Our Board of Directors:
Judi Holley
President
Judi Holley served as president of Do Unto Others (DUO) - a federation representing international emergency relief, development and humanitarian charities - for 12 years. A retired federal employee, she has been involved in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) for nearly 30 years. She has been a CFC donor, a local CFC volunteer, and founder and board member of three CFC federations. During her tenure as DUO's president, she participated in the National CFC Committee as the designated representative of her federation. Ms. Holley brings particular expertise to LAF with her in-depth understanding of CFC federation admissions and fiscal oversight policies and processes.
Ms. Holley is a long-time participant in nonprofit organizations in her home state of Washington. These activities include; The Governor's Advisory Council for Vocational Rehabilitation, the Criminal Justice Training Commission, South Puget Sound Cultural Diversity Coalition, and the Pierce County Sheriffs Advisory Board and Jail Citing Task Force. She is currently leading a Pierce County pilot program for community involvement sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Lori Piccolo
Lori Piccolo has extensive experience in nonprofit fundraising. Currently, she is the Director of Development for the Washington Office on Latin America, where she has been since 1998. Prior to that, in 1996 and 1997, she was the Assistant Director of Development for Foundations and Corporations at People for the American Way. Ms Piccolo has also served as the Development Officer for the National Museum of Health and Medicine Foundation and as Major Gifts Manager for Public Citizen, Inc.
Ms. Piccolo has also provided assistance to nonprofit organizations as a volunteer. She was a founding member of the board of Human and Civil Rights Organizations of America. And, since 1982, she has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Chicago-based Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund.
Edward Novak
A Federal employee for 30 years, Edward Novak has been actively involved in the Combined Federal Campaign - as donor, loaned executive, community campaign leader, and national volunteer. A member of the National CFC Committee, Mr. Novak is also a member of the campaign's National Advisory Council, which includes senior volunteers from around the nation.
Since 1997, Mr. Novak has been helping to direct the Baltimore area campaign, the fourth largest CFC in the nation. He chairs that campaign which, under his leadership, has expanded substantially, both in money raised and percent of the workforce participating.
During his federal career, Mr. Novak has managed operations and policy staffs involved in the administration of a national labor management relations program. In addition, he was directly involved with the development and implementation of an alternative dispute resolution program aimed at addressing and resolving workplace conflict in non-adversarial ways.
Mr. Novak is a practicing attorney in Maryland, serves as an ad hoc hearing examiner for a local Board of Education and is an arbitrator with Better Business Bureau. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Maryland State Bar association and the Association for Conflict Resolution.
Marshall Strauss
Marshall Strauss is president of Human & Civil Rights Organizations of America, a CFC federation representing some 70 charities. He is also a former chairman of the National CFC Committee.
Active in human rights and the charity field for most of three decades Mr. Strauss has held a number of senior posts and served on several not for profit boards. During the early 1990s, he helped establish and served as the initial CEO of two international organizations whose programs supported democracy activists overseas: The Democracy for China Fund and Freedom Channel. As executive director of the China Fund, he organized and participated in the 1991 human rights delegation to China led by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. During his tenure at Freedom Channel, that organization produced and aired on nationwide Russian television numerous human rights documentaries.
During the 1980s, Mr. Strauss served as associate director of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Child Welfare League of America. Earlier, he served as special assistant to Massachusetts Governor Francis Sargent and special assistant to U.S. Senator John Durkin, among other positions. Strauss was a research associate at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy from 1994-96, and an adjunct member of the faculty of Emerson College in 1995. Here and overseas, he has been interviewed extensively on issues of human rights by, among others, the Associated Press, UPI, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, ABC News, Actuel (Paris), BBC, and Russian National Television.
Meghan Walsh
Meghan Walsh is an architect whose practice is based in Washington DC. She is the founder of Axis Mundi, a not-for-profit organization which arranges for U.S. architect students and professionals to work in Brazilian shantytowns. Participants from the United States partner with Brazilians to design and build affordable and practical housing for the poor in that country.
The owner of Meghan Walsh Architecture, www.mn-architecture.com, Walsh has taught as an adjunct faculty member at the schools of architecture at Howard University and the Catholic University of America. She also served for three years as a resident fellow of the Alice Lloyd Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. At Michigan, she chose as her thesis “Urban Housing in Durban, South Africa.” Her thesis proposed a new approach to housing in the squatter area known as Cato Manor. It re-examined the Master Planning approach of “imposed design” and offered a different method of development by providing seeds for the natural development of community architecture.
The launch of Axis Mundi reflected Walsh’s deep concern for social and economic equality, her belief in alternative and expansive educational models, and her desire to test environmentally responsible building techniques. In addition to her work in Brazil, Walsh has worked overseas with the FUX Team in the Czech Republic and with the Architect’s Collaborative in South Africa.
Walsh’s work in the U.S. has included a project in Washington DC through which young graffiti artists designed and developed “Woven Identities,” a work that has hung in the DC Metro since 1999. She has designed several projects for the Latin American Youth Center, also in Washington, DC. Her office is currently designing a Montessori School for Momies TLC, another not-for-profit.
Meet our Board of Advisors
