Board of Directors

CCI maintains an involved group of 10 Directors who have had personal or professional experience with Russia and the former Soviet Union. They represent professions of banking, financial management, program management, non-profit management, business management, education and cultural anthropology.

Arlie Schardt, Chairman of the Board
Founder and President, Environmental Media Services
Arlie has a long history with non-profit management, fundraising and U.S. government contacts. He traveled to Russia for the first time in 1989, being the leader for a Foundation Executive Delegation under CCI’s Citizen Diplomacy Travel Program. Arlie previously was a TIME magazine correspondent, later Executive Director of the National Resources Defense Council and then Vice President of the Council on Foundations in Washington, D.C. In 1995 Arlie founded Environmental Media Services that provides top-end public relations services for pressing environmental issues of the day.

Susanne Campbell
Fundraiser and Executive
UC Berkeley-St. Petersburg State University School of Management Program
Susanne has had a long history in the USSR and Russia dating back to 1983. For the past several years she has been the driving fundraiser and director behind St. Petersburg’s new School of Management project. The School of Management celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2003. Enrollment in these ten years rose from 35 Russian students to 1,000 Russian and international students. The school offers B.A., M.B.A., Ph. D. degrees in management, finance, marketing, information technology management, human resources, public administration and international business. It also offers fee-based courses for executives and managers, and an International Business Master Degree taught by Russian faculty in English. Susanne is also the Executive Director of the St. Petersburg State University Foundation. She is an artist and sculptor with bronzes at Stanford University and Loyola University.

Don Chapman
Philanthropist and Public Educator
Don was head of a Navy Reserve Unit when he intersected CCI. As a fighter pilot with 199 combat missions over Vietnam against MIGs, he was not predisposed to Russians. He traveled to the USSR to learn for himself about the country. He met ordinary Russians and was taken into the homes of scientists and entrepreneurs. Don has made a dozen trips to the USSR and Russia. Currently he funds retired scientists, provides loans for entrepreneurs, and brings Russian children to the U.S. at his own personal expense. When not doing CCI duties, he volunteers time to run programs for minority and disadvantaged youth in his state of Georgia.

Patricia Dowden
Senior Vice President, Core States Bank (Ret.)
Pat, a retired Senior Vice President of Core States Bank (now Wachovia Bank), began her Russia career in 1997 as manager of a World Bank Financial Institutions Development Project. She led the World Bank team as they worked with Alfa Bank, now recognized as the largest private national bank in Russia. Pat and her team assisted Alfa Officers to prepare for the 1998 financial crash. Alfa weathered the crash with fewer consequences than other Russian banks. Pat continues to be active in Russian projects, assisting CCI programs and other smaller projects. She has done extensive research into the role of Russia’s first post-Socialist entrepreneurs. Pat has also done consulting for banks in Armenia. She is a member of the board of directors of the Global Interdependence Center.

Anthony Garrett
Vice President of Policy and Development, Internews
Anthony has extensive background in national and international campaign management, fundraising and communications and has worked with key Congressional members for twenty years. Currently, Anthony is Vice President of Policy and Development for the independent media 501(c)(3), Internews. Anthony has worked intensively to expand Internews’ telecommunication policy and was instrumental in developing programs in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, East and South East Europe and Latin America. He is in charge of strategizing and coordinating development efforts worldwide. Anthony was instrumental in introducing CCI’s President to key Congress members and USAID officers. He has also overseen CCI’s political delegations

Nancy Glaser
International Business Consultant
Nancy is a specialist in business and financial strategies for start-up, growing, turnaround and repositioning businesses. She has over 30 years of experience in retail, wholesale and consumer products industries. Her background includes practical international experience in financial investments and business development. For three years Nancy played an instrumental role as the Executive Director of CCI’s Russian Initiative for Self-Employment (RISE) program that created the Apparel Innovation Center, a USAID funded apparel/fashion industry-specific business incubator for entrepreneurs in St. Petersburg. She also developed functional and design requirements for the job-training center in postwar Kabul, Afghanistan. Nancy served as a general partner with U.S. Venture Partners. Nancy currently serves on the board of directors of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Alumni Association and Stanford’s Alumni Consulting Team (ACT).

