• Letter from the President
• Board Members
  • Executive Board
  • Advisory Board
• Foundation Personnel

Executive Board

Honorary Board Member

David Allen Newton
(March 19, 1941–August 11, 2003)

The 18th child of the 20 Newton children, Dave was born to James Elmer and Laura Drier Newton in Mead, Colorado. Throughout his life, Dave Newton exuded quiet wisdom, extraordinary generosity, and a sense of fairness. He lived his life clear, purposeful and with love.

Founder & Chair

Amy Marasco Newton

Amy Marasco Newton is currently serving as the Executive Board’s Founder & Chair. She is an executive management consultant with with nearly 30 years experience providing business and organizational consulting services to government agencies, public and private sector companies, and nonprofit organizations. Her expertise lies in environmental programs, education and outreach and affordable housing. Ms. Newton was the co-founder, with her husband Dave Newton, of the Marasco Newton Group (MNG), a $50M environmental consulting firm with over 350 employees. Together they created the operating principles of a truly participatory company; a firm that provided extraordinary service to its customers, reached out to its community in need, and empowered and rewarded its employees fairly and ethically. During her tenure, Ms. Newton managed $80 million, multiyear federal government contracts. She coordinated the delivery of over one million hours of consulting services to EPA programs and delivered 275 assignments. EPA contracts and program offices recognized her regularly for managing a high volume of work and consistently delivering high quality consulting services.

In addition to her duties as CEO, including directly managing high profile projects, she led multiple management studies, facilitated executive strategic planning retreats and coached clients on innovative organizational initiatives. Ms. Newton led an array of management improvement and organizational studies that resulted in more efficient and effective government programs including assisting senior government executives to define and implement quality management practices, thereby creating highly successful management operations.

Ms. Newton currently serves as a Board Member of Project Performance Corporation; Sanford Cohen and Associates; and The Cadmus Group. She also served on the Executive Committee for Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia; on the board for Habitat for Humanity of Loudoun County, Virginia; on the Whittaker Foundation; and as a Board Member of the Marasco Newton Group Board of Directors.

Ms. Newton holds a Masters degree in environmental planning from Colorado State University and a Bachelors degree in political science from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Board Members

Joan L. Eisenstodt

Joan L. Eisenstodt is currently serving on NMF’s Executive Board with a focus on development. Ms. Eisenstodt’s expertise is in facilitation and training; meetings department performance audits; and meeting planning, including program planning, facilities contracts, negotiations, and meeting management training. She brings more than 30 years of experience to her work. She founded Eisenstodt Associates, a Washington, DC-based conference consulting, facilitation and training company in 1981.

In addition to clients with whom she works, Ms. Eisenstodt is retained as a hospitality industry expert witness and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Convention and Event Tourism. She is active in the hospitality industry and in her community where she has served on boards of community and education-related organizations.

Ms. Eisenstodt is active with Meeting Professionals International (MPI), an organization which honored her as its 1991 International Planner of the Year. She is also active with the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), which recognized Ms. Eisenstodt as their 1990 Teacher of the Year.

Ms. Eisenstodt is a member of the Center for Association Leadership; the International Association of Facilitators (IAF); the Hospitality and Tourism Educators (International CHRIE); the World Future Society; the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI); and the Meeting & Site Profiles Panel for APEX (Accepted Practices Exchange) for the CIC (Convention Industry Council.)

Ms. Eisenstodt was one of the first four recipients of the Pacesetter Award from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) for her contributions to education in and about the meetings and hospitality industry. The International Association of Conference Centers honored Ms. Eisenstodt with their prestigious Pyramid Award for education.

In every year of the list since its beginning in 1995, Ms. Eisenstodt was named “One of the 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry” by Meeting News magazine. Successful Meetings Magazine named Ms. Eisenstodt one of their “Power Players” (“10 Women Who are Changing the Industry”). She was named “e.communicator” by meetingmed.com. Corporate Meetings & Incentives magazine featured Ms. Eisenstodt on the cover as one of “The ‘A’ List 10 Women Meeting Industry Leaders.” In 2006, she was selected as the Planner Partner of the Year by the National Speakers Association. Ms. Eisenstodt received the hospitality industry’s highest honor when she was inducted into the Convention Industry Hall of Leaders in July, 2004.

Molly Finn

Molly Finn is a McLean-based Vice President who leads Booz Allen Hamilton’s environment business. Ms. Finn leads more than 600 staff serving the civil, defense, and transportation sectors worldwide on environment issues.

