Pamela Schiess
Pamela Schiess is Chair of the Executive Board at LitWorld. She is the Executive director at Morgan Stanley, and in this role, she works on New Product Development and Partnerships supporting Morgan Stanley U.S. Banks’ Residential Loan business. Formerly, Pamela has held roles in Project Management, Operations, Risk Management, Digital Marketing & Strategy, and Digital Product Development. At Morgan Stanley, she also serves as co-chair of the Women of the U.S. Banks employee networking group. She is a founding member of Level, a multiracial community of women tackling the racial wealth gap by investing in Black women. Pamela earned her BS in Broadcast Journalism and Judaic Studies from the University of Miami, and her MA in International Economic Development from the University of Denver.
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Thais Carter
Thais Carter is the Director for Strategic Initiatives at Princeton Theological Seminary, guiding work that deepens engagement with a broader public, including online learning, live events, and more. In addition to her strategic work, she directs Iron Sharpening Iron, the Seminary’s executive leadership program for women. Before coming to higher education, Thais developed expertise across a variety of fields, including publishing, marketing, and nonprofits. In all her vocational pursuits, storytelling and lifelong learning have been the connective threads. Thais received her MPA at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She lives in Princeton, NJ with her family.
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Brenda Joy Gilmore
Brenda Joy Gilmore serves as Secretary for LitWorld and is an Independent Consultant, Certified Professional Coach, and proud owner of BJGsolutions. She also holds the position of Senior Director of People & Culture with Gin & Luck, Inc. The majority of Brenda’s volunteerism has been led by her passion to nurture and champion children. For years, she has utilized her gift of writing and creativity to inspire people from all walks of life, most especially children from marginalized communities. Thus, her appointment to the LitWorld Board of Directors allows her opportunity to achieve one of her long-awaited goals of being a blessing to children around the world by promoting an atmosphere that cultivates educational equity through literacy.
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Nicole Nakashian
Nicole Nakashian, recognized as one of The Top 25 Financial Technology COOs by The Financial Technology Report, brings over 25 years of operational leadership to Communify, the Financial AI, Digital & Data Solutions Company. Most recently, she served as COO of InvestCloud, where she helped scale the platform to over $6 trillion in assets.
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Katie Somerville
Katie Somerville is a Senior Strategist at Adobe Inc.’s Digital Strategy Group. She advises top Fortune 500 retail corporations helping them to optimize their online presence and assisting them successfully effect their digital transformation. Katie holds a BA degree from University of Michigan where she was a James B. Angell Scholar and admitted to Phi Kappa Phi. While at Michigan, Katie was on the board and the Executive Director of PALMA (Proyecto Avance: Latino Mentoring Association), which provided tutoring to Hispanic students and parents in the Ann Arbor area. Katie received her MBA from Columbia Business School where she received the Student Service Award. Katie is passionate about early education and reading and has interned at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad in Chile and at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard University. Katie lives in Manhattan.
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Naama Wrightman
Dr. Naama Wrightman has trained thousands of teachers, facilitators, and leaders, both domestically and internationally. She is currently the Global Head of Learning and Development at Scoot Education, where she leads programs for teachers and school support staff. She has spent her career building innovative pipelines into the teaching profession, including leading the teacher residency program at Relay New York and serving on the founding team of TeachStart, Scoot Education's substitute-to-certification pipeline program. Naama is passionate about early literacy, having started her career as an elementary school teacher in Washington, DC and later in Brooklyn. She holds a BA in International Affairs from The George Washington University, an M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from American University, and an Ed.D from the University of Southern California in Organizational Change and Leadership. She lives in New York and in her free time enjoys spicy food, long walks, and reading stories with her two daughters.
Georgiy Zhikharev
Georgiy Zhikharev is Litworld’s Treasurer, and a Director of Investments at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, based in New York. His team is responsible for enhancing investment process and coordinating investment research and technology efforts across Wealth Management Investment Solutions platform, as well as fostering and overseeing a robust investment governance framework for internal and external investment solutions. Georgiy’s career spans roles in Risk Management, Portfolio Management and Alternative Investments. He is passionate about diversity and has been a sponsor of the Women’s Network within his business, focused of female empowerment, retention and engagement. Georgiy was born and raised in Kazan, Russia and came to US for his master’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago. He also holds a Ph.D.-equivalent degree in Economics and teaches at Fordham University Graduate Business School. Georgiy resides in Englewood Cliffs, NJ with his wife and two daughters. He is passionate about children education, creative writing, bread baking, and chess.
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