The George Washington University Board of Trustees announced the election of four new members, three of whom joined the board June 1, 2025. The fourth, Kevin M. Brown, will join the board January 1, 2026. The new trustees include three GW alumni, but all four have deep connections to the university.
"We are delighted to welcome four new members," said Board Chair Grace Speights. "These distinguished individuals bring a wealth of expertise across various fields and will play a pivotal role in enhancing the board's governance and oversight functions. Their contributions will be critical as we work with our community to propel the university forward during this significant period in GW’s history."
“I’m honored to welcome our new trustees, whose insights and experience will be invaluable as we launch the university’s strategic framework and chart our course going forward,” said GW President Ellen M. Granberg. “I look forward to working in partnership with them as we continue to advance GW’s missions of teaching, research and patient care.”
The new trustees are:
Kevin M. Brown, M.E. ’94, executive vice president for global operations and chief supply chain officer at Dell Technologies. He has more than 30 years of leadership experience in operations, technology and procurement, with a focus on strategic and transformative initiatives, innovations and partnerships to increase efficiencies, savings and effectiveness. Under Brown’s leadership, Dell has been recognized by top research and advisory firms as having one of the most efficient, sustainable and innovative supply chains across industries worldwide.
Prior to joining Dell in 1998, Brown spent 10 years with Newport News Shipbuilding, where he held leadership roles in reactor plant engineering, construction management, and facilities. He joined Kroger’s board of directors in 2021 and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he serves on the National Committee. He is also a member of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation board of directors and a member of the Executive Leadership Council.
He serves on the National Advisory Council for the GW School of Engineering and Applied Science and was the recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award in 2024.
Stacie R. Lissette, J.D. ’92, is a dedicated philanthropist and former director of Utz Brands, Inc., the snack food company founded by her great-grandparents in Hanover, Pa. After graduating from GW Law, she served as a judicial clerk in the D.C. Superior Court for The Honorable Robert Tignor, J.D. ’68, and then served as legal counsel at the National Paint & Coatings Association in Washington, D.C. Lissette joined Utz in 1996 as a director, where she contributed to the company’s legal and strategic affairs. Lissette has also devoted significant time to education and philanthropy, serving on numerous nonprofit boards including more than two decades on the board of Mercersburg Academy, an independent boarding school, where she most recently served as board president for several years. She also is the director of her family’s foundation, The Rice Family Foundation, which supports organizations focused on education, health and well-being of individuals in the greater Hanover, Pa., area and beyond.
Lissette has strong family ties to GW, beginning with her father, Michael Rice, J.D. ’68; she and her husband, Dylan Lissette, B.B.A. ’93, have five children, including M. Payton Lissette, B.A. ’18. Dylan’s twin brother, James Lissette, B.A. ’93, and his sister, Michele Schimpp, B.A. ’86, also earned degrees from GW. Stacie Lissette and her husband consider Washington, D.C., a second home and spend as much time as possible in their Foggy Bottom residence.
Jonathan Perlin is president and CEO of The Joint Commission (TJC), an independent, nonprofit organization that accredits and certifies more than 22,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Perlin previously served as president of clinical operations and chief medical officer at HCA Healthcare in Nashville, Tenn. Prior to joining HCA in 2006, he was Under Secretary for Health and CEO of the Health System at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he had previously served as Deputy Under Secretary. He is a widely published clinical professor of medicine and health policy at Vanderbilt University and an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Perlin’s family ties to GW stretch over four generations. He and his wife, Dr. Donna Perlin, endowed in honor of his parents, Seymour (a former GW professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences) and Ruth, a psychiatry professorship at SMHS. They were also founding members of the Friends of the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery. Ruth’s father began his law studies at GW in 1921, earning his law degree in 1924. A building on the Foggy Bottom campus is named after Ruth’s cousin, Benjamin Rome. Several other family members are also GW alumni.
Ted Segal, B.A. ’03, is the founder and president of EJS Group, a real estate development and financing company focused on multifamily and mixed-use development in primary markets, with an emphasis on the New York metropolitan area. Segal is majority owner of the Houston Dynamo Football Club, which includes Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo, the National Women’s Soccer League’s Houston Dash and leasing rights to Shell Energy Stadium. Prior to launching his career as an entrepreneur, Segal served as an associate at Latham and Watkins, a New York-based full-service international law firm handling complex business transactions, litigation and regulatory matters.
Segal and his wife, Meredith Perla Segal, B.Accy. ’05, created an endowed fund to present a conversation series in honor of former School of Media and Public Affairs Director Frank Sesno. Segal was a member of the SMPA National Council until June 1, 2025, when his term ended. The Segals, along with one of his former teachers, Steven V. Roberts, the J.B. and M.C. Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs, endowed the Roberts and Segal Fund for Food Security, enabling a student-run food pantry to aid students facing food insecurity.
The board bid farewell as of May 31 to outgoing trustee Avram “Ave” Tucker, B.B.A. ’77. Tucker, CEO and co-founder of business and litigation consulting company TM Financial Forensics, LLC, spent 16 years on the School of Business Advisory Board before joining the Board of Trustees in June 2013.
He has donated generously to the university. At the School of Business, he established the Avram S. Tucker Endowed Professorship in Strategy and Leadership, the Avram S. Tucker Professorial Fellowship and the Tucker Scholarship funds. He also created the Simon Tucker, J.D. ’53, L.L.M. ’55 Law Scholarship in honor of his late father, a Navy veteran who worked full time at the State Department while attending GW Law at night.
Nearly four decades after he attended GW on a baseball scholarship, a major gift of $2 million from Tucker, a fast outfielder in his youth, prompted the dedication in his name of Tucker Field at Barcroft Park and the building of a new clubhouse there.
To commemorate GW’s Giving Day 2022 and as part of Open Doors: The Centuries Initiative for Scholarships & Fellowships, Tucker spearheaded the Tucker Challenge, matching gifts up to $250,000 and adding an additional gift of $100,000 for passing that benchmark. He has also supported GW’s Global Food Institute.
“We are thankful for all that Ave has done in his work with the board and his long-standing commitment to supporting GW,” Speights said. “We will miss his presence on the Board of Trustees.”
