Advisory Board for International Affairs

Carol Ann Brown

Retired Senior Special Agent, U.S. Department of Defense

Carol Ann Brown graduated from KU in 1972 with a B.A. in French. After retirement from a civilian career with the Department of Defense, she has served on the National Board of the KU Alumni Association, the KU Women Philanthropists, and the Board of the Spencer Art Museum. She believes that international education broadens perspectives and gives students tools to become better leaders, and the ability to understand perspectives of others who come from different backgrounds. Through her service on the KUIA Advisory Board, she hopes to support the development of future leaders with the ability to listen to different points of view and work through issues with thoughtful responses.

G. Wayne Burge

Retired Vice President, Provider Contracting & Reimbursement, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of KC

Wayne Burge graduated from KU in 1974 with a degree in chemistry and Latin American studies. He participated in the Junior Year Abroad program at The University of Costa Rica in San Jose for two semesters in 1973. He received financial support from the University in the form of a small scholarship. After graduation, he worked for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City for thirty-two years and retired in 2009. The year he spent in Costa Rica was life-changing, and he has always felt a desire to repay the opportunity provided to him. That desire led him to establish a scholarship fund to assist other students seeking to study abroad in Latin America with a preference for those heading to Costa Rica. He views his participation on the KUIA Advisory Board as another way in which he can assist current students with their desires to study abroad.

Lesley L. Elwell

Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer & Chief People Officer, Evergy, Inc.

Lesley Elwell leads Evergy’s human resources organization with an emphasis on talent strategy, employee engagement, organizational development, and performance management. She has more than 25 years of experience holding human resources and operations leadership roles for large, publicly traded companies in consumer and business-to-business industries. Elwell currently serves on the boards of Tecta America, a commercial nationwide roofing company, Operation Breakthrough, the Full Employment Council and Kansas City & Vicinity Area Workforce Investment Board, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She also serves on the advisory board for the Kansas City Girls’ Preparatory Academy. Elwell received her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira, Venezuela and a master's of engineering management from KU where she was a Fulbright Scholar.

James D. Harder

Advisory Board Chair

Director, Communications & Public Affairs, Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries

James Harder is the director of communications and public affairs at Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries in Boston. He holds a B.A. in English and political science with a minor in journalism from the University of Kansas, and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Chicago. With more than 30 years of experience in communications—as a journalist, media relations specialist, and nonprofit communicator—Harder brings a broad and nuanced perspective to his work. Internationally, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon and spent six months in Germany teaching English. He lives in Boston with his wife, Emma, a television producer, and their daughter, Sunny.

Roger L. Hiatt

Owner, Hiatt, LLC, Attorney-at-Law

Roger Hiatt is an attorney practicing in Kansas City, Missouri with Hiatt, LLC, formerly a partner with Stinson. His practice has been internationally focused and includes international trade and business-related immigration. Notably, he was being one of the lead attorneys in changing U.S. asylum law to support approval of asylum for Chinese nationals fleeing China's one-child policy. He has taught international law in schools including UMKC and has taught short courses in Hungary, Romania, Georgia, Russia, and Austria. His community engagement has been primarily in the international area. Hiatt’s bachelor's degree from Washburn University included study abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. His law degree is from Washington University. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Nancy, France, received a Master of Laws degree from Columbia University, and an MBA from KU. He speaks French and Spanish (fluent), Portuguese and Italian (intermediate), Japanese (survival) and Danish (rudimentary).

Nicole R. Horton

Advisory Board Vice Chair

Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Nicole Horton was an honors undergraduate of KU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She majored in east Asian languages and culture with an emphasis on Mandarin. She also enjoyed political science, advanced German studies and French language classes, among other coursework. Her time at KU was a formative experience in her life. Having grown up overseas in a bilingual household, she has always been exposed to and interested in world affairs, languages, and different cultures. Her own education – both at KU and Thunderbird/AGSIM – and work opportunities have contributed to and broadened her international knowledge. Knowing how much her life has been shaped and enriched by these experiences, she believes access to international education for students is critical to opening doors for similar opportunities. As a KUIA Advisory Board member, she seeks to contribute knowledge gained from her own experiences to support KU's international initiatives and to contribute to fundraising efforts for the university's international programs, including study abroad.

