Six Join Jesuit Refugee Service/USA Board
31 July 2024
Today, on the feast day of Jesuit founder St. Ignatius of Loyola, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA (JRS/USA) announced the appointment of six members to its board of directors.
Lidia Bastianich is an Italian-American chef, Emmy award-winning television host, best-selling cookbook author, and restaurateur. She owns or has owned restaurants across the United States, has been a regular contributor to public television cooking shows since 1998, and hosts the popular PBS program Lidia’s Kitchen. Ms. Bastianich has won seven James Beard Awards and two Emmy Awards for her work; this year, she received the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Lidia’s love of food, cooking, and its ability to connect family and friends was nurtured as a child in Pola, a small city on the Istrian Peninsula of what was then Yugoslavia. Lidia and her family were forced to flee the communist regime. After a dramatic escape that involved temporary separation from her father in Italy, they registered as refugees and lived in the refugee camp of San Sabba in Italy before they were resettled in the United States when Lidia was eleven in 1956. Two years later, their displaced persons application was granted to emigrate from Italy to the United States. In 1958, Bastianich and her family reached the United States, settling in New Jersey.
Chris Curtin is the managing director, senior vice president at Bank of America, where he is responsible for enterprise social media strategy and marketing. With more than 20 years in marketing strategy, innovation, and operations, Mr. Curtin has deep expertise across disciplines and has successfully led transformative initiatives on behalf of Visa, Hewlett-Packard, and The Walt Disney Company. Mr. Curtin is a featured speaker and thought leader on marketing, digital transformation, and high-impact leadership who has guest-lectured at Stanford, Duke, and Georgetown. He is part of the investor group behind the National Women’s Soccer League team the Washington Spirit and Georgetown University Law Center Board of Advisors. Mr. Curtin has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Denison University and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.
Lou Nieto is president of Nieto Advisory. He retired in 2009 as president of ConAgra’s Consumer Foods business. He was previously president of ConAgra Meats (2005) and President/CEO of the Federated Group (2002 to 2005). He was a group president of Dean Foods (1999 to 2002). Earlier, he spent two years with Mission Foods, 10 years with Kraft Foods, and five years with Quaker Oats. Lou has served on the Ryder Systems board since 2007 and on the Auto Zone board (2008 to 2019) and as board chair of Fresh & Ready Foods (2014 to 2021). Lou focuses on increasing educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth. He served as the founding board chair of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School (1994 to 1996) and as a board member until 2000. Lou is currently on the Chicago Community Trust and the Chicago Archdiocesan Schools boards. He is a former trustee of St. Ignatius College Prep. Lou earned a Harvard MBA University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago. He is an alumnus of St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago.
“As a refugee, you can feel you have no idea what will happen next,” said Ms. Bastianich. “My family benefited from the help of Catholic organizations that helped create the conditions for us to succeed in our new home. I have always been grateful for the opportunities we received, and today, I am grateful to be able to give back by contributing to the work of JRS/USA. “
“My family and I have supported JRS/USA for years because no other organization does the work the way JRS does,” said Mr. Curtin. “JRS’ focus on accompaniment, on walking with people through incredibly trying times, is rooted in first recognizing the dignity of every person. I’m very happy to be able to contribute to JRS’ work in a bigger way.”
The following three members were added to the board in October:
John Thon Majok is the Director of Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative (RAFDI) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In his time at the Wilson Center, Majok has served and continues to hold several leadership positions, including deputy director for the Development Department, senior director of Grants Management, and senior program analyst with the Global Risk and Resilience Program. Before he joined the Wilson Center in 2013, Majok was at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, where he developed strategic outreach plans for U.S. government exchange alumni, including those of Fulbright and International Visitor Leadership Program. Before this, he served as program officer at the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, managing a study abroad portfolio of the U.S. Department of State-funded Critical Language Scholarship Program. In 2006, he coordinated the global recruitment of skilled professionals for the Diaspora Skills Transfer Program for Southern Sudan, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Academy for Educational Development. His perspective on forced displacement is informed by lived experience: Majok came to the U.S. after 13 years in refugee camps in Africa. He graduated with honors from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration and Policy and holds a Master of Public Administration from George Mason University.
Mark Dewire is chief solicitor for the Baltimore City Department of Law where he is advising the City of Baltimore and the Baltimore City Police Department on constitutional reform efforts under a federal consent decree under the supervision of the United States District Court. Prior to that, Mark was the General Counsel of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., an independent public policy research organization where he advised on corporate governance and a variety of legal issues. Mark is a retired partner in the corporate practice group of Wilmer Hale, where he represented public and private domestic and international companies and individuals in a variety of corporate, securities, and commercial transactions in the United States and in multinational jurisdictions. Mark worked with the Jesuits in a leprosy relief program in Dhanbad, Bihar, India while at Georgetown University and after graduation worked with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and Catholic Relief Services’ unaccompanied minors program on the Thai-Cambodian border during the Cambodian refugee crisis. In 2015, while on sabbatical from his law practice, Mark worked in Phnom Penh with the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as a lawyer on the staff of the co-investigating judge. Mark is a trustee of the Cape May Fund, a philanthropy that supports Jesuit and Nativity model schools across the country. He lives in Baltimore with his wife, Hilary Don, with whom he raised four children and now has two grandchildren.
Jason Zenk is a senior managing director at EnTrustGlobal, an alternative investment firm based in New York City. He has extensive experience in higher education leadership. He currently serves on the Santa Clara University Board of Regents and previously served as a member of the university’s Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education Advisory Board. He is also a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, a globally focused research center located at University of Southern California. Additionally, Jason was appointed to serve on the advisory council of Hekima University College in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2022, Jason became an Ignatian Legacy Fellow affiliated with Loyola University of Chicago, a yearlong program sponsored by a collection of worldwide Jesuit universities. The program is designed to help participants better understand where they might be called to use their gifts in service of others.
“We are thrilled to have these immense talents on the JRS/USA board,” said Robert Niehaus, board chair of JRS/USA. “Their combined media, digital, business, education, and nonprofit leadership experience, along with their heartfelt commitment to our mission, will be tremendous assets as JRS/USA evolves the ways it accompanies, serves, and advocates for refugees and migrants due to the constantly evolving needs and circumstances of displaced people around the world. “