In her 21 years at Booz Allen, Ms. Finn has supported the emerging environmental agendas of many of the firm’s clients. Serving as the Client Service Officer for the firm’s environmental business, Ms. Finn and her team develop and deliver solutions on: Environmental green strategy and long-term sustainability of operations; Environmental management, safety and occupational health; Water resources management; Physical asset life cycle support; Business case development for environmental and energy efficiency improvements and; Use of information technology to support environmental objectives.

Current signature clients include: U.S. Environment Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Department of Defense, UK Ministry of Defense, and the environmental programs of organizations such as the U.S. Postal Service, Federal Aviation Administration, and U.S. Agency for International Development.

Ms. Finn has contributed to numerous articles and pieces of intellectual capital on environmental issues throughout her career. Most recently, she co-authored “Unrecognized Assets: Hidden Sources of Environmental Value” and “The Environment: Let’s Get it Right”, which both appeared in strategy+business.

Ms. Finn has also served as an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania for 8 years, where she taught “Organizational Problem Solving” at the graduate level in government administration.

Ms. Finn is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Haverford College, with honors in Philosophy. She also holds a master’s degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

Myrna Friedman

Myrna E. Friedman, of Frankle, Sargeant & Friedman, PC, is currently serving on NMF’s Executive Board and also serves as legal counsel. She is a practicing attorney in Williamsburg, Virginia. She is one of the founding members of the predecessor firm, Sargeant & Friedman, PC. The emphasis of her practice is in general corporate work, including human resources, mostly with government contractors. Before starting the law firm, she served as in-house counsel for a number of corporations whose primary work was with the federal government. She began her legal career as a litigator for the US Navy Office of General Counsel, Washington, DC. Before attending law school, she was a criminal investigator for the US Department of Agriculture in Chicago, Illinois.

Ms. Friedman holds a Bachelors degree (magna cum laude) from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana, Illinois; a Masters degree (summa cum laude) from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; and a Law degree (magna cum laude) from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Bill Gehron

Bill Gehron is serving on NMF’s Executive Board and is focusing on communications and marketing. He is a retired executive from the hotel industry, held sales and marketing positions for both Sheraton and Omni Hotels for over 20 years. His most recent position was National Director of Marketing for Omni Hotels Northeast region. Throughout his career, Mr. Gehron was active in numerous professional organizations and served as Chairman of the National Hotel Sales and Marketing Association’s Educational Foundation. Mr. Gehron designed and ran the Omni Hotels Advisory Board that began a forum for Omni corporate executives and hotel customers to create quality initiatives several times a year.

Mr. Gehron now serves in a variety of volunteer capacities. He oversees grants made to community based service organizations for the national and regional Grant Advisory Committee of Catholic Charities NY. He has been a member of the New York State grant review committee for Ryan White hospital recipients and a college mentor for the New York Public School system, where he was voted “Outstanding Learning Leader Volunteer” in 2001 for securing a technology grant from Oracle for a struggling New York public high school.

Mr. Gehron holds a Political Science and History degree from American University.

Mark Johnson

Mr. Johnson is a Senior Vice President for Tetra Tech in Washington D.C. Mr. Johnson is responsible for strategic and business planning and development for Tetra Tech EM Inc. Mr. Johnson also provides senior management leadership support for the strategic and business planning efforts of the Tetra Tech Technical Environmental Services (TES Group) business unit. The TES Group is a $350 million business unit of Tetra Tech consisting of three Tetra Tech companies -- Tt EM Inc., Tt NUS and Tt ARD. Mr. Johnson also leads the TES Group’s mergers and acquisition program and has led and participated in numerous Tetra Tech acquisitions and tuck-ins. Mr. Johnson is responsible for providing home office management leadership and support for several of Tetra Tech’s international offices including the Philippines, India, Japan and Argentina.

Mr. Johnson has 25 years of experience specializing in strategic and business planning, environmental risk management, finance analysis, international capacity building, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, and capacity building and training. Mr. Johnson has provided management consulting support for a variety of clients including EPA, DoD, FEMA, NOAA, ADB, the World Bank, USAID, international governments and the private sector on a variety of environmental risk management, financial, training and policy, regulatory and program implementation areas.

Over the last fifteen years, Mr. Johnson has served as a senior consultant to USAID, EPA and DoD on international cooperation projects with the Czech Republic, India, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, South Korea, and the Philippines. Mr. Johnson graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.S. in Occupational Health and from University of Wisconsin-Madison with an M.B.A. in Corporate Risk Management and Insurance. Mr. Johnson is also widely published in the field of environmental risk management.

Debi McGhee

Debi McGhee is serving on NMF’s Executive Board with a focus on grants. She is currently a member of the senior management team at Project Performance Corporation. She has nearly 20 years of experience specializing in helping organizations communicate their priorities and programs through meetings, conferences and events. She is a conference logistician and meeting facilitator, with experience in coordinating and managing all aspects of conferences, seminars, symposiums and meetings. Her expertise includes: marketing and public relations, project management, business development, direct mail package creation, trade show booth development, media kit creation, event management and Web promotion.

