Leadership: Board of Trustees

Richard Anderson, Ph.D.
Business Consultant

Dr. Richard Anderson has extensive experience working with Congress, federal agencies, the executive branch, and numerous state legislatures. For many years he has been an instrumental leader in positively affecting national and state legislation, and is a respected advocate on energy, environmental, and tax issues. Dr. Anderson served as Director of Government Affairs for a major environmental company from 1987 to 1998. Previous to that he was an assistant professor at Boston University, where he created graduate degree programs, taught graduate classes in planning, computer applications, and environmental health. He is the author of 22 published articles and co-author of 2 textbooks, and he has contributed chapters in 3 books.

Dr. Anderson earned his Ph.D. and master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University, and received dual bachelor’s degrees in English and Urban Studies from Livingston College.

James Harris
Entrepreneur

Jim Harris has owned and operated several successful businesses including Potomac Abatement, Arctic Insulation and, most recently, a RE/MAX real estate sales branch. Mr. Harris is a past senior executive and Vice President for Maryland National Bank. He was also responsible for a nine-year, $800 million portfolio credit and collections activity for MBNA America, and conducted a similar function at ITT Financial for eight years.

Mr. Harris is a recognized expert in the management of credit and collections activity regarding consumer loan portfolios. He is also a past president of the International Credit Association and is an active member in numerous nonprofit associations.

Mr. Harris is a graduate of the Phillip Crosby School of Quality and is an approved instructor at that school.

Peter W. Kennedy
Principal, Kennedy & Rand Consulting

Peter Kennedy is a Principal with Kennedy & Rand Consulting in Washington, DC. Mr. Kennedy also works jointly with PRM Consulting as a lead consultant for certain clients of that firm. Prior to co-founding Kennedy & Rand Consulting, he was Aon Consulting’s Southeast Region Compensation Consulting Practice leader. He has had extensive experience in conducting and managing consulting projects for a variety of employers in the private, nonprofit and public sectors.

Mr. Kennedy is a graduate of Oberlin College (Bachelor of Arts Degree in Government, 1975, with Honors) and the Sloan School of Management, M.I.T. (Masters of Science in Management Degree, 1980). He has volunteered his time to various organizations including the Boards of Trustees of the Hospital for Sick Children, the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, and the West Virginia University Hospital System.

General Norris Overton
Director, Business Development, Radcor Technology, Inc.

Norris W. Overton retired from the United States Air Force in 1981 with the rank of Brigadier General after completing more than 30 years of active duty military service. His distinguished career included such noteworthy assignments as Comptroller, Pacific Air Forces; Comptroller, United States Air Force Academy; Financial Staff Officer, Headquarters United States Air Force, Washington, DC; Comptroller, 7th Air Force, Vietnam; Associate Professor Aerospace Studies, University of Iowa; and Air Force Plant Representative at the Curtis Wright Corporation. His final assignment was Vice Commander Army Air Force Exchange Service, where he managed all activities for a 60,000-employee organization with 16,000 retail outlets worldwide, serving 6,500,000 military service members and DOD employees. His operation was the seventh largest retail operation in the U.S., with annual sales over $3.8 billion.

Since his retirement from the Air Force, he has held senior management positions in business ranging from Vice President Information Systems to Vice President and Chief Financial Officer with the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), where he retired in 1996. General Overton currently serves as Director of Business Development for Radcor Technology, Inc., in Bethesda, Maryland, and also serves on the Board of Directors of two other organizations.

General Overton is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He also earned his M.B.A. from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Business Administration from Indiana University.

Lonnie Ritzer, Esquire
Partner, Shapiro Sher & Guinot

Lonnie Ritzer is a business lawyer concentrating in tax law, partnership and corporate laws, real estate law, and financing transactions. Prior to joining Shapiro Sher & Guinot in 1987, Mr. Ritzer was a partner associated with the Baltimore firm of Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger, & Hollander, LLC, where he specialized in tax law. He serves on committees of the Bar Association of Baltimore City (Tax and Public Education), the Maryland State Bar Association (Transactional Tax and State Study Groups), and the Tax Section of the American Bar Association. Mr. Ritzer is a past President of the Baltimore Association of Tax Counsel, and has authored articles from various periodicals including the Journal of Taxation and the Maryland Bar Journal. From 1987 until 1992, he participated as a panelist in an annual seminar on Maryland Sales and Use Tax, and he has also guest lectured at the University of Baltimore School of Law. From 1991 to 1992, Mr. Ritzer helped draft the Maryland Limited Liability Company Act, and is co-author of a book on that subject, as well as a frequent lecturer.

Mr. Ritzer earned his J.D., with honors, from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he was elected to The Order of the Coif. He received his B.S., summa cum laude, from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Mr. Ritzer serves under the Maryland Bar and is admitted to practice before the United States District Court of Maryland and the United States Tax Court.

Robert J. Ruiz, Esquire
Chief of the Public Interest Bureau State’s Attorney’s Office, Cook County, Illinois

As Chief of the Public Interest Bureau of the State’s Attorney’s Office of Cook County, Robert Ruiz is responsible for overseeing civil and criminal litigation in the areas of child support, community prosecutions, consumer fraud, environment and energy, and issues affecting seniors and persons with disabilities. He plays an important role in the development of legal policy for the State’s Attorney’s Office.

Mr. Ruiz served as solicitor general for the State of Illinois from 1988 to 1991. He is a former chief of the Industrial Commission Division of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and Deputy Chief of the Consumer Division of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

Mr. Ruiz served as Past National President of the Hispanic National Bar Association, President of the Mexican American Lawyers’ Association, and also as Vice President and member of the Board of Directors of the Latin American Bar Association. He was a founding member and served as interim Vice President of the National Hispanic Prosecutors Association, and also served as first President of the Illinois Association of Hispanic State Employees Association. He is a member of the Committee on Character and Fitness for the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar.

In education, Mr. Ruiz serves as Chairman of the Board of the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine, a member of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO), and is an Ambassador for the University of Illinois. He served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of State Colleges and Universities in Illinois from 1991 through 1993, and was appointed to the State Committee on Minority Student Access and Achievement. He served on the Illinois State Pension Board and has served as a member of the advisory committee of National Lewis University, the DePaul University College of Law Visiting Committee, the Alumni Council of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Illinois Alumni Board of Directors. He was named to the Committee on Continuing Education for the American Law Institute with the American Bar Association. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of USO of Illinois and the Chicago Metro History Education Center.

Mr. Ruiz is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

D.W. (Bill) Stevenson
Retired

After several years as a consultant to various aerospace companies, Bill Stevenson joined InCharge Institute in 2000 as Managing Director of Accredited Bankruptcy Services in anticipation of bankruptcy reform legislation. He served in that capacity until his departure in 2002. In 2004, Mr. Stevenson returned to InCharge Institute as the Vice President of Counseling Operations, and subsequently as Vice President of Information Technology.

Mr. Stevenson has extensive experience working in operations in the aerospace industry as well as in commercial venues. He worked for the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company from 1958 to 1994. His 25 years' experience in management includes materials management, subcontracting, purchasing, facilities and logistics. His last position with Lockheed was as Director of Materiel and Facilities at Lockheed in Austin, Texas.

Mr. Stevenson has a degree in business administration and has attended many senior and executive management courses and seminars, including the Lockheed Education Institute, University of Santa Clara, University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of Southern California. Mr. Stevenson taught business courses at West Valley Community College campuses in San Jose and Sunnyvale, Calif. Also, as a result of his extensive background in government military contracting and subcontracting, he has been invited on numerous occasions as a guest speaker at both government and commercial seminars discussing the subject of negotiating.