The Global Leadership Labs Team

NORY ANGEL
Co-Founder & Co-Director, Global Leadership Labs

Nory Angel serves as President of the American Leadership Forum (ALF), where she is leading the organization's evolution from a traditional executive leadership program into a dynamic force for regional leadership development, activating a network of over 1,700 Senior Fellows and launching the region's first Leadership Hub. Before ALF, she spent more than a decade as CEO of SERJobs,
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OLEG JOLIC
Co-Founder & Co-Director, Global Leadership Labs

Oleg Jolic is a nonprofit executive and systems strategist known for strengthening national nonprofit networks and building collaborative partnerships that expand community impact. A refugee from the former Yugoslavia, he began his career in the United States helping resettle other refugees—an experience that shaped his lifelong commitment to community service and social impact.
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The Global Leadership Labs Cohort 1

JUDY LE
GLL Facilitator and Participant

Judy Le came to America as a Vietnamese refugee, an experience that shaped her twenty-four-year career in leadership development across higher education, corporate, and nonprofit sectors. She began at Deloitte Consulting as a change leadership practitioner, later serving as program director for Leadership Houston and spending seven years as director of Leadership Rice at Rice University, where she still teaches through the Glasscock School's Leadership Certificate program.
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ASHLIN MALOUF
GLL Facilitator and Participant

Ashlin Malouf is an Arab American leader and the daughter of a refugee whose career has centered on social change, equity, and the growth of individuals, teams, and systems. For nearly 20 years she worked in multi-faith, multiracial community organizing through the Faith in Action Network (formerly PICO National Network), including as Executive Director of Sacramento ACT
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BEN McBRIDE
GLL Facilitator and Participant

Ben McBride is the co-founder and CEO of Empower Initiative, a leadership development and consulting firm that helps organizations across the private, public, cultural, and social-change sectors strengthen culture, widen the circle of human concern, and build the skills to lead through complexity and division. He is the author of Troubling the Water (Broadleaf Books, 2023), which explores othering, power, and the work of building bridges in divided systems,
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DANIJELA SAPONJIC
GLL Facilitator and Participant

Danijela Šaponjić is a Feng Shui and Space Healing Master, four-time author, and the founder of Unfolding Space and the School of Spiritual Design. For over twenty years, she has helped people transform their homes, businesses, and lives by working with the energy of space,
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SARAH WINDHAM
GLL Program Coordinator and Participant

Sarah Windham is a community builder and mission-driven operator with a decade of experience across nonprofits, international human rights organizations, and civic institutions, spanning Houston, London, and Geneva. As Network and Community Activation Manager at the American Leadership Forum's Houston/Gulf Coast Chapter, she leads activation and operational delivery of ALF's Senior Fellows network,
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BRITNE BROADNAX

is an entrepreneur, creative director, and community leader based in the Houston area, serving as CEO of Happy Me Tee, a custom apparel and merchandise company that partners with schools, businesses, and organizations to build custom merchandise programs and online stores. She also leads Soft Life Aesthetic, a creative styling and design practice focused on thoughtful environments and elevated visual direction,
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WARREN BROADNAX

is the Founder and CEO of She's Happy Hair, one of the nation's leading brick-and-mortar hair extension retailers, which he grew from a $900 investment in 2012 into a multi-location enterprise with five stores across Houston and Dallas, a national e-commerce platform, and over $100 million in cumulative revenue. A Navy veteran and former Houston firefighter, he built the business while working full-time at the fire station,
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CHRIS B. BROWN

is a fourth-generation Houstonian with an undergraduate degree in Finance from TCU and an MBA in Finance from the University of Houston. He has over 9 years of experience in the real estate industry, having served as a principal in more than $10 million in residential development projects across Houston. In addition to his private sector work, he brings 9 years of municipal government experience with the City of Houston,
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ANNA COFFEY

brings over 25 years of leadership in mission-driven organizations, having transformed struggling nonprofits, championed public health laws that save lives, and led a residential treatment and supportive housing nonprofit through the COVID-19 crisis. With a background in social work and a law degree, she blends sharp analysis with heart-centered leadership, thriving in complex, diverse environments, welcoming tough conversations,
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GE'JUAN COLE

is a licensed Professional Engineer and Managing Director of Port Infrastructure at Port Houston, where he leads strategic delivery, modernization, and long-term stewardship of critical maritime infrastructure, overseeing project delivery, asset management, and project controls for one of the nation's busiest ports. Before moving into the maritime industry, he built a career in energy, leading design, construction,
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TRISHA FREDERICK

graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology over two decades ago and relocated to Houston for its reputation as a leading engineering hub. With more than 21 years of experience in civil engineering, she is a professional engineer and currently serves as an Associate Vice President at Pape-Dawson, where she leads the utility engineering practice in Houston, with a career defined by technical excellence
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VICTOR LEE

is President and Chief Operating Officer of STOA Architects, a Houston-based architecture and planning firm, where he leads strategic direction, operations, and business development while working with public and private sector clients on projects shaping communities across Texas and the Gulf Coast. He holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from The University of Texas at Austin, a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Houston,
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KATHLEEN MARTINEZ

is an executive leader, investor, and entrepreneur who has spent her career helping organizations navigate transformation by building strategic relationships that connect business, government, education, and the nonprofit sector to drive innovation and social impact. Drawing on more than 30 years of leadership experience across Fortune 100 corporate leadership, financial services, aviation, and public policy,
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GYNELLE McBRIDE

is the founder and CEO of Gynelle’s Closet, a luxury handcrafted jewelry brand that inspires women to embrace confidence through bold, wearable art. With over 20 years of experience as a professional makeup artist and entrepreneur, she bring creativity, craftsmanship, and purpose to everything she creates. Gynelle is passionate about empowering women to express their individuality while embracing sustainable design
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T'WINA NOBLES

is a community leader, mother of four, nonprofit executive, University Place School Board Member, and State Senator for Washington's 28th Legislative District. She was the inaugural CEO and co-founder of the Black Future Co-op Fund, an organization focused on building generational wealth, health, and well-being for Black people, and currently serves as CEO of American Leadership Forum Tacoma/Pierce County,
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GORDON QUAN

has had a long history of community service in Houston as a teacher, immigration attorney, City Council member, and community volunteer. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, he began teaching minority students in Houston's Fifth Ward during school integration, later coordinating a federal cultural appreciation program while earning his master's in Guidance Counseling at night from the University of Houston.
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RANDY SIM

has been President of Satsun Corporation, a commercial real estate management and development firm, since 1998. He holds a CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member) designation and studied at the University of Texas at Austin. Deeply engaged in Houston's civic and cultural life, he serves as Board Secretary of Asia Society Texas, Chairman of the Airline Improvement District,
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Y. PING SUN

is Of Counsel at Yetter Coleman LLP, one of the nation's premier trial law firms, following prior practice with White & Case LLP and Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP in New York City, where she represented U.S. corporations, banks, and insurance companies, as well as Japanese, Korean, and Canadian companies and foreign government entities in a wide range of domestic and international financings.
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