Partnerships Chair
Zaina Adamu is the Democratic Press Secretary for the United States House Select Committee on China. In 2018, she founded Ghana Girl Rising, a social enterprise aimed at improving education access for Ghana’s marginalized young women. Before then, she was a journalist at CNN, covering both the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
During her six-year tenure at CNN, she won a Peabody Award for her contribution to the network’s reporting of the Arab Spring and was selected as a Power 30 Under 30 honoree. As news editor for The Spokesman, she won an Excellence Award for her breaking news coverage of President Barack Obama’s 2008 win.
In Zaina’s free time, she enjoys exploring new coffee shops, experimenting with new recipes (she makes incredible breakfast dishes -- according to her) and volunteering with children. She currently serves as president of Harvard Alumni for Global Development and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English & Journalism from Morgan State University and a Master’s degree in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Kelly Rappuchi - Research Chair
Kelly Rappuchi is a global leadership development specialist. She specializes in designing innovative learning experiences to expand the human skills required for the future. Kelly has implemented programs in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.
Her career began in human rights where she helped distribute the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to 15 countries in their native languages. In 2014, she co-founded CIRCLE, a women’s leadership initiative focused on empowering women in Pakistan. She researches and facilitates sessions on the DNA of women’s leadership.
Kelly received an Ed.M. from Harvard where she was an editor for two of Harvard’s presidents and for Leadership On the Line by Heifetz and Linsky. She was also a teaching fellow at two of the graduate schools.
Erica Leinmiller - Membership Chair
Erica Leinmiller currently serves as an Instructor at Naval Submarine School in Groton, CT, where she focuses on weapons systems. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2013 with a Bachelor’s of Science in English, and received her commission into the U.S. Navy. She completed a Master’s in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2015, and served as a Military Fellow at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. After completing nuclear training in Charleston, SC, she served onboard USS FLORIDA (SSGN 728)(BLUE) from January 2017 to September 2019 as the Assistant Weapons Officer and Chemistry/ Radiological Controls Assistant through two deployments and numerous certification events, and completed another deployment with USS GEORGIA (SSGN 729)(BLUE). During that time, FLORIDA became the second of four submarine crews to integrate female enlisted sailors, in addition to the female officers who have been onboard since 2012.
Nana Karikari - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Chair
Nana Karikari is a multiple award-winning broadcast and digital journalist – with more than a decade of experience in the cable news industry. She received Emmy nominations for her contribution to CNN’s reporting of the 2013 War in Syria and the live coverage of 2013 Israel-Gaza conflict. Karikari is also a Peabody Awards Recipient for the network’s 2011 reporting of the Arab Spring, 2010 coverage of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the coverage of 2008 U.S. Presidential Primary Campaigns and Debates. Additionally, Karikari is a member of the United Nations Correspondent Association.
As a National Producer at Fox News Network, Karikari produces original content and global affairs, including the channel’s live coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In addition to her role in the newsroom, Karikari is assigned to the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where she reports and produces high-stakes meetings and events.
Karikari holds a B.A. in Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media from Temple University. She completed a one-year leadership certification program from Harvard University in 2021.
Lisa Parvin – Fundraising Co-Chair
Lisa Parvin is a global health professional who is working tirelessly to create equitable access to quality healthcare for vulnerable populations. Her work focuses on leveraging diverse partnerships and community engagements to improve healthcare access for the immigrants, refugee and migrant populations. She has worked in academia, government, and non-profit organizations. She was a Global Scholar at the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai in 2018. She graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2019 with a Master in Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery.
Ms. Parvin is an advocate for women’s empowerment and health equity for women and children. She is the founder of Mothers for Global Health－a global network of mothers and their allies working in global health. In addition to being the Co-Fundraising Chair of Harvard Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development (Harvard W3D), she also serves as the Vancouver and Los Angeles Co-Chapter Lead. In her free time, she likes to sing songs, dance and explore new places with her daughter.