Jill Kleinberg 

Faculty Emeritus, KU School of Business

After receiving an undergraduate degree from KU with a double major in history and east asian studies in 1967, spending her junior year in Japan, Jill Kleinberg earned a master’s degree in Japanese studies and a doctoral degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan. In 1988 she returned to KU as a faculty member in the School of Business, having done extensive postgraduate research on Japanese firms operating both in Southern California and in Japan. At KU she developed courses on Business Culture and Society in East Asia and Comparative and Cross-cultural Management. Her research focus continued to be cross-cultural interaction between employees in multinational work organizations, with a focus on the U.S.-Japan interface. Since her retirement in 2007, it has been Kleinberg’s pleasure as a member of the KUIA Advisory Board to bring her experience as an educator with an international, cross-cultural perspective to helping KU maintain its leadership role in the area of international education.

Jack Martin

Vice President for Marketing & Communications, University of Washington

Jack Martin earned two degrees from KU – a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2000 and a master of public administration degree in 2008. His education has served him well in his communications career, first in government and politics and then in higher education, including working in KU’s Office of Public Affairs as director of strategic communications. Since 2015 he has been at the University of Washington, where in 2022 he was appointed vice president for marketing and communications. Martin’s grandparents took him to the U.K. and Ireland when he was 10, sparking a life-long interest in international affairs. While he didn’t study abroad while at KU – his main regret from college – he has taken part in a German Marshall Fund of the United States fellowship and two GMF study trips, in addition to his own personal travels. He hopes to help provide opportunities for KU students to travel and study abroad. He believes we can each learn something about ourselves and our own countries and communities when we see how other people live.

Patrick (Pat) A. Mawhinney

President, Lumber Specialists, Inc.

KU offered Pat Mawhinney the opportunity to major in Japanese at a time when no other school in the Midwest offered that option. He studied international relations at Sophia University in Tokyo from 1992-1993 and graduated from KU with his B.A. in Japanese and political science in 1995. He then moved back to Japan, where he worked as an English teacher to junior high and high school students in Kurashiki for six years. The experience of living in Japan showed him the benefits of an international education first-hand. It refocused his vision of "me" to an inclusive "we." Mawhinney is now president of Lumber Specialists, Inc., a Missouri-based company that serves markets across the U.S. and internationally. Through his service on the KUIA Advisory Board, he enjoys being a part of like-minded peers that share a similar vision. He believes that as a growing community, we need younger minds to see and experience what lies beyond simply their front doors and instead, gain an interest in what lies beyond the horizon.

Richard S. Paegelow

Former Managing Director, Inline Translation Services, Inc.

Richard Paegelow earned a B.A. in Spanish and Latin American area studies and an M.A. in political science from KU. He has been a member of the KUIA Advisory Board for over a decade. He hopes the board can preserve and enhance the study abroad opportunities that they enjoyed as students at KU. Paegelow participated in the KU Junior Year Abroad Program in Costa Rica in 1969. Later, he received a Fulbright Scholarship for graduate studies in Quito, Ecuador. After earning an MBA degree from Columbia University in New York City, Paegelow spent a year with the Institute of Engineering of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), where he also taught a core course in financial accounting to MBA students. He worked fifteen years in general banking. Then, in 1983, he purchased Inline Translation Services, which had started as a private language school, and used it as a base to build a successful translation company specializing in the translation of written materials from English to other languages.

Jean Hardy Robinson

Retired Principal, JHR Resources, Inc.

