Advisory Council

The Advisory Council consists of subject matter experts and advocates for equality who offer their knowledge and expertise to advance the organization’s strategic priorities to pursue equality, enrich LGBTQ student life, empower promising students, and invest in LGBTQ studies at the University of Virginia. They provide important perspectives that are critical to the operations of QVA and its Board of Directors.


Current Council Members

Andrew Bond

Father of two and husband to one. Andrew teaches US and Middle Eastern History to high schoolers and enjoy swimming and reading when not playing with his kids. Otherwise you will likely encounter him listening to NPR, making a mess in the kitchen, failing to calm his increasingly anxious and dependent dog, assessing contingency plans should any number of things happen in the next few months and/or folding clothes.

Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke has twenty-two years of experience working within University of Virginia Advancement. He currently serves as the Senior Director of Principal Gifts Development at the College of Arts & Sciences Foundation. Prior to UVa, Michael worked in sales and marketing in Charlottesville, Washington, D.C., and Boston. Michael is a 1984 graduate of UVa. He is involved with numerous non-profits in Charlottesville and Rappahannock County, Virginia. He and his husband, Norm Jenkins, reside in Crozet, VA.

 

Leah Friedman

Leah lives in Raleigh, NC, with their husband and two children. She spent the first 15 years of her career as a reporter at newspapers in Virginia, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. (Yes, I started at the Cavalier Daily.) She spent the second half of her career in communications, serving as a communications director for a U.S. Congressman and the North Carolina Senate Minority Leader’s Office, as well as a senior public engagement officer for Duke Energy. Currently, she owns Leah Friedman Consulting, where she partners with clients to share her broad skill set and expertise in communications, public relations, public policy, strategic planning, and government relations. She also owns a professional organizing business, where she partners with clients to promote the benefits of living with less to stay organized.

She loves people. She loves being part of a team. And she has the reputation as the person to go to when you need something done. She has also worked for social justice causes most of her life. Leah grew up as a Jew in the South, so they identify with minorities. Through her Jewish education, she was taught that Jews have a special responsibility to stand up for those being persecuted. When she and her husband lived in Missouri, they worked tirelessly in 2004 to defeat one of the first state constitutional amendments that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. And, now, they stand with Black Lives Matter protesters.

Reggie Jackson

Reggie Jackson currently serves as the Acting Director of Development at the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Before joining the Academies, Mr. Jackson served as a fundraising officer in the Division of Student Affairs at the University of Maryland, College Park. He began his 16-year career in fundraising at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Reggie graduated from the University of Virginia in 1995. He and his husband, Major David Schonberg, US Air Force, live in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Claire Kaplan

Claire Kaplan brings more than two decades of experience in teaching and student advising in higher education, as well as in the development of mentoring and support programs for college students. She is a skilled coalition builder with a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Claire also is a published author and successful grant writer, having raised over $190,000 through state grants and private foundations.

 

Sharon McGowan

Sharon M. McGowan is the Chief Strategy Officer and Legal Director of Lambda Legal, the country’s largest and oldest legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and individuals living with HIV. Relying on her litigation expertise and her experience in the Obama administration, Sharon leads the Legal Department’s talented team of over thirty attorneys and paraprofessionals who advocate for our community in courtrooms, statehouses, and other venues throughout the country. As Legal Director, Sharon oversees Lambda Legal’s efforts to resist any attempt by the Trump Administration – or any other opponent of LGBTQ equality – to thwart or roll back our community’s progress toward full formal and lived equality.

Kelli Palmer

Kelli E. Palmer is Head of Global Inclusion & Diversity and Corporate Citizenship for CFA Institute. She has also served as the Director of Enrichment Voyages for the Institute for Shipboard Education and as Assistant to the President at the University of Virginia. A scholar of diversity, she wrote “Faculty Service in Black and White,” a quantitative study of the impact of faculty service on tenure attainment, which was the first quantitative analysis of cultural taxation. Kelli is on the board of the Community Climate Collaborative, Peabody School, and the Piedmont Virginia Community College Foundation. She earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from Elon University, an M.A.Ed. in Counseling from Wake Forest University, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Virginia. Kelli and her husband James reside in Charlottesville with their four children.