Before her tenure with Project Performance Corporation, Ms. McGhee served as a Senior Principal at SRA International and Principal at the Marasco Newton Group. She directed multi-disciplinary teams in many aspects of government consulting. She also led the fundraising efforts for the firm’s commitment to Habitat for Humanity to become the first corporate house sponsor in Northern Virginia. She also served on the board for Habitat for Humanity of Loudoun County, Virginia.

Ms. McGhee holds a Bachelors degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland. She is also a member and 2002 graduate of the Leadership Arlington Program.

Ronald Newton

Ronald James Newton, Ph.D. is currently serving as the Executive Board’s liaison with universities. An international expert of plant physiology, he is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at East Carolina University. He conducts genetic research with timber and Christmas trees and develops biotechnology techniques for the genetic improvement of trees. Dr. Newton is author/co-author of more than 70 refereed journal publications in the research arena relating plant physiological and genetic responses to stresses of the environment. He is a Member of the editorial board: In Vitro Plant and Interim Director of the Center for Integrative Coastal Studies. Dr. Newton has been associated with research grants and contracts from federal, state, private and industrial sources amounting to 3.2 million dollars.

Dr. Newton received a Bachelors degree from the University of Northern Colorado; a Masters degree from the University of Utah; and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University.

Cindy Shephard

Cindy Shephard serves on NMF’s Executive Board as well as NMF’s Chief Financial Officer. She is currently working as the Chief of Staff for a nearly billion dollar government consulting firm and is a Certified Public Accountant with nearly 20 years of public and private accounting and auditing experience. Reporting directly to the President of the firm, she is the liaison between the Office of the President, finance and administrative services.

Mrs. Shephard was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Director of Operations for Marasco Newton Group (MNG), a $50M company. She was hired by Dave Newton and Amy Marasco Newton shortly after the company was founded in 1990. Mrs. Shephard converted MNG from a manual accounting system to a fully automated, government audited and approved financial system.

At MNG she managed a team of 50 staff responsible for finance and accounting, human resources, contract administration, infrastructure and graphics. Mrs. Shephard oversaw the development of the firm’s 401K, benefits package, HR policies, banking, and investment relations. She established the legal and contractual agreements and was the central point of contact for all government auditing and financial issues.

Mrs. Shepherd received a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Tennessee.

Peter Trick

Peter Trick is currently an Executive Board member and is focusing on the technical aspects of NMF’s environmental programs. He is a Vice President of SRA International, as well as an environmental lawyer and senior policy analyst. For over 25 years, Mr. Trick supported the development, implementation and enforcement of major environmental protection initiatives in water and air pollution control, surface mining reclamation and marine and coastal protection for federal, state and municipal governments. Mr. Trick worked internationally for a combined 15 years in the Middle East, Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and Africa, building capacity and drafting environmental laws and policies. He was formerly a Group Vice President at Development Alternatives, Inc., of Bethesda, Maryland, and a Corporate Vice President at Science Applications International Corporation in McLean, Virginia.

Born in Lancaster, PA, Mr. Trick was raised in five states and five countries. He is a graduate from St. Stephen’s School in Rome, Italy; holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science and German from Rice University; and a Juris Doctor from George Mason University.

Mark Vogel

Mark Vogel is serving on the Executive Board, focusing on investments and audits. He worked in accounting and finance in various positions with Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) and in public accounting since 1983. This work included many engagements involving mergers & acquisitions, multimillion dollar contract negotiations support, and due diligence work, as well as providing accounting, tax and consulting services to individuals and small businesses. Mr. Vogel performed valuation studies in support of gifting, business interruption, divorce, estate planning, partner/shareholder disputes, ESOPs, stock option plans and mergers and acquisitions. Industry experience includes technology, healthcare, construction, Internet services, funeral home, architectural woodworking, hotel/motel, printing, government contracting, security services, real estate, restaurant, snack foods and golf. Mr. Vogel also performs forensic accounting.

Mr. Vogel is licensed to practice public accounting in Maryland and Virginia. He is a member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, The Institute of Business Appraisers, Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and The Institute of Management Accountants. Mr. Vogel is the 2004–2005 chairman of the Business Valuation Committee of the VSCPA Northern Chapter. Mr. Vogel has also taught at the CPA School of Washington.

Mr. Vogel has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Kansas. Mr. Vogel has been admitted to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society in recognition of his graduate academic record. He is a Certified Public Accountant/Accredited in Business Valuation, a Certified Management Accountant, and a Certified Valuation Analyst.