Participation in the French Summer Language Institute after Jean Hardy Robinson’s freshman year at KU, made possible by a scholarship, opened the world to her and changed her life in many positive ways. That support has inspired her to give others financial access to study abroad in francophone countries. That summer program followed by a senior year in Bordeaux and a Fulbright research year in Paris solidified her love of literature and France. All choices of her eclectic career in higher education, private sector consulting, and not-for-profit leadership and consulting have been international in scope. She values KU’s challenging mission to internationalize the worldview of students, faculty and staff and happily accepted the opportunity to support that mission through service on the KUIA Advisory Board.

Thomas (Tom) A. Rudkin

Retired Software Developer

Tom Rudkin’s career as a software development engineer and manager spanned Intel, Bell Northern Research, VisiCorp, Control Data, Forethought and Microsoft. While at Forethought, Rudkin was one of two developers who wrote the initial version of PowerPoint for Macintosh, released in 1987. He received a B.A. in math with highest distinction and honors from the KU in 1973 and an M.S. in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1976. He was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008 by KU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Since 1976, Rudkin has lived with his wife Jann in Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area. They travel extensively inside and outside of the U.S. and spend lots of time with their two grandsons.

Leslie McElfresh Schweitzer

Senior VP, Capitalize LLC

President, Friends of the American University of Afghanistan

Leslie Schweitzer’s family has been associated with KU for three generations. She studied at KU for two years, then at University of Copenhagen, and transferred and graduated from George Washington University in D.C. She remains a loyal Jayhawk. Her entire life has been influenced by her study abroad experience. Her career has been dedicated to starting and building international businesses in dozens of countries. After selling her company, she worked as senior trade advisor at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce promoting the passage of free trade agreements with China, Chile, Peru, South Korea, Panama, etc. Over the last 15 years,  Schweitzer has been on the board of American University of Afghanistan and started a 501(c)(3), Friends of American University of Afghanistan. She is a member of U.S. Afghan Women's Council, on the advisory board of International Stability Operations Association, and on the boards of AUAF, Ayenda (Afghanistan), U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and Washington, D.C.-Virginia District Export Council. She is extremely proud of her Kansas roots and of KU’s extraordinary international programs.

Jessica (Jessie) Townsend Teague

Founder/Owner, Illustrate It! LLC

Jessie Teague’s eclectic professional life began as a French teacher, thanks to skills and interest acquired at KU as a French and political science student and on KU's junior year abroad program in Bordeaux, France. She found French very helpful when she turned to work in the fields of democracy building and electoral process behind the once Iron Curtain. She consulted with NGOs, the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, Defense & Education, designing and directing civil society and leadership development programs overseas and stateside. She spent 20+ years teaching elements of multi-national political leadership as an adjunct faculty member of Georgetown University, George Washington University, and the Greek Association of Atlantic and European Cooperation. As a graphic facilitator,   Teague now find arts' agency lowers cultural barriers via inclusion and transparency. International education's importance is core for her, be it as an au pair rep or as manager of a congressional commission on study abroad. Her hope is to make it accessible, affordable and included in every KU student experience!

Ronald (Ron) Wasinger

Senior Vice President & General Counsel, LG Electronics USA, Inc.

Currently a resident of Nyack, New York, Ron Wasinger grew up in Russell, Kansas and graduated from KU with a B.A. in German and political science in 1990. He participated in the 1988 KU German Summer Language Institute in Holzkirchen, Germany. He graduated from the University of Texas School of Law at Austin with a J.D. in 1993. After working with law firms for a few years, he served in the Sony Electronics legal department for 19 years and has now been General Counsel for LG Electronics USA since 2019.  Wasinger’s career has given him extensive opportunities for business travel in Asia for 25 years, covering broad areas such as technology/business development, international trade, manufacturing, and marketing. He has also supported significant projects before the European Commission and Brazilian competition authorities. Wasinger is an avid traveler. As the newest member of the KUIA Advisory Board, he hopes his experiences internationally as a student, business executive, and lawyer will in a small way help KU maintain and expand its exceptional international programs.