Our Board of Directors

As a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, our Board of Directors includes 17 individuals with extensive experience in advocacy, fundraising, finance, communications, and international development. The board oversees Jesuit Refugee Service/USA’s work and helps to ensure we make progress in service of our mission to accompany, serve, and advocate for the rights of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons around the world.

Current members:

  • Robert H. Niehaus (Chair of the Board)

    Mr. Niehaus is the Chairman and Founder of GCP Capital Partners LLC, an independent private equity investment firm founded in 2009, which currently manages several private successor firms to Greenhill Capital Partners LLC.

  • Austin Fragomen Jr. (Vice Chair of the Board)

    Mr. Fragomen Jr. is the Chairman of the Executive Committee for Fragomen Worldwide and has served as staff counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, and international law.

  • Molly Cashin

    Mrs. Cashin has long experience as a writer, editor, development officer, policy analyst, and administrator for nonprofit organizations based in both the United States and Africa.

  • Lynn Gordon

    Ms. Gordon is the Founder and CEO of Madonna Mission, a not-for-profit organization that provides educational support programs for refugees in the Chicago area.

  • Kate Howe

    Kate Howe has extensive experience in the nonprofit world. She has held a myriad of roles in local and regional schools, religious organizations, and social service agencies in her hometown of Pleasantville, NY and in the greater New York City area. Her primary efforts have focused on literacy and educational empowerment.

  • Rosemary Kilkenny

    Rosemary Kilkenny is Georgetown University’s first Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity. Before this appointment, Rosemary held the position of Special Assistant to the President for Affirmative Action Programs at Georgetown and served as Director of Affirmative Action at SUNY Albany.

  • Hiroko Kusuda

    Hiroko Kusuda is Clinic Professor and Director of Immigration Law Section of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic and Center for Center for Social Justice. Under her supervision, student practitioners represent clients before the U.S. Department of Justice Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and federal courts.

  • Thomas Loughlin

    Mr. Loughlin is a Managing Director with Promontory Financial Group LLC, a leading strategy, risk management, and regulatory compliance consulting firm focusing primarily on the financial services industry.

  • Susan Martin

    Ms. Martin is the Donald G. Herzberg Professor Emeritus of International Migration and the Founder of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

  • Frank Mueller

    Mr. Mueller a Medical Director of Palliative Medicine at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital in Santa Rosa, California.

  • Mark Palmer

    Mark Palmer is a financial executive with experience in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. He served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Catholic Relief Services for 19 years and is currently on the steering committee of the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative and the investment committee of CRS’ “Closing the Opportunity Gap” investment vehicle. He lives in Baltimore, MD and is the head of the Finance Committee at his parish, St. Vincent de Paul.

  • Rev. Brian Paulson, S.J.

    Fr. Brian Paulson, S.J. is President of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Prior to his current position, he served as provincial of the USA Midwest Province, president of Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, and as rector of the Loyola University Chicago Jesuit Community. Fr. Paulson earned a bachelor’s degree in international economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. before joining the Jesuits in 1981, and he later earned a master’s degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

  • Tim Reidy

    Mr. Reidy is the Executive Editor at America Media, a Jesuit publication located in New York, New York.

  • Stephanie Russell, Ed.D

    Ms. Russell serves as the Vice President for Mission Integration for the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.  Her duties include designing and implementing programs to help Jesuit colleges and universities enhance their mission effectiveness, and supporting linkages among the schools in the Jesuit higher education network.

  • British Robinson

    Ms. Robinson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. British oversees the strategic direction and all operations of the public charity, which was established by former First Lady Barbara Bush in 1989.

  • Fadi Samman

    Fadi Samman is a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, an international law firm and the largest lobbying firm in the US by revenue.