Lily Golden
Soviet Specialist and Author
Lily is one of the few African-Americans who lived her entire life in the USSR. For 40 years she was at the African Institute of Russian Academy of Science in Moscow. She later spent ten years as a professor at Chicago State University, where she received an Honorary Doctor degree in Humane Letters. In addition to CCI, she is on the board of directors of Russian Charity Foundation (Zhuravlick); International Cross-Cultural Black Women's Institute (council of elders), New York; the Committee on Women (European Union), Brussels; the Committee on Racism (UN, UNESCO) and many other international boards. She has published more than 100 articles and a book about African history and African culture. Her last works include “The Issue on Pushkin” and her memoirs "Long Journey Home" (Chicago). Lily has made speeches in Moscow’s Duma, Committee of UN on Racism (Barbados and Paris) and African Diplomatic Corps in Moscow.

Eric Hart
Founder and President, PSFG Pine Street Financial Group
Eric’s PSFG specializes in risk management and financial structuring. PSFG’s clients include: World Bank Financial Institutions Project, Russia; China Everbright Bank; Central Bank of Egypt; and Central American Bank for Economic Integration among others. Previously Eric was Executive Vice President at First Fidelity Bancorporation, and Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Policy Officer for CoreStates Financial Corporation.

Francis Macy
President, Center for Safe Energy
Fran was a Soviet Studies major in the 1960s and has been actively involved with the USSR and former Soviet Union for the last thirty years. His greatest commitment is in environmentalism. He was Senior Advisor to CCI’s Environmental Initiative specializing in issues of nuclear facilities and cleanup waste strategies. He still leads delegations of Americans to former Soviet nuclear weapons sites and works with local citizens on issues of waste-cleanup strategies. Fran was awarded Russia’s 2002 Environmental Prize to acknowledge his long dedication to assist with these crucial issues.

James Sorenson
School Principal (Ret.)
Jim was deeply involved in CCI’s work from the late 80s forward. He traveled with CCI to Russia first in 1987 at which time he visited schools in several cities and developed friendships with students that continue to the present. He has assisted Russian youth to finish high school in the U.S. and go on to obtain undergraduate and graduate degrees in the U.S. Jim also led a Citizen Diplomacy delegation of American students to the south of Russia where they met with a delegation of Russian students to work on a fruit farm as a project of international cooperation. He has been generous with volunteer tasks and financial support to CCI throughout the years.

Sharon Tennison
Founder and President, Center for Citizen Initiatives
Sharon spearheaded the start and development of CCI in the early 80s. It has grown from a coffee-table discussion to a 501(c)(3) organization with a multi-million dollar annual budget. Sharon has designed all CCI’s programs and raised over $60 million to implement them. Prior to CCI, she was an ICU Registered Nurse and founded Dove Professional Apparel, a manufacturing company that produces medical wear. Sharon was highlighted as one of nine persons in Citizen Diplomats: Pathfinders in Soviet American Relations in 1985. She produced When the People Lead video in 1984. In 1993 Tennison received a White House Appointment to sit on the 13-member Board for the Russian American Enterprise Fund. Sharon is known for creating and executing streamlined, low-budget, cost-shared technical assistance programs for the U.S. government.

Neil R. G. Young
Charter Life Underwriter and Chartered Financial Consultant
Neil began his career in the insurance industry, specializing in retirement and investment planning. He eventually broadened his practice to include full financial planning for entrepreneurial family-owned businesses. Neil is involved in several organizations that help train managers of emerging businesses in Russia. In connection with this work, he has visited Russia many times and hosted a number of Russian entrepreneurs. A frequent lecturer to financial professionals on topics related to financial, retirement and estate planning, Neil mentors an entrepreneurial agent group, which he founded to assist young agents in the ethics and practice of financial planning. In addition to membership in many professional groups, Neil is a grant-making trustee of The James Foundation and a former member of the board of the Baltimore Opera Company.