Marc Paulo Guzman


Marc Paulo Guzman (he/him) is a queer 1.5 generation Filipino-American originally from the New York City/Northern NJ area. He currently works for Bain & Co. in their Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Center of Excellence out of the DC office. Prior to Bain, Marc Paulo spent 9 years at UVA – 6 years as a program coordinator and assistant director with Multicultural Student Services in the Office of the Dean of Students, and 3 years as an associate director of diversity recruitment with the Darden School of Business, focused on recruiting BIPOC and LGBTQ MBA candidates. While at UVA, Marc Paulo served on the UVA LGBT Committee where he planned socials and programming for queer faculty, staff, and graduate students.

 

Thomas Pilnik

Thomas Martinez Pilnik grew up in London to Brazilian parents, and obtained his BA in Studio Art and Cognitive Science from the University of Virginia in 2016, and an M.Ed. in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs from the University of Southern California in 2020. In between those two degrees, Pilnik worked for a short moment in New York City, then quickly returned to Charlottesville as a member of staff at the Office of Diversity and Engagement in the School of Engineering. During that time, he organized the Excellence Through Diversity Speaker Series, which occurred partially in response to the white supremacist violence that happened through the summer of 2017 and reached a crescendo on August 12th. Pilnik is now pursuing an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Connecticut.

Jacqueline Schweiger

Jacqueline Schweiger (she/her) is a nonprofit development professional currently consulting on database management for GLSEN. Previously, she managed donor databases for GLAAD in their New York office. She graduated from the College in 2009 with a double major in Art History and French, and received a master’s degree in Art Business from
Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. Now based in Memphis, TN, she enjoys spending time with her two young children, cheering on the Hoos, and eating Memphis BBQ.

Bob Witeck

Bob Witeck is President of Washington, DC-based Witeck Communications, Inc. (www.witeck.com)

He is a seasoned communications strategist, public affairs counselor, author and speechwriter. For nearly three decades, he also has been a LGBTQ trailblazer crafting communications and business strategies to advance lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) communities. In 2006, he co-authored “Business Inside Out” (Kaplan), considered the first LGBTQ business and marketing book. While at the University of Virginia, Bob Witeck was an Echols Scholar, and the 2001 recipient of the Bernard Mayes award.

Anant Das

Anant Das (“un-nunth”) (He/Him) is a UVA sports fan (wahoowa!), financial valuation professional, two-time Tony Nominated theatre and film creative producer, and CEO of Broadway Boxed Up, the longest-running theatre-themed subscription box. Producing credits on Broadway include “New York, New York”, “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical”, and “The Piano Lesson”, as well as “Kinky Boots” Off-Broadway, “Windfall” in London, and the horror film “Summoning the Spirit”. He is also proudly involved with The Museum of Broadway and the Tony Award-winning “A Strange Loop”. While at UVA, Anant was involved in Class Council and the Madison House CASH program and served as President of both the McIntire School of Commerce and Athletes for Equality. Since graduation, Anant stays involved with UVA as a board member of McIntire’s Young Alumni Council and serves as Vice President of UVA’s Young Alumni Council, where he helped lead the initiative for UVA’s first Pride Night Sports Game. 

Cordel Faulk

Cordel Faulk is the director of global admissions for the Schwarzman Scholars Program. He leads the strategy and execution of the program’s selection process — designed to identify next-generation leaders and create a global network for 21st century challenges. Prior to joining Schwarzman Scholars, Cordel served as assistant dean and chief admissions officer at the University of Virginia School of Law, and the commentary editor for The Richmond Times-Dispatch. Cordel earned his BA from Virginia Tech and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia.

Cody Reeves

Cody is a 2019 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of the Lambda Law Alliance. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware. After graduating from law school, Cody worked for three years as an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C., where he practiced patent and trade secret litigation. Cody is currently serving as a law clerk to a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk. Cody grew up near Scranton, Pennsylvania. He is the proud father of two (cats), Bosco